The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

TL;DR

• Stamina good, Kakariko good, wait for the camera to pan out in shrines before pressing skip. Try that crazy thing you're thinking of.

• There's an argument to be made for BotW being a great game for discovering everything on your own. If that appeals to you, skip the rest of this article.

General Adventuring

• Don't ignore missing half and quarter hearts. The game will protect you from most one-shot kills, but only if your health is completely full.

• There will be an icon next to the names of shrines where you've opened all available chests.

• After you complete a shrine and accept the spirit orb, wait until the moment the camera starts to pan out, then go ahead and press skip. The overworld will load much much faster!

• When you leave the Plateau, take the Old Man's advice and head east on the road towards Kakariko Village before doing anything else, then head to Hateno. There are multiple things there (and on the journey there) that you'll be glad you found early.

• It's also a good idea to do the main 4 quests as soon as possible, because they'll help you get around the world more efficiently.

• Need to pass time waiting for something? Drop a pile of Wood and a piece of Flint on the ground, and slash it with a metal-bladed weapon. Instant Campfire! This is very useful if you're caught in a rainstorm and can't climb to where you need to go, since you can advance time forward and skip the rainstorm.

• Drop your first upgrade into a Stamina boost rather than a heart, it'll help with getting around early on.

• Yes, you can probably do that crazy thing you're thinking of. Try it.

• Pay attention to elemental types: If you see an ice lizard-thing shoot it with a fire arrow. If you see a wizard with a fire wand flying at you, shoot it with an ice arrow etc.

• Each town you get to in areas with extreme environments usually have shops that sell gear that will mitigate the environmental hazard.

• Your ice-spell works in the brown quick-sand type of mud. It also works side-ways on waterfalls.

• The quickest way to tame a horse you just captured is to hold an apple and stand in front of it so it eats it, then repeat until it's at 100%. Apples aren't the only thing they'll eat, and some things you can feed them will transfer abilities to the horse.

• If you need cash early game hunt deer, collect all their prime meat and make 5-stacks of meat skewers, then sell those to whoever for hundreds of rupees a go. A good place to do this is the field called Rabia Plain to the northeast of Kakariko Village.

Items, etc.

• You can't buy weapons or shields, you can only loot them off the ground or find them in chests.

• There's a few armor pieces that can only be gained by helping people or by completing certain shrines.

• You can find rice and grain by cutting grass.

• If you're holding a lit torch or a weapon enchanted with flame, it'll keep you warm in cold climates. Just remember that you can't run, climb, glide, or swim without putting out the torch.

• The game treats heat resistance and flame resistance as two independent stats. Heat resistance won't help you on Death Mountain and flame resist won't help in the desert.

• Getting the same type of resistance from multiple sources (clothes + food, etc.) stacks.

• Diamonds are useful and a pain to grind for, don't sell them. Any other kind of gem is fair game.

• Use the stasis ability to highlight the environment in yellow and see everything you can pick up clearly - especially useful in heavily forrested areas with lots of grass and foliage.

• Use the magnet ability to see half-buried chests from a distance.

Koroks

• Korok Seeds are needed to upgrade your inventory space for weapons, shields, and bows. The price goes up for each individual category independently from the others.

• Most Korok 'puzzles' are rock related. Look under out-of-place rocks, finish rock formations with another rock, see a rock formation jutting out of the water? Hurl a rock in the center.

• Dive/fall into the center of lily-pad formations for more hidden Koroks.

• Can't reach a Korok challenge ring in time? Try shield surfing. (Hold out your shield, jump, and press A.)

Cooking

• Insects/critters go with monster parts for elixirs, food items are separate.

• Cooked items can only provide one type of buff at a time. Multiples of ingredients providing the same buff will make it stronger and some ingredients are much more potent than others.

• Cooked items that add temporary yellow health/stamina also fully restore health/stamina, respectively.

• Don't neglect keeping a stock of basic cooked food too. Since you can only have one timer-based buff at a time, it sucks having to replace a useful one with a pointless one just to recover a couple hearts.

• Do all your cooking in the last 25 minutes before a blood moon. You'll get critical cooks every time, which increases the effects of the result.

Minor Secrets/Spoilers

• There is a bandanna in the shrine at the base of the Dueling Peaks that increases your climb speed.

• You can give dogs treats and in return they will dig up a little reward for you.

• When the time comes where you're curious to how many heart containers are needed, it's 13.