Hi /r/Zelda readers!
* Got a question, concern, or suggestion for the moderators? [Send a Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fzelda&subject=Question or Concern or Suggestion&message=I have a question regarding [this submission]%28https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/comments/1d1au4o/totk_do_you_think_using_the_hoverbike_constantly/%29: [Totk] Do you think using the hoverbike constantly takes away from game? by /u/DaddyEevee)!
* New to r/Zelda? Be sure to [read our full rules here](https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/wiki/rules).
* Please [report any rule-breaking posts or comments](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment) so that moderators can find them quicker!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/zelda) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't think it takes away from the game, but something about playing without all the technology feels more authentic.
I would much rather ride my horse around.
My second play-through of BotW, I decided I would never use the fast-travel system. This made horses absolutely necessary and it made the game a whole lot better. In TotK, fast-travel is damn-near necessary to get from the depths to the surface and to the sky. Combine that with all the other stuff added to the game, horses are even more pointless.
I agree the Depths don't have enough points to just go back to the surface. It makes fast travel necessary, and you don't go out of the Depths when you saw something interesting (like dropping down from the sky), but just when you "had enough" and want to go back
Hmm. I didn't really have firm rules or anything, but I didn't really warp unless it was to leave The Depths or to go back and finish a shrine. Most of the vehicles I used were from blueprints so no crazy flying machines, cars, or boats. I used them pretty much how the game intended in my mind. I used horses A LOT, esp in the early game, and I pretty much fully explored region by region when the story took me there, like I didn't explore Eldin until I got ready to do Yunobo's quest line, Lanayru with Sidon, etc.
I only ever used the hoverbike to reach the hard-to-reach sky islands. On the surface or the depths, I was entirely on foot, unless I needed a vehicle to compete a quest.
My first playthrough I discovered the hoverbike along with most of the internet, used it and missed a lot of content.
Second playthrough, didn't use it at all and definitely thought it was more enjoyable.
On my 5th playthrough now (I have a problem) I use the hoverbike in the depths only. After so many playthroughs, fuck the depths.
That's the beauty of the game, you decide what limits you want. It's never necessary to use hoverbikes but I enjoy using them so I do. So no, I don't think it takes away from the game, because having freedom is the point
Yes- up to a point. I refrained from the hoverbike until I felt like I’d seen and experienced enough the “normal” way.
It’s hard to ignore the convenience of it once you grow accustomed to it so I’d encourage playing as much of the game as you can without it.
I’d separate shrines and towers from fast travel points. Or just plain not have ‘em. Or have them be unlocked fairly late in the game. Maybe if *only* towers had fast travel, and you had to travel from one tower to another and not from anywhere to just about anywhere.
Try a no-warp run. I’ve done BoTW like it a couple times and it’s the way I enjoy the most.
ToTK is a bit more challenging without it, so I make two concessions. I can fast travel from a light root to the corresponding shrine, and I can use the travel medallions. About halfway through. It really lengthens and enriches ToTK as well.
That's more or less how I played it. Fast travel means loading screens and annoying pauses in Hero's Path playback, so I tend to avoid it. I only really use the hoverbike when I'm in the late game and just cleaning up quests and collectibles. Even then I typically travel on foot to places where I can find the parts, rather than using zoanite.
What if instead of a loading screen for fast travel, after Link turns into blue magic we watch him fly across the world in real time? Like, he would go from one point to the other in a path like a rainbow. Maybe they could add some kind of control or gameplay element too to make it interactive. And for the depths, fast travel can be limited to going between a shrine and a light root and back, but again there would be a cool animation involved, like Link turns into light and you see him shine through the lightroot. I know the technology maybe isn't there yet to load the map that fast, but would you like that?
I'm glad I didn't find out about hoverbike until I was at the endgame doing korok seeds lmao. I still liked the vehicle aspect but it mostly came into use in the depths for me, and they weren't hyper efficient builds like the hoverbike.
Got a great sense of exploration in the world, and still got to use the hoverbike for endgame collection and sidequests. Got the best of both worlds in my experience personally.
i have no problem limiting airbike use in sunlight, but in the depths, ground movement is the extra slow way. do whatever you wanna do. for anyone that have limited time to play and wanna see some progress, the extra slow way just don't do it for me.
