Finding Hestu

Back on the Isolated Plateau, we had plenty of room to carry our fragile tree branches and humble pot lids.  But after just a couple sessions of play, we were encountering new enemies and new challenges and aspired to arm ourselves with sturdy swords and hammers, spears, axes, torches, better bows and shields, what have you.  And lots of them.  Even a Korok leaf in your pocket comes in handy once in a while.  And then we received the dreaded message: You can’t carry any more. 

Indeed, Link begins the game with only eight slots to carry weapons, five for bows, and four for shields.  They fill up a lot more quickly than you’d like. 

Fortunately, there’s an NPC for that. 

Finding Hestu is a little like Waiting for Godot, but in this case, he is the tree.

If you’ve been playing the Legend of Zelda as long as we have (not that we’re old, but who’s counting), you’ll recognize many characters or locations from previous games. Hestu makes his first appearance in Breath of the Wild, but that doesn’t mean he is entirely unfamiliar:  He could trace his lineage, or at least his story line’s lineage, to the Great Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time.  There were Kokiri in that game, and Koroks, their presumed descendants, in Wind Waker.   Like the Kokiri earlier, the Koroks are under the protection of the Great Deku Tree.  They’re small critters that look like pot-bellied twigs with leaf face masks.

Then there’s Hestu, the jumbo Korok version.  Link meets him on the road to Kakariko Village from the Dueling Peaks stable.  And – gasp! – he has a teensy little job for Link.  Seriously, the guy barely says hello before he’s asking for help retrieving his priceless maracas from some thieving Bokoblins.  And of course Link is only too happy to oblige.  Problem is, the maracas are missing seeds, and without those seeds, the big Korok can’t dance, and if he can’t dance, he can’t use his “powers.”  What are these powers to which he alludes?  Invisibility? Flight?  Superhuman strength? Why, no, Hestu has the power of inventory expansion!  (Who had that on their list of superpower possibilities?)

As it happens, we’re glad Hestu can’t fly like a speeding bullet or leap over tall buildings, because inventory expansion is a much more useful power to us: A hero can never have too many melee weapons. 

There are 900 Koroks hiding in Hyrule, and when you find them, they’ll hand over a Korok seed.   Hestu, in turn, will expand your inventory slots for an increasingly higher number of seeds.   There’s a limit to the size of each category, however; otherwise we’d have kept adding weapon slots until we ran out of hiding Koroks.  OK, maybe not.  We are never going to get the Korok on top of the casino in Lurelin Village.

Some may have a different point of view (who???), but in our estimation, upgrade the melee weapons inventory first and fastest.  We interwove a couple of bow slots and a shield upgrade, but we maxed out the melee category well before the other two.

Hestu doesn’t stick around in this easy-peasy location.

Since not much is easy in Hyrule, Hestu moves around.  After he’s expanded your inventory on the road to Kakariko, he’ll move to the next stable you visit (Woodland, Riverside, or Wetlands).  After that, he heads back to the Great Hyrule Forest to hang out with the Great Deku Tree, and you’ll have to exchange your Korok seeds there for the duration of the game.   The path to the forest is intimidating if you haven’t activated the nearby tower, and activating the tower is itself forbidding in the early days of play, unless you do it the Zelder (confrontation-avoidance) way. 

Probably Belated Zelder Tip: You don’t have to meet Hestu or find his maracas to collect Koroks; you can collect them that very first day on the Isolated Plateau and along the road to find him.

To max out all three categories – weapons, bows, and shields – you’ll need 441 Koroks.  You can find them under solitary rocks, sometimes in odd places like the top of a tree.  Follow flower trails (a personal favorite).   Run after flickering fairy lights.  Shoot acorns in trees. Dive into lily pond circles… the list goes on, but once you’ve done a couple of each type, you’ll recognize a potential hiding Korok when you see one.  Click here for examples.

And when you’re ready to pair a cocktail with your quest for Hestu (let’s be honest, you’ll be ready the minute you begin to play), we suggest you celebrate with a margarita.  If you have your own set of maracas, by all means, feel free!

