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Hyrule Warriors, come out to Play! Let's Play HW Definitive Edition!

Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

In the spirit of another 25 video milestone, today we're going to slip into a new map in Adventure Mode: The Master Quest Map. I feel like if they'd called the map the 'Second Quest Map' then the NES Zelda fans would feel right at home, since this map is based on the Second Quest in the original Zelda. Though I suppose the term Master Quest for a 'remixed, harder quest' came into play with Ocarina of Time. In the Wii U version, the Master Quest map was the only place to get weapons for Cia, Wizzro, and Volga, but with the revamp to the maps in the 3DS and Switch versions now the Master Quest map is the home to most of the Lvl. 3 weapons.

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Sure, it looks like the Adventure Map, but a few minor details will give away that this is the Second Quest rather than the First. While the map looks similar, the difficulty spread is a little different, so let's look at the color spread:

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My goal in this video was to focus on just the starting white area, but the map doesn't let me just make a march along that path to the location of LEVEL-1, so there's a little detour.

One other quirk of the Master Quest Map is that most of the levels are levels from the Adventure Map. Actual copies of those levels, but the Master Quest rules add in new quirks. Also we start to see Weapon-Swapped Commanders: Warriors using weapons that aren't theirs, like Zelda using Link's Knight Sword or Lana using Cia's Staff. But since we won't be seeing a lot of new battle types, instead let's discuss the special Master Quest Rules that are using to make the stages more difficult:

Speed Run! Clear the map within a time limit. This is basically something you strive for anyway, since A Ranks require a quick time.
No Healing! You can't use your Potions or Hearts to heal. The normal damage caps for A Ranks persist.
No Guarding! Guarding will not protect you, so avoiding hits is more important.
No Item Attacks! Items like the Bombs or Hookshot cannot be used. Often paired with obstacles like Deku Babas.
Don't Get Hit! The ultimate glass cannon mode where you don't want to get hit. A Clock pick up item will help.

 
Adventure Mode - Great Sea Map

Heading into the chunk of weapons waiting in the orange zone, we can finally have Tingle and Fi catch up with rest of the Lvl. 2 Weapon crew as well as finish off all of Lana's weapons. The difficulty is rising in this area and Lana's stage gives us a very good example of how letting the enemy army boost morale and not taking out their Rally Captains can make things quite difficult! No new battle types today, mainly more difficult versions of stuff we've seen.

Just to keep track, the remaining Lvl. 2 weapons we don't have:
Great Sea: Volga and Young Link
Master Wind Waker: Medli
Koholint: Linkle's Boots
Grand Travels: Toon Link's Sand Wand
Lorule: Ravio and Yuga

Sorry with the erratic schedule lately, with the recent move as well as my work schedule having been equally erratic, it's been difficult to get gaming time in, but hopefully now things will be getting settled.

 
Adventure Mode - Lorule Map

Since we're so close to having all the Level 2 weapons from the Great Sea, characters like Ravio and Yuga have been falling behind the others since their weapons are off in Lorule. Fortunately, we already unlocked our way to the locations of both their weapons, so today our goal is to capture a bunch of keeps to get the Lvl. 2 Rental Hammer and Lvl. 2 Picture Frame. Capturing a bunch of keeps isn't an exaggeration, both weapons have the mission goal of controlling six keeps to finish the starting mission.

As a bonus we unlock the Bombfish fairy food, which normally wouldn't be found until the Twilight Map.

 
Adventure Mode - Great Sea Map

Now we're getting into some of the weapons I've been dreading going after. Volga's Lvl. 2 Dragon Spear is still in the orange zone of the Great Sea Map, but it is a Volga only map that requires taking down the Imprisoned after a standard stage, so there is a time crunch, and Volga is already a character I'm not great as. Which is why... we don't get the A-Rank today. Actually a bit of a theme, that's not the only A-Rank we fail to get.

So to be fair, Volga isn't a bad character, I'm just bad at playing him and decided to refresh myself on his combos after the fact. Volga is very offense based and can bypass enemy guards, so hopefully on a future attempt I can play him better.

 
Adventure Mode - Great Sea Map

Continuing where we left off last time, Volga's Lvl. 2 weapon awaits, so with a little editing so you don't need to see the whole stage, I put my refresher on Volga's skills into play to take down the Imprisoned decisively! With that task complete it's time to head into the difficult Blue Zone of the map surrounding The Tower of The Gods. With difficult maps in head we work towards that Tower and Young Link's waiting Lvl. 2 Fierce Deity Mask. But that one is a doozy that will be seen soon enough...

Some oddly named battles this time!

Adventure Battle: Prove you're more than a pip-squeak!
This Turncoat soldier battle is oddly named but I suspect the name comes from how Young Link is the final boss.

