Thanks to being a Wide-Open Sandbox that allows players to complete most of the game's events in any order they please, as well as having far more content than usual for a Zelda title, there was a lot for the developers to ensure that gamers can do anything in the game.
Characters, Dialogue, and Interactions
- During the trek through the Great Plateau, you're supposed to cook something for the Old Man that he'll trade for some warmer clothes (since one of the shrines is on a cold mountaintop). If you make it to the summit of Mount Hylia without getting the Warm Doublet, the Old Man will be amazed that you made it there and will just give it to you. There's even a third option: if you go to the Old Man's house after getting the paraglider and still haven't gotten the Warm Doublet, said clothes will be inside a chest (with the old man leaving a note in his diary with him saying that he's impressed you managed it).
- Shortly after completing the Oman Au Shrine at the beginning of the game, the Old Man informs Link on how to use the Sheikah Slate to fast-travel to areas that he's visited, including the top of the Sheikah Tower where the Old Man asks Link to meet him. If the player ignores this and climbs to the top the hard way, the Old Man will comment on this.
- The four main story quests have different dialogue depending on the order they're completed in. In particular, after the first, Link goes from hesitantly agreeing to try and calm the Divine Beasts to confidently asserting that it's possible. There's even dialogue variants based on whether you've got the Master Sword or not, starting with the first encounter with Impa onward.
- If you enter an area with a Divine Beast and trigger the cutscene without meeting Impa first, Zelda herself will instruct you to free the Divine Beasts.
- If you attempt to upgrade the Sheikah Slate or forge ancient weaponry before talking to Impa, Robbie and Purah will refuse to help you without her blessing.
- It's difficult (due to the endless rain) but very possible to enter Zora's Domain without meeting Sidon at Inogo Bridge. You'll get a fully voiced cutscene from him when you first enter the throne room, as seen here.
Sidon will act polite and encouraging towards Link normally, but he'll be dismissive (at first) and a bit distant towards him if you intrude on him in the throne room since he hasn't met Link yet and he's barging into the royal chambers uninvited. - Sidon also has specific dialogue for if you meet him at the bridge but manage to approach him from behind when you reach Zora's Domain. This is rather difficult since he's standing at the end of the bridge leading there. In this scenario, it's also possible to enter the throne room without Sidon present inside, at which point King Dorephan will be confused that Sidon didn't accompany you to the domain himself and ask you where he is.
- Before confronting Vah Ruta, Muzu informs Link that he needs to get at least 20 Shock Arrows by defeating the Lynel on top of Ploymus Mountain before taking on the Divine Beast. If Link somehow manages to have over 20 Shock Arrows when speaking to Muzu, then Sidon and Link will launch their attack on Vah Ruta straightaway, thus completely avoiding the battle with the Lynel altogether.
- Similarly to the above, "The Eighth Heroine" and "The Forgotten Sword" side quests consist in bringing pictures of specific landmarks in the Gerudo Highlands to an NPC called Bozai after he asks for them. However, if you already took photos of the first or both sights, Link will show them to him and complete the respective side quest(s) right away.
- There's an additional and easy-to-miss bit of Developer's Foresight related to those two side quests. In "The Eighth Heroine", Bozai lends Link the Snow Boots to help him traverse the Gerudo Highlands, but will take them away upon completion and Link will have to complete "The Stolen Sword" side quest in order to add the Snow Boots permanently to his inventory. However, what would happen if Link dyes the Snow Boots in Hateno before giving them back to Bozai? Will they revert back to their default colors after completing the second side quest or remain dyed? The answer is neither. The game simply won't let you dye the Snow Boots until they are actually Link's property. There's no special dialogue for this, though. You will simply get the default message about wearing non-dyeable clothes at the Dye Shop.
- Some characters react differently depending on how you talk to them. For example, Paya tells you to get dressed if you talk to her naked, and Purah tells you to get off the table if you speak to her while standing on it.
- Similarly, Link has special animations for different situations.
- His eating animation is visibly grossed out if he eats dubious food.
