Amongst Zelda fans, there seemed to be no hotter issue than the debate surrounding The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's weapon durability. Some found it to be a clever way to keep the player constantly switching weapons and finding new ones, while others saw it as an annoying mechanic that does little more than pause the fun. Now that Nintendo is beginning to show more of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, the debate is back in full swing.
Some of the current discourse on Breath of the Wild's weapon durability is simply rehashing old discussions, but the more interesting conversations are looking ahead to Breath of the Wild 2. Following the new trailer from the latest Nintendo Direct, speculation about weapon degradation in the game is at an all-time high. While it may disappoint many fans, it's likely that the mechanic will be making a return in Breath of the Wild's unnamed sequel, however, it's also likely that changes will be made to it to ensure that it isn't as big of a turn-off as it was in the original.
Why Breath of the Wild's Weapon Durability is Here to Stay
It's important to establish why weapon durability will most likely be sticking around for the next major entry in the Zelda franchise. The durability mechanic is essential to the gameplay loop of the original Breath of the Wild because it forced players to engage with the game's other mechanics. When Link's weapon breaks, the player has a lot of options at their disposal: switch to a new weapon, decide that a fight isn't worth it and escape their enemies, quickly search for a new weapon laying around, or they can improvise and find some other way to take care of threats with the environment.
Breath of the Wild is all about player exploration and choice, so when a weapon breaks, it's the player choice to decide what to do next. The idea of losing a powerful weapon might discourage someone from using one, but players will do more damage with a weapon they use that breaks, than opting to hold onto it and never use it at all.
Additionally, in the early stages of the game when Link doesn't have a lot of solid weapon options, the player is encouraged to explore in search of weapons more viable than the sticks they find laying on the ground. Exploration and discovery are key parts of what makes Breath of the Wild so refreshing and just about every system in the game is in service of those elements, including weapon durability.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 seems to be using a lot of the same core ideas from the original while also adding a healthy handful of new ones. Because of how instrumental player exploration and discovery were to making Breath of the Wild such a unique voice in the series, it's likely that they'll be back for the sequel and that the other mechanics in the game will push players back to those two pillars just like in the original. This means that broken weapons will also make a return because of how they directly contribute to that main explorative loop.
What's more, all of Breath of the Wild's combat is built on the idea that players will be constantly breaking weapons and improvising when that happens, so removing weapon durability for the sequel would mean building its combat from the ground up to accommodate that change. As mentioned above, weapon durability also serves explorative functions as well, so removing it would have grander gameplay repercussions than just those involved with the combat.
Changing Weapon Durability for Breath of the Wild 2
While it is likely that weapon durability will be included in Breath of the Wild 2, fans can remain hopeful that Nintendo listened to the fans who voiced their dislike of the feature. As stated above, removing durability outright would cause more problems than it solves, but that doesn't mean the system will go into the sequel untouched. There have been several proposed solutions by fans that could potentially help solve the issue.
Some fans requested that weapons last longer in the sequel to Breath of the Wild than they do in the original game which might allow players to feel more comfortable using weapons they're worried about losing. While that would incentivize more rare weapon use, it doesn't really solve the initial issue because weapons will still break and the anxiety of losing a rare/powerful weapon would just be extended to compensate for its longer life.
Another idea that's been thrown around is making it so that weapons aren't destroyed when broken, but simply disabled and weakened in a similar way to the Master Sword in the Breath of the Wild. The Master Sword is the only weapon in the original that doesn't disappear when broken, instead, it loses a lot of its power, and players are encouraged to switch to different weapons while it recovers. The problem this potential fix runs into is that it's too similar to removing weapon durability entirely as players wouldn't feel the need to explore and find new weapons if they already have ones that they like.
Plenty of suggestions have been made to fix Breath of the Wild's weapon durability problem, but perhaps the most viable comes from YouTuber Razbuten. In a video titled "Fixing Breath of the Wild's Biggest Problem," he suggests that weapon durability should still be included in the game, but that the player collects a type of weapon upgrade currency called ancient shards when a weapon breaks. This way, the player is still incentivized to explore and find more weapons, but also to use them until they break because they'll be able to get nicer gear by using what they already have.
Looking Ahead to Breath of the Wild 2
At this point, there's just no knowing for certain what the combat and what weapon durability will look like in Breath of the Wild 2. There are plenty more suggested fixes for the issue not mentioned above that Nintendo might implement in the sequel or the studio might not touch the system at all. While Nintendo is definitely a high-profile studio, it sometimes doesn't always listen to its communities in meaningful ways to make requested changes. At this point, all that's left to do is wait for new trailers and updates and keep fingers crossed.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2Â will release in 2022 for Nintendo Switch.
