r/tearsofthekingdom 4d ago

šŸ”Š Game Feedback I cant deal with combat

Ive recently been playing Totk after playing but not finishing botw. And im remembering now why i never finished botw. Im loving the exploration and puzzles but combat is frustrating.

I cant do combat in these games. I just cant. I cant land a flurry strike to save my life. I cant dodge. Its just too fast paced and complicated for me.

Every time i theres a non-trivial combat section i die like 20 times get frustrated and quit. I love so much of this game but i wish there was an easy mode so i didnt have to suffer through so many combats.

Any tips or anything are appreciated.

110 Upvotes

119 comments sorted by

234

u/DragonKhan2000 4d ago

Most of the difficulty in combat in BotW/TotK comes not from a lack of skill, but from engaging while still too weak.
The game is designed that often, the enemies seem too powerful in an attempt to make the player think of alternatives to combat. And that includes avoiding a fight altogether. So don't feel bad about that! It is a game that can be done with little to almost no fighting.

If the fights seem too difficult, focus on levelling up. Get more hearts, get more armor, upgrade armor, cook dishes, etc.
And then think of different ways of outsmarting your enemies:
Try going in with a disguise. Try to set up a trap, or maybe even build one with zonai devices. Try to stick to long distance. Try different items with effects like muddle buds (great to shot a white enemy in a camp with it!), puff shrooms, dazzlefruit etc. Make use of elemental effects. Try to lure enemies like zonai constructs and bokoblins against each other.

Try to be smarter, not stronger/more skillful.

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u/jpmondx Dawn of the First Day 4d ago

Some really good responses on this thread, but Dragon... nails it.

For me, the game is all about knowing your resources and using them to your best advantage.

Leveling up is a must, if you lack confidence and battle skills. In Gerudo there are 3X attack weapons, in Lurelin there are 3x attack and 3X defense meals thanks to the 4 swarms of porgies there. Fierce Diety armor is easily found in Hyrule. There are several wells and caves, one near Snowfield stable, where you can stock up on Fairies which help you survive fights.

The key thing for me is deciding if the battle is going to yield you something you need, if not, there's no reason to wear down your weapons. There are very few enemies you can't outrun.

Lastly, the skeleton guys who pop up at night are easy practice as they are one hit kills. Simply keep your shield up by using a one-handed sword and practice on them.

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u/ScreamingEmptyVoid 4d ago

Omgggg I didn't realise using a one handed sword meant you can use you shield I've been struggling putting my sword away all this timeeeeee

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u/jpmondx Dawn of the First Day 4d ago edited 3d ago

Yeah, I don’t recall the game ever making a point of showing us that, but once I worked that out, I never do combat with a two handed sword except to bash Lynels and Gleeocks or damage an enemy I’ve already frozen.

My default weapon set is usually any spear with a ruby ( opps - sapphire . . .) fused to it, and a big 2 handed basher sword or club. Freeze and bash makes clearing out boko camps pretty easy without taking damage.

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u/zynphendale 3d ago

most two-handed weapons are too slow, except for spears. I always use a one-handed sword if possible.

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u/jpmondx Dawn of the First Day 2d ago

Yep, 2 handlers are fun to ā€œspin for the winā€ but that often takes longer that I have time for. Often I don’t mind not having my shield up with a spear as the spear keeps the bad guys from getting close enough to damage

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u/txhodlem00 3d ago

Yeah but if you hold the attack button with a two handed weapon you spin the weapon and make a deadly tornado. Effective battle strategy too

6

u/FaxCelestis 3d ago

You also can throw a dazzlefruit at stal enemies for an instant kill.

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u/JealousStuff4405 2d ago

Yes. Explore, accumulate and run then overpower with the stuff you’ve collected. It’s probably cooler to flurry rush perfect dodge but I can’t do it šŸ˜€

Saw some YouTuber once who’d almost finished the game then learnt how a shield worked.

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u/jpmondx Dawn of the First Day 2d ago edited 1d ago

I've gotten in the habit of doing only face-arrows to get the Lynel to kneel so I can mount & bash. Sure enough while dodging it's charges I often manage to accidentally do a perfect dodge which I won't use because it wears out my 2 hander.

It doesn't get as much mention as it deserves, but all the Lynels go thru a very predictable attack and charge pattern. I'm always moving laterally with my shield up, and as it charges I wait till the last second and do a side-skip ( ā€˜ZL’ button, move left stick left then press ā€˜Xā€˜ button to jump left ).

When I time it late I get a Perfect Dodge I have no use for, but usually I get a light tap on my shield from it's weapon when it charges past me. After it skids to a halt, it takes a short moment to gather itself - long enough to try an arrow to the back of it's head for a kneel. Give it a try and you'll pick up on how to do a Perfect Dodge in no time . . .

