285 hours in, I’m finally ready to start the story.
Picture of my inventory:
https://vgmaps.com/forums/images/LoZTotK-DupeDone.png
Here’s my inventory in The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom now that I’ve decided that I am done with side quests and duping, so I should probably get back to the story.
I am at over 285 hours. (I only play, guilt-free, for 91 minutes a day while I am on the treadmill every morning before breakfast.) I have done very little of the main story, the only major thing I did plot-wise was clear the Wind Temple. (A good choice, as the Vow of Tulin has been very useful.)
I have done all of the Side Adventures and Side Quests that I can, except for those that require more story progression. I have also gotten all of the Korok Seeds (more on why it only says “997” later), all of the Bubbul Gems, found all of the Lightroots, cleared 151/152 Shrines (more on the one I’m avoiding later), put up all of the President Hudson signs, and fully upgraded all of the armor that I am able to get at this point.
I actually PREFER more linear Zelda games, but as this is open-world, I figured I would lean HARD into the open-worldness by doing everything I can to become overpowered when I finally get back to the story. Whoever I choose to be the second Regional Phenomena boss I take on is going to be in a world of hurt. Actually, I’m guessing every boss will be easy…
Regarding the Materials:
I believe I have all the materials, and if so, you could use this as a checklist.
Yes, I am a “dirty duper”. (I am stil on v1.0.0, a curious happenstance as I travelled to Japan and the day I left was the very day that this game came out, so I didn’t even start until a couple weeks later, and had since learned that I should avoid updating.) I only really used the jump-duping trick, mostly from the front step of my house in Akkala Highlands. I can only dupe things five at a time, but have gotten incredibly consistent with duping 50 items per minute, even after a long stretch of time. My most in one go was spending the entirety of one of my daily 91-minute sessions duplicating 4550 Zonaite, which is consistent with my dupe rate.
999 is the maximum for most items, except for Zonaite and Large Zonaite. At 10,100 Zonaite, I think (and hope) I am set for the rest of the game, I don’t intend to personally verify what the maximum is for that.
105 is the minimum number of each material that I have. I guess I like things to be a multiple of 5 and I also wanted more than 100. You can see which items I intend to use often, those are duped to 999. The last item I duped was the Fairy, because I actually didn’t know it could be duped just as easily (I assumed it would heal me instantly upon releasing it). Since I only had one Fairy, technically all 999 Fairies are clones of the same one.
I know I likely don’t need all of these items, but I recently became super paranoid that I might accidentally update the game one day, so I figured I might as well go nuts while I can. Abusing in-game glitches in single-player games is the only sort of cheating I allow myself to do.
As for the Key Items:
You may notice that it says 997 Korok Seeds. I actually obtained all 1000, but I spent three of them, before I decided to withhold them all from Hestu until getting them all. I may cash them in soon. Or maybe keep the limited inventory as a handicap, I don’t know.
I have 16 Hearts and two full Stamina Wheels. You may have noticed that it is odd that I only have 87 Blessings of Light. Well, it would be 88 after I clear the Kyononis Shrine, the only Shrine I haven’t done and am purposefully avoiding for now. It is the early “Combat Training” one at Hyrule Castle Town Ruins that teaches the Side Hop, Flurry Rush, Perfect Guard, and Charged Attacks. I have a silly reason for not doing this Shrine – I eventually will, just not right at the moment. Also might cash in those Blessings of Light, but don’t know how soon.
I have four Monster Medals, but not the ones for the Hinoxes and Taluses. I believe the last one of each that I would need to defeat to earn them require story progression.
I’ve been playing almost nothing but this since the spring (if you could call avoiding the story “playing”), and am behind on my games (Super Mario Bros. Wonder and the DLC for Pokémon Scarlet come to mind, but I’m sure there are others), so that’s why I wanted to document this moment of when I decided to stop duping and beating around the bush and actually start really experiencing Tears Of The Kingdom. 😛
by JonLeung
11 Comments
okay cool
Thank you for informing us. We have been waiting a long time for this moment
Wow OP, the way you’ve been playing seems like one of the most unfun ways I could think of experiencing the game, lol. More power to you if you’re having fun, though.
Honestly, what a strange feat. I respect it though, and I often have the urge to be as thorough with games like TOTK. I just prefer to play more games so dedicating that much time to a single game is a no go.
I like to play open-world games like this as well. I’m not into duping cheats, but I love completing side-quests, and just doing everything except what I’m actually “supposed” to do. This habit started when I discovered Fallout 3, and has been my strategy for these types of game ever since. I get much more satisfaction from doing all the other random stuff than I do from actually completing the story. I have played TotK for about 100 hours, and haven’t completed any temples. I did eventually get bored, and I will probably never finish the game, but I feel like I got my money’s worth, and honestly don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything by not knowing the full story. 100 hours of fun gameplay is more than I get from most games.
This reminds me I havent touched the game since August
This is why I don’t play these games. So much side quest bloat.
In hindsight I kind of wish I did the regional phenomena story quests sooner.
Why the fuck are people so mad about this? Stop acting like neckbeards because someone plays a game differently than you.
Man, if you didn’t say you were doing this while doing 90 minutes on the treadmil everyday, I’d think it was completely ridiculous and absurd. It sounds like you turned playing the game into work.
[“What do you mean? Now we can finally play the game!”](https://youtu.be/tg2PD-dwsIw?si=udnUk7FbY_aHSW6X)