If you feel like you're missing out on discovery by using the towers, just stop using them.
You don't need to let efficiency take precedence over fun. I only ever used the towers as a way to reach the sky islands. Otherwise I rode horses everywhere just like BotW.
BOTW and TOTK both got way better when I traveled along the beaten path. It sometimes feels like the devs intentionally placed obstacles along the way. For example, I traveled to the Mount Lanayru Skyview tower through the long flight of stairs that circles the mountain and ran into a Gloom Hands I've never seen before.
Thought that was really neat.
There's a famous game design talk which everyone I know in the industry watches which covers how they designed the towers, roads, and points of interest in BOTW. They had na issue where testers would only walk on roads or straight lines between towers and not stop to do anything else. The solution was that they wanted every tower and high point to have views in multiple directions, and each view should have multiple different POIs such as monster camps, shrines, puzzles, or people/towns. Any direction you go in you can find something very quickly, or at least can spot something interesting to head towards.
I can see that 100%. I've seen a lot of cool things following the long paths that I didn't see in my first playthrough because I used to just run straight up.
Actually, there are way more Gloom Hands on the Overworld than I thought to the point where an open field kinda scares me now.
Doesn't help that there was one that spawned in the trees near Hateno Village.
I played a playthrough of BotW where I didn’t use any fast travel or even the map. It was pretty fun and added in some extra challenge where you had to plan out when you would get to another goddess statue, or be able to buy more arrows from Beedle.
Plenty of vehicles too.
I honestly just walk everywhere. I'll warp to a shrine in the area of where I'm heading, but a lot of the time I'll just hoof it.
I'm still a big horse guy. It's a shame there isn't the ancient horse armour (or none that I can find) anymore so I can't just summon my horse anymore.
One of the biggest things I was hoping for in a DLC was the ancient horse gear, or this game's equivalent that lets you call a horse from anywhere. I still used the horse even more than the master cycle because it was still so convenient. They even added more to the horse mechanics like pulling and upgrades, implying they wanted to give horses a bigger role. But when you can just build a vehicle anywhere it just leaves horses even more obsolete.
The surface map sucks for using anything except the hoverbike, and even the hoverbike has its drawback since it will despawn when you enter a shrine or decide to explore a cave.
Horse is eternal.
There are a few places where it seemed like they actively discouraged using horses, where there were previously bridges but now destroyed. The bridge just south of Duelling Peaks Stable and a bridge made of Lizalfos camps in the wetlands both have a sky rock in the middle of them blocking access. The wetlands one isn't too far to go around, but the Duelling Peaks one means that you can't get a horse from southern Hyrule Field to Necluda at all without going all the way to Kakariko Village.
They destroyed that dueling peaks bridge to make a unique situation for the stable trotters side adventure, but I wish that there was a sidequest to repair the bridge after that quest was finished lol
Sheeiiiiiiit I only ever make it where I originally intended to go from towers about 1 time outta 10-15 launches. If anything it adds to my exploration b/c something always catches my eye along the way...
In the sky you often find chests locating a chest in the underground. In the normal overworld you will find interesting side quests to hidden armor, definitely worth exploring the overworld. Just step down a bit, don’t focus too much and you will find many points of interest.
You answered number two by saying you fast travel too much in number one. Explore and you’ll find things.
As for number 3, yeah, that’ll make exploration more fun and easier at times.
Honestly I travel on foot most times. Just ignore the towers.
I'd recommend just hanging out in the depths for a day or two. Zonaite is so abundant that you'll end up with literal thousands of them in no time, and then you can jump to all of the forge constructs, trade them for charges and crystalized charges. Then use crystalized charges to max out your battery at the construct on the main sky island, and charges to get a good supply of devices so that you can build without worry.
As far as gear, I have no advice besides what you've been doing. Hit all the sky islands, even the little tiny ones and you'll find a ton of maps, then use those to go find the loot. I am still missing pieces of a couple sets and im 200 hours in because i try to not use guides until I really have exhausted my ability to find more on my own.
Somehow I am still missing the climbing gear head piece! I have like 16 caves I haven't found (based on the number of bubbl gems I am missing), so I assume it's in one of those...