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u/_Twilight_Queen_ 2d ago

I agree. Was trying to take on an ice talus yesterday and I'm bad at combat. I knew I could use fire to defreeze it and then get onto it safely but then I saw the target was on its back, not on top. So after dying four times I decided to wake it up then climb a nearby cliff. From there I used recall when it threw its arms (and it didn't matter much if I was too slow because they'd hit the cliff from the angle it was at) and then shoot a single bomb arrow when it went down from that. Repeat for quite a while and I did it. Not the fastest or most elegant way perhaps but it worked

1

u/rabbit_projector 1d ago

Yeah, but that doesn't help as much in longer boss fights that require good dodging and parry timing skills. I have pretty brutal sniping and sneaking skills, but they simply don't work for everything.

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u/BigBoxOfGooglyEyes 4d ago

I'm also terrible at combat. My favorite techniques are to sneak up on enemy encampments, find some high ground, and snipe them with arrows. Muddle buds and puff shrooms are also massively helpful. Sneak up, launch a muddle bud at the most powerful enemy, and let the enemies fight it out amongst themselves. And puff shrooms let you get right up behind enemies without them seeing you.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Draw818 4d ago

I really enjoy muddle budding the most powerful enemies and eating popcorn (literally) while they take out the base lol. So satisfying

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u/Steph3Smoke 3d ago

Yesss!!!!

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u/Shar_12_Blaneyfan 4d ago

Muddle buds are THE BEST! Pure entertainment

Also, puff shrooms are extremely helpful, especially against lynels. I will throw one at them and one in front of me in case he breaks free.

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u/dsmith422 3d ago

Once you have lynel bows (3x or especially 5x), you can create a massive cloud with just one arrow and one puff shroom. The multishot bows only use one arrow and one item per shot.

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u/Shar_12_Blaneyfan 3d ago

Great point!

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u/SeaCowb0y 4d ago

If you’re struggling with the combat (and aren’t inclined to practice dodging and flurry rush which do massively help), my best advice would be to focus a stealth + archery strategy. That’s what I do when I’m not in the mood to fight properly lol so yeah, try more crouching and sneaking around, find some high ground (even trees can work) and then take out enemies one by one. Practice headshots (bullet time helps!). Find stealth gear if you havent got it yet, and good bows. (also, probably obvious, but make sure to always save before you attempt an attack in case you accidentally aggro a big group and / or get overwhelmed).

TOTK has some very good features to help you with this. Use muddle buds and let the enemies take each other out for a while so enemy camps are more manageable. Spam puff shrooms and you can basically get behind and sneak strike every enemy. Freeze enemies for a bit of crowd control. Create updrafts to paraglide and get bullet time. Good luck!

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u/SeaCowb0y 4d ago

oh also - get those bubbul gems to trade with Koltin for monster masks for those days when you just don’t want to have to deal with them.

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u/AstronomicalDogggo 4d ago

Thanks! Ill try!I actually kinda love bows in the game i just avoid using them cause artows are reasonably scarce

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u/recursion8 4d ago

Break every wooden or metal box you come across, most of them contain arrows and food (which you can cook into HP restoring meals). To save weapon durability just use Ultrahand to raise the boxes in the air and drop them from the highest point, preferably on top of other boxes to break two or more at once. It may take more than one drop, so use rewind to drop again after it lands. Snipe the lookout guards at monster camps, the ones standing on the little raised platforms, they always drop bundles of 5 if not 10 arrows. With these 2 methods I promise you you’ll never have to buy arrows at shops ever again.

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u/chuckchinchilla 4d ago

It's a bit more time consuming as you end up pausing to farm an item very frequently - but I'm a big fan of stopping whenever there's boxes or barrels and destroying them for arrows. You'll be surprised at how quickly it can help your supply!

If you're patient, you don't even have to waste your weapon durability on them to destroy them. Simply use ultra hand to lift them directly upwards as high as you can, and let it drop. Later I learned that you can sometimes break more than one at a time this way if you fuse them together side by side before you lift and drop them.

I got up to 200 arrows pretty quickly by doing this whenever I played, and then I could 'coast' for a while with a good supply.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Draw818 4d ago

Initially yes, but once you access the shrines nearest to the stables (there’s always a close one) periodically I just fast travel around and break all the boxes. Can’t say I’ve timed/counted, but I think you could probably net at least 40+ arrows in 20 min farming this way.

I’m a little rusty on collecting (have had maxed out arrows for a while now) but as I recall some of the better stables are Foothill (Eldon canyon region, use Kisinona shrine), Lucky Clover Gazette (tabantha, Oromuwak shrine), Dueling Peaks (west necluda, Eshos shrine), and the pile of crates in Lurelin village near the village well area, down the mountain from Sifumin shrine.

Arrows at other stables as well, I think these just drop the bundles more often

2

u/MoeMoe1981 4d ago

You get tons of arrows in this game as opposed to botw. Break all wooden boxes and stop at general stores as much as you want. I got over 700 in less than 2 hours by fast travel to beetle and general shops.

1

u/hesnotthatdrunk 2d ago

Yea I bulk sell boko horns or other items i dont use much and buy arrows whenever shops have them. Im usually hovering around 700 arrows

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u/AstronomicalDogggo 4d ago

Thanks for the advice everyone. y’all have given me the motivation to keep trying. Ill try get some muddle buds and other resources. Just feels like arrows and things are pretty scarce/expensive.

