The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is built for repeat visits. Hyrule still has overlooked caves, sky islands and side paths waiting to be found, but following the same route to rescue Princess Zelda can eventually lose its appeal.
These ten challenge runs change the rules, route or mindset of a new playthrough. Some are demanding, while others simply encourage closer exploration and a different relationship with Hyrule.
10. Travel without fast travel
The rule: After completing the opening tutorial, reach every destination on foot, by horse or with a basic vehicle. Do not warp, including to shrines.
This restriction makes the landscape important again. Stables become useful checkpoints rather than convenient places to collect Pony Points or speak with non-player characters. Taming a horse early can help, but the larger reward is learning how roads, rivers, landmarks and shortcuts connect. Travelling across Hyrule becomes a navigation puzzle instead of a menu selection.
9. Close the map
The rule: Keep the Pro HUD enabled, avoid the map screen and, for a harder version, refuse to activate Skyview Towers.
With the minimap gone, pause to study each new location. Note the direction of north, nearby landforms, river bends and distant tower silhouettes before moving on. Once you become comfortable navigating by memory, the normal interface can feel surprisingly distracting.
8. Play as the Hero of Time
The rule: Limit Link to a sword, shield, bow, bombs and a horse, as though Ocarina of Time’s Link had entered this version of Hyrule.
Fuse, Ultrahand and Zonai devices are all forbidden. The challenge removes much of the modern sandbox’s flexibility, forcing you to decide whether the classic toolkit is enough for each obstacle. You may eventually permit one or two exceptions if the restriction makes saving Hyrule impossible, but the central question remains: can this version of Link defeat Tears of the Kingdom’s Ganon?
7. Keep Link at his starting strength
The rule: Stay at three or four hearts and never exchange Light of Blessings for stamina or health upgrades.
With no extra strength to fall back on, stealth, environmental solutions and careful puzzle-solving become essential. Zonai tanks can handle some battles, while knowledge of enemy weaknesses helps you avoid brute-force encounters. Every fight becomes a problem to solve rather than an exchange of damage.
6. Restrict your healing
The rule: Set a limit on dishes consumed during combat, or ban hearty meals entirely.
When healing is scarce, damage matters. Attacks that were once easy to absorb now demand better timing, dodging and preparation. Before engaging a difficult group, consider the terrain, available equipment and the safest way to begin the encounter.
5. Use permadeath
The rule: One death ends the run, and the save must be restarted without exceptions.
You can begin again immediately or create a restart point just after the tutorial to reduce repetition. Either way, every Bokoblin camp becomes a serious risk, and careless arrows can undo hours of progress. Gloom Hands deserve particular caution because they can end a run abruptly. Players attempting this style may also find advice and community discussion in the r/LinkDies subreddit.
4. Unlock Mineru first
The rule: Make Mineru the first major objective after Link reaches mainland Hyrule.
Ignore the main quests that normally guide your early progress and head towards the storm clouds over Faron. Mineru can help with mining ore and crowd control, but the game is not structured around unlocking her first. Expect dialogue and cutscenes to arrive out of sequence, creating an unusual, almost glitch-like pace.
3. Let machines handle every fight
The rule: Use Zonai machines for combat only. Swords and bows stay away.
Build a machine before each serious encounter and make your engineering do the work. Simple weaponised devices are valid, but experimenting with stranger designs creates the real challenge. Battles that once relied on quick attacks become construction and positioning puzzles with a steampunk, tower-defence flavour.
2. Create an Eventide-style survival run
The rule: Whenever you enter a new region or activate a new tower, discard your weapons, armour, food and materials. Start over with whatever you find nearby.
Breath of the Wild’s Eventide Island challenge was memorable because it stripped the player down and recreated early-game survival pressure against stronger enemies. Tears of the Kingdom has no direct equivalent, so impose the reset yourself. Begin each area with a shirtless Link and an empty inventory, then improvise with local supplies such as a dropped club or mushroom.
1. Follow Zelda’s memories first
The rule: Find every Dragon’s Tear memory in order before continuing with Link’s present-day main objectives.
Once Dragon’s Tears become available on the mainland, put the central quest aside and pursue the geoglyph memories. For the intended order, use the sequence shown in the back room of the Forgotten Temple. This route also fits Link’s goal: if he discovers a vast geoglyph containing one of Zelda’s memories, finding the remaining memories would be a reasonable priority.
Choose the challenge that suits your play style
Not every restriction needs to turn into a full completionist ordeal. A no-map run can refresh exploration, while limited healing changes combat without altering the whole journey. The harsher rules work well for players who want a run that feels closer to an arcade-style score attack: clear conditions, meaningful mistakes and no relying on the same comfortable routine.
For more gaming and arcade ideas, browse RETROCADE’s Arcade Blog, watch the latest Arcade Videos or compare options in the Arcade Machine Buying Guide. A compact bartop arcade can also make a practical second screen for challenge-run planning.
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