This page has ADVANCE tips, hints, and tricks for the game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Note: Credit for the original tips go to /u/jerome1309 from Reddit.
1) Memories and Master Sword Heart Requirements:
The master sword always requires 13 hearts to pull regardless of the number of memories you've found (even all of them).
2) Permanent Weapons:
The master sword is the only permanent weapon in the game. Even the hylian shield will eventually break. There have been rumours floating around about repairing the champions' weapons which you receive from the village chieftains after purging each divine beast. This is untrue. You can find a blacksmith in each of these villages who will rebuild the weapon for you after you break it. They require a specific base weapon, some flint, and a diamond to do so.
3) Early Game Priorities:
Upgrading stamina takes precedence over hearts. Stamina increases ease of exploration and gives you more time in slowmo when firing arrows from midair as well as longer charged attacks with heavy two-handed weapons. Hearts kinda become obsolete if you never get hit (comes with a tonne of practice). Don't worry about getting enough hearts to pull the master sword. You can reallocate upgrades at a statue by Hateno when the time comes. I'd say maybe go two stamina for every heart in the beginning.
Stasis + should be your number 1 priority for rune upgrades. The ability to freeze enemies temporarily makes many encounters much easier. Specifically guardians, hinoxes, and Lynels somewhat.
Get all the climbing gear and upgrade to 2 stars asap! I think you get all of it from shrines in the Faron and Necluda regions. Best thing for exploration! I found that with a full set of 2 star climbing gear and full stamina, I'm able to brute-force climb a lot of things even when it's raining.
I believe the order of difficulty (from easiest to hardest) when it comes to dungeons is Vah Medoh (bird, Rito, Windblight Ganon), Vah Ruta (elephant, Zora, Waterblight Ganon), Vah Rudania (lizard, Goron, Fireblight Ganon), and Vah Naboris (camel, Gerudo, Thunderblight Ganon). When it comes to prioritizing the abilities you get from each, I'd say switch Vah Naboris and Vah Rudania.
4) Replacing the Hylian Shield after it breaks:
You originally find the hylian shield in the hyrule castle dungeon. While it has super high durability, it will eventually break. You can buy another from a young Shiekah male who appears in Tarrey Town after its construction is complete. You accomplish this via the "from the ground up" quest you get from one of the construction guys after you buy your home in Hetano. You find him on a peninsula jutting into the lake in Akala.
5) Spawning Stronger Enemies:
The more enemies you defeat, the stronger their replacements after a red moon. Not entirely sure if this is area or enemy type-specific but I don't think so.
6) Reflecting Guardian's Energy Beams
This is a great strat for taking down guardians as you can do it right from the beginning of the game. Notice the flash of blue light coming from the guardian's eye just before it actually launches a beam. If you're up close, time a shield parry for the moment just after you see this flash (not at the same time, that's too early). 3 of these will destroy the walking guardians. Much tougher on the flying variety as the distance between you and them is harder to judge. This makes timing much more inconsistent.
7) Tips for the different forms of Ganon:
Windblight: Use the updrafts to go into slow-mo arrow aiming. Hit him in the face 3 times in quick succession to bring him down. Also, please parry his mini energy beams!
Waterblight: use cryonis to destroy most of his ice cubes and use stasis on the last one before knocking it back to bring him down.
Fireblight: throw a bomb and detonate it within his shield when he's absorbing energy before he throws a fireball at you. This'll bring him down.
Thunderblight: run away as his metal spikes plummet to the ground in phase 2. Pick up the last spike to fall with magnesis and hover it next to thunderblight ganon as it becomes electrified. This will bring him down.
8) Thunderblight Ganon Tips:
Come to the fight equipped with 2 star rubber armor to make it easier (gives you the unshockable buff). You get the 3 pieces from: a shrine in Ridgeland (with a complicated puzzle to reveal it), a shrine in Faron, and a side quest at a stable in Faron.
The first phase is pretty simple; backflip just after you hear the third wind rush of his zig-zag attack (he'll be coming from your right). This will trigger a flurry rush. It's his third phase that can be a real problem (especially if fighting him at hyrule castle, straight from the plateau). This is when he imbues his sword and shield with electricity. He also changes up the attacks he performs after his zig-zag. It's a huge pain as he'll sometimes use a shield bash which you can't backflip away from. If you're not using anything that makes you immune to electrocution and you don't have weapons and shields that insulate from electricity, it's probs best to run away; back and to your left. After he's finished his zig-zag attack, break his shield with a spear, then you can take him down with a full combo or shoot him with bomb arrows from afar. Eventually his electricity will dissipate. Revert to triggering flurry rushes with backflips at this time.
He'll occasionally target you with a red laser before firing a beam of energy, exactly like the overworld guardians. Reflect this with your shield to destroy his. Pelt him with bomb arrows while his shield is down.
9) Fighting Ganon Straight from the Plateau:
This is tough! I'm no speed-runner, but I was able to do this in a little over an hour. After beating the plateau, I took a stamina upgrade and headed toward the castle. I found another 3 shrines on the way: just north of the plateau, to the south of the castle, and out of the way to the east of the castle.
