The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild First DLC Announced
And just like that, the Breath of the Wild hype has kicked up again.
Nintendo has announced (via Nintendo Wire) the first DLC pack for its open-world action-adventure title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Entitled "The Master Trials," the upcoming DLC is bursting with interesting new items, though it goes sans new story elements, and is due out this summer. Nintendo also teased a second, yet-unnamed DLC that does include an additional story chapter, but fans will have to wait until the holidays to get their hands on it.
The Master Trails and the currently untitled DLC are available for purchase on the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U for $20 USD. However, players cannot buy the two packs separately, as they are only sold via the game's Expansion Pass.
The DLC package tacks on all-new gameplay modes such as Hero's Path that documents where players have touched foot and how far they've progressed along the map. Nintendo expounded upon a few details regarding Hero's Path: "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 traveled. This feature will help in identifying the locations they haven't visited in this vast world, and may help players find those Shrines they haven't encountered yet."
Additionally, The Master Trials introduces Hard Mode, which makes slaying your enemies much more difficult. All opponents have been leveled up, and will slowly but surely boost their health back up for another round or two of battle. Particularly precarious enemies may pop up on floating platforms, and can target Link more easily in this mode.
Also bundled inside The Master Trials DLC are the new Trial of the Sword challenge, a Travel Medallion, spiffy new armor, and the Korosk mask, which shakes when players approach a hidden Korok seed.
Previously known as the "Cave of Trials," the Trial of the Sword apparently unlocks with in the Korok Forest with the Master Sword, and sees Link stripped of his armor, tools, and weapons. Our tough but tiny protagonist will have to best hordes enemies room by room, only able to progress once one area has been completely cleared. Link will navigate through 45 rooms in total in Trial of the Sword, and as soon as you've beaten the challenge, the "true power of the Master Sword will awaken and always be in its glowing powered-up state."
The DLC's Travel Medallion is a unique item hidden inside a chest located "somewhere in the game world." Any player who snatches up the mysterious Medallion will be gifted the power of travel, as they'll be able to set their current location as a travel point on the map. "Link can then transport himself to that point at any time. Only one travel point can be registered on the map at a time," Nintendo explained.
Finally, the Master Trials DLC introduces eight new pieces of equipment, all inspired by past Zelda installments and their characters like Midna, Tingle, Phantom, and Majora's Mask. Nintendo released a few sneak peeks at the upcoming equipment, which you can view below.
Korok Mask
Majora's Mask
Tingle's Outfit
Phantom Armor
Midna's Helmet
Nintendo also announced (via Polygon) a multi-language audio patch, which allows fans to play the game with a subtitle language different from the audio output language without changing their system settings.
No additional information on a set release date beyond summer 2017 has been announced for The Master Trials. Details on the second Breath of the Wild DLC are expected soon. While we wait to hear more about these two expansions, check out the small details in Breath of the Wild only true fans noticed.