The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild remains one of the most beloved open-world adventures nearly a decade after its release, and whether you’re diving into Hyrule for the first time or returning to complete what you started, a comprehensive guide makes all the difference. This Zelda Breath of the Wild walkthrough covers everything from your first steps on the Great Plateau to the final confrontation with Calamity Ganon, breaking down the main questline, shrines, combat techniques, and exploration secrets that define this masterpiece.
Unlike traditional Zelda games, BotW hands you freedom from the start, but that freedom can be overwhelming. You can technically head straight for Ganon after leaving the tutorial area, but you’ll want the Divine Beasts, upgraded gear, and expanded inventory to make the journey manageable. This legend of zelda breath of the wild walkthrough strikes a balance between structured progression and the open-ended gameplay that makes Breath of the Wild special, giving you the knowledge to tackle Hyrule your way.
Key Takeaways
- A comprehensive Breath of the Wild walkthrough reveals that mastering stamina management, weapon switching, and environmental interactions from the Great Plateau tutorial is essential for surviving Hyrule’s open-world challenges.
- The four Divine Beasts should be tackled in a recommended order (Vah Ruta, Vah Rudania, Vah Naboris, Vah Medoh) to balance difficulty progression and story impact, with each beast granting unique Champion abilities that make the final boss fight significantly easier.
- Combat effectiveness depends on timing parries, executing flurry rushes, and using stealth kills rather than button-mashing, while treating weapons as consumable buffs rather than permanent gear eliminates frustration with the durability system.
- Cooking is non-negotiable for survival—cook Hearty Durians solo for overheal buffs, Endura Carrots for stamina recovery, and combine ingredients strategically to grant attack, defense, and resistance buffs that trivialize difficult encounters.
- Collecting Korok Seeds to expand inventory slots, upgrading armor at Great Fairy Fountains to level 2 for set bonuses, and completing side quests like ‘From the Ground Up’ provide practical rewards that enhance your overall progression and exploration experience.
- The Breath of the Wild adventure thrives on curiosity and experimentation—ignoring strict quest markers occasionally to discover hidden chests, rare merchants, and unexpected encounters creates the most memorable moments in Hyrule.
Getting Started: Essential Tips Before Your Adventure Begins
The Great Plateau serves as your tutorial zone, but don’t rush through it. This opening area teaches fundamental systems that’ll carry you through the entire game, and missing key lessons here means struggling later.
Understanding the Great Plateau Tutorial
Link awakens in the Shrine of Resurrection with nothing but his underwear and a voice guiding him forward. Your first objective: reach the Temple of Time and meet the Old Man, who sets you on the path to acquiring the Paraglider, your ticket off the plateau.
The four shrines here (Oman Au, Ja Baij, Keh Namut, and Owa Daim) introduce core mechanics: bombs, magnesis, stasis, and cryonis. Complete all four to earn Spirit Orbs, which you’ll trade for your first heart container or stamina upgrade. The Old Man won’t give you the paraglider until you’ve finished all four shrines and shown you can survive Hyrule’s challenges.
Don’t skip the cooking pot outside the Temple of Time. Grab a Spicy Pepper, some Raw Meat, and experiment. Cooked food heals more than raw ingredients, and combining peppers with meat creates dishes that grant cold resistance, essential for reaching the Owa Daim Shrine on Mount Hylia.
Key Mechanics Every Player Should Master
Breath of the Wild’s combat and traversal systems reward experimentation. Here’s what to nail down early:
Stamina Management: Everything from climbing to sprinting to swimming drains your stamina wheel. Learn to let go of surfaces just before it depletes to avoid the lengthy exhaustion animation. Early on, prioritize stamina upgrades over hearts, you can avoid damage, but you can’t avoid needing to climb.
Weapon Switching: Weapons break. Accept it. Keep a varied arsenal and switch between weapons mid-combat to preserve durability on your favorites. The game auto-saves frequently, so don’t hoard that Royal Broadsword forever.
Environmental Interaction: Metal conducts electricity. Wood burns. Ice melts near fire. Hyrule operates on consistent physics rules, and understanding them trivializes certain encounters. See a camp of Bokoblins near explosive barrels? You know what to do.
Shield Surfing: Hold ZL to raise your shield, then tap X while sprinting to surf downhill. It’s faster than running and wildly fun, though it does drain shield durability on rough terrain.
