The Expansion Pass for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has been fully released by now and with its gap-filling story scenarios, as well as the additions of the Battle-Tested Guardian, Sooga and Purah / Robbie it made the game feel overall a lot more wholesome. However, with the scope on Breath of the Wild it wouldn't actually take that much to make the game feel truly complete – to go all the way with this particular Warriors title. In addition, like every game ever made, Age of Calamity does have some rough edges that could need some polishing.
So, let's go over the main ideas for even more additional content and also some quality of life improvements. Some of these things could be implemented via free updates, but most of it is meant for a second Expansion Pass. Also, keep in mind that there is no reason to believe that we might get any of this, so don't get your hopes up.
This article will contain spoilers about the playable characters in Age of Calamity!
Weapon Updates
Right now there is a variety of weapons in the game that can only be obtained once and then never again. Unlike the Master Sword and Bow of Light, which both get their own dedicated, fixed slot, those can be sold and fused at any time. But if you happen to do this, you won't be able to get them back, which shouldn't be a thing. Now, these are the weapons in question:
- Lucky Ladle
- Training Sword
- Prototype Ancient Short Sword
- Serene Champion's Spear
- Steadfast Champion's Greatsword
- Soaring Champion's Bow
- Nimble Champion's Sword
- Gallant Hero's Spear
- Stalwart Hero's Feast
- Swift Hero's Bow
- Thunderous Hero's Bridle
The Lucky Ladle used to be a pre-order bonus for the game and you get the Training Sword when you also have a savegame for Breath of the Wild on your system. The rest of the weapons are from the Expansion Pass, where there was no good reason to make any of them limited to a single exemplary.
Now, this should be addressed via a free update, because it affects things already purchased, and the solution is very simple: Quests. In case of the Champion and Hero weapons you could simply make the existing Quests repeatable, much like the Research Quests for the Flail and the Master Cycle Zero in the Royal Ancient Lab. Speaking of, this would also be the perfect place to add a similar Research Quest for the Prototype Ancient Short Sword. As for the Lucky Ladle and the Training Sword, they could add new Quests somewhere on the map, where you can obtain them (again).
Another quality of life improvement goes into the Hylian Blacksmith Guild, where an option should be added to maximize the base attack value of any weapon. Like in Breath of the Wild, this value is random on any found weapon, but in that game weapons broke, so it ultimately didn't matter that much. In Age of Calamity, however, weapon building is an important part of the game and here players naturally want to work with the best possible basis.
Currently, the highest possible base attack damage for most third tier weapons is 84 (88 with Octo-Polish in some cases), but the only way of obtaining this is playing the same lengthy Level 93 Challenge over and over again to hope for the lucky drop at the end. It's atrocious, but that some fans are still willing to go through this effort simply shows how much they care for this game. Koei Tecmo might as well throw them a bone and let players fix up any good weapons that they already have found and built. This could be costly, but it will beat the grinding in any case.
Speaking of grinding, the Vicious Monster Battles should get a boost whenever there is a Blood Moon in place, where they go up into the 90s. This way you can also get best possible weapon drops from them. If players still need to grind for more weapons, at least they should have a bit of variety. And to further this variety it would also be good to get new "EX Alerts" for the stages that didn't any yet, like Hyrule Field.
New Characters
With the first Hyrule Warriors you could probably double the roster and still find more ideas for potential playable characters. But since Age of Calamity focuses on a single Zelda title, its roster is pretty close to completion already. Ignoring any characters that may be too huge, like King Dorephan, here is a list of the remaining viable candidates:
- Astor
- Harbinger Ganon
- Kass
- Beedle
- Kilton
The Expansion Pass already made some of the NPC characters from the base game playable, like Sooga, one of Koei Tecmo's original characters made specifically for Age of Calamity, where Astor and Harbinger Ganon are the other ones left. However, unlike the Yiga Clan, these villains have no reason to join our heroes throughout the story in the battle against the Calamity, which is probably why they weren't made playable yet. It just didn't fit the narrative.
That Astor must have actually been planned to be playable at some point was indicated by some data-mined voice lines of characters calling each other for swapping. This also included Purah and Robbie, who now became playable.
But if they make Astor and maybe also Harbinger Ganon playable, then this should go hand in hand with some first real villain scenarios. The Expansion Pass already had a Challenge, where you play as the villains against the bad guys, which is quite fun, but more DLC should really expand upon that and explore Astor's storyline in a couple of scenarios.
During this storyline there also could be special Challenges, where you take control of the Blight Ganons, similar to the Divine Beast Battles. Some of them might be too large to become actual playable characters, mainly Windblight Ganon, but having special Blight missions would solve this issue.
Another character that definitely should come with a new storyline is Kass, where it's possible that he also made his way back in time somehow. This could have happened because of Terrako's "magic" or maybe Kass found a way himself, where for example he has learned the "Song of Time" (which would be the perfect title for that expansion). It doesn't matter, but it would be nice to have this beloved character playable after all. The story could also show us finally his teacher in person.
With the two merchants, Beedle and Kilton, we're already scraping the bottom of the barrel, but that's a good thing. These would be some pure fun additions, where Kilton could swing his Spring-Loaded Hammer to safely attack those precious monsters and Beedle could be fighting with a bug-catching net. Kilton is already referenced in Age of Calamity, while Beedle shows up all over the Zelda timeline anyway, so there would be no hurdle to add these characters from Breath of the Wild just like that.
New Weapon Types
This category isn't really that interesting, where the most important weapon addition already got covered by the Expansion Pass: the Master Cycle Zero. With most of the characters it's also hard to imagine anything outside of what they already have.
