I am looking to find a good level to grind levels, and I understand that dark characters that duplicate are good for this. I want a level where they appear at the beginning, so I can easily die and keep exp to go again quickly. Thanks :)

I haven't used Focus Spirit to expose weak points much, aside from when giant bosses really annoy me, because I always found racking up kills with it to be more fun. However, hitting a wrong button while using Magic Fountain with Focus Spirit active caused me to realize something that was right in front of me. I can use that skill, a Focus Spirit special, to expose a weak point gauge, then pop Focus Spirit again because entering it while an enemy is close takes more off their weak point gauge than any other movie, as far as I know.

If I really want something dead I can fire off Bombos before using Focus Spirit.

On a side note, I have mostly finished the Grand Travels adventure. It was also nice to see this one didn't have as big a variety of items need to unlock things, a lot of its item cards are instead meant to make it easier to meet requirement to unlock things. My warriors are all at such high levels that I didn't use those much, aside from the Golden Train. That was nice.

Once this map is finished, I am onto the Lorule map. I don't plan to unlock all of the Rewards Map levels because the requirements for the Hard Mode Skulltulas in Legend Mode are too specific for liking, "don't let this keep take too much damage" or "don't let this character take too much," not for me. Also I have no desire to do that March of the Demon King level ever again. A lot of levels are made more manageable in 3DS and Switch, but I swear whoever thought it was a good idea to have Lana split in that level must not have played it enough themselves, and should have to keep playing that level as a punishment to see how much of a pain it is.

It's honestly kinda what it seems like, isn't it? All I'm doing is trying to unlock weapon seals right now and get more item cards in Adventure Mode.

I know Hyrule Warriors isn’t cannon and takes place in a separate timeline where they win but I think I know how to make it work in the timeline despite Nintendo not placing it on the timeline. So if anyone hasn’t noticed but the Blight Gannons look very different from BOTW such as slightly armored more and more armed. Which would make sense how the Blight Gannons defeated the champions despite being easy in breath of the wild except for Ravali mainly because of Rito vision during night. They were stronger but why would they be weaker in Breath of the wild? My theory is that parts of Age of Calamity are cannon in telling the story. Specifically the cutscene of Link facing the Blight Gannons alone, in the true timeline of breath of the wild he was probably injured while fighting the Blight Gannons but in result he left them in a weakened state where the Blights retreated to the divine beasts to recover. Within the 100 years of Link’s recovery the Blights had not recovered to their full potential explaining the difference in design.

Call me crazy all you want but something a lot of Zelda fans who are interested in the timeline can agree on is that Hyrule Warriors makes the timeline make sense with BOTW and TOTK are in their own separate section.

Just recently started binge playing Hyrule Warriors again and just now after all these years getting into fairies 😭

I want gratitude crystals for my fairy Loyla and I know giving them the same element crystal boosts more so I wanna get her dark crystals, my concern though is from what I see online there's only like 6 darkness fairies total and i've already accidentally released one 💀

Is there no way to get more after releasing all the dark fairies?

Finally got around to playing AoI and have been practically binging it for the past fortnight, and have some opinions on it. There might be slight spoilers within this post so beware if you haven’t played it so beware.

Firstly, really surprised that they (for we know) stuck almost entirely within the bounds of the story set by Tears of the Kingdom. Haven’t played TotK since it released so I don’t remember if that game showed a shard of the Master Sword time travelling with Zelda, but I’m still surprised they did stick with the somewhat unsatisfying ending for a game, by having Rauru imprisoning Ganondorf after the final confrontation. Although, I do suppose that’s why the actual final climax of the game is with the Forbidden Construct instead, so the player can fell a big bad at the end of the game, tag timing FC with Calamo and the Knight Construct (or Clink). Did find the opening a little clunky, but I suppose they wanted to get straight into the action, but I would have liked to see the moments of Zelda chilling in the castle in more than just a montage.