Main Quest Walkthrough: Following the Path to Defeat Ganon
The main quest structure in this BotW walkthrough is more flexible than any previous Zelda game, but there’s still a recommended path that balances challenge and story progression.
After leaving the Great Plateau, head to Kakariko Village to meet Impa, who fills in backstory and directs you toward the four Divine Beasts. From there, you’re free to tackle them in any order, though some are more beginner-friendly than others.
Activating and Completing the Divine Beasts
Each Divine Beast requires navigating a dungeon-like interior while manipulating the beast’s orientation or components. Here’s the recommended order for first-time players:
1. Vah Ruta (Zora’s Domain): Start here. The Zora’s Domain questline is the most straightforward, and Mipha’s Grace (the reward) is arguably the best Champion ability, it auto-revives you with full health when you die. You’ll need at least 15-20 Shock Arrows for the approach sequence, but don’t waste rupees buying them. Climb the hill behind Oren Bridge where the Lynel patrols: shock arrows are stuck in trees all around the area. Sneak, collect, and get out.
2. Vah Rudania (Goron City): Death Mountain’s heat requires Fireproof Elixirs or the Flamebreaker Armor set (available at Goron City’s armor shop for 3,300 rupees total). The Divine Beast itself involves rotating the interior to align terminals, and Daruk’s Protection provides a lifesaving shield that blocks attacks automatically.
3. Vah Naboris (Gerudo Town): You’ll need to infiltrate Gerudo Town disguised in the Gerudo Vai outfit, which means completing a short side quest in Kara Kara Bazaar. Naboris is mechanically the trickiest Divine Beast with its rotating cylinder sections, but Urbosa’s Fury (a devastating AoE lightning strike) is incredible for crowd control.
4. Vah Medoh (Rito Village): The flying Divine Beast is actually the easiest if you have cold resistance (Warm Doublet or Spicy food). Revali’s Gale lets you create an updraft anywhere, making traversal trivially easy afterward. Many players tackle this first for that reason, but the emotional weight of the story hits harder if you’ve already met the other Champions.
Recovering Your Memories Across Hyrule
Impa and later Pikango (the painter) give you clues about 12 memory locations scattered across Hyrule. These are optional, but they flesh out Link and Zelda’s relationship before the Calamity and add emotional context to the ending.
The memories can be found in any order. If you’re stuck, many in-depth guides and walkthroughs provide exact map coordinates. The final unlocked memory changes the post-credits scene slightly, making it worth the treasure hunt.
Preparing for Hyrule Castle and the Final Battle
You can charge Hyrule Castle whenever you want, the game doesn’t lock you out. That said, come prepared:
- Minimum 8-10 hearts and a decent stamina wheel
- Ancient Arrows for Guardians (buy them from the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab after completing the “Robbie’s Research” quest)
- High-defense armor upgraded at least twice (Soldier’s Armor or better)
- Hearty meals that overheal your max HP (Hearty Durians cooked solo grant +4 bonus hearts each)
The castle interior is packed with powerful weapons, including the Hylian Shield in the dungeon’s basement (defeat a Stalnox to claim it). Stock up, then head to the Sanctum at the top.
Calamity Ganon has two phases. The first plays out like a standard boss with predictable attack patterns, parry his laser blasts, avoid the fire pillars, and punish openings. If you’ve freed all four Divine Beasts, they’ll cut Ganon’s HP in half at the start, making the fight significantly easier.
The second phase (Dark Beast Ganon) is more spectacle than challenge. Mount your horse, use Zelda’s Bow of Light (infinite light arrows), and aim for the glowing weak points. It’s a victory lap, not a skill check.
Shrines and Towers: Mapping Your Journey
Breath of the wild gameplay revolves around exploration, and towers plus shrines are your navigation backbone. There are 15 towers and 120 shrines scattered across Hyrule, each serving a distinct purpose.
Tower Locations and Activation Strategy
Towers unlock map regions when activated. Climb one, insert the Sheikah Slate, and the surrounding area populates with topography (though shrines and points of interest remain hidden until you discover them).
Prioritize these towers early to make navigation easier:
- Great Plateau Tower: Unlocked during the tutorial.
- Dueling Peaks Tower: Just east of the plateau: easy climb with no enemies.
- Lake Tower: South of the plateau: approach from the northwest to avoid the Lizalfos camp at the base.