- If left standing idle when he's not wearing a shirt, he'll eventually flex and admire his biceps.
- If left idle at night, he'll come close to falling asleep several times before forcing himself to stay awake.
- When kicking open a chest from the side, he'll stub his toe if he's not wearing any pants (and therefore not wearing any shoes). Likewise, he'll hurt his hand by crouching near a chest and punching it open.
- If you attempt to use a sword or bow when none is equipped, Link will grasp the air where it would usually be and then look surprised when he realizes nothing is there.
- When you find a memory, Link will get the Sheikah Slate out and look at its associated photo, but the final memory's photo is on the wall of Impa's house, so when Link finds that memory, he just stands there looking around for a few seconds instead...but if you take a photo of the photo on Impa's wall, Link will get out the Slate and look at the photo of the photo, like he does for the other memories.
- The Gerudo Secret Club is a place where Greta illegally sells male clothing, and it requires a password to get inside it. So, if you change out of your Gerudo clothing in that place, the Gerudo guards will not be alerted that a man is in their town.
- In the "Perfect Drink" sidequest, when you deliver the ice to Furosa she'll be surprised when she realizes Link is really a man if he's not wearing his "vai" outfit.
- Similarly, if Link wears clothing other than his Gerudo Vai disguise when he meets Riju at the outpost, she has an extra bit of dialogue where she expresses some surprise at seeing what Link really looks like, commenting that she doesn't see voe very often since they're banned from the town.
- For the "Stolen Heirloom" shrine quest, attempting to run from the Yiga Blademaster will cause Dorian to yell at you not to leave and you'll respawn close to him.
- It's possible to light the Sheikah furnaces outside the Hateno and Akkala Tech Labs before being instructed to do so. Purah will be so excited, she'll forego her usual act of directing Link to Symin, and Robbie will immediately recognize Link without him having to strip down.
- If you rescue a traveling salesperson on the road from monsters, they'll give you one of their wares for free. If you check their inventory by buying something from them afterwards, the item that they gave you will actually be deducted from their stock.
- NPCs out in the field have different lines of dialogue depending on an impressive variety of situations. If you save one and then escort them to their destination (which is entirely unnecessary), they'll comment on it and thank you.
- Many an NPC will repeat themselves when talked to multiple times, but some will remember what you said to them when talked to previously. For example, if you ask Jerrin about her son, she'll ask if you have seen him. If you answer no, talk to her again, and then say yes, she'll call you out on it via muttering to herself that you just told her that you didn't see her son. She'll then proceed with her response as normal.
- Stablemasters will not register non-horses regardless, but have unique responses to unusual mounts:
- Riding a deer or bear to a stable makes them say "That's not a horse! We only board horses here, no exceptions."
- Riding the Lord of the Mountain to a stable makes the stablemaster refuse because he fears it will curse them. (If you try to sell the Lord of the Mountain to the guy who wants to buy a horse, you also get appropriate dialogue.)
- Attempting this with a tamed Stalhorse will do much the same, with the NPCs yelling about the monster. Justified, as all other Stal mobs are Always Chaotic Evil.
- The Master Cycle Zero will instantly despawn beneath you.
- Monsters usually stay away from NPCs, but if you manage to lure one close enough, every NPC has a unique response. Some will scream and cower, some will draw their weapons defensively, some will run away.
- If you manage to push a Guardian to an area with one or more NPCs — say, to a stable by using an object with Magnesis — people there will panic and scream about the Guardian.
- It's impossible to physically harm NPCs, but if you try to attack them they will physically jump and try to defend themselves. What's more, attacking Gerudo guards, armed Zora, or armed Gorons will prompt them to push you to the ground, though you won't take any damage. You can even Parry their attacks too, which is a great way to train your timing without having to risk taking damage by parrying actual enemy attacks.
- When Link wears the full Dark Link set, NPCs will flinch when they see him but soon resume their normal postures. The Phantom Ganon set available through the Champions' Ballad DLC has a similar effect.
