Spoilers ahead.
Whether you've made it past The Great Plateau or not Nintendo's gearing up to bring some fresh Zelda content to your Nintendo Switch with the release of the Expansion Pass DLC Pack 1 this Summer.
DLC Pack 1 will include the following:
Trial of the Sword
This portion of the DLC becomes unlocked when you obtain the Master Sword. Once there, players will be able to face the Trial of the Sword which is essentially a wave survival mode that will pit you against a room full of enemies, 45 rooms of them to be exact. Much like in the Eventide survival island you will go into this challenge without any equipment or weapons. Defeating all the enemies in a room unlocks the next and so on. The reward, if you make it to the end and live to tell the tale, promises to be worthwhile as it will awaken the true power of the Master Sword, meaning that the sword will permanently be in its glowing state for as long as its usable.
Hero's Path Mode
With this mode a nifty new feature gets added to the map view that might help players hone in on missing shrines and other discoverable places on the map by keeping track of where they've been. Hero's path mode will show the path walked by Link through Hyrule from the last 200 hours of gameplay as well as a time tracker to show where he's spent the most time and thus serve as an indicator of what remains to be explored. Here's a preview of what the tracker will look like:
Hard Mode
For those of you seeking that extra challenge and perhaps even a more Dark Souls-like experience, this harder difficulty mode adds a very welcome new element that is a first in the Zelda franchise. Not only will enemies be powered up by one level and have higher maximum health bars but they will also gradually regain health, adding extra pressure to finish off enemies as efficiently and quickly as possible.
An additional and very interesting new feature of hard mode will potentially add a whole new level of exploration, and perhaps even add a legitimate reason for people to use those clever magnesis air ships, by making it so that there are enemies and treasure chests hidden and floating around the Hyrule skies in platforms held up by Octoroks.
Travel Medallion
Hidden somewhere in Hyrule there will be a treasure chest containing the Travel Medallion. What the medallion will do is enable players to register their current location as a fast travel point on the map. Only one location will be allowed at a time.
More Armor Sets
Aside from the armor sets that will become unlockable via Amiibo, 8 extra armor chests will be scattered around Hyrule waiting to be discovered. Whether this new gear will provide new abilities or not remains unclear. The armor contained within will amount to 2 new armor sets and 2 new helmets that will be themed after previous The Legend of Zelda titles:
Majora's Mask
Phantom Armor
Midna's Helmet
Tingle's Outfit
The Korok Mask
A Korok Mask will also be hidden somewhere in Hyrule and is intended to make the daunting task of finding those sneaky 900 little Korok's a whole lot easier by shaking/vibrating whenever Link is near a hidden Korok location.
From the looks of it, DLC Pack 1 will definitely add plenty more to do in this already vast world of Hyrule and it may also add a new dimension of exploration and combat by placing enemies in the sky. Not to mention that the new hard mode will add a substantial challenge for those thrillseekers that are up for the task. Nintendo also states that this is just but a taste of what the Expansion Pass has to offer, so I'm definitely excited to se what else they have in store for all of us Zelda fans.