 
Adventure Mode - Koholint Isle Map

Taking a break from Great Sea, we have three other maps with Lvl. 2 Weapons: Koholint for Linkle's Boots, Grand Travels for Toon Link's Sand Wand, and yet unseen Master Wind Waker Map for Medli's Rito Harp. So today's goal was to get Linkle's Boots, and then scope out the locations of Linkle and Marin's Lvl 3. weapons for a future trip.

What I did not expect though... was that we would find the exact same battle type.. again and again and again. I could not have planned this if I had tried, but this video is apparently the 'shuffling forces' video. At least in one stage that wasn't that battle type, we found the Great Fairy Tears fairy food, which if ignoring DLC maps wouldn't be found until the Twilight Map.

Costume References! (these are from a list I found, but I'm not sure on these two...)
Koholint Isle
Toon Link - Tarin
Wizzro - Mask-Mimic

 
Adventure Mode - Grand Travels Map

And then there were 3 Lvl. 2 weapons left. Today we'll take a trip to Grand Travels to grab Toon Link's Lvl. 2 Sand Wand, and start the beeline toward the nearby Lvl. 3 version as well. But before that weapon, we have to struggle with a Rupee competition that we struggle with before played into elemental weaknesses (even without an A Rank we can at least advance). The Phantom Hourglass sand falls to the bottom of the hourglass and the curse causes A Ranks to be needed to travel... but a Spirit Train item card can bypass that curse and we can advance a little. Still, the stages in Grand Travels seem to be the hardest to deal with for our pack of Lvl. 2 weapons.

With the Sand Wand obtained, that leaves just two: Young Link and Medli. Medli requires traveling to a map we haven't seen yet, while Young Link is guarded by a doozy of a Giant Boss stage. So the question is... where will we go next?

 
Adventure Mode - Great Sea Map

Today comes the stage I've been dreading. The stage that was a severe bottleneck for me on the 3DS version originally. And a stage that you must A-Rank in order to reach the stage with Young Link's Lvl. 2 Mask. So what is this stage? Nothing that outlandish sounding: it's a 'Defeal all Giant Bosses in time!' map. We've done a bunch of those. Well, the catch is: the bosses.

Phantom Ganon. The Imprisoned. And Ganon. What a beefy trio of various incarnations of the King of Evil throughout the series. (And the stage requires you play as Ganondorf, to boot!) So, we're gonna get bottlenecked, right? No Young Link weapon upgrade for us?

Well, it was a bottleneck for me on the 3DS because I didn't know how to deal with Phantom Ganon, but he's not too terrible. And really, once you know how to fight the bosses, it's a manageable, if tight, battle. Though in this video the game does troll us by not giving us a single boss drop from any of them. But honestly, once you know how to deal with the bosses, this is actually a prime place to farm them. (Ganon in particular only has a couple maps where he's not the end boss after a normal stage, and this is one of them)

With the bosses dealt with, we can easily move on to get Young Link's Lvl. 2 Mask, which is the final weapon on the Great Sea Map. And with our efforts on the DLC maps, there's only one more Lvl. 2 weapon left: Medli, who's Lvl. 2, 3, and 4 weapons are on the as of yet unseen Master Wind Waker Map.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Wind Waker Map

A chance of scenery this time? Well, in a way, but really the Master Wind Waker Map is basically 'The Great Sea again', though with some of the Master Quest Map effects mixed in. It also has different overworld music, and instead of your starting square being Windfall Island you start from Outset Island (and Outset Island is also the home of the Final Battle of the map). While the new 'Endless Night' rules are similar to the 'Master Quest Rules', since the map was made for the 3DS version which included the My Fairy mechanic, the rules were reworked.

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As you can see the map itself isn't different. Wind Waker itself didn't have a Master Quest or Second Quest like Ocarina of Time or The NES Legend of Zelda so they didn't have a blueprint for changes, but that doesn't mean they didn't rework stuff.

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With the difficulty spread you can see that we're kinda doing the map in reverse order, but I like the conceit that both Great Sea Map and Master Wind Waker Map start you right next to your end goal but with the natural barriers and items keeping you away.

Let's show off those Endless Night rules now!
Speed Run! Complete the battle within 20 minutes.
No Healing! You cannot use potions, and no healing items will appear.
No Guarding! Guarding will not protect you from enemy hits.
No Fairy Magic! You cannot use Fairy Magic.
No Special Attacks! Defeating enemies will not fill the Special Attack gauge, and no Force Fragments will appear.
No Focus Spirit! Magic Jars will not appear, so you will be unable to fill your Magic gauge.
No Fairy Skills! You will not be able to use Fairy Skills.

Compared to the Master Quest Map, most of those rules are here, but we have new rules preventing Special Attacks, Focus Spirit, Fairy Magic, or even Fairy Skills (the skills like Extreme Gusts or Glass Cannon that our fairies have built in but we haven't used much).