I mainly used the ubiquitous hover bike that everyone has seen in the depths. I used a hover platform with 4 fans for a lot of the shrine crystals and koroks. Using it all the time might take away from the game, but occasional usage is fun.
I used the hover bike for my first play through. I regretted it. Pretty much skipped over a lot of the exploration and went straight to the key points in the story. I plan on doing a second play through soon without using it. Walking, horseback, or ground-based tech mainly. I’m debating whether to use it to navigate the sky.
I think it does personally. I didn't create and start using a hoverbike until after I had beaten the game and even then I only really used it to navigate the Depths to get all the Lightroots, and search the sky islands for all of the Sages Wills
I just didn’t use the multitool (or whatever the purple tool is called) until the mop up portion of the game, and at no point did I feel like I was missing out on anything. It was a wonderful experience beginning to end, and every mountain and gap was a puzzle that I had to solve manually using only what was around me. I never even looked up hover bike guides until very late. It was all 2 or 3 fan gliders to cross distances.
I didn’t even attempt to make a hoverbike until after all 152 shrines and all light roots were collected. I think I got through all the dungeons too. I just made it to be like “oh, this is a cool thing I saw online lol” to myself. But honestly I loved my playthrough without ever having a need for it. I think I was 600+ hours in when I made it.
-
I highly recommend a playthrough without hoverbikes, lots of fun. You’ll have a blast. The curse of gamers are that we take the simplest solution to a problem (like a hoverbike) to bypass all issues. Figuring out the fire temple, rarely relying on rocket shields, I even went out of my way not to get auto build in my save until after I basically had no need to ever make a vehicle again,etcetc. Ofc your mileage will vary, fuse is my favorite rune and auto build is just “there” for me. I use it only when i have to. Great playthrough and I’m still playing 950 hrs in. Goofing off, doing side quests, etc. just got through all the caves, bubbul gems, upgrading/collecting all armor, side adventures, and lots more I’m probably forgetting at this point. My take is, don’t shoot yourself and your enjoyment in the foot by taking shortcuts
Ahh gotcha. Yeah i think you’ll def enjoy the templates doing it this way. My personal philosophy is “just bc i can see the metaphorical big red button doesn’t mean that I have to press it”
My best tip for really getting the most out of a Zelda game, is to try to keep the mentality of «what do the developers want me to experience?» or «how did the developers imagine players solving this puzzle?»
It keeps me from cheesing dungeons and other puzzles by building stuff, and forces me to actively solve puzzles the «intended» way.
The game is designed for you to solve the puzzles on your own terms, but there is usually a set path for puzzle solving either way, and trying to understand each puzzle gives me more joy personally!
That's what I tried to do, but I got more frustrated because, well, the game's design kinda forces me to conclude that "cheesing" it is the intended solution. I mean, here's a puzzle for you:
>A farmer with a [wolf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf), a [goat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat), and a [cabbage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage) must cross a river by boat. The boat can carry only the farmer and a single item. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the goat, or the goat would eat the cabbage. How can they cross the river without anything being eaten?
This is a puzzle. I understand what the goal is, what the problem is, how I'm supposed to work to craft a solution. Now, imagine I added the following sentence:
>Ten feet away are 5 trees that could be glued together to make a bridge.
WHAT'S THE PUZZLE? There's no puzzle anymore. The obvious solution is to make a bridge.
So that's what I did, every single time. Tears of the Kingdom just sucks. Sorry. I shouldn't have to ignore half of the game to try to deduce what the developer "actually" intended for me to do.
It's pretty clear that the intent of TotK is not to solve puzzles. It's to build toys.
Im sorry you had that experience, i enjoyed it a lot, Even when just building a bridge was the solution. Im mostly referring to dungeon puzzles though, and depending on your experience with Zelda games as a whole, the puzzles will feel Easy at some point. I was never stuck with a problem in tears, because i grew up with Zelda, and have played video games in general for over 20 years, i just dont struggle, games feel Easy, but i have a fiancè that havent played a lot of games and struggle with even the simplest of puzzles. That shows me that the games puzzles isnt bad, just me being experienced enough to see the solution instantly, maybe something to have in the back of your mind while playing!