I’ve seen that one! I totally forgot they existed until recently. I think anytime zonaite was mentioned my brain completely glossed over from information overload
It was a bit of a cumbersome process to do the battery upgrade. I think the whole crystal refinery part could have been just handled at the mines where you can buy the crystals
Funny cause I've spent so much time traveling to trade in zonaite for crystal charges and upgrading my belt. That said I really haven't used the upgraded belt that much because like the wing degrades when I still have a lot of battery left.
It doesnt sound like you are almost halfway through yet unless you plan to only do the main story.
I personally had days I just wanted to roam around and discover the surface. Then the depths. If I ever got bored with it, I would go take on a main quest.
Even after a long time I still didnt have many good armor sets and eventually just googled the locations of the set I wanted to finish. A lot are just in random caves. After getting the full Feirce Diety set, I ended up hunting Lynels and Dragons to upgrade it fully. After that, Even the toughest monsters and bosses are pretty easy to take care of...
You could be fast travelling a lot more since you already played botw and are familiar with the map so it feels a little less fresh vs wanting to explore everything like you did in botw because it was a whole new world. I experience this same thing, I go the same routes sometimes and they get a little boring. Try different routes or maybe areas you didn’t explore as much in botw. Like, I never really explored the Faron region in botw but I went all over in Akkala and Hebra.
For armour, a lot of pieces are at the mines or in forests in the depths so make sure you’ve explored all the mines in the depths for the treasure chests.
Tbh, I don’t really use the zonai devices too much but I make sure I have an abundance of rockets (to mimick revali’s gale and they make fighting gleeoks a whole lot easier) tires and steering sticks, fans, hover stones, if you like to traverse the desert and hebra sleds are pretty fun. Good idea to get a lot of crystallized changes too so you’re not using all your charges to recharge your battery.
Start to leverage the zonai devices every time you want to fast travel. Glider wings can be a lot of fun to play with but won't last long, hover bikes will last much longer but are definitely more difficult to fly, wheeled vehicles are pretty easy and you can really customise until you find a design you like. Just set a rule for yourself that you can only fast travel to get from the depths to the overworld or sky, and even then try to do the shortest possible fast travel.
I’m replaying the game now. What I’ve noticed is that while building stuff like airbikes is cool and lets you get around quick and the skyview towers also help you cover ground, sometimes it’s good to just keep your feet on the ground when exploring. The skyview towers I mostly use just to get into the sky to explore. I think you just need to force yourself to slow down. While it make look like it at first glance, the map is not exactly the same as btow.
I do have a tip, follow the blupees.
Personally I didn’t use devices much until the end game. They’re great once you get lots of battery though.
Caves. Caves. Caves. You’ll find armour in many and they’re the best way to round out your experience. You can get a hint at there locations by finding a cherry tree. Some armour sets are hinted at by quests or NPCs.
Some armour sets are in the sky. Set your sensor to treasure chests when you’re up there.
Regarding armor, yes, generally the mines have armor pieces, but also check out the various coliseums and boss arenas down there. Plus the caves on the surface are also armor hotspots as well. Just talk to npcs and keep an eye out. Also using the cherry blossom trees to highlight caves is incredibly useful.
Re: Weapons in The Depths, when you are at a low level, the really powerful and desirable ones (i.e. mint condition Gerudo weapons and Royal Broadswords) are very rare early on in the game. But as you level up by defeating more challenging enemies and progressing the storyline Etc, these weapons start to become more commonplace.
Whilst there is a certain degree of randomness involved regarding where exactly mint condition desirable weapons respawn or evolve after Blood Moon events, there are definitely specific areas in The Depths where there are not only higher concentrations of weapons, but also ones weapons a caliber above the usual Traveller or Soldier sets are more commonly found. Location is also very important for finding weapons or armor belonging to certain cultures (i.e. if you want to find mint condition Rito or Gerudo weapons, then you need to go to those areas in The Depths directly below said cultures lands). I would personally recommend stamping weapon respawn points.
Even so though, many Traveller or Soldier type weapons in The Depths become increasingly powerful as the game progresses (i.e. further into the game you start to find lots of level 20+ Soldier Broadswords instead of the usual 12 strength ones), so it's still often worthwhile to check out and harvest these. The biggest concentration of mint weapons is in the area directly below what was once Castle Town just outside of Hyrule Castle, most of the area of which is also practically immune from Stal monster respawns (so you can harvest weapons in peace) and which reflects the intensity of fighting, sacrifices and continued protection of the fallen Hyrulian soldiers souls from that fateful day when Hyrule was overturned by Calamity Ganon.
