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Breath of the Wild [SPOILERS] The Path You Took Through the Game

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
Since we can choose to go anywhere, we're all going to have different experience playing through the game in different orders. Describe the way you journeyed through the world of Breath of the Wild. Where did you go first? How did you make that choice?

At first, I did as the King said and went to the Dueling Peaks. I was eager to get started on recovering memories before anything else, and I thought if I followed his lead I'd find some. However, I didn't go to Kakariko first. I did originally plan to, but I found myself at Fort Hateno. I talked to an NPC outside of it who told me that the Hylian Champion 100 years ago fought a deadly battle defending the fort, or something along those lines. To me, that sounded like just the place where a memory would be hidden, so I ended up going to Hateno Village first. Of course, this was before I found out how the memory recovery system worked, so naturally I didn't find any memories there.
Ironically, the field outside of Fort Hateno was the place where the final memory is found, so I was technically right, lol.

After Hateno, I went to Kakariko. I eventually found my fay to Zora's Domain and beat my first Divine Beast. Then I went to Akkala and from there I decided I should try and find the Master Sword before doing my second Divine Beast. I followed what Hetsu said ("follow the Hylia River north to get to my home") and found it, but I wasn't able to take it yet. I ended up exploring Hebra, Faron, and Central Hyrule before I could claim the sword.

Once I had the Master Sword, I went to Death Mountain. By this point I had mapped out the entire eastern side of Hyrule. So I went southwest to Gerudo Desert after doing more exploring and sidequests and upgrading armor. After getting my third Divine Beast, I spent time upgrading my armor even further and slowly filled in the rest of the west, travelling in a way that made Rito Village my last destination. I never went inside Hyrule Castle Town, much less the castle itself, until I had only about 4 shrines left. I didn't fight Calamity Ganon until I had beaten all 120 of them.
 
My playthrough was rather organic, it just took me ages because of all the interesting things between plot points.

I took my time on the Plateau and drank everything in, got used to the controls and had fun.

I followed the King's orders to Kakariko but took nearly a full day exploring most of the Necluda region, doing shrines along the way. Finally made it to Kakariko, then to Hateno and back to Kakariko, took about 2 days to do all of that because exploration.

Once I'd gotten the champion shirt, been told about memories and given the choice of which Divine Beasts i should take out first I began my journey to find the Zoras.

Finding the Zoras had always been high on my list so I went looking. Again, explored for ages, doing shrines on the way, found Zoras Domain and fell in love with it.

Defeated Vah Ruta and decided each Beast I did next should be the furthest away to pad out my play time, so i made my way to Vah Medoh but ended up claiming most of the towers around the map instead aside from Central Hyrule and the one in the water with all the electric enemies...

Once i'd gotten most of the towers i defeated Vah Medoh. After Vah Medoh i explored more of the map with Revali's gale and did a lot of sidequesting and sightseeing.

The next thing i eventually did was go to the desert. Everything about this section took me ages. Finding Gerudo town and the Bazaar, getting into Gerudo town, doing the Yiga hideout to eventually getting inside Vah Naboris, which i spent ages in because i found the dungeon so damned confusing.

Nailed Vah Naboris eventually and from there decided to find as many memories as i could while going for the Master Sword. I'd spent most of my Spirit Orbs on an extra stamina wheel, so i wasnt strong enough to claim the MS and i didnt know about the horned statue behind Hateno, i ended up sidequesting and doing more Shrines and grabbing memories until i was close enough to Death Mountain to decide to take on Vah Rudania.

The Goron section of this game is the only part i can say i didnt really enjoy. I do like the Gorons but BotW's Gorons just weren't fun. They were bland, i didnt like the tribe leader, i didnt like Yunobo and i didnt like the construction worker thing that they all had going on. I didnt even really like the layout of the area.

Then things got worse with that damn stealth section. I messed up near the top and got knocked off Death Mountain summit by a moblin and was worried i'd have to escort the tool Yunobo all the way again but thankfully i didnt.

