BotW – The Champions’ Ballad tips and tricks: How to clear the Great Plateau monster camps

Struggling to complete the first phase of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s DLC, The Champions’ Ballad? Here’s how to tackle the Great Plateau.

Last week after The Game Awards, Nintendo released the final piece of DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, entitled The Champions’ Ballad. But even though the DLC focuses on the four Hyrulian Champions Mipha, Revali, Daruk, and Urbosa, you have to do some work to get to that points. You must return to the Great Plateau and arm yourself with a weird trident weapon that can kill anything in one hit, but reduces you to one hit away from death at all times. It’s a grueling opening that forces you to use your developed skills in yet another new, interesting, and limited way.

This guide doesn’t cover the four Shrines on the Plateau. Instead, I’m here to help if you’re struggling to clear the enemy camps that unlock the four Shrines. If you keep dying to those pesky Moblins and their Ice Arrows, here are some tips and tricks to finishing the opening of the Champions’ Ballad and getting to the good stuff.

Bring arrows. Lots of arrows.

Once you enter the trial, you cannot leave the Plateau until it is done. That means you can’t restock your arrows unless you find some lying around. But since you get to keep what you walked in with, if you stock up on arrows before going in, you’ll have a much easier time. That’s all arrows–bomb, fire, shock, all of them. The only ones you won’t really need are Ancient Arrows.

Arrows and a long distance bow are your trusted friends while clearing these camps. The shield you use doesn’t matter (for the most part), you can’t change weapons and except for cold weather gear and stealth gear (see below), your armor doesn’t make a difference if everything can one-shot you. But you’ll need arrows to whittle down enemy forces to make your life easier. The weapon you use only has two charges at a time, so it’s inadvisable to just take on entire camps head on.

Stealth is your friend

Even if your armor stat won’t make a difference here, the Sheikah armor is still awesome for tackling the Great Plateau leg of The Champions’ Ballad. The enemies here have great hearing and will notice you coming much sooner than you’d expect. Stealth armor and a Stealth potion can alleviate this somewhat, allowing you to take out foes before they can spot you, sound the alarm, and ruin your day.

Find the high ground

Every camp except the Forest of Spirits camp has an obvious area of high ground you can use to your advantage to pick off a good chunk of enemies before heading in. If your initial approach looks dangerous, it’s worth it to make a wide circle around and find a better spot to come in from. Most camps have lookouts with horns, so if you can figure out who those enemies are and bring them down first, you’ll have a better chance at finishing the job smoothly.

Don’t fear the Blood Moon

With three camps down and halfway through the last one on Mt. Hylia, I started to panic because I saw the Blood Moon rising (once again). As I scrambled to determine whether it would be worth it to rush in and just bulldoze through the rest of the camp on the off-chance I could activate the Shrine before the moon triggered…it went away. You might see the Blood Moon rising while you do the challenge, but it will disappear and will not affect this segment of The Champions’ Ballad. Thank the Goddess.

Specific tips for each area

Forest of Spirits

• In the Forest of Spirits, a flock of Keese will flap around and give you trouble. You can scare them off before they bothering you by shooting down a group of them with a Bomb Arrow from a distance.
• Note that there is a white Bokoblin on top of the northernmost log. He can hit you with Shock Arrows from a long distance, but won’t bother you if you stay close to the camp and work your way around. Clear the entire camp, then sneak up on him by climbing to take him out before he can shoot you.

Eastern Abbey

• In the camp near the Eastern Abbey with all the Lizalfos, approach from the north and use the ruins for cover. The Lizalfos are stupid and will try to shoot arrows at you, but won’t be able to hit you and will give you plenty of time to take them out, one by one. Be sure to get the Bokoblin lookout to the north first before moving in.
• Be aware that there’s an active Guardian up top. You can take it down in one hit, just be careful not to activate it before you’re ready to run up on it.

Southern Camp

• The Southern camp is easiest if you climb the cliff face and pelt everything with arrows. Bomb and fire arrows are great, as many of the enemies will actively set themselves on fire for you.

Mt. Hylia

• The Mt. Hylia camp is the actual worst since everything can freeze you. Again–arrows are your friend. Take out the Chus from a distance–if you hit them just right, you can freeze nearby Moblins and remove threats before closing in.
• Both the Wizzrobe and the white Moblin can hit you with ice (spells or arrows) from a distance, but you can use them to your advantage. If everything has noticed you, stand with enemies between you and them and let them freeze their own allies. You’ll be protected, and you can dispatch your foes with ease.