Figuring out how DLC could work in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is a surprisingly difficult job. After all, the game already has about 90% of the last game’s DLC features in its core, with everything from the armour to the Travel Medallion to the upgraded abilities being part of the game already.

And with so much content and so many quality of life improvements, figuring out smaller features to add is difficult in general, since TotK doesn’t really leave many gaps for additional stuff.

But I think I’ve done it. I’ve figured out how they could add DLC content to Tears of the Kingdom, and how it could improve the game even more. Here’s what I think they could add in TotK’s DLC…

Ancient Horse Armour

Starting with the one feature that didn’t make it in to the core game. The Ancient Horse Armour was a godsend in Breath of the Wild

With the saddle’s ability to instantly summon your horse being an incredible feature overall. It made horses practical to use, and actually gave you a reason to ride them in most of your adventure.

So TotK could add this too. It’d have to be rebranded a bit sure (maybe Zonai tech instead of Sheikah tech?), but I’m sure Nintendo could find a way to slot it into TotK’s world just fine.

An Extra Difficulty Mode

Aka Master Mode 2.0. It was a fun challenge in the last game, and I think it’d be a neat one here too.

However, I wouldn’t want it to be exactly like the previous game’s version. Merely ranking up enemies and giving them regenerating health wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, and the changes provided outside of that felt lacking too (did people even encounter those rafts 90% of the time?)

No, instead I’d want them to REALLY shake up the map. Add new enemy and boss placements no one would ever expect, and make it difficult to avoid encountering them early on.

Like you fall from the sky and bam, there’s a Flame Gleeok in Hyrule Field now! Or you enter the Depths there and hey look, a Frox lives nearby now!

And the dungeons could be made scarier too. Imagine the horrors of running into a Gloom Spawn or 2 in the dark, creepy Lightning Temple. Imagine a Frost Gleeok is just chilling on the Stormwind Ark, ready for an unsuspecting Link. Imagine if instead of a Hinox or some Lizalfos being summoned in Hyrule Castle, Zelda instead summoned a Lynel, or Gloom Spawn or a Talus.

That would genuinely be a step up in difficulty, and make exploring the kingdom the challenge it was meant to be.

Trial of the Sword equivalent

There should also be a Trial of the Sword equivalent too.

Since the idea of a multi room gauntlet where you have to take down numerous tough enemies with only the equipment you find in the previous rooms is a great one, and something that’s lacking in TotK once all the Proving Ground shrines are cleared.

And with the extra variety in this game, the combos could be extra nasty indeed. Two dungeon bosses at the same time? The water temple mini boss and boss as a tag team? Gloom Spawn + just about any tough combo of enemies or bosses? Zonai tech powered traps and weapons for the enemies?

Oh hell yeah! This would be an amazing challenge, and one I’d love to see in Tears of the Kingdom. Just needs a reward to actually make the whole thing worth it…

The Return of a Familiar Foe

Spoiler alert for those who haven’t played most of the game, so skip ahead if you’re in that situation.

Basically though, Master Kohga returns in Tears of the Kingdom. And unlike in the last game, they don’t even pretend he actually dies after the last encounter.

So why not have him return here? I mean, those rockets likely blasted him up to the sky islands, so perhaps show him as having established a new Yiga base/fortress up there. Maybe he’s gotten some Constructs to join the clan, and now these guys have a mix of Zonai and Yiga tech to play with.

And perhaps once he’s defeated, he wouldn’t vanish from the story forever, instead appearing in (preset) locations across the world as an overworld boss.

Could be a nice way to add some more humour to the game!

Mini Boss Returns

This would also be a good time to bring back the three bosses you can’t refight in TotK too; the Sludge Like, Moragia and the Seized Construct.

At present, them being one offs makes finishing the compendium yourself a bit of a chore, and limits the possibilities for Kilton’s monster gallery in Tarrey Town.

So why not bring them back as DLC encounters? Make them like the Igneo Talus Titan and Molduking, and have them defend shrines as part of the new story quest.

Then, once you’re done, they can just revive after every Blood Moon. Compendium panic will be no more!

The Return of the Sheikah

Finally, the main DLC story could be a way to explain what happened to all the Sheikah tech in the years leading up to TotK. Why did the Guardians, Divine Beasts, shrines and towers vanish? What happened to Robbie’s ancient oven and inventions? Where did all knowledge of this ancient civilisation vanish to?

We don’t know, but one guy might. One guy who could easily make a comeback in Tears of the Kingdom.

Monk Maz Koshia

Yep, the boss from the Champion’s Ballad DLC. The secret warrior that can join you in Age of Calamity.

And the one ancient Sheikah monk who doesn’t die or fade into light once his time is up. Nope, in all these cases, he just seems to hang around waiting for a rematch.

So why not use that in TotK? Have the story be a journey where you discover how the Sheikah tech stops working when the Calamity is seemingly no more, and find where the missing stuff actually went off to. You’d find Gloom Corrupted Guardians in the Depths, which would act like crosses between Guardian Stalkers and Gloom Spawns. See broken down pieces of the Divine Beasts filled with monsters that you could raid for the Ancient Armour. Get an ancient oven working again, so Ancient weapons could be made once more (including that awesome holographic chainsaw!)

Figure out the connection between the Zonai and Sheikah, and how the latter were inspired by the former with their own creations.

And at the very end? You’d fight Maz Koshia again, with the reward being either a sage avatar of him, or a working Guardian as a summonable companion!

Yeah that would be incredible. Imagine the Battle Tested Guardian from Age of Calamity, except as a sage avatar type party member! It could shoot lasers as its special ability, perhaps also be ridden like the Construct, and fight in battle with moves like the Guardians use in AoC.

Would this be likely? Eh, not sure. Practically speaking a humanoid like Koshia seems more likely as a possible DLC sage avatar, and the idea of a new avatar in general might already be too much for the game to handle given that:

1. You’d now have 6 characters helping Link rather than 5
2. 4 more Sage’s Will would need to be added into the world
3. Multiple story cutscenes would need rewritten to take them into account (like parts of the final boss and ending sequence)
4. The QA team would have a stroke trying to make sure their presence + new abilities didn’t break the game’s engine in half

But it’d be awesome nonetheless, and an incredible reward for a DLC storyline, especially now the Master Cycle Zero doesn’t really have a purpose anymore.

Either way, those are my ideas for DLC in the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. So what do you think about them? Are they interesting ideas that you’d want to see in the game? What cool ideas have you got for extra content in TotK anyway?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!