How It Works

Adventure Mode makes up the meat of the Hyrule Warriors experience with a whopping 128 Scenarios to play through. There are a ton of unlockables including Heart Containers, Weapons and even new Warriors. We have a breakdown of each Scenario, what missions you’ll encounter, what unlockables you’ll find, and how to obtain them. Read on to get the most out of your time with this game mode.

In Adventure Mode, you have freedom to chose which Scenario you’d like to play as long as you unlock it first. To unlock new Scenarios, you have to obtain the Rank listed for that Scenario. What is a Rank, you ask? It’s the way by which your performance in an Adventure Mode Scenario is judged. All Adventure Mode Scenarios judge you by how quickly you complete a Scenario and how little damage you take—there are also plenty of other Scenarios that also take into account how many enemies you defeated as well. Depending on how well you did, you receive either an A-, B-, or C-Rank. If you receive the Rank listed on Adventure Mode’s world map or better, the next Scenario will open up for you.

Unlockables

Ranks aren’t just how you unlock new Scenarios; they also unlock new weapons, Warriors, Pieces of Heart, and Heart Containers. If an item appears in the “A” Rank Victory tab in the top-left corner of the map screen, then you have to meet the A-Rank requirements listed in our guide for that Scenario.

Getting A-Ranks is one of the hardest things to do in Hyrule Warriors, so you’ll be happy to know that it’s not the only way to obtain new unlockables. If an item appears under the Battle Victory tab on the top of the Adventure Mode map screen, it means you simply need to complete the Scenario to obtain that item.

If you see any items appear under the Treasure tab on the top right of the Adventure Mode map screen, that means the item in question is found in the Scenario itself. You can find how to obtain those items in each of the Scenario strategies below.

One thing that is important to note, however, is that some unlockables will not be available to you until after you’ve completed both Legend Mode and found all four Warriors scattered throughout Adventure Mode. Unlockables are typically Warrior-specific, meaning you can only obtain that item if you use the Warrior whose face is displayed on the Battle Info screen to complete the Scenario under the given conditions. That’s why it’s important to make completing Legend Mode and unlocking the hidden Warriors in Adventure Mode a high priority.

Item Cards

There is one more element barring your acquisition of unlockables in Adventure Mode: Item Cards. Item Cards are found as rewards for a large portion of the Scenarios in Adventure Mode and they are used to unlock unlockables and certain Scenarios that aren’t unlocked by Rank. To use an Item Card, you must first go to the Search Screen by pressing % while on the World Map screen. There are 12 different Item Cards and each one has a specific element it can interact with to reveal an unlockable.

When you bring up the Search Screen, you can select from one of your acquired Item Cards to use on an element in the screen. But you can’t just use any Item Card on anything you want; you need to look closely at the Search Screen for any abnormalities and select the Item Card that works to remove it.

Here’s a breakdown of all the Item Cards that can be found in Adventure Mode and what they do:

	Compass	Shows you where an Item Card can be used in a Search Screen.
	Bombs	This Item Card is used to destroy walls inside a Search Screen to reveal hidden caves.
	Candle	The Candle is used to burn bushes to reveal hidden stairways.
	Ladder	The Ladder is used to move across a single space of water.
	Power Bracelet	You use this Item Card to move boulders, tombstones, statues, and other heavy objects to reveal hidden stairways.
	Water Bombs	This Item Card is just like the Bombs Item Card, except it’s specifically for blowing up underwater boulders instead of walls.
	Digging Mitts	Digging Mitts are used in Search Screens with a patch of soft earth in them.
	Ice Arrow	This Item Card is used to put out rings of fire found in some of the Search Screens you’ll visit.
	Raft	You use this Item Card on piers to cross bodies of water. You use Rafts to unlock certain locked Scenarios.
	Hookshot	The Hookshot is used on distant targets to pull yourself over to them. This is another Item Card that you use to unlock certain locked Scenarios.
	Recorder	The Recorder is only used to unlock the Scenario at E-4. It is played at a specific body of water to make that water drain, revealing a secret stairway in the process.
	Goddess’s Harp	Some Scenarios will be missing their enemies, which makes them unplayable. Using the Goddess’s Harp on the groups of Goddess Butterflies found in the Search Screens of these Scenarios will force the enemies out of hiding and make the Scenarios playable.

These are the Item Cards that are found in Adventure Mode and they are absolutely necessary not only for unlocking every unlockable this mode has to offer, but also for completing the Adventure Mode as well. Certain Scenarios are inaccessible or unplayable, and the only way to change that is by using a specific Item Card.