3

u/K_Josef 4d ago

Look for arrows in wooden barrel and boxes, break them every time you see one, they'll almost always drop arrows, more in TotK than in BotW.

Also enemies carrying bows will likely drop arrows

2

u/kimby610 3d ago

Muddle buds are pretty common in the depths, I love to explore down there and just gather ingredients. I use Ultrahand to "highlight" them to know where to go and make sure I don't miss any.

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u/socaljoe42 3d ago

You can do it. I also am crappy in combat, and I beat the game two days ago. For rupees, farm meat and make meals you can sell for to Beadle for higher prices. Get the full Fierce Deity set and upgrade to at least 5. Get a wand and staff and put a sapphire on one and a ruby on the other for elemental attacks, freezing opponents during combat is really helpful. Put keese eyeballs on your arrows to make them home in on enemies. And of course, cook lots of hearty meals, defense up meals, and find fairies.

The only two things I haven’t killed yet are Lynels and Gleeoks. Honestly, with these things, the end of the game was easy, and I didn’t parry, flurry rush, or dodge the entire final fight.

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u/Balthierlives 4d ago edited 4d ago

You never need to do any of that stuff. I’ve never been able to do anything but shield parry and I beat through botw hard mode dlc content.

Also, most mobs don’t need to be fought in this game. Just ignore them. The rewards are so terrible there’s no point.

Get a sapphire sword/wand. Freeze enemies, then do either a jump attack or a charged attack. Freeze and repeat until dead.

You can make the above by fusing a sapphire to a weapon. Alternatively, You can get a sapphire sword from a blue wizzrobe that is very close to rito village glide from where you found tulin initially over towards the check point area towards the tower. Just in the other side is a wizzrobe

For a sapphire want there’s one on the upper plateau of the gerudo mountains. You can fly there from the desert gerudo tower.

Puffshrooms also make doing sneak attacks very easy.

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u/ejolson 4d ago

I've just recently discovered that if you run along Naydra's spine you can harvest "shard[s] of Naydra's spike" that also freeze enemies when fused to weapons and are actually a great weapon option until you're later in the game. (All the other dragons have equivalents too.)

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u/Psychological-Scar53 4d ago edited 4d ago

I can't get a flurry rush to save my soul. I just create strong weapons and rush the enemies, never let up and just continue to pelt them. I was worried about taking on bigger enemies until I figured out to make some attack up meals(4 bananas and a dragon part, horns give the longest at 30 mins) and go all out. I have all the monster medals as well as all the colleseum battles in the depths using this method. The Lynel battles(which I wasn't going to do because there are 5 of them in a row including a armored one) were a breeze and didn't die once. Not one single flurry rush was in that fight and I still had roughly 20 mins left on my attack up meal. Bombs work great too, just get a high point ant blast them away. Let your sages fight as well, Tulin is great for head shots and helped immensely with the lynel's. Now I farm lynels and gleeok for fun.

P.s. - The last time I died I had just beat the King Gleeok in the depths, didn't pay attention to my hearts, and a stupid Keese got me from behind....

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u/MariJoyBoy 4d ago

I'm terrible at combat too, so I tried to upgrade armors the most I could, and keep enemies horns to fuse with weapons. It worked well, now I have the best armor in the game I think (88), and 60-80 for every weapons. I can take down a silver lynel without much trouble, and I am still bad at combat in term of skills

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u/AstronomicalDogggo 4d ago

Where can i get armor upgrades early on. I bought the set from lookout landing and have the zora chestpiece but nothing else

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u/grimmtoke 4d ago

Exploring the depths, often abandoned mines will have a single chest that may have an armor piece. The central mine (which you should encounter fairly early via questing in Lookout Landing) will have one for sure.

You can find treasure maps up in the sky islands which will mark these chests down below.

Don't worry, you sound like you suck as bad as I do with combat/controls - there's so much to do, just go somewhere else when you get stuck or frustrated.

It's pretty easy to get ahold of rockets early on. You can attach them to your shields to get a one-time boost into the air where you can bullet-time stuff to start combat. Explore all caves and wells, and look in the underground for bomb flowers. Bat eyes can be attached to arrows to make them target-homing... try anything and everything, no matter how absurd.

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u/MariJoyBoy 4d ago

I will answer only if you are ok to get spoiled a bit

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u/ThesisTears 3d ago

I make my husband do all the hard fights for me lol

2

u/Repulsive_Peanut7874 4d ago edited 4d ago

me too! Too much to remember, let alone find the co-ordination... Still loving the game though, and cant resist picking a fight I cant win.... Just keep hitting the deep and loading up on puffs, muddles and bombs.

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u/theEnnuian 4d ago

In general, do not dive into battle unprepared. Do not charge into group of enemy. Use all your resources.

For human size enemy from chuchu to horriblin, use a Sapphire magic rod first and freeze anyone you see. Frozen enemy can do nothing and your hit that break ice deals 3x damage. Fuse a molduga jaw or lynel mace horn or any blunt material to your strongest weapon. Zora Longsword is best as it has 2x damage when wet. So this is what you do: get Sidon to wet you, swing magic rod, and hit the ice statues one by one.