Next, I grabbed the raft at the southwest corner of the castle moat and propelled it to the castle docks (entrance directly from the moat on the west side). Here you find another shrine after you light the big torch. The challenge of this shrine is a major test of strength. I was able to beat it with the weapons I'd gathered from the other shrines up to that point. Grab the guardian weapons ++ after you defeat this mini guardian. They'll be super helpful for the Ganon boss rush. Warp back to the plateau and head over to the goddess statue. Take an additional stamina upgrade and warp back to the castle.
Fight your way through the castle interior to the northern exit. Grab as many two-handed heavy weapons as you can along the way. Once outside, climb up the back wall to the entrance of the final chamber. Stamina-boosting food and elixirs are helpful to do so (tho not necessary with two stamina upgrades). The final encounter awaits...
Since you haven't defeated them in the divine beasts, you must overcome all 4 elemental manifestations of ganon before his calamity form. I'm not going to describe each fight in detail but use lots of arrows! It'll help your weapons go further. Use the spinning charge attacks of your two-handed weapons when you've knocked ganon's different forms down. Don't worry if you're running out of weapons by the time you get to calamity ganon. You can find royal weapons lying on the ground at the outer boundaries of the arena.
10) Tips for Silver Lynels Wielding Crushers (hardest enemies in the game):
What makes these dudes particularly hard is their vertical swing attack. You can dodge the initial strike and even trigger a flurry rush with a side hop but the shock wave emitted when the club hits the ground will knock you out of it. I found I had to stick to parrying this attack with my shield and follow-up with a head shot to stun them. At this point I'd pull off a quick full combo before mounting them with A when prompted and mashing the attack button. Do this as often as possible; attacks while mounting don't deplete weapon durability.
Stasis + is helpful against Lynels but not as OP as some make it out to be. Works best to help you gather your bearings and take aim at their head just before you're about to get an opening. Don't hit them while they're frozen as you can't mount them while they're stunned after doing so.
Finally, if you really wanna be cheap, there's a good way to cheese through Lynels. It requires some strong and durable heavy two-handed weapons, urbosa's fury, and a good amount of stamina. You can bring two star barbarian or ancient armor (with ancient weapons) and strength-up food/elixirs for good measure. Wait for an opening and start a two-handed charge attack. When the Lynel is about to retaliate, unleash urbosa's furry to stun it. Initiate another charge attack. Rinse and repeat.
11) Maximizing DPS:
I may be wrong on this but here's what I think I've discovered: I used to think that charge attacks with the savage crusher while wearing barbarian armor after consuming strength up elixirs/food gave you the best DPS. I'm now pretty sure that strength-up consumables and the barbarian armor affect the same stat. They won't stack past 3 levels. You can get this stat to the same cap with consumables or the armor alone. I now think using 2 star ancient armor with the ancient battle axe ++ or ancient sawblade (ancient proficiency up attack boost) and strength up elixirs/food gives higher DPS.
For Ganon and over world guardian fights, I'm looking into whether the master sword with full attack-up either from food/elixirs or the barbarian armor out-damage the above. Remember, the master sword's attack doubles to 60 in the presence of ganon's malice. It's higher rate of attack (being a one-handed weapon) might push it over the edge.
12) Tricky Side Quests:
Thunderhelm: after purging Vah Naboris, head back to the Gerudo chief's room. Inspect the thunderhelm. The chief tells you that she'll lend it to you if you complete all the side quests in the Gerudo city. Better get crackin! Kakariko Shrine Quest: this was the only shrine location I had to google in the entire game. Complete all the side quests in Kakariko before speaking to Impa. This will trigger the quest.
13) Shielding with Spears and Heavy Two-Handed Weapons:
While all weapons have their uses, I found heavy two-handed weapons to really outshine one-handed weapons with this trick: hold ZL to shield and leave your weapon sheathed. Unsheathe and attack with Y when you get an opening. Keep ZL held the entire time. When the window closes, push B to sheath your weapon. Your shield should pop right back up as you're still holding ZL.
14) Finding all the Shrines
Spot shrines from high places and opening shrines via sidequests you can collect by talking to all NPCs with a flag over their head cover most of them.
You can head back to high places around the open areas on your map. Pick a direction and glide. Drop down when your sensor goes off and find the shrine. Head back to the same peak and glide off in another direction. Rinse and repeat.
One hard one to find is Impa's side quest in Kakariko. You have to complete all the side quests in the village before heading to her house where an event takes place that kicks it all off. I missed a side quest only offered by a particular NPC when you speak to her in her home at night.
See:
15) Converting Rusty Weapons:
Throw your rusty weapons at rock octorocks (found in The Eldin province) while they inhale. They'll spit out a random non-rusty version of the same type back at you.
16) Climbing in the Rain:
I've found I'm still able to climb most things - even when it's raining - with a full set of 2 star climbing gear and full stamina. Climb up 4 or 5 steps and jump with X before sliding down a bit. This should help you make net positive gains in ascension, even during a storm.