So why are we here? Let's rewind back to the 3DS game for a bit. At launch of the 3DS version, Master Wind Waker, Koholint, Grand Travels, and Lorule were not included. Medli was added as a character at the same time as Master Wind Waker DLC, but she wasn't part of that DLC, all players got her as a character. But like the other DLC characters, all of Medli's weapons (with one Switch exclusive exception) are in one of the DLC maps: the Master Wind Waker map, which is also the only map with Medli Heart Containers. Basically, this map treats Medli way Koholint treats Marin or Grand Travels treats Toon Zelda, but Medli still shows up in the other DLC maps as an NPC because every player had her as a playable character. (The Switch exclusive weapon is her Lvl. 4+ weapon that is found on Grand Travels, since all the 3DS DLC characters didn't have 4+ weapons on the 3DS and they were added into the Switch version). So since Medli is the last Lvl. 2 weapon we've come here to grab it. There may not be a lot of weapons on this map, but there are Skulltulas and Heart Pieces, and a large number of costumes.

As for the map itself, the starting area might have Endless Night Rules but nothing terrible and the white and green areas of the map are still fairly easy.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Wind Waker Map

Since the starting area of the map is going so well, that Lvl. 2 weapon isn't far away now. In fact, it's not just that, but Lvl. 3 isn't going to be too far away if we beeline for it. Which I guess is a theme, having the strength to do the surrounding stages also helped with making some progress toward weapons on the other DLC maps even if we hadn't actually gotten them yet. Curse my attempts to keep video lengths consistent in the Adventure Mode!

One other thing we find that I didn't expect was the Water Fruit fairy food unlock. I thought all the Fairy Food on the Master Wind Waker Map was the same as the Great Sea, and it is, but also has food from the Master Quest Map (In fact, there are a lot of Delicious Fairy Foods on this map, and some of them are ones I'm particularly interested in.)

With all the Lvl. 2 weapons earned, our primary unlock goals now will be the majority of weapons on the Master Quest Map, home of all the non-DLC Lvl. 3 weapons. Other goals are of course Skulltulas and costumes (including costumes back on the Adventure Map).

Some interesting new battle types!
Adventure Battle: Those birds are so soft! Do we really need to fight?
This battle is a lot like the festival of Cuccos map we saw on the Adventure Map with various Cucco events, but other winged enemies like Medli and Aeralfos are also here.

Adventure Battle: Claim revenge against your foes!
This is another of those maps where fighting takes place all around the map and needing to control morale.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

The Master Quest Map is home to such a massive ratio of weapons to stages that you'd think we'd be beelining for them right away, but before going for one I do finish the path through the starting 'white' area before going for a weapon. While most of the maps we'll see are just reused from the Adventure Map, we do occasionally see new stuff we haven't before. We also unlock the Mushroom Spores Fairy Food, an important one for our future fairy exploits. Volga ends up getting our first Lvl. 3 weapon, which I find amusing after how late in Great Sea his weapon was.

New battle type!
Challenge Battle: Guard the allied keeps with your life!

The gimmick here is that you have a handful of Keeps on the cusp of being captured, and you have to prevent it by taking out the captains threatening them. The version we see in this video is the most basic version, but it can get to be a bit of a balancing act since multiple keeps will get threatened at once.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

So I've already pointed out that Master Quest Map has the highest ratio of Weapons to Map Size, and this is a great example. After a quick detour to unlock the Water Bomb Item Card, we can snatch up Impa's Giant Blade, Zelda's Rapier, and Link's Knight Sword in quick succession. (Okay, technically we fail Impa's once, but we made up for it.) Link's Lvl. 3 Sword, the Magical Sword, is a particularly nice design to me, but so are the others. Though sadly, Lvl. 3, 4, and 4+ weapons tend to share the same design so we'll be seeing these designs a lot in the days to come.

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 1 & 2

Changing gears a bit, we're going back to Legend Mode to start snatching up the second Skulltula (or Hard Mode Skulltula if you prefer) for those stages, to work toward our eventual goal of 90 Skulltulas to unlock the final upgrade to the Apothecary and weapon skill drops in the Bazaar. In particular, the first two stages, "The Armies of Ruin" and "The Sheikah Tribesman" have the Skulltulas that will finish off our first Illustration in the Gallery, so while we don't HAVE to do these Skulltulas in a particular order I'm still going to do those two first. As a secondary bonus, both stages have Heart Containers hidden beneath Highly Suspicious Rocks that we missed the first time around, one for Link and one for Impa.

So like the second Skulltulas we've seen in Adventure Mode, the Skulltulas here have specific requirements to unlock them, but the second Skulltulas in Legend Mode have more complex requirements and also have character/weapon requirements. Furthermore the game doesn't directly tell you what the requirement is, they give you a vague description with some information blocked out, like "keeping all ??? at 50% or more health". Note that all of these Hard Mode Skulltulas can also be obtained in the harder Hero Difficulty as well but I'm sticking to Hard for now. Also note that you can collect these in Free Mode as well as Legend Mode, the only difference being that in Free Mode you can replace the secondary characters.

The Armies of Ruin
Requires: Link with any rank of Hylian Sword.
Hint: Use the ??? while repelling the advance of enemy forces.

