Reminder: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild DLC Pack 1 Hits Next Week
In all of the E3 hoopla, it’s easy to miss pertinent news, especially when it concerns a game that’s already been released. For those that missed it, the first DLC pack for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released next week, on June 30.
This first half of the expansion is called The Master Trials, and will include Trial of the Sword. This is similar to the Cave of Trials found in previous Zelda games, except a bit more elaborate. This time around Link will be stripped of all of his equipment and weapons. He’ll have to battle all of the enemies in the room to steal their items and become stronger. Once all of the monsters are defeated he can move on to the next room, of which there are about 45 sections to clear. Once successful, Link will unlock the true power of the Master Sword, allowing it to stay powered up while usable.
Many other new features are being introduced with this expansion. Hard Mode will allow you to take on enemies that are more difficult. They’ll slowly regain health if you don’t constantly do damage. Each enemy is powered up by one level, and those dreaded silver monsters are now golden! In addition the game adds enemies in the sky that can snipe you with arrows, so watch out!
Perhaps the addition I’m most eager to try out is the Hero’s Path Mode. When enabled it will show the path that Link has walked through Hyrule for the last 200 hours of gameplay! This will hopefully allow me to explore even more areas of the world that I overlooked the first time through.
A new item called the Travel Medallion will allow Link to register his current location as a fast travel point on the map. This can come in handy if you want to instantly warp back to hard to reach location.
Finally, there are 8 new treasure chests scattered around Hyrule that contain new armor. Now you can roam around the countryside looking like Tingle! A new Korok Mask will shake and make noises if you’re close to a Korok Seed location.
The second DLC pack, The Champions’ Ballad, will launch later this fall. It will include a brand new dungeon, an original story, and even more new challenges. Both packs are included with the Expansion Pass for $19.99, which you can purchase right now.
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
