The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Master Trials will set you back $20 as part of the game’s Season Pass.
Today, Nintendo has detailed the contents of the first DLC pack for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Called The Master Trials, the pack contains an assortment of new game modes, and new items, including a “hard mode” that is sure to give fanatics a run for their money. It’s available exclusively as part of the game’s $20 Season Pass, which comes with one additional DLC pack.
Here’s a full rundown of what you can expect when the pack launches later this year:
Trial of the Sword: By accessing this location, you can challenge the new Trial of the Sword (previously known as “Cave of Trials”) where enemies appear one after another. Link starts without any armour or weapons, and if he can defeat all of the enemies in the room, he can proceed to the next area. Trial of the Sword will include around 45 rooms in total for players to complete. When Link clears all of the trials, the power of the Master Sword will be awakened, and it will always be in its glowing powered-up state while usable.
Hard Mode: Fans looking for a new challenge are in for a treat with the new Hard Mode. In Hard Mode, the “ranks” of enemies in the game are increased (i.e. Red Bokoblins change to Blue), and you may even encounter higher-ranking enemies you won’t find through normal play. Enemies will also slowly recover health in battle, forcing you to defeat them more quickly, and will more easily spot Link as he approaches them, making them tougher to sneak up on. In addition, floating planks held aloft by balloons will be scattered around Hyrule. By successfully reaching these planks, players can battle enemies and collect treasure.
Hero’s Path Mode: Exploring Hyrule is exciting, but with such a large world it’s sometimes hard for players to remember where they’ve been. To help with tracking progress, the new Hero’s Path Mode will document every step players take and mark their path in green on the map. The route taken will be tracked for the player’s last 200 hours of play time, with an included slider to track footsteps on a timeline. This even works retroactively, so players that have already put many hours into the game will be able to see where they have travelled. This feature will help identify locations in this vast world that haven’t been visited yet, and may help players find those Shrines they haven’t encountered yet.
Korok Mask: By finding the new Korok Mask, players will have a much easier time finding Korok locations in the game. When equipped, the mask will shake, indicating that a Korok is hidden somewhere nearby.
Travel Medallion: There will be a new treasure chest somewhere in the game world, which contains the Travel Medallion. With the Travel Medallion, players can create a temporary new travel point on the map where they are currently standing. Link can then transport himself to that point at any time. Only one Travel Medallion travel point can be registered on the map at a time.
New Equipment: Eight new pieces of equipment inspired by previous characters and games in the series will be added to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild after downloading the first DLC pack. Once discovered by the player, they will yield equipment themed after fan-favourite games and characters such as Midna, Tingle, Phantom and Majora’s Mask.
Additionally, a free software update for the game has just been rolled out, allowing players to change the game’s audio language while keeping English as the on-text language. This means, for example, you could change the audio language to Japanese with English subtitles.
