Almost everything in Breath of the Wild exists for a reason, including every random person you might meet. Impa and other characters around Kakariko will give you plenty of additional information after you get the main quest from her, for example, while a painter who pops up all around Hyrule will help you with that pesky photo quest.
Almost every single person you can converse with will offer something - even if they don’t have the little red icon that indicates they’ll give you a side quest, they might mention a nearby fairy fountain or give you hints about how to proceed. If you’re looking for somewhere to go or something to do, try simply talking to people. Or you can even use amiibo to spawn nearly every food type in the game. Stamella shrooms and restless crickets are some of the most common ingredients in the game.
Make cooling meals and potions so you can withstand the heat, grind out some rupees to buy the stealth gear in Kakariko so you can avoid tough enemies, and always - always - carry several stamina-boosting items with you. Experiment with a cook pot ( and read our cooking guide ). That’s on you! Prepare for the unexpected and you won’t feel so helpless. Maybe - and this happened to us - you fought your way to a far-off tower only to find you don’t have enough stamina to climb it. Maybe the weather turned incredibly hot, or you ran headlong into a huge enemy you couldn’t hope to defeat. Even if you spot a map tower or a shrine in the distance you want to reach, you might fail to get there. There are lots of potential barriers to making progress in this game. Those count for a lot in Breath of the Wild. But you can always fast travel back to the known world - your comfort zone - and if nothing else you’ve gained experiences. You might get lost, and it might feel like you’re not making progress. You’re guaranteed to see something that piques your interest, whether it’s a distant shrine, a mysterious island, or a massive dragon flying through the sky. Find a high vantage point and just look around.
And part of going on an adventure is getting lost. But the story of the game - of you playing the game - is about going on an adventure. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ’s story is about Link waking up after 100 years and reclaiming Hyrule from Calamity Canon. It might not tell you exactly where to go, but it will be in the right ballpark. The one you have selected will put an objective marker on your map and in-game radar. The quest menu lets you flick between main story, side and shrine quests with the right analog stick. To look at the quest menu, go to the inventory menu by pressing the + button, and press left. It’s not a nice trick, but it will hopefully teach you a lesson: Use the quest menu. Even if the game hasn’t selected the wrong quest for you, sometimes looking at where you’re going can help your goals feel more attainable. Yet that’s the one it selects for you, which leads many players to feel like there’s no obvious place for them to go next. One is what you should do next, while the other is a much longer-term goal. After you speak to Impa you receive two new main quests. There’s a point in Breath of the Wild, just after you get to Kakariko Village, in which the game basically tricks you into getting lost. Make sure you have the right quest selected
It can be easy to get lost in this dazzlingly expansive new version of Hyrule. That game handed you a sword and told you, essentially, “good luck.” Breath of the Wild quickly gives you a multitude of tools, from bombs to a paraglider, but the message is effectively the same.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the most open-ended game in the series since the original Legend of Zelda over 20 years ago.