Breath of the Wild's HIDDEN Ranking System EXPLAINED!! [How Enemy and Weapon Scaling WORKS!!] 

All of my current Stats of the Wild videos can be found here --> ru-vid.com/group/PLAjULYyNSE9aa7aQW31IupW685MO-ZBHc

Thank you im actually curious because I killed one silver lynal and like 50 things became silver and I was not ready (I cheesed at the arena in the depths)

oh good, I've been trying to google if anybody has confirmed the exp system existing like every other day since release or if it was changed in any way, eventually I decided to come to the original explanation video and see if there were any comments that could lead me to what I wanted to know

the leveling system in totk has been extremely annoying for me because it has completely prohibited captain 2s from spawning and i want to scream! because i NEED them to upgrade the zonite armor :(

I'm very surprised you didn't talk about doing the boss rush

So she did fine for 100 years, then link wakes up and suddenly everything goes tits up? Not buying it.

no

yes

maybe

I don’t know, can you repeat the question?

This explains it then 😅 the divine beasts help a lot with xp, but on mastermode it's a lot faster to level up anyways because of the harder enemies

someone should do a max "exp" speed run.

Nope they are set enemies in different locations (the mini bosses that is)

There are Gold Lynel.... hmm, guess I can stop grinding the Silver one at the Arena

Kyle de Young yeah on the plato and arena in master mode if you cant remember buy there is a few more

Yeah, I found a lone red moblin sitting by a freezing pond up north on Master mode. It was fun discovering a red enemy

Yeah, this is what I was going to say if someone else didn't get to it first. I recently found the only red bokoblin in master mode. That was fun.

Or the weapon connoisseur sidequest for that matter. I waited too long to start it and it was hard to find a regular moblin club to complete it but they're always around somewhere.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of compendium slots that become unavailable past a certain point: Lynel crusher, mighty Lynel crusher, mighty Lynel bow, mighty Lynel shield, Guardian sentry, Master Kohga, the 4 blights, etc.

Is there a blue lynel that doesn''t level up? I completely missed it out it was like it went from Red to Silver

Oh yeah

ENEMY progression is genius if done correctly

The armor and shrines already encourage that... all this does is discourage combat since you have access to some of the best weapons without combat.

The funny thing about this comment is that, hiding the XP system does the opposite of encouraging exploration. If people knew that the only way to make the game harder was to do that, they'd avoid it

Well, also the fact that weak enemy variants don't give EXP, and each variant that does only gives EXP for the first ten kills.

botw shill would jusitfy every piece of trash game design as god tier

​@@dexedge4645Yes, because every gamer plays a game for the same reason as you and game developers are making games JUST FOR YOU. Come on now... Games are entertainment and just like sports; some think the game is so great while others think it's pointless and boring. There original Zelda was heavily focused on open world exploration btw.

and with only 3 ♡♡♡

or go to the castle and get weapons

That's the BOTW spirit!!

Or fight all four and Gannon in a row without using weapons or tools just shields. Like some psycho's do.

I finished all the blight Ganons first play through without upgrading any hearts, only the hearts it gives you upon beating each one

Correct!! I just watched a horse drown a blue bokobkin when playing yesterday...I wish it was a black/silver one cause that would have counted too 😅

I don’t know why but I love seeing Bokoblins randomly falling off high points and landing in front of me only to die. Makes it even funnier if you watch as a Moblin throws it off the cliff

@@rRevilo64 same

@@rRevilo64 🎶 “Sorry, Boko, human nature - nothing I can do! It's... schadenfreude! Making me feel glad that I'm not you!!” 🎶

Radien haha lol

Basically doing a great work

"It's a secret to everybody."

😂😂😂 i almost hear them saying it

I am the 400th like lol

Uhh yeah

Fr I was so confused because I used to avoid monsters a lot so I never got good weapons, next time playing the game I was so confused why every weapon was so much better

I started noticing all my weapons starting to have bonuses suddenly.

Yea I found the coluseum only lategame, somehow I missed it til that point, and they all had royal gear and I was like UHHH

I got to the point where I realized I was seeing more difficult enemies with better gear more often and came to the conclusion that the game was hiding a progress system from me. It's interesting to see that I was partially right.

