Pro Tips for Mastering Mipha in Age of Calamity

When you think of a character you should always bring to the battlefield in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, you likely think Link, Zelda, or Daruk. Link, well, of course, because he’s the hero of Hyrule. Zelda because everyone’s been yearning to play as her for years. And Daruk because of his sheer size and strength. But one of your most powerful allies hides behind her cute, sweetheart facade: here are some pro tips for mastering the Zora Champion Mipha. Size matters not!

Basic Combo String: Far Range

Despite the fact she cannot fly like Revali and Teba, Mipha also wields a far range, thanks to her use of tridents and spears. She can extend it out to her enemies to attack those who are farther away without getting too close to them. Her regular attack combo string also makes use of her various trident moves: she can spin it, lunge forward, jab it into her enemies, or basically whatever else you can think of. Throw everything you know about the Lightscale Trident‘s BOTW weakness out the window. AOC is here, and she is bossing it around with her signature gracefulness.

Unique Action: High Jumping

One of the things that makes Mipha unique are her high leaps; she uses this to make up for her small size. This uses her ability to create geysers functioning as warp points anywhere on the battlefield, allowing her to teleport and jump above her enemies. It acts similarly to Link and Impa’s Cryonis rune, as both of them launch their users into the air in preparation for a strike. With the help of these teleportation geysers, she can use her trident to attack floating Wizzrobes, Talus weak points, or Hinox eyes better than many other characters can.

Playstyle: Superior Mobility

Mipha’s focus on the battlefield is mobility; she moves extremely quickly to reach her enemies. This is far superior to Daruk, Yunobo, and Hestu‘s slow movement speed, as well as Zelda’s unpredictable dodges. Players who care about their character’s movement speed (like me) will be sure to love playing as Mipha — she gives them nothing to complain about in the field of speed.

Another unique trait about the Zora princess is her “sprint.” Instead of running like most other characters do, she float-swims through the air, allowing her to reach her destination much more quickly. An even faster method of traveling is creating water fountains for her to warp to, which can both help Mipha to escape an attack and skip distances by teleporting.

Strong Attack Combos: Water Power

Mipha actually has 5 different strong attack combos that all utilize the power of water to decimate her enemies. The third one is where it really starts to get good. It creates a huge water vortex that spins toward her enemies, with Mipha inside of it, and she can jump out of it anytime to attack alongside her magical whirlpool.

Her fourth and fifth are the real superstars of her strong attack combos, however. They create multiple vortexes that deal damage to anything inside of them. They basically act like cyclones sweeping across the battlefield, a powerful force of nature that is key to Mipha’s value as a playable character. What’s even better is that Mipha can teleport inside of them, like her normal fountain geysers.

Strong Attack: Swift Attack Moves

Like I said before, Mipha is all about speed and mobility. Literally all of her attack moves prove this: she has little to no wind-up time at all after her attacks. For her sprinting strong attack, she is launched into the air and falls down onto her enemies, with the ability to move on and continue attacking without even a second of wait time. And better yet, she is just as powerful as those who sacrifice speed for heavy-hitting attacks (like the Gorons and Hestu). You can also execute her combo string very quickly, allowing for damage to be dealt at top speed — and top range.

Geysers: Method of Healing

The geysers are most well-known for their ability to teleport Mipha around the battlefield, but another lesser-known fact is that they can also heal both her and her allies. They have a chance to heal Mipha when she stands in them, but the more important healing effect is when you order her teammates towards them. These small geysers slowly restore hearts to the allies standing inside of them, which makes the Zora Princess a priceless ally to add to every one of your AOC parties.

Considering how relatively rare apples and hot springs are, Mipha’s healing geysers are something you should always add to battles. This will prolong your characters’ lives before one of them dies and you have to restart the entire mission, all with Mipha’s help.

Special Attack: Mipha’s Sheer Power Display

Mipha’s special attack is amazing, to say the very least. Similar to Urbosa and Riju’s lightning attack, she emits a huge dome of damaging water all around her, severely damaging all enemies inside of it. It also has a hidden benefit. It heals Mipha and other allies inside of the dome, giving them a small but valuable amount of hearts. This combines her geyser healing with this sheer power display, great for preventing her from dying and eliminating her foes extremely efficiently.

Like her other attacks, it is also quickly executed, leaving little time for enemies to interrupt her. This powerful move erases an alarming amount of health from her enemies in a matter of a few seconds. If this alone isn’t enough to prove Mipha is one of Age of Calamity‘s strongest playable characters, I don’t know what is!