Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Players Share Their Best Deaths

Breath of the Wild is hard enough that death has become one of the most common shared experiences for players discussing the game. Link has died in all sorts of surprising and absurd ways, and it’s a joy to watch.

Perhaps “joy” seems like a strange word to use when talking about failure, but that’s how well-designed Breath of the Wild truly is. You die because complex mechanics intersect in ways you can’t predict—but you’re often back at it within seconds, thanks to Breath of the Wild’s generous auto save. Dying, then, can feel like a fun experiment: you’re encouraged to try whatever outlandish ideas you might have, because you have the confidence of knowing that no matter what happens, you’re never going to be punished too severely. It’s great. It also helps to feel like Nintendo respects the player enough to allow us to make mistakes, instead of making us go through the extreme handholding of some other recent Zelda games.

Here are some of the best Zelda deaths players have shared on social media.

The first puzzle kills Link

Goat rams Link off a cliff

https://twitter.com/embed/status/838146271286341632

Drawbridge stomps Link’s head

https://twitter.com/embed/status/838218431992328192

Metal doors body Link

I let @wergle028 play Zelda AND HE BODIED HIMSELF BY TRYING TO OPEN A DOOR LOL pic.twitter.com/diCYxg6b9N

— Lythero 🎮 (@Lythero) March 4, 2017

Killer raft takes out Link

Link runs out of stamina in the worst possible place

Link’s shredding does not go as planned

GIF source: HilariousSaltyAfricanpiedkingfisher

Sword magnesis backfires

Catapult experiment goes wrong

GIF source: IdealisticHopefulChick

Link has a tough climb

https://twitter.com/embed/status/838130076185059328

Players also have plenty of death anecdotes, too:

Bonus: this isn’t a Link death, but it is worth sharing:

https://twitter.com/embed/status/837941296194973696