- If the player meets the Horned Statue with zero upgrades to their health or stamina (despite being required to beat the Great Plateau's first 4 shrines), the statue will balk and tell the player to come back later, instead of taking a heart or stamina container from them.
- If the player is unlucky enough to have no room in their inventory for the Zora Armour, King Dorephan will remark on it and tell them to come back once they've sold something. Same goes for the Zora who gives you the Zora Greaves for the Lynel sidequest, as well as with Vilia at the Kara Kara Bazaar. The latter will even offer to buy armour from the player if they have no room to hold the Gerudo clothing necessary to enter Gerudo Town! Similar dialogue also exists if the player has no room for food in their inventory and completes a cooking sidequest in Kakariko Village or Lurelin Village.
Enemies
- The classic Cucco storm that happens if you strike a Cucco multiple times across just about every game in the series can also happen to enemies if you get them to strike the bird. The trick even works against Lynels (as shown here).
- If a Bokoblin is too far from Link to attack him in melee and doesn't have a bow, it will dig up pebbles from the ground and throw them at Link. These can be batted back to sender, and if a pebble and arrow intersect in midair they will deflect each other.
- Hinoxes are not normally placed near deep water, nor do they seem intended to be fought in it. However, they have a swimming animation. What's more, they can't swim indefinitely and will actually drown (and drop their loot) if they stay in the water for too long. And they have a special animation for when this happens.
- In the Stealth-Based Mission in the Yiga Clan Hideout, getting spotted by one of the Yiga Blademasters has three effects: closing the gate to the next room (preventing progress), spawning in two Yiga Footsoldiers, and alerting all Yiga Blademasters (who can One-Hit Kill Link) to Link's presence. As a result, it almost guaranteed that the player will get a Game Over...the key word being "almost". As shown in this video, if the player survives the onslaught and defeats all of the Yiga clansmen, the closed gates will reopen (complete with the classic "puzzle solved" jingle) and allow the player to continue onward.
- The Champions' Ballad DLC has a quest that involves sneaking back into the Yiga hideout to steal an orb while sneaking past Blademasters. Throwing the orb into their line of sight without being spotted will cause them to confiscate it like they do with bombs, but here the orb will respawn at its original location so you can still complete the quest.
- Kill an enemy that would normally drop some sort of raw meat with a fire or ice-elemental weapon, and it'll drop the roasted or chilled versions of the meat they would have dropped.
- One sidequest for the Champions' Ballad requires killing several flying and sentry Guardians. Unlike all the other guardians encountered outside of shrines, these ones aren't corrupted by Ganon's malice — just following their programming, so they appear with their original orange Tron Lines and the unupgraded Master Sword won't unleash its full power against them like it does against every other non-Scout Guardian in the game. This also applies to the Guardians in the DLC dungeon.
- Normally, Stalnox burrow into the ground at daybreak to hide from the sun, prioritizing this over continuing a battle with Link. However, should such a battle be ongoing at daybreak while the Stalnox's eye is outside of its skull, the eye will instantly be destroyed like lesser undead creatures are, killing the monster.
Dungeons and Shrines
- If you don't collect the Heart Container inside a Divine Beast before activating it (which prevents you from going back inside), you can still pick it up just outside when you return to it.
- The game offers multiple methods of solving puzzles and fighting enemies that the player may not think of doing at first. For example, you can use a board to cross a gap to reach a chest, or you could simply use Magnesis to transport the chest right to you. On that note, chests that are of any real importance, be they to a shrine or to the story, will be made of stone, rather than metal or wood. This is presumably to prevent players from trying to burn them or toss them off a ledge with Magnesis.
- If you somehow manage to solve the first shrines without retrieving the runes you're supposed to use to complete them, the monks will not allow you to finish until you get them.◊
- The Cutting the Knot solution to the Myahm Agana shrinenote was apparently discovered by the devs during development, and they decided to leave it in as another possible solution.
- One shrine quest near Zora's Domain involves striking a dais with a Ceremonial Trident to raise the shrine. The Ceremonial Trident is explicitly modeled after the original Lightscale Trident wielded by Mipha, so stabbing the dais with that will trigger the shrine as well.