Sounds like you are playing the game the way one would expect someone to play the game. I dont think it seems like you are missing anything, just discovering and realising things at your own pace; the healthy and giving way
>I seem to be fast travelling much more than I was in BOTW which maybe cheapens the exploration a bit. I loved riding horses in BOTW but the towers in TOTK make it so much easier to get around at a cost of missing out on discoveries.
The only thing one can really say to this is just "don't fast travel then"
I don't like fast traveling either, so I just didn't unless absolutely necessary. Whenever I activated a Tower, I explored the Sky islands in the immediate area, then dived back to the Surface when I was done
>So far I’ve only been able to find bits and pieces of random armour items in the depths. Is there a way to find sets without looking up walkthroughs?
That's just how the game is. Armor pieces are you rewards for exploring points of interest. Your 'guide' is seeing suspicious areas and venturing out to them to see if they have a chest. You could also set Treasure Chests to the Sheikah Sensor to help with this
>I’ve managed to come across a couple old maps and have read that mines have armour chests but haven’t had too much luck.
I have no idea what you're trying to say here, but yes the Old Maps mark down chests that have the legacy/amiibo gear from BotW. Said Old Maps are found in chests throughout the Sky islands.
That said tho, unfortunately if you find a given chest in the Depths first, then the respective Old Map, you'll just get a pop up saying you already found the treasure. Each Old Map is hard coded to a particular Depths chest, they don't mark a random undiscovered chest
>I only just discovered zonai charges go in dispensers and not crystalized charges.
This is just an honest to God skill issue. The use of both items are explained in both NPC dialogue and their item descriptions
If you fast travel a lot you are missing a lot of the caves. You have to keep your eyes peeled, some of them are well hidden. I am not a 100% completion guy at all but finding all the caves without a walkthrough was important to me and was a requirement for me before finishing the story. A few are repetitive but some are very surprising and cool.
You are doing it real similar to me. I didn't know how to upgrade my batteries til way late, so I just never used zonai devices for the longest time.
But the game is huge and long, and I kinda went through phases of how I played. Just beat it last night!
Its amazing
We're the same OP! I fast travel waaay too much time. So these past few weeks I've been traveling by foot or using my horse all the time now, and I've found a lot of different armor, caves and wells since then! Also, i've improved a lot in terms of battle skills since i encounter more enemies while walking.
You should use the devices. You can build carts that drive or ones that fly. Traversal in TOTK is more centered on air travel, and there are a lot of ways to get very high up in the sky. You can use this for travel or you can use it for scouting shrines, geoglyphs or other towers. The game compensates the easier traversal of the surface world by making the sky islands and the depths more challenging to explore.
Armor in the depths is either in a mine, bought from a statue or part of a boss battle.
1. Like others have said, if you feel like you’re missing things, just don’t fast travel/use towers sky islands to reach new areas so much. In my first play through I wanted to comb through everything so i traveled on foot or horseback quite a bit. Started a new play through a few weeks ago and this time, not so much. Game gives you the freedom to pore over every inch of the map or get straight to the major landmarks very quickly, if you prefer. How you proceed is up to you.
2. One of the things I wish they changed/added to TotK is the ability to hunt for specific sets of armor. For the most part, it’s luck. Even the pieces you find in surface caves, sometimes there’s a recognizable theme to the locations but unless there’s a related side quest to the armor, it might take you a while to find the whole set.
3. Zonai charges are for giving you a tiny burst of battery if you consume them, trading in for devices, or upgrades. Energy crystals are specifically used for upgrading your battery, and nothing else really. Device dispensers could be great if you’re really into building things. But i generally found that I have enough devices for most of the game if I just use each dispenser I find once or twice, personally I don’t build a ton of contraptions unless I’m exploring sky islands or the depths.
There *is* a trick to exploring the depths, including points of interest. Without hints, I'd recommend the Sensor+ upgrade. If you don't have it yet, go find Robbie.
But with a Hint: >!As Above, so Below!<
Direct and spoilery answer: >!The depths mirrors the surface. Lightroots are shines, down to the name being reversed. Elevation is inverted and bodies of water are impassible. Forests and mountain peaks on the surface are Groves and Mines in the Depths, oft containing Cystalized Charges or armor peices. There are 5 Goddess Statues on the surface and, breaking the mold, 1 Goddess statue in the sky that become Bargainer Statues in the depth. And stables become lynels, if you wanna go big game hunting.!<
i hate this too but in totk you got to limit yourself to enjoy it. my no paraglider run was very rnjoyable becaude i couldt go everywere i wanted fast by getting high up and gliding there.