Vah Rudania was a pleasant dungeon, especially after Naboris. It was over in a flash and so was Fireblight Ganon.

After Rudania i got the Master Sword and got the last of the memories.

After that I tried and failed to even get close to Ganon by storming the castle so i sidequested for a few days. Then eventually killed Ganon.

20 hearts
2 stamina wheels
74 shrines
89 Korok seeds

When i took Ganon out.

:)
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Australia
So far I have purposfully avoided following the King's initial instructions and have explored everywhere else on the map instead of the location he told me to go to. I have been to the Dueling peaks but not that specific location marker. I just wanted to explore. Well over 50 hours in and still I have not been everywhere. I won't go to hyrule castle for Ganon till I have found every shrine first.

I will find all the shrines before I do any of the 4 dungeons too though.
 

Pen

The game is on!
After I was done at the Great Plateau I used my glider to go westward to the desert because there was a shrine there that I'd been able to spot from the plateau. I beat that shrine and raided a Bokoblin camp to get a very good shield for it being so early in the game. After that I left the desert for some time. I traveled south to Lake Hylia and exploded all around the southern regions all the way down to the coast. That was where I found my first village, that little fisherman village on the southern coast.

After that I decided to do as the king had said and travel past the Duelling Peaks, still exploring every place I got to and I kept getting side tracked a lot. My distractions eventually led me to Hateno Village, and shortly thereafter I came to Kakariko Village as well. After having talked to Impa and gotten some directions I kept exploring eastern Hyrule all the way out to the coast. By this point I had covered most of the south-eastern parts of the map.

I kept exploring and completing shrines and I started finding some of Link's memories with Zelda. When I finally decided to go to one of the four dungeons I decided to start with the one in the north-west, and boy am I glad I decided to start there. Not only did it turn out to be Rito Village with awesome music, but after having beaten the dungeon I received imo the most useful champion ability, Revali's Gale. I'm very happy to have had that in my arsenal throughout the majority of my playthrough.

After the Ritos I decided to travel to the desert in the south-west, since I had already been there a little bit. I made my way into Gerudo Town, did the Yiga quest and eventually came to the dungeon. Everything had gone more or less smoothly up to this point, but since I only had like nine or ten hearts at the time (and also neither Mipha's Grace not Daruk's Protection) I REALLY struggled with the boss of Vah Naboris. I must have died to it at least 15 times before I was finally able to defeat it. Out of all the boss fights in the game, that was without a doubt the biggest challenge to me. In future playthroughs of the game, I'll probably do Vah Naboris last.

After I was done in the desert I went to the Zoras. On my way to Zora's Domain I got so side tracked that I ended up exploring most of the north-eastern areas of the world, but I eventually came to Zora's Domain and completed the stuff there. At this point I knew that the last Divine Beast for me was at Death Mountain with the Gorons, but before I went there I explored the last general areas of the game world, namely the north-western corner, central Hyrule, and the area north of the castle. During these explorations I ventured into the castle, just to take a quick peak, and I found my way into Zelda's room. After that I left the castle though, since I didn't wanna go too far into it. And while exploring the northern areas I came to Korok Forest in the Lost Woods to get the Master Sword.

Once the whole map had been filled in I went to Goron City, however I wasn't able to get any fire resistant meals or potions, so I just forced my way through the mountains while burning, just hoping that I could last until I got to Goron City. Luckily I made it on my second try and once I arrived I bought the full fire proof armor. Other than getting to Goron City, I'd say the whole Vah Rudania quest was probably the easiest of all the four dungeon areas, but it was good nonetheless and I thought it was fitting to save Death Mountain for last, to honor the original LoZ.