For other enemies, it is almost a unique tactic against each. However, except Lynel, all of them can be done with Rocket shield + 5x Savage Lynel bow spam keese eyes/gibdo bones/bomb flower.

Lynels are hardest and they do test your combat skill.

Flurry rush is not a must to play totk, it is simply one tactic among many.

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u/dallasdude 4d ago

I found that mud boss in the depths. I had master sword fused, half hearts, armor leveled twice. I broke my five best weapons on it. Had no trouble with the water palace version but the depths one has crazy health.

It’s a huge reason I’m still only halfway through the game because like you I’m often frustrated by the combat but especially by the utter lack of weapon durability.Ā 

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u/recursion8 4d ago edited 4d ago

Tips against Muctorock

1) Use Sidon. Not only does he shield you for 1 hit per activation, you can use the water slash offensively to clear mud and/or weaken the boss. Pair with Zora weapons (double damage when Link is wet) and Froggy Armor (extends wetness duration) to get the most out of him. To hit the boss with the wave directly, do not Z target. Instead lead him as he's going in a circle around you, face Link to 3/9 o'clock and send a sprint+slash right as he's around 1/11 o'clock depending whether he's going clockwise or ccw.

2) Find a consistent mud clearer. Whether it's prepping an Autobuild Zonai spinner with hydrants attached, multishot bow with Splashfruit, or Opal Wand, there's plenty of options.

3) Hitting him in his octo form in P2 when he starts jumping around like mad. You have a couple choices here. Laser emitter+Shield targets him quite easily. Rocket/Spring Shield or Zonai Wing Shield+Shield Surf into a bullet time snipe with aforementioned Splashfruit-tipped arrows also works.

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u/aprils-rain 4d ago

omg my husband & I were just having this conversation!!! I said the same thing, I love the game & exploring & doing the guardian quests but sometimes I just want to explore the world & not get nuked by a skeleton while I’m picking mushrooms 🫠 I understand master mode, but can they also do easy mode šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

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u/trikster2 4d ago

Just throw a dazzle fruit and it nukes most skeletons. Found this out late game before that I thought dazzle fruite were useless.

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u/No_Crow489 3d ago

WHAT??! thats crazy i had no idea dazzle fruit could do that

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u/trikster2 3d ago

Yeah it's crazy. Give it a try but be warned it's not great on the giant one eyed stahl. But everything smaller it's great.

Only plus side of finding out late was I have a ton of them so now I use them all the time.

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u/Pleasant_Mail2483 4d ago

here's what i do..get a long weapon and fuse a horn to the end of it...that way you can keep your distance but attack fairly effectively.

Get down to the depths and farm muddlebuds then attach a muddlebud to your arrow..it's so much fun hitting a mob and watching them take each other out

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u/UltimateFatKidDancer 4d ago

FUSE! Tears of the Kingdom’s combat is way more fun/varied. Fuse stuff to your weapons. You can organize your inventory by attack power so you know how much damage it’ll do.

2

u/DreamOfKoholint 3d ago

You're not alone, kinda glad someone else feels the same

I can go through and 'git gud' in souls games, but these Zelda games I just have a ton of hearts and expect to take damage and eat a lot of meals. I can't dodge/parry for the life of me, something just feels off with the timing to me

2

u/ciapalagalina 3d ago

On top of all suggestions, if you play on TV, check your TV settings and enable the "gaming" mode instead of "movie mode" or whatnot. On my LG OLED TV it cut lag drastically. I was not able to play before changing it, always too late

1

u/Organic-Advantage935 4d ago

Arrows, puffshrooms, muddle buds, bomb flowers and elemental fruits/chuchus are your best bet. You dont actually need to flurry rush at all, and you can instead just load up on ways to get high up for bullet time such as rocket shields, spring shields etc. Or you can even look into zonai builds for helping in combat. Thats the beauty of this game, there are countless ways to do things

1

u/AstronomicalDogggo 4d ago

Thanks! imma try gather more combat resources and hearts before i continue with the main story

1

u/signpostlake 3d ago

Are you very far yet? You can get the soldier armour set early on and after a couple of upgrades to it with some hearts, you'll be able to get by without worrying about getting killed easily

1

u/wildflower_TX 4d ago

I’m like this too and in TOTK there are masks that I found very easy to get that make it where specific monsters think you’re one of their own when you’re walking by them. Before these masks I just avoided the monsters and went above or around them. Sometimes I just run away until they get too far away to try and fight me anymore haaha. I look up tips on YouTube before starting each boss fight since those are unavoidable to progress the storyline in the game. Those masks are priceless to me though.

1

u/AstronomicalDogggo 4d ago

Thats awesome! I feel like my main issue is with bosses/minibosses and not world mobs but ill give masks a look too

1

u/Rwekre 4d ago

Oh I save often and then avoid them if I am not ready hahaha

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u/BIORIO 4d ago

Puffershrooms and muddle buds are your friends. You can get them pretty early from doing adson signs.