- Metallic equipment can be used to make conductive paths for certain electricity-based puzzles. This makes it possible to complete Vah Naboris without finding the second power orb, among others.
- Find a clever way to get around a gate without actually solving the necessary puzzle to open it? If it is an enclosed room, the door will probably open up behind you so that you are not trapped inside. This can happen in Vah Naboris if you use some very well-timed gliding to get over a gate that normally requires powering two conduits to open (the same one can also be bypassed with metallic equipment). It will then slam closed once you leave the room.
- As much as the puzzles encourage outside-the-box thinking, there are some solutions that the game will refuse to let you use.
- Some shrines have to be activated by placing an orb in a pedestal. If the player attempts to circumvent the conditions necessary to acquire said orb by bringing another orb intended for a different shrine, they will find it doesn't fit in the pedestal. Because as it turns out, every such orb in the overworld is a unique size and will only fit in its own pedestal.
Environment
- The properties of wood, metal, and ancient technology apply for not just weapons, but for any object made of them: Wooden crates and treasure chests that catch fire will eventually burn away, and any provisions inside will be roasted (the loot inside chests, however, will be completely fine regardless of its flammability or lack thereof), metal crates and ore conduct electricity and will draw lightning strikes, and objects made with ancient tech will neither burn nor attract electricity.
- Fire works in incredibly dynamic ways that would give Far Cry 2 a run for its money. Wooden weapons can be lit on fire using fire sources such as torches or campfires, and even other on-fire weapons. This extends to arrows as well, which can also be lit on fire by dipping your arrow into the flame. As such, it's possible to create a makeshift fire arrow if you have a lit sconce or torch next to you. Putting these facts together, it's possible to take out an entire enemy camp's array of weaponry by creating a campfire and launching flame-tipped arrows onto their weapons, or even to light a campfire by firing an arrow and throwing a torch into the kindling.
- The game's physics are highly impressive, especially in conjunction with the weather system in place. For example, during a thunderstorm, lightning becomes attracted to metal. Wearing metal weaponry? Sparks will shoot off of them, a precursor to Link being struck by lightning. Since you get a few seconds of prep time before getting struck, a smart player may decide to whip out a metal weapon, use it long enough for lightning to try to strike it, and then toss it towards an enemy, setting the unfortunate sap to be electrocuted. You can also use Magnesis on a metallic object, drift it to a distant enemy (or even a balloon Korok puzzle!) within range, and watch the fireworks that way.
- Speaking of thunderstorms, if you watch the temperature gauge when you're struck, it'll spike to the "you're on fire" reading from Death Mountain (accurate, since lightning in the real world can reach temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun). If you somehow aren't being rained on when you're hit, you'll actually be set on fire and take burn damage for a brief period, which is easier to notice if you prevented damage from the original lightning bolt.
- The weather system is highly detailed and affects lots of different little things. It gets colder the higher you go in altitude, and rain makes rocks harder to climb as they become slippery. Rainwater will also pool naturally and evaporate when the sun comes out. And while rain is pooled under a dead Guardian with no legs (e.g., in the field west of Tarry Town), you can use Cryonis on the pool to flip the Guardian on its side for parts.
- Rain will make a Fire Keese's flames go out and eventually cause it to die.
- Temperature can affect ingredients. Dumping fruits, mushrooms, fish or meat in a frozen river or leaving them to lie around in a very cold area will cause them to become frozen, while dropping them in Death Mountain or exposing them to fire, such as by dropping them next to a campfire or hitting them with a burning weapon, will roast them; these effects can also be achieved when foodstuffs are exposed to fiery or freezing attacks from enemies. It's not surprising to find food inside crates that are already cooked or frozen from the extreme temperatures. This even gets lampshaded by a Goron chef who mentions that he's losing business due to his customers realizing they can just toss their food outside to cook instead of buying the food from him. These foods can no longer be used as ingredients, but restore more health; frozen foods will also impart temporary resistance to non-burning heat.
