Can You Keep Playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild After You Beat It?

As a longtime Zelda fan and avid Breath of the Wild player with over 200 hours logged, I‘m here to provide some expert insight into what opens up after you defeat Calamity Ganon and complete the main story.

The short answer is: yes, absolutely! Breath of the Wild gives you the freedom to keep exploring Hyrule indefinitely after the credits roll.

Once you beat Ganon, the game automatically saves right before entering the Sanctum to start the final battle. When continuing from this postgame save file, the most noticeable difference is the special star icon now displayed, indicating your completion of the main questline.

Beyond this marker though, surprisingly little changes once Ganon is defeated! The open world remains fully open for you to discover.

What Stays the Same Postgame

• You still have full access to explore all of Hyrule – no areas are locked off after reaching the ending. This remains the same as pre-Ganon!
• Side quests, shrines, Korok seeds and all discoverable locations are still available to find.
• Regular Blood Moons will continue to randomly occur, respawning enemies and weapons across the world.
• All creatures that were present before defeating Ganon also remain afterward! Lynels, Hinoxes and more are ready for round two. Or three. Or ten!

So with so much existing content intact even after witnessing the credits roll by, what actually does change afterwards?

New Postgame Unlocks and Features

• When looking at the map screen, you‘ll see a brand new completion percentage listed out. This steadily goes up as you find more named locations, shrines, and seeds!
• Say you missed a memory or two on your initial run – the game now denotes how many of Link‘s lost memories you‘ve successfully recovered.
• Upon loading your starred save file, you‘ll spawn right outside the Sanctum doors. Challenge Dark Beast Ganon as many times as you wish!
• One major change – after initially defeating Ganon, a secret quest unlocks to track down the wand-wielding wizard Kilton. He‘ll reward you by upgrading armor beyond the base limits.
• Hardcore players can now work towards the coveted 100% completion counter. This requires collecting all 900 Korok seeds, finishing 120 shrines, discovering every location and more!

While not seeing as sizable of a postgame offering compared to titles like Majora‘s Mask or Skyward Sword, I believe Breath of the Wild intentionally focuses less on adding new story content after Ganon as it realizes most players have plenty unfinished activities still!

My Personal Postgame Checklist

With so much pre-existing open world content ready for round two, here are some postgame challenges I‘m prioritizing in my current playthrough:

I‘m also spending more time really perfecting combat techniques like flurry rushing or Urbosa‘s Fury against tough enemies.

With so much flexibility after beating Ganon, I‘d say Breath of the Wild features one of the most extensive postgames in the franchise to date!

What postgame challenges appeal to you most? I always love hearing from fellow passionate Zelda fans, so let me know!