'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' DLC Pack 1 Gameplay: 30 minutes of Master Mode and The Master Trials
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's "The Master Trials" downloadable content is out June 30. Though it doesn't add any story content like "The Champions' Ballad," it does add a whole lot of enemies to fight. During Nintendo's E3 Treehouse live stream, the team showed 30 minutes of what you can expect from "The Master Trials" DLC.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC Pack 1 gameplay: Watch 30 minutes of the expansion now
"The Master Trials" adds a handful of features to Breath of the Wild. Thanks to the Hero's Path feature, you can now see everywhere you've walked on the map in the past 200 hours of game time, which should help you pinpoint areas you've never searched in your hunt for all 120 shrines. You can also lay down a custom fast-travel point anywhere in the world.
The first big addition, however, is Master Mode. This, in plain terms, makes the game way harder. You can see some Master Mode in the first half of the Treehouse stream below.
They also showcased some of the DLC costumes — Tingle, anyone? — you can wear if you have the requisite amiibo. After that, they get into the meat of the DLC, which consists of 45 combat trials spread across three difficulty levels. You access those by going back to where you got the Master Sword in Korok woods and putting it back into the pedestal. In these trials, Link starts with no weapons, gear, materials or food. You'll have to use anything you can find to survive and advance.
Here is Link arriving at his own custom fast-travel point:
Master Mode actually adds a new enemy type, which are the balloon-like Octoroks attached to wooden platforms that carry enemies and treasure in the air. These just look like fun, risky physics toys.
Yes, if you have any Zelda amiibo, you can make something truly terrible happen to Link.
There's also this new costume:
And this Korok mask, which helps you find hidden Koroks in the game:
Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC Pack 1 gameplay: "The Master Trials"
Once they get to the combat trials, things get intense. You start with nothing and have to find weapons, arrows and gear. It looks rough.
Later, they move onto a harder combat room with a constant updraft, meaning you can fly. That also means your bombs will blow away if you drop them.
"The Master Trials" comes out June 30. The only way to get it is to spend $20 on the Expansion pass, which gets you access to both this and "The Champions' Ballad" when that launches later in 2017.
More news from Nintendo at E3 2017
Check out even more news from Nintendo's big E3 2017 presentation, including an exciting look at Super Mario Odyssey, new details about the Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC and confirmation that Rocket League is coming to the Switch. Plus, here's the latest on new Metroid and Kirby games on the way.