This is easy enough, the missing information is the Great Fairy magic that you use during the storyline as it is. I think you also have to defeat the Lizalfos that advance near that point in the stage (normally Impa goes after them.) As a bonus Link needed his Heart Container from this level so we obtain that as well.

The Shiekah Tribesman
Requires: Impa with any rank of Giant Blade
Hint: Destroy all stone spires while keeping all ??? at 50% or more health.

The hint here refers to the three Bombchus that you escort throughout the stage. There's one at the beginning of the stage and near the end there are two others. As long as you keep close they shouldn't have enough time to take too much damage (and likely Wizzro is the only real threat to them). Like the previous stage, Impa was also able to get her Heart Container we missed the first time.

With those two Skulltulas, we now complete the first Illustration, and that unlocks a new map in Adventure Mode.... kinda. The Rewards Map isn't a standard map but instead just has a small handful of stages, one for each completed Illustration. The stage is general based on or inspired by the image in the Illustration in some way.

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Rewards Map - True Partners

As the first Rewards Map prize, True Partners is a fairly basic stage that features the characters in the picture. The gimmick is that each of the ladies starts out as the yellow army, but you can recruit the first one you approach into your army, at which point the remaining partners will join the red army and become opponents. You can certainly go with your favorite, or the one whos drops you might not be interested in, but there is an easy trick you can take advantage of. While they're in the yellow army at the start, the computer will attack the partners and wear them down. Midna starts in a keep fairly isolated compared to the others, so she doesn't get beat up as much. So you spend the start of the map cleaning up keeps and Bublins, and wait until most of the partners are worn down, then when you recruit Midna, the other partners will switch to the red army but keep their weakened health so you can mop them up quickly for drops and EXP.

Once you've defeated all the partners, the enemy commander is Dark Link, meaning every character in the picture is a potential material farm. It's also fitting that Dark Link is the final target, since our reward for getting an A-Rank is the Dark Link costume for Link. In the Wii U version this was a special costume that required buying the DLC bundle that included all the DLC for that version, before getting moved here for the 3DS and Switch versions. It's also worth noting as special reward stage that the base rupee reward for the stage is 25,000 Rupees, so aside from the material farming and EXP, it can be a decent farm for rupees as well.

The other costumes found in other stages of the Rewards Map are the Boss series of costumes, originally found in the Challenge Mode Boss Challenges on the Wii U, but were moved here because the 3DS did not feature the Challenge Mode.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

Back to Adventure Mode to focus on more Lvl. 3 weapon unlocks. While we had a pretty decent starting run, now that we're getting into the map a little, we're running into a familiar problem: We don't have the item cards to search the screens we can reach! One item card that will get a little more use in the Master Quest Map as opposed to Adventure Map is the Recorder, which is fitting since the item itself became more important in the Second Quest in the original Legend of Zelda (an early hint to how important the later musical instruments would be in the series?) Fi's weapon requires the Recorder, and Zant's will require the Stepladder that we can't obtain yet. Meanwhile, Link's Spinner has a different issue: We can search for the item, but the stage itself has the 'Don't Get Hit' rule, so I'm not quite ready to tackle it.

Nonetheless we make some progress, snagging Fi's Level 3 Goddess Sword (and the Pumpkin Soup fairy food), get some badges, and then we move into My Fairy. While I'm not ready to dive deep into raising a powerful Fairy companion for endgame yet, giving our current placeholder Fairies some low level foods we've stockpiled will let us power up our Fairy Magic (the area-of-effect attack that I tend to call Fairy Nukes in the videos) and the elements of the foods they've eaten will also give the Fairy Magic additional effects. Here's the elemental effects for reference:

Fire: Bombos - Lowers enemies' defenses.
Water: Ether - Boosts allies' defenses.
Lightning: Quake - Slows enemies.
Light: Shine - Continuously heal allies.
Dark: Shade - Continuously drains enemies' health.

These effects can be handy, with the healing effect being good for defense or Bombos making even Bosses easier to take down. I'm not minmaxing this yet, but give it a little time and soon enough we'll have some crazy Fairy shenanigans.

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 3, 4, & 5

Going back after those 2nd Skulltulas in Legend Mode today (except we're using Free Mode again just for fun). For today's stages, we've already got both the Heart Containers and Pieces from our previous visits so we can just focus on the Skulltulas.

The Sorceress of the Woods
Requires: Link with any rank of Magic Rod
Hint: Defeat all ??? and capture all keeps before the ??? is in danger.

Aside from capturing all the keeps, we have to keep the Deku Tree keep in the center of the map protected, and after Gohma is summoned, we also have to defeat all the Keep Saboteurs before the Deku Tree hits 50% or lower health. One thing to keep in mind here is that aside from normal attacks and the damage that Gohma and the Saboteurs can deal, there is also damage-over-time from the fire Wizzro causes.