Nobody wants that tho

Hyrule Castle can be a gold mine for early overpowered weapons, like great elemental blades, and perhaps a few Royal weapons here and there.

@@VariableZero Not to mention that uber-durable Hylian Shield.

Thats kinda the bullshit of this game. "You can do anything in any order! Total freedom! But you should play it in this unsaid specific way otherwise you'll miss things" It took coming across a tiktok complaining about missing Hestu to find out that he even existed and you can upgrade your inventory slots. I was 12+ hours in with 30 korok seeds

@@ZeroProko Dude, in such a huge game, it is expected to miss some stuff.

I just met a silver bokoblin in great plateau after 80 hours lol

I thought that too. Seems like the BESTEST way to scale up the monsters.

I noticed

King Arthur couldn’t agree more lol

King Arthur that would just make everything on the edges of the map super hard. How is that good?

It really is a unique system, but it works well for this game!! :D

I hope the next botw explain the xp in the menu, xd

I noticed that when ever I killled a lynel, stronger ones would take it's place.

I knew there was some sort of system. I thought it was percentages of enemies cleared and every blood moon reset it was cumulative. I also thought clearing a divine beast counted towards this not killing the blight itself although it is barely a distinction. Pretty much how much malice you’ve cleared/total malice.

I'm so glad you're enjoying it!! Thank you :)

Good luck on ur journey sir

Tbh I think your first run of botw is best while completely blind, not knowing any of the complex systems. I've played through the game like 5 times, and I'm really interested in its deep mechanics, but my first playthough wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable if I was worried about hidden XP or how shield guard worked.

You probably haven't found the hylian shield yet, if you get enough xp you can get it with a gold modifier, but it takes the most xp out of anything in the entire game.

I've been working on my first playthrough for I wanna say a year and a half I'm a collector lol, I spend hours just running around picking plants sometimes And I wanna 100% this playthrough so RIP

bro watched some andrew tate. Went from droppin boko guts every so often to droppin em all the time along with some rare gems

​@@unl3ash3d95 i dont think watching andrew tate makes you stronger bruh

It’s his villain arc

@@leaffinite2001I think he said that because Andrew content is supposed to be motivating, so the bokoblin got motivated to get stronger

Actually... I think they do. I only started getting Sand Seal tips after reaching the desert, and tips about Critical Hit only showed up really late for me, so I don't know if it was just my luck or anything related to the player's progress. (also, I only got amiibo and Wolf Link's tips after using it for the first time but amiibo ones are understandable).

They actually do from my experience

That one der was a violation

@@BeautyMarkRush yeah I too only got the sand seal ones after reaching the desert and the cold resistance ones when I reached rito village

@@AnotherLife0001 me too

This is a certified *ouch* moment

Em k

Yeah true 😂

Ahh I was finding you

When u continue a link to the past?

Same lol

It's obvious when returning to old places. What's not obvious is the way the system determines how much to scale.

"the more you hurt others, the easier you can bring yourself to do it" -sans

@@billthefirst2410 best comment

Yeah man

@@billthefirst2410 Link vs Sans confirmed.

I suddenly *feel* Megalovania playing...

MolASSes

or you can buy pictures at hateno tech lab

@William Sheridan : Absolutely! I managed to save a Critical Hit Battle Axe++ in my original playthrough.

@@nouche let’s hope you have an amiibo that can give a Durability Up+ Biggeron Sword and you know what Durability Transfering is! You are very confused, aren’t you?

@@siva9422 : What? I already have a Durability↑ Biggoron Sword (that I got somewhat illegally) and I transferred its durability over to almost every weapon I have. What makes you think I’m confused?

@@nouche What's its attack power?

@@ZGlove. : Which weapon?

There's a few special exceptions like that!! I killed that one on my current Master Mode stream playthrough, and it was an attack up 103 one - I still have that weapon 15 hours later 😂

@@Croton Never really fought lynels seriously before that. My Hero's path looks so funny at the start with all those lynel deaths 😂 On the bright side, I can confidently fight lynels now with a pot lid. The durability save with mounting is so useful!

or you could go to hyrule castle early and get hylian shield, as well as a crap load of other weapons.

