There is an old saying to the effect that “you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.” Being old(er) ourselves, we are a bit offended by this saying – and it should be stated for the record that we are NOT as old as the saying itself. We have learned plenty of new tricks in recent years. Take applying for Medicare, for example, or grocery shopping on Senior Discount Day.[1]
But when it came time to return to BOTW after our hiatus, we approached the playthrough with a sense of ennui, if some curiosity about the Switch 2 version. Surely, we knew this game; nothing new to see here.
Oh, how wrong we were.
We are not poised to blog about color resolution or bytes per minute or what HDV configuration means for the Switch 2. These are things of which Itzal’s gamer son speaks. (Okay, not really those things, as we made them up, being old and not understanding tech. But Itzal’s son did wax on and on about how much we would like the color saturation – again, perhaps not what he really said – on the new device.) No, we are herein providing tips to things we learned that other Zelders might also have overlooked in earlier playthroughs.
Demelza, naturally, made the first discoveries of Things We Wish We’d Learned as Younger Dogs, quickly reporting:
- Satori Mountain is a treasure trove. Apples galore, a respawning diamond, mushrooms of all types, Endura carrots, safflinas, luminous stone, and more. Visit it often. How could we not have known about that respawning diamond, in particular?
- And speaking of recurring treasure, there’s a respawning Forest Dweller’s bow in a cave a short glide from Lanayru tower. Again, how did we miss this in not one, but two earlier playthroughs? It’s a great early game multi-shot bow.
Not to be outdone, Itzal went in search of his own treasure cave. (Okay, he stumbled upon it accidentally, but it still counts as a new neural pathway!) “A cave on Lanayru coast easily accessible from the Tahno O’ah shrine provides excellent ores, including a diamond,” he smugly one-upped.
Hidden treasures were not the only discoveries. Here again, it was Demelza for the win.[2]
- A blood moon isn’t triggered by the player sitting by the fire and changing the time; it’s a reflection of amount spent actively playing. Thus, if you’re like Itzal and assiduously avoid the night, it’s fine to make it perpetual day, in manner of Northern climes, without fear of advancing the blood moon. We realized this while waiting to strip naked to activate the Mijah Rokee shrine. (Demelza must admit it was she who previously berated Itzal about moving the clock forward so frequently, as if he were a demented acolyte of Daylight Savings Time.)
- We hated Stasis the first time we played; we maligned it frequently. But when using Stasis Plus against an enemy, you can halt that enemy momentarily to get in a whack or two. Granted, it doesn’t work long against a Lynel, but it can be the difference between immediate annihilation and…later annihilation. Works against Guardians, too, also briefly, but enough.
- Defeating Guardian Stalkers to mine for Giant Ancient Cores isn’t difficult.[3] Stasis Plus, an attack potion, chopping off the legs one at a time (but quickly), and then a few well-placed hacks at the end when it’s legless does the trick. Then you need not yell at your Nintendo partner about the Giant Ancient Core left behind in Mirro Shaz shrine.
- The treasures in shrine chests aren’t always the same. Depending on when you complete a shrine, early in the game or late, your prize may vary from an ordinary claymore to a fancy-schmancy claymore.
- If you have the DLC and intend to do the Trials of the Sword, there’s no advantage to delaying until you have better, upgraded armor or provisions. If you have the hearts for it (ha ha) sooner works as well, as you’ll be stripped to your underwear anyhow.
Thematically, or perhaps the better word is operationally, we each learned to play in new ways. Demelza has always been the hunter/gatherer of our tribe, toiling after crickets and apples, forever cooking a meal, while Itzal was the hero fighter[4] racing in to do battle.
In our recent playthroughs, Demelza became quite the fighter (see “Defeating Guardians,” above) while Itzal learned that without Demelza to stock his larder, he had to spend time picking apples, gathering up crabs on the Lurelin beach, and bombing fish or picking bananas to be cooked into some necessary meal. Accordingly, he has a fresh appreciation for the “sparklies” that Demelza often longed for him to pick up when he was instead keeping his eye on whatever was his prize of the moment. Indeed, he recently chided his grandson, a budding Itzal-like hamfisted fighter, to gather the dropped armaments from defeated enemies.
And notwithstanding Demelza’s new fighting capabilities, she has greater understanding of Itzal’s “run away” strategy, which in the past dismayed her at the prospect of lost enemy goodies. If you’re sporting an Old Shirt and brandishing a tree branch, she now concedes, it’s okay to ignore that question mark over the Lynel’s head.
As has been stated many a time – but, hey, we old dogs tend to repeat stories (even when they are about new tricks) – Nintendo is still better with a friend. The best part of this BOTW playthrough was again being able to play together, thanks to the miracle of screen-sharing and chat, albeit nearly 500 miles apart.
[1] It’s a ten percent discount in some stores! Ten percent! That adds up when you’re buying game-playing snacks…erm, quality foodstuffs.
[2] Other gamers no doubt already knew these. Thus, calling it a “win” is a stretch. But when you’re an old dog, it can take dynamite to get an early misconception out of your head.
[3] For Demelza, that is. Itzal still hates the idea and doesn’t “mine” much of anything.
[4] Or flailer, as it were.