Fans of The Legend of Zelda who want a more hack-and-slash take on Link's adventures will love 2020's Hyrule Warriors. Age of Calamity lets players take on the role of Zelda's most popular characters in a war to save all of Hyrule, and the game officially takes place in the Great Calamity, the war that occurred 100 years prior to Breath of the Wild. Outside its brute force action, players will have to gather allies across Hyrule to fight the army of Calamity Ganon.
Fans should expect jaw-dropping combos and captivating combat effects. However, fans aspiring for mastery might want to level up their gameplay further with neat tips and tricks. Players might not notice some details that can make their combat flow much easier.
10 Complete Legend Mode, Quests, Challenges
Fans might feel a bit off if other players tell them to "complete the tutorial!" before giving them tips. However, Age of Calamity makes it a necessity to master the game's basics to grow in expertise. The game motivates players to do these in different ways. First, there's Legend Mode that acts as a 14-hour "tutorial" for players. Completing this immediately unlocks hearts for other characters, Link's Zora tunic, a harder difficulty, and all of Adventure Mode's maps.
Character-specific quests unlock specific rewards for player characters. These rewards come in the form of more health or more powerful combos, and completing Combat Challenges lets players learn new combat strategies. It's recommended to complete these Challenges as Link to level him up quickly, and then level up everyone else to Link's level via the Military Training Camp.
9 Direct Your Allies Frequently
As Age of Calamity takes place in a war, it makes sense for Zelda's forces to have specific objectives. Interestingly, the game integrates a mechanic that allows players to not only switch characters but also direct others to different locations. Players should take advantage of this to spread allies to multiple objectives at once. That way, players can easily switch to the next character once they're finished with their current objective.
This factor means players won't ever have to take a "break" exploring empty areas before facing another batch of enemies. Players can simply redirect allies to enemy-ridden locations so they can switch to a battlefield at any given point in time. In turn, battles won't ever grow stale in any scenario.
8 Mipha Is The Best Waifu
Link and Zelda recruit more playable characters as soon as they get into Chapter Two. Thankfully, players can tackle this mission in whichever order they like. However, at the end of the day, they'll always get to unlock Urbosa, Revali, Daruk, and Mipha to their roster. Interestingly, players might want to unlock Mipha (in Zora's Domain) first.
Unlike other characters, Mipha serves as the only healer in the team. Playing alongside Mipha remains essential in both boss battles and harder difficulties. Remember, players should always head to the puddles of water Mipha creates when she attacks. Additionally, catching Mipha's Special Attack (a huge wave) heals for massive amounts as well.
7 Impa Is The Better Waifu
Players who want to get into the Waifu Wars might want to consider Impa as their main companion. Unlike the healing-oriented Mipha, Impa relies on "absorbing" symbols via Strong Attacks to summon duplicates. Moreover, the more duplicates on the battlefield, the more efficient Impa becomes.
Impa and her duplicates can spam combos on both crowds and enemies. Her combos almost always stun enemies around her. Interestingly, Impa has an incredibly-high resource generation rate compared to her other allies. In turn, players can continuously summon Impa duplicates, refill her gauges, and spam her Specials.
6 Dodge, Shield At The Right Moments
Players might notice that dodge-reliance in games like Dark Souls also apply in Age of Calamity. The center camera (ZL) button also acts as the Guard button. When players Guard, they can avoid all frontal damage except for guard breaks. Moreover, dodging while guarding won't leave any frames for enemies to insert counter-attacks.
Dodges also matter especially when done at the right moment. Dodging before attacks hit will slow them down and trigger a flurry attack. This movement allows players to attack quickly and even expose the enemy's WPG. Likewise, dodge-cancelling right after crucial moments (e.g., right after players attack, right after using an item) can let players do other actions without having to wait for certain frames.
5 Special Cancel For Emergencies
Special Attacks (A) enable characters to dish out abilities that augment their abilities. For instance, Link has an AOE Swirl Attack, Impa throws exploding kegs, Zelda takes a picture that deals damage, and so on. Players can use Specials provided they're not in the air and have at least one full gauge. Specials freezes enemies in the character's immediate area and disables damage.
Players can use Specials to their advantage, courtesy of Special Cancels. Players might want to try triggering Specials in the middle of attack rotations or doing other actions. This tactic helps especially during combo slip-ups, as Special Cancels will ensure players don't take extra damage for that one attack timing they miss.
4 Focus Spirit Is A Literal Life-Saver
Focus Spirit serves as a quick power boost to all characters in the form of a boosted attack speed. However, Focus Spirit exhibits some qualities that players might want to exploit. For instance, triggering Specials during Focus Spirit will deplete all magic. However, it will trigger an attack that reveals the WPG of nearby hostiles.
Focus Spirit will disable all hitstuns from enemies, meaning characters will never get knocked back during this mode. Additionally, Focus Spirit won't let players get to zero health, instead letting damage only take players to 25-percent remaining health. As such, players in a pinch might want to trigger Focus Spirit to prevent them from dying. Likewise, players already in Focus Spirit can confidently keep on fighting until the mode ends.
3 Lure Enemies To Position For Massive AOE
As a hack-and-slash game, Age of Calamity incentivizes beating huge chunks of enemies. Thankfully, players who go into any area will most likely meet a lot of enemies anyway. Players can maximize this factor by luring enemies to follow them instead of going to their location. That way, players can "organize" enemies into a huge clump and deal massive AOE at the same time.
Doing this lets players fill up their Power Gauge quickly to launch powerful Power Attacks. This move also allows players to earn combos and raise their kill count much faster.
2 Use Sheikah Runes For Counters
Sheikah Runes from Breath of the Wild return in Age of Calamity bearing special attacks. Essentially, Remote Bomb blows up enemies and structures, as well as break shields. Meanwhile, Stasis freezes objects and runes with a free knock-back. Additionally, Cryonis creates ice pillars that interrupt movement and launch anyone in the air. Lastly, Magnesis attracts metallic objects.
Despite their fun environmental potential, Sheikah Runes also work against certain enemies. In fact, fighting certain named enemies will at some point prompt the icon of a Rune to appear on top of their head. In this case, players should use the Rune of the same symbol to stun them. This move also reveals the WPG.
1 Spam Elemental Rods
Players have a tendency to hoard everything that's a resource, as they might "need them later." In the case of Age of Calamity, players might think reserving their Elemental Rods can help them in the long run. Interestingly, players will find better use of Rods against minor enemies instead of bosses in the long game. And these minor enemies are almost always the ones players always encounter.
Players should spam Elemental Rods when they're facing crowds of enemies, but they still need to take note of elemental relationships. Remember, fire defeats ice, ice defeats lightning, and lightnight works best against wet enemies or enemies with metal. Switching between the Elemental Rod menu and the Sheikah Rune menu can slow down time for a bit, which opens incentives for players to time their combos.