Hello, and welcome to another episode of Hyrule Myths! The show where we waste dozens of hours solving the most inconsequential mysteries in a single video game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild rethought many of the series' long-standing traditions and implemented a lot of new ideas. One of those new ideas being the ability to climb almost any surface in the game. Effectively making walls more of a suggestion than a road-block. In today's episode, I chronicle my journey to throw this feature in the trash and play Breath of the Wild as the old-school Zelda game it could have been. I made it my mission to beat this game, with the true ending, without climbing. First, let's lay down the rules. Climbing walls is banned. But what is "climbing"? Specifically, I define climbing as this specific animation where Link uses the stamina bar to traverse vertically. Anything that doesn't use stamina is allowed, including Link's automatic getty-uppy animation and ladders. Also, just to save on time, if I accidentally enter the climbing animation I just drop back to where I was before climbing, instead of reloading my save. Because otherwise, this run would be 10 hours of loading screen. And, just for funsies I added on some stipulations: only three hearts and one stamina wheel allowed; no clothing allowed; if not no clothing no pants allowed and no waterfall swimming. And we'll talk about how those went when we get there. Honestly though I can't really think of any real problems we'll run into in this challenge. After we get out of the first cave it'll just be a long walk to... Ohhhhh. W- We have to get, OUT, of the first cave. [Breath of the Wild Story Trailer music begins.] [Music fades away.] Real talk, that was the run. Like I said after you get out of the first room that's kind of it. Almost all the required locations in the game, the devs don't require you to climb. And that's why I decided to make things harder on myself. First, Zora's Domain. I decided that the main path to Zora's Domain, approaching from the South, was not allowed. Instead, I had to enter the domain from another direction. Zora's Domain is surrounded by Mountains! But here's where I can show off one of the most important techniques for this run. If a wall isn't completely vertical, there's often parts of it you can stop and rest on. You just have to search for the little bits of wall that are less vertical than the others, and with enough Determination and a keen eye you can walk up a mountain, and meet a very perplexed Sidon. To trigger the plot here, we have to wear the Zora armor, so a no clothes true ending run is unfortunately not possible. But, next up Vah Ruta. Also, unfortunately, Vah Ruta was inherently designed by the developers to require the waterfall climbing ability. You have to hit the weak points with thunder arrows and you have to climb the waterfalls to get to a vantage point to shoot them, so begrudgingly, I threw those waterfalls in the trash! Hey, hey, Aonuma! Stop babying me. You think I don't know how to arch an arrow? You think this is my first Zelda rodeo? Puh-leeze. I did my victory lap, beat Waterblight Ganon, and threw Mipha in the trash! Yea- yeah, just out of curiosity to see what happenes, I decided to just beat the boss... and then leave the champion souls to suffer in pain and torment forever. I consider myself chaotic-good. Next up: No-Climb Gut Check Rock! No. Heading up to Vah Rudania, I think this is where the run kind of shines the most, in showing how much better some sections are when the walls actually act as walls. See, normally leading around Yunobo, you can beat every section one singular way Climb up the wall next to sentries and murder them, but you can't do that. You got to be more creative. Either make a path up the wall which is at least more difficult than holding up or, actually try stealthing around these guys. Suddenly the game turns into friggin' Metal Gear for a few minutes It's awesome, and definitely the highlight. This section gets flack from the community for some reason but honestly leading around Yunobo is one of my favorite sections of the game. Then I threw his grandpa in the trash. Next! Okay, this is just a personal gripe. About 10,000 people in the Strem chat want to know. [Posh Accent] A no-climb run you say? Then HOW do climb the towers? I don't. The towers are 100% optional. Why would I? They're just a waste of time. That said, I love wastes of time, so what I did was abuse campfires. They make updrafts which will let you get most of the way up. I thought I was finally stuck at a last platform, but then, lightning struck! No tha- no I uh no, that was it. Literally, lightning struck, lightning struck the tower and created a better updraft, which let me get up. So to answer the question, how do I get up towers? Pray and hope for the best. That legitimately works! Vah Medoh doesn't actually involve anything special much at all, nothing to cover there, other than throwing Falco in the trash. Oh yeah! Sergeant Neigh is just as badass as Clucks before him. Speaking of horse, along the way to the desert I learned a new technique: horse climbing. Horses are like Nature's trampolines. Always keep one in your back pocket. And did I mention horses are actually exceptionally skilled at climbing down mountains? [Whispering] Just try not to let them get stuck. Unfortunately though, my strategy of falling down cliffs doesn't work very well in the long run and I got stuck at the bottom of this chasm, but, ever resourceful I stole someone's boat, and converted it into an airship, but alas the saddest news of this entire run. In order to get into Gerudo City, you have to wear pants. Our dreams of a pantsless run, are unattainable. Quite honestly Urbosa, I'm just not up for this. Just, just sit in the trashcan, I'm going to go do something else. Oh, General Clucks bringing you to the ends of the earth for no conceivable reason always cheers me up. Now that we've finished all four divine beasts all we have to do is remember all links memories. Most of which don't require any climbing and the ones that do we just use the side of cliffs, no biggie. There is a bit of a catch though. One of the memories is locked behind, The Master Sword. The Master Sword requires 13 hearts to pick up. Seemingly making a three heart true ending run impossible. Now it technically is impossible, but by selling your soul to Satan you can just get the 13 hearts, grab The Master Sword, and then immediately sell those hearts to get back to the minimum. No gain, no pain. With all that done, it's time to raid Hyrule Castle and finish this run. Of course, I take the scenic entrance into the castle. Really the run is already done at this point. Hyrule Castle isn't exactly a mountain. See buildings nowadays are built with these things called stairs Which allow oneself to elevaaaaaooohhh. Like I said, buildings nowadays are built with with, doors! Which allow oneself to elevate the higher floors with ease. With that minor road block out of the way we can just bop Ganon on the nose and finish the game But wait Game Champ! The four champions are in the trash. Isn't this supposed to be a true ending run? Well yes, yes it is. And turns out, the game just doesn't care! As long as you got all the memories the champions can just sit in their tombs for all eternity. The game seems to think it's a happy ending. Honestly, Zelda seems pretty happy. I think maybe she just wanted Mipha to suffer. But, with the true ending unlocked, our no climb run is officially mission complete!
Take the Champions and throw them in the TRASH
Oh god...
The soundtrack made that a lot more entertaining than I'd thought it'd be.
Skyrim horses still better at climbing imo
The most amazing part was definitely getting out of the first cave. Ingenious.
this is beautiful
I'll admit it was cool, but that was way more than 0.5x A presses.
That is some fine video editing and quality gaming entertainment.
I dropped a key ball off a plateau on the deserted island and spent hours and 2 blood moons getting back up, but that's just...damn.