The Sorceress of the Valley
Requires: Link with any rank of Hylian Sword
Hint: Find ???'s main body before the Allied Base is in danger.

This is one of the easier hints to decode, the boss Manhandla retreats at one point and then several Manhandla Stalks appear instead and main body is located with one of them. Once Manhandla is spawned, it will also cause damage-over-time to the Allied Base with seed attacks.

The Girl in the Green Tunic
Requires: Linkle (I believe you can use the Boots for this as well as the Crossbow)
Hint: Make sure 3 ??? turn ???

While playing through the stage, periodically Cucco Chicks will spawn looking for Feeding Grounds (specific areas of the map). As they arrive, monsters will spawn at the Feeding Grounds. Defeating those monsters will allow the Cuccos to change into Golden Cuccos.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Wind Waker Map

Today we work toward Medli's Level 3 Rito Harp. While we won't be getting it today, making progress across the map means we're pretty close for the next trip. Since the map is nice with simple quizzes and 'defeat all enemy' maps, it makes it easy to make a lot of progress.

We do have more 'new' battle types!

Adventure Battle: Grow your forces and face your foes!
The new name aside, this is another 'guard the Messengers' map type.

Adventure Battle: Pierce through enemy defenses
This is another map where you can recruit the yellow Resistance Troops to your army.

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 6, 7, & 8

We're back on the Hard Mode Skulltulas today with the goal of continuing the main storyline and getting the first level in each of the Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword arcs. None of these are difficult missions, but we do have a couple of Heart Containers we didn't have before, due to character limits or the lack of the Hookshot on a first visit, so there's a couple bonus perks.

Land of Myth
Requires: Sheik
Hint: Defeat ??? 2 or more times, and make sure you control at least 7 keeps when the Enemy Base opens.

As we play through the stage, eventually Darunia will spawn outside the Enemy Base and move to attack our base. Upon defeat, he retreats and refills his stamina by eating Rock Sirloin in the base. You have to defeat him twice before Impa triggers the story event that opens the base.

Land of Twilight
Requires: Lana with any rank of Book of Sorcery
Hint: Defeat ??? before ??? leaves the battlefield, then capture all keeps.

You have to defeat Midna before Cia leaves, which happens automatically when Midna confronts her. Notably, you have to wait for Midna to open the northern Bridge Keep before you can capture it at the end.

Land in the Sky
Requires: Link with any rank of Hylian Sword
Hint: Use the ??? while keeping ??? at 50% or more health.

You have to prevent Fi from going below 50% health up until the storyline triggers the Magic Circle at the Fairy Fountain to defeat Volga.

Current Skulltulas: 71 of 90 goal.

 
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Adventure Mode - Koholint Isle Map

Last time we were in Koholint we nearly got Linkle's Lvl. 3 Boots in the same video as the Lvl. 2, so grabbing them early on in this video is easy enough, making our next goal on Koholint to journey toward Marin's Lvl. 3 Bell. Like some of the other 'we have two weapons on this map' videos, even not getting the second weapon doesn't mean we don't make some nice progress across the map. All this legwork in the DLC maps will also pay off later when we shift our attention to the eventual Lvl. 4+ Weapon farm.

Another unexpected treat is another new Fairy Food unlock: the Light Fruit. This isn't one I anticipate farming, since it drops from Ghoma, but we might pick up some lower level ones from Bublins and Moblins.

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 9, 10, & 11

Back on the Hard Mode grind today, with another bonus of snatching the Heart Pieces/Containers we missed on the first runthrough. Like the last video, we're focusing on the second half of the Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword arcs. Though a lot of these require not hitting 50% health or lower, I swear in this video it gets a little screwy, with two Skulltulas I legitimately thought we missed the threshold for only to have them spawn in just fine afterward.

Sealed Ambition
Requires: Link with any rank of Magic Rod
Hint: Defeat all ??? and ??? in 10 minutes or less

This is basically a speedrun. The requirement is to defeat all the Turncoat Soldiers and The Imprisoned, once the Turncoat Leader appears defeating him will qualify.

The Shadow King
Requires: Midna
Hint: Defeat 3 ??? while keeping all allies at 50% or more health

Near the end of the level, 3 Keep Saboteurs spawn in and need to be defeated. I think they just picked a late stage spawn so the primary focus would be on keeping allies healthy. Notably your NPC Commander and your second player character (normally Agitha) have events that put them at risk. We also get Lana's Heart Piece we couldn't get in the first run (Since we couldn't play as both Midna and Lana in Legend Mode)

The Water Temple
Requires: Impa with any rank of Giant's Blade
Hint: Defeat ??? while keeping allied commanders and ??? at 50% or more health.

