There seem to be some really neat items that you can only unlock by using an Amiibo. $15 to unlock Epona is terrible, but that particular Amiibo is going for $55 on Amazon. Some of the unlocks are essentially cheats, but they would still be cool to play around with after completing the game. But at that price point it's very expensive fan service.

Anyone else bummed out by this aspect?

I'm bummed that, so far as I know, the only way to get the wolf friend is not only with the Wolf Link Amiibo, but apparently it needs to have been used with Twilight Princess HD. I was hoping the Amiibo was just for a wolf skin for it, and you'd still get some sort of doggo, but I don't think that's the case.

Honestly I prefered when Amiibo were useless statues, instead of now when they're almost useless statues.

No, not really no. At least, that hasn't happened yet. I think it's neat that there's stuff in BotW but I'm also not really feeling like I'm missing out with the supported figures that I don't have (which is most of them).

I didn't need a Epona-coloured horse with good stats, as the wild horse I had already tamed was no slouch either, but I'm not gonna look her in the mouth either as I already had the Amiibo lying around.

I get Amiibo to have plastic figures of some characers I like, if that happens to coincide with them giving me something extra in a game I like, then I'll take that too.

Locking Epona seems like a real dick move.

I think horses are kinda worthless in this game so I'm not missing it too much but it's still pretty shitty.

Depends. How good is Epona, and is the wolf a constant companion? If those answers are "good" and "yes", then it sucks.

Epona is a 4 in every stat and requires no bonding to do what you say all the time.

So kinda shitty.

Didn't know you could only get him that way. I guess I'll stop looking, heh.

Here's a list of the unlocks.

• Breath of the Wild Archer Link:

  Drops rare bow-type weapons, plus food and other materials.

• Breath of the Wild Horse Rider Link:

  Drops a unique horse saddle and food, plus the chance for high-end weapons.

• Breath of the Wild Zelda:

  Drops a chest containing the Hylian Shield, a very rare item and the best shield in the game. Also drops plants for you to cook with.

• Breath of the Wild Guardian:

  Drops a chest containing rare weapons and items – including the chance for ancient arrows, super-powerful arrows. Also food.

• Breath of the Wild Bokoblin:

  Drops a chest containing high-power club-type weapons plus meat to cook with.

• Super Smash Bros Link:

  The first time you scan it you get Epona, Link’s horse from Ocarina of Time. On subsequent scans you’ll get a selection of food items and a chest that’ll either contain a piece of Twilight Princess Link’s costume (as seen in the video above) or a random piece of weaponry.

• Twilight Princess Wolf Link:

  This amiibo spawns Wolf link as an ally – he’ll fight alongside you in combat. How many hearts he has is determined by data saved to the wolf in Twilight Princess HD for Wii U.

• 8-Bit Link:

  The 30th anniversary 8-bit Link amiibo spawns a bunch of barrels. Smash them for food and rupees. He’ll also drop a chest containing a piece of the classic Link tunic or weapons.

• Ocarina of Time Link:

  Scanning this ridiculously iconic version of Link will drop a bunch of raw meat for you, plus a chest which will either contain a piece of the OOT-era Link costume, the biggoron sword, or other basic weapons.

• Wind Waker Link:

  Either the Smash Bros ‘Toon Link’ or official Wind Waker amiibo will work for this. Both drop a bunch of fish plus a chest that will contain either a piece of the Wind Waker armor, the sea-breeze boomerang, or other gear.

• Wind Waker Zelda:

  The 30th anniversary Wind Waker Zelda amiibo will drop a bunch of plants for cooking, plus a chest containing a shield – if you’re lucky, the Hero’s Shield from Wind Waker.

• Smash Bros Zelda / Shiek:

  Like the Wind Waker Zelda, the Smash Bros. Zelda drops a bunch of materials for cooking and crafting plus a chest that can contain rare shields or bows. The best luck will see Zelda drop the Twilight Bow from Twilight Princess – hands-down the best bow in the game.

• Smash Bros Shiek:

  Smash Bros. Shiek has a chance to drop Sheikah weapons as well as random materials. If you’re extremely lucky, the Shiek’s mask armor headpiece will drop.

• Smash Bros Ganondorf:

  Ganondorf’s amiibo doesn’t have the nefarious impact he had in Twilight Princess HD- instead he just drops a bunch of materials for cooking and crafting plus a chest that can contain rare weapons – the rarest of which is the amiibo-exclusive sword of the six sages.

• All non-Zelda franchise amiibo:

  Any amiibo that aren’t of a Legend of Zelda series character will still scan into Breath of the Wild just fine – but instead of giving you specific items, each amiibo will drop a random selection of materials including foodstuff, random loot, or even the occasional gemstone. Every single amiibo on the market is compatible with Breath of the Wild in this way, even the Animal Crossing amiibo trading cards.

• Data mined amiibo:

  In addition to all the above amiibo as featured in the game, data mining of the game appears to confirm items related to seemingly unreleased amiibo. The items point to a Fierce Diety Link armor set from Majora’s Mask and an associated amiibo, a Twilight Princess Link amiibo and a Skyward Sword amiibo with the relevant iteration of the green tunic and the goddess sword as a rare drop.

@mooseymcman: I can confirm you get Wolf Link regardless of TP usage (lolz). Based on @barrock it looks like it affects his health.