Once all four Divine Beasts had been tamed I did some final preparations which included finding some more shrines for more heart containers, getting the Hylian Shield from the dungeons of Hyrule Castle, and of course dye my clothes. Once I felt ready I made my way up the castle and beat Ganon. At that point I had 21 heart containers but I'd never upgraded my stamina meter. I had a lot of fun with the final battle, although story stuff that happened after it felt kind of mediocre. But all things considered, BotW has definitely become my new favourite video game. :)
 

Cartoonmaniac

Biggest Zelda fan this side of the South Pole
Joined
Oct 8, 2016
Location
Stuttgart, Germany
Did everything in the Plateau (and got my butt kicked by an immobile Guardian)
Flew down using the Paraglider, immediately got killed by a Moblin
Explored for a bit
Made it to Kakariko Village
On the way to Hateno, ran into a random person who was actually part of a clan that wanted to kill Link
Made it to Hateno
Got a horse (and named him Dusty)
Went back to Kakariko
Explored for a bit more (and got my butt kicked by a walking Guardian!)
Blood Moon
Accidentally found the Zora Prince
Tried to make it to the Sheikah Tower for Lanyaru (and failed)
Followed the river up to Zora's Domain and got lost

So that's where I am right now, lost in the area near Zora's Domain. It's been quite an adventure so far, and I haven't even done the first Divine Beast quest yet!
 
Joined
Jul 23, 2016
Location
UK
Gender
?
So far, I've basically gone this way:

Completed the Plateau (this is pretty obvious)
Explored a bit, and completed some shrines
Moved onto Kakariko Village to talk to Impa
Did more exploring
Went through Hatena Village
Explored Zora's Domain
Messed around even more
Got the Master Sword
Went back and completed Vah Rutah
Proceeded onto Death Mountain
Explored a bit more
Beat/cleared Vah Rudania
Went to Rito Village
Got to the Flight Range
Explored the desert
Got to the hideout
Went back to finish the Flight Range and Vah Medoh
Then went back and did the Yiga Hideout (with Ancient Arrows to vapourise everyone in sight)
Started on Vah Naboris

And that's it so far. It's been a very... random journey.
 
Whew, now that I beat Ganon, I can finally post in this thread, yay.

Exploration & Progression (shrines & memories omitted)

After I got off the Great Plateau, I kind of just paraglided into a group of horses and picked one out and wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out where Kakariko was (the minimap was confusing me at this point with the dot) and then I was like "screw Kakariko, where's a stable" and me and my horse went through a lot of **** (almost running off cliffs like twice while being under attack by monsters, me fighting monsters and accidentally hitting her, Dueling Peaks Tower, a blood moon, a thunderstorm...) and then I found a stable--hilariously enough, not the Dueling Peaks stable--and had no rupees. Shoutout to @Jamie and @Deus for pointing me in the right direction with finding Beedle. My first horse been through a lot (I'm not gonna mention my other horses). She lived a lifetime of danger in that adventure of getting registered as my horse. I named her Grace, and she retired after I registered her.

Let's see.. I put off going to Kakariko after I got on a roll. After I got my horse registered at Riverside Stable, I went and activated Central Tower since it was kind of right there. I was working on making my way back to Kakariko, but when that one dude was like "I HAVE DIRECTIONS" and he mentioned a village that was mostly unaffected by the Calamity, I was like, "Kakariko can wait." I headed that way and did Hateno Tower on the way there, and then just paraglided to the village off the top of the tower. I pestered the people at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab when I went there and they were like "lol we can't help you until you get clearance from Impa." You poops. Spent a good amount of time chilling in Hateno, before eventually going back to see Impa in Kakariko. Returned to Hateno for the thing and then put off seeing Impa about the photos.