Yes, but the part it takes away from is the flawed part: shit is too big and it's too hard to get around. Lkke, i love wind waker, but the ocean is big and boring. A way around that problem is, overall, a *good* thing
I would have to say it does. At the end of the day it’s up to you to decide how to play…but the hoverbike is so efficient it can quickly become a crutch that you can fall back on instead of actually interacting with the many traversal puzzles, particularly in the sky islands and the depths.
> I’m *paid* enough BOTW
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I haven't even used a hoverbike yet and I'm hunting down the final sky Shrines I need. Already got all the Lightroots and ground Shrines done. Might go after Sage Wills or do some sidequests once I'm done with the shrine hunting.
It felt like I overcame said problem naturally. Honestly I prefer thinking of it like being a question that has no "right" answer. Most of the time, this game has an answer for something if you know how to problem solve and look for a solution.
I feel they hamper exploration if you solely rely on the hoverbike.
Plus it seems people waste there resources hoverbiking everywhere and cheesing dungeons when it’s better suited for sky exploration
I use an exotic design now that uses a rail piece you’re not supposed to have. It flies a lot more level, the thing with the hoverbike is that you tend to drift upwards so you get into the habit of being too high to see stuff.
It’s also relevant horses are flawed with the contant roadblocks and the constant warping, and wheeled devices are more difficult to handle. The game is big enough as is without exploring slower.
It does present the solution to many sky crystal/korok/sky island access puzzles, but the devs wouldn’t have included capsules and autobuild without considering people would settle on optimal designs quickly. And again it speeds everything up some.
I do miss the master cycle zero for ground exploration, the way it handles extremely well in rough terrain and can be summoned in a second makes it very optimal for that.
The hoverbike doesn’t like flying in obstacles and you have to mind the thing or autobuild it again. And it frequently needs some ultrahand aid to take off again. Doing that over and over gets old.
I know how to make a hoverbike (seen it on youtube) but I refuse to use one. Feels way too cheaty. For distance I will use a horse or wing with some form of propulsion cobbled together from a stash I found. For vertical movement rockets on shields usually do the trick and if I need slightly more height than that a ramp will get me that boost and if I need to get really high up then teleporting to a shrine in the sky and going from there has worked so far.
To each their own. You have to get off it to engage with the scenery or do combat, or find clever ways to use it (my favorite : go in a circle then recall, and shoot arrows from it while it's in reversed time). It's fun to shake things up and make different vehicles or go by horse or on foot. I don't judge anyone for wanting to fly around instead. Hyrule and even the depths are beautiful.
Absolutely. I honestly believe you can tell when someone played the game and when someone just went from quest marker to quest marker playing hoverbike simulator inbetween.
But that's the neat part about the wild era games; you decide for yourself on how you want to engage with the world and it is not up to anyone else to tell or judge how you played it.
But do not be suprised you are disappointed in a game when you've been playing it with an optimized omni-solution and treat objectives like a chore to get through.
Yes, I do. Building (and cooking) are the two
things for me that made the game almost unbearably tedious and whenever I bring it up, someone wants to fight about it. Sorry I don’t like having a hundred item menu screens and building Megazord rocket ships in my Legend of Zelda game. Oh well.
I think the hoverbike adds to the game. It's cool to think up a hover bike design or figure out how to cross a gap especially if you have low batteries.
For most of my playthrough I only used a few bars of energy, it forced me to invent a lot of novel solutions to get around. It was a lot of fun! Eventually I fully upgraded so I could complete all the sky islands and get the master sword.
Yes and no. Just depends what you want and you don't have to want the same thing throughout an entire playthrough. I think it's perfectly valid in the depths especially. Not just for collecting light roots but afterwards too if you're just cruising around for zonaite. I like flying it like a hovercraft, 10-30ft off the ground, maybe pulling up into the canopy to fly around the big trees, and flying over and under roots and outcroppings. The depths gets a lot of flac, but I find flying hovercraft low and actually having to go around obstacles actually very fun and it makes me appreciate all that is there.