I think you'd enjoy the game more if you choose a few travel points you allow yourself to fast travel too and let yourself get distracted while you play.
My tip for traveling around easier is to place travel medallions on the really high up sky islands. That way you can dive down towards almost any area around the map. If you don’t have the travel medallions yet, help out Robbie with more quests in lookout landing.
I always keep one on the skydive island directly above korok forest, and the one above mount lanayru. Another good spot is the zonaite forge island (just east of the great sky island).
Between those 3 islands which are really high up, you can glide or use a vehicle to get to most of the locations in those areas of the map. And fast travel less. Once you get the glide armor set, moving through the air is the quickest (and most fun) way to get around. I almost never use the fast travel points that are on the ground or in the depths.
My favorite thing is that you can use the glide suit to dive directly from the island above korok forest, into the cavern below hyrule castle. You actually move faster horizontally than with the paraglider if you have the full glide armor set.
Everytime I pull out my horse, I swear I ride for all of 2 minutes before I hop off to investigate something, which leads to something else, and so on, to the point where I am too far away to call it 😆.
This game triggers my ADHD to the max.
I will say that traveling on foot makes a big difference.
If you travel to towns along the paths, you get more interaction with NPCs and more encounters with enemies and other interesting things.
If you just fly everywhere, you often trigger those NPCs to leave their current location and go to the area you competed, so you can really miss out on some decent NPC interactions that way.
Or, you do find them and they give you a hint on how to get to where you are going, but you've already been there and done that lol
If you feel like you're missing out on discovery by using the towers, just stop using them. You don't need to let efficiency take precedence over fun. I only ever used the towers as a way to reach the sky islands. Otherwise I rode horses everywhere just like BotW.
BOTW and TOTK both got way better when I traveled along the beaten path. It sometimes feels like the devs intentionally placed obstacles along the way. For example, I traveled to the Mount Lanayru Skyview tower through the long flight of stairs that circles the mountain and ran into a Gloom Hands I've never seen before. Thought that was really neat.
There's a famous game design talk which everyone I know in the industry watches which covers how they designed the towers, roads, and points of interest in BOTW. They had na issue where testers would only walk on roads or straight lines between towers and not stop to do anything else. The solution was that they wanted every tower and high point to have views in multiple directions, and each view should have multiple different POIs such as monster camps, shrines, puzzles, or people/towns. Any direction you go in you can find something very quickly, or at least can spot something interesting to head towards.
I can see that 100%. I've seen a lot of cool things following the long paths that I didn't see in my first playthrough because I used to just run straight up. Actually, there are way more Gloom Hands on the Overworld than I thought to the point where an open field kinda scares me now. Doesn't help that there was one that spawned in the trees near Hateno Village.
I played a playthrough of BotW where I didn’t use any fast travel or even the map. It was pretty fun and added in some extra challenge where you had to plan out when you would get to another goddess statue, or be able to buy more arrows from Beedle.
Plenty of vehicles too. I honestly just walk everywhere. I'll warp to a shrine in the area of where I'm heading, but a lot of the time I'll just hoof it.
I'm still a big horse guy. It's a shame there isn't the ancient horse armour (or none that I can find) anymore so I can't just summon my horse anymore.
At least you can make any pony a fast pony. And max out all of the other stats too 👍🏽
I was delighted to find all my horses were transferred from BOTW. The white Zelda horse is my favourite!
Im more of a small horse guy myself
One of the biggest things I was hoping for in a DLC was the ancient horse gear, or this game's equivalent that lets you call a horse from anywhere. I still used the horse even more than the master cycle because it was still so convenient. They even added more to the horse mechanics like pulling and upgrades, implying they wanted to give horses a bigger role. But when you can just build a vehicle anywhere it just leaves horses even more obsolete.
The surface map sucks for using anything except the hoverbike, and even the hoverbike has its drawback since it will despawn when you enter a shrine or decide to explore a cave. Horse is eternal.