@@Jamplays592 yeah but that's not really a challenge and i wanted to get a hylian shield with durability up+ so i didn't get it until i had over 9400 points in the game

That lynel made the mistake of giving me a 103 attack weapon. Many lynels died before that weapon was retired to Links home because it was on the verge of breaking.

I will never run out of things to say about this game 😅

Like undertale

I think it just shows how good Nintendo is at making indepth games that could be understood by the hardcore and the casuals and how good they are at hiding it so people make videos on it and therefore keeping it relevant almost like they are the best gamer developers.

@@TroubleMuppet Pretty much everything has been discovered for that game already

@@CyberAtlasX1 yeah but it still lasted ages even after being made because people were discovering secrets.

Twitter girls realizing that Black Bokoblins are weaker than White Bokoblins:

@@liveghost6864 LMAO

Difference between BotW and Bethesda mountain though is that in BotW, you can just go STRAIGHT UP that mountain in the background, while Bethesda wants you to stick to the path up and get ambushed by a frost troll every time.

The weapon and enemy scaling exists in all the modern bethesda games.

@@ShardtheWolf It has existed in games before that, in terms of exposed level ups that actually increase your own power with the enemies and weapons mathematically moving in step with that. Thats not really the point. The actual implementation here is very different. The "level up" is hidden from the player so its not something you pursue to the point of a detriment or grind, like jumping in place or endlessly walking into a wall to level up your athletics in morrowind ect. It also doesn't affect your raw base damage output. Its more like a rough assessment of the players experience in the world rather than pumping up numbers of the character incrementally and then just scaling up the weapons and enemies so the net change is diminished. My point was more about the specific details of its implementation, rather than it being a completely new concept. And in addition, what information is chosen to be shown or not and how that can be freeing to the player, while also still having the benefit of having it all being managed behind the scenes.

​@@R0B1NG5 "rather than pumping up numbers of the character incrementally and then just scaling up the weapons and enemies so the net change is diminished." You mean like how when you get stronger enemies to appear the stronger weapons don't help you? The net change is diminished! Also since you can get top gear at the start... this means you only get weaker. "The "level up" is hidden from the player so its not something you pursue to the point of a detriment or grind, like jumping in place or endlessly walking into a wall to level up your athletics in morrowind" I don't understand why this is bad if a player wants to not play the game and just walk in place to get a max stat then let them. It is a choice as opposed to an outright punishment like in BotW's system where because it is indeed hidden you now make choices which only makes things worse for you. The lack of information being shown made it as equally freeing as it did also suffocating players. It is actually some miserable design choices which ruined the game or made aspects of it massively miserable. In the end the game took away freedom even from you.

@@Buglin_Burger7878 You're missing the key component though: when the world scales up in Breath of the Wild, it's only specific enemies that scale. Many of the enemies don't; they remain at their base level for the entire game. So while certain encounters do get more challenging, the overall balance of power between the player and the enemies will gradually tip to favor the player. The player will have fewer overall enemies at their level and more overall enemies below their level; the player will have more and easier access to powerful equipment and fewer enemies that really run through that equipment's durability. This is in contrast to the Bethesda method, which is largely designed to keep any area you might go to evenly difficult no matter what level you are when you go there. The fact that all of this is hidden from the player in Breath of the Wild mostly just serves to prevent the player from thinking about "the grind" during the natural progression of play. It keeps them on-task, whether that be completing the plot quests or hunting Shrines or Koroks or going into the deliberately non-scaled difficult areas to get strong equipment early (you pretty much have it made for the entire game if you make a successful early raid on Hyrule Castle). There aren't many ways for this system to backfire on the player, as opposed to the Bethesda system, which at times can result in you "leveling up" too many times using non-combat-related skills (like, for instance, healing), which drives the level of your enemies up, resulting in your player character being quite weak but the game "reacting" as if it expects you to be strong. In Oblivion, I once ran backwards pumping arrows into a single goblin across half the countryside before it went down, and it was entirely because of their scaling system being bonkers. That sort of situation should never occur. In Breath of the Wild, you don't really change your base stats at all, so all of the "scaled" enemies still account for your base stats, and there will always be weaker enemies for you to hunt down and scavenge equipment from as well (and that equipment will be better than it was earlier in the game). There isn't really any situation you can find yourself in where you won't be able to make a comeback. And if, let's say, you find yourself chafing under the amount of scaled-up enemies that have appeared... the solution to the problem is fairly obvious: go after the weaker ones, get better gear, and find more Shrines to boost your Heart Container count. You'll just wind up exploring more. It's not a bad outcome, even then.

