In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as soon as players completed the initial Great Plateau tutorial era, it was possible to grab a paraglider and sprint straight to the game’s final boss, clearing the game in under an hour. Based on our time with the game so far, it seems like a similar path is available in the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, albeit with a key difference from its predecessor.
WARNING: Spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom follow. Scroll below the video at your own risk.
Just like in Breath of the Wild, in Tears of the Kingdom you can finish the game’s “tutorial” of sorts on on The Great Sky Island, and then go straight to the end of the game. However, there’s a key difference from Breath of the Wild. In Breath of the Wild, you were given the quest “Defeat Ganon,” which told you exactly where to go and what to do to trigger the ending. But Tears of the Kingdom gives you no such quest. You have to already know where the end of the game is and head there without in-game guidance, and then know what to do when you get there.
The end of Tears of the Kingdom is only truly accessible once you finish a very early main quest to get the Paraglider. However, where you’re going and what you’re doing is actually a massive, massive spoiler – one big enough that we don’t want to touch it in an article like this. If you really, really want to skip to the end right away, check out our guide on how to do so. But really, we’re warning you, it’s a pretty big spoiler. Once you know, there’s no going back.
We have tons more Tears of the Kingdom content lined up in the coming days. In the meantime, check out our review of Tears of the Kingdom, which we called “an unfathomable follow-up to one of the greatest games ever made, somehow improving upon it in nearly every way.” And for help getting started, take a look at our Wiki guide to everything you could ever want to know about making your way through Hyrule.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.