When an amnesiac Link in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild wakes up to a devastated Hyrule, he’s tasked with protecting it once more from the threat of Ganon. However, if players feel a bit pressured taking on a cataclysmic threat such as Ganondorf even in the sequel Tears of the Kingdom, they may want to enjoy some of post-apocalyptic Hyrule’s many enjoyable activities in Breath of the Wild.
For instance, players may put their bowling skills to the test by participating in Pondo’s bowling mini-game. Here, Link has to gather a snowball and aim it towards a set of pillars arranged as pins, where fulfilling a strike promises quite a ton of Rupees. However, just how can players capitalize on this mini-game to become the richest throughout the land?
The Basics: What Is Bowling In Breath Of The Wild?
Players who want to make their Breath of the Wild gameplay much easier may want to ensure they have a steady supply of Rupees for the game’s many challenges, with minigames being one of the many sources of prizes in the form of coins. Chief among these is the Bowling Minigame, which essentially has players create snowballs that travel downhill pillars arranged like bowling pins.
Unlike other minigames, it’s the simple yet high-earning nature of Bowling that makes it quite a reliable source of Rupees in the game. The game itself costs 20 Rupees per trial. Losing the game nets 100 Rupees, while a strike will give Link 300 Rupees.
Where Is The Bowling Minigame?
To find the Bowling Minigame, players simply need to talk to Pondo, an adventurer who seems to like patting snowballs beside Pondo’s Lodge just beside Hebra Tower, located just within the snowy mountainous Hebra to the northwest. Players can do this regardless if they’re pursuing the main quest or doing something mundane like looking at Breath of the Wild dogs.
The Lodge and the Tower are located near the central point of the ridge that separates Central Hyrule from Hebra. Thankfully, Hebra Tower can be an available location that players can tag in the game, making travel much easier. When players talk to Pondo, he’ll invite them to play the Bowling Minigame, teaching Link how to create a giant snowball to hit pins arranged downhill.
Preparation: Anticipating Cold
Similar to other Zelda minigames in Breath of the Wild, the Bowling Minigame doesn’t take place in a separate instance from the game world. Rather, Link will still experience external events while throwing snowballs to pins, so it’s important that players anticipate situations that may happen around them. Here are some things to prepare in anticipation:
- Prioritize Cold Resistance: The Hebra mountains are extremely cold, meaning Link is ordinarily going to experience damage once exposed to enough chills. Having at least two pieces of gear with Cold Resistance should protect him in these scenarios.
- Get A Fire Element Weapon: Aside from getting Cold Resistance gear, an alternative option for players is to equip a weapon with the Fire Element. This should have the same effect of protecting players from harsh colds.
- Sheikah Slate Sensor is On: While the Sheikah Slate is usually relegated for finding treasures and shrines, its visual design may help players strike more accurately.
- Pro HUD is Off: While the Pro HUD option allows players to view more in-game information, turning it off adds a cinematic view to Link’s experience. This also gives players as much environmental information as possible, which can help position Link for more accurate strikes.
Straightforward Lining
One of the best first ways of attempting this minigame inclusion in Breath of the Wild gameplay would be throwing the snowball while directly facing the pins, with no “tricks” involved. This is possible to accomplish but may take a lot of tries that may make this as difficult as fulfilling a rare Breath of the WiId encounter, however there are ways of cheesing this setup provided Link knows where to face the pins. Here are some tips:
- Stand directly on the edge of the cliffside: Since part of this tip involves looking at the pins, Link can secure the perfect vantage point on the cliffside. This location is preferably to the immediate left of the moose statue.
- Pins between legs: To secure the right angle, players should ensure Link is not just facing the pins but have the last one or two pins on the right viewed from his legs. Players can tinker with the camera to secure this angle. This will appear as though players are aiming for those pins on the right-most edge.
- Throw the ball: Theoretically, the physics of the game and Link’s direction should have the snowball just angled slightly to the left, making it hit the central pins instead.
Manual Pondo Lining
While some of the tips to hitting the pins more accurately involves locking onto Pondo, one of the best first steps to securing the wins in this Breath of the Wild gameplay mode would be manually lining up strikes using the NPC. That way, the tips that involve locking onto him become easier to try. At its core, manually lining up the snowball using Pondo includes:
- Stay behind him: Like the other lock-on tips, this process involves standing behind Pondo with the snowball up in the air.
- Legs between legs: To ensure that players are lined up with Pondo perfectly, his legs should be in between Link’s legs when looking downward.
- Throw for gold: Throwing the ball this close to Pondo will still be able to propel the snowball over his head and onto the general direction of the pins.
Lock On Target
Sometimes, the secret to making a perfect strike in Pondo’s minigame in Breath of the Wild gameplay is to use Pondo as a reference point. At its core, one of the easiest strategies to try with making a perfect strike in the game is to lock-on Pondo and strategize from there. Here’s how Reddit user u/LordCook did this:
- Lock onto Pondo: Instead of having to make complicated line-ups, players should base their throwing on Pondo’s position. After locking onto him, moving Link accurately should be easy since Pondo becomes the key point of reference.
- Stay behind him: When locking onto Pondo, positioning still matters when throwing the snowball. Players should face the same direction as him, but standing behind him around a foot or two away.
- Toss the ball over his head: After securing this position, players should just toss the snowball over Pondo and it should roll down to the pins.
Pondo Becomes First Strike
A more hilarious alternative for players to secure perfect strikes in snowball bowling would still involve Pondo, but this time hitting him becomes a key strategy in securing the strikeout. To do this, players should generally follow the above strategy but with certain modifications. Here’s how Reddit user r/RobertSwifts executed this strategy:
- Lock onto Pondo: Again, the ideal tip to follow is to lock onto Pondo so he becomes the reference point for moving a round.
- Stand a person’s length away from him: Instead of staying close, Link should stand around a person’s length behind Pondo but still facing the same direction.
- Hit Pondo with the snowball: When Link throws the snowball, it attempts to go over Pondo but falls short. This not only hits him, but the environment mechanics will push Link sightly backward and the snowball falls to the ground.
- Let physics do the work: When the snowball hits Pondo and falls onto the ground, it continues moving due to the game’s physics. Following the downhill curve of the hill, the snowball will barely miss the moose statue and will rush downwards to the pins.
Cheesing The Hits With Lining
Since it’s up to Link of Breath of the Wild to position himself and the snowball for a perfect strike, it’s quite tricky getting an accurate shot given how there’s no great way of looking at the pins while carrying the snowball. It may help to climb a horse from a Breath of the Wild stable to get a better view of the vantage point with the raised height. Thankfully, Reddit user u/KumaKumaa has quite the ingenious way of securing strikes from pins which involves using the limited UI to the player’s advantage:
- Secure the bending: Players should position Link on top of the hill and to step on one of the larger rocks just beside the end of the cliff. Link’s right foot must be stepping on the upper-left corner of the rock, and the right leg must be slightly bent.
- See through the Sensor: After that, players should move the camera so that the Sheikah Slate icon beside the minimap is covering the right eye of the moose statue to Link’s southeast.
- Final movement: With this position fixed with the camera, players should move their left stick a bit forward until Link automatically shifts in position. When he does so, players should press the R-Button to throw the snowball.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom is the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that is slated for a May 12, 2023 release.