10 Things to Do in BOTW After Beating Ganon

Everyone who’s played, finished, and come back later to playing Breath of the Wild knows it can get a little pointless when you’re basically walking around Hyrule doing nothing. And I mean not walking around looking for a shrine or collecting something for a side quest: literally walking around, doing nothing, just because you want to go back to playing it again. But fear not – BotW isn’t that empty! Here are ten things you can do after beating Ganon, and why you should at least attempt them.

10. Find All 900 Korok Seeds

“What the, 900 Korok seeds?!” you’re probably thinking in your head right now. Yes, I know it’s intimidating, but if you’re really looking for something to do, why not go search for some Koroks? If you have the Expansion Pass, consider completing the Korok Mask sidequest. The mask will shake and light up when a Korok is near, making it much easier to find Koroks. For the sake of those adorable guys, right? That’s the spirit. Plus, that huge broccoli-head Korok, Hestu, will give you his “Gift” if you find every single seed.

9. Explore Hyrule Castle

Not only is Hyrule Castle home to some of the most dangerous monsters in all of the kingdom (2 Lynels and Calamity Ganon!), but it is also a dungeon in itself. It’s a huge maze of rooms and hallways full of dead ends and full rooms and some of the best weapons you can find in the entire land of Hyrule. The Royal Guard’s weapons can also be found here; despite their low durability, some have attack powers of over a whopping one hundred. It’s also a popular hiding spot for Koroks: several of them can be found atop the castle’s pillars and towers. Elemental and bomb arrows can also be obtained from treasure chests.

8. Cook Up A Storm

With 118 meals stuffed in BotW’s cookbook, heading to a stable or village’s cooking pot is a great way to experiment with the ingredients in your inventory. Some simple meals include meat and mushroom skewers, nutcake, fruitcake, and curry rice, while glazed meat and chilly fruit pie are some of the extra-fancy courses. You can also give Link a drink by mixing monster parts with insects to create powerful stamina and heart elixirs. And it’s all for free! Unless you buy your stuff from Beedle, that is.

7. Play the 16 Minigames

You may not know it, but sixteen minigames are hidden across Hyrule. Some can be played at a stable, others are at villages, and the rest of them are redoing a sidequest just for fun, the only difference being that they are under a time limit this time around. Parasailing, horseracing, archery challenges… BOTW has it all! Yes, go play some golf at the bottom of a canyon with a screaming Goron. You’ll be fine.

6. Complete All 76 Sidequests (90 with DLC)

While the sidequests are tedious, with a lot of teleporting back and forth to talk to people and collect things, they are worth it if you’re bored – some of them even reward you with rupees. Most sidequests can be started in or around major towns and stables. To identify people willing to give you their requests, look out for small red exclamation mark symbols on their speech bubbles. Speak to them, and their sidequest will immediately be available for completion in your Quest Log. The DLC side quests are even better: they are basically treasure hunts for nostalgic Zelda armor pieces, so keep an eye out for buried chests!

5. Become a Glitcher

Everyone knows it now: BotW is filled with glitches. You can see the naturally happening ones, like when you freeze a Moblin in ice when they jump in the air (the physics engine will completely turn off, and they will stay hovering in the air in their jumping position), without really doing much, but the glitches I’m talking about are those ones. Yes, those ones. The ones where you collect 80,000 bomb arrows and basically bomb yourself up to space. Search for “botw glitches” on YouTube, and you can watch professional glitchers doing everything they aren’t supposed to do.

4. Buy a House

Link can have a house! A house of his own! All you have to do is head over to Hateno Village and go to that old house across the bridge in the distance (warp to the Myahm Agana shrine if you’ve activated it). Walk behind the house to Bolson, a man wearing a pink bandana around the top of his head. He will offer to Link to buy the old house for a mere 3,000 Rupees. If you agree to buy it, you have the option to renovate it. You can even choose to add weapon, bow, and shield hanging spots on your house’s walls; this is a great way to clear up your inventory. It also provides Link with a place to sleep for free and recover all of his hearts.

3. Build Tarrey Town

Tarrey Town is the one town in Hyrule that Link must help to build. Hudson, Bolson’s employee, will head to the Akkala region, get married, and open a shop-full village selling all kinds of arrows, clothing, and precious gemstones all available to Link for purchase. (For specific instructions on how to build Tarrey Town, read my article “Tarrey Town Walkthrough.”) How can you say no?

2. Buy the Expansion Passes

Good job finishing BotW’s main questline – now you get another one! Welcome to the Champions’ Ballad, a completely new storyline delving into the Champions’ backstories and upgrading Link’s Champion abilities. You even get a super cool motorcycle you can summon nearly anytime and anywhere. If you’re up for the challenge, there’s even a Master Mode that lets enemies heal themselves. Each one also individually hides powerful armor pieces in “EX” treasure chests, some references to previous Zelda games. (Note: Second Wind is a popular but unofficial Expansion Pass. It is a fan-made large-scale mod.)

1. Finish All 120 Shrines

If this sounds like a bad idea, just remember the 900 Korok Seeds. One of Breath of the Wild‘s specialties is 120 mini-dungeons dubbed “shrines,” preventing the feeling of nothing to do because of the main dungeons’ completion. It’s very unlikely you have already finished all of them this far in the game (unless you are a completionist), for some of them involve Shrine Quests that you must initiate by speaking to someone, and others are extremely well hidden. Treasure chests can also be found and opened in shrines, some containing free gemstones, weapons, shields, bows, and armor pieces, and high-value rupees in others.