My First Great Fairy

Zelda Elders may remember from their youth the “Little Golden Books” series of literary bon mots.  (In contrast, Zelda Elders often cannot remember what they had for breakfast, but that’s a subject for another blog entirely.)  We recall the occasion of obtaining our First Little Golden Book with fondness, and since there is nothing so enjoyable in Hyrule as finding a Great Fairy, we mark the occasion of meeting BOTW’s first fairy in the spirit of those golden years of Golden Books.

Sadly, Cotera (for that is the name of the first fairy you’ll likely encounter) would not feature in a G-rated Golden Book.  She and her sisters are, well, kind of trampy – or at least certainly “sex positive” in their interactions with (some might say “borderline harassment of”) our unsuspecting hero, Link.

Nonetheless, you want to meet these fairies.  You want their upgrades, you want to capture the little fairies who fly around their ponds, and – let’s face it – you just want to hear that fairy music for old time’s sake!

My First Fairy Fountain
Pikango suggests there’s a fairy fountain near Kakariko

The watery tart Cotera resides in a pond on a hilltop just above Kakariko Village.  You can visit her whenever you please, but there’s a related quest to complete as part of uncovering another shrine.  In Kakariko Village, Pikango, a traveling artist, will offer to show the way to a fairy fountain just up the hill.  He runs out of steam midway there (we know how he feels); follow his instructions to complete the quest while he recovers his breath. 

You should visit Cotera early, but be sure you have collected at least 100 rupees before you do.  The fairies, you see, charge for their – cough, cough – favors.  The first will cost you 100 rupees, and the prices go up from there.  (Itzal wishes to make a snarky comment about wage inflation in the world’s oldest profession, but Demelza disapproves.)

Great Fairy Cotera

You’ll find Cotera hidden inside a sort of Venus fly trap, and when you examine the area, you’ll hear a rather deep voice calling out to you.  (Itzal wishes to draw comparisons between the Great Fairies and drag queens – you’ll see why when you view their make-up – but Demelza again disapproves.  Itzal thinks Demelza should have another cocktail, because that’s when the trash talk begins, but we digress.)

Fairies Matter

In previous Zelda games, Great Fairies might help Link acquire new powers or restore his health. In BOTW, there are little fairies flitting around the fountains that one can capture for a heart-restoring fix, certainly. But the primary function of BOTW’s Great Fairy Fountains is to upgrade Link’s armor (which in some cases is what we would call clothing).

True to form, the fairies charge exorbitant prices – paid for not with rupees, but with things Link must collect from across Hyrule – for each upgrade of armor.  If you are like Demelza, you’ll keep detailed shopping lists of exactly how many Ancient Screws, Fire Keese wings, and other items you need to offer Cotera and her sisters to secure the next upgrade.  (If you are like Itzal, you will grouse about being kissed and dragged into a pond by a drag queen with atrocious taste in eye shadow, but you will nonetheless pay the price.)

Zelder Tip #1:  If you select a clothing item in your inventory while chatting up a fairy, the required shopping list is revealed, but only in accordance with the number of fairies you’ve paid for – er, awakened. That is, if you’ve only met two Great Fairies, you won’t see what you need to reach the third and fourth level upgrades.

Zelder Tip #2:  Pay attention to set bonuses. Once you upgrade the full set of armor twice, you can get a bonus (strength, stamina, speed, stealth, apparently anything that starts with the letter “s”) when you wear all the pieces at the same time.  You’ll soon have your favorite sets of armor, or you’ll soon be shouted at by your companion about which set you should be wearing, so if you get the bonus, all the better.

Zelder Tip #3:  As many as four little fairies may be hovering around each fountain. However, the little folk won’t “spawn,” a dreadful term but one familiar to gamers, if you’re already carrying more than a few in inventory. But there’s a neat trick by which, prior to approaching the Great Fairy, you go into your materials satchel and “hold” up to five little ones, so that no more than two fairies are left in inventory.  When you’re close enough to spy that other little fairies have, ugh, spawned around the fountain, press B to return the ones you’re holding to inventory. (Be careful not to trip en route to the fountain, or you will release the fairies you’re holding.  Not that we did this.  Ever.)