I activated Lanayru Tower next, which triggered the Vah Ruta quest, which I didn't pursue at all. I met Prince Sidon, but never followed him to Zora's Domain. I put it off like I put off seeing Impa again. I did the entire bottom stretch of the map in one go. Faron Tower, Lake Tower, and the Wasteland Tower. Bam. Started working toward Vah Naboris while I was in the desert, and then ceased after they asked me to retrieve the Thunder Helm. Good stopping point there. My first meeting with Kass was while on my way to activating the Ridgeland Tower. I've kind of been skimping on investigating things overall because my focus right now was the towers. I'd goof off a bit, sure, but I wanted a map.

Akkala Tower was awful. My least favorite to activate, hands down. I dealt with two thunderstorms and had to seek shelter. I managed to completely avoid getting spotted by the Skywatchers (I wasn't even going to attempt fighting them), but I just had to WAIT OUT TWO THUNDERSTORMS and it was miserable. Visited Akkala's lab while I was in Akkala and the first overworld guardian I actually killed was the one in front of the lab. I didn't want it to get in my way while lighting the furnace, anyhow.

I went west and activated Eldin Tower and after paragliding further and catching fire, I just warped out. Finally went to Zora's Domain and worked on the Vah Ruta quest up until I needed to go follow ugly hammerhead guy to the fountain. I then left, and wrapped up the western regions, kind of outside-in. I took care of Gerudo Tower by doing my typical, avoid as much bull**** as possible by scaling mountains method. After Gerudo Tower, I returned to Kakariko, but I never activated the shrine there on my first visit so I had to go the long way. Immediately recognized Kara Kara Bazaar as a memory spot though and got my champion tunic immediately after. Then I warped to the Ridgeland Tower and worked my way toward the northwestern-most tower. Which I learned I needed better equipment for the cold but I wasn't gonna worry about it. Just wore my ****ty snowboots from the one weird dude in the desert and used an elixir.

Worked my way down to Tabantha Tower next, and met with the Rito. Worked toward the Vah Medoh quest until I needed to meet with Teba. Last tower left, and on my way there, I had my first run-in with a Yiga footsolder. BotW really emphasizes stranger-danger, kek. I made quick work of him and advanced to the tower. Blood Moon happened during my eventual ascent. Thank God it happened while I was already halfway up the tower. Didn't really feel like dealing with bull****. I tried paragliding into the Lost Woods; that was fun. Didn't work, but I don't care. Still fun.

With my map completed, I have 3 of the 4 divine beast quests listed on my main quest, partially ready for me. With that in mind, I returned to Eldin with fireproof elixirs. Lady who sold them to me said I'd make it to the village with the three. I made it with two. It's called cutting through the mountains and I'm quite good at it, especially considering I never upgraded my stamina. I didn't really do anything while I was there other than just talk to the elder to get the mission on my list. Then I left.

I ended up getting the Master Sword before I pursued any of the Divine Beasts. The Trial of Wood or whatever; that was the absolute worst. I don't even know why I struggled with it so much. It was so stupid. I prepared for Vah Medoh finally and knocked that out. Then I spent the next two and a half days doing literally nothing waiting for my sister to come home because I wanted to do Ruta next but I wanted her to see it because elephants. She ended up too tired to watch after I got inside, so I saved the last two terminals and the boss fight for her the following morning (which was probably more like afternoon because I broke my sleep schedule).

After Vah Ruta, I attempted the Yiga Hideout but didn't want to deal with stealth mission, so I left. And then found out that Death Mountain's ascent was also a stealth mission. So much for ditching the Yiga hideout. And it was annoying because Yunobo existing. Activated the travel gate to Vah Rudania and then left. I was kind of depleted after the ascent and didn't really feel up to whatever Rudania had in for me.

Then my sister told me to attempt Hyrule Castle since the only memory I had left was whatever one was in there. So I attempted from the east, and ran in with a guardian stalker. My sister was like "warp" and I was just like, "Let's play" and my sister told me I broke character for actually whooping that thing into oblivion. Weird experience but, I think I needed that confrontation to assure myself that, yes, I can beat guardians. I ****ed up with the ancient arrows, but the Master Sword took good care of it.

