For those unfamiliar with Hyrule Warriors, or the parent series of Dynasty Warriors, it is a game where you fight many enemies. When I say many, I mean it. You will wade through foe after foe, taking on entire armies on the battlefield. 

There’s more to this game than just taking out bad guys – you will need to pay attention to the map, allies, and more if you don’t want to meet defeat. I’ll help you get started in this game since it can be a little overwhelming at first.

This guide will cover everything you need to know to get started in Hyrule Warriors Legends including:

Game Basics and Controls - How the game plays and the controls on the battlefield. Character Progression and Customization - How to progress your characters and what you can do to customize them. Game Modes - The different games mode available.

Game Basics and Controls

When you start the game, you get thrown into a battle after some cut scenes. They describe some basics, but not much on controls at the start. I started on Normal, and there is an Easy mode that has more tutorial.

Looking on the map, allies are blue and enemies are red. Your goal is to eliminate the enemies in the keep and around areas with red marks. Defeating the leaders at these locations will claim them for your side and allow your A.I. fighters to spawn there.

There are also side missions that come up, and main missions depend on the level you are fighting. There are bosses you have to defeat sometimes and they usually have some sort of mechanic you will need to figure out.

One thing to keep in mind, besides failing the main mission, is that if any of the playable characters lose all their health and retreat from battle, you will fail the mission.

You can customize the controls, or pick from the 2 preset options. I chose Zelda style since I’m more comfortable with that control scheme, but I’ll list the controls with the default Dynasty style.

R - Use Item L - Guard Y - Regular attacks X - Combo attacks/Strong attack A - Special attack B - Dodge Up on the control pad - Target Lock-on Down on the control pad - Focus Spirit Left or Right on control pad - Change Items

As you fight, you fill up the Special Gauge at the top left of your screen. When it fills completely, it will show the Special Attack button to indicate that you can use a Special Attack.

Enemies can also get Weak Points, shown by the hexagon icon above their heads. If you attack until that gauge is gone, you will do a rapid attack that does a lot of damage.

You can use the touch screen to send other playable characters to certain location on the map. Just touch the map, then the character, and where you want to sent them.

You can also touch their portrait to switch to them at any time in battle.

Character Progression and Customization

As you fight enemies, you gain experience and eventually level up. Your strength goes up every level, which increases your damage. You also gain extra hearts to increase your max health, but this does not happen every level.

Bazaar

When not in battle while playing Legend or Free Mode, you can press R to visit the Bazaar.

There are badges you can unlock for each character that require materials. Each badge is only available on the character you unlocked it on, so you will have to unlock them on each character if you want all of them to use it.

There are Attack, Defense, and Assist badges. Attack gives things like extra combos and filling up the Special Gauge faster.

Defense gives things like the ability to use potions in battle and reduce damage taken.

Assist badges increase power-ups you find on the battlefield and speeds up the process of taking keeps.

Apothecary

If you have the Empty Bottle badge, this gives free restorative potions for every fight. You can also spend rupees to get a bonus to things like increased weapon drop rate for the next battle

Smithy

There are multiple weapons and weapon types a character can have. You can power these up when you unlock the Smithy, or find them while on the battlefield.

Be sure to break all pots, open any chest, and defeat as many enemies as you can to gather materials and a chance for new weapons.

Game Modes

Below is a list of the game modes in Hyrule Warriors Legends.

Legend Mode

This is the main story of Legends. You will play through different scenarios and have access to certain characters throughout the story.

Gold Skulltulas

These are found around the world drop illustration pieces when defeated. You get bonuses when you complete illustrations. There are 9 illustrations and 180 Gold Skulltulas.

You can check the requirements needed to make Gold Skulltulas appear before you start the battle. Some require certain characters or weapons.

When a Gold Skulltula appears, check the map for a spider web. Search within the web’s area until the music changes, which means you are close. When you find it, just hit it to get the illustration. They look like golden skulls with shadowy spider legs.

Free Mode

This allows you to play through any of the scenarios you completed in Legend mode. You can play these levels with any character you have unlocked, so it is great if you want to relive battles with a character you could not use before.

Adventure Mode

This is a special mode that lets you get new weapons, characters, and heart containers. Your goal is to find and defeat the Dark Ruler. 

You will have to unlock more areas of the map by winning battles that have special rules to increase your battle rank.

You can also fight in areas that have Network or Street pass Links. Fighting in these areas will help those players out and get you extra rewards, but the enemies are harder than normal.

Item Cards

You can get item cards for winning battle than have an item icon. These can give you benefits or unlock hidden objects.

You can use these cards, such as the candle, when searching a map. You can uncover new areas by doing this.

Companion Fairies

You can also find Fairies in Adventure Mode. You can find them in yellow jars at enemy keeps. They become companions when you find them and can help in battle.

They can have 1 of 5 elements: Fire, Water, Lightning, Light, or Darkness. Using a fairy with the same element of the stage makes the magic stronger.

You can get Rental Skills by raising fairies, which gives helpful skill like Health Regen. You can level their Trust by feeding them food. The higher the Trust, the stronger some Rental Skills become.

You can select My Fairy from the main menu to view and feed your companion fairies.

That’s it for my Hyrule Warriors Legends Beginner Tips and Tricks. Let me know if you have any questions and stay tuned for more, in-depth guides!