Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Mostly spoiler-free)

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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greensara
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So I decided to start a TOTK thread, not to spoil stuff, but to discuss general topics like game mechanics or q&a if someone is getting stuck and just wants a hint but doesn't want to be spoiled. Just in case, if you think something might be like a plot spoiler you might want to tag it as such. So here we go:

Amiibo:
Spoiler:
Not really a spoiler, but I was trying to see what all my amiibo can give in this game. I have only tried the "Zelda" themed ones as any others just gave ingredients in BOTW. So I mostly got meat and fish with my Links and champions Mipha and Urbosa, and herbs and gems with the Zeldas. Oh, and I did get glider fabric from two of the Links too. I was kind of hoping for armor or weapons. I wonder if that's not a thing or if I was unlucky today?
Starting area:
Spoiler:
I had a tough time figuring out how in the world to use the Zonai "wing". Thought I had to build with it or something, but I think it is just a glider. I just had to put it in the right spot.
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Kikki
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I dropped something down a hill today and felt bad! Spoiler for a minor but continually re-occuring game mechanic that is connected to inventory expansion. Not technically a side-quest, but...
Spoiler:
It was a korok! Tbh, it took my sister raising her eyebrows at me for not reuniting any koroks in the beginning part of the game. I didn't know I could! I never even imagined I could use Ultrahand on a korok, even if it is their huge backpack you're actually targeting. Anyway, I used contraptions to reunite a few, but I've also just plain carried several back to their buddy. Tried that this morning with one far up on a hill, but decided to set him down again because his buddy was a LONG way away so I wanted to look around to see if anything better was nearby to transport him with.

Unfortunately, the area was very rolly, and that's what he did as soon as I let him go. The korok started rolling straight down the hill on the spot, wailing the whole time, and Link is CHAAAAAASING him, trying to catch him...but he keeps going faster and Link can't catch up. So the stupid unfortunate korok rolled aaaaall the way to the bottom until it got caught in a little dell.

It seemed no worse for the wear...I guess they can't die...but I was startled when it started rolling away! Felt bad for the poor little tacker.
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greensara
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Amiibo update:
Spoiler:
So I think I was just unlucky, as now I have gotten some weapons and clothes from the amiibo. Also, you can still get the horse from the Smash/Twilight Princess ones, but the Wolf Link doesn't bring the Wolf. It did give a spiffy sail cloth though.
Horses:
Spoiler:
You can carry over your horses from BOTW!
Map:
Spoiler:
Similar to BOTW, but have to progress in the story.
Sailcloth:
Spoiler:
I really missed this item at the start. Part of the story progression. Glad I have it again.
Kikki - Glad you mentioned that, I thought they were waymarkers or something.
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Mikodesu
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I figure this thread is a good place to share funny clips? :) Mostly stuff I'm sure everybody has run across, but it's still entertaining to share.

Had a pretty similar experience to Kikki's, except mine was intentional. :lol: Echoing minor mechanical spoiler warning...
Spoiler:
My other clips are funny horse related stuff. For good or ill at the start of the game I avoided main quest and grabbed a horse and ran around unlocking shrines for waypoints, and had some STUFF happen.
Spoiler:
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Kikki
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I seem to be having...not a glitch. But something isn't working the way it's supposed to. This has to do with the FIRST REWARD you get from 'Pony Points'. I already have it! But no one ever offered to attach it to me, and I looked up online, supposedly you can get it attached by 'customizing'. The stable people do offer that dialogue option, but when I ask for it, they just say "What am I saying, we have no customization options! But your horse looks great anyway so you don't need anything." (I'm paraphrasing.)

One stable I was at told me that the...Goron stable would have customization options. I've been to EVERY stable in or surrounding the Goron area, and NO ONE will attach my reward item, and I NEED IT for a quest at...Woodland Stables, I think it was.

I don't get it. Why can't I get anyone to attach my reward item? I have horses. I have the item in my inventory. I have the dialogue option the internet claims you have to select to do what I want to do, but then when I choose it, every stable hand laughs and says 'We don't have anything to customize your horse with but if you ask me it looks great anyway so who cares?' Basically.

Something is wrong here, or I'm missing one stupid little step. I not only have the first reward, I also have the second. Maybe I'll try a different horse...