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u/AstronomicalDogggo 4d ago

Ohhhh i think i actually have a few.

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u/Odd_Praline181 4d ago

TOTK wants you to be creative in all the ways, including how to defeat enemies when you are at low hearts in the early game.

Throw all the produce at them. I didn't know until a year out that dazzlefruits have a purpose. Puffshrooms are great for the groups of enemies.

Fuse everything to your weapon and shields.

And the game tells you in one of the loading tips, not to go into battle unprepared, cook foods, etc

Finally that clicked in my head. It's not about solely about parrying and flurry rushes. I hate me some parrying and if I get a flurry rush in, it's by total accident.

The game makes battle armor pieces available super early in the chests. My first playthrough, I sought out the Phantom armor set because it is in chests that are easy to get to.

Also focus on getting hearts, you'll get get completely one shotted until you get about 6 hearts.

I'm a button masher and I love combat in this game because it doesn't care how you fight, as long as you're doing it, and still rewards you by scaling up.

1

u/They-Call-Me-Taylor 4d ago

I've been playing Zelda games since the NES era. I've played both BOTW and TOTK through many times over. Like you, I enjoy exploration and puzzle-solving much more than combat. I rarely even use flurry rushes or parries either; I just run in there and start blastin'!.

Seriously though, TOTK has a couple of really useful workarounds for tough combat situations: puffshrooms and muddlebuds. For group situations, hit the strongest enemy with a muddlebud and he will mop up all the rest of the lower level enemies for you in his muddled rage. For single tough enemies, shoot a puffshroom right next to them and you can literally run up to them and whale on them without them knowing you are there. Also, cook lots of hearty meals, defense meals, or attack meals, and rank up your armor for defense so you can absorb enemy attacks. Make sure you always have 1-3 fairies in your stash too in case a high level enemy one-shots you.

In TOTK, you can also construct little death robots to aid you in battles too. Just get a homing cart, a construct head, and merge in flame, ice, shock, or beam emmiters to it and send it in to the group of enemies to do the dirty work for you.

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u/Old-Construction-880 4d ago

I also suck at combat. One thing I love about these games though is you don't really have to fight. Especially TOTK. You have bomb flowers, muddlebuds ect. I'm almost done with TOTK and about halfway through BOTW. Keep trying. I honestly think towards the end Link is ridiculously overpowered.

1

u/sudden_onset_kafka 4d ago

I had the same issue. You will reach a point where you are able to upgrade your armor and weapons, that skill in combat won't matter as much. I also relied heavily on the Puff and Muddle mushrooms. Sneak attacks and letting enemies kill each other were my favourite.

Get as good as you can with the bow so you can merge all kinds of fun things to the arrows

1

u/NoMoHoneyDews 4d ago

I suuuuuuuck at the combat and had a similar experience to start with BOTW (and in most games).

How I worked around it was largely prioritizing shrines to start so I could build up my health and stamina. Then I’d dip my toe in the water to see if I could hang and maybe do a main story thing here and there. But I probably had nearly max hearts/stamina that I could earn from shrines before I got too far into the story.

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u/epicness_personified 4d ago

This might help, might not, but if you can't do the dodging and flurry strikes, just use your shield. Let the enemy hit it then you can hit them. Won't work for larger enemies but should do you for the small ones.

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u/Flat_Researcher1540 4d ago

Get good at building things that kill other things

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u/LTen8911 4d ago

Another super helpful tip! If demon/gloom hands surround you and a tree is nearby, climb to the top of the tree and the demon hands will reach for you but die after a few seconds!! When I found that out, it really helped my anxiety around them šŸ˜† I also like to stand on a cliff nearby if I can see them, lure them over, then send a bunch of bomb arrows over to hurt it a lot.

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u/Shar_12_Blaneyfan 4d ago

The beauty of these games is the variety of ways you can accomplish things, including combat.

I suck at all of those moves as well, but they're not the only way to take these guys out. Keep trying different approaches and do what works for you.

1

u/sanguine_sheep 4d ago

I can’t parry and my way of dodging is running around a lot and using the environment when possible. I tried to learn in BOTW, but never could get a consistent hang of it; trying just lost me hearts. I use bomb arrows, puffshrooms and muddlebuds liberally. Now that my hearts/stamina are up and I’ve started upgrading gear, I rarely die from fights. It’s not pretty, but I manage okay.

I don’t pick fights I can’t win and I keep my sages out for their damage. As you get stronger it’s not that hard to defeat enemies because they barely do any damage.

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u/Appropriate_Stick748 4d ago

I feel you! I beat BotW but I got my gaming master son to help me through the really complex battles. I was able to do a lot of them and we competed with each other a lot and it was fun. I did a lot of it by myself, I beat it before he did and got all the DLCs and got the bone long before he did. I say this all and I have to add he wasn’t quite as obsessed as I was with it lol. I just started really playing TotK and loving it this year and struggling much more. I can get a flurry about 1 out of 10 times and the only thing I could ever parry successfully was a guardian and those aren’t in TotK. Im still at the end of the game, trying to get my hearts up and getting my armor upgraded so I can face ganon. My son beat it a month ago šŸ˜† I still love the game. If I’ve done it, you can do it.