You're completely wrong... to kill enemies to get levels you have to progress through the levels getting better weapons. You don't have sticks when you hunt down things at max level for obvious reasons. I can reference another open world game, Skyrim. You don't find Ebony or Dragon Bone enemies till you level up A LOT, this is the highest tier of armor, as you get higher and higher you find better and better weapon tiers and armor tiers. Basically you'll never have a problem unless you ignore everything or in Skyrim's case just master alchemy and enchanting without leaving town. I believe this works in other Elder Scrolls games and even in other Open World games with scaling. This only applies when your character levels up but does NOT get their gear from the enemies. Final Fantasy 8 is a great example as enemy stats scale with your level meaning if you grind you'll be having a more difficult time due to your attacks not keeping up in power. Like wise it is easy to use an EXP system by having diminishing returns with enemies eventually dropping off to 1 point once you killed 10, once again being a simplistic and easy to explain EXP bar... which would've also sold the game to people who felt this game lacked a reward for using consumable weapons.

I completely agree that it was a good idea to hide the XP system from players in BotW. Makes the world feel more organic and alive when it responds to the player in unknown ways. For RPGs with proper character progression I'd want an XP bar, but not for Zelda games.

@@Buglin_Burger7878 Nope.

I think it's great that they hid the XP system, players on their first run to learn more and better techniques as they progress the game. It's not only important for them to hide this exp system to develop the environment of the game, but to not just cheese the fights everytime with the same tactics. It encourages the player to just experiment with finding different methods of fighting and slowly improving timing, since you wouldn't really think much of them.

@@Xominus If you don't have a reason to defend your point with then you're only proving me right.

yet they cant patch the simplest of glitches, sell everything at a ridiculously overinflated price and cant bring themselves to make a controller without drift.

Klayish To be fair, everything you listed happens in vastly different departments.

@@Dexrazor so true thank you for understanding that nintendo is not a whole nintendo and there is good factors of them and bad fucking whooping ass factors of them

@@klayish5137 just because you're a scrub with no skill who can't pull off cool combat and movement tech doesn't mean no one else should be able to either.

@@klayish5137 they stop patching glitches once they are done updating the game. Duh

Thank you!!!!!

I’m also struggling with moblin club omg thanks so much!

orange 💀

I know this comment is a year old but why would shrines effect enemies? I feel like it makes more sense that the more enemies you kill the stronger they get

​@@VoidedPez ... What army gets stronger as you kill its members?

I was looking through the comments to see someone say that, so thank you. XD

The red and blue ones?

i have never seen a red lynel turn blue or a blue one turning white. i'm pretty sure you can find white lynels in the northern regions right from the start and only those i have seen rank up to silver.

AHEM the lynel in master mode in the great platoon would like to speak with you

@@windhelmguard5295 All the Lynels change color except the one mentioned in the video, and the blue and black mane ones in Hyrule Castle, like people are saying. All the ones I've encountered early or seen my brother encounter all ranked up over time.

Exactly it’s crazy the amount of things people find in this game

BotW is such a brilliant game. So many tweaks to standard rpg mechanics to create a much more natural experience.

i swear, i'll still be finding this exact comment on every botw video 10 years from now

Same, Taluses are perfect for rupees

Same but I farm silver enemies so I can get alot of gems and star fragments

I'm so glad you find them entertaining then!! Thank you so much 😄

They inspire me to put more effort into getting my RU-vid videos as professional looking as they can be.

