Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: How to Unlock the Battle-Tested Guardian

The first wave of DLC for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is finally here, and the Battle-Tested Guardian joins the game’s roster as a secret unlockable character. While it’s included with the Pulse of the Ancients DLC from the Expansion Pass, the Battle-Tested Guardian still requires a fair bit of grinding to unlock. The DLC adds an array of challenges you can complete in the EX Royal Ancient Lab, and the new character is one of the final rewards. This is also how you get the new weapons from the DLC as well though, so most players will end up grinding through them anyway. Here’s how to get the Battle-Tested Guardian in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

How to Get the Battle-Tested Guardian in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

To unlock the Battle-Tested Guardian, you have to complete most of the challenges for Purah and Robbie in the Ancient Lab. You’ll only have access to a handful of them when you first start the DLC, and you’ll have to do some grinding to unlock additional challenges unless you already have some materials saved up.

The quest that unlocks the new character is basically the last one in the entire lab, so you will have to play through most of the DLC content before you get it. Eventually, you’ll reach two quests on the far right side of the challenges page. These are prerequisites to the Battle-Tested Guardian Trial fight. Once you unlock the fight, all you have to do is beat the Guardian to unlock it. The fight itself is quite difficult, and the quests leading up to it are fairly grindy, so be warned. Most players are reporting that it takes roughly 7-10 hours to get through all of Purah and Robbie’s challenges and unlock the new character.

While it’s unfortunate that you cannot play through the DLC’s new challenges as the new Guardian character, there are still a few surprises to unlock along the way. Both Link’s Flail and Zelda’s Master Cycle are unlocked via these challenges, so you’ll at least have two new weapons to play around with while you’re working through them. There’s also another wave of DLC coming to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity later this year, adding new characters, new story segments, and more.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is available now on Nintendo Switch.