Gold Skulltulas

The Adventure Mode Skulltulas all follow a very distinct pattern in terms of the locations they appear in. They are either at the center of the web that appears on the minimap, or they are at a location within the web that requires a Sub-Weapon (usually this location is fairly obvious, such as a cliff that requires a Hookshot that serves no other purpose within the game aside from housing a Skulltula). In addition, the closer you get to a Skulltula, the louder the Skulltula’s scuttling will get. If you keep these things in mind while searching you should have little trouble finding all the Skulltulas before they disappear.

To get the first Skulltula in every Adventure Mode Scenario, you need to defeat 1,200 enemies and complete the first mission of that Scenario. To get the second Gold Skulltula to appear, you need to defeat the Scenario’s first Gold Skulltula, complete the Scenario once, then play it a second time. At this point you must defeat 1,200 enemies without taking four or more Hearts of damage. Once you’ve accomplished these tasks, the Skulltula will appear on the map the same way as the first Skulltula, but in a completely different location.

Scenario Types

Scenarios in Adventure Mode differ greatly from Scenarios in Legend Mode. Legend Mode Scenarios follow a pretty strict mission-based path, whereas most Adventure Mode Scenarios have only a single mission and handful of smaller, optional missions to complete. An even greater difference is that there is a wide variety of Scenario types that are almost entirely different from anything you see in Legend Mode.

Below is a list of the different Scenario categories.

Adventure Battles

These Adventure Mode Scenarios are the closest they get to Scenarios in Legend Mode. They give you access to a full battlefield, just like Legend Mode, and have a Commander waiting to fight you at the end of the Scenario. Adventure Battle Scenarios typically have only one major mission that you have to complete to gain access to the enemy Commander. They often play out like short versions of Legend Mode Scenarios, so these will certainly feel the most familiar to you.

Dungeons

While Dungeons are technically Adventure Battles, they have enough differences to give them their own description. There are only nine Dungeon Scenarios in Adventure Mode—each one representing one of the nine dungeons found in the original Legend of Zelda. Just about every one of these Scenarios contains an exclusive Item Card that is needed to progress in Adventure Mode, so completing each Dungeon is absolutely important. All Dungeons end with a Giant Boss fight that can only be accessed after you find a Boss Key somewhere on the battlefield. Longtime fans of the Legend of Zelda series will likely feel right at home in these Scenarios.

Challenge Battles

Challenge Battles are where Adventure Mode really distinguishes itself from Legend Mode. Challenge Battles usually task you with one simple mission that is anything but simple to complete. Some require you to defeat a certain number of Giant Bosses within a specific amount of time, avoid taking any damage, or even take part in a quiz. These Scenarios tend to be very short, but often incredibly challenging—some of them are the toughest Scenarios in the game. These Challenge Battles require skill and cleverness to succeed.

The World Map

Longtime fans of the Legend of Zelda will recognize this map; it’s the map of the original NES/Famicom game, complete with every secret found in that game—and some new ones. While you may be feeling ready to dive into Adventure Mode, there are a few more things to note about this mode and its map.

The map is broken into six different colored sections: green, yellow, purple, orange, blue, and red. Each of these sections represents a sort of degree of difficulty and also serves as a gate to keep you from progressing if you haven’t completed Legend Mode. Green Scenarios are the easiest (next to the Scenarios that are unlocked at the start of Adventure Mode) while red Scenarios are the hardest.

We’ve labeled the world map with a combination of letters and numbers to help you identify what Scenarios we’re referring to. The letters label each of the rows (going top to bottom, A is the top row, B is the row below that, and so on) and numbers label the columns left to right. When you see A-1 in the strategy section below, it refers to the top left corner of the map, but if you see H-16, it refers to the bottom right corner.

This labeling system can also be used to gauge the general difficulty of a Scenario. The higher up you go vertically on the world map, the harder the stages become, so rows A and B hold the hardest stages, while H and G tend to be easier. Though, this rule is not absolute: the highest and lowest numbered Scenarios also tend to be a bit difficult—not as difficult as the A and B Scenarios, but the closer you venture toward squares labeled with a 1 or 16, the more dangerous they are likely to be. Keep this in mind while traversing the world map.

If you’re just itching to dig into Adventure Mode’s Scenarios and can’t wait to complete Legend Mode, here’s a breakdown of what Scenarios you’ll have access to and when: