Intro –

Playing a game means beating it, but sometimes beating the game isn’t always the hardest part. Sometimes, it’s the preparation that takes the longest. For me, my years of gaming experience have usually been enough to get me through some of the toughest challenges I’ve encountered.

So, as I got closer to Calamity Ganon in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, I didn’t take enough time to concern myself with reserves or replenishing everything I had grown dependent on throughout the game. I assumed what I already had was going to be enough, even as I started noticing how depleted Link was becoming after the battles leading toward the final confrontation.

Link had the Master Sword, and because I wielded it throughout the game and watched it deal excellent damage against many of the enemies around Hyrule Castle, I kept pushing him. I figured Link and I could handle whatever the game put in front of us.

However, as the battles continued, I started noticing just how little health Link had left, especially after his battle with Astor. My resources were becoming depleted, but I still convinced myself that Calamity Ganon was practically going to hand me the win because I had the Master Sword. Surely everything else wasn’t that important, right?

That’s where experience can become a double-edged sword. Years of gaming can teach you how to prepare for difficult battles, but those same years can also make you confident enough to believe you’ll figure everything out when the time comes.

I had one of Link’s greatest weapons in my hands, and I allowed that advantage to convince me that preparation wasn’t nearly as important as it actually was.

But I’m here to tell you from experience: you do not go into Hyrule Castle half-cocked. Calamity Ganon can—and will—humble you if you do. And before I could properly deal with him, I had to realize that the battle wasn’t simply about what Link could do once Ganon appeared. It was about what I was doing before Link ever reached him.

That said, let’s get started.

Running Link Ragged Isn’t An Option, Don’t Make it One –

As I previously mentioned, Link had the Master Sword, and it was dealing significant damage to practically everything the blade touched. Link was also doing pretty well in the defense department, so initially I wasn’t worried about a few nicks and scrapes.

To put a finer point on it, every time I saw the Master Sword react to a boss corrupted by Malice or one of the Blights, I made that enemy Link’s responsibility.

At the time, it seemed like a sound strategy. Why wouldn’t I use the character carrying the weapon that was clearly doing the job? Eventually, though, I realized that Link was being worn thin. As those battles accumulated, his chances of surviving started dropping rapidly.

Before long, I had to make a choice—one I didn’t want to make but knew I had to. Link had started with 18 hearts, but by this point he barely had five full hearts remaining.

After my battle with Thunderblight Ganon, I went on to face Astor and pushed Link to finish that battle as well. He did, but it came at a grave cost. I was preserving my preferred strategy while steadily sacrificing the character I needed most.

So after reaching Calamity Ganon the first time with Link already near death, I knew something had to change. I had entered Hyrule Castle with Link, Zelda, Rhoam and Impa, which meant I had four capable fighters available to me.

Instead of continuing to make Link carry every major encounter, I divided the group into two-person teams to deal with the Blights. Link still fought, but he no longer had to shoulder the entire workload himself. I also had Impa take on Astor, preserving even more of Link’s remaining strength for Calamity Ganon.

I hated approaching those final battles this way because I loved my original strategy more. But I learned the hard way that even superpowered beings can eventually burn out like candles. More importantly, preserving Link didn’t mean he suddenly wasn’t strong enough to handle those enemies.

It meant I had finally recognized that his strength was itself a resource, and I needed to save enough of it for the battle where it mattered most.

The bosses and their entourage were getting smarter.

I had to be smarter, too.

Preparation, It Only Takes 5 Minutes –

At the time I stormed Hyrule Castle with my team, my elemental wands were at full strength. By the time I reached Calamity Ganon, however, they were practically depleted. Too much of their power had been spent fighting the Blights.

A mistake, to be sure. Meanwhile, I had stopped paying attention to my apple supply because I was convinced that the last few battles weren’t going to be particularly taxing on my health.

Again, that was a mistake I barely lived to regret. Healing after practically every seemingly minor cut and bruise eventually took its toll on my supply of apples.

Going off my past experiences with Zelda games, combined with my strategic brilliance, I underestimated the difficulty of my final bout with Calamity Ganon.

When I first reached him, I attacked him with my entire team. Even after realizing how resistant he was to our attacks, I still expected the Master Sword to break through his invulnerability.

After everything I’d seen that weapon do against Malice and the Blights, I figured that if anything could hurt him, the Master Sword could.

I was wrong.

Calamity Ganon was invulnerable to everything I threw at him, including the Master Sword. It wasn’t until after Terrako’s sacrifice that Ganon lost that advantage and finally became vulnerable to my attacks.

By then, however, I’d already burned through resources trying to damage an enemy I couldn’t damage in the first place. Once I realized what I’d done, I felt pretty stupid.

At that point, I had two choices: fight to the bitter end and hope I could somehow scrape together a victory based on whatever mercy I thought I might POSSIBLY be shown, or go back to a previous level, restock and rethink my strategy.