Zelder Tip #4: If you happen to visit Cotera before chatting with Pikango, he won’t show you the way to the fairy when you meet him later, but he will still ask you for a photo. Run back for the photo and he’ll give you a small prize.

Cotera may be your first – cough, cough – but she won’t be your last.  Visit all three of her sisters. And return to the ponds to sneak up on the little fairies you can carry around in inventory (no more bottles, remember those, from previous Zelda games?) for when you are fighting a nasty beast.

Surrounding each fairy’s pond is a collection of specific flowers that, nonsensically, often match the fae lady’s eye shadow.  Highly prized Endura carrots are also often found here.   Feel free to take what you want.

The fairies certainly will.

Let the Questing Begin: Impa and Hateno

When last we left our valiant hero, Link, he faced a crossroads, perhaps literally – we don’t have the map of Hyrule memorized – but certainly figuratively.  After successfully ending his isolation on the plateau, he had a new set of quests in his adventure log:  Destroy Ganon (“Hard pass,” snapped Itzal) and Seek Out Impa (recommended by King Rhoam, aka the Old Man).  Well then!  Seek Out Impa it is.  

After setting our quest-o-meter (not its actual name, use your Sheikah Slate, people), we meandered in the general direction of the yellow dot that had appeared on the map, stopping first to open another tower, that of Dueling Peaks.

Zelder Tip #1: Although there are a few enemies along the way, Dueling Peaks is simple to activate; one has only to climb. Coming towers will not always be so easy, so enjoy this one.

A Word (or Two, or Several) with Impa

After a brief stop to open Ha Dahamar shrine and visit the Dueling Peaks Stable, in due course our rambles took us to Kakariko Village, where we met up with Impa.  Yes, we realize we’re glossing over a lot in between, like meeting traveling salesmen, arguing about whether to ride wild horses, and chatting with Hestu – but we will talk about all those things eventually.

Impa reminisces with Link

Impa has a lot to say.  So does nearly everyone in Hyrule: When they aren’t beseeching Link to save the kingdom or locate a missing cake recipe – such tasks being apparently of similar importance – they’re lecturing him on the Great Calamity and his lack of memory of same. But Impa’s particularly talky. Indeed, we chuckled to learn that Impa’s name is derivative of the verb impart, because she does enjoy a good imparting.

At the end of Impa’s (first) history lesson, she sends Link to someone else who will also have plenty to say: Purah, a short and sprightly Sheikah at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, which is located, cleverly enough, near Hateno Village.  

A Youthful Elder
Nothing is free, not even from Purah!

It seems that Link’s Sheikah slate isn’t quite in working condition.  (Really, what does one expect after 100 years?)  Purah’s willing to fix the slate, but before she can, she’ll need Link to light the furnace outside the Tech Lab, which will in turn power the Guidance Stone she requires to make the necessary repairs.   To get fire to the tech lab, you must visit the Ancient Furnace in Hateno Village, light a torch with the blue fire, and – occasionally igniting other lamps along the way to preserve the flame, especially if it starts to rain – carry the flame back to the lab’s furnace. 

Zelder Tip #2:  Once we found the Ancient Furnace, we looked around, expecting to see a torch propped up against a wall.  Generally in BOTW, when you need a torch, there’s one right there.  But lo, none to be found in this instance.  However, we had a couple Boko clubs and a soup ladle, and who knew?  Boko clubs and soup ladles work perfectly fine as torches, although they burn up if you don’t periodically put them away to douse the flame.

Stop while you’re ahead, Link…

Embarrassed Zelder Tip #3:  Don’t set yourself afire while igniting the Hateno Tech Lab furnace, as we did.

Chagrined Zelder Tip #4:  There’s, ahem, a torch next to the door inside the Hateno Tech Lab.  We noticed it as we were leaving the lab after losing a Boko club and soup ladle to the blue fires of Hateno.

