Nintendo announced earlier this year that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would be the first Zelda game to feature downloadable content. Now the company has revealed more information about what to expect from the first expansion, which is set to debut sometime in Summer 2017.
That first expansion is called The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Master Trials. (Gameplay spoilers will follow.) As the name implies, the expansion's primary draw is the new Trial of the Sword that tasks you with battling through 45 rooms filled with progressively tougher enemies. Nintendo said "the true power of the Master Sword will awaken and always be in its glowing powered-up state" if you overcome this challenge.
This expansion also introduces two new game modes: a Hard Mode that ranks up enemies, introduces "higher-ranking enemies [you] wouldn't find through normal play," and causes enemies to slowly recover health; and a Hero's Path Mode that promises to help you figure out where you haven't explored in Hyrule by tracking your steps over the last 200 hours of playtime and showing them on the in-game map as a bright green trail.
Nintendo said there are also two additions that should make it easier to traverse Hyrule and find all the Koroks hiding in the expansive world:
Travel Medallion: There will be a new treasure chest somewhere in the game world which contains the Travel Medallion. With the Travel Medallion, players can create a temporary new travel point on the map where they are currently standing. Link can then transport himself to that point at any time. Only one travel point can be registered on the map at a time.Korok Mask: By finding the new Korok Mask, players will have a much easier time finding Korok locations in the game. When equipped, the mask will shake, indicating that a Korok is hidden somewhere nearby.
Finally, as you might expect from DLC, new equipment will be introduced. Nintendo said eight new treasure chests hidden throughout the game's world "yield equipment themed after fan-favorite games and characters such as Midna, Tingle, Phantom and Majora’s Mask." Much like the red Nintendo Switch armor given to people who bought the Season Pass when Breath of the Wild launched, the equipment will be exclusive to the DLC.
More details about the second expansion pass, which is set to be released in "holiday 2017," will be revealed in the future. The only way to get either expansion is to buy the Season Pass, which costs $20 from the Nintendo eShop. Considering how popular Breath of the Wild is on both the Switch and the Wii U--it's the best-selling launch title in Nintendo's history, at least in North America--that could net the company plenty of rupees...erm, money.
While you wait, you can install the latest version of Breath of the Wild for the Switch. The first updates addressed frame-rate issues and resolved other bugs. This one introduces dual audio options, which means you can listen to the voice acting in English, Japanese, and other supported languages while using another language in the on-screen text. This can prove useful if, say, you don't like the voice acting in the English version. The dual audio option is also available for the Wii U version of the game, but you have to download a Voice Pack from the eShop.
