Combat Difficulty

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I've been playing through BotW for the last month or so when I get a chance (I'm a dad so it's slow going). I like so many things about this game, but I keep getting one-hit-killed by enemies. Looking around at this forum, I didn't see much discussion about combat difficulty. Even though it's annoying, I understand why the Guardians,Lynels, and Divine Beasts have attacks that can kill in one hit, but I've been one-shotted by bokoblins from behind with nearly full health (say 7-8 hearts at this point). Is it just me? I've added several heart containers and bought new armor with higher defense, but it still doesn't seem to be enough to stay up long in a fight. I watched a quick, non-spoilery video of combat tips and that definitely helped, especially with the flurry and parry moves, but getting flanked by random enemies in the field and taken down in one shot is really frustrating. Did I miss discussion of this elsewhere or are other people just not having as much trouble as I am?

I would say it might be worth your while to mess around with some recipes with 'hearty' items. Stuff like the hearty radish, hearty truffle etc can be cooked to create items that refill your health and give you bonus hearts that you keep until you lose them via damage. So just cooking two hearty radishes will give you a meal which is full health restore as well as six bonus hearts, if I'm remembering correctly. And you can kind of go nuts from there, I think 5 big hearty radishes gives you like 30 bonus hearts or something.

Maybe also stock up on fairies, which you can catch at the great fairy fountain if you sneak. They auto-refill your health to full if you get down to zero.

My advice would be to just stock up on some of that stuff so that you have more freedom to experiment and learn without the fear of getting one-shotted.

That's pretty much some of my memory of BotW, a game where your weapons (not your character's inherent skill) get stronger but are still fragile and rarely last through a battle.

Those one-shot enemies persist, and can be infuriating, leading you to avoid combat a lot of the time, or just run around.

Not saying I don't like BotW, I just don't see the 5 star game that others did. I enjoyed my time with it, but never felt the compunction to finish it, and really have no desire to return to it.

You don't have armor that's good enough or upgraded enough. Bokoblins and other "field enemies" get stronger as you complete shrines. If you don't keep pace by upgrading your armor all the extra hearts are going to be kinda wasted.

The thing is, if you do upgrade your armor then the combat becomes very easy. Without these one shot attacks you can just heal whenever and carry an infinite amount of full health healing items. The game is poorly balanced is what I'm saying.

@damodar: Thanks for the tips. I tried catching the fairies when I first encountered the Great Fairy near Kakariko Village to no avail but haven't returned since I bought the Sheika costume. I bet I could catch them now. As for the recipes, I still have this weird aversion to using the "good" dishes that I make (similar to my aversion to selling gems because... reasons). I have made some hearty dishes but for whatever reason they just sit in my inventory while I'm dying. I guess I need to get over that!

You eventually get to a point where the combat is trivial. Beating the divine beasts, having the great fairies bless your gear, and knowing how and when to cook the right meals all go a long way in making you more survivable.

Perhaps the most important thing is your mindset. I forgot where I read it, but someone online wrote up something about playing BotW as a pacifist. The reasons this works so well are:

• Limited inventory space
• Gear degredation
• Not all loot is good

So the end result is, if you aren't playing as a pacifist, there will be encounters that you "win" but don't come out ahead because your good gear wore out and the loot you found wasn't worth the cost. Obviously you can't do a Deus Ex style no-kill run, but if you just pick and choose your battles carefully I think you'll find that you naturally get better at the game.

@bmccann42, @pyrodactyl: Glad I'm not the only one. I think the combination of the deteriorating weapons and hearing from other players that the combat overall is kinda pointless has led me to do a lot of shrines instead. Knowing that that causes the enemies to get harder explains a lot.

Just go get durians and cook them. Breaks the entire game and makes everything completely trivial. Hell even if you don't get durians most hearty meals will give you a big enough health boost that you barely have to try in the game. You can do the same thing for the stamina bar too. Actually kind of ruined the game for me. Also there isn't much reason to fight anything that you don't have to fight. None of the loot is worthwhile or can't be found in numerous other places and there's no benefit from fighting.

Doesn't the game also have location based difficulty? I feel like I certainly had the same enemies be much harder after nothing more than a trek down to the beach, so maybe head in a different direction when you run into that stuff?

This game is definitely one of the more difficult in the Zelda series so don't feel bad (I died quite alot in the early goings as well). Here's a few suggestions

• Approach enemies one at a time (when possible)
• Headshot with arrows from a distance before they've noticed you. It may not kill them but it will drop their health into a range where 2-3 swings will finish them off.
• Use your surroundings. This game allows for so many different ways to kill enemies than just "hit with sword." Look for boulders to push down cliffs. Look for slopes to roll bombs down and always keep an eye out for exploding barrels to use. Light a branch on fire, throw in in a group so they scatter and you can pick them off one at a time.
• Don't worry about breaking weapons. You get new ones every encounter and their damage is based on the average number of what you're using. So the more you pick up the more steadily you will see higher dmg weapons dropping.

Be cautious, be patient, and try to think beyond simply killing everything with a sword.

