The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdommarks the first journey as Zelda in decades and there is no shortage of fun when it comes to the title. The game boasts a similar structure to Link’s Awakening andTears of the Kingdom, as its style and mechanics are fairly similar. With this being said, Echoes of Wisdom values itself as an innovative approach with its use of echoes.
Review: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
It’s called The Legend of ZELDA for a reason.
There are a lot of things that you can learn along the way, but there’s no doubt some tricks go under the radar. Given the amount of echoes and endless possibilities to solve a puzzle, it can be overwhelming to decide how to approach a battle or puzzle. With these tips and tricks, which were chosen based on innovation and strategic planning, you’re sure to spin your way through Hyrule in style.
10Travel via Waypoint or Horse
Giddy-Up to Your Next Destination
There’s no doubt that the land of Hyrule is beautiful to travel through. From the chilly snowcaps of Mountain Lanayru in the Hebra region to the sandy ruins of the Gerudo region, the places you get to travel to in Echoes of Wisdom are vast. With this being said, it can get tedious having to make your way from place to place just by walking. That’s when waypoints and a horse will come in handy.
Waypoints can be found around the major sites in the game, with some being located in the Stilled World. Essentially, these are checkpoints for you so that if you need to get somewhere fast, you can get to one. If you need to travel to a specific location, a horse will be the best option. You can get the option to ride one by going to Hyrule Ranch and completing the task with one of the owners. A horse can have other benefits as well, since it can knock down smaller enemies and traverse cliffs.
9Acknowledge Your Echo Cost
The Better They Are, The More Expensive They Come
When it comes to strategic combat or puzzle solving, keeping this tip in your mind will make a difference. Tri starts off with three triangles on its tail, meaning that you can only use up to three echoes. For example, a table is 1 TP, so in that given scenario, you have the option to use three tables to get to where you need to be. As you progress through the game, you’ll collect echoes that begin to cost more, with some hitting the range of 6 TP.
The Echo Cost can be upgraded by closing off rifts, with the main ones gaining more momentum in leveling up. As you level up, you can lower the cost for some echoes and gain more TP, which will come in handy when faced with new echoes and boss battles. For mob echoes, the higher the cost equates to the more effective they can be in battle. This doesn’t necessarily mean that having lower-cost echoes can be just as effective as having one high-cost echo.
8Explore Smaller Rifts in Hyrule
You STILL Got Time To Spare
Even after clearing the main rift in a region, there will still be a few scattered around the area. These rifts are similar to the ones faced prior to going into the dungeons, as these focus on finding Tri’s friends throughout the Stilled World. The range can be between three and five in one rift, with the difficulty level pertaining to the region itself. These rifts are crucial to upgrading Tri, as the cost of echoes will go down and the limit will get higher.
These rifts also provide a few echoes you may or may not have gotten on your adventure already. Some of the rifts don’t have a focus on enemies, which can be fun for those who don’t like to worry about having to deal with tough fights. A majority of the rifts have a puzzle element to them, so it can be fun to explore those when you want. To find one of these, look on the map and see if there is an area that you haven’t gotten to yet.
7Limit Swordfighter Mode Time
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
It’s totally understandable why you’d want to stay in this mode longer.Swordfighter Modeoffers the ability to use Link’s sword, bow and bombs to attack enemies in battle. But as the saying goes, good things don’t last forever. The mode does have a limit and once you’re out of energy, you can’t get any until you find some around the Stilled World, which can be hard to find at times.
The best tip I could give you is to preserve energy and use it only when it’s necessary. Remember, you have echoes that can help with defeating enemies, so use them more so than Swordfighter Mode. A key moment to kick the Mode into high gear is when a boss is unconscious and vulnerable or when echoes cannot reach the enemy. As soon as the enemy is down or back up on its feet (boss battle), then switch back into Zelda and use echoes. Ganon is another example of when to use Swordfighter, because the fight does involve you using the Mode.
6Use Your Ingredients Wisely
Fuel Your Adventure With the Right Diet
You’ll come across a variety of foods along your journey which include grapes, golden eggs, mangoes and even monster guts. These ingredients are helpful when battling against enemies, and you don’t have the room to place a bed. Having said that, there’s a way to utilize your ingredients to do much more than heal a few hearts at a time. One of the places to bestow your foods is the various Smoothie shops around the land of Hyrule.
Your first instance with one will be atOasisin the Gerudo Desert. Smoothies can be made by mixing two ingredients together and creating a recipe that could aid in any sort of situation, whether it be to heal a ton of hearts or to protect you from the varying degrees of the environment. There are 69 different smoothie combinations, so experiment with what you got. One of the best ingredients to use is Sweet Nectar, which can be used to amplify any of the foods' specific qualities. Personally, one of my favorite smoothies that has come into clutch in boss battles has been the Salted Milky Smoothie, which is a mix of Fresh Milk and Rock Salt, that heals ten hearts and re-energizes your energy recovery.
