| Modes | Legend, Free, Adventure, Challenge (including Ganon’s Fury and Cucco’s Fury),  My Fairy, Gallery |
|---|---|
| Opens everything else | Clearing The Armies of Ruin |
| Difficulty levels | Easy, Normal, Hard, Hero Mode |
| Hero Mode | Unlocked after all 32 Legend Mode scenarios |
| Co-op | Two players, split screen, every mode |
| Difficulty applies to | Legend Mode and Free Mode scenarios, not Adventure Mode battles |
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition starts with only Legend Mode available. Clearing its first scenario, The Armies of Ruin, opens Free Mode, Adventure Mode, Challenge Mode and the Gallery. Scenarios have four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard and Hero Mode, and Hero Mode unlocks once you have cleared all 32 scenarios. Every mode can be played with a second player on one screen.
Table of Contents
Game modes
Legend Mode
Legend Mode is the story, played as a series of scenarios on the scenario map. There are 32 in total: the 18 scenarios of the main story, the 5 of Cia’s Tale, the 5 of Linkle’s Tale and the 4 of the Wind Waker arc. The story scenarios start with The Armies of Ruin, and the full order is on the Walkthrough. Clearing a scenario earns its warriors, weapons and items, and opens the next ones.
| Arc | Scenarios | How it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Main story | 18 | Starts at the beginning of the game |
| Cia’s Tale | 5: The Dragon of the Caves, The Invasion Begins, The Usurper King, The Demon Lord, Darkness Falls | Appears on the scenario map as you progress through the story |
| Linkle’s Tale | 5: The Girl in the Green Tunic, Powers Collide, The Demon Lord’s Plan, Her True Self, The Other Hero | Opens after The Sorceress of the Woods |
| Wind Waker arc | 4: A New Disturbance, The Search for Cia, Reclaiming the Darkness, Watchers of the Triforce | Opens once the main story, Cia’s Tale and Linkle’s Tale are all finished, starting with A New Disturbance |
Free Mode
Free Mode replays any Legend Mode scenario you have already cleared, but you choose the warriors and their weapons yourself. That makes it the easy way to collect each scenario’s Heart Container, Piece of Heart and Gold Skulltulas, which are often tied to particular warriors. Only scenarios you have already cleared in Legend Mode can be replayed, so keep progressing the story there. See Heart Containers and Pieces and Gold Skulltula Locations for what to collect.
Adventure Mode
Adventure Mode plays on grid maps where each square is a battle, and it is where you unlock most of the extra warriors, many weapons, Item Cards, costumes, fairies and food. It opens as soon as you finish the first scenario. Definitive Edition adds an Item Card Shop and removes the online Network and StreetPass links of the 3DS version. The maps, square objectives and rewards are all covered on Adventure Mode.
Challenge Mode
Challenge Mode holds timed score battles that are separate from the story, and it opens along with Free Mode. Battle Challenge offers “Running Battle in Faron Woods”, “Rush Battle!” and “Defeat 800 enemies!”. Boss Challenge adds three kinds of battle: defeat a set number of enemies, Brave Battle against waves until time runs out, and Survival Battle with limited healing. Winning certain battles with an A rank awards costumes.
Ganon’s Fury
Ganon’s Fury is a section of Challenge Mode in which you play as the giant beast Ganon, the only place he is playable. You fight hordes of enemies and giant bosses, and the battle types are Defeat enemies, Giant Battle and Survival Battle. The Great Fairy appears here as a giant boss that can heal the others, and A ranks on certain battles award costumes. Ganon can use combos, Special Attacks and Focus Spirit, and he levels up like a warrior.
Cucco’s Fury
Cucco’s Fury is a second Challenge Mode section that works like Ganon’s Fury, but you play as a giant Cucco. It opens when you clear Survival Battle Lv. 4 in Ganon’s Fury with an A rank. It has the same three battle types and the same Special Attack and Focus Spirit abilities, and it also gives costumes as rewards.
My Fairy and the Gallery
My Fairy is the mode where you feed, dress and train the fairies you find in jars on Adventure Mode maps; see My Fairy. The Gallery opens with the first scenario, together with Free Mode, Adventure Mode and Challenge Mode.
Difficulty levels
Easy, Normal and Hard
Easy, Normal and Hard are available as soon as the scenario select screen appears. Raising the difficulty makes enemies hit harder and take more damage to defeat, and it increases the Rupees you earn when a scenario ends. Every scenario hides two Gold Skulltulas: the first can appear on any difficulty and needs only a condition of the battle, while the second appears only on Hard or Hero Mode and needs a particular warrior or weapon. A scenario is cleared on any difficulty, so you can clear the story on Easy or Normal and come back for the Hard Skulltulas.
Hero Mode
Hero Mode is the hardest setting. It is unlocked after you clear all 32 Legend Mode scenarios, not only the main story, so finish Cia’s Tale, Linkle’s Tale and the Wind Waker arc as well; Darkness Falls is one of the five Cia’s Tale scenarios that counts toward the 32. Enemies deal more damage and have more health than on Hard, but Rupee rewards are higher. Gold Skulltulas that need Hard or Hero can be collected on Hero Mode too.
Difficulty is chosen per scenario on the scenario select screen and applies to Legend Mode and Free Mode only. Adventure Mode battles have no difficulty setting. Because the second Gold Skulltula in each scenario appears only on Hard or Hero Mode, many players clear the story on a lower setting and then use Free Mode on Hard.
Co-op
Two-player co-op
Every mode can be played by two players. One player uses the top half of the screen and the other the bottom half. Connect two controllers, then the first player presses the Left Stick on the Select Warrior screen to start co-op. Joy-Con controllers can be shared, one per player.
Each player controls one warrior and can switch to another with the D-Pad up or down, up to the number of warriors the scenario lets you take. Co-op is a good way to share a long Free Mode run or to take on Hero Mode with a stronger partner.