In my family, everyone died on that blue bokoblin that one shot you on the great plateau, that would make the early game easier but you would have silver bokoblins on archery tower in the late game instead of blue ones, and you wouldn't one shot them with headshots. I wonder how eventide island would go

YES PLEASE

@@laytonjr6601 Actually, I think archery tower enemies get one-shot in the head, regardless of damage.

@@ZGlove. I heard that on archer tower they take 8 times the damage on headshots instead of the usual 2 times. Now I have to test it with a bow with less than 9 attack

thats what I did. Just today I started implementing the combo spin attack where u attack regularly at first whilst moving the analog in a circular motion so u don't have to wait as long to charge a spin attack

Reminds me of that time in dead pool where all the guys lined up so he could shoot them all at the same time

The Drillshaft has piecing capabilities.

Luckily if you're going for the conpeduim, you can always just buy out the pics from Simon!!

Croton I’m fairly sure the non-scaling lynels in Hyrule Castle can drop their equipment if you save and reload in their rooms (again not 100% sure but I was able to get Mighty gear through this). Also noted that they don’t have the mighty spear or crusher.

there is always a tier 2 lynel in hyrule castle just like the red one in zoras domain, for getting the photos. they won't drop weapons normally but if you engage the fight, then save and reload and kill them, they will drop their weapons :)

Aw man idk if I'll be able to get those since I generally avoid lynels and have spent so long just running around causing a ruckus

@@AnnaGlin However, those two lynels don't drop the spear or the crusher, so you have to look for those weapons elsewhere. In my first playthrough three years ago I had this problem, so unless I bought the photos, it was impossible, but I wanted to use those weapons or at least display them in the house. And for me the best way was to head to Tabantha Bridge, there's a Lynel with a Mighty Savage Lynel near that stable and you can get the three crushers from him.

He was only talking about how the level scaling changes. Leveling up enemies by one teir was the only relavent master move change to this video. That said, never realized guardians had been randomizing their attack delay. I thought i was just horribly inconsistent with that throughout my entire master mode run. And since i have a pretty bad reaction time, it wasn't an unreasonable assumption

"Somebody, please leave? I'm on it!"

Every videos gotta have the drillshaft 😎

@@Croton I could sense Viv's appreciation here

5:56

The entire game is basically grinding to make the final boss easier.

@@wesnohathas1993 and then speedrunners launch themselves straight across Hyrule from the plateau and kill Ganon with 3 hearts and weapons they looted on their way through Hyrule Castle 😅

Even without realizing it. Brilliant!

@@ericolens3 That bear better be on fire or you're a disgrace

@@ericolens3 At least the shrines involve puzzles and reward stat increases. Side quests are their own fun little diversions and mini stories. Heck those yahaha bastards though.

Me: I’m getting sick of people writing these dialogue boxes You: I can’t help it cuz I’m retarded.

@@Mynipplesmychoice Me: Hey, it’s better than the ones that have a blank dialogue that says “nobody”.

It’s worth noting that fallout (at least fallout 4, I’m not familiar with the other games) does the same thing to an extent. Though each area has a level minimum and maximum for spawning enemies. The level you are still determines, to a degree, what level enemies you face and what equipment they carry

@@meeperdudeify Yeah, Bethesda likes doing that. Their first attempt caused enemies whose health scaling outpaced the player’s damage output, but other than that, they’ve done a decent enough job. I think Nintendo have admitted taking some inspiration from The Elder Scrolls when developing Breath of the Wild, and this system is probably one of the most obvious similarities between the two.

Actually BotW's rewards are more punishments. By fighting enemies you get stronger enemies to appear... worsening the value of EVERY SINGLE WEAPON in the world. This is more akin to Final Fantasy 8, where players just card enemies to never get Exp. The game is easier and it makes more sense given how carding gets you spells/items.

Well I'm glad this could help clarify it then!! No problem ☺️👍

@@ericolens3 Right, when is the hero waking up then. 'cause he sure is taking his time. Now I know how impa felt

Master mode more like [[Cringe blocked]]

Poo

50 seconds in and I’m just gonna ask do ancient arrows count too? Nvm got my answer at 3:30 thanks

@@buddymmx3936 nah he goes over it in the video tho

Better question: do the weapons that are lying around Hyrule get upgraded as well? Do the effects change as well?

