A topic of interested for Hyrule Blog always has been 100% completion, so let's compile a guide about what it takes to achieve the same for Breath of the Wild, if you're really willing to go this far.
Well, to achieve true 100% completion, you have to take care of the following tasks:
1) Beating them Game
This seems self-explanatory, however, most Zelda games don't actually save your game or register anything, if you beat them. In these cases you could even argue that beating the game doesn't really add anything to your save file and therefore might not be strictly necessary for 100% completion. Breath of the Wild on the other hand takes note of this. After you've beaten Ganon, your save game will be marked with a star and the menus will show different entries for completion, e.g. number of completed quests and the completion rate of your map.
(When the first DLC gets released, you'd want to do this and all of the following in "Hard Mode".)
2) Obtaining all Key Items
The Key Item menu is probably the first stop to check your completion status. While the Sheikah Slate and the Paraglider are received as part of your journey, several other items are given for completing various tasks. So, here's what you have to achieve:
- Complete all four Divine Beasts to get the different Champion abilities
- Complete Hyrule Compendium and receive the Classified Envelope
- Collect all 900 Korok Seeds and receive Hestu's Gift
- Defeat all 84 Overworld Bosses and receive all three Medals of Honor
- Obtain all ten pieces of Horse Gear
- Find the Travel Medallion (DLC only)
You need the Rider Link amiibo in order to get the Traveler's Bridle and the Traveler's Saddle.
3) Getting all Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels
Other than discovering and completing all 120 Sheikah Shrines, you have to take their Spirit Orbs to a Goddess Statue to receive all Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels. (You can trade them to the statue at Hateno Village afterwards, if you don't want them.)
There are also four additional Heart Containers gotten from defeating the bosses of the Divine Beasts. If you forget to take them, you will find them right next to the Divine Beasts.
4) Obtaining the Master Sword
You need to collect 13 Heart Containers in order to pull the only permanent weapon in the game out of its pedestal. (The first DLC will also allow you to upgrade the Master Sword by finishing the "Trial of the Sword".)
5) Completing the Adventure Log
The "Adventure Log" part of the menu lists several quests and all of Link's recoverable memories. You can see the totals after beating the game:
- 14/15 Main Quests
- 76/76 Side Quests
- 42/42 Shrine Quests
- 18/18 Memories
You currently can't really complete the primary Main Quest "Destroy Ganon". Some Shrine Quests still might need to be discovered, if you've found the corresponding shrines already without ever triggering the quests.
The side quests include several tasks in the game, including upgrading your Sheikah Sensor, Bombs and Stasis Runes or finishing your house at Hateno Village.
6) Achieving 100% Map Completion Rate
After you've beaten the game once, the map will show a completion percentage. This isn't the same as the overall completion of the game, instead it's calculated based on the following:
- Cleared Divine Beasts
- Korok Seeds
- Shrine Discoveries
- Location Discoveries
The Divine Beasts, Korok Seeds and even shrine discoveries are already covered by the previous tasks, however, it still might be that you haven't achieved 100% on the map, because you're missing a few locations. Those are names on your maps and you should check for any bridges or other interesting landmarks that aren't labelled yet.
7) Opening all Treasure Chests
Whenever you've opened all treasure chests inside a shrine, it will display a small treasure chest icon next to the shrine's name on your map. Treasure chests inside Divine Beasts are missable, but unlike the shrines the game doesn't really keep track of them.
If you want to find all treasure chests on the overworld, you can target them with the Sheikah Sensor+. However, certain chests are currently glitched and not obtainable:
- Great Plateau, Woodcutter's Hut (if you got the Warm Doublet from the Old Man directly)
- Hateno Village, near the Dye Shop
- Lake Floria, Rassia Lake
- East of Aris Beach, stuck underwater
- Chest Game in Lurelin Village
You should just ignore these for now. The respawning treasure chests on Eventide Island also don't count.
This task also includes finding the Hylian Shield, as well as a majority of the armor pieces in the game. However, those aren't "fixed" items.
8) Collecting and Enhancing all Fixed Armor
There's lots and lots of different armor pieces in the game, but most of them can be sold and re-purchased at any time, so they aren't really "fixed". You also only have limited inventory space for armor (five pages). This is why for 100% completion only the eight individual armor pieces count, which can only be obtained once and cannot be sold:
- Champion's Tunic
- Zora Helmet
- Zora Armor
- Zora Greaves
- Thunder Helmet
- Cap of the Wild
- Tunic of the Wild
- Trousers of the Wild
All the other armor pieces are simply "nice to have". This also avoids the problem, where you would have to get several amiibo in order to collect all the different armor pieces that are exclusive to them.
In order to enhance the above pieces (with the exception of the Thunder Helmet), you will need to find and free all four Great Fairies around the world. It's also necessary to collect all dragon parts from all three dragons, which includes freeing Naydra (which you have to do for a shrine anyway).
9) Freeing Malanya
Other than the four Great Fairies, you can also find the "Horse God" Malanya, who can revive fallen horses. Free him in the same fashion as the Great Fairies to be done with this.
On a side note, your collection of horses isn't really part of 100% completion, since you can let them go or have them killed at any time. Only collecting all horse gear really counts.
Finding all chests for 100%? Not only do I think that's pretty much impossible to achieve, but it would take away motivation for a second playthrough of the game. I've found 30 chests alone by melting ice formations and blowing up cracked rocks. Getting all of the treasures in shrines seems a more feasible goal.
ReplyDeleteActually, when I played last night, I browsed the 110 shrines I've conquered so far to see which ones didn't have the chest symbol. There weren't that many, but it turns out I'd overlooked chests in three of the game's intro shrines in the Great Plateau. The cryonis shrine's chest actually had a Royal Halberd.
This is about what counts, not what motivates you. I already got all treasure chests and except for the glitched ones it's certainly not impossible. All you have to do is following the Sheikah Sensor+.
ReplyDeleteHowever, like with the countless treasure chests in TWW and TP, you can never be fully sure, whether you got them all or not, unless you check every area multiple times with the sensor. But in the very least you should go for all chests in shrines, because this gets rewarded with the icons and it's easy to check.
About the Royal Halberd on the Great Plateau: certain chests give you "random" weapons, which is based on your current progress similar to the amiibo gifts. So, early in the game you might only find a Soldier's Halberd (or whatever) in the same spot.
I actually disagree with you about the armor. I believe at least one of every piece of armor maxed to the highest upgrade that it can possibly go is necessary for a true 100% run, including the amiibo gear. I'll be honest, I've already maxed out every piece of gear in the game bar the Fierce Deity Armor because I'm too lazy to grab Naydra's stuff while I'm Korok hunting, and it really isn't that hard. Grinding for the 70+ Star Fragments was actually a pretty easy task, once you're really good at it you can basically take a Silver Lynel down in 15 seconds flat and then reload to the last save if they don't leave a Star Fragment.
ReplyDelete100% is not about what's "hard" or "easy", it's about what's PERMANENT. If you can sell the armor after the fact, it's not in a locked state in your savegame.
ReplyDeleteFor example the 999.99 seconds Cucco Run in A Link Between Worlds still counts for 100%, even though it's beyond hard and near impossible for most players.
While I also strive to max out every piece of armor in the game just for the sake of it, it doesn't change the fact that it doesn't really count. Also, if you need to save+reload to "quickly" farm Star Fragments, it's still an atrocious task. Getting all the Naydra parts is far easier... In fact I already have more than enough for the Fierce Deity Armor, if I ever get this one.