- Hateno Tower: Unlocks the eastern region where you’ll upgrade your Sheikah Slate.
Some towers require creative problem-solving. The Woodland Tower sits in the middle of a Malice-infested area: glide in from higher ground rather than climbing from the base. The Ridgeland Tower is surrounded by electric Wizzrobes: wait for rain to pass, then speed-climb without stopping.
Shrine Types and Puzzle-Solving Approaches
Shrines fall into three categories:
1. Puzzle Shrines: These test your mastery of runes (magnesis, stasis, cryonis, bombs) and environmental manipulation. If you’re stuck, look for alternate solutions, BotW rarely forces a single answer. Can’t figure out the “intended” stasis timing? Sometimes you can just stack metal boxes and climb over the obstacle.
2. Combat Shrines (Tests of Strength): Face off against a Guardian Scout in Minor, Moderate, or Major variants. These enemies telegraph attacks clearly, backflip for a flurry rush on horizontal swings, parry the laser with your shield. Rewards include Ancient materials and Guardian weapons, which are invaluable for late-game farming.
3. Blessing Shrines: No puzzle, just a chest and a Spirit Orb. These typically reward completion of an external shrine quest, like “The Serpent’s Jaws” or “The Spring of Courage.”
Collecting Spirit Orbs from shrines is essential. Every four orbs can be traded to a Goddess Statue for either a heart container or stamina vessel. By the time you’ve cleared all 120 shrines, you’ll have 30 upgrades total, enough to max out hearts OR stamina, but not both (you start with 3 hearts and 1 stamina wheel).
Combat Strategies and Weapon Management
Combat in Breath of the Wild punishes button-mashing and rewards timing, positioning, and creativity. Whether you’re facing a Bokoblin camp or a Lynel, these techniques separate efficient players from frustrated ones.
Mastering Parries, Flurry Rushes, and Stealth
Perfect Parry: Press A just as an enemy attack is about to connect while holding ZL (shield raised). Timing varies by enemy, Bokoblins have slower windups than Guardians. Parrying a Guardian laser sends it straight back, destroying Guardians in 2-3 reflects. Practice on stationary Guardians (the broken ones scattered around Hyrule Field) until the timing becomes muscle memory.
Flurry Rush: Backflip (back + X) or side-hop (left/right + X) just as a melee attack is about to land. Time slows, and you can unleash a rapid combo. This is your primary DPS tool against tough enemies like Lynels and Hinoxes. Flurry rush damage doesn’t consume extra weapon durability per hit, making it efficient for preserving gear.
Stealth Kills: Crouch (left stick click) and approach enemies from behind while wearing stealth-boosting armor like the Sheikah Set. A stealth strike deals massive damage and often one-shots weaker enemies. Entire camps can be cleared without alerting anyone if you’re patient.
Headshots: Arrows to the head deal critical damage and often stun enemies. Bows with high zoom (like the Phrenic Bow) make this easier. Against Lynels, headshotting while they’re preparing a charge attack will stagger them, letting you mount and attack without using weapon durability.
Dealing with Weapon Durability
Weapon durability is divisive, but it’s manageable once you internalize a few principles:
- Never hoard. Weapons are abundant, especially after you’ve cleared a few Divine Beasts and unlocked respawning weapon locations. If your inventory is full, you’re not using weapons enough.
- Environmental kills save durability. Knock enemies off cliffs, roll boulders onto them, or ignite explosive barrels. Creative kills feel great and preserve gear.
- Master Sword recharges. Once you’ve pulled the Master Sword from Korok Forest (requires 13 hearts), it never breaks, it just needs 10 minutes to recharge after extended use. Against Guardians and Malice enemies, it powers up to 60 damage and lasts much longer.
- Guardian Weapons are farmable. Test of Strength shrines respawn Guardian Scouts after every Blood Moon, providing renewable Guardian Swords, Spears, and Axes.
Consider weapons as consumable buffs rather than permanent gear. That mindset shift eliminates most frustration.
Side Quests and Exploration Rewards
Main quests provide structure, but Hyrule’s real magic emerges in the margins, the side quests, collectibles, and random encounters that make exploration rewarding.