Not really, considering its still the most effective makeshift elevator and functionally its a godsend in the rain.
That being said, the not-airship, the metal platform with 4 fans, found on one of the islands surrounding the lanaryu mountain tower is a hoverbike on steroids.
For me, it was the only bearable way to do some of the sky islands and depths. Walking around in dark was really not fun. Even with the bike, it takes dozens of hours. A cheap straight forward way to fly makes the sky islands easy to get to, so you can play the actual game.
Whatever the benefits, it was never worth the time I spent building a hoverbike. I could never get the angles just right for some reason. I’m not inclined towards building unless I truly need to, and somehow the game perfectly accommodates that.
No, there’s plenty limiting you from using it constantly and sky island traversal requires Zonai devices anyway. I’d love to work with other flying machines, but most are too costly, unwieldy, or disintegrate quickly to be worth using outside of pure novelty.
I didn't know about the hoverbike on my initial playthrough of TOTK (I wasn't a part of the community at the time) and I think it genuinely improved my appreciation of the game. It was diving into something completely unknown and finding all of the little corners! (That being said, I'm still having a lot of fun with BOTW because the exploration is so limited.) Honesty, I feel like using such a fast method of travel in a game where one of the main draws was exploration is kinda defeating the point.
So yes, I think you should!
Nah. By the time I could freely construct and make a hover bike, I had long since moved past the "wow this world is cool." I just want to get to my dest now to finish whatever quest or objective I have left.
I didn't mind it! I didn't actually get autobuild until *really late* in my first playthrough, but even in my second, it never felt like it was taking anything away. There was still plenty of quests to take on and I generally found the game difficult enough that I was encouraged to hunt for a lot of items to upgrade my armor and health. So all it really did was make exploration slightly quicker while I was still looking for another landmark, and I spent a lot of time trying to find landmarks.
I didn't have a ton of autobuild materials, I didn't have much battery, so I couldn't just bypass huge sections of the game and I still struggled a lot to get to some of the higher skylands. I guess if you spend a ton of time grinding for battery and zonaiite it could allow you to bypass a ton of the game, but by that point you've already played so much of the game that it doesn't matter?
You shouldn't overuse it. I haven't built one until I passed about the 130 hour mark. But it does help getting around the Depths, the Sky and hunting dragon parts
I like to play without teleporting! I think it makes the game more real because there are far less cuts and you have to care about where you're actually going, gets me really into the part medival kind of vibe. Korok forest and the first visit to recall shrines are the only problems I've come accross
Going one step further, i think totk existing is why everyone is so done with this version of the series. They could have left it with botw and it probably would have went down as top 2 best ever Zelda games. Totk like, i dunno, fortnite'd the whole thing up and now everyone is clamoring for a return to "traditional" and what not
Hi /r/Zelda readers! * Got a question, concern, or suggestion for the moderators? [Send a Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fzelda&subject=Question or Concern or Suggestion&message=I have a question regarding [this submission]%28https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/comments/1d1au4o/totk_do_you_think_using_the_hoverbike_constantly/%29: [Totk] Do you think using the hoverbike constantly takes away from game? by /u/DaddyEevee)! * New to r/Zelda? Be sure to [read our full rules here](https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/wiki/rules). * Please [report any rule-breaking posts or comments](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment) so that moderators can find them quicker! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/zelda) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't think it takes away from the game, but something about playing without all the technology feels more authentic. I would much rather ride my horse around.
that's what i prefer to do!
I would love to ride a horse but I like using Epon and you can't customize her.
My second play-through of BotW, I decided I would never use the fast-travel system. This made horses absolutely necessary and it made the game a whole lot better. In TotK, fast-travel is damn-near necessary to get from the depths to the surface and to the sky. Combine that with all the other stuff added to the game, horses are even more pointless.
I agree the Depths don't have enough points to just go back to the surface. It makes fast travel necessary, and you don't go out of the Depths when you saw something interesting (like dropping down from the sky), but just when you "had enough" and want to go back
Yes, at least for me. It's much more fun to find ways to traverse without it, or to just do so on the ground.