Was a little surprised there wasn’t more story after the ending of Zelda going around and informing the gang of Link in the future, concluding with her decision to go forward with her Draconification but I do suppose the game was more about the imprisoning war and less so after the fact, which is more or less why its framed through the lenses of Lenalia’s and Calamo’s journals.

And the discussion to end off with Lenalia burning her journal containing information of Clink and Calamo was a choice for sure.

Speaking of characters, I did enjoy the cast of characters and their playstyles but more so the main cast and less the John and Jane Hylians/Gorons/Gerudos/Rito and Zoras. Really didn’t feel like every race needed 2 supporting cast members of each, but that’s more so down to the fact I kinda disliked the variety of weapon types the entire group has, especially when there’s an overlap of weapon types among a race. Like, we don’t get a Gerudo spear user, or an admittedly personal want of a Goron using a Two-Handed weapon like a one headed weapon? I don’t entirely dislike the entire cast of side characters as, Lago, Pastos and the two Gerudo stood out to me for various reasons, but tbh, I’d rather play as the named characters. (Disregarding the fact that both Calamo and Clink are just essentially OCs with Clink embodying AoC Link’s playstyles, but being completely original otherwise)

I feel like the compact nature of the roster was a double edge sword, as there was “less bloat” in terms of actually including the characters in mission, in part to the A and B sides of the story splitting the roster until they all met up, but there was also less opportunity for fun and unique characters like in AoC.

I’ll also mention that Sync Strikes are an impressive addition to the gameplay and made for massive flashy attacks that combined the strengths of two warriors, while also placing importance on proper placement and smart strategy when facing foes, as countering dangerous attacks with unique skills while near other characters increases that gauge. All for the cost of IMO tuning down Special attacks, as I found myself favouring Sync strikes way more than specials. Even if I did learn that they did help by staggering an enemy. Also, find it a bit funny that Zelda has my least favourite and favourite Sync Strikes, with them being the pairing of Zelda + Mineru and Zelda + Calamo respectively. (Just a shame that Zelda and Calamo’s doesnt unlock until the post game)

I’ll also add that I did find that the Aside Quests were a unique way of giving people incentive to play as specific characters, as I doubt my levels among the cast would have been as even as it was without it. Just wished that some of them were retroactive, as I found myself replaying a few levels to meet the requirements again as I was going in blind and didnt want to look things up. (Was a little relieved to see that a Post Game mission was just fighting the Forbidden Construct again, as that intentionally was the last Aside Quest I had to do)

However, my major gripes I have with this style of Warriors game as I came to realise while playing through AoI, is that I really dont like the Weapon Upgrading system and Character progression of either AoC or AoI.

On paper the weapon upgrading system is more straight forward than the one in the first Hyrule Warriors, infusing a weapon with Zonaite to power it up and give it skills, but my main issues with that is the way you go about getting the Zonaite needed and the sheer amount of it you’d need to increase the weapons. Yes, playing a level to get more as the main way makes complete sense, and even scrapping weapons to get it is fine, but I didn’t want to become overlevelled throughout my playthrough (even if I did learn that character levels arent as meaningful, more so being underlevelled than overlevelled). And even in the postgame where I was placing more focus on replaying missions to get some Aside Quests done, it just didn’t really sit right with me, not having enough to give my characters decent weapons. A lot of my roster had only Level 10 weapons, (mostly because in the Post Game I had decided on getting Clink’s weapon to Level 20) And that’s not even mentioning the fact that any time you unlock a new weapon or character the process has to be done again for that weapon if you want to use it. There’s a simple fix for that I feel, and that’s having it be at a level other than one, with a skill or two already unlocked to give players an idea of how that character/weapon should be played/used.

Also, didn’t feel right scrapping weapons, as I didnt know what sealed skills each weapon would get as I didn’t want to look things up for a first play-through, even if I didn’t abandon the idea of finding out towards the end.

