With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo has given up all pretense, and out and out made Zelda an RPG. With that comes the necessity to keep track of your weapons and gears- unlike older games in the series, where you only had a couple of swords and tunics, and each subsequent one was better than the previous one, there is a dizzying array of weapons and armor available here, and it is to your advantage to try and familiarize yourself with as much of it as possible.
BEST WEAPONS:
Unlike previous Zelda games, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lets you change your weapons. There are multiple benefits to doing so- your weapons and shields break over time (and there’s no way to fix them), which means you want to be familiar with as many different kinds as possible. Plus, each weapon controls differently, and has different attacks available to it- so, again, you want to try out as many different ones as possible to ensure that you find something more to your playing style. Plus different kinds of weapons, such as ranged or close range ones, can have different uses.
Most Powerful Clubs
- Tree Branch: 2 damage
- Boko Club: 4 damage
- Spiked Moblin Club: 27 damage
Most Powerful Spears
- Throwing Spear: 6 damage
- Soldier’s Spear: 7 damage
- Enhanced Lizal Spear: 12 damage
Most Powerful Swords
- Knight’s Broadsword: 26 damage
- Guardian Sword: 40 damage
- Royal Guard’s Sword: 48 damage
- Edge of Duality: 50 damage
- Royal Claymore: 52 damage
- Royal Guard’s Claymore: 72 damage
Most Powerful Boomerangs
- Lizal Boomerang: 14 damage
- Lizal Forked Boomerang: 24 damage
Most Powerful Shields
- Dragonbone Boko Shield: 25 defense
- Knight’s Shield: 40 defense
- Guardian Shield: 42 defense
- Daybreaker: 48 defense
- Savage Lynel Shield: 62 defense
- Royal Guard’s Shield: 70 defense
- Hylian Shield: 90 defense
Axes and Hammers
- Iron Sledgehammer: 12 damage
- Ancient Axe: 60 damage
Most Powerful Bows
- Knight’s Bow: 26 damage
- Royal Bow: 38 damage
- Forest Dweller’s Bow: 15×3 damage
- Royal Guard’s Bow: 50 damage
- Bow of Light: 100 damage
BEST ARMOR:
Then there is your gear- gear doesn’t degrade, but it has different effects. Some gear will let you survive the cold or the heat better, some makes you stealthier, some lets you swim up waterfalls, and so on. Once again, having as much gear as possible is to your advantage- it ensures you are equipped to deal with any situation.
Leg Gear
- Dark Trousers: 3 defense
- Trousers of Twilight: 3 defense
- Hylian Trousers: 3 defense
- Soldier’s Greaves: 4 defense
- Trousers of the Wild: 4 defense
- Ancient Greaves: 4 defense with guardian resistance
Headgear
- Moblin Mask: 3 defense with the ability to fool moblins
- Lizalfos Mask: 3 defense with the ability to fool Lizalfos.
- Lynel Mask: 3 defense with the ability to fool lynel.
- Dark Hood: 3 defense
- Hylian Hood: 3 defense
- Soldier’s Helm: 4 defense
- Diamond Circlet: 4 defense with guardian resistance
- Ancient Helm: 4 defense with guardian resistance
- Cap of the Wild: 4 defense
Body Armor
- Rubber Armor: 3 defense with shock resistance
- Snowquill Tunic: 3 defense with cold resistance
- Desert Voe Spaulder: 3 defense with heat resistance
- Soldier’s Armor: 4 defense
- Tunic of the Wild: 4 defense
- Ancient Cuirass: 4 defense with guardian resistance
- Champion’s Tunic: 5 defense
RUNES:
There are no items granting you special abilities to unlock further combat mechanics or parts of the world in Breath of the Wild– instead, right at the beginning of the game, you get four spells, known as Runes. These four Runes are all you need (and get) to be able to navigate any problem the game throws at yo- so it’s in your interest to be as up to date on these as possible:
Cryonis: Cryonis freezes water, and makes pillars of ice. You can use Cryonis to make vertical pillars, horizontal ones, and even ones right underfoot. Up to three pillars can be made at a time. You can shatter any pillar you made by aiming your reticle at it and selecting it. You can also use this ability to destroy any pieces of ice flung your way. You can use Cryonis to get to previously inaccessible places, raise obstacles, raise yourself over obstacles, and to raise hidden treasure, among other things.
Magnesis: Arguably the coolest ability in the game, Magnesis does what the name suggests, and lets you manipulate heavy and/or distant objects magnetically. There is no weight limit to what object you can use Magnesis on- this is likely to be your most used Rune, so make sure you are fully familiar with it.
Stasis: Stasis has a super cool concept- it freezes an object in time for a few seconds, which is great for maybe stopping a door from closing, or a depressed button from raising back up as soon as you get off it, but there’s more- while an object is frozen in time, you can hit at it. When you do, you give it kinetic energy that it stores. The more you hit it, the more kinetic energy it gets. When it gets unfrozen in time, that kinetic energy is unleashed all at once, moving it with an astonishing force. This is a super useful ability to be able to move heavy objects that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
Bombs: They’re bombs. You know what they do. The one change now is that you have a square variant (so they don’t roll down hills) that you can use, and that they don’t explode themselves- you can remotely detonate them.
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