So – Purah and her assistant Symin fixed the slate, loaded up a new Camera rune, a photo album, and a compendium in which to record photos of the flora and fauna of Hyrule.  She also offered us upgrades to our existing runes.  And if you have the requisite Ancient screws, shafts, and cores, she’ll do the same for you, adding a + to whichever rune you choose to upgrade.  (Zelder Tip #5:  Ancient parts can be found by examining dead Guardians – there are a few near the Temple of Time – or defeating live ones.  You can also buy them from Teli the traveling salesman, who runs along the road just outside Hateno during regular office hours.)

There are photos in the album of Link’s Sheikah Slate

About that album:  It comes with a collection of photos already installed.  Purah counsels Link to seek out Impa again, this time to discuss these photos. 

And, heigh-ho, it’s back to Kakariko we go.  

Impa asserts that the photos in the album are none other than Princess Zelda’s, and Link may have been there when they were snapped. Thus, if Link visits the locations where the photos were taken, it may jog his gone-missing memory.  Now, does she tell Link where to find these photo shoots, which would be immensely helpful?  No, she does not.  It’s left to Link (you) to wander around searching, unless you have the foresight or the dumb luck to run into Pikango the traveling painter.  You don’t have to locate the so-called Captured Memories immediately, and you don’t have to find them all at once.  But there’s real value to recovering at least one memory right away. 

Pikango explains location of one lost memory – Lanayru East Gate

Zelder Tip #6, which is a real spoiler, but one that Pikango will also offer:  Head to Lanayru Road, East Gate.  It’s close.  Just don’t go past the East Gate.  There’s a nasty Lynel there.  (Is nasty Lynel redundant?)  At the East Gate, you should see a shining light . . . go toward the light, Link.  And that’s your first memory.

And, now, for the day’s rewards…

Feeling like a ping pong ball, return to Impa again.  Instead of more lecturing – okay, okay, there is some lecturing and dispensing of history – this time, she’ll offer Link something to replace the Old Shirt he’s been wearing since at least the Isolated Plateau, and possibly even a hundred years ago. The Champion’s Tunic quickly became our favorite piece of attire, as it signals the location (and health, aka danger) of nearby enemies.

But, you ask, what am I drinking on this day of feeling like a ping pong ball?  Thank you for the question!

Our guide through much of today’s play is Impa, a Sheikah elder estimated to be 120 years old (give or take).  She certainly has a lot of history to support that claim.  On the other end of the spectrum – at least in appearance – is Purah. But Purah is actually older than Impa, for all that she appears to be a youngster. We rudely read her diary, wherein she chronicles an anti-aging experiment, hoping to find instructions to the fountain of her youth, but we were unsuccessful in rolling back time for ourselves.  However, in honor of both Purah’s and Impa’s venerable age, we suggest a classic cocktail, the Old Fashioned. 

Looking for more to do in Kakariko?

Day One on the Isolated (Soon to be Great) Plateau

When you first fire up Breath of the Wild, cut-scene animation takes over to introduce the gameplay.  You’ll find Link – and therefore yourself, since Link is the character you play – scantily attired in a sort of cryostasis tank.  

Sheikah Slate

Here in the Shrine of Resurrection, you’ll pick up your first tool, a Sheikah Slate.  What’s more, there are treasure chests to be found in the Shrine, providing you with clothing. They are “well-worn garments,” to be sure, but they’re better than traipsing about in Link’s boxer briefs.  (Itzal bridles at the notion that Demelza looks down on those who enjoy their boxer brief traipses; but if you’re gaming together and must observe the proprieties, fine.)

Once outside the shrine, it’s time to survey the kingdom, or at least, what’s in the immediate vicinity.  

Not far away, you’ll see an Old Man – a comfortable, Santa-like figure who makes a Baby Boomer feel right at home– and, although you aren’t obliged to speak to him straightaway, it behooves you to chat him up sooner rather than later.  (Note: the game describes him as Old Man.  We are not being insensitive to his age, being Elders ourselves.)  The Old Man might as well be called Man on a Mission, because he’s got an agenda, and it involves you opening four shrines and learning how to use the controls and tools soon to be at your disposal.  