As we saw the first time through the stage, the end of map features a summoning of a unique Ocarina of Time skinned King Dodongo. Then it was optional, but here he's the defeat goal, while keeping Darunia, Sheik, and Ruto above 50% health. Ruto and Darunia have scripted events targeting them and early parts of the level require accomplishing goals to rescue her.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

Back into the Master Quest Map, aside from our goal of tracking down the Stepladder item card to access Zant's Lvl. 3 weapon, we make the trip to Second Quest LEVEL-2, here the home of Skull Kid's Lvl. 3 Ocarina. We also make progress to unlock access to Impa's Naginata as well as Tetra's weapons, giving us a nice set of weapons to pursue on the next trip to this map. We also get to see the dreading 'All attacks are devastating' 'No items' combo, where we can't use the Bow to snipe captains or even remove the Deku Babas in our way!

New costume references!
Great Sea Map
Ganondorf - Phantom Ganon

Master Quest Map
Wizzro - Blue Wizzrobe

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 12, 13, & 14
Time for more Hard Mode Skulltulas, as well as a couple bonus offline runs to get Heart Pieces. We start with the first two levels of Cia's storyline, before moving on to the home of the Master Sword.

The Dragon of the Caves
Requires: Cia
Hint: Destroy all ??? before they explode, and then defeat two ???

Easy storyline stuff here. When the Bombchus appear, you have to take them all out, and then defeat the two King Dodongos who are summoned.

The Invasion Begins
Requires: Wizzro
Hint: Defeat ??? twice without ever letting the Allied Base fall into danger.

Our target in this mission is Impa, who first spawns on the left side of the map, and then later spawns in the south and makes a beeline for the Fairy Fountain. The first Impa spawns with Assault Troops that will target the Allied Base.

The Sacred Sword
Requires: Fi
Hint: Defeat 2,000 enemies and repel ??? without any of the 3 warriors that wake the ??? being in danger.

The three warriors (Darunia, Impa, and Midna) need to wake their statues. I thought that the damage threshold was 50% (in trouble) but it's actually 25% (in danger, rescuable) and because of this misunderstanding I tossed out a still winnable attempt. Eventually a fake Lana (Wizzro in disguise) will appear and after defeating the fake, the three warriors will retreat upon activating the statues. When you reach the Master Sword, Wizzro will appear there, after doing 50% damage to him there he will be 'repelled' and retreat, causing the Skulltula to appear.

One other quirk about The Sacred Sword as a mission: the Heart Piece and Container here require playing as Lana and Zelda, respectively. You cannot get these during the first storyline visit because you're forced to play Link there, and you can't get them while getting the Hard Mode Skulltula either since you can only set one playable character. That means getting the Heart Piece and Container require a 3rd and 4td playthrough through the level! I took care of this offscreen but recorded clips to show the locations of both.

 
Adventure Mode - Grand Travels Map

A trip to another map, and an unusual Lvl. 3 Weapon that doesn't require playing as the character the weapon is for! The top area of the map houses the Lvl. 3 Sand Wand for Toon Link, which we are already close to grabbing, and then the southern ocean area features Toon Zelda's next weapon upgrade. Not only that, but a quick glance around shows that both Lvl. 4 weapons aren't too far away. For today, Toon Link is the goal, and progress toward Toon Zelda is a bonus.

Definitely starting to see some struggles in the Grand Travels Map when only using Lvl. 2 weapons, as well as seeing the difference in damage with Lvl. 3 weapons. Something to keep in mind.

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 15 & 16

Getting into some of the longer stages focused on battling Cia now, and a couple levels with missing Heart Containers and Pieces. No longer having Link as a forced main does mean NPC Link will sometimes follow his script and advance things, but this is something we want sometimes.

A War of Spirit
Requires: Zelda with any rank of Rapier
Hint: Make sure Impa, Lana, Midna, and Fi ??? after ??? vanishes.

After progressing through the story, you have several scripted Dark Link encounters, before the 'final' Dark Link encounter where you get locked in the Sorceress's Keep. After finishing that part of the story, the NPCs will start to retreat to the West Garden. You have to keep them alive throughout the stage so they will count for retreating here. Your second playable character (normally Darunia) also has to reach the Keep so that Midna will retreat.

We also took the opportunity to get Impa's missing Heart Container here. There is still a Heart Piece but I'll save that until we upgrade the Apothecary so we can farm silver ReDead drops in the process.

Shining Beacon
Requires: Lana with any rank of Spear
Hint: Defeat ??? 2 or more times and open the Enemy Base while keeping ??? alive.

We have to defeat Volga twice while he's able to respawn, and not let any of our Allied NPCs flee. Notably I have to redo this level because hitting Volga with the Magic Circle does not count as defeating him AND after doing so Zelda will convince him not to use Cia's power and stop him from respawning. After defeating Volga for real, the center path and Enemy Base open allowing you to get the Skulltula once the story dialogue catches up.

Like the previous level we also grab Midna's missing Heart Piece. Meaning that with the exception of the Heart Piece in Shining Beacon I addressed above we've got all the goodies from Legend Mode in the stages we've replayed.