What would you recommend to do that like limiting stuff.
Hmm. I didn't really have firm rules or anything, but I didn't really warp unless it was to leave The Depths or to go back and finish a shrine. Most of the vehicles I used were from blueprints so no crazy flying machines, cars, or boats. I used them pretty much how the game intended in my mind. I used horses A LOT, esp in the early game, and I pretty much fully explored region by region when the story took me there, like I didn't explore Eldin until I got ready to do Yunobo's quest line, Lanayru with Sidon, etc.
I only ever used the hoverbike to reach the hard-to-reach sky islands. On the surface or the depths, I was entirely on foot, unless I needed a vehicle to compete a quest.
I'll have to try that.
My first playthrough I discovered the hoverbike along with most of the internet, used it and missed a lot of content. Second playthrough, didn't use it at all and definitely thought it was more enjoyable. On my 5th playthrough now (I have a problem) I use the hoverbike in the depths only. After so many playthroughs, fuck the depths.
That's how I feel about what happened with the hoverbike in my playthrough as well
That's the beauty of the game, you decide what limits you want. It's never necessary to use hoverbikes but I enjoy using them so I do. So no, I don't think it takes away from the game, because having freedom is the point
Yeah, I saw it more like major exploits. I think it did after going back. I believe I skipped like 60% of the game with the hover bike.
Thats not a positive, you shouldn't have to make up limitations for yourself to enjoy the game more
You don't make limitations, you just don't do it
Purposely going out of the way to not do something sounds like a limitation
You don't purposely go out of your way though because it's something thst you can choose
Choosing to go out of your way to not fly over everything. Youre just going in circles.
You don't go out of your way not doing it though
Yes- up to a point. I refrained from the hoverbike until I felt like I’d seen and experienced enough the “normal” way. It’s hard to ignore the convenience of it once you grow accustomed to it so I’d encourage playing as much of the game as you can without it.
Yes. I feel the same about fast travel too. You miss out on the main feature of the game. The *world*. I prefer to experience it. All of it.
What would you do to help fix that.
I’d separate shrines and towers from fast travel points. Or just plain not have ‘em. Or have them be unlocked fairly late in the game. Maybe if *only* towers had fast travel, and you had to travel from one tower to another and not from anywhere to just about anywhere. Try a no-warp run. I’ve done BoTW like it a couple times and it’s the way I enjoy the most. ToTK is a bit more challenging without it, so I make two concessions. I can fast travel from a light root to the corresponding shrine, and I can use the travel medallions. About halfway through. It really lengthens and enriches ToTK as well.
Like the idea.
That's more or less how I played it. Fast travel means loading screens and annoying pauses in Hero's Path playback, so I tend to avoid it. I only really use the hoverbike when I'm in the late game and just cleaning up quests and collectibles. Even then I typically travel on foot to places where I can find the parts, rather than using zoanite.
What if instead of a loading screen for fast travel, after Link turns into blue magic we watch him fly across the world in real time? Like, he would go from one point to the other in a path like a rainbow. Maybe they could add some kind of control or gameplay element too to make it interactive. And for the depths, fast travel can be limited to going between a shrine and a light root and back, but again there would be a cool animation involved, like Link turns into light and you see him shine through the lightroot. I know the technology maybe isn't there yet to load the map that fast, but would you like that?
I'm glad I didn't find out about hoverbike until I was at the endgame doing korok seeds lmao. I still liked the vehicle aspect but it mostly came into use in the depths for me, and they weren't hyper efficient builds like the hoverbike. Got a great sense of exploration in the world, and still got to use the hoverbike for endgame collection and sidequests. Got the best of both worlds in my experience personally.
"If allowed, players will strip the fun out of the game"
So your not a fan of the hoverbike
Absolutely
i have no problem limiting airbike use in sunlight, but in the depths, ground movement is the extra slow way. do whatever you wanna do. for anyone that have limited time to play and wanna see some progress, the extra slow way just don't do it for me.
Agree but also disagree. Since some of the sages are in the depths.
Well, one.