It all depends if the scaling parameters are set to true or false for each weapon - this can be checked using the botw object map I linked in the description!!

It's soundtrack is incredible 😄

Shadow of mordor??

Skyrim literally doing this 10 years ago lol

lol

Same for me

Well I'm glad my videos can teach you a few things then!! Thank you so much 😄

yeah i noticed that, the area near the north lomei? lomey? whatever, labyrinth are two lynels with a sword and spear, and i thibk there's one with a crusher as well, the sword one is south to the shrine near the labyrinth, the spear one is on the path, and it's been a while but i think there may be one with a crusher opposite to the path to labyrinth

Of course you would point that out 😂 I'm glad you enjoy these videos though, as I still have more planned!! Thank you 😊

he got the skills

MLG BotW

He railed then real hard

Or when he collateraled them at 6:01

@@tatecarter60 that was actually really badass

Glad I could help clarify the system for you then!! The guardian scouts grant some decent XP, which can definitely help a bit with ranking up!!

It's a common misconception, but I'm glad I was able to clear it up for you!! Thank you 😄

I always thought it was linked to shrines

Just like in everyone's favorite Zelda game, Zelda II! :D

I always thought it was tied to spirit orbs as well. Interesting to learn otherwise.

I think I recall the Royal Guard Bow having a surprisingly fast draw speed (without quick shot bonus), and being the only one I thought was noticeably faster than most.

WesNohathas the great eagle bow also feels faster than some of the others

You can use Stasis on the brown jars, then take your time aiming with a Golden (or any other long-range) Bow. Bomb Arrows (with multi-shot bows) can work wonders on some of the fast-moving white balloon groups.

This video was long overdue with how much I talk about the ranking system on streams 😅 but I'm glad I was finally able to share it, and I'm happy you enjoyed it!! ☺️

Ayyy 😎

when?

The Novel Ice Cream Studios 6 months ago

I'm glad you found it helpful, thank you so much!! 😊

Happy to help as always!! :D

there is technically 1 base bokoblin, 1 base octorok, 1 base moblin, and one base lizalfos. This is to keep the hyrule compendium completable.

Real Walkthroughs I thought it would be for the compendium too, but then there should also be at least one of every weapon, however the regular and mighty lynel crushers and spears are, to my knowledge, unobtainable past a certain xp level

Yes. You have to do those early into the game. Otherwise you must restart.

@@Jamplays592 In case if you didn't know, going to the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab allows you to buy any random compendium picture you haven't obtained yet.

It does remember that you’ve beaten the game since it also tells you your completion percentage on the Sheikah Slate. I would assume that the Blights in Hyrule Castle also count, but I’m not sure. That’s a pretty interesting question actually.

So we can figure this out if you do a speed run of the game. the 4 blights and the beast ganon should place you right at the 2000 exp threshold after you clear the game. Even if you defeated a handful of moblins for some weapons in the castle, we would know since the next tier is at 2834. So weak modified late game weapons would indicate so

@@michaelschnebeli3856 Also wouldn't that make it possible to get 20000 exp just by killing ganon and the blights 10 times? (assuming you haven't done any of the divine beasts)

@@marthlikinte5607 I think u can only kill the bosses once and get the xp also u can’t do the divine beast bosses more than once

@@whitepanther8472 you can as long as you face them in hyrule castle not in the divine beasts

Dont make me sob, I don't need this right now 😭😭

😭😭😭😭😭😭 WHYYYYYY

Nonono I REALLY DON’T NEED THIS RIGHT NOW

.(sniff) im not cryin, YOUR CYRIN

That’s so that people can complete the compendium

@@master_asher2685 You can also buy pics in the hateno lab

Alex I’ve always considered doing that kinda lame. But yeah, you are correct.

Well I'm glad you found good use out of it!! Thank you so much!! 😄

literally every game is like that

Thank you!! Hope you enjoy it!! 😄

@Charlie Waterlowchill it's the internet most people lie

@Charlie Waterlow damn bro chill

Thank you! 😄