I'm back by myself now. My sister's break is over. I returned to the Yiga Hideout, this time with ancient arrows, which I had to restock because of my guardian encounter earlier. I had six, and I managed to make every single one to good use. Thanks to @Azure Sage for confirming this tactic would work. Ditched the stealth mission and retrieved the helm. Then the chief girl--I forgot her name again--wanted me to do sand seal bull**** and I'm like, nah.

So last night, I'm like... "there are waterfalls on the back of the castle... I wonder if I can swim up those..." So I stupidly attempted this just out of curiosity and as a future reference for when I return here to get the last memory and to fight Ganon. Almost thought it didn't work when I landed in the water, but then I realized it was just a cutscene, and not me drowning. Then, I ended up just kind of dicking around a bit because, hey, I'm here, why not? Activated a shrine so I had a warp point. I also did the shrine, and planned to be done then, but for some reason, no. One thing led to another and I was beating lizalfoses with bookshelves in the library and then I had explored literally the entire castle.

The question was, do I leave now? Or should I attempt Ganon? Thanks to @Pendio and @Spirit for keeping me company in the shoutbox while I was dealing with Ganon, lmao. Turns out, for each Divine Beast you do not complete, you have to fight its boss before you can fight Calamity Ganon. I had to fight Fireblight Ganon and Thunderblight Ganon right there in the sanctum room.

I somehow managed that, while trying to ration all of the food I have, so I'm basically just stuffing my face with apples. For Calamity Ganon, I ended up eventually using a defense buff since I was out of attack buffing foods. Took me embarrassingly long to figure out how to deal with his second phase. Dark Beast Ganon looked sick af, and Grace was of course the horse that I had to use. Poor Grace. But she lived! That's all that matters, and I was probably more focused on that than killing Ganon, tbh.

I'd say I was pretty impressed with the Ganon fights though. Not like the fight themselves but just his presence was so ****ing awesome. I was trembling with excitement and anxiety during, and that's not really something I experience during a final boss fight very often. Whoo.

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Tower Order:
Dueling Peaks
Central
Hateno
Lanayru
Faron
Lake
Wasteland
Ridgeland
Akkala
Eldin
Gerudo
Hebra
Tabantha
Woodland

Divine Beast Order:
Vah Medoh
Vah Ruta

W73bjna.jpg

Statistics:
20 hearts
1 stamina meter (no upgrade)
61 shrines
118 korok seeds
2 divine beasts
12 memories (17/18)
25.72%
102 hours

Why was this so long? Remember, I'm that dumbass who would do literally a third of the Water Temple, get the longshot, and then leave so I can do the Spirit Temple. I'm that dumbass who would use the Cane of Somaria to cheat my way to the big key in Skull Woods and get the fire rod, and then leave so I can do Ice Palace. I gotta cover all of my diversions. It's significant to the path I took.
 

Scribear

Your Best Friend (rupee free)
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Location
NASA
Been waiting for a thread like this. Awesome...


Scribear's Path, Part 1:

Starting out at 2am day 1 was a joy, "Open you eyes" line filled me with excitement. Like, this was finally it, all my waiting and anticipation was finally done. I had the game I had wanted more than any game before. I did the first 3 shrines pretty quickly and then the last shrine was on a mountain top in the snow. I kept trying to get up there but kept dying. I was stumped, until I found what I like to call "Torchy". Torchy was a good companion. I lit him and carried him with me keeping me warm the entire time. We roamed from enemy camp to enemy camp staying warm until we finally got to the shrine, which I ran in asap to keep warm. Beat the shrine and left that place in a hurry.

