Nintendo has released The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Explorer’s Guide in anticipation of the upcoming sequel, The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which is set to launch on Nintendo Switch this May 12. The Explorer’s Guide — which has previously been exclusive to the Explorer’s Edition of Breath Of The Wild — contains gameplay tutorials, details on Breath Of The Wild’s extensive amiibo compatibility, and lore relating to the game’s world and story.
The Explorer’s Guide is currently available as a free PDF through the official Zelda website. At the time of writing, however, several pages are missing from the guide: namely pages 73-84, which, according to the guide’s table of contents, would cover such chapters as “Fiercer Foes,” “Hyrule’s Wild Side,” and “Great Fairy Fountain”.
The reason for the omission is unknown, with some believing it to be an error in uploading the PDF. Others, meanwhile, have suggested that the contents of these chapters may be a little too spoilerific to be freely circulated by Nintendo via the otherwise spoiler-free official Zelda site. As it is, the sole full version of the Explorer’s Guide remains exclusive to the Explorer’s Edition of Breath Of The Wild — which is somewhat frustrating, as this particular edition of the game has long since sold out and is no longer in print.
Originally priced at 59.99USD, the Explorer’s Edition of The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild included a double-sided map of Hyrule, as well as a physical copy of the game and of course, the Explorer’s Guide. While Breath Of The Wild was released on both the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U, the Explorer’s Edition was exclusively available for the Nintendo Switch version of the game.
As outlined in our previous coverage, a collector’s edition of Tears Of The Kingdom is available now for preorder and will launch alongside the standard physical and digital editions of the game on May 12 this year. While this collector’s edition will not contain an Explorer’s Guide of its own, it will include a detailed art book, some scans of which were leaked online earlier this year.
During the Famitsu Game Awards held this week, The Legend Of Zelda grandmaster Eiji Aonuma hinted at new gameplay features that could “bring about changes to the game world.” With the Tears Of The Kingdom release date speedily paragliding toward us, it won’t be much longer before we can experience these all-new gameplay features for ourselves. In the meanwhile, however, we have an Explorer’s Guide to read.