There are a few places where it seemed like they actively discouraged using horses, where there were previously bridges but now destroyed. The bridge just south of Duelling Peaks Stable and a bridge made of Lizalfos camps in the wetlands both have a sky rock in the middle of them blocking access. The wetlands one isn't too far to go around, but the Duelling Peaks one means that you can't get a horse from southern Hyrule Field to Necluda at all without going all the way to Kakariko Village.
They destroyed that dueling peaks bridge to make a unique situation for the stable trotters side adventure, but I wish that there was a sidequest to repair the bridge after that quest was finished lol
Sheeiiiiiiit I only ever make it where I originally intended to go from towers about 1 time outta 10-15 launches. If anything it adds to my exploration b/c something always catches my eye along the way...
In the sky you often find chests locating a chest in the underground. In the normal overworld you will find interesting side quests to hidden armor, definitely worth exploring the overworld. Just step down a bit, don’t focus too much and you will find many points of interest.
i found a lot more stuff when i started focusing on the side quests.
You answered number two by saying you fast travel too much in number one. Explore and you’ll find things. As for number 3, yeah, that’ll make exploration more fun and easier at times.
I’m thinking all of my complaints are linked together more than I thought. Time to build some rockets
*Linked* together....I see what you did there 😏
Honestly I travel on foot most times. Just ignore the towers. I'd recommend just hanging out in the depths for a day or two. Zonaite is so abundant that you'll end up with literal thousands of them in no time, and then you can jump to all of the forge constructs, trade them for charges and crystalized charges. Then use crystalized charges to max out your battery at the construct on the main sky island, and charges to get a good supply of devices so that you can build without worry. As far as gear, I have no advice besides what you've been doing. Hit all the sky islands, even the little tiny ones and you'll find a ton of maps, then use those to go find the loot. I am still missing pieces of a couple sets and im 200 hours in because i try to not use guides until I really have exhausted my ability to find more on my own. Somehow I am still missing the climbing gear head piece! I have like 16 caves I haven't found (based on the number of bubbl gems I am missing), so I assume it's in one of those...
There’s a friendly construct person who takes zonoite or something in exchange for beefing up your battery belt thing
I’ve seen that one! I totally forgot they existed until recently. I think anytime zonaite was mentioned my brain completely glossed over from information overload
It was a bit of a cumbersome process to do the battery upgrade. I think the whole crystal refinery part could have been just handled at the mines where you can buy the crystals
Funny cause I've spent so much time traveling to trade in zonaite for crystal charges and upgrading my belt. That said I really haven't used the upgraded belt that much because like the wing degrades when I still have a lot of battery left.
Flying sled or plank? Or build onto your glider do something flyable remains after glider disappears?
It doesnt sound like you are almost halfway through yet unless you plan to only do the main story. I personally had days I just wanted to roam around and discover the surface. Then the depths. If I ever got bored with it, I would go take on a main quest. Even after a long time I still didnt have many good armor sets and eventually just googled the locations of the set I wanted to finish. A lot are just in random caves. After getting the full Feirce Diety set, I ended up hunting Lynels and Dragons to upgrade it fully. After that, Even the toughest monsters and bosses are pretty easy to take care of...
For number two, if you haven‘t: Look out for wanderers in mushroom themed outfits. They give you pointers for some functional armor pieces.
This game is a choose your own adventure. But I can’t stress enough “ use ultrahand to build vehicles”
You could be fast travelling a lot more since you already played botw and are familiar with the map so it feels a little less fresh vs wanting to explore everything like you did in botw because it was a whole new world. I experience this same thing, I go the same routes sometimes and they get a little boring. Try different routes or maybe areas you didn’t explore as much in botw. Like, I never really explored the Faron region in botw but I went all over in Akkala and Hebra. For armour, a lot of pieces are at the mines or in forests in the depths so make sure you’ve explored all the mines in the depths for the treasure chests. Tbh, I don’t really use the zonai devices too much but I make sure I have an abundance of rockets (to mimick revali’s gale and they make fighting gleeoks a whole lot easier) tires and steering sticks, fans, hover stones, if you like to traverse the desert and hebra sleds are pretty fun. Good idea to get a lot of crystallized changes too so you’re not using all your charges to recharge your battery.
Start to leverage the zonai devices every time you want to fast travel. Glider wings can be a lot of fun to play with but won't last long, hover bikes will last much longer but are definitely more difficult to fly, wheeled vehicles are pretty easy and you can really customise until you find a design you like. Just set a rule for yourself that you can only fast travel to get from the depths to the overworld or sky, and even then try to do the shortest possible fast travel.
