How to ride a bear in 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild': Tips, tricks and guide

Impact

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is chock full of horses to tame and ride, but did you know you can also ride a bear?

Horses have been a part of the Zelda series for a long time, but Link has ridden a variety of mounts over his lengthy career. For example, in Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, he can ride in the pouch of a kangaroo. More recently, he rode a goofy bird in Skyward Sword.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild seemingly keeps things grounded in this regard, with the ability to tame wild horses, name them and register them to any of the game's many stables. But upon closer inspection, it turns out that couldn't be further from the truth.

You can ride a bear in 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild,' but should you?

How to ride a bear in Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Bears show up periodically in the game's woodland areas. You can hunt them like any other animal for high-quality meat. That's all fine and good, but if you're sneaky enough, you can actually ride one.

You'll need to creep up on one from behind, which can be easily achieved with stealth-enhancing food or the stealth clothing set from Kakariko Village's clothing shop. Once you get close enough, you can press A to mount it. You'll need to repeatedly tap the L button to soothe it, which required somewhere between one and two bars of stamina when I did it.

The bears don't move very fast and, from what I could tell with my short time riding upon my ursine steed, they don't serve any practical purpose, other than it being cool as hell to ride around on one.

The worst part is you can take one to a stable, but they won't let you register it because stables are just for horses.

More Zelda: Breath of the Wild tips, tricks and guides

Find out all there is to know about Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including what to expect from the Wii U version, how to preserve your items, how to beat bosses like the Stone Talus and Lynel, the best recipes for Link and how to take on the game's shrines. You'll also want to find out where all the great fairies are in the game and how to use amiibo with your version of Zelda.