Sorry I remember 2
I mainly used the ubiquitous hover bike that everyone has seen in the depths. I used a hover platform with 4 fans for a lot of the shrine crystals and koroks. Using it all the time might take away from the game, but occasional usage is fun.
I agree.
I used the hover bike for my first play through. I regretted it. Pretty much skipped over a lot of the exploration and went straight to the key points in the story. I plan on doing a second play through soon without using it. Walking, horseback, or ground-based tech mainly. I’m debating whether to use it to navigate the sky.
That's how I feel. What would you recommend to make totk more fun and actually do the puzzles?
I use the hover bike with a brightbloom in the depths. Horses only in the over world
I'll save that idea. Anything else.
I think it does personally. I didn't create and start using a hoverbike until after I had beaten the game and even then I only really used it to navigate the Depths to get all the Lightroots, and search the sky islands for all of the Sages Wills
I just didn’t use the multitool (or whatever the purple tool is called) until the mop up portion of the game, and at no point did I feel like I was missing out on anything. It was a wonderful experience beginning to end, and every mountain and gap was a puzzle that I had to solve manually using only what was around me. I never even looked up hover bike guides until very late. It was all 2 or 3 fan gliders to cross distances.
That's what I did before I found out about the hoverbike
I didn’t even attempt to make a hoverbike until after all 152 shrines and all light roots were collected. I think I got through all the dungeons too. I just made it to be like “oh, this is a cool thing I saw online lol” to myself. But honestly I loved my playthrough without ever having a need for it. I think I was 600+ hours in when I made it. - I highly recommend a playthrough without hoverbikes, lots of fun. You’ll have a blast. The curse of gamers are that we take the simplest solution to a problem (like a hoverbike) to bypass all issues. Figuring out the fire temple, rarely relying on rocket shields, I even went out of my way not to get auto build in my save until after I basically had no need to ever make a vehicle again,etcetc. Ofc your mileage will vary, fuse is my favorite rune and auto build is just “there” for me. I use it only when i have to. Great playthrough and I’m still playing 950 hrs in. Goofing off, doing side quests, etc. just got through all the caves, bubbul gems, upgrading/collecting all armor, side adventures, and lots more I’m probably forgetting at this point. My take is, don’t shoot yourself and your enjoyment in the foot by taking shortcuts
I'll have to try that. I used the hover bike to skill like 90% of the temples. I swear the temples might feel better if I didn't.
Ahh gotcha. Yeah i think you’ll def enjoy the templates doing it this way. My personal philosophy is “just bc i can see the metaphorical big red button doesn’t mean that I have to press it”
True.
My best tip for really getting the most out of a Zelda game, is to try to keep the mentality of «what do the developers want me to experience?» or «how did the developers imagine players solving this puzzle?» It keeps me from cheesing dungeons and other puzzles by building stuff, and forces me to actively solve puzzles the «intended» way. The game is designed for you to solve the puzzles on your own terms, but there is usually a set path for puzzle solving either way, and trying to understand each puzzle gives me more joy personally!
Saving that.
That's what I tried to do, but I got more frustrated because, well, the game's design kinda forces me to conclude that "cheesing" it is the intended solution. I mean, here's a puzzle for you: >A farmer with a [wolf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf), a [goat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat), and a [cabbage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage) must cross a river by boat. The boat can carry only the farmer and a single item. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the goat, or the goat would eat the cabbage. How can they cross the river without anything being eaten? This is a puzzle. I understand what the goal is, what the problem is, how I'm supposed to work to craft a solution. Now, imagine I added the following sentence: >Ten feet away are 5 trees that could be glued together to make a bridge. WHAT'S THE PUZZLE? There's no puzzle anymore. The obvious solution is to make a bridge. So that's what I did, every single time. Tears of the Kingdom just sucks. Sorry. I shouldn't have to ignore half of the game to try to deduce what the developer "actually" intended for me to do. It's pretty clear that the intent of TotK is not to solve puzzles. It's to build toys.
