Breath of the Wild is a near-perfect game, but super fans might be looking to change up the experience after four years on the market. The best Breath of the Wild mods for PC help you do that, changing up everything from character and weapon models to the core mechanics of Breath of the Wild.
You’ll need a copy of Breath of the Wild to run through an emulator to get these mods to work — they won’t work on the Wii U or Switch. Like most modding endeavors, you also need a decent knowledge of installing and configuring mods to get Breath of the Wild running properly. On PC, you need the Cemu emulator and a dump of your Breath of the Wild game file.
You can then run the game file through the emulator, which is already half of the battle. From there, loading mods is simple. Our first recommendation handles all of the background work so you can easily use mods in the game.
Further reading
- Eight games like Breath of the Wild you need to play
- The best recipes in Breath of the Wild
- What to do when you feel lost in Breath of the Wild
BCML Cross-Platform Mod Loader
The BCML Cross-Platform Mod Loader is the medicine before the candy for Breath of the Wild. The game was designed to run on the Switch and Wii U without any changes, so loading up more than a mod or two will surely bring buggy performance and crashes. BCML is a mod loader that helps you organize and load your mods. In addition to making sure everything works together, the tool makes it easy to quickly experiment with different mods without uninstalling and reinstalling them.
If you want to mod Breath of the Wild, BCML will make your life a whole lot easier.
Linkle + Alternative Hair
Linkle is a mod that changes Link into Linkle from Hyrule Warriors. In addition to changing up the character model, this popular Breath of the Wild Mod includes alternate armor designs to give you a little bit of character customization, especially after you’ve collected the best armor in the game. The modder also has tools to fix armor icons, dialogue, the title screen, and more.
We’re recommending Linkle alongside the Alternative Hair and Eye Colors mod, too. This mod only works with Linkle, but it gives you access to a wider range of hair and eye colors. With the two, you can build your own character creator inside Breath of the Wild.
No Shield Damage from Surfing
Shield surfing is some of the most fun you can have in Breath of the Wild. But, unfortunately, churning through shields as they take damage to keep your surfing habit up is a chore. That’s where the No Shield Damage from Surfing mod comes in, which tells you everything you need to know in the name. Unfortunately, it isn’t compatible with other shield mods.
Hyrule Rebalance
Hyrule Rebalance is currently in its seventh version, and it overhauls nearly every aspect of Breath of the Wild. Loot is rebalanced to enemy difficulty, loot price is rebalanced to rarity, bugs are bigger and easier to catch, and bow range scales with bow power. And those are just a few of the changes that Hyrule Rebalance brings.
Although Breath of the Wild is balanced out of the box, Hyrule Rebalance still brings some quality-of-life improvements. It’s a great mod to experiment with if you’ve already played Breath of the Wild and are looking for a slightly altered experience.
End Game
End Game, despite what the name suggests, doesn’t add any endgame content to Breath of the Wild. Instead, it rebalances the final boss battle with Ganon to provide a more challenging and entertaining fight. First, it forces you to fight the four Blights at Hyrule Castle, regardless of if you’ve beaten the Divine Beasts or not. The mod also makes Ganon and the Blights faster and their stun times lower, making the fight more difficult.
If this is your second (or seventh) time through Breath of the Wild, End Game provides enough of a challenge to keep you hooked.
Second Wind
Calling Second Wind a mod doesn’t do it enough justice. It expands Breath of the Wild in the way official DLC would, adding new quests, weapons, bosses, and more. It borrows a lot from other mods, including Survival of the Wild, End Game, and Hyrule Rebalance (all included on this list). It also adds new music, a new town, and a slew of extra goodies.
The mod is based around the Ancient Trial quest, which also includes 15 side quests. The developer is currently working on the Ancient Island, which is another large expansion that offers an overarching quest. After you’ve tracked down all the captured memory locations, Second Wind gives you plenty to chew on.
Xbox One/PS4 UI
If you’re playing with an Xbox One or PS4 controller, you can update the interface to reflect your controller and the buttons on it. The Xbox One UI mode gives you Xbox button prompts, and the PS4 UI gives you DualShock 4 prompts. Although not as exciting as Second Wind or End Game, updating the UI can get around a lot of confusion with the Switch button prompts.
Survival of the Wild
Survival of the Wild focuses on the survival mechanics in Breath of the Wild. It expands the weather system to be more unforgiving, adds a hunger system, and changes up the UI for a minimalist look. If you’re looking for a more demanding, challenging Breath of the Wild experience, Survival of the Wild is for you. It changes a lot in the game to force you to think about survival over exploration, which is a great change of pace on a second playthrough.
Classic Weapons Pack
The Classic Weapons Pack mod adds some iconic swords and shields from The Legend of Zelda franchise into Breath of the Wild. It replaces the models of some of the weapons in the game with options like the Mirror Shield from Ocarina of Time, the Ikana Mirror Shield from Majora’s Mask, and the Knight Shield from Hyrule Warriors.
Although it doesn’t change the Breath of the Wild experience, the Classic Weapons Pack mod still adds a nice dash of visual flair. Plus, they look great in your inventory alongside the best weapons in Breath of the Wild.
HD Menu and Map
Emulating Breath of the Wild allows you to push the resolution beyond the Switch’s 1080p output, but some elements don’t carry over to the higher resolution. Take the map and menu icons, for example. The HD Menu and Map mod gets around the problem by replacing the icons with higher-resolution versions. In addition to item icons, the mod enhances map icons by over three times the base resolution to give the game a sharper look overall.
Revo Reshade Redux
Breath of the Wild is a beautiful game, but you can make it look even better with the Revo Reshade Redux mod. The mod removes the yellow haze in Breath of the Wild and balances the colors, lending to a more natural look. It boosts the contrast a lot, too, which gives the world more depth at higher resolutions.
The mod was designed with the RTGI ray tracing shader for Breath of the Wild in mind. This mod enhances reflections to offer a ray tracing effect, though you can only access it by subscribing to the developer’s Patreon.
Henriko’s Faithful Music Mod
There are a ton of music mods for Breath of the Wild, so we’d recommend looking around for a music pack you like. If you want the Breath of the Wild vibe without the tracks in the game, Henriko’s Faithful Music Mod is for you. Instead of original music or tracks from other Zelda games, the mod borrows tracks from a range of titles to capture the essence of Breath of the Wild.
You can watch the video above to see if the mod is for you. It retains the spirit of the original music but gives you something else to listen to while playing.