@devilzrule27: I hear you about the loot, but something about those locked chests makes me want to clear the camps whenever possible (I have a sickness).

@tesla: I appreciate the info on the "pacifist run" idea. This game being so different from other Zeldas is still tough for me to adjust to 20+ hours in. I keep thinking I'm going to miss something if I don't take on an enemy camp or leave a chest unopened. I remember scouring the seas in Wind Waker and every little tower or island having something that added to the progression even if it wasn't a piece of a heart or something. If my best sword was going to break when I stopped would I have just kept going? Old habits, I guess...

Unlock all the Great Fairies, upgrade armor, become a tank. Also after you leave the starting area, weapon durability becomes almost pointless to worry about (or at least, it did to me). I can't think of any encounter where I came out with less weapons than I went in with, unless it's a boss or special area. Pick everything up. Toss your weakest weapon when you get a better one (or chuck it at something's face).

I had a full weapon/bow/shield inventory for like 90% of the game doing that. I was tossing fire swords because I used up 5 hits of durability, even though it may have had like 40 hits total or whatever, but I just found a fresh new weapon so why not. Alternatively, use your powers to mash something in the face with a giant steel slab, or blow them off a cliff.

Also, headshots with bows are very good. Kinda wish you could just keep buying arrows and the shops wouldn't "run out" once you went above a certain amount. Ended up just standing in a field letting like 10 dudes shoot at me so I could pick up the arrows until I had like 900.

Also you can make a dish with like, one "bonus heart" ingredient for a full-heal meal.

On top of what others have sad, the advice I gave my partner was to do the first dungeon as soon as possible. You get an ability that makes life a LOT easier.

EDIT: sorry, for clarity, the Elephant dungeon...I realize there is no "first" dungeon, but the first dungeon the game's story leads you down. The one in the Zora village.

You didn't accidentally start the game on Master Mode, did you? （⌒▽⌒）

That said, we didn't have trouble with the battle system in the game, in fact it's so open
to exploration and trying different things that we hardly ever used conventional weapons to beat the monsters.
As someone else mentioned, if you haven't already, DO try completing Gerudo and Sora dungeons early
asap since the rewards will definitely help with your Hyrulean journey.

@sethmode: @geirr: Thanks, I'll try to get through a couple dungeons to see if that helps. I'm actually in the middle of Vah Naboris right now. I'll go to the elephant next.

@capum15: Thanks for the tips. Fairies and hearty meals seem like a common strategy.

In general, thanks everyone for the help and commiseration. I wanted to avoid videos for fear that I'd see something best experienced first-hand since discovery is such a huge part of this game.

It's this; as long as you keep your armor upgraded you will never die, and in the event that you actually do get hit, you can just pause as soon as you do and eat to full health again before the enemy gets a followup attack.

@constantk: To put the great fairy armor upgrades into a kind of perspective, at lvl 4 (fully upgraded) the Soldier armor (bought in Hateno Village) causes Lynels to do 1/4 heart per hit. The elemental and specialty armors offer less damage protection as a trade-off for their other functionality. The tiers of armor upgrades available to you are gated by the number of Great Fairies you have discovered; there are four in total.

@gundamguru: Ok, I wasn't going to speak out of turn since I'm so new to the game and haven't discovered these things for myself... but that's a crazy difference. I guess I should go talk to the fairies too. Maybe Reggie was right and I should just PLAY. THE. GAME.

This isn't really true, after each dungeon you are rewarded with game-changing skills that really turn the game on its head in certain ways. I'm going to spoil them for the people that don't care: One ability makes it so when you die you are brought back to life with all your hearts and a few temporary bonus ones. Another is a gale of wind that launches you into the air with your parachute making climbing a lot more easier. the last two is a huge AOE attack that deals massive damage and stuns enemies around you with electricity and an aura shield that absorbs all the damage of up to three attacks and knocks back the attacking enemy. All these abilities have a cooldown of differing length and can be upgraded (provided you have the DLC) to make those cooldowns even shorter completely trivializing the game in most circumstances.

On top of that, the powers you are provided with at the beginning of the game can be used in surprising and interesting ways in battle. It's a system that rewards experimentation and working with the tools provided. I can see this not appealing to you if you are the kind of player that likes things spelled out for you and concepts being more direct but I found the freedom, both in the combat and exploration, to be the best parts of the game.

Personally when I played the game that experimentation came about naturally. I was always trying new things just to see what worked and came out of it with a feeling I rarely get in games. It made me feel smart and clever and satisfied that I was able to circumvent the original rules of the game to get my desired result. But that's what makes this game so good is that that's actually what the game is it just doesn't spell it out for you at the get go. I can imagine it not working for some people though. I can see it seeming limited and frustrating banging your head against the simple concepts and not knowing there is a whole world you're never going to see because there's no way of knowing it's there unless you take the steps to see it. I guess it just depends on what type of player you are and how you respond to these types of concepts but I personally found it really awesome and fresh. Also, how these ideas branch out into every aspect of the game is really impressive to me.

