A clip shared by a Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild player is blowing other players' minds, revealing that a certain tree type can be cut down that many believed couldn't be. The Legend of Zelda is a franchise rife with complexity and secrets. There are subtle features and hidden prizes that even dedicated Zelda fans may not know about going back to the original Legend of Zelda for the NES. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is no different.
Nintendo took a massive risk with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Nintendo Switch game would be the biggest step forward for the franchise since the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time moved the series from 2D to 3D in 1998. The sandbox open world of Breath of the Wild offered all kinds of new opportunities for interactive gameplay elements, secret rewards, and surprising gameplay interactions.
One thing that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild players appear to have missed is that a certain type of tree can, in fact, be cut down. Breath of the Wild players may recall a strange-looking tree, which some may have assumed was a tall mushroom or rock formation. In a clip shared on Reddit, a Breath of the Wild player showed that it's entirely possible to chop one of these down with an axe. They're just normal trees that turn into wood, like other trees.
The trees in question can be found in the Seres Scablands area of Breath of the Wild. They don't have branches, per se, and the texture of their trunks is quite stone-like. It's no surprise some players weren't confident they were trees. There are also massive versions of them that tower into the sky. Some Zelda fans believe they're inspired by a real-life tree named the Dragon Blood tree.
Part of the problem with these strange trees in Breath of the Wild is that the Nintendo Switch's graphical fidelity isn't doing the game any favors. It's entirely possible Nintendo intended for the Zelda trees to look like Dragon Blood trees. But instead, their textures are quite muddy, and the tree's shape is flat and smooth.
While the strangely-shaped trees may look odd, they also serve an important gameplay purpose. Their flat tops allow The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild players to use them as platforms. Perhaps players unconsciously avoided cutting down these trees because they wanted to eventually climb to their tops and leap between their boughs. Now Breath of the Wild players know that the trees can be used as a quick source of wood.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available now on Switch and Wii U.