COME TO FIND OUT, duh dude, eat some food to make you warm (a concept that I totally forgot about at the time) and find Old Man to get some warm clothes. NOPE. Didn't do that. And when I found out about that concept...It made me happy. Like, you could get to that Shrine...in so many ways. Like, in past games it would be like "THE ONLY TWO WAYS TO DO THIS" but...not this time. There may be 1, may be 2, maybe 3 or 4...ways to do one thing and that excited me early on. It gave me a great foundation for playing Breath of the Wild.
I went to the Temple, continued with the game and jumped off the Plateau in a hurry. I wasn't going to do this before I started the game, I thought - stay on the Plateau for a while gathering all the supplies that I would need before jumping. I figured I'd just overload on supplies. But...the sense that there was something greater out there pushed me off the edge, literally, paraglider in hand I jumped and went East.

As I began my walk I decided not to get a horse and take it by foot. When I came upon my first Shrine off the Plateau I was really excited. I then started to try and find more and more Shrines. By the time I got to the Village I was 4 deep and that Stamina gauge upgrade was awesome. I talked to the townfolk, Impa and the hot granddaughter. Got the main quest stuff and took off like Bilbo going on an adventure!

My goal now was to find each tower, activiate them and do any Shrines I find on the way. So I did just that. Went Tower to Tower - Shrine to Shrine unlocking. It was amazing. I just loved how organic my playing felt. I didn't have an immediate goal. I just went wherever it looke cool. Found awesome things and just did whatever I wanted. Eventually I was heading towards this river Shrine and a Zora stopped me. Then another one. And then I accidently stumbled my way unto a main quest. WHICH I THOUGHT WAS AMAZING. Just being able to stumble onto something so big was really cool to me. Felt like a real adventure. Not some planned out journey but a real hero journey. So I did the Zora quest, fell in love with Mipha and saved the Zora Domain.


END PART 1.
_____________________________________
Part 2:

After beating the Zora quest I thought I'd head in the opposite direction and went southwest. Towards the desert. Boy was it hot. But it was fun. I accidentally sold my barbarian armor
(luckily you can buy that stuff back from Grate in Tarrey Town once you complete it...he's upstairs.)
But I got the Gerudo gear and cross dressed my way into town. Then went and did the Yiga den. And dang, the game got me frustrated there in that last room. I about burned the place down. I tried. I set out some wood and flint and lit it up in there! Nothing. Finally after like 30 minutes of me trying to figure it out, I saw that dang wall. So simple of course. The boss fight was awesome and funny though. A nice change of pace. With helm in toe I made my way back to town to become the vai hero, Link - a very masculine name. I did the next Divine Beast after that and it really cemented my love for BotW dungeons. I had a hard time on that one but I liked that I did. It was great. The boss was difficult too. Took a few times to beat him. But yeah. The memories with that quest were fun too.

After that I finished up my Tower collection and unlocked the whole map. So I began doing Shrines and side quests mostly. Going to places that I had already been but seeing different things. Jumping place to place just exploring. I took a long walk on the beach once...that was interupted by a Guardian. Thanks, bruh. I ended up in a really cold place that my previous cold gear was not working on...so I decided to go to the Rito village and buy some nice warm clothes. I left and started trying to beat the sub-boss world map guys. Like Hinox, Lynels and the rock dudes. Getting that money and upgrades and all that fun stuff. I just enjoyed being able to do whatever I wanted, go wherever I wanted. I tried to go to far north and burned my butt off, so I left and went back to the cold. Explored then finally went back to Rito village and started that quest, which i thought was the easiest quest so far. The dungeon was not that tricky either. I got stuck in a place but once I remembered I could turn the dang bird I was good and cleared that dungeon and boss pretty quick.But I was once again free to do what I wanted. So I finished building my house and storing all the goodies in it. Then I began work on Tarrey Town up till needing a Goron. So then...I decided to head north and got the fireproof elixir and then gear. Then talked to the Goron-son named guys and felt good.

END PART 2
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Location
Florida, USA
I'm undecided on where to go so far. I just finished the Zora's domain area (and dungeon) but now, I just kind of explore randomly taking on any shrine I can find. Not sure which 'main' area I want to do next.
 

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