While you’re confined to the Plateau, the game pushes you along a fairly prescribed course. You can accomplish what you need to more or less in any order you choose – you could run around in your underwear for a while, if you liked, Demelza’s disapproval notwithstanding.  But essentially, to progress further you must attend to the Old Man’s directives.

Follow the Sheikah Slate

Sheikah slate map, otherwise still blank, has a location marked

Unless you’re a speedrunner (and if you are, you’ve come to the wrong website!), Follow the Sheikah Slate will be the first major quest of the game.

If you were to review your in-game map before completing this quest (use the minus button to access the map), you’d see nothing more than a hazy blue and black screen, not precisely what one looks for in a map, and a glowing yellow dot. Follow said dot. Much excitement ensues when you reach the dot’s location, and soon the hazy gray area is transformed into a regional map. What’s more, Link has a new main quest.

Zelder Tip #1: Until you complete this first quest, time doesn’t pass on the Plateau. That’s right, it’s perpetually mid-morning. You can explore to your heart’s desire without worrying that darkness will descend, and with it, creepy nighttime enemies. After completion, the clock starts at 11 am and marches on relentlessly.

Zelder Tip #2:  When you find yourself on the newly-risen Great Plateau Tower and are ready to depart on your next quest, don’t just jump off in manner of Peter Pan.  Link will fall.  Link will die, leaving a big red X on the map to remind you of your failure.  Not that we did this.  Okay, we did.  So trust us:  At this juncture of the game, you must climb down the tower.  There is, however, a series of platforms encircling the tower; rather than climb down the tower slowly, lattice panel by lattice panel, you can jump down from platform to platform.

The Isolated Plateau

The next quest requires Link to find and activate four “shrines,” which are mini-puzzles or mini-dungeons, depending on your perspective. When you activate a shrine, it acts as a fast-travel point. Completing a shrine – which we’ll define as reaching the monk in residence, since we often leave treasure behind – garners you a spirit orb. Collect four for a new heart or additional energy.

Zelder Tip #3:  Take the four shrines in a clockwise fashion, starting from Oman Au (where you earn the Magnesis rune); then, moving from right to left around the Plateau, Jai Baij (Bomb rune); Owa Daim (Stasis); and Keh Namut (Cryonis).

Zelder Tip #4: If you see something sparkling, investigate.  Gather up mushrooms, apples, and tree branches, whatever looks promising.  You can also find a better pair of trousers in a chest in some ruins not far from the Temple of Time, if you object to well-worn ones.

Is Link hearing voices?

The Old Man isn’t the only one issuing orders that day.  That’s a recurring theme in Hyrule:  someone is always urging poor Link to do this, do that, find this, defeat that.  Inevitably, it’s something that only Link can do, ranging from the monumental – destroying Ganon – to the trivial, such as bringing a lady some ice for her drink.  

Zelda has some news for Link

Thus, on the Plateau, be prepared for a disembodied voice prodding you to “try to remember.”  Apparently, Link’s got a bad case of amnesia after his 100 years in the cryotank.  

We found it passing annoying to be urged to reminisce when we were wearing hand-me-downs and armed with a tree branch, but hey, we’ve been trying to remember plenty in the past 20 years, let’s add Hyrule to the list of forgotten.

Zelda for Elders doesn’t purport to do walkthroughs.  And if that’s your thing, others have done them better; we use them often ourselves.  But we do humbly offer a few (more) tips.

