How to Change the Difficulty

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) does not have any difficulty settings, but players can influence how hard or easy the game works. Read on to learn how to manipulate the system and change the difficulty to suit your play style.

How to Change Difficulty

No Difficulty Settings

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom does not feature any difficulty options. You will not find easy or hard modes as everyone gets to play at the same difficulty from start to end.

Master Mode Could Return as DLC

In Breath of the Wild, Master Mode was introduced as a new game mode with higher difficulty and players can access this through DLC. It is likely that Tears of the Kingdom will get a similar treatment and will have a Master Mode in the future as a DLC as well.

Master Mode Features Stronger Enemies

Breath of the Wild's Master Mode featured enemies that are stronger than usual. In addition to this, enemies in Master Mode can also recover missing HP, making it harder to kill them.
DLC Guide: Will There Be an Expansion Pass?

How to Make the Game Easier

Increase Heart Containers

If the game is getting difficult for you, try exchanging all your Light of Blessings for Heart Containers. You can get Light of Blessings by completing shrine puzzles. For every four Light of Blessings you have, you will get one Heart Container.

In addition, you can also clear some quests like A Call from the Depths to gain more heart containers.
How to Increase Maximum Hearts

Equip Strong Weapon and Armors

If you're having a hard time defeating stronger enemies, you might need to change your armor and weapons. You can also fuse weapons with rare materials like Silver Lynel Saber Horn to make them stronger.

Best Weapons and Shields

Use Different Combat Strategies

Understanding the combat system is one of the important ways to progress through the game. If you're having a hard time with a specific enemy or boss, you can try different strategies and find the best one that works for you.

Combat Training Shrines

If you're having a hard time trying out combat techniques, you can get a little tutorial from Shrines. Some shrines like Teniten and Eshos are designed to help you understand these techniques better. However, you can only do combat training shrines once.
Advanced Combat Tips

Cook Dishes

Having a lot of food and elixirs with you is one of the ways to make the game easier, especially in battles. It is recommended to cook dishes that can provide multiple heart recovery to keep yourself from dying.

Recommended Dishes

Dish	Recipe and Effect
Simmered Fruit	Recipe: Apples x5 Effect: None Recovery: 5 Hearts
Meat Skewer	Recipe: Meat x 5 Effect: None Recovery: 4 Hearts

List of Food and Dishes

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Related Guides

Tips and Tricks
A Beginner's Guide to Tears of the Kingdom

All Tips and Tricks Guides