Nintendo detailed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s stealth mechanics on their E3 Treehouse live stream today. With the new noise gauge, Link can choose to be a quiet pacifist, a sneaky thief, or a silent predator.
The noise gauge, placed at the bottom-right corner of the game’s HUD, measures the amount of noise you make through sound wave indicators. By crouching and walking slowly, Link can get the jump on his enemies or effectively hunt animals. He can also stay back, cautiously approach, and wipe out foes from a distance.
The day-night cycle, which can be viewed on the map’s bottom portion, can also affect how you decide to handle a situation. At night, enemies may fall asleep and leave not only themselves, but also their food and weapons, vulnerable for the taking. From what was shown during the presentation, time appears to be paced at a minute per second, meaning a full day cycle would last 24 minutes.
In addition to what consists of the HUD, a temperature meter sits above the noise gauge. It indicates how Link should adapt to the environment. As shown in the demo, Link will visibly shiver and lose health if scantily clad in cold weather or snowy areas. Dressing accordingly or eating warm food will help alleviate some of the harsh conditions that he’ll encounter.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was announced earlier today with a gameplay trailer. The game is planned to release in 2017 for Wii U and NX.