Did you know it’s possible to leave the Great Plateau early in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? To make a Bokoblin friendly to the point you can go travelling with it without any harm? Or to see the Typhlo Ruins in broad day light without the use of mods?
Yep, all of these things and more are actually possible in the game, and they’re all things undocumented by the community or internet at large.
So, today, we’re gonna examine them all. To show you even more awesome facts and trivia about the game, and prove that even after a decade, this game still has plenty left in the tank.
Let’s go!
The Facts
10. Unobtainable Items in the Deku Tree
Starting with a small but annoying oversight. Basically, dropping too many large materials in the Great Deku Tree’s Navel can cause them to get stuck inside the walls, rendering them unobtainable.
It’s easiest to do with Giant Ancient Cores, but it’s happened with other stuff as well.
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- The Giant Ancient Core got stuck inside the wall
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- As did these pieces of meat
So, be careful if you’re setting up IST in this area…
9. Moon Jump Breaks the Champion’s Ballad
Similarly, be careful if you’re using the Moon Jump glitch in the Champion’s Ballad too. Because if you beat one of the new EX [Champion Name] shrines with it active, the game won’t update the relevant quest the moment you leave.
Instead, you’ll have to wait a while for it to happen, or leave and come back later. Not the end of the world, but it can definitely cause confusion at the Divine Beast rematch.
Returning to a shrine updates the relevant quest
8. A Physics Changing Shrine Puzzle
Onto something a bit less annoying now. A single puzzle that changes the game’s physics.
Basically, in this tiny area in the Blue Flame shrine, Link can spin attack with a torch despite not being allowed to do so anywhere else in the game. No, we don’t know why they changed it here either.
This is the only area in the game where Link can do this
7. The Bokoblin Shut Down
Either way, here’s another amusing oversight. If you let an enemy raft fall down into a river and drift away, eventually the enemy will stop attacking altogether.
Apparently, getting too far away from its typical spawn-point completely shuts down its AI, and turns it into a sitting duck. Or you can just go on a pleasant rafting adventure with your new buddy. Your choice!
6. A Delayed World
Ah, ARMS. Possibly the most insane glitch in the game, and the only one that render Link invincible with infinite stamina.
It also plays havoc with event triggers too. Why?
Because while they don’t play out when the glitch is active, many of them will activate when it ends instead.
This can lead to situations like multiple Korok cutscenes appearing in a row, shrines appearing when Link isn’t even close to them anymore, and the game cutting straight back to the top of Mount Lanayru since you got that scale from Naydra during the glitch.
Oh, and Magda can screw up the entrance cutscene for the nearby shrine too, offsetting Link’s position by like half a mile. Yay!
5. A Now Lit World
It can also mess up the Typhlo Ruins too. Since well, if you’re outside the ruins when the shrine appears, said shrine will appear in broad daylight.
Yeah, it’s the only way to see the area without the darkness effect if you don’t want to mod the game, albeit only for a few seconds.
4. It Goes Easy on You?
Regardless, let’s take a break from glitches now, with an interesting detail about the Champion’s Ballad DLC. Basically, you know those boss rematches you find there?
Yeah, losing against them too many times has the game go easy on you.
It’ll first give you more materials, then food and fairies to make the battles even easier.
Of course, that’s if you’re okay with dying so often. Hmm…
Dying too many times in a boss rematch gives you extra items, like these fairies
3. An Unused Weapon That Nearly Made It In
On a different note, there are also some interesting unused weapons in the game too. Most notably, the damaged Master Sword, and Old Man’s staff as equippable items.
The former is the same design from the cutscene, and works a bit like the Decayed Master Sword from Tears of the Kingdom. It’s got a unique unsheathing sound when used, and fits right into the game stylistically and mechanically.
The menu icon for the decayed Master Sword in Breath of the Wild
Link holds the Decayed Master Sword while taking a photo
Meanwhile the latter is the stick the Old Man carries on the Great Plateau, and actually has things like a weapon icon and working lantern that switches on in dark areas. Again, it feels like a weapon that Link was meant to obtain at some point, and only lacks the needed collision to make it useable in game.
The menu icon for the Old Man’s Staff in Breath of the Wild
Link holds up the Old Man’s Latern while taking a photo
So yeah, they’re interesting ones for sure!
2. Goddess Statues Still Work With ARMS
Back to ARMS again, really?
Yeah, this glitch keeps on giving. Or not, at least on the Switch 2 version.
Since well, usually the game softlocks if you try to set it up with a Goddess Statue on that version. We’re not sure why, since it works fine on Switch 1…
But here? No dice. Well, some dice actually.
The glitch does technically work with Goddess Statues… whenever it feels like it, once in a blue moon. Hooray…
1. Leaving the Great Plateau Early Is Possible… Kinda
Finally, it’s actually possible to leave the Great Plateau without clearing all the shrines there! To do what speedrunners have wanted for years!
Kinda
You see, there are two ways to do this, and neither is remotely practical.
Option 1 is to wrong warp into the Final Trial, defeat Maz Koshia, get the Master Cycle Zero, set up Inventory Storage and Reverse Memory Storage with the help of a second file, fly off to the edge of Lake Hylia inside the barrier, set up ARMS, then ride the Master Cycle through the fog.
Apparently if Link’s riding a bike, the Plateau barrier doesn’t void him out.
The void out doesn’t work if he’s on a bike
He can’t actually do anything in this state, but hey, the thought counts right?
There’s also Item Stack Underflow… if you hate yourself, fancy odds of success lower than winning the lottery and want to kill the speedrunning community due to the glitch basically murdering Any%. Your choice folks!
Either way, those are some (hopefully) interesting facts and details you didn’t know about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They’re not all things new to this channel, and some of them are probably known by more dedicated Zelda fans, but we hope they’re interesting enough to enjoy hearing about nonetheless.
Regardless, how many of these did you know? Are there any other elements we should look into in this game?
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