Breath Of The Wild’s Completion Rate Explained: How To 100% BOTW

Games in the Zelda series are typically packed full of content, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes that to another level. It has the largest playable area of any Zelda game. Freedom of exploration is a key component, and a plethora of side content was scattered about the world to reward those who leave the beaten path. This resulted in Breath of the Wild being a massive time commitment for anyone looking to complete 100% of the game, and its in-game completion percentage counter doesn’t actually even include everything there is to do.

Completing BOTW’s main quest and defeating Calamity Ganon awards players a star symbol on their save file. Trying to continue after the credits roll puts players back at a save point before they faced the final foe, but it also unlocks a percentage counter in the bottom left corner of the Sheikah Slate map. This counter is only affected by a handful of activities, all related to points of interest on the map.

Once players finish all four Divine Beasts, complete all 120 Ancient Shrines (including the 42 that are uncovered through Ancient Shrine quests), acquire all 900 Korok Seeds, and visit every named location on the map, they’ll hit 100%. This is already a ton of game to play, but it doesn’t involve completing every possible part of Breath of the Wild.

Everything Included In Breath Of The Wild’s 100% Completion

There is a lot more content in Breath of the Wild, some of which can only be completed after the main quest. In addition to the main story and the activities that contribute to the game’s official percentage counter, everything else involved in true 100% completion includes the following:

• Completing 76 side quests
• Activating 14 Sheikah Towers
• Recovering 18 of Link’s forgotten memories
• Acquiring every set of armor and their multiple upgrades
• Collecting every horse bridle and saddle
• Fully upgrading Link’s inventory
• Receiving Hestu’s gift after bringing him every Korok Seed
• Documenting 385 Hyrule Compendium entries
• Being awarded Kilton’s three Medals of Honor for defeating every Hinox/Stalnox, Talus, and Molduga

Those who have Breath of the Wild‘s DLC packs can add even more to the list, with their extra quests, armors, and the Trial of the Sword. Additionally, the speedrunning community at Speedrun.com has its own definition of a 100% run; these rules explicitly do not take the DLC into account and don’t require players to acquire every piece of armor, among a few other differences. Ultimately, what counts in 100-percenting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is subjective, so each player will need to decide how far they want to go.

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