A Few More Tips
  • Once you’ve got the Bomb rune, bomb anything that looks like funny colored rocks of a certain size and configuration.  You’ll soon come to recognize them.  (They look a lot like the rock wall outside Demelza’s back yard, and since playing BOTW, she often feels a compulsion to press L when sitting on her patio.)
  • Speaking of funny-looking things: Later in the game, you’ll be on the search for Korok seeds. You may spy a solitary rock that looks out of place, a large flower, or perhaps some traveling fairy lights in need of catching. The point is that when something looks different, it’s generally worth investigating. Generally. Sometimes different can also get you killed. (It is possible to collect Korok seeds before triggering Hestu’s quest.)
  • Fight or flight:  It can be to your advantage to run away from enemies. But that first day on the Plateau, you’ll need to confront some of them, either because they’re standing between you and somewhere you need to be or because they’ll drop items you desperately need when starting out – arrows, a bow, a bokobat.  Demelza is a bloodthirsty wench and prone to exhort Itzal to “get ’em!”  Itzal is more disposed to give enemies a wide berth, because “You’re not the one who has to fight them!” 
  • A last point: Those things that look like decayed metal spiders, ironically known as Guardians, come in several varieties.  On the Plateau, you’ll find ones that are truly kaput, such as those around the Temple of Time; you can walk up to them and a “search” prod will appear on your screen.  Press A to collect valuable Ancient parts.  Other Guardians, such as a couple aropund the Eastern Abbey, are only mostly dead, and they will fire up if Link gets too close.  If that happens, your best bet – at least at this point in the game – is to hide behind something and get out of their view, because one blast of a laser can take you out. 

Once you’ve completed the Old Man’s mission, you’ll be rewarded with the Paraglider, an item that makes it possible to descend the Plateau tower without killing yourself.  It will not surprise you that you’ve been given new instructions, however.  Honestly, this constant nagging from all of Hyrule will not let up until the end of the game.

Link and the Goddess in the Temple of Time

You’ll also finish the day sporting a fourth heart container.  (We assume you will choose hearts over stamina initially, but it’s a tough call when you want and need both, of course!) 

Zelder Tip #5: In addition to gifting Link with spirit orbs, the monks will also refill any depleted heart containers. So on this first day, when you likely have only a limited inventory of health-replenishing apples and herbs, don’t eat up your foodstuffs just before going into a shrine; let the monk refresh you. Exception: If you’re in danger of expiring before you reach the monk! That little Guardian scout in Oman Au can do some damage….

If you’re playing for the first time, you may be four or five hours in. If you’re an accomplished warrior with little patience for sightseeing, maybe you’re done in under two.  We’re not speedrunners, and besides, we like to stop for snacks and cocktails, so a three- to four-hour session is grand for us.

At this point, you can proceed to the next quest – talking to a specific denizen of Kakariko Village – or you can wander around the Plateau some more.  Shoot, you could even head to the Castle, although we don’t recommend it, and neither does the Old Man, by the way. Still, it’s up to you.  (Demelza, naturally, wanted to go back for the better trousers, but Itzal gave her A Look.)

And, finally, what to drink on the Isolated Plateau: In commemoration of waking up from your lengthy slumber, we suggest some version of an espresso martini, the better to keep you awake and alert, if running into Guardians isn’t enough to get your heart racing.

What We Wished We’d Known

Here’s a short list of lessons we learned later rather than sooner and would have preferred the reverse. Some may have a different list – did you know Link can take selfies? – but these are the ones we would have found most helpful at the start of the game.