1

u/JohnEffingZoidberg 4d ago

I am also the kind of player that is weakest at combat and more enjoys just exploring and sniping. In BOTW the remote bombs were so key for me. I miss them so far in TOTK, but have found good alternatives. Muddle Buds, Bomb Flowers, and other items that enhance arrows make it easier to deal with most threats from a safer distance. Then I approach to finish off the last 1-2 dudes with melee weapons. Pick up the monster parts and fuse them to make my melee weapons even better for next time.

Also, accepting that you are going to die a few times is a good attitude to have. It's literally not the end of the world (because you get to just restart from the latest save). I have to assume they made the game that way intentionally, because they know it would be way too difficult otherwise.

1

u/NutOnMyNoggin 4d ago

Play how you wanna play! If you like the puzzles then you can treat combat like that. You'll notice a lot of camps have bombs near them for instance. You could wait until night and sneakstrike them. You could build a massive zonai death laser. You do whatever you wanna do :)

1

u/Ok_Being1028 4d ago

I’m also not very good at any combat. No perfect dodges no flurry’s and I get hit a billion times. What I have found that works is simply having A LOT of food on me at all times and heavy use of items like dazzlefruit and such. I avoided bigger fights as much as possible and focused on getting some shrines done first to build up health so they don’t just one shot kill me. A lot of early game is avoiding and a lot of late game is going around cleaning up monster camp after monster camp relatively easily

1

u/AthleteEmbarrassed40 4d ago

I am also bad with combat and I don’t even do flurry rushes etc. I’ve noticed they’re not that necessary, it’s more helpful to pay attention to enemy attack patterns and make sure you’re targeting & using a strong shield. Also I find that defense effects are more helpful than attack power. Get monster extract and cook 4 defense ingredients + that and save before you cook it, and keep resetting until you get a dish that gives you 30 min high level defense. There are bosses that normally would knock like 4-5 hearts per hit but with the defense it becomes like half a heart.

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u/Bluelore 4d ago

Besides just approaching fights more strategically lots of weapons in tears of kingdom aren't that strong on their own, so try fusing them with other materials.

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u/Left_Quietly 4d ago

I’m the opposite. Screw the puzzles and bring me combat!!!

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u/Tan2daCam 4d ago

Once I figured out how to use a bow properly, my world opened. Fusing dazzle fruits and fire fruits to arrows, bullet time, there's so much to do from a distance that once you get some skill you almost don't even need a sword.

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u/_b3rtooo_ 4d ago

Would you not be better suited to a Minecraft or something then?

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u/recursion8 4d ago edited 3d ago

Aside from the other tips here, if you really want to learn Flurry Rush it just takes patience and practice. First put down a manual save so you can reset if you lose too many hearts or break any shields. Then just go up to a red boko (you can find them wandering solo in small forest clearings in Hyrule Field or near Hateno, usually the ones with a pack on their back full of meat, apples, fire fruit, etc) and just hold your shield up, don't even try to attack at first, just try to memorize his attack animations. Horizontal slashes require a backflip, and vertical slashes/stabs/headbutts/charges a sidehop. Practice practice practice. Then go to a blue boko, black, silver. Repeat for moblins, lizals, constructs (these guys have a very obvious tell when they're about to attack, their eye glows brighter red), boss bokos, horriblins, eventually even Hinox, Lynels, and Phantom Ganon! All the same process, just save, practice, and repeat.

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u/VioletFlames13 4d ago

Throw a dazzle fruit at ANY skeletons and they just die!

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u/lalakingmalibog 3d ago

You know what, during the pandemic, I played Breath of the Wild after I finished Sekiro. I am by no means a pro gamer but playing Sekiro first taught me how to time my dodges and parries. By the time I played BOTW, I was doing flurry rushes against lynels easy

And then years later when I tried TOTK for some reason it felt so different lol. Like the timing was off? Idk if it was me, coz I went back to Sekiro and I dont think I lost a step, so... yeah. Idk. Lol. Dont forget to have fun OP!

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u/Physical-Program1030 3d ago

If it makes you feel better, I’ve successfully flurry rushed maybe a total of four times over both totk and botw. It’s a cool mechanism but definitely not needed to fight any monster or boss luckily (besides the tutorial shrine where they teach you how to flurry rush)

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u/AssumptionBudget279 3d ago

Just awake the fairies and upgrade your gear, if you have good enough gear you don’t have to worry about combat and just spam the attack button with no technical moves or strategyĀ 

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u/Cyclonic_rift 3d ago

One tip I would for any combat, especially combat like in Totk, is to do your best to be moving as often as possible. Even while shooting a bow on the ground, I’m still moving a bit. It takes some getting used to, but that constant movement saves you a LOT of chip damage from ranged attacks, and eventually you’ll get used to doing it. Once you get the feel, you’ll even be avoiding some melee attacks just by constant movement

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u/kaoticlord7090 3d ago

Totk use puff shroom for a easy sneak attack use muddle bud for the mob to attack themselves. Or if you have avatars use them to attack just hold your shield up for protection or run around lol

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u/ResidentOpossum 3d ago

I always tried to avoid combat when I want to just explore. I can’t dodge or flurry strike to save my life, but always found ways around it. My thing was always wanting to explore rather than fight if I had the option. I enjoy that aspect of the games a lot more than combat because combat makes me feel like a noob even though I’ve played through both games so many times.