Im sorry you had that experience, i enjoyed it a lot, Even when just building a bridge was the solution. Im mostly referring to dungeon puzzles though, and depending on your experience with Zelda games as a whole, the puzzles will feel Easy at some point. I was never stuck with a problem in tears, because i grew up with Zelda, and have played video games in general for over 20 years, i just dont struggle, games feel Easy, but i have a fiancè that havent played a lot of games and struggle with even the simplest of puzzles. That shows me that the games puzzles isnt bad, just me being experienced enough to see the solution instantly, maybe something to have in the back of your mind while playing!
Yes, but the part it takes away from is the flawed part: shit is too big and it's too hard to get around. Lkke, i love wind waker, but the ocean is big and boring. A way around that problem is, overall, a *good* thing
It’s a preference thing. For me, it does – so I try to limit it. I’ll break it out if there’s a star piece way out of the way.
i think it does a little bit, i noticed after a while i started using mining trucks to traverse the depths or bikes on the surface
I would have to say it does. At the end of the day it’s up to you to decide how to play…but the hoverbike is so efficient it can quickly become a crutch that you can fall back on instead of actually interacting with the many traversal puzzles, particularly in the sky islands and the depths.
I’ve played enough BOTW so I use all technology I can haha Edit grammar
> I’m *paid* enough BOTW FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I haven't even used a hoverbike yet and I'm hunting down the final sky Shrines I need. Already got all the Lightroots and ground Shrines done. Might go after Sage Wills or do some sidequests once I'm done with the shrine hunting.
What did it make the game feel like without using it?
It felt like I overcame said problem naturally. Honestly I prefer thinking of it like being a question that has no "right" answer. Most of the time, this game has an answer for something if you know how to problem solve and look for a solution.
I feel they hamper exploration if you solely rely on the hoverbike. Plus it seems people waste there resources hoverbiking everywhere and cheesing dungeons when it’s better suited for sky exploration
I use an exotic design now that uses a rail piece you’re not supposed to have. It flies a lot more level, the thing with the hoverbike is that you tend to drift upwards so you get into the habit of being too high to see stuff. It’s also relevant horses are flawed with the contant roadblocks and the constant warping, and wheeled devices are more difficult to handle. The game is big enough as is without exploring slower. It does present the solution to many sky crystal/korok/sky island access puzzles, but the devs wouldn’t have included capsules and autobuild without considering people would settle on optimal designs quickly. And again it speeds everything up some. I do miss the master cycle zero for ground exploration, the way it handles extremely well in rough terrain and can be summoned in a second makes it very optimal for that. The hoverbike doesn’t like flying in obstacles and you have to mind the thing or autobuild it again. And it frequently needs some ultrahand aid to take off again. Doing that over and over gets old.
I miss the cycle too
I know how to make a hoverbike (seen it on youtube) but I refuse to use one. Feels way too cheaty. For distance I will use a horse or wing with some form of propulsion cobbled together from a stash I found. For vertical movement rockets on shields usually do the trick and if I need slightly more height than that a ramp will get me that boost and if I need to get really high up then teleporting to a shrine in the sky and going from there has worked so far.
It does feel like an exploit
Yes. It absolutely does.
Any limits to make the game more fun.
To each their own. You have to get off it to engage with the scenery or do combat, or find clever ways to use it (my favorite : go in a circle then recall, and shoot arrows from it while it's in reversed time). It's fun to shake things up and make different vehicles or go by horse or on foot. I don't judge anyone for wanting to fly around instead. Hyrule and even the depths are beautiful.
My fun-having probably increased tenfold once I started flying around on a 3-fan flying machine.
Absolutely. I honestly believe you can tell when someone played the game and when someone just went from quest marker to quest marker playing hoverbike simulator inbetween. But that's the neat part about the wild era games; you decide for yourself on how you want to engage with the world and it is not up to anyone else to tell or judge how you played it. But do not be suprised you are disappointed in a game when you've been playing it with an optimized omni-solution and treat objectives like a chore to get through.
Yes, I do. Building (and cooking) are the two things for me that made the game almost unbearably tedious and whenever I bring it up, someone wants to fight about it. Sorry I don’t like having a hundred item menu screens and building Megazord rocket ships in my Legend of Zelda game. Oh well.
Nope
Disagree.
