The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is almost here! Here’s everything you should know.

Great Ganon tusks! An all-new entry in the Legend of Zelda™ series comes out in about a week (Sept. 26 to be exact.)! Zelda is front and center this time around, and her journey is packed with adventure, peril, questing, and many, many echoes...

Here’s everything you need to know about the Legend of Zelda™: Echoes of Wisdom game!

So, what’s this game about? (And where’s Link?!)

Mysterious rifts are opening all over Hyrule (think purplish-black gaps with evil energy coming out of them), and they’re stealing away people and land. After a fight with Ganon, Link is swallowed into a rift. But before he disappears, he is able to free Zelda!

Concerned for her kingdom, it’s now up to Zelda to confront the rifts and figure out what’s going on. However, she won’t be alone because she partners up with an ethereal creature named Tri who presents her with a powerful staff called the Tri Rod.

Got it. So, what’s the gameplay like?

Sword fighting isn’t the main way to takedown baddies in this game (although there is a swordfighter form that we’ll talk more about later in this article). However, that’s not to say Zelda is defenseless—she can cause all kinds of crazy havoc in very creative ways.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is about the creativity that comes from your choices and options, and a large part of that has to do with echoes.

Zelda can use the Tri Rod to make imitations (or “echoes”) of certain objects and enemies found in Hyrule. For example, you can do something as simple as making an echo of a rock and then throw that rock at an enemy. Or you can make echoes of flying monsters and have them swarm an enemy. Or distract an enemy with a piece of meat, create a hole behind them, and then push one in. Or light the surrounding grass on fire to take out an entire group of enemies. If you think something may work, just try it out!

This idea also extends to puzzles in the game. There are multiple ways to solve puzzles using your echoes—even completely impractical ways!

So…what’s the best echo combination? C’mon, you can tell me.

Yeah, you prooobably shouldn’t approach this game like that. It’s more about building up your assortment of echoes, learning how you can use them, and experimenting to find tactics or solutions that are fun or silly to you. (Writer’s note: With that said, I personally liked causing chaos with Caromadillo early on in the game…)

You’ll get a lot of practice using echoes since you’ll be exploring Hyrule, helping the locals out, entering rifts to access dungeons, and growing your assortment of echoes that can be used in the next area or dungeon. The order you find echoes and tackle obstacles may differ from someone else who plays the game.

Fiiine. So, what else can Zelda do?

Two powers you’ll be using a lot are Bind and Reverse Bond. Bind lets you latch onto many different objects or enemies and reposition them (very handy for, say, pushing enemies off cliffs). Reverse Bond is similar, but in this case Zelda follows an object’s movements. Which means if a platform is moving above you, use Reverse Bond to latch onto it and move in the same direction.

For players who like to cut grass, there’s a spin move which can be used for impromptu lawn care (and possible Rupee finding!).

And, of course, there’s the powerful swordfighter form that we already mentioned, where Zelda can use a flashy sword to directly attack enemies for a limited time. This form is tied to a special meter that can be replenished.

What can you do in Hyrule?

As you’d expect, there’s a lot of places to visit and characters to talk to. As you’re investigating the larger problem of rifts, you’ll travel to different towns and villages, chatting up the locals, and going on side quests to help them out. You can discover different outfits with different attributes, help Dampé build automatons, find ingredients to make smoothies, find ways to power up, and more!

Oh, and as you uncover more and more rifts, you’ll be dropped into dungeons themed to match the locale you’re in. You’ll need to explore different rooms, defeat enemies, solve puzzles, find keys, unlock doors, and take on bosses!

Hold on, there are dungeons in this game?!

Yep.

So, who’s the bad guy? It’s Ganon, right?

You can find out on Sept. 26 when the game comes out! If you’re interested in pre-ordering, please use the link* below.