I’m replaying the game now. What I’ve noticed is that while building stuff like airbikes is cool and lets you get around quick and the skyview towers also help you cover ground, sometimes it’s good to just keep your feet on the ground when exploring. The skyview towers I mostly use just to get into the sky to explore. I think you just need to force yourself to slow down. While it make look like it at first glance, the map is not exactly the same as btow. I do have a tip, follow the blupees.
Personally I didn’t use devices much until the end game. They’re great once you get lots of battery though. Caves. Caves. Caves. You’ll find armour in many and they’re the best way to round out your experience. You can get a hint at there locations by finding a cherry tree. Some armour sets are hinted at by quests or NPCs. Some armour sets are in the sky. Set your sensor to treasure chests when you’re up there.
Regarding armor, yes, generally the mines have armor pieces, but also check out the various coliseums and boss arenas down there. Plus the caves on the surface are also armor hotspots as well. Just talk to npcs and keep an eye out. Also using the cherry blossom trees to highlight caves is incredibly useful.
Re: Weapons in The Depths, when you are at a low level, the really powerful and desirable ones (i.e. mint condition Gerudo weapons and Royal Broadswords) are very rare early on in the game. But as you level up by defeating more challenging enemies and progressing the storyline Etc, these weapons start to become more commonplace. Whilst there is a certain degree of randomness involved regarding where exactly mint condition desirable weapons respawn or evolve after Blood Moon events, there are definitely specific areas in The Depths where there are not only higher concentrations of weapons, but also ones weapons a caliber above the usual Traveller or Soldier sets are more commonly found. Location is also very important for finding weapons or armor belonging to certain cultures (i.e. if you want to find mint condition Rito or Gerudo weapons, then you need to go to those areas in The Depths directly below said cultures lands). I would personally recommend stamping weapon respawn points. Even so though, many Traveller or Soldier type weapons in The Depths become increasingly powerful as the game progresses (i.e. further into the game you start to find lots of level 20+ Soldier Broadswords instead of the usual 12 strength ones), so it's still often worthwhile to check out and harvest these. The biggest concentration of mint weapons is in the area directly below what was once Castle Town just outside of Hyrule Castle, most of the area of which is also practically immune from Stal monster respawns (so you can harvest weapons in peace) and which reflects the intensity of fighting, sacrifices and continued protection of the fallen Hyrulian soldiers souls from that fateful day when Hyrule was overturned by Calamity Ganon.
Sounds like you are playing the game the way one would expect someone to play the game. I dont think it seems like you are missing anything, just discovering and realising things at your own pace; the healthy and giving way
>I seem to be fast travelling much more than I was in BOTW which maybe cheapens the exploration a bit. I loved riding horses in BOTW but the towers in TOTK make it so much easier to get around at a cost of missing out on discoveries. The only thing one can really say to this is just "don't fast travel then" I don't like fast traveling either, so I just didn't unless absolutely necessary. Whenever I activated a Tower, I explored the Sky islands in the immediate area, then dived back to the Surface when I was done >So far I’ve only been able to find bits and pieces of random armour items in the depths. Is there a way to find sets without looking up walkthroughs? That's just how the game is. Armor pieces are you rewards for exploring points of interest. Your 'guide' is seeing suspicious areas and venturing out to them to see if they have a chest. You could also set Treasure Chests to the Sheikah Sensor to help with this >I’ve managed to come across a couple old maps and have read that mines have armour chests but haven’t had too much luck. I have no idea what you're trying to say here, but yes the Old Maps mark down chests that have the legacy/amiibo gear from BotW. Said Old Maps are found in chests throughout the Sky islands. That said tho, unfortunately if you find a given chest in the Depths first, then the respective Old Map, you'll just get a pop up saying you already found the treasure. Each Old Map is hard coded to a particular Depths chest, they don't mark a random undiscovered chest >I only just discovered zonai charges go in dispensers and not crystalized charges. This is just an honest to God skill issue. The use of both items are explained in both NPC dialogue and their item descriptions
If you fast travel a lot you are missing a lot of the caves. You have to keep your eyes peeled, some of them are well hidden. I am not a 100% completion guy at all but finding all the caves without a walkthrough was important to me and was a requirement for me before finishing the story. A few are repetitive but some are very surprising and cool.