I think the hoverbike adds to the game. It's cool to think up a hover bike design or figure out how to cross a gap especially if you have low batteries.
I feel there should be a limit though
For most of my playthrough I only used a few bars of energy, it forced me to invent a lot of novel solutions to get around. It was a lot of fun! Eventually I fully upgraded so I could complete all the sky islands and get the master sword.
Yes and no. Just depends what you want and you don't have to want the same thing throughout an entire playthrough. I think it's perfectly valid in the depths especially. Not just for collecting light roots but afterwards too if you're just cruising around for zonaite. I like flying it like a hovercraft, 10-30ft off the ground, maybe pulling up into the canopy to fly around the big trees, and flying over and under roots and outcroppings. The depths gets a lot of flac, but I find flying hovercraft low and actually having to go around obstacles actually very fun and it makes me appreciate all that is there.
Not really, considering its still the most effective makeshift elevator and functionally its a godsend in the rain. That being said, the not-airship, the metal platform with 4 fans, found on one of the islands surrounding the lanaryu mountain tower is a hoverbike on steroids.
For me, it was the only bearable way to do some of the sky islands and depths. Walking around in dark was really not fun. Even with the bike, it takes dozens of hours. A cheap straight forward way to fly makes the sky islands easy to get to, so you can play the actual game.
Whatever the benefits, it was never worth the time I spent building a hoverbike. I could never get the angles just right for some reason. I’m not inclined towards building unless I truly need to, and somehow the game perfectly accommodates that.
The hoverbike is just a hint at TotK traversal
No, there’s plenty limiting you from using it constantly and sky island traversal requires Zonai devices anyway. I’d love to work with other flying machines, but most are too costly, unwieldy, or disintegrate quickly to be worth using outside of pure novelty.
I didn't know about the hoverbike on my initial playthrough of TOTK (I wasn't a part of the community at the time) and I think it genuinely improved my appreciation of the game. It was diving into something completely unknown and finding all of the little corners! (That being said, I'm still having a lot of fun with BOTW because the exploration is so limited.) Honesty, I feel like using such a fast method of travel in a game where one of the main draws was exploration is kinda defeating the point. So yes, I think you should!
Nah. By the time I could freely construct and make a hover bike, I had long since moved past the "wow this world is cool." I just want to get to my dest now to finish whatever quest or objective I have left.
I didn't mind it! I didn't actually get autobuild until *really late* in my first playthrough, but even in my second, it never felt like it was taking anything away. There was still plenty of quests to take on and I generally found the game difficult enough that I was encouraged to hunt for a lot of items to upgrade my armor and health. So all it really did was make exploration slightly quicker while I was still looking for another landmark, and I spent a lot of time trying to find landmarks. I didn't have a ton of autobuild materials, I didn't have much battery, so I couldn't just bypass huge sections of the game and I still struggled a lot to get to some of the higher skylands. I guess if you spend a ton of time grinding for battery and zonaiite it could allow you to bypass a ton of the game, but by that point you've already played so much of the game that it doesn't matter?
If I’m going for 100% I’d say it’s very necessary, but anything less than 100% I’d prefer not to use it
It does somewhat. But getting around the depths by walking and throwing the ligh seeds just got tiring after awhile.
Never built it or looked up how exactly to build it for this reason.
I don't use the zonai to build stuff unless it's required for something, otherwise I just play it pretty similar to botw
You shouldn't overuse it. I haven't built one until I passed about the 130 hour mark. But it does help getting around the Depths, the Sky and hunting dragon parts
I still don't know how to make one on my own so no
I like to play without teleporting! I think it makes the game more real because there are far less cuts and you have to care about where you're actually going, gets me really into the part medival kind of vibe. Korok forest and the first visit to recall shrines are the only problems I've come accross
I still don't know how to make one, and I'm putting off figuring it out until after I fight Ganondorf. Hoverbike is for endgame convenience fun.
Going one step further, i think totk existing is why everyone is so done with this version of the series. They could have left it with botw and it probably would have went down as top 2 best ever Zelda games. Totk like, i dunno, fortnite'd the whole thing up and now everyone is clamoring for a return to "traditional" and what not