Breath of the Wild got some mods over the years, but few with the scope and ambition of Second Wind, a story-based expansion that adds new characters, side missions and bosses.
“Second Wind is a large-scale expansion to Breath of the Wild which aims to add new content to the game in a similar way to the official DLCs ”, write the creators of the project on their Discord server. “We also decided to take it a step further by providing several revisions, bug fixes, tweaks and new gameplay elements for players to explore.” It is currently built for the Wii U version of the game, but a Switch version is a possibility in the future (mods are only available via emulation and on hacked consoles).
Here is a video showing the latest development progress:
In addition to adding dozens of new animals, weapons and enemies, Second Wind also includes changes ranging from adjusting the atmosphere in each of the game’s 120 sanctuaries to make them more unique, to more detailed bow quivers to make them “more aesthetically pleasing. ” According to a project wikiSecond Wind also incorporates many elements from other existing mods, rebalancing things like crafts, horseback riding and the final fight against Ganon. It even includes masks transferred to the game of Ocarina of Time and Majora mask, which give Link new skills.
With over 50 people contributing to the project, the mod page for Second Wind it says it is 60% complete, but players are already testing the beta through the group’s Discord. There is even a roadmap with provisional plans for when the remaining resources will be completed. A new underground crypt mini-dungeon, for example, is due for completion in June. Maybe by then we’ll have news when Nintendo plans to launch Breath of the Wild 2, but in the meantime it’s nice to see enthusiastic fans moving forward with their own unofficial expansions.