Pretty much is DLC. Only difference is you get a figure. Honestly nothing has really been that great with Amiibo unlocks. So far it seems Zelda is the first game people actually care about what the Amiibos do.

No. I mean, you said it yourself it's all fan service. And if you're a person who's gonna pay for fan service anyway, why not get a nice statue to go along with it too?

I never thought I'd get to use my amiibo for anything, but it's been nice to get supplies and a few extra goodies everyday. I didn't know about Epona and when I scanned "smash link" I was up on a cliff around faron tower (The one with all the durians) and I just left it there. Later on I went back to get more durians and the horse just showed up again on the cliff where I left it. I had had a feeling it was epona before after I warped away, but it was too late (or so I thought). Somehow I managed to finagle it off a pretty steep cliff. We both survived and I registered it at a stable, which confirmed that it was indeed epona. The stable guy let me know. It was a pretty cool little adventure. Also, Is there actually another Epona in the game? That'd be kinda weird if so.

On a related point, I thought I was through buying amiibo, but now I've been eyeing the Botw ones... I thought I quit you already!

I can't say I am.

The entire conceit of amiibo from the start was to have a figure and the promise that it would unlock features related to that character in some way in a bunch of games. Nintendo is just doing what they said they'd do. I can see not liking what essentially amounts to expensive horse armor DLC if you only want it for one game but I think it's actually pretty cool to have a little thing that will unlock stuff in future nintendo games as well. I only have a few amiibo but getting extra stuff in mario maker, splatoon, animal crossing, picross 3d, and now BotW seems like a pretty good deal to me in addition to having K.K. Slider on my desk at all times.

I get why you'd be upset that you won't get Epona in BotW without the Amiibo. With that said, Epona doesn't really offer anything special aside from being a unique model and a unique name for a horse. She acts, as best as I can tell, just like every other horse in the game. It's a neat little nod, but you aren't necessarily missing anything by not having her. Same thing with the cosmetic pieces. They'd be cool to have, but you'd replace it later with better armor as the game goes on anyway. It's nothing gamebreaking.

In any of these situations, people either feel like they are getting a bonus or feel like they're getting cheated on content. I feel like they are giving a nice bonus to people who bought amiibo.

People either are mad that Amiibo do nothing, or get mad that they do something.

It's kind of a lose-lose thing.

Almost like this whole toys to life thing isn't that great of an idea in the first place huh?

I don't want a bunch of dumb statues that I have no where to display nor would I want to. Games having amiibo functionality only serves for me to be less interested in them as. like you said, it makes me feel like I am missing out. The more Nintendo does these sort of things the more I just feel like I may be done with Nintendo. Honestly, I would rather it be DLC, I don't want physical media. Especially not physical media I have to keep around just to get some armor in a video game possibly one day in the future.

Amiibos have always been a bummer.

I'm just glad it's mostly cosmetic stuff only.

The wolf kinda stinks if you like to sneak - it detects animals and attacks them on its own, also scaring horses and rare bugs and animals off in the process.

Yes, but at this point I'm used to things that used to be super special secrets for dedicated players/visitors of Cheat Code Central now being DLC for people with too much money/kids with access to their parent's credit card.

As someone who has no interest in buying figures that are otherwise useless and would stay in a box in a closet for eternity if I did, it's a bummer. I really like dressing up Link in cool outfits in this game and all of the gear that you can get from this sounds cool. I'd honestly rather pay for a DLC pack or something tbh than have to get figures...meh.

The first time you scan it you get Epona, Link’s horse from Ocarina of Time. On subsequent scans you’ll get a selection of food items and a chest that’ll either contain a piece of Twilight Princess Link’s costume (as seen in the video above) or a random piece of weaponry.

Wait, did I screw my self out of epona? I used the epona amiibo when i randomly remembered that was a thing, but I was on a smal island so I couldn't take the horse anywhere. I figured that I'd do it again later and register the horse then. So when I try do use that amiibo again I won't get another epona?
Ok, that does actually piss me of a little bit, I thought that was just some random horse and epona was a story thing later. Goddamn it

@linkster7: if you use a different smash bros link amiibo from a friend, you'll get another epona. I did by accident and have two in my stable now.

I thought the Epona one kinda sucked, because she is something of an icon in the series. There's a special horse you can get in the game without amiibo stuff, so it seems weird to not make that horse just be Epona.

But like it's been said, I rarely used horses in my playthrough. They can die, and flying was usually faster.

I really want all this cool shit!

No.

It's not like they are showing you stuff in game but saying 'this is locked' like some games do with DLC.

You can play through that game and never even think about it. I know that's what I've been doing.

@theegravedigger: Now I just need friends, or at least friends that have amiibos .

Hm... The only Amiibo I have is of Wolf Link that I got with Twilight Princess. I didn't use him, and I probably won't use it in Breath of the Wild (especially considering it's best if you used it in Twilight Princess). It just sits in the box on my desk here.

I heard you can essentially get NFC chips and program them to have the Amiibo data for each of these amiibo, does anyone know how easy this is? I would rather spend like $10 doing this than several times that just to have some cool armor and a few cool weapons to display in my house.

Damn...I'm such a sucker for cool outfits/special items like this, especially in games I love. The swords look great too - it's awesome you can get Ganon's sword.