Breath of the Wild player discovers previously unnoticed Link animation

Breath of the Wild
(Image credit: Nintendo)

A Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild fan has discovered a previously unnoticed Link animation that can only be triggered when the character has run out of stamina.

Shared via the r/LegendofZelda subreddit, Reddit user u/SpudDud17 shared a clip of them running up and down a hill until the titular hero runs out of energy. Once Link’s stamina gauge has been depleted, the player then triggers a heavy attack command which sees the character slowly attempt to swing his sword in a drowsy fashion.

I’ve played this game since it came out and I just discovered a animation that plays when you are out of stamina and try to do a charge attack. from r/Breath_of_the_Wild

The Breath of the Wild player also tries the move out with different weapons including the Soldier's Broadsword, Serpentine Spear, and Iron Sledgehammer, which sees each weapon maintaining its own version of the exhausted Link animation. 

According to the comments of the post though, this half-hearted strike is still enough to inflict damage to enemies, even though it is slightly delayed. For fans of this open-world Legend of Zelda game, this new discovery was less of a surprise and more of an expectation as some joked that they’ll still be finding new features of the game in 50 years' time.

Fans of the Legend of Zelda series have a lot to look forward to as Breath of the Wild 2 continues to make progress, as well as The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD remake which was announced during the February 2021 Nintendo Direct, alongside a limited edition Zelda themed Switch console. 

There’s also been a lot of speculation regarding other Legend of Zelda projects that could be in the works after a fan found evidence of possible new Legend of Zelda ‘Phantom Hourglass’ and ‘The Wind Waker’ trademarks recently, as well as the news that Link’s Awakening developer Grezzo has begun hiring for a “stylish, medieval” game.

Discover more how to play this Zelda title to the fullest with our Breath of the Wild tricks and hacks

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.  

Read more
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
After a tough eight-year battle, a series of new glitches completely changed The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker speedruns
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot showing a little magic and skeletal summoning
After 15 years, Elden Ring Nightreign introduces a FromSoftware first: you can stab a dude with an arrow like you're Legolas
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is at the front line of the debate over the Nintendo Switch 2's computing power, because if the Switch 1 can load three worlds at once, imagine what its sequel can do
Monster Hunter World Street Fighter collab Hadoken
7 years later, Monster Hunter World player finally beats the whole game without using weapons, mostly with a Street Fighter Hadoken emote dealing 13 damage at a time
The Knightling standing in a sunlit field
This open-world game imagines a cartoony Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom where the Master Sword is the Master Shield – it's coming to all platforms and I dig its Steam Next Fest demo
Botw
The Switch is the one console with a controller that splits in two, but these AGDQ speedrunners still cuddled up to break Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Latest in The Legend of Zelda
A screenshot of the moon in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
Despite Zelda: Majora's Mask basically being a horror game, one of its key devs didn't think its creepiest features were scary at all: "People on the team were like 'whoa!'"
The Witcher 3 next-gen
Zelda and Star Fox legend Takaya Imamura would "love" to make a Star Wars game with The Witcher 3's CD Projekt Red – and now I'm desperate to make it happen
Botw
Legendary Zelda dev "wasn't too pleased" about working on A Link to the Past as it robbed his enjoyment of playing the finished game: "I still really don't want to play that game"
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is at the front line of the debate over the Nintendo Switch 2's computing power, because if the Switch 1 can load three worlds at once, imagine what its sequel can do
Majora's Mask
The biggest loser in Zelda: Majora's Mask finally ends its 25-year losing streak, as 30,000 brute-force attempts finally debunk the myth of Blue Dog
Lil Gator Game: In the Dark
The massive DLC nobody saw coming is an expansion for Lil Gator Game, a more adorable spin on Zelda and one of my favorite cozy indie games
Latest in News
PS5 30th Anniversary collection on a blue background
Echoing Xbox and Steam, PlayStation rolls out a beta program where you sign up to "test participating games for the PS5 console and PC" plus new features
One of the new Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4
"Don’t gaslight me": Borderlands 4 CEO Randy Pitchford begs fans to be optimistic about the upcoming FPS, otherwise "we'll all pay the price"
MobLand
First trailer for Guy Ritchie’s new crime drama sees Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan rule a brutal mafia empire
Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who season 2
Doctor Who fans think they've spotted a tease for surprise villains in new season 2 trailer
Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 has an endgame problem, but a developer assures us "things are coming," they just can't say what yet because otherwise our expectations will be too high
inZOI Character Studio trailer showing a young woman with ginger-y long hair and a white baseball cap smiling, her hand against her chin
The Sims 4's hyper-realistic competitor inZOI will only "sort of" have sex – but I'm sure a Wicked Whims-style mod will take care of the rest