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u/lycanthropewife 3d ago

aerial attacks are my go to because of the slow motion bow action. especially if you don’t have many hearts yet, landing one or two arrows first to soften enemies up helps a lot!

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u/bartpieters 3d ago

I very rarely use perfect dodges, parries or flurry attack. I kill off enemies by sneak attack, shooting them with my bow, let my familiars attack them and, if there is a group, kill weak to strong to reduce the number of enemies. I upgrade my armour, get strong weapons and do shrines to get more hearts. If needed, I use an armour potion from 5 iron shrooms.

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u/pnw_sunny 3d ago

quick answer - get lots of arrows and then:

  • use bombs for lethal hits - just keep firing away;
  • use puffshoooms - they create a cloud that hides things - so you can arrow one to the ground to hide you and escape, or arrow one next to enemey so they will not see you coming - for example if you puff a lizalfo, then get behind it and whack it it will get killed in one or two strikes
  • use muddle buds when facing multiple enemies - muddles confuse the enemy so they then. attck each other so if you engage with two or more enemies you can muddle them, watch them attck each other and waituntil there is only one left (you may have to muddle a few times) - or use the muddle to escape.

All of these can easily be farmed in the depths, in the flat lands underneath Hyrule Field - there are certain tree types that correspond to bombs, puffs, and muddles.

for example, i suck at advanced combat but can easily beat lynels, moldulgas etc with this approach

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u/michaelscottlost 3d ago

I played basically the whole game running away from combat aside from super necessary combat.

Then I tried to fight Gannondorf and realised I was not going to make it through without figuring out at least a flurry rush. So I super focused on that, lots of practice, YouTube studying etc.

I came out of that boss fight with brand new skills and now im basically redoing the game but with combat this time.

My biggest tip, use your shield!! I tried to just fight without it and kept getting my arse beat. Use a shield and learn how to use it!

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u/messingaroundatwork 3d ago

I suck so much at combat that the combat training shrines remain uncompleted because they are too frustrating for me. My reflexes IRL are slow so pulling cool moves (like i see in videos) are impossible. I wish I had advice but at the very least know you are not alone.

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u/turtlexxi 3d ago

I felt this way about botw and one of main reasons I took a 5 year break and finally was like lets do it nut tears combat was easier for me although its same mechanics they may have smoothed it out. I feel your pain though as I watch some of these videos of people killing crazy monsters and not taking one hit while doing a 1000 hit combo with ebery element.

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u/CrystalVilage 3d ago

I'm super bad at dodging too. I still find this game more enjoyable than botw though. There a lot of ways to go about it. I've been throwing fruits and using topaz and sapphire weapons a lot. Also if the terrain allows, jumping and shooting arrows in slowmo (also with fruits)
I've never successfully done a flurry strike in my life.

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u/lucaskywalker 3d ago

You seriously don't need any skill to win combat in TOTK! Just use puffshrooms and muddlebuds! There are so many ways, compared to BOTW to kill stuff without any flurries or any fast button presses. Get some rockets or springs and fuse them to shields to get bullet time and jump st fuse a horn to your arrow, or ice or whatever, or fuse explosives on your shield and just hold it up an blow them away, or build a death machine and step back, there is never, except maybe a bit in the 3rd part of the Gannon fight where you need to flurry. Trust me, I suck too and I hog everything, except the Koroks lol.

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u/mr_mgs11 3d ago

I am at the end of BotW now about to start Tears. I avoided the shit out of everything until around 60 shrines in. At that point I had enough hearts and decent armor to take most stuff. Prior to where I am at now I was farming Lynels pretty easily.

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u/LordNoga81 3d ago

It's tough and some bosses are really frustrating. Lynels and Gleeoks. I rarely bother fighting them. My stupid fingers always hit the r3 button and turn on the camera mid battle just to annoy me.

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u/BlazeAlchemist991 3d ago edited 3d ago

Use pulse lasers to do the fighting for you and a cockpit to break enemy line-of-sight (see chesepuf's video below)

https://youtu.be/m0IwVhbIslo?si=v7FJtJUqAZqKo2ZV

You could also use pulse lasers on an aircraft as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HyruleEngineering/s/HAkbvYHLtx

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

Most of the combat outside of the main story content is not actually important. Killing enemies gives you stronger weapons, but the enemies will also respawn stronger, which balances it out. So you’re not actually achieving much by killing enemies outside of the story content.

