A different kind of challenge run: Minimalist 100%
Part 3 – Cash and Koroks
The reason I wanted to go to the desert was Urbosa’s Fury – obtaining it early means that theoretically all other enemies in the game can be defeated without ever using up durability again. However, gaining access to Gerudo Town had one major flaw: I was broke AF and needed 600 Rupees for the disguise to be able to enter Gerudo Town in the first place.
Since the objective of this run is still to NOT pick up (and/or sell) any not-absolutely-mandatory items, I had to find another way to get cash: Minigames. And since those are scattered all across Hyrule, I also took the opportunity to go on a Korok Puzzle solving spree while I was travelling all over the place anyway.
The deer hunting minigame in Hateno doesn’t have an entrance fee and doesn’t force you to equip something specific – killing the deer with bombs works just fine. However, I am still notoriously bad at that whole “bomb launching with a wind gust” thing so the results were awful, and you don’t exacly get rich with this minigame either. I gave up after I got enough cash to pay entrance fees of other minigames, and moved on to the Footrace minigame in Tabantha.
The Footrace costs 20 Rupees per try. If you lose, you gain nothing, and if you win, you get 50 Rupees, which is at least easily doable for me but still took forever to get enough cash.
Other minigames are sadly not really viable ATM:
– Horseback Archery & the Hurdle Jumping minigame both require a registered(!) horse, and since registering a horse is optional, I won’t do it.
– Snowling requires Lv.2 cold res which I do not yet have – or very precise timing and a lot of saving & reloading just to not die. The first strike may also award you a Blizzard Rod, which would make me obtain an unnecessary item.
– The shield surfing courses require cold res as well and might reward you with optional shields.
– The Flight Range target practice requires me to clear Vah Medoh first, which I have not yet done.
– The Paraglider Course and Bird-Man research require a lot of stamina (or windbombing) and stamina upgrades / Endura food is out of the question.
– Boom Bam Golf is awful and requires the use of melee weapons to stasis-whack boulders around.
– The “carry the ice” minigame would require me to start and halfway finish an optional quest (The Perfect Drink)
– The gambling minigame in Lurelin is possible to do without further item usage, but since you have to open a chest every time (and thus temporarily delete an item from the game), it is not exactly the most elegant solution. It also requires a lot of savescumming and/or luck.
At the moment, the Footrace & Deer Hunting minigames seems like the best option to consistendly “generate” cash without using up / consuming other items.
… of course there are also a lot of treasure chests containing silver/golden rupees all across Hyrule, but opening those permanently removes the chest in question from the game. And of course there are also a lot of quests that award you with a lot of cash easily (for example selling a wild horse to that guy in the desert canyon) but this clears optional quests, which I want to avoid.
As for the Korok Seeds:
– To easily keep track of which Korok Puzzles I’ve already solved, I used the Zeldadungeon Interactive Map https://www.zeldadungeon.net/breath-of-the-wild-interactive-map/ which I find highly convenient. It shows you the location AND solution to the puzzles and even displays the path you have to follow for the “flower trail” puzzles and the timed races.
– In the vanilla game, the two Korok Puzzles with the hurdles are only possible to clear with a horse, not with any other animal or by just jumping over the hurdles yourself – obtaining a horse is absolutely mandatory for 100% but registering it is optional.
– If you have the DLC, you can also clear those 2 puzzles with the Master Cycle Zero which skips “having to” obtain the horse. However, you can not use the MCZ as an alternative for the Korok Puzzle Boulders, and it also needs fuel to be able to move, which either consumes further items or renders the MCZ useless as soon as it runs out of juice.
Additional information:
– Equipping an ice-type weapon works like Lv.1 heat res and will keep you cool during the daytime. The same goes for fire-type weapons which work like Lv.1 cold res while equipped.
– You can also cool down by staying in the shade, or by “being wet” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcddh2FzU_I
– How the “bomb launch wind gust” thing works (thanks to u/_pe5e_ for the explanation) https://www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/mtgy2u/who_needs_bomb_arrows/gv1shtr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
…and also a special thanks (again) to u/Gerbil715 for all the super helpful in-depth help so far! 😉