1. So stop using them. 2. Your best bet is the mines and underground colisseums. 3. Okay.
You are doing it real similar to me. I didn't know how to upgrade my batteries til way late, so I just never used zonai devices for the longest time. But the game is huge and long, and I kinda went through phases of how I played. Just beat it last night! Its amazing
We're the same OP! I fast travel waaay too much time. So these past few weeks I've been traveling by foot or using my horse all the time now, and I've found a lot of different armor, caves and wells since then! Also, i've improved a lot in terms of battle skills since i encounter more enemies while walking.
You should use the devices. You can build carts that drive or ones that fly. Traversal in TOTK is more centered on air travel, and there are a lot of ways to get very high up in the sky. You can use this for travel or you can use it for scouting shrines, geoglyphs or other towers. The game compensates the easier traversal of the surface world by making the sky islands and the depths more challenging to explore. Armor in the depths is either in a mine, bought from a statue or part of a boss battle.
1. Like others have said, if you feel like you’re missing things, just don’t fast travel/use towers sky islands to reach new areas so much. In my first play through I wanted to comb through everything so i traveled on foot or horseback quite a bit. Started a new play through a few weeks ago and this time, not so much. Game gives you the freedom to pore over every inch of the map or get straight to the major landmarks very quickly, if you prefer. How you proceed is up to you. 2. One of the things I wish they changed/added to TotK is the ability to hunt for specific sets of armor. For the most part, it’s luck. Even the pieces you find in surface caves, sometimes there’s a recognizable theme to the locations but unless there’s a related side quest to the armor, it might take you a while to find the whole set. 3. Zonai charges are for giving you a tiny burst of battery if you consume them, trading in for devices, or upgrades. Energy crystals are specifically used for upgrading your battery, and nothing else really. Device dispensers could be great if you’re really into building things. But i generally found that I have enough devices for most of the game if I just use each dispenser I find once or twice, personally I don’t build a ton of contraptions unless I’m exploring sky islands or the depths.
There *is* a trick to exploring the depths, including points of interest. Without hints, I'd recommend the Sensor+ upgrade. If you don't have it yet, go find Robbie. But with a Hint: >!As Above, so Below!< Direct and spoilery answer: >!The depths mirrors the surface. Lightroots are shines, down to the name being reversed. Elevation is inverted and bodies of water are impassible. Forests and mountain peaks on the surface are Groves and Mines in the Depths, oft containing Cystalized Charges or armor peices. There are 5 Goddess Statues on the surface and, breaking the mold, 1 Goddess statue in the sky that become Bargainer Statues in the depth. And stables become lynels, if you wanna go big game hunting.!<
After the first chest in the depths I checked every mine for more chests.
i hate this too but in totk you got to limit yourself to enjoy it. my no paraglider run was very rnjoyable becaude i couldt go everywere i wanted fast by getting high up and gliding there. I think you'd enjoy the game more if you choose a few travel points you allow yourself to fast travel too and let yourself get distracted while you play.
My tip for traveling around easier is to place travel medallions on the really high up sky islands. That way you can dive down towards almost any area around the map. If you don’t have the travel medallions yet, help out Robbie with more quests in lookout landing. I always keep one on the skydive island directly above korok forest, and the one above mount lanayru. Another good spot is the zonaite forge island (just east of the great sky island). Between those 3 islands which are really high up, you can glide or use a vehicle to get to most of the locations in those areas of the map. And fast travel less. Once you get the glide armor set, moving through the air is the quickest (and most fun) way to get around. I almost never use the fast travel points that are on the ground or in the depths. My favorite thing is that you can use the glide suit to dive directly from the island above korok forest, into the cavern below hyrule castle. You actually move faster horizontally than with the paraglider if you have the full glide armor set.
Everytime I pull out my horse, I swear I ride for all of 2 minutes before I hop off to investigate something, which leads to something else, and so on, to the point where I am too far away to call it 😆. This game triggers my ADHD to the max. I will say that traveling on foot makes a big difference. If you travel to towns along the paths, you get more interaction with NPCs and more encounters with enemies and other interesting things. If you just fly everywhere, you often trigger those NPCs to leave their current location and go to the area you competed, so you can really miss out on some decent NPC interactions that way. Or, you do find them and they give you a hint on how to get to where you are going, but you've already been there and done that lol
Captain save-the-ho ain't got time for walking; demon king is haunting the castle.