Yeah, you die fast. Even when you have full health (okay, I went full stamina then full health) you still die fast. The Lynels are like Souls bosses, some harder than others too. One of the only things I wish BOTW did differently is allow for an alternative targeting system, akin to the Souls games where you can flick the right stick to whatever enemy you want to engage when there are multiple on screen as opposed to letting go of L and pressing it again.

No problem! Once you get the armor stuff started then the cooking really comes into play. You can also eat at any time, Skyrim style, so once things stop one-hitting you, you can just eat 30 cheesewheels apples if you don't have cooked meals ready, and go back to fightin'. And yeah those dungeon powers are great and I wish I had gotten them way earlier. One of them is incredibly useful and I used it as much as I could after I got it.

Yeah, as others have said, each time you find a new Great Fairy Fountain, that is a huge power boost, since generally your armour's defence is more important than the actual number of hearts you have. If your armour is underpowered, Lynels can easily do 5-10 hearts of damage to you in one hit. Not that I think it's fun to use a guide and just beeline to all 4 of the Great Fairy Fountains immediately, but if you feel like you're at least halfway through the game and have only found 1, for example, maybe look up where to find one because you're way underpowered.

But yeah, in general you take much higher damage in this game than previous Zeldas. In previous games, 3 hearts of damage is an amount that only like, the final boss would deal, whereas that is a pretty common damage value in BotW unless you're constantly wearing the soldier armour. Really try to avoid ever taking hits in the first place. If an enemy is especially dangerous, switch to a one-handed sword so that you can keep your shield up at all times. Spam the fuck out of the sidestep/backflip; the animation is short enough that it's usually very safe and the backflip is especially hard to be knocked out of, both actions cost no stamina and the window for activating the flurry is fairly generous. Also, when fighting tough enemies like high tier Lynels, don't be afraid to spam Stasis+ whenever it's off cool down (or save it to interrupt an attack you're especially bad at dodging), and run up and hit them for the duration even if they're only frozen for a second or two, it all adds up, and they're usually staggered for a second or two when they unStasis. As has been previously mentioned, headshots are very effective, doing double damage and staggering the enemy in some way. If you want a fight with a high-tier Moblin or Bokoblin to be much shorter, equip the stealth armour and really try to sneak up on it, because I think the sneak strike deals something like 5x the normal damage of the weapon; if you have the drop on them, equip your highest damage two-handed sword and do that sneak strike.

As others have said, try to keep fairies with you at all times, it makes it less frustrating when something one-shots you.

Honestly I didn't ever have trouble in combat and I found the entire game very easy. I don't think I ever cooked anything until I had maxed out my stamina and had 6 hearts.

You don't need to do anything fancy in combat, just run around until something attacks and then do a running attack - a lot of the time they will fall over and then you can start swinging at them. Enemies are so slow that after they attack you can just spam Y and kill them. You can literally stand in front of the big Moblin guys and they will swing over your head. Sometimes if I saw an enemy had a strong weapon I would headshot arrows to make them fall over and then swing at them until they dropped it, which was incredibly easy to do. The one thing that would kill me is getting sniped with an elemental arrow, but I usually had a few fairies.

Just a quick update for everyone. I took much of your advice to heart and have parried, flurried, fairied and cooked my way to two completed Divine Beast dungeons, several killed Guardians, Lynels and Hinoxes and I even went through Eventide Island last night feeling like a badass starting from zero gear and clearing the entire island. Like in so many other games, figuring out the combat and calming down about encounters tend to feed off each other and I now feel like I can take on just about anything. Thanks everyone again for all the help.

It is actually impossible to be killed in one hit in BotW in most circumstances. If you have full health, any attack that does enough damage to kill you will leave you with 1/4 of a heart. There are cases where you can be one hit killed if the enemy's attack does significantly more damage than your total health (the exact percentage isn't clear, but most people reporting this happening were doing 3 heart runs).

Interestingly, the damage and health mechanics in BotW are identical for both Link and enemies. Health is based on hit points, and the damage value on a weapon is the number of hit points worth of damage it does. If an enemy has 20 hit points, a weapon with an attack value of 20 will kill them outright. The same applies to Link. 1 heart is equal to 4 hit points, so you start with 12 HP and a max health bar of 30 hearts is 120 HP.

Armor is incredibly strong in BotW, because unlike most RPGs with damage and defense values, it isn't based on percentages. Armor provides a flat damage negation based on its value. If your armor has a defense rating of 36, it is completely negating 36 hit points of damage from enemy attacks. If the attack you're being hit by does 36 or less damage, you will only take the minimum of 1 hit point (1/4 heart) of damage. So, bottom line, armor is the best tool to stay alive, far more so than increasing your health. It's actually really broken and easy to get a point where you're practically invincible by upgrading armor.

This segment from a review of BotW illustrates the proceeding points quite nicely in about 3 minutes, with some tips about armor after that. Stop watching before the 57 minute mark if you haven't finished the game yet (4 minutes past where it starts), because he shows the final boss.

I found myself getting so powerful by endgame that I wished it stayed that hard longer. The power curve in BoTW is crazy, especially on normal mode.

Even master mode is a joke later on... it just takes longer to get OP.