EDIT: Okay, turns out trying a different horse was crucial. You can't attach the harness to Epona! I'm not sure if that's because she was a carryover horse (from BotW save data) or if it's because she's an Amiibo horse, or what.
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K8sMum
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Kikki: I think it has to do with the "strength" of the horse.
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Mikodesu
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Ok now that would be interesting to know, does strength impact the horse's...towing capacity? Will they not pull big carts or are they just slow? I don't have enough horses to test, but I'm curious. Maybe later. So far it hasn't mattered but I could easily see there being a quest that demands it...
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Kikki
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K8sMum wrote: May 15, 2023 7:22 am Kikki: I think it has to do with the "strength" of the horse.
I don't think it can, though? Epona is very strong, stronger than most horses, with all 4 and 5 star stats. The horse I used was quite weak, with all 2 and 3 star stats. I think it's because you can only get Epona via amiibo. Either that or it's because she was carried over via my BotW save data, but I think the weak horse was, too, so probably not that.
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yzafre
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Kikki wrote: May 15, 2023 12:07 pm
K8sMum wrote: May 15, 2023 7:22 am Kikki: I think it has to do with the "strength" of the horse.
I don't think it can, though? Epona is very strong, stronger than most horses, with all 4 and 5 star stats. The horse I used was quite weak, with all 2 and 3 star stats. I think it's because you can only get Epona via amiibo. Either that or it's because she was carried over via my BotW save data, but I think the weak horse was, too, so probably not that.
Mikodesu wrote: May 15, 2023 8:38 am Ok now that would be interesting to know, does strength impact the horse's...towing capacity? Will they not pull big carts or are they just slow? I don't have enough horses to test, but I'm curious. Maybe later. So far it hasn't mattered but I could easily see there being a quest that demands it...
I noticed there's a new towing stat for horses - called "pull". No clue what Epona's would be, as I never had the amibo. Interestingly, the Ganon horse, which got pulled from my save file, has a "--" through the stat for pull, same as it does for stamina. All three of my other horses from BotW (two random wild horses and the special white horse) all have three stars.
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Mikodesu
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yzafre wrote: May 15, 2023 2:41 pmI noticed there's a new towing stat for horses - called "pull". No clue what Epona's would be, as I never had the amibo. Interestingly, the Ganon horse, which got pulled from my save file, has a "--" through the stat for pull, same as it does for stamina. All three of my other horses from BotW (two random wild horses and the special white horse) all have three stars.
Okay that makes way more sense than my theory... (I was guessing 'pull' had something to do with how much the horse would fight you with the reins... BotW went overboard on horse behavioral realism.) I wonder why special horses are missing that stat.

--
One more video clip. Probably not worth sharing but I don't normally have reaction speeds this good, so I wanted to. :lol:
Spoiler:
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Kikki
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The horse thing makes no sense to me. I know the horses that don't work have no 'pull' attribute, but it's the WHY that bugs me. Both are plenty strong enough...they're the strongest horses in the game, pretty much. I assume Epona isn't eligible because she's an amiibo horse, and Ganon's Giant Horse is perhaps too large for the animation or something. Meh! Doesn't matter, it's just that not knowing this kind of little thing always picks at me.

Does anybody know the time difference between BotW and TotK? It's driving me nuts, wondering. Doesn't help that different races age differently. Looks like it MUST be minimum 5-6 years (won't mention reason due to minor spoilers) but in other cases it seems like it must have been considerably longer. I've yet to run into anything that gives a conclusive answer. Heck, I've yet to run into anything that gives a vague answer.

I've done one story segment, 5...optional story segments?...gotten 6 health expansions, 3 stamina expansions, and I've activated every area of the main map. I want to find more armor sets, now...I have about a dozen separate pieces but not a single set of anything. Gonna need to make money for the ones that can only be purchased. I've upgraded most of what little I have twice, so far. I also want to complete any quests directly connected to stables. Done half a dozen, maybe, but I'm including the frames. And lastly, I want to find two more optional story segments before moving on to the next (presumably) non-optional main story segment. I don't know if it's spoilery to name these things directly as they are rather than vaguely!

Oh, the non-Zelda amiibos seem to give a much better variety cooking ingredients than the Zelda ones. Like the Animal Crossing cards. Less meat, more plants. Well, that's been my experience so far, anyway, and I have about 100 AC cards (I used 75 of them in a row since I personally find plant matter is harder to find in Tears than in BotW.)
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Mikodesu
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The only explanation I can think of for the special horses not getting a towing harness is something to do with the in game model. All the other horses are exactly the same size, maybe Nintendo didn't want to deal with testing disparities between them. I don't own any amibo so I don't know exactly how big Epona is, but the Ganon horse is huge, so a modified harness model would have to be made.

As for time shenanigans...