Current Skulltulas: 81 of 90 goal.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

Once again I am reminded that the Master Quest Map has the highest weapon to map ratio in the game. Why am I reminded of this? Because I started today with a handful of characters I was expecting to go after weapons for, and instead ended up getting two completely different weapons instead! A quick circle in the southwest of the map lets us snag Lvl. 3 weapons for Tetra, Young Link, and King Daphnes (while still leaving Impa's Naginata and Zant's weapons easily accessible.)

Not only do we get a nice collection of Lvl. 3's to add to our growing collection, we have another unplanned treat in this game. We hit the southwest corner of the Master Quest map. And why is this a treat? Simple. If you were to google 'how to level up fast in Hyrule Warriors' this map would come up. Is it the most prime place now? I'm not entirely sure, but it certainly was in the Wii U version, and decent enough in the 3DS version (though I think the game was slower to spawn in trash mobs there). But for my opinion, while there may be later maps that are comparable, this one is easier to access.

So why is this southwest corner so nice for farming? Aside from being a red difficulty map, you get a bunch of commanders and Giant Bosses to farm, including two Manhandlas and an Argorok, and lots of Magic drops to help fuel Focus Spirit and Fairy Magic attacks. Throw in EXP+ on a weapon and (eventually) an EXP boost potion and you can grind out a few levels here. If you were to try to min-max, you can take your strongest character, grind them out, and use the rupees from the stage and from selling weapons to boost your weaker characters. Plus we're still at a point where drops from the bosses are needed for badges. The only 'catch' is needing to clear it for an A Rank with Skull Kid to open up the map for other characters, but since we already have the Lvl. 3 Ocarina that's easy enough. In today's video we got 3-4 levels and didn't even fight the bosses as efficiently as we could have!

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 17, 18, & 19

Heading back into the Skulltula grind today. Today we focus on the 'Ganondorf' storyline set after Cia's defeat, where Ganondorf and his army reclaim the Triforce from Lana, Link, and Zelda. Yes, I realize that we still have unfinished bits of the Cia and Linkle Tales, but don't worry, we'll be getting them soon enough too.

One thing I enjoy about the requirements for some of the Hard Mode Skulltulas is how they take events that weren't required in the original and making them the task you have to do to succeed. Just a fun bit of game design to me.

Ganondorf's Return
Requires: Ganondorf
Hint: ??? all imprisoned monsters ??? and defeat 2 ??? before they join up.

Like with Linkle, I'm not sure if these Skulltulas can be obtained with Ganondorf's Trident or not, but I opted to use Great Swords for each of these stages since each of the maps has Darkness as a Recommended Element. As for the hint, we have to free all the yellow monsters sealed in prison camps before they are forced to join the red army. At the end of the stage, Giant Bosses come in and we have to defeat two of them before they 'notice the fighting' and team up.

March of the Demon King
Requires: Ganondorf
Hint: Defeat all ???.

The hint this time is the least helpful thing ever, but it's a simple enough task. Our goal is to defeat all the Impa copies when they appear. The catch is that defeating the real Impa will stop you from being able to defeat the fakes. As pointed out during our first trip through this stage, the fake Impas are equipped with the Naginata while the real Impa uses the Giant Blade. So you defeat all the Naginata Impas first, then when the Giant's Blade Impa is the only one left you can defeat her.

Battle of the Triforce
Requires: Ganondorf
Hint: Defeat ??? before she enters the ???, and defeat ??? and ??? a combined total of 4 times.

This is the 'slaughter everyone' Skulltula! First, you have to defeat Impa when she spawns before she reaches the Fairy Fountain (which I think you're not supposed to fail anyway?) and you have to defeat Link and Zelda 4 times. I'm pretty certain this doesn't count the Link that's on the map at the start, just the duo that spawns at the end of the map. Defeating them both at the same time ends the stage so you have to stagger their defeats until you get the Skulltula to spawn. (Because you have to wait on dialogue I'm not sure if the original Link at the start counts and the game was just slow, or if it hadn't spawned until I defeated them one more time.)

Current Skulltula Goal: 84 out of 90

 
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Adventure Mode - Termina Map

It's video 100, which means tradition means a 25 video milestone, and that means special shenanigans, so we are jumping into one of the two Adventure Mode maps we haven't visited: The Termina Map, based on Majora's Mask. This was the final map released in the Wii U version and the only Map to have multiple background music themes: one for each Day in Majora's Mask. We start at the end of the Third Day, with music to match. Let's have a look at that Map, shall we?

9Zu7DNQ.png


One quirk I like about both the Termina and the as yet unseen Twilight Maps is that they have weird shapes, working to fit the map from their source instead of just trying to take up the entire grid. So while the maps are in 8x16 grids like Adventure Map, it's not a full 128 stage map. In the case of this map in particular I think that's fitting, but before we go over the gimmick of the map, let's look at the color spread.

kOp6WL8.png


Looking at the color spread makes the progression very obvious. Clock Town making up the White section, with Termina Field as the Green area leading to the four cardinal directions and main areas of Termina.