Notable Side Quests Worth Completing
Not all 76 side quests are created equal. These stand out for their rewards or story:
“From the Ground Up” (Hudson in Akkala): This multi-stage quest unlocks Tarrey Town, a settlement you build from scratch. Completing it rewards a house you can buy in Hateno Village (3,000 rupees + 30 bundles of wood), which functions as weapon storage and eventually lets you display armor sets. Tarrey Town also hosts a vendor selling rare gems and the only place to get the Diamond Circlet.
“The Hero’s Cache” (Kass near Kitano Bay): Solve the riddle to uncover a chest with a Royal Guard’s Shield, one of the highest-defense shields in the game.
“Shrine Quests”: 42 shrines are locked behind these quests, which range from solving riddles to completing challenges. The quest “The Test of Wood” forces you to clear a shrine without metal weapons, teaching adaptability. “A Song of Storms” involves standing on a pedestal during a thunderstorm, stupid brave or perfectly Zelda-like, depending on your mood.
“EX Treasure” DLC Quests: If you own the Expansion Pass, these quests reward powerful armor sets like Majora’s Mask (enemies won’t attack until you get close) and the Phantom Armor (high defense, attack boost).
Korok Seeds and Inventory Expansion
There are 900 Korok Seeds hidden across Hyrule, rock puzzles, balloon targets, flower trails, and suspicious patterns in the environment. You don’t need all 900 (that’s masochism), but collecting enough to expand your inventory makes life easier.
Exchange Korok Seeds with Hestu, a giant Korok you first meet on the road to Kakariko Village (later moves to Korok Forest). Inventory expansions cost increasing seeds:
- Weapon slots: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 17, 25 seeds per upgrade
- Bow slots: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 17, 25 seeds per upgrade
- Shield slots: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 17, 25 seeds per upgrade
Prioritize weapon slots early since you’ll cycle through those fastest. You need 441 seeds total to max all inventory slots, which is achievable without grinding through hundreds of repetitive seeds if you stay observant during normal exploration.
Cooking, Crafting, and Survival Essentials
Cooking is non-negotiable in BotW. Raw ingredients heal minimal amounts: proper recipes heal full health bars and grant buffs that trivialize encounters.
Best Recipes for Health, Stamina, and Buffs
Cooking follows simple rules: combine up to five ingredients at a cooking pot, and the game determines the result based on effects and quality. Here are the most efficient recipes:
Hearty Dishes (Overheal): Any “Hearty” ingredient (Hearty Radish, Hearty Durian, Hearty Bass, etc.) cooked solo fully restores health AND grants bonus yellow hearts. Hearty Durians are common in the Faron region and grant +4 bonus hearts each when cooked alone. Cook them individually rather than stacking five into one meal, you get more total healing.
Stamina Recovery: Endura Carrots or Endura Shrooms restore stamina and grant temporary extra stamina (the yellow overfill). Cooking one Endura Carrot solo restores two stamina wheels. Critical for climbing marathons or extended combat.
Attack Buffs: Combine Mighty Bananas, Razorshrooms, or Mighty Thistles with monster parts (for elixirs) or other attack-boosting foods. A Level 3 attack buff (+50% damage) lasts 30 minutes if you cook four Mighty Bananas with a Dragon Horn shard. Expensive, but it melts bosses.
Defense Buffs: Armored Carp, Ironshrooms, or Fortified Pumpkins grant defense. Like attack buffs, Level 3 defense is overkill for most encounters, but handy for Lynel fights or Hyrule Castle.
Environmental Resistance: Cold, heat, electricity, and flame resistance can all be cooked or worn. Spicy Peppers grant cold resist, Chillshrooms grant heat resist. Most players prefer armor with built-in resistances (Snowquill Set, Flamebreaker Set) since it frees up buff slots.
Elixirs: Combine critters (lizards, frogs, butterflies) with monster parts. Hightail Lizards + Bokoblin Horn = Hasty Elixir (movement speed boost). Hearty Lizards + anything = Hearty Elixir (full heal + bonus hearts).
Don’t overthink it: cook Hearty Durians solo for healing, Endura Carrots solo for stamina, and experiment with buffs when you need an edge.
Armor Upgrades and Great Fairy Fountains
Armor can be upgraded four times at Great Fairy Fountains, significantly boosting defense and unlocking set bonuses at level 2.
There are four Great Fairies across Hyrule, each requiring a payment to unlock (cumulative: 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000 rupees). You only need two unlocked for most practical purposes, upgrades beyond level 2 require rare materials and offer diminishing returns unless you’re chasing set bonuses.
