Before we begin diving into this memory, I have a confession to make: I still have not really played Breath of the Wild, and at this point, I might never fully play through it. I’m aware of how much this hurts my Zelda-related credibility, but I’m not the biggest fan of open world games. This is mostly because I hate missing things, yet also want to get to the story and do not generally have 1000 hours to spare on a single game. Plus, my main skill in Zelda titles usually relies on having weapons and shields that do not break. So an open world game full of things that can kill you immediately and weapons that frequently break is not my particular cup of tea, no matter how spectacular the game.
Fortunately, my wife is also a huge fan of the series, and she recently started a playthrough of Breath of the Wild, which means I got to experience it for the first time. This has resulted in a now-thorough appreciation of how amazing the game is (after she defeated Calamity Ganon, I spent a week convincing her that now would be a great time to start playing Tears of the Kingdom), and there is one memory I’ve collected from her playthrough of the game that I would love to share today.
While my wife was the one playing and I was her dutiful watcher/person-in-charge-of-telling-her-to-heal, there were certain moments where she would hand me the controller and say that, since it was an easy area, I could just run around and have fun. Given that Hateno Village and its surrounding area is not occupied by particularly dangerous enemies, I agreed. However, I refused to use her “good” weapons on the small Bokoblins I was about to encounter, despite her insistence that I could. Perhaps this was not the best decision, given that the available arms I was able to take up without leaving the area were a Farmer’s Hoe and a Wooden Mop. But hey, she told me that dying was of no consequence, so I was out to have fun!
Thus my first foray into the sprawling Hyrule of Breath of the Wild began. Several Bokoblins thought they could easily do in a hero frantically trying to smack them in the face with a mop, while others realized just how dangerous the hoe can be at very precise distances. I wouldn’t say I was doing particularly well, but soon I had claimed some of their primitive weaponry after only dying once.
Then, as I was wandering down a hill looking for some kind of mushroom my wife needed for a quest, I spotted something in the distance I wanted to explore: a small ruin, sure to be full of treasure, just ripe for the plundering. My wife had assured me that she had cleared this area of all formidable foes, so it was with confidence that I ran right in, still armed with my almost-broken hoe.
As a result, I was truly not prepared for the small group of Moblins inhabiting the ruins.
After attempting to fight for about three seconds, losing my farming tool/weapon while dealing almost no damage, and running away as fast as Link’s legs could carry him, I managed to scale the nearby cliff and escape their wrath. Only one Moblin had managed to follow me to the bottom of the hill, but since he could not climb the small section of rock that separated us, I felt safe. Safe, and ready to plot my revenge!
Of course, direct confrontation was out of the question. I had died once against a lone Bokoblin, so a group of Moblins was unlikely to fall against my meager skill set, even if I used the superior weapons available to me. But there was another resource — and an unlimited one at that — readily available from my perch above my foe.
See, I had learned how to operate Remote Bombs while watching my wife play. To be more specific, I learned about the round variety that possessed the ability to roll. So my plan was to roll one down the hill, wait until it was within range of the Moblin searching for Link just below the cliff, and explode it with expert timing. Excitedly giggling at my ludicrous playstyle and ready to avenge my beloved Farmer’s Hoe, I dropped the first Remote Bomb, watched it roll towards the behemoth below, and cheered as it exploded right in his pig face!
Yes, the damage done was less than expected, and yes, actually defeating all three Moblins stationed in those ruins did take a long time (in fact, I died once due to accidental self-explosion while trying to lure the last of the three to my hill), but in the end, I had my revenge. Plus, I learned through experimentation that bombing a tree once knocks it over, sometimes on top of the enemy’s head, and following it up with a second bomb turns the tree into a collectable amount of Wood.
In the end, my journey to wander around and have fun was a successful one, although it resulted in many more explosions and a larger amount of forest destruction than expected. But this meant that, by the time my wife was ready to purchase Link’s House and needed several bundles of Wood, I knew exactly how to acquire all that she needed. The answer, as it almost always is in life, was to bomb the trees while running away from Bokoblins.
