So you’ve defeated the newest incarnation of Ganon and completed your first journey The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. As the adrenaline from your encounter begins to wear off and you reflect on your journey, as the credits roll, a sense of emptiness and longing overcomes you. “Now what?” you say, trying to pick up the pieces of your life and figure out how you can keep the joy you’ve felt for the past 50-70 hours.
Don’t worry, brave adventurer! Just because you’ve finished the main questline doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot more exciting memories on his last visit to Hyrule. Many, many hours of collecting, monster hunting, documenting and mapping await players who aren’t ready to let go, and especially those who are pedantic and eager to say they’ve been everywhere and done it all.
10 Find all the cork seeds
Much to the delight of some and the disdain of others, the Korok Seeds are back, and now they’re spreading across a much larger version of Hyrule. Collectors who enjoy quests like flags and feathers in Assassin’s Creed, dinosaur bones in Red Dead Redemption 2, and other games where you clear every inch of their respective games’ maps will find themselves right at home looting every nook and cranny for these sometimes elusive little things.
One of the most controversial elements of Breath of the Wild was your reward for completing such a monumental quest. Even though you can constantly upgrade consumables with Cork Seeds, players have come to expect incredible rewards for their efforts. Unfortunately, the reward turned out to be little more than bragging rights. Hopefully Tears of the Kingdom will fix that.
9 Complete the Hyrule Compendium
Few things provide a more consistent dopamine rush than watching all the entries in the gaming encyclopedia gradually fill up. The Hyrule Compendium provides just that experience, and it returns in Tears of the Kingdom with one of the coolest new devices: Pura Pad.
Completing the Hyrule Compendium is not only a real treat, but it’s also a great way to make sure you’ve seen it all and not have any Tears of the Kingdom FOMO. However, as with the Korok Seed, the reward for completing the collection in Breath of the Wild was little more than an in-game trophy — we’ll let you know if Tears of the Kingdom changes when we find everything.
8 Summary of side quests
Just like in Breath of the Wild, you can practically make it to the end when you complete the tutorial in Tears of the Kingdom – the game will last as long as you want. But of course, that’s not how the Nintendo Switch generation of Zelda games are meant to be played. The real crux of open-world entry is completing quests that will send you far and wide across the game’s vast and diverse fairy world ecosystems.
Many of the quests involve collecting collectibles and other lengthy processes that span almost the entire game, and with Hyrule as huge as it is, there’s a good chance you’ll have a few lengthy quests to complete after the game. .
7 Improve your photography skills
Interacting with an NPC named Josh, you will take part in a quest called “Camera Work in the Depths”. After completing this quest, you will gain access to the camera on the Purah Pad.
Hyrule is a beautifully designed environment filled with scenic locations and the potential for many unique and memorable moments – get out there and improve your photography by capturing them and sharing your art in art with the community.
6 Make the link win
There are many tough battles and physical obstacles in Tears of the Kingdom, and many players will save some of them for the postgame. Give yourself an edge in some of these challenges by powering up Link by collecting as many Heart Containers and Endurance Vessels as possible.
You can increase your health and stamina by using Lights of Blessing on various statues located throughout the game and can be found at the end of many of the game’s shrines. Keep in mind that you’ll only have enough Lights of Blessing to max out either your hearts or your stamina, not both.
5 Become a master of horse riding
While Link is starting with a clean slate again, losing all of his perks and abilities from Breath of the Wild, one thing that carries over from Breath of the Wild is your mounts. That said, there’s no reason to turn a blind eye to some of the new mounts available in Tears of the Kingdom.
In Hyrule, you’ll find a giant white stallion, a skeleton horse, a golden horse, and of course Epona’s triumphant return. Any of these horses will make a great addition to your stable and make long journeys through the countryside much more enjoyable.
4 Hunt down elite monsters
While you’ll of course be taking down the game’s more infamous bosses during the main quest, Tears of the Kingdom is still full of world bosses that will present confrontations that you can take more improvised and individual approaches to defeat, especially thanks to the capabilities of the new Zonai devices.
As you spread across Hyrule, you’ll encounter Thalus, Glyoks, Moldugs, and enemy constructs that you can engage in head-to-head mech battles. You’ve spent tens—if not hundreds—of hours accumulating skills, collectibles, upgrades, and weapons: where better to put them to use than on some of the game’s toughest denizens?
3 Conquer every shrine
Tears of the Kingdom has a whopping 152 shrines — 32 more than Breath of the Wild. You’ll find 120 of these mini-dungeons on the Hyrule map and 32 on the new Sky Islands, and luckily for us, they’re a lot easier to find this time around.
Challenging every shrine in Tears of the Kingdom is a huge task, and if you’re forced to focus on the main storyline of the quest, you can happily save them for the postgame. Keep in mind that shrines are where you get the blessing lights needed to boost your health and stamina, so don’t also many of them in the background.
2 Explore every inch of the map
Nintendo really outdid themselves and created an absolutely dense, sprawling world that you can—and should—explore. When you complete the main quest and reload the save file, which is now marked with an asterisk, you will notice that your Hyrule map now has a completion percentage.
This is undoubtedly the most difficult task to complete in such a limitless game, but the experience is absolutely rewarding, both in terms of the rewards you’ll receive and the satisfaction that comes from knowing you’ve truly delved into the game.
1 Experiment with Zonai devices
In the weeks, months, and even years to come, when you play the game enough that the novelty of the story and all of its vicissitudes wear off and you’ll know the new Hyrule like your own backyard, experimenting with Zonai Devices will be an element of Tears of the Kingdom that will ensure greatest longevity and community involvement.
When Breath of the Wild launched in 2017, the world watched as streamers, speedrunners, and even more casual gamers found unique and innovative ways to use in-game abilities to fast travel, defeat enemies in absurd ways, and outright hack the game, and Zonai devices take advantage of this the playful idea of a sandbox and implement it infinitely more possibilities which are just swarming to be discovered by you.