  • Killing enemies, particularly the hapless Bokoblins, is a quick way to earn badly needed weapons and small treasures.  Sometimes you even get to steal their roast beast!  Defeating enemies may seem efficient and it is certainly satisfying, but they don’t stay down. In fact, they come back stronger as the game progresses.  Therefore, consider this balancing act: Unless you need to kill an enemy just then – it’s standing between you and a treasure chest, you covet the weapon or other items it will drop when defeated, or it’s attacking and thus it’s a clear case of self-defense – consider whether you ought to just leave ’em be.  Run, as it were, away! 
Itzal heartily dislikes being out when it’s dark.
  • You can sit by a fire to move the clock forward.  You can also forget to pause the game while you’re making a cocktail.  Both these acts will result in the passage of time, which in Hyrule runs at roughly an hour of Zelda time to two minutes of real time.  Passing the Nintendo time is helpful if you don’t like adventuring at night, or if, for purposes of a quest, you need it to be a particular time of day.  If you don’t want to waste precious daylight, however, pause your game when you’re researching, refueling, or arguing with your Zelder partner.
  • Weapons and shields break.  A lot.  Someone ought to sue the manufacturers (of the weapons, not the game, take it easy, Nintendo lawyers) for shoddy workmanship.  But until that happens, don’t use your fancy-pants new claymore to cut down trees or break boxes.  Use a bomb instead.  Yep, even for the trees, which take two bombs to generate a bundle of wood. Using a sword or other weapon unnecessarily only increases your frustration when that weapon inevitably breaks after you’ve struck down three trees in the prime of their lives and, oh, smashed the ground a couple of times for good measure.  (Itzal had a propensity early in the game to slam his sword into boulders.) (Itzal denies this accusation categorically and cites poor manufacturing, already introduced into evidence.)
  • Gather as many Korok seeds as possible, either before or immediately after the first time you meet Hestu, the NPC who exchanges the seeds for increases to Link’s inventory space. You’ll really want those inventory upgrades, lest you find yourself down to a single rusty blade because you couldn’t carry more weapons into a heated battle.  Hestu shakes his maracas once on the road to Kakariko Village and again at the next stable you visit (Woodland, Riverside, or Wetlands); after that, he hightails it to his final location in the Great Hyrule Forest.
  • Make climbing towers a priority early in game play: they open up the map for the area in which they’re located. There are a few, however, like Akkala and Eldin, that may be better left for later in the game.  In fact, we visited Hestu in the Great Hyrule Forest and popped into the Ancient Tech Lab in Akkala region well before we’d done those regions’ corresponding towers.
  • Follow your Sheikah sensor and activate shrines, as many as you can, as quickly as you can, even if you don’t enter and complete the shrines at the time.  The shrines act as fast travel points whether you’ve obtained their orbs or not, and you’ll want as many travel points as possible, particularly before you’ve opened all the towers. 
  • When Link first wakes from his long slumber, he spends the day on the Isolated Plateau, earning the “runes” that are instrumental to the rest of play.  Pay attention not only in these four rune shrines, but also in Ta’loh Naeg shrine near Kakariko Village, where you learn to parry and flurry rush. We wished we’d paid attention to this important training and practiced after.  Later in the game we had to hone our parrying skills– and, ahem, eventually we did kill a Guardian with a pot lid – but we never got the hang of the flurry rush in our first play-through. Or, truth be told, in our second.  
  • Don’t eat Endura carrots raw just to restore hearts, and the same goes for hearty radishes, Staminoka bass, and other foods with a “buff.” Cook them into a dish instead to release their special properties.
  • You’ll need rupees in this game.  Selling jewels is a quick way to build your stash, but sell only what you must, such as to raise cash to wake a Great Fairy or buy armor you can’t get another way.  Otherwise, hang onto your sapphires and rubies and think long and hard before hocking ancient droppings like gears, screws, and shafts. (Never, ever, sell a Giant Ancient Core!) Chances are good you’ll want these items to upgrade armor, finish a quest, or something else you haven’t foreseen in the initial giddy rush to fill your wallet.  Selling luminous stone, on the other hand, is quick and easy fast cash. You can build up rupees slowly:  bomb trees (a green energy source; they grow back) and sell the resulting bundles of wood, or gather restless crickets, which can also be sold.  True, they don’t fetch much, but a few crickets, lizards, and bundles of wood each day may enable you to hoard instead of sell the diamond you may need later.
  • Always save your game before trying something dangerous.  Or before trying anything new at all, really.  You can reload the game to an earlier save point if you go up in flames or waste weapons and hearts in a fruitless battle. The game will also auto-save, but that won’t protect you if disaster strikes before.  Also, you can only have so many save points in queue – so watch your list.
  • Bomb arrows don’t work in the rain.  Conversely, they work only too well in Eldin; if you pull them out in that area, they’ll explode, harming Link but leaving his target unscathed. Don’t waste your expensive bomb arrows in either of these situations.

That’s it for the short list.  We acquired many other lessons along the way, principally that Lynels are the worst form of enemy animation ever contrived, but these are the ones we wished we’d known at the get-go.  We’ll share others as we go along.

And now, to the get-go!  It’s time for Link to wake up!

Travel Hyrule with Zelda for Elders

So you’ve decided to venture into Hyrule. Specifically, to inhale the Breath of the Wild. Let us help you with pre-trip planning….

