Zelda Botw 160 Update May 2026
Here’s a solid, concise review of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Version 1.6.0 update (released November 2021, just before Tears of the Kingdom’s final delay was announced).
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2. Memory & Performance Improvements
- Frame rate stability in heavily forested areas (Korok Forest, Faron Woods) and during lightning storms saw marginal but measurable improvement.
- Reduced hitching when opening the Sheikah Slate menu during combat.
- Load times for fast travel and shrine entry were slightly reduced (by ~0.3–0.7 seconds on Switch).
1. The Official Timeline: Where Nintendo Left Off
To understand the mythology of 1.6.0, we must first look at what Nintendo actually released. Here’s a solid, concise review of The Legend
- Version 1.0.0: The base game as it launched on March 3, 2017. This is the "wild west" version. It is notoriously unstable but riddled with exploits. Speedrunners favor this version because it allows for the "Bullet Time Bounce" (BTB) glitch, which allows Link to traverse the map at impossible speeds.
- Version 1.1.0 – 1.3.0: These patches introduced various stability fixes and prepped the game for the initial DLC packs. They patched some major crashes but introduced new quirks.
- Version 1.4.0: A significant update coinciding with the release of "The Champions' Ballad." It added the Travel Medallion, the Motorcycle, and new armor.
- Version 1.5.0: The "final" official patch. Released in late 2017, it ostensibly fixed bugs related to the DLC and added quality-of-life features, such as the ability to listen to specific NPC dialogue (Kass) via the Hyrule Compendium.
For the general public, the story ended there. But for the technical community, the story was just beginning. Frame rate stability in heavily forested areas (Korok
New enemies and variants
- Storm Wargs: wolf-like foes that appear during aurora storms; they use coordinated rushes and can call lightning to ground when injured.
- Coil Bokoblins: use short-range electrified coils to temporarily paralyze Link on contact; drops rare Coil Fragments used for armor upgrades.
- Windbound Colossus (mini-boss): described above; uses wind shields that reflect projectiles and summon vortex pillars.
Economy & rewards
- Shrine & Trial rewards updated: slightly higher chance at rarer materials and more arrow bundles for shrine completions to support more dynamic combat.
- Merchant inventories rotate weekly (in-game), offering a chance to obtain rare monster parts or limited decorative items.
- Amiibo tweaks: more predictable drop tables for specific themed armor parts; overall drop rates adjusted to reduce grind.
1. Nintendo Account Bonus Items Integration
The update streamlined how players receive Nintendo Account–linked bonuses, including:
- The Nintendo Switch Shirt (added to the chest in the Great Plateau’s Temple of Time automatically).
- Bonus items from Breath of the Wild Expansion Pass DLC now load more reliably when starting a new save file.