You think you’re done. You’ve toppled Calamity Ganon, watched the credits roll, and maybe even found that weirdly hidden Nintendo Switch shirt in the expansion pass. But then you look at that tiny percentage counter in the bottom left corner of your Sheikah Slate.
24.18%.
That number hurts. It’s a physical blow to the ego for anyone who considers themselves a completionist. Most people assume that finishing the story means they’ve seen the world. Honestly? You haven't even scratched the surface of what a completed Zelda Breath of the Wild map actually looks like. It is a grueling, obsessive, and strangely beautiful journey that forces you to notice the shape of every single hill in Hyrule.
Why 100% completion is a lie (mostly)
Here is the thing most players don't realize: the map completion percentage isn't about quests. It's not about the Compendium. It's strictly about map markers.
Basically, the game tracks four specific things for that 100% tally: Divine Beasts, Korok Seeds, Shrines, and Locations. That’s it. Since there are 900 Korok Seeds and they each account for about 0.08% of the total, the "little forest spirits" make up roughly 72% of your total map completion. You could save the entire kingdom and still be sitting at a failing grade because you didn't find a circle of rocks in a random corner of the Hebra Mountains.
It’s an odd design choice by Eiji Aonuma and the team at Nintendo. They chose to reward geographical curiosity over narrative progression. If you want that gold medal from Kilton or the pride of a truly completed Zelda Breath of the Wild map, you’re going to spend more time looking at grass than fighting Guardians.
The Korok problem and the 900-seed wall
Let's talk about the Koroks. 900. It’s an absurd number. Most players find maybe 100 or 200 during a normal playthrough. But to fill out the map, you have to find every single one.
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I’ve spent hours—actual, real-life hours—gliding off the top of Hyrule Castle just to see if I missed a pinwheel on a spire. It changes how you see the landscape. You stop looking at the scenery as art and start looking at it as a puzzle. "Is that a suspicious cluster of trees?" "Why is there a random rock on top of this gateway?"
You’ll need the Korok Mask from the Master Trials DLC. Without it, you’re basically playing a game of "Where's Waldo" across a map that’s roughly 360 square kilometers. The mask shakes when you're near a seed. It’s a godsend, but even then, the verticality of Hyrule makes it tricky. Is the seed at the base of the cliff? Is it hidden in a cave halfway up? Or is it under a rock at the very peak?
Those missing locations you can't find
This is the part that actually breaks people. You can have all 120 Shrines. You can have all 900 Koroks. You can have the four Divine Beasts. And yet, your completed Zelda Breath of the Wild map might still read 99.91%.
Why? Because of named locations.
Hyrule is littered with bridges, ruins, and groves that only "count" once you walk onto them and their name pops up on the screen. Some of these are incredibly easy to miss. Take the Shadow Hamlet Ruins on the eastern slopes of Death Mountain. There’s almost no reason to go there. No quest sends you there. No Shrine sits inside it. But if you don't step foot on that specific patch of charred earth, you aren't hitting 100%.
The bridges are the worst offenders. Hyrule has dozens of them. Small, crumbling stone arches over tiny streams in the Lanayru Wetlands or the bridges leading into the Gerudo Desert. If you’ve been using Revali’s Gale to fly over everything, you’ve probably missed ten of them. To truly complete the map, you have to stop flying. You have to walk.
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The most commonly missed spots:
- Water Reservoir: Near Hyrule Castle. It’s a boring spot, easy to skip.
- Helmhead Bridge: A tiny bridge in the Necluda region.
- Gleeok Bridge: Just west of the castle.
- Stolock Bridge: The massive chain bridge in Goron City (surprisingly easy to glide over without triggering the name).
- Sandswept Ruins: In the Gerudo Wasteland.
The 120 Shrines are just the beginning
Most people think the Shrines are the meat of the game. In terms of gameplay, they are. But on a completed Zelda Breath of the Wild map, they’re just 120 icons.
Finding them all is a rite of passage. Some are hidden behind destructible walls that don't show up on the Shrine Sensor. Others, like the ones tied to Kass’s accordion songs, require specific environmental triggers. The "Blood Moon" shrine (Mijah Rokee) is famously annoying because you have to be standing on a pedestal, naked, during a specific in-game weather event.
But once the shrines are done, the map feels... empty? No, that’s not right. It feels solved. You can teleport almost anywhere, but completionism demands you fill in the gaps between the blue icons.
Tools of the trade: How people actually finish this
Nobody—and I mean nobody—completes the BotW map 100% without help. It’s just too big.
Most experts use the Hero’s Path Mode from the DLC. It tracks your last 200 hours of movement. If you see a giant green scribble over 90% of the map but a weird, empty brown spot in the middle of the Faron Woods, guess where you’re going? It’s the only way to visualize your "geographical debt."
Then there are the interactive maps. Sites like Zelda Dungeon or the Breath of the Wild companion apps are essential. You have to manually check off Koroks as you find them. If you don't, and you end up with 899 seeds, you will want to throw your Switch into the nearest active volcano. Finding that one missing seed out of 900 without a checklist is a special kind of purgatory.
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The psychological toll of the "Hestu's Gift"
What do you get for all this work? For every seed, every bridge, every shrine?
You get a piece of golden poop.
Hestu’s Gift is the ultimate "troll" reward from Nintendo. It does absolutely nothing. It’s a literal trophy of waste. And yet, for the community, it’s a badge of honor. It signifies that you have mastered the systems of the game. You’ve seen every asset the developers placed. You know the world of Hyrule better than you know your own neighborhood.
A completed Zelda Breath of the Wild map isn't about the reward. It’s about the meditation of the hunt. It’s about that 3:00 AM moment when you finally find the "Gerudo Desert Gateway" and that percentage finally ticks over to 100.00%.
Actionable steps for your completionist run
If you're serious about finishing this, don't just wander aimlessly. You'll burn out in a week.
- Divide by Tower Region: Don't look at the whole map. Finish the Great Plateau. Then finish Dueling Peaks. If you try to do the whole thing at once, the 900 seeds will feel impossible.
- Use the Korok Mask early: Don't wait until you've finished the game. Wear it constantly. If it shakes while you're traveling between quests, stop and find the seed. Future you will thank you.
- Cross-reference your Shrines: If you have 119 shrines and can't find the last one, check your map against a completed one and look for "orange" centers. Sometimes you find a shrine but forget to finish the puzzle inside.
- Walk the roads: To get those pesky location names, stop teleporting. Take a horse from one stable to the next. Use the actual roads. Most named locations are clustered along the paths or at the intersections of major bridges.
- Check the DLC locations: If you have the expansion pass, remember that those extra shrines don't technically count toward the base 100% for the map counter, but they do add to the icons on your screen. Keep them separate in your head.
Completing the map is a test of patience. It’s not about combat skill or fast reflexes. It’s a love letter to the world-building that Nintendo did. When you finally see that 100%, you realize that Hyrule isn't just a backdrop for a story—it's the main character.
Go get your golden poop. You've earned it.