Nintendo

Apologies for the wall of text, but here it is! This is copied from a reddit post from years ago by a deleted user, so I unfortunately cannot give them credit.

I've done this ruleset before and it's very fun, I highly recommend it if you want to give BOTW a fresh spin and challenge yourself in a fun and not too grindy way. I play on Master Mode and follow all rules except where noted. Hope you enjoy!

My Breath of the Wild Hardcore Ruleset: The "Base System"

I realized fairly early on into my first playthrough of BOTW that I'd want to do it again, but imposing an additional set of rules upon myself to force more careful play, with more planning and preparation throughout. The primary consideration in this ruleset is not "difficulty" for difficulty's sake; I don't like the idea of forced naked runs, for example, or other arbitrary constraints such as no food allowed whatsoever. I wanted my ruleset to largely preserve the vanilla experience, but with a few fundamentally tighter constraints on the player, with the understanding that it was to be built for veterans of the game, who already possess deep familiarity with the systems and enemies therein.

Breath of the Wild can be a challenging game, particularly at the beginning, but it doesn't take long before players begin to grasp the various mechanics and systems, and learn to cheese them for their own benefit. In my opinion, the single largest crutch that prevents the game from becoming truly difficult is the overly generous inventory management system. Players can switch weapons and armor sets at will to optimize durability consumption vs. damage, for example, in an instant with no consequence, even between swings of their weapons. Hearty meals can be swallowed whole in the middle of combat, replenishing dozens of hearts in a single button press, able to be eaten while falling, swimming, gliding, or even hurtling through the air after getting launched by a powerful enemy attack. This has never quite felt right to me, and so adjustments to this system form the first portion of the changes:

1. The Base System: The foundation of my ruleset. A base is any location where you may access and interact with your Materials and/or Armor inventories. For the purposes of this playthrough, all NPC towns, villages, and stables are considered bases; additionally (and very importantly!) your horse (or rented sand seal in the Gerudo desert) can serve as a mobile base. This makes your horse a vital companion on your adventures, and dramatically affects the way you approach gated areas that your horse cannot reach. Since you cannot change your armor set away from a base, for example, you must decide which of your armor sets is most important to equip, and bring along elixirs for other status effects you might need. (NOTE: This system is problematic when you're on the Great Plateau. You may decide to ignore it entirely until you obtain the glider, or designate a location of your choice like the Temple of Time or the Old Man's Cabin as base.)

2. Combat Focus: The inventory screen may not be opened at all while Link is moving or while combat music is playing. Weapons may be swapped using the Quick Access menu on the D-Pad, but for any and all other needs you must first defeat all enemies or retreat from combat. No mid-battle meals for you. Additionally this will mean that you cannot eat or drink while swimming, falling, or gliding.

3. Forbidden Fruit: I tried to think of a good way to combat their overpowered nature, but unfortunately have concluded that Hearty Meals simply have to go. You may cook them and sell them if you wish, but you may not eat them under any circumstances. They are simply too powerful.

4. Packed Lunch: While away from base, you may only carry one (yes, one) cooked meal with you. This feels more realistic, will force the player to prioritize high-quality cooking, and in addition, the inability to access the material inventory away from base increases the importance of food immensely. As a parallel to this, however, you may carry up to four elixirs with you at any time. This way you can plan additional status buffs to bring with you, or just prioritize healing elixirs outright. The choice is yours.

5. Hunter-Gatherer: Foraging is allowed; e.g, you may pick up or hunt something and then eat it immediately, whether it is classified as food or a material (such as raw vs. cooked fish). An obvious example is the cooked meat you can often find on spits in bokoblin camps. This gives the player an additional option when running low on hearts if they are reluctant to retreat and regroup, while preserving the unforgiving limit on how much food you can carry.

6. Useless Koroks: No inventory expansion is permitted.

The second part of my ruleset is comprised of refinements to combat.

1. Wrong Weight Division: You may not wield shields during combat against Moblin, Lynel, or Guardian-class enemies. I ignore this one, I think it's fine to have Link strong enough to withstand an attack using a shield, especially since shields vary in strength and the weaker ones break with one hit. I do follow the rest of this rule regarding parries against larger foes though. Perfect Parries are too easy and too powerful against these foes, especially Lynels, and they look ridiculous. Link can casually knock aside a solid metal Lynel Crusher taller than he is? No thanks. You must rely on your ability to dodge effectively, or in some cases (as with the aforementioned Lynel Crushers) might find it a more appealing option to simply avoid combat entirely. As a modification, you may add the ability to Perfect Parry Guardian lasers if you are wielding an Ancient or Guardian shield, if you like, since that feels logical and lore-friendly. Shields are permitted in Test of Strength shrines against Guardian Scouts.

2. Not-Quite-Superhylian: You may only use aerial bullet-time to fire one bow shot at maximum. Being able to slow time and individually target an entire mob of enemies around you detracts from the challenge. This is the compromise I offer for not having an easy way to limit the amount of arrows you can actually carry.

3. Specialty Fighter: Link's not a big guy, and favors agility with one-handed and spear-class weaponry. While you may carry and use utilitarian two-handed weapons like the Woodcutter's Axe, Iron Sledgehammer, or Korok Leaf, others like Lynel Crushers or Moblin Clubs are simply too large for Link to wield effectively, and so cannot be used. I ignore this one, Link has used plenty of oversized weapons in previous installments and I think it's pretty lore-accurate to have him portrayed as somewhat strong.

Miscellaneous Rules:

1. By the Hero's Strength Alone: All Champion abilities, once acquired, must be immediately turned off and never used.

2. Pro HUD: Uh, well, play on, you know, Pro HUD mode.

3. We Travel On Foot: Fast travel may be employed only between activated towers and tech labs, instead of from anywhere, to anywhere, at anytime. let me reiterate: You may NOT fast-travel to shrines.

4. Time Flows Heedless: You may not reload previous saves. I ignore this one, it's just too cumbersome

The objective of this ruleset is to provide constraints that will allow players to blossom creatively when approaching a challenging situation. Rather than beefing their way up a stacked moblin encampment by relentlessly chowing on food, the player might be forced to reevaluate their approach, using Runes, stealth, the glider, and/or mobility to fight more effectively and minimize damage, a consideration that is not needed in the base game due to the power of your near-bottomless food carrying capacity. Battles with large enemies will be longer, more difficult, and feel more intense, and the base system will provide incentives for the player to utilize additional options like stealth and/or combat avoidance for the sake of their ability to push through a challenging area.

As with all hardcore rulesets, though, the number one rule is to HAVE FUN and to feel free to modify and add to/remove the rules as you see fit. I have not yet started a playthrough under this system and I'm sure there are flaws and holes in there somewhere. Let me know any suggestions, clarifications, or criticisms you have to offer! I'm particularly interested in the possibility of implementing penalties for death.