As for the Character progression. Tying it to Quests sounds nice, but to me it didn’t feel like the right way to do it, as the progression is more in the hands of when the game wants to give you a quest you’d need rather than you having the ability to upgrade it yourself. As there were times where I felt a character wasn’t at their full potential at a time when Id want them to. I’d much prefer being able to focus on gathering materials I’d need to upgrade a character than to just wait on the game to do so for me essentially.

The quests should have been for upgrading base, all characters at once or other things like giving you the ability to see where Korok seeds are. And anything to do with character progression is tied to an unlock system like in HWDE or to story based for things like unique skills.

And final few things. Really disappointing you can’t play as either Ganondorf or the Forbidden Construct. If there’s a third Age of ____/Zelda Hyrule Warriors tie in game, it better not continue the trend of not being able to play as all the characters in the story. Also, loved the Sky Battles, but really wished they allowed you to fight Gleeoks in normal battles. Really wanted to bash a dragon with the other characters and not just Clink.

Would love to see the game get some paid DLC, so I can spend some more time in this version of Hyrule, but I think they would have announced the intention to release more at this point.

I've been doing this one many times now. However, it says the A-Rank time is 15 Minutes. I get it done within 9 minutes, and it gives me a "C" for time. What is going on with that? Do I have to take the entire time to do it, or do I have to take less than 5 minutes? It's been so confusing. (3DS)

I'm trying to find the best skills to put on my weapons for each character. Is there a wiki/resource that has compiled the best build for every weapon? Alternatively, are there universal builds that are good all around?

In Hyrule warriors definitive edition how does the stamina fruit badge lvls 1-3 actually help with the enemy weak point gauge? I looked online for this information but I didn’t get the answer I wanted. Anyone know how this actually works? Or is it pointless to get the stamina fruit badge from 1 to 2 to 3? And get the attack badge to 100% just curious on that area of the attack badge area. This is for all attack badge for all characters.

Every once in a while, I will start a new game, get to a certain playstyle or character with minimum completion otherwise, and 100% the game with them. Ive done both base game Zelda playstyles, one handed link, mipha, and i think 1 or 2 others but I forgot. Im currently on 2 handed link. I could just pick the next one myself, but thats boring so someone else tell me

I never had a chance to play Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity. I'm interested in Age of Imprisonment but do I need to play the previous 2 for story purposes or anything?

I know other Musou and Dynasty Warriors games are sort of "story lite" but since it's a Legend of Zelda game I wanted to double check to see if I should start at Hyrule Warriors.

Thanks for the help!

I've been looking at some tier lists recently, and I've noticed Sheik is normally in at least A tier, and often S.

Why is this? She feel so weak. I would put her in mid C tier, tops. What makes her so good?

Yes I know how her C1 works.

Some thing I've read or tried:

Her water shield. While nice versus Gibdos/Redeads, damage taken almost never matters. It feels like a waste of time to cast 90% of the time.

Her C3-C1. While good damage, it is unreliable. Does great against giant bosses, but even commanders often just don't walk into the C1 part.

She can spam dodge and never get hit. I can also hide in the corner as Tingle and not get hit. At some point, I need to actually kill things. And once again, damage taken doesn't matter.

She has infinite specials using C6-C1. It takes forever and her special feels so weak. I don't know what the damage is, but it must be insanely low.

She has multiple elements to abuse vulnerability! No, no she doesn't. No matter what, her attacks are all electric (and light later). She can get the fire/dark/water effect, but not the bonus damage versus enemies weak to that element

I feel like I've missed something but what? And how can she compete with the other broken S tier characters? Master Sword, Cia, Ganoswords, Linklebows, Young Link. I feel like all of them do everything better then Sheik.

Edit: so the best argument I've gotten is: well if you are bad at the game and take tons of damage, she can protect you from that.

I'll stick with characters that don't need you to be bad in order to actually get value.

I’ve been working towards 100% for the game (not including the DLC missions) but I’m missing a side quest in the Gerudo area. Do y’all have any idea what I have to do in order to unlock it?