5Use Binds to Get Out of Binds
You Can Fill a Binder With How Much Bind Can Get You Out of Binds
While echoes can be great for solving puzzles or taking down enemies, there’s a great way to feel more involved in the process. The Bind ability allows players to move objects (including enemies) by binding them. You learn this early on in the game, and it’s an essential tool to use throughout Echoes of Wisdom. One of the major things that I learned while playing is that there are a lot of things I can use the Bind ability on that I wouldn’t have thought of using it on.
For instance, the miniboss battle with Link (bow) is one where you can use the ability on Link. Crazy, I know, but you can move him over to the pits on either side of the stage and drop him down there. Frankly, you can even do that with enemies that are within distance where there is a drop or pit. You could even bind with your echo and use it as protection against incoming enemies.
4Collect Every Echo
Gotta Catch Em' All Zelda-Style
There are 127 echoes in Echoes of Wisdom, which is a lot considering you will come across them at least once or twice during your adventure. Collecting echoes is simple, given that all you need to do is learn it once you approach an object or defeat an enemy. For those who love Pokémon, such as myself, this element of the game is a lot of fun. While you don’t have to catch every Pokémon in the games, Echoes of Wisdom, however, makes it a valuable aspect.
Every echo you collect has a purpose, but you don’t have to stick to tradition when it comes to its usage. For example, the Flying Tile echo can be used to move from one area to another, but it can also be used to hit enemies or targets across the way. Some echoes have the best advantages when it comes to strategic gameplay such as the boulder, which can be used to hit objects, shield you in battle or as a placement for a pressure plate. One of the best things about this is that they aren’t too hard to find around Hyrule.
3Spin is Your Best Friend
You Spin Me Right Around
Let’s be honest: it can be annoying walking through Hyrule and the Stilled World without a boost of energy. Spinning is considered to be used in the game to cut through grass and dodge enemy attacks, but as you will soon realize, it does so much more than that. Personally, I don’t think there was a time throughout my playthrough where I wasn’t using the spin move to go around the various regions. you’re able to move faster when you spin, which I find to be useful in enemy territory since it’s an essential component to dodging incoming attacks.
Spinning through grass is a benefit while traveling, as rupees and hearts can be hidden in some of the patches. As the game progresses, you can equip accessories that can knock enemies away and even increase the ground covered by the spin. The move itself doesn’t cause harm to enemies, but spinning does its job by protecting you when vulnerable. Spinning repeatedly can also extinguish fire if you happen to get caught by a flame.
2Use Beds to Recover
Rest In Peace… In Some Cases
If there is any tip that I would love for you to take from this list, it would be this one. Beds have two main uses in Echoes of Wisdom, one being an echo to build a bridge from and the other is to regain hearts. Sure, smoothies and breaking pots can aid you in a crisis, but there’s no excuse not to use a bed to get back into a tip-top shape. You can place a bed echo on any platform and sleep for however long you need to.
There are three beds in the game; the Old Bed (1 TP) restores half a heart every 5 seconds, the Soft Bed (2 TP) restores a full heart every 4 seconds and Zelda’s Bed (3 TP) restores two hearts per second. The best time to use this is right before going into a boss battle, and in dire cases, during it. As someone who has done this during the Eldin Temple Dungeon boss battle, I can tell you that it is possible. Sometimes, I found it faster to jump back in and out of bed every cycle. How you go about your sleep is up to you.
1There isn’t One Way to Solve Puzzles
When There’s a Will, There’s a Way
In Echoes of Wisdom, your playthrough is yours only. There aren’t any rules other than what you can accomplish with the echoes you’ve got at your disposal. You don’t need a specific echo to make it through a specific puzzle and if you did, you would have already gotten it prior to the puzzle. Similar to Tears of the Kingdom, all you need to do is be creative and experiment. For example, you can light a brazier by either throwing an Ignizol at it, using another brazier to light it, or binding it with the brazier to bring it over to a flame.
There are many examples of how differently you can approach a puzzle, which goes to show how innovative the game is. The best part is also that you can traverse Hyrule and defeat bosses in any way you want. While some bosses like Seismic Talus require the Bind ability, there’s no say as to how you can approach attacking it. The freedom to choose your strategy is there and it’s yours to explore.
The Legend of Zelda boasts a huge number of innovative and unique gameplay mechanics that make every playthrough fresh and exciting. The importance of TP costs and usage is an important step in providing a strategic plan, as well as getting the most bang for your buck (or shall I say point…you get the point). From easing the stress of travel, whether it be by horse or spin, to getting out of binds, these tips and tricks are here to help you take advantage of the creativity of Echoes of Wisdom. Now get to bed and explore the land of Hyrule!
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: The Flying Tile Side Quest Walkthrough
This is one of the best echoes you should collect in Echoes of Wisdom.
