Uploaded August 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
A different kind of challenge run: Minimalist 100%
Part 15 - Hyrule Castle
I originally planned to defeat Ganon using ONLY the Champion abilities, but after approximately a dozen deaths, I had to face the fact that I'm not skilled enough for that. And the equipment that gets used up / broke during the final fight resets anyway, so it's not like I actually lost something.
I will still at least try to defeat him again (using only abilities) after the Champion's Ballad, because the reduced recharge time will be a great help.
For comparison: Inside Hyrule Castle, the Champion abilities only take one-third of their normal recharge time. Urbosa's Fury refills in 4 minutes instead of 12 minutes, but it still deals "only" 150 damage points per hit.
At the start of the fight, Ganon has 4k HP (he normally has 8k, but every Divine Beast freed reduces his HP by 1k). You would need 27 charges of Urbosa's Fury to deplete his health, and since you get 3 charges per cycle, that boils down to 9 cycles. Since you (ideally) start with 3 full charges already, you'd have to wait for a REcharge 8 times.
8 cycles with 4 minutes each = I would have to survive for 32 minutes. Maybe less if Daruk's Protection (or successful shield parries) deal enough damage to him. But since I suck at parrying, I simply didn't manage to survive for long enough. (That fight is definitely possible to be cleared just with abilities, but I, personally, wasn't skillful enough to manage it this week, and I didn't want to delay unlocking the counter any more.)
Now, after the Champion's Ballad, the abilities have their recharge time cut down to 1/3 of the initial time by default, and while you're inside the castle, they get cut down again. Urbosa's Fury now takes a mere 1 minute 20 seconds to fully recharge, and I would have to survive that fight for slightly longer than ten minutes - and THAT is something I managed to do already.
The actual recharge times:
(Ability: normal time / Ability+ OR Castle / Ability+ AND Castle stacked)
Mipha's Grace: 24 minutes / 8 minutes / 2 min 40 sec
Daruk's Protection: 18 minutes / 6 minutes / 2 minutes
Urbosa's Fury: 12 minutes / 4 minutes / 1 min 20 sec
Revali's Gale: 6 minutes / 2 minutes / 40 seconds
PS: The arrow tally is one arrow off, because I had used one more bomb arrow on the Hyrule Castle Balcony Balloon already - but I'll tally that one properly in a future episode about more Korok puzzles. Reddit still doesn't allow videos to be longer than 15 minutes and I sadly had to cut some content again.
Additional information:
* The "Defeat Ganon" quest can not be completed permanently. It only ever temporarily completes after the last boss fight, but reverts back to its incomplete state while you're actually playing the game.
* Defeating Ganon at least once unlocks a couple of things, not just the "completion" counter. A full list can be fund here: https://lemmy.world/post/1034679
* If you do not have a horse registered, you're given Link's Default Horse for the last battle. It always has the same look, same stats and 100% bond. It does NOT have an official name: there is no icon/name on the map for it (unlike for your actual horses) and there is no text box stating "[Name] couldn't hear your call" if you whistle for it while being too far away. You're also not allowed to keep it after the fight, so I didn't count that as "obtaining a registered horse" in the tally. A guide about the "special" horses can be found here: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/189707-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild/faqs/74764/links-horse
* The rupees I had obtained so far will be tallied in the next episode.
* Information about the translation error during the last boss fight: legendsoflocalization.com/breath-of-the-wilds-ganon-in-english-japanese
The new "completion" count is at 74.24% (+17.44%)
The huge increase from last time is partially due to the 67 Koroks (around 5%), and partially due to the fact that the "discoverable locations" are now fully factored in, and those are worth up to ca. 15% of the total.
A different kind of challenge run: Minimalist 100%
Part 15 - Hyrule Castle
I originally planned to defeat Ganon using ONLY the Champion abilities, but after approximately a dozen deaths, I had to face the fact that I'm not skilled enough for that. And the equipment that gets used up / broke during the final fight resets anyway, so it's not like I actually lost something.
I will still at least try to defeat him again (using only abilities) after the Champion's Ballad, because the reduced recharge time will be a great help.
For comparison: Inside Hyrule Castle, the Champion abilities only take one-third of their normal recharge time. Urbosa's Fury refills in 4 minutes instead of 12 minutes, but it still deals "only" 150 damage points per hit.
At the start of the fight, Ganon has 4k HP (he normally has 8k, but every Divine Beast freed reduces his HP by 1k). You would need 27 charges of Urbosa's Fury to deplete his health, and since you get 3 charges per cycle, that boils down to 9 cycles. Since you (ideally) start with 3 full charges already, you'd have to wait for a REcharge 8 times.
8 cycles with 4 minutes each = I would have to survive for 32 minutes. Maybe less if Daruk's Protection (or successful shield parries) deal enough damage to him. But since I suck at parrying, I simply didn't manage to survive for long enough. (That fight is definitely possible to be cleared just with abilities, but I, personally, wasn't skillful enough to manage it this week, and I didn't want to delay unlocking the counter any more.)
Now, after the Champion's Ballad, the abilities have their recharge time cut down to 1/3 of the initial time by default, and while you're inside the castle, they get cut down again. Urbosa's Fury now takes a mere 1 minute 20 seconds to fully recharge, and I would have to survive that fight for slightly longer than ten minutes - and THAT is something I managed to do already.
The actual recharge times:
(Ability: normal time / Ability+ OR Castle / Ability+ AND Castle stacked)
Mipha's Grace: 24 minutes / 8 minutes / 2 min 40 sec
Daruk's Protection: 18 minutes / 6 minutes / 2 minutes
Urbosa's Fury: 12 minutes / 4 minutes / 1 min 20 sec
Revali's Gale: 6 minutes / 2 minutes / 40 seconds
PS: The arrow tally is one arrow off, because I had used one more bomb arrow on the Hyrule Castle Balcony Balloon already - but I'll tally that one properly in a future episode about more Korok puzzles. Reddit still doesn't allow videos to be longer than 15 minutes and I sadly had to cut some content again.
Additional information:
* The "Defeat Ganon" quest can not be completed permanently. It only ever temporarily completes after the last boss fight, but reverts back to its incomplete state while you're actually playing the game.
* Defeating Ganon at least once unlocks a couple of things, not just the "completion" counter. A full list can be fund here: https://lemmy.world/post/1034679
* If you do not have a horse registered, you're given Link's Default Horse for the last battle. It always has the same look, same stats and 100% bond. It does NOT have an official name: there is no icon/name on the map for it (unlike for your actual horses) and there is no text box stating "[Name] couldn't hear your call" if you whistle for it while being too far away. You're also not allowed to keep it after the fight, so I didn't count that as "obtaining a registered horse" in the tally. A guide about the "special" horses can be found here: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/189707-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild/faqs/74764/links-horse
* The rupees I had obtained so far will be tallied in the next episode.
* Information about the translation error during the last boss fight: legendsoflocalization.com/breath-of-the-wilds-ganon-in-english-japanese
The new "completion" count is at 74.24% (+17.44%)
The huge increase from last time is partially due to the 67 Koroks (around 5%), and partially due to the fact that the "discoverable locations" are now fully factored in, and those are worth up to ca. 15% of the total.