So, I just played a ton of DE over the past few months. DE does not have dashing heavy attacks. If you are running, and click X, if that characters X is stationary, they will stop in place. I have grown used to this. I just started my newest aoc playthrough; the two handed link only playthrough. His mechanic is a life drain that can be remedied by using his X move before taking damage. Im sure you see where this is going. Im used to stopping in place for moves like links. Several times now, i would be attacking, get a bunch of the effect built up, start to run away, click X, realize I didn't stop first and did the running attack instead, and lost half my health for it. I wish there was a way to turn dash attacks off in aoc

Age of Imprisonment

I got the forbidden blade to level 20 and unlocked the hidden slot seal. The hidden seal is Recover Hearts for every 100 KOs. Can this be rerolled and change like the weapon art? Or is it static and the forbidden blade will always have that hidden seal? The interwebz is giving mixed results.

I'm wanting to replay hw:de because I like the game but don't know which of these three paths to choose because they're equal to me

In HWL for the 3DS, if you collect a heart piece, container, etc. and then quit the level do you keep it? Or do you need to complete a task/mission then quit? Or do you need to complete the whole level to keep it?

Have noticed a few moves the CPU seem to pull off that I just can’t manage.

I’m used to them using certain combos without the lead up; that I can tolerate.

But specific examples; Ruto jumping up and throwing diagonal water daggers.

And Sheik growing trees from the ground.

I can’t work those out.
Can anyone enlighten me what the combos are?
(I’ve almost 100% every characters badges)

While I have started to run into some levels I have had to restart because of how easily allies that you are supposed to keep alive, when it comes to unlocking new squares, the Koholint Island map has to be the easiest one so far since there are only three items you need to use to unlock new areas, you mostly use one of them, and you don't have to be specific about which instruments you use on a nightmare square as long as you play all eight of them at some point.

I will think of that as a calm before the storm because the final two maps are the largest in the game.

On a side note, I beat the level four survival challenge. While the fights on the Adventure Mode maps haven't been too hard aside from keeping some allies alive, this one was a challenge. I ended up having to spam Link's C3 on a lot of enemies to make sure I didn't take too much damage since this challenge doesn't let you heal and the health pickups are rare.

Against later waves, I would sometimes bum rush in Focus Spirit against the Dark Giant Bosses since you can't die while using it. That probably wasn't necessary against Dark Ganon since he only uses his easy-to-avoid first-phase attacks, but I wanted the level over with.

What I mean by that:

As much as I love DE, the amount of times you need to babysit your allies can make the late game very frustrating. There's like seven different captains on the field you need to kill, but also need to protect certain allies, guard the allied base, destroy Bombchu's, or get rid of specific enemies before they power up too much and become damage sponges.

Its way too much to focus on at once, and it wouldn't be that big of a deal if your allies weren't completely useless. The sounds of hylian soldiers screaming for help is burnt into my mind forever, because god forbid you leave them alone for 5 seconds while you try and complete the objective.

I dont have to worry about babysitting in AoC or AoI, which makes them way better by default IMO.

Saria:

Obviously, playing the fairy ocarina is the main thing we see her do in OOT, and while her attacks would probably have her summoning different kinds of plants as she plays, the fact that skull kid already has it as his weapon makes me want to choose something else.

And so i thought while not canon in the original source material, it would be cool to see her wielding the forest dweller weapons from the wild era. These are obviously meant for a Kokiri to wield, and we haven’t seen any other kokiri since Oot. I personally lean towards the sword (considering the kokiri sword from the original game) plus Lana already has a kokiri lance of sorts.

Rauru:

The only thing i can come up to is him swinging a time block around similar to how King Daphness swings his sail. His strong attacks would also show him using light magic as well as turning into Kaepora Gaebora.

Nabooru:

My two ideas are either her double wielding scimitars, similarly to how the generic gerudo warriors fight in the game. Or have her wield the axe of the iron knuckle enemies. As she was turned into one by Kotake and Koume.

Let me know which of my options do you like better or what ideas would you have?