I don't think we're gonna get either a time period between games or a time period between prologue and main story either. Nintendo is chronically vague in their story telling. I did see people speculating that it would be 6 years, to match development time, which wouldn't surprise me. :lol: Wouldn't be the first time its been done.

So maybe estimate 6 years for now, it fits in with your guesstimates anyway.


--
I'm still hoping for an explanation for all of the missing stuff from BotW.
Spoiler:
Shiekah slate (unless we get our powers back, Purah Pad it is not), OG shrines, OG towers, guardian corpses EVERYWHERE. Where did all the map data go, Purah? Did you lose the map data when you destroyed the OG towers?
All that effort to contextualize 'regaining' hearts, but jack « Cow Poopoo » for anything else. There's also a bunch of characters who don't recognize Link and should. Which makes no sense to me, because it's a mixed bag. Some returning characters know him, some new characters know him, some old ones don't. I wonder how writing was split up for development. If maybe all the characters who don't recognize Link were written by somebody different. :?
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greensara
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Missing stuff:
Spoiler:
The missing Sheikah stuff bothers me the most I think. I haven't come across a real explanation yet, but my head cannon presently is that post BOTW maybe the tech was scavenged for the recovery of Hyrule or/and maybe a bunch got destroyed in the upheaval? That would have had to have been real aggressive to uproot the old shrines though. It will be interesting to see what the rabid Zelda lore people come up with.
So this game has managed to do something most games I choose to play don't: scare me.
Spoiler:
Besides getting an unexpected Yiga jumpscare, it's the Depths of Hyrule. The little bit I was down there was too much, and that really surprised me. Awesome for sure, I want to go back, but kind of terrifying as well. I want to put it off as long as I can. Probably what they were going for.
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Mikodesu
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greensara wrote: May 16, 2023 5:37 pm Missing stuff:
Spoiler:
The missing Sheikah stuff bothers me the most I think. I haven't come across a real explanation yet, but my head cannon presently is that post BOTW maybe the tech was scavenged for the recovery of Hyrule or/and maybe a bunch got destroyed in the upheaval? That would have had to have been real aggressive to uproot the old shrines though. It will be interesting to see what the rabid Zelda lore people come up with.
Spoiler:
Zelda lore enthusiasts will figure something out, but that will be a tough one for them. There's no way more than 10 years have passed with Link/Zelda not changing at all, and that's a LOT of stuff to vanish even in 10 years. I think I'd buy that the Sheikah tech was missing if there was some evidence of where it went. Something that broke it down, something that was made from it.

I think the thing that bugs me about it is it's like...rewriting history? The Sheikah are no longer the super competent ancient civilization, the Zonai are. I know it's just lazy writing, but it bugs me.

The scary stuff gets me too. :lol: The trouble with open world gameplay is there isn't enough incentive to go deal with it. I mean there is some...
Spoiler:
Battery power.
But there's work arounds for pretty much everything.
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Kikki
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Arrows. ARROWS!

I've gone through more than 300 already and desperately need about a thousand to two thousand more to get me through the game, at this rate, if I intend to fully map every area and do every quest. You think you're doing well with over 200 in your quiver, and then one exploration through maybe 20% of the lowest level of the map and suddenly you find you have 34 arrows left. A couple of points have had me completely arrowless. Not to mention that so many mechanics even in other areas are most efficiently executed via arrow, such as burning, cleansing, freezing, etc.

This game needed to give us unlimited arrows. *grump* I'm fine with scrounging up all the various types of plant-things (seeds, fruits, flowers, etc) and monster parts on my own, but the endless need for arrow after arrow is wearing me down. Sure, if I go to pains to do things inefficiently and conserve arrows, you do find a lot in the game so you can build up your supply a lot faster than you could in BotW, but not nearly enough to use them as freely as you have use for them.

I like the game a lot, but the constant need to scrounge for arrows is making it a little less fun. Guess I need the rest of the mining stuff to hopefully use a few less arrows, but...I doubt it'll reduce the need of them by much.

I started some quests in the Zora area but am abandoning that for now. I want to quest more and get more upgrades for Link before I do any more main story stuff. I don't plan to head for the final battle before I've done every quest I'm capable of doing. (Which may be all of them once I have end-game stats.) Also, crystalized charges never seem to happen to me. In the whole game so far, I only ever found 40 of them, until I did a certain quest, and then I could afford ooooone puny additional cell. I'm going to have to look up the best way to gather them.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I got all the gylphs yesterday. Holy crêpe. :eek:
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