The main gimmick of Termina Map is that we're doing the timed, Three Day loop from Majora's Mask. Our very first trip starts at the end of the Third Day with only 3 hours left, but following the crash of the moon and the reset of the clock, we start at Dawn of the First Day with 72 hours left. Each time we enter a stage, we spend an hour, and at the end of the 72 hours the map resets... again.

There are some ways we can control this. Special Ocarina item cards will let us 'slow time' to add more hours to the clock, and even after a reset the map will remember searches we've done and record the ranks we've earned for progressing along the map. And there are special Owl Statue tiles we can activate to keep those particular tiles from resetting at the end of the cycle. But also it's entirely possible to complete the map without a reset (aside from the original 3 Hour reset at the start). In fact, on the Switch version where we can buy item cards, it's easier than on the Wii U or 3DS!

On a general gameplay note, Termina Map also features a boosted rate of weapon drops from stages, and is home to about half of the Lvl. 4 weapons (splitting the difference with the Twilight Map). Also, some of the stage types we see here technically debuted in the Termina Map but were retroactively added to Great Sea later.

 
Legend Mode / Free Mode - Hard Mode Skulltulas 20, 21, & 22

Today we're heading back to Free Mode for more Skulltulas, taking a detour to the Linkle storyline that we skipped stages in before, to hit up Linkle's visits to the Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword, and Twilight Princess stages. If it seems odd that I put these off, it's simple: the Ocarina of Time stage has an annoying Skulltula, and you'll get to see why.

One thing that I scienced out for these stages: Linkle's Boots weapon does count for Linkle's maps here, so we can use the Lvl. 3 Boots instead of our Lvl. 2 Crossbows just fine. Which likely confirms the same for Ganondorf's Trident. Let's get into the stages!

Powers Collide
Requires: Linkle
Hint: Make sure the Enemy Base opens before the Allied Base or ??? are in danger.

We have to protect Darunia in this map. The catch is that we start with Darunia outside the Temple and need to escort Engineers to the door to get out, and then the rest of the map Darunia is chasing after enemies on his path to reach Volga, getting ambushed by Lizalfos. The big bottleneck for me is that the Engineers being escorted means sometimes the NPCs will just not travel when we want them to run ahead. Leading to a first time failure as Darunia hit 25% Danger just as I opened the door. There are enemies that target the Allied Base but it is going to be Darunia that gets in danger far before the Allied Base does.

The Demon Lord's Plan
Requires: Linkle
Hint: Defeat all Ceremonial Troops, ??? and The Imprisoned.

After the last stage, this one is so simple in comparison. The missing clue is the Controller Troops. So basically, defeat all the named units! The only catch is that Ghirahim will attack near the end and you can accidentally defeat him before getting the last handful of Imprisoned inside the temple.

Her True Self
Requires: Linkle
Hint: Make sure the Enemy Base opens before ??? is in danger

Like the Darunia stage, we have to advance through the map before Zelda hits the 25% Danger threshold. Unlike Darunia, our progression isn't slowed by escorts, so it is a lot easier in comparison. Zelda also just seems capable of taking care of herself more since even while she's locked away in a Keep with Dark Twili Midna, she doesn't seem to take too much damage.

With these three Skulltulas in hand, we're at 87 out of that 90 goal. So what happens at 90? For starters, the Apothecary upgrades to the final tier, giving us access to big potions like the Lvl. 3 versions of Weapon Rank, Slot, and Star skills, and the highly valuable Material Master potion that boosts the chance for captains to drop their Silver materials or commanders to drop their Golds The other reward for hitting 90 Skulltulas is that AUG weapon skills, skills with a 4,000 KO lock, start dropping on weapons. These have powerful skills like Hasty Attacks, No Healing, or Special Attack+, high end skills for our eventual endgame weapon builds.

 
Adventure Mode - Master Quest Map

Early on in our trip to the Master Quest Map, we found the location of Zant's Lvl. 3 weapon... and then we went off in the opposite direction of the map. So let's head back to the coastline on the east, where we'll finally collect Zant's weapon, and a trip along the coast leads to Lana's Lvl. 3 Summoning Gate and Agitha's Lvl. 3 Parasol as well. I'm personally very amused that Summoning Gate is our first Lana weapon but bring it on! We also find the location for Ganondorf's Lvl. 3 Trident for a future trip.

One surprise that happens is I've started getting weapons with a 'purple' locked skill for 10,000 KOs. I thought this skill didn't drop for us yet! We can't actually unlock the purple locks until we power up the Master Sword, which requires all of the Lvl. 3 weapons to unlock, but it contains the Legendary weapon skill which is a flat boost that makes the base attack power of a weapon to one slightly higher than a Lvl. 4 weapon, regardless weapon rank. It's worth noting that instead of 10,000 KOs, in the Wii U and 3DS version it was 25,000 KOs! Not a skill I intend to use in one of my endgame builds but it might be to other's taste.

Next time: will we finally hit that Skulltula goal?

 
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