There could be horses, where the game so far makes it seems like they became extinct after Terrako's time traveling. They were a prominent way of transportation in the flashbacks of Breath of the Wild, but for some reason the heroes always travel on foot in Age of Calamity, even when time is of the essence... But if Koei Tecmo were to add a horse as a weapon for someone, then this someone would probably end up being either Link or Zelda again, where both really don't need more movesets. King Rhoam and Impa might be an alternative, though.
It would also be nice if Impa were to get something new in general, because she was kind of taking a backseat most of the game.
New Attire
One thing that the Expansion Pass didn't add at all were unlockable outfits. The only new outfit is the Prototype Ancient Gear, which came as the purchase bonus for the DLC. But that's it. Considering that there are still dozens of armor pieces for Link left, which didn't make it over from Breath of the Wild, that's quite strange, because those would have been the perfect reward for some more additional Challenges of all sorts.
Here is a complete list of what's missing, 47 items in total:
- Ancient Helm, Cuirass and Greaves
- Cap, Tunic and Trousers of the Hero
- Cap, Tunic and Trousers of the Sky
- Cap, Tunic and Trousers of Time
- Cap, Tunic and Trousers of Twilight
- Cap, Tunic and Trousers of the Wind
- Fierce Deity Mask, Armor and Boots
- Island Lobster Shirt
- Korok Mask
- Majora's Mask
- Midna's Helmet
- Nintendo Switch Shirt
- Old Shirt, Well-Worn Trousers
- Phantom Ganon Skull, Armor and Greaves
- Phantom Helmet, Armor and Greaves
- Ravio's Hood
- Salvager Headwear, Vest and Trousers
- Sheik's Mask
- Tingle's Hood, Shirt and Tights
- Vah Medoh, Vah Naboris, Vah Rudania, and Vah Ruta Divine Helm
- Zant's Helmet
Of course not everything from this list needs to be there, obviously the game worked fine without any of them. And with some items they may not even want them in the game, like the ancient armor set, where they now have the prototype variant for it, or the salvager set based on Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
But it still would be nice to have some of it, especially all the items based on other Zelda games, which would be a nice and easy way of celebrating 35 years of Zelda in Age of Calamity. Those could even be locked behind special Challenges that reference the games and characters in question, e.g. a Rupee hunting mission for the Tingle set.
They could also add some new things, where the most obvious choice is Link's ancient hero garb from the upcoming sequel to Breath of the Wild. This could be like a promotional item or something, maybe even unlocked when you have a save game of the sequel on your system.
As usual, that's a lot of stuff for Link and absolutely nothing for the rest of the cast. In the very least Zelda should also get access to her Royal Attire, the blue regal dress that she wears in some of the cutscenes:
Curiously, this outfit is actually coded into the game, there is just currently no way of unlocking it, except for mods. And that's a shame. Why would Koei Tecmo hold something like that back, if it wasn't for more DLC? Fans really shouldn't have to mod their Nintendo Switch systems to get access to all contents.
Golden Enemies
The first Expansion Pass has already explored the addition of enemies quite well, but we still didn't get the golden enemies from the Master Mode in Breath of the Wild. Koei Tecmo had the perfect opportunities to add them via the Blood Moons, the Apocalyptic difficulty or the Vicious Monster Battles, where it's weird that this hasn't happened yet...
An actual Master Mode where you start over might be too much at this point, but maybe they could still add them via new Challenges. Alternatively, with a new campaign focused on Astor, there could be something to unlock here to make Blood Moons stronger, where then the scenarios have even higher levels and upgrade all the default enemy tiers by one, just like in Breath of the Wild's Master Mode.
New Stages
If they were to add more story scenarios, e.g. for Astor or Kass, then those should have new locations to visit. And there are actually still a couple of empty areas on the map of Age of Calamity, where additional battles could take us to these places:
- Deep Akkala
- Deya Village
- Faron Grasslands
- Gerudo Highlands
- Lake Floria
- Lake Hylia
- Lurelin Village
- Mount Lanayru
- Tabantha Tundra
That's enough possibilities for two more DLC packs. And this leads us to...
Expansion Pass 2 Concept
If they were to add some of the things mentioned in this article, then this would most likely be done via a second Expansion Pass. Here is a concept of how this could look like, where like the first Expansion Pass this would come in two waves. These two waves would be more similar to "Guardian of Remembrance", meaning the focus is on adding new story scenarios and playable characters.
Wave 3 – Gears of Prophecy
- New story sequences following the mysterious prophet Astor, who supports the diminutive Guardian harboring Calamity Ganon's Malice and its dark vision of the future.
- New playable characters: Astor, as well as Harbinger Ganon.
- New locations: Deya Village, Gerudo Highlands, Mount Lanayru and more.
- Blight Ganon Battles: take control of the four Blight Ganons in newly added Challenges.
- Raise the power of the Blood Moon with new golden enemies.
Wave 4 – Song of Time
- New story sequences following the bard Kass, who traveled back in time to learn of new heroics.
- New playable characters: Kass, Beedle, and Kilton.
- New locations: Lake Floria, Lurelin Village, Deep Akkala and more.
- Legendary Challenges: unlock attire based on past legends from newly added Challenges, where you also battle against golden foes.
Conclusion
The more you think about the remaining potential with Age of Calamity, the more it will hurt if there's no more DLC left. There is enough possible content here to fill a second Expansion Pass, where this would also make the game feel really complete, something that was far harder to achieve with the first Hyrule Warriors. So, hopefully Koei Tecmo and Nintendo aren't already done with the game.
