Zelda BotW How to Surf or Snowboard on the Shield
Shield-surfing or shield snowboarding is one of the many little side activities in Breath of the Wild. It might sound silly, but it’s a very useful mechanic. You can use it to slide down tall mountains, do the spin attack and even shoot arrows while surfing. In this guide, we’ll show you how to shield-surf in Zelda Breath of the Wild and what you can use it for.
How to Surf on the Shield in Zelda BOTW
To be honest, shield-surfing is one of the most fun things that you can do in Breath of the Wild. It allows you to easily and quickly scoot down very tall mountains, you can perform tricks and do spin attacks. You can even let your inner Legolas out and shoot arrows while surfing on your shield.
Let’s explain how to surf on the shield. To execute the shield surf, stand on any slope that you want to go down. Then, hold ZL so that Link performs the shield block. Then just press A (or jump and press A) and you’ll be on your way down.
As we’ve said above, during your surf on your shield, you can do a 1080 spin by pressing Y (works as a Spin Attack) and you can apparently perform tricks by hitting X and tilting the left stick at the same time.
However, there’s one problem with the shield-surfing, and if you’ve played even for a short while, you can already guess what it is. Surfing on the shield, any shield, damages it significantly. Try and avoid going down rocky terrain and stick to snow and/or grass. However, even that won’t save your shield for long. Be especially careful not to let the shield brake while you’re mid-surf, since that will propel you forwards and deal damage or even send you careening down the mountain to your death. Don’t use any good shields to surf, particularly not the Hylian Shield. It’s better to have one or two throwaways for that.
You can get another shield from Grante in Terry Town, and its not the cheapest, but if your at the point where your able to manage sub-bosses with fairly consistent positive outcomes, and not in Master Mode. Save > Do the course> if you don’t get the goal time you wanted or failed while using it to complete a quest, load your manual save and go again.
Whenever I need to refund my in game wallet, I just do a run on the rear part of the Eldin region, basically the stretch where you can farm Dinraal. Start around the Goron brothers Side quest or Gorae Torr Shrine to the West Deplian Badlands. there is that entire stretch that you can farm quick Ore deposits, a dragon part or two, and you don’t have to worry about the heat. Just stay between the Canyon and where the Temp reaches the point your getting cooked. I think I average enough rough mined gems and Luminous Stone in a 15 min period to hit the max on arrows and shields.
But full disclosure I have the Amiibo NFC cards, and I get 2-3 Royal Guard Shields with Max Durability when I scan them each day. So thats a big help with having multiple shield backups when dealing with higher level bosses.
One thing I have been wondering, not that it would change much for me, but if Daruk’s Protection Impacts any durability stats when Surfing? more of a curious inquiry, not one that would alter how I play.
Another tip to keep the higher quality gear access more available is leaving the Teleportation Medallion at a location in Hyrule Castle where gear respawns, then as long as your outside the Castle grounds you can hop in, grab some gear, maybe take out a Lynel and head back. I have done this at prime locations for all 3 dragons too, it comes in handy. Originally it was just the method for getting all the dragon parts needed to upgrade my Fierce Deity Armor at the Great Fairy. My luck with Star Fragments stat has been crap so in game karma may be a variable I’m starting to feel. Oh well, good luck and good gaming everyone.
I have been trying to shield surf during the Rito divine beast of the Champion’s Ballad. I do NOT find it the least bit fun. I think I have failed at least 30 times and have gone through several shields. I HATE shield surfing. It is way too frustrating. How do you control the stupid thing, anyway? It’s the last one I have to do before returning to the shrine of resurrection. Maybe I should have started with it,
because I can bet I would have stopped right here. 🙁
I just used my hylian shield to surf. Couldn’t you write it sooner that the shield gets damaged?
To be honest, it is worth it.
Try duplicating your shield.