Clocking in longer than the average Dynasty Warriors game, Age of Calamity is a worthy successor to Breath of the Wild as far as sheer content is concerned. The story is a lengthy playthrough in and of itself, filled with some of the best cutscenes across both series. While there aren’t as many side missions as in the original Hyrule Warriors (yet,) Age of Calamity is overflowing with post-game content that’ll keep players hooked after the credits.
Even though the game is receiving two DLC packs, it definitely isn’t hurting for gameplay. The story itself will take anywhere from 30 to 40 hours to complete on a casual playthrough, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Updated on June 25, 2021 by Michael Christopher: Since the initial publication of this post, the first round of Age of Calamity DLC has released. We've updated this list to bring it up to date with the expansion, as well as refreshing it more generally for readability and clarity.
11 Play the DLC
The first wave of DLC is called Pulse of the Ancients. It includes a lot, so we've broken it down here:
- New fighter: Battle-Tested Guardian
- New weapon: the Flail, for Link
- New weapon: the Master Cycle for Zelda
- New enemies: Moblins with bombs, Gigantic Chuchus, and powerful Wizzrobe variants
- New difficulty level: Apocalyptic
- New location: The Royal Ancient Tech Lab
By taking on challenges at the Royal Ancient Tech Lab, you can unlock a ton of new stuff, including the new character and weapons on the list above. There are also challenging battles that you can take part in, but beware that they can be very difficult.
Overall, the DLC will add several hours to your game time after you've cleared the main game.
10 Blood Moon Missions
Upon completing the game once, Age of Calamity will start spawning Blood Moon missions which take precedence over former story missions. Blood Moon missions allow you to obtain high level material as rewards from stages you’ve already finished, and increase enemy levels considerably in order to offer a greater gameplay challenge.
With the easiest missions in their 60s, the Blood Moon does a great job at incentivizing replay value and encouraging full use of the entire party.
9 Finish Side Missions
Age of Calamity might only have 20 story missions (Blood Moon notwithstanding), but there are over 150 side missions to keep busy with. Most will pop up over the course — offering means of leveling up outside story missions while generally offering solid rewards, but the best are relegated to the post-game.
Late game side missions push well into the 70s as far as levels are concerned, and require using everyone in the party at least once. While never as long as story missions, Age of Calamity’s side missions pack in a bunch of a gameplay variety.
8 Collect All The Korok Seeds
Koroks make a return from Breath of the Wild, giving you a seed when you find them. While there aren’t 900 seeds this time around to torment 100% completionists, there are quite a number scattered about and they’re all necessary for getting 100% completion (which actually does have its share of rewards in Age of Calamity, unlike Breath of the Wild).
RELATED: Age of Calamity: Finding All Korok Seeds In Gerudo Town
Korok seeds can be found in virtually every single story mission along with quite a few side missions. Koroks themselves are often off the beaten path. If a mission has a strip of land leading outward with nothing there, chances are there’s a Korok hiding in plain sight.
7 Up The Difficulty
Age of Calamity gets somewhat easier over the course of the game as you amass powerful weapons and resource, especially for players who import their progress over from the demo.
Thankfully, Age of Calamity features difficulty counts to counteract its relative simplicity, none of which as demanding or irritating as BotW’s Master Mode. Hard is a nice step up from Normal and arguably what the story is best balanced around, but Very Hard is genuinely challenging and turns an easy game into a brutal Warriors experience. With the new DLC, you can take it up even higher, to Apocalyptic.
6 Upgrade The Perfect Weapon
With the release of the first round of DLC, you can now take on missions that are in the higher levels, all the way up to over level 80. You'll definitely want a high-leveled party and a perfect weapon to help you.
Weapons can only be leveled to 20 initially, but playing through the game will unlock services that push max weapon Lv to 30. Creating a perfect weapon requires a high base stat to fuse from (stick to the high 60s and 70s) along with matching seals together in order to get more potent abilities. Each weapon has its own unique skill at 30, as well, with the Master Sword gaining a vampiric buff, which heals Link every time he deals damage.
5 Level Grind
On that same token, you will want a high-level party for the harder missions, as well as the DLC challenges.
Blood Moon missions are easily the best way to level up quickly while also generally being productive, but there are several late-game side missions that reward quite a lot of experience by simply pitting you against high-level enemies. Most of the Coliseum stages make for quick grinding spots, but it’s also possible to feed EXP into party members by exchanging Rupees.
4 Obtain Link’s Tunic
Breath of the Wild committed to a fresh Zelda experience as much as possible, to the point of replacing Link’s signature green tunic with the blue Champion’s Tunic. While the Tunic of the Wild is available in-game, it can only be unlocked after completing all 120 Shrines, making it an extremely late-game reward.
The Tunic of the Wild is similarly unlocked late in Age of Calamity, but not on the same scale as Breath of the Wild. Upon finishing the main story, you will unlock a side mission where you’ll be tasked with fighting through Hyrule’s strongest warriors, eventually going one on one against Link. Link himself is locked out of the mission, but clearing it unlocks the complete Tunic of the Wild set.
3 Unlock Every Character
Even though Age of Calamity will throw party members at you time and time again, there are a few members of the roster who are relegated to secret status. The Great Fairy and Monk Maz Koshia can be unlocked as early as Chapter 4, but there are also two secret characters relegated to the post-game.
Unlocking both requires quite a bit of effort, from clearing out virtually every single side mission available up to that point, to collecting the necessary materials for their character quests. That said, it’s all worth it to unlock both Calamity Ganon and Terrako.
2 Rebuild Terrako
On that note, it’s actually possible to rebuild Terrako following their heroic sacrifice at the end of Age of Calamity’s main story. Several Terrako icons will pop up on the world map after completing the main story, all of which require material from side missions exclusive to the post-game.
Completing all these side quests will eventually build up enough materials to fully rebuild Terrako, triggering a brand new ending where Zelda reunited with her egg robot and a new playable character in the form of a diminutive Guardian.
1 Get 100% Completion
When it comes down to it, Age of Calamity is an incredibly dense Switch game boasting half a hundred hours of content. While that’s little compared to both Breath of the Wild and the first Hyrule Warriors, taking the time to 100% Age of Calamity is more than enough for the game to earn back its value.
More importantly, 100%-ing the existing content will set you up perfectly for the second round of DLC coming in November.