I hated the idea of backtracking, but that’s exactly what I did. I refilled my elemental wands by hunting down Wizzrobes of each element, and I replenished my apples by breaking barrels, finding them throughout the stages or simply buying them outright.

I didn’t like spending time going backward just to refill everything, but I wanted to make the endgame a slam dunk. I couldn’t afford to rush the end twice.

Sure, that meant fighting the Blights and Astor all over again, but doing so also gave me another opportunity to recognize what I could’ve—or should’ve—done differently the first time. What initially felt like backtracking had actually become another training run.

That’s when I realized that returning to an earlier stage wasn’t necessarily losing progress. I already knew where Calamity Ganon was. Getting there wasn’t my problem anymore. Getting there prepared was.

From that point forward, I swore I’d never try to rush an endgame like that again.

Point of Order: Preparation Takes Just 5 Minutes—Do It!

Take Two –

Having Impa take care of Astor put me in much better shape than I would’ve been if I’d decided against it. When I reached Calamity Ganon again, I could actually afford to sit back and savor his so-called invincibility before Terrako broke through it. After that happened, Ganon was looking at me pretty differently.

Some of Calamity Ganon’s attacks were difficult to avoid at the last minute, but that didn’t concern me nearly as much this time because I still had my resources topped off.

I had apples when I needed to recover, my elemental wands were ready, and most importantly, Link hadn’t arrived at the battle already hanging on by a thread. Calamity Ganon was going right back in that hole, and I was determined to put him there.

After I beat Calamity Ganon in Round 2, roughly three-quarters of my resources were gone, but I still had enough left that I could’ve made a decent difference if he’d somehow pushed me into a Round 3.

That’s when I could really see the difference preparation had made. The goal wasn’t necessarily to finish the battle with everything still in my inventory. The point was to have enough resources available when I actually needed them.

This experience made me realize that forcing one character—especially your lead—to do all of the heavy lifting has consequences. Those consequences might be reversible, but correcting them can become time-consuming.

It also reinforced something that should’ve been obvious from the beginning: I had a team for a reason. Taking everything onto Link’s shoulders simply because he carried a weapon of legend didn’t make him invincible.

More importantly, I learned that being powerful enough to win and being prepared enough to win are two different things. Link already had the power. What I hadn’t given him during my first attempt was the proper condition in which to use it.

Brute-forcing my way through every preceding battle wasn’t making me more prepared for Calamity Ganon—it was spending the very resources I was eventually going to need against him.

By the second attempt, the battle had changed before I even reached Ganon.

Conclusion –

To wrap up, I started the final battle with my own expectations, driven somewhat by my gaming and strategic expertise. Eventually, I was put in a position where respecting the strength of the final boss mattered more than relying solely on the strength of my lead character.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is centered around having a team—taking people into battle who can hold their own so you don’t have to depend on just one character to do everything.

That’s the game’s message.

Yeah, I get it. Doing everything alone can seem ideal, especially after Link gets the Master Sword. But Link isn’t invincible. His companions are there to do some of the heavy lifting so he doesn’t have to carry every battle himself.

Sometimes that means preserving Link for Calamity Ganon. Sometimes it’s one of the Blights. Hell, sometimes it’s one of those annoying ass Guardians.

Returning to earlier areas as a means of preparation doesn’t mean you’ve stopped progressing. It means you’re covering your bases so you don’t have to keep repeating the same mistakes or mentally overexerting yourself trying to force a strategy that isn’t working.

I can tell you from experience that trying to push forward simply because your character has more health than everybody else or because your weapon hits harder isn’t necessarily progress.

Sometimes, that’s regression.

This entire experience taught me that no matter how close I am to the end of a game, taking a few extra minutes to prepare is worth it.

Yes, preparation technically costs time, but those few minutes can save considerably more time than repeatedly throwing yourself against the same final challenge while making the same mistakes.

That’s something I’ll remember the next time I’m staring down an endgame and feeling tempted to say, “I’ve got enough. Let’s just finish this.”

Point of Order: Preparation Takes Just 5 Minutes—Do It!

Because once everything is stocked, the strategy is set, everybody knows their role, and Calamity Ganon is finally dead?

The payoff is huge.

Continue the Adventure

A powerful character can still walk into the wrong battle underprepared.

I learned that firsthand after relying too heavily on Link and the Master Sword during the final stretch of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. By the time I reached Calamity Ganon, I’d spent resources I should’ve conserved and pushed my strongest character harder than necessary.

The solution wasn’t another weapon.

It was better preparation.

If you enjoy boss battles where planning beforehand can matter just as much as execution during the fight, check out my Benable list:

https://benable.com/RoddyMcG/15-video-game-boss-battles-that-reward-you-for-preparing-beforehand