Essential Armor Sets:
- Soldier’s Armor (Hateno Village): High defense, no special effect, but cheap to upgrade and effective.
- Stealth Set (Kakariko Village): Max stealth at night makes sneaking effortless.
- Climbing Set (various shrines): +50% climb speed at level 2. Transforms traversal once you’ve collected all three pieces (Climber’s Bandana, Climbing Gear, Climbing Boots).
- Barbarian Set (three labyrinths): Attack boost at level 2. Stacks with food buffs.
- Ancient Armor (Akkala Ancient Tech Lab): Guardian resistance and +80% attack with Ancient/Guardian weapons. Endgame powerhouse set.
Upgrade materials range from common (Bokoblin parts) to absurdly rare (Star Fragments, Lynel parts). Prioritize upgrading one versatile set (Soldier’s Armor) before spreading resources thin.
Advanced Tips for Speedrunning and 100% Completion
Whether you’re chasing a personal best or hunting for every collectible, these advanced techniques separate casual playthroughs from optimized runs.
Speedrunning Basics:
Breath of the Wild’s any% speedrun involves skipping the majority of content and exploiting movement tech. Casual players won’t perform frame-perfect glitches, but you can borrow strategies:
- Shield Surfing + Bombs: Drop a square bomb, shield surf over it, detonate mid-surf. The explosion launches you forward at high speed. Repeat for fast overworld travel without horses.
- Whistle Sprinting: Tap the whistle button repeatedly while sprinting to reset the stamina drain animation slightly, extending sprint duration by ~20%.
- Stasis Launch: Hit an object with stasis, smack it repeatedly with a heavy weapon, then ride it as it launches when stasis ends. Skilled players use this to skip entire regions.
100% Completion Requirements:
Full completion means:
- All 120 shrines cleared
- All 900 Korok Seeds collected (painful, but doable with interactive maps and detailed guides)
- Main quest and all Divine Beasts finished
- All side quests and shrine quests completed
- Hyrule Compendium fully photographed (416 entries)
- Defeated all mini-bosses (Hinoxes, Taluses, Molduga)
- Master Mode completion (if you count DLC)
Korok Seeds are the grind. Use a completion tracker and mark off regions as you go, trying to remember which rock circle you’ve already solved will drive you insane.
Farming Rupees Fast:
You’ll need rupees for armor, arrows, and ancient materials. Efficient farms:
- Farosh Horn Farming: Camp at Lakeside Stable, warp to Shoda Sah Shrine, wait until 5 AM by the campfire, then glide off the bridge as the dragon Farosh rises from the lake. Shoot the horn with an arrow, collect the shard, repeat. Each horn shard sells for 300 rupees, and you can farm one every few minutes.
- Ore Deposits: Ores respawn after Blood Moons. Talus mini-bosses drop gems when defeated. Use a sledgehammer to harvest ore deposits efficiently (they break after 2-3 hits but deal full damage to ore).
- Cooking + Selling: Cooking ingredients before selling them increases value. Five Gourmet Meat cooked into Gourmet Meat Skewers sells for significantly more than raw meat.
Combat Trials (DLC):
The Master Trials from DLC Pack 1 pit you in a 54-room gauntlet with no outside items. You start naked with three hearts and must scavenge everything. Tips:
- Use ancient arrows sparingly on Lynels in later floors.
- Stealth kills preserve weapons.
- Cook every Hearty item you find into individual meals for maximum healing.
Completing all three trials upgrades the Master Sword permanently to 60 damage, making it the best all-around weapon in the game.
Conclusion
This Zelda: Breath of the Wild walkthrough covers the essentials, but Hyrule’s beauty lies in what you discover between objectives, the hidden chest on an unmarked cliffside, the traveling merchant with a rare item, the memory of your first Lynel fight that went sideways. The game doesn’t demand you follow a strict path, and neither does this guide.
Whether you’re methodically clearing every shrine, rushing Ganon with three hearts and a dream, or just wandering to see what’s over the next hill, BotW rewards curiosity and experimentation. The Divine Beasts, shrines, and side quests provide structure when you want it, but some of the best moments come from ignoring the quest markers entirely and following the smoke from a distant campfire.
Hyrule’s been waiting for nearly a decade. Go explore it your way.