First things first: Are you a solo traveler, or do you have a companion on your adventure? Zelda for Elders highly recommends a sidekick to make the most of the experience. You’ll appreciate having someone to identify tourist attractions you might otherwise miss, to remind you to get your rest and keep up your energy, and to point out dangers along the way. We certainly did. Thus, although even the lone wayfarer will find wise (or snarky) counsel here, as we go along we’ll assume you have a duo to your dynamic.  After all, it’s dangerous to go alone! Take us.

So who does what? 

In any given gaming session, one person will be our hero, Link. This person wields the controller and is responsible for climbing hills, fighting enemies, building ice blocks, and deploying the paraglider, among other tasks.  For purposes of this blog, you may call this person Itzal…because we did.  (Itzal bows, waves, swirls his drink.)

Itzal, aka Link; and Demelza as Zelda wannabe.

The sidekick sits nearby on the sofa and yells timely instruction or recriminations, as the case may be. (Editor’s Note:  recriminations often are the entire case.)  The sidekick is also tasked with researching the flora and fauna in the vicinity, hunting and gathering during off hours, and preparing meals. Indeed, if this were a game of politics, you might call that companion your advance team.  Here we call this person Demelza, who eschews bowing and waving and long ago spilled her drink (Zelder code for “drank too fast”).

It is certainly possible to switch these roles from session to session, or even within a session, but it has been our experience that one Zelda Elder generally falls into one or the other role and stays there. In a gender-neutral fashion, of course; we’ll have no stereotyping about who cooks and who fights.  Itzal could have cooked, if he didn’t have the attention span of a gnat, and Demelza could have done the fighting, but she’s prone to falling into the enemies’ campfire and torching herself.

And, to be clear, each person is an equally valued member of the troupe, even if the hero tends to overstate his importance and whine about the dangers he faces, while the sidekick must issue constant reminders of the importance of after-hours capturing of crickets and lizards or gathering mushrooms to exchange for badly needed rupees — not to mention the perils of falling into the cooking pot while making the hero’s stew!  (Editor’s Note:  guess which member of the duo wrote that description!  The Discerning Reader will rightly conclude that it was not Itzal the Hero, his hands being full of the controller and his psyche full of more than a little anxiety about poor Link.)

Handy Pre-trip Checklist 
  • Compile a list of options for a given session’s play. These options may be organized by geographical region, such as the Gerudo desert or Kakariko Village, or by task or theme, like climbing new towers, opening shrines, or seeking out where dragons be. The list should include shorter and longer choices, easier and more difficult, dangerous and just plain fun.  
  • Do some advance research on these options for purposes of discussion; then be prepared to do more on-the-fly research the day of play, once a course of action is chosen.
  • Early in the game, you have little in the way of equipment or pantry items. But as you progress, it’s a good idea to shop and cook the night before play, so you can go straight to the day’s adventure. 
  • Speaking of cooking, don’t forget about the needs of Zelda Elders: have appropriate snacks and beverages at the ready. And unlike Link’s pantry, yours (and your liquor cabinet) can be stocked as early and as plentifully in the game as you desire! If you care to pair your play with one of our recommended beverages, decide on the day’s game plan in advance to ensure you have the requisite ingredients. 
  • The night before, or at least a couple of hours in advance, make sure that your controller — whether an all-in-one master controller or joy-cons attached to a charging grip — is fully charged. Nothing worse than curling up on the sofa in front of the big screen, ready to tackle a Divine Beast, only to discover that you have 12 percent battery.
  • Choose the appropriate cocktail for your day’s sojourn.  The cocktail is for you, not Link in the cyber world; he’s not of legal drinking age.  We have found that the stress of fighting and the stamina required for yelling about why someone isn’t fighting better are, shall we say, juiced by the addition of an enjoyable adult beverage.

There.  You’re ready.  Fasten your seatbelts.  (Here the sidekick will yell, “Not that way! Fasten your seatbelt this way!  Check your mirrors! And I get to be in charge of the radio.”)  

Switch on the Nintendo.  Grab your controller.

[Or you could put the controller down, order some liquor, and read our next blog with the list of things we wish we’d known before we started playing.]