- Chuchu Jelly itself is reactive. Drop any kind in a fire or on Death Mountain, and it turns red. Drop it in freezing water or in a very cold area, it turns white; drop it in an electrical field, it turns yellow. (Lightning just evaporates them.) If you are willing to sacrifice a colored jelly, you can convert batches of four by dropping them as well as the colored jelly, and shooting the colored jelly with an arrow. The elemental field converts the remaining four. (Dropping more than five will just cause the excess to vanish.) Dropping a Chuchu Jelly in an enemy's path and shooting it with an arrow is a cheaper way to use an elemental attack without using an elemental arrow. Further, killing a Chuchu with an elemental attack will cause it to drop jelly of the color associated with the blow that killed it.
- Wielding a weapon with fire properties can keep you warm in cold areas, while wielding one with ice properties can keep you cool in hot areas.
- Elemental enemies take elemental weaknesses into account. If you use a fire weapon on an ice type enemy, it dies in one hit, and vice versa.
- If you manage to make too many objects appear in the game world, such as mass-harvesting trees or grass, it will attempt to automatically trigger a Blood Moon (known as a "Panic Blood Moon"), clearing the excess objects in the process. (This avoids the dreaded "Bethesda Bloat" that makes save files for Fallout and The Elder Scrolls too large.)
- Being near Death Mountain causes everything wooden to be set on fire. This includes Bomb Arrows, meaning an unwise player may suddenly eat an explosion to the face if they try to use them to kill something.
- Bomb Arrows are also affected by rain, as attempting to use them while in a downpour will snuff the bomb's fuse and simply have Link fire a regular arrow.
- Cryonis creates blocks of ice from a body of water, but it doesn't work in hot springs due to the high water temperature.
- Taking a dip in the Goron Hot Springs will leave Link wet enough to withstand the volcanic heat of Death Mountain without the need of fireproof armor or elixirs. However, this is very temporary, as once Link is dry he'll resume catching on fire. This also works if you get soaked in an oasis at Gerudo Desert to protect you from the heat of the sun, though he'll dry out just as quickly.
- Link will swim slightly faster when stripped to his underwear compared to wearing clothing (aside from Zora Armor).
- During storms, animals such as deer and wolves will take shelter under trees and in abandoned houses. NPCs will do the same.
- Leaving metallic objects over leaf piles to get struck by lightning during a thunderstorm will remove the pile like a fire would, removing the need to wait for the storm to end before trying to light it.
- Should wolves or bears spawn near herbivores such as boars, deer and moose without spotting Link, they will attempt to chase down and kill the herbivores. Likewise, most other animals will flee from wolves and bears.
Miscellaneous
- There are also less graceful examples the developers put in to make sure the player can't do certain things too soon or out of order.
- It's totally possible to safely leave the Great Plateau without the paraglider. However, Link will randomly shout out and collapse, teleporting you back.
- You can try to reach the Divine Beasts without doing the necessary story bits, but you will be forever stopped by the fact that they never properly load until you see those scenes, since, while the beasts are technically part of the main map, the dungeons themselves aren't. note
- You can't unlock the memories unless you talk to Impa about them first, even if you unlocked the photos that lead to the memories.
- If you somehow manage to drop the Master Sword after obtaining it (which requires a glitch, as it's a Clingy MacGuffin that you can't drop through normal means), it will return to the Lost Woods where you found it, complete with a unique message telling you as much. This is likely a leftover mechanic from a version of the game where it was possible to drop the Master Sword or where it was intended to always return to its pedestal on running out of energy.
- Despite there literally not being enough spirit orbs in the game to do so, there's dialogue if you talk to a goddess statue with max health and stamina◊.
- It's possible to obtain the full set of Rubber Armor (which provides immunity against electricity and even against lightning as a set bonus at level 2) before setting foot into any of the Divine Beasts, but the lightning around Vah Naboris is too intense to survive without the Thunder Helm to ensure that the player cannot skip the Yiga Clan hideout.