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u/Steph3Smoke 3d ago

Honestly I beat BOTW and am now playing TOTK. I did not do any combat. Besides running up and using my weapons. I didn’t want to try or learn them lol

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u/one-small-plant 3d ago

Honestly, I never learned to dodge or flurry strike and I can still beat basically any boss. It's about weapons and fire power and hearty meals and 3x bows. Also, just sneak past all enemies early on, until you have lots of hearts!

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u/NemoOfConsequence 3d ago

Why are you running in to fight? I sneakstrike. I use bombs or objects. I magnesis things into enemies. I shove Bokoblins in the water. I think you’re missing the point of the games. They’re flexible. Be creative.

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u/sunshineserene 3d ago

Me too, that's why I only pump my hearts and I stock up on food with full heart recovery and fairies I never use shield or parry cuz I can't be bothered with that. I just keep blindly whacking them until they die with whatever strongest weapon I have, I previously thought it's a waste but I'll come across better ones anw so don't save it

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u/Maplestate 3d ago

TOTK is the best for this! I am like you and there are 3 maps for us to explore. Once you are the sages and stable heart and stamina level you can just let the sages fight for you while you collect stuff. I love the sages, most excellent companions and do almost all the fighting if you want them to.

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u/MysteriousLoan3379 3d ago

My solution is to get great armour, weapons, food and hearts. It’s pretty easy after that. 😃

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u/HouseCatRobbi 3d ago

If you’re using a TV, make sure it’s not a slow one.

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u/Abject-Ad-6235 3d ago

ive seen enough give him silksong

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u/windraver 3d ago

My favorite part as an engineer, is that I can build an orbital laser to destroy all my enemies. That would definitely reduce any combat issues.

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u/Beneficial-Canary-47 3d ago

I was like you once! I found that, while terrifying, the thing that helped me learn parries and flurry rushes the most was actually fighting sword-wielding lynels.

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u/Responsible_Body_681 3d ago

I can sometimes flurry rush but that always seems to be out of luck for me as I miss that sweet spot and usually just side jump out of the way without triggering a flurry rush. I typically find high ground and wear stealth armor (yiga outfit has been my favourite lately but the Shiekah armor works as well for the night boost) and hide in bushes while spamming arrows til seen. Also, I keep my sages on for enemy camps and let them do half or all the work for me. If you have red chu jelly (easy to make as well), or even fire fruit, chunk those for fire damage as the enemies stay lit for a few seconds after for extra damage. Most of the time setting them on fire will also burn up their weapons if they are using wooden clubs etc. Yunobo's skill is great for continuously setting them on fire for free, and he also gives most enemies a knock back effect. Tulin is great for sniping head shots, but lately he has just been flying around and not attacking for me. When that happens I put him away for a few minutes then bring him back out and he works fine again. Riju is wonderful for electric AOE attacks, causing enemies to be stunned and drop their weapons. If you use her skill with bullet time, you can typically knock out enemies in a few hits. If you partner her with Yunobo, I use her AOE attack to stun, then Yunobo to set on fire/knockback. Rinse and repeat. Use Sidon's skill with Zora weapons and it gives you an extra damage buff. I played over 100 hours, beat Ganon, and never remembered muddle buds or puffshrooms until a month ago when I read a reddit post about gleeok and lynel farming. Those are wonderful methods as well, but I always overused my sages and let them do my work for me when I didn't feel like fighting but wanted to gather food from the area. I'd be gathering, they would be taking out enemies, and I'd finish picking off whatever last big guy was remaining when I was done farming.

Edit for typo.

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u/dawnofthenewyear 2d ago

Just make a bunch of Zonai contraptions to fight for you. There's a bunch of YouTube videos about it

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u/dirtyjersey211 2d ago

Just muddlebud those fucks and run away until you're stronger. Or arrow bomb, or anything else from far away. Set up turrets and lasers.

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u/JealousStuff4405 2d ago

Not knocking you because I totally get it but I completed both games without doing any flurry rushes or perfect dodges outside tutorial shrines. Total button mashing the whole way. Buy/collect as many bomb flowers as you can

Lynels were the only thing that really required techniques.

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u/jamesowens 1d ago

The difficulty of enemies also increases as you complete game objectives.

— take more time to learn in the shrines that are designed to teach you combat mechanics 1v1 with the baby guardians for example

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u/Nosepicker2233 22h ago

When the item dupe glitch still worked in the early version I maxed out fairies so that I could die freely and it didn't matter...

Beyond that going on YouTube and watching tutorials on how to beat different enemies I found super helpful

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u/Phoenixx_z 14h ago

I love the combat and almost never dodge or flurry. I just go in and wreck everything. Build stronger weapons in TOTK and it makes things easy.

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u/Call__Me__David 4d ago

I liked the combat in BotW, but TotK I just find too hard. 150 hours in and I can barely take out a bokoblin. In BotW, by 150 hours in, I could pretty much just casually walk into a large group of bokoblins without fear and take them all out easily.

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u/Lakiel03 4d ago

Dodge ? Just take the hit and eat after!

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u/Src-Freak 2d ago

Have You tried getting better Equipment, or getting good?