Image: Nintendo
If you remember Breath of the Wild, you might recall that owning the Glider was essential to exiting the Great Plateau and progressing with the game (although there were a few ways around this). There is no such hurdle in Tears of the Kingdom by comparison, and if you choose not to follow the direction the game gives you after completing the tutorial section, there’s a strong chance you won’t quite get your hands on the item take.
A few of us tried for a while and headed ambitiously into the wasteland, knowing we were missing out on a pretty important piece of gear. But we soon returned to where the game originally intended to take us tails-tucked, and found that unless you can fly through the skies, traversal is nearly impossible. Yet one player proved us wrong, and managed to complete the four main regional phenomena quests without Link’s trusty speeder in tow (thanks, Polygon).
We’ll go over some pretty specific details on how this player, Chris Brune, pulled off such a feat in the following article. So if you want to avoid spoilers about the game’s main quests, we don’t recommend reading beyond the image below until you’ve checked them off your list.
Image: Nintendo
Brune originally posted his achievement on Reddit and featured some rather shocked Purah dialogue that the, ahem, fan-favorite NPC will say if you complete all of the regional phenomena before meeting them for the first time (and getting the glider) .
Polygon interviewed the player to find out more about his gliderless flight, which he admits wasn’t intended until he’d already completed the Gerudo portion of the questline and put about 30 hours into the game. Eschewing any marketing material prior to the release of TOTK, Brune apparently believed that the Zonai Wing devices were a replacement for the glider and found very few initial problems.
According to the interview, Brune relied primarily on “a wing device with a joystick and two balloons on either side, each powered by flame blasters” to get around from high-altitude areas – the balloons provided lift and the wing covered handling.
That seemed all well and good until he encountered the Rito regional phenomena, which Brune describes as a “nightmare” without the glider. We’re not going to go into detail here as to why this was so difficult (if you know, you know), but the gliderless Link had to make good use of bullet time and some quick Zonai builds to pull it off .
Since meeting Purah, which unlocks the glider, is the same one that also unlocks Skyview Towers (your only way to see the map), Brune’s run was mapless as well. Are you traveling between the four regions without a glider and without a map? This is really something.
Unfortunately, his journey ended when he realized he needed the camera for a later mission, so he had to bite the bullet and talk to Purah, “reluctantly” unlocking the glider. Even with this in his possession, Brune still lives up to his mission: “I still treat the playthrough as paragliderless, even though I know in my heart it’s not true.”
To read exactly how Chris Brune managed to pull through some of Regional Phenomena’s trickier moments, be sure to check out the full Polygon interview here. And if you’d like to see the lovely Alex from our video team attempting the same task, you can watch the first part of his quest below.
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube
What do you think of this great achievement? Have you tried trying something similar from the start? Check out the comments and let us know.
[source polygon.com, via reddit.com]
See also related games
Whether he’s talking about video games or superheroes, Jim is open about his passions. He usually replays a Zelda title instead of working off his ever-growing backlog. He is a big fan of fantasy topics and likes to chat about them.
