Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

:Not to be confused with , a similarly named game in .
 is a spin-off game of . It takes place in the world of , but in an alternate timeline during the second due to the time-traveling .
On February 17, 2021, downloadable content for the game was announced, called the . It was released in two waves, the first, , being released on June 18, 2021, and the second, , on October 29, 2021.
==Story==
===Chapter 1===
At about the same time 's powers awakened in the events of , a small emerges from a box in . As it sees the destruction caused by and hears Zelda’s desperation to protect everyone, it opens a to travel back before the . Before it jumps into the gate, a attacks it, but the small manages to make it into the gate unscathed. Unknown to it, a part of 's also made its way through the , following the small .
The small emerges in before the Second began, where is rallying a group of to drive off an incoming horde of . During "", , one of the , comes across the seemingly inert , but before he can inspect it arrives being pursued by . She stumbles and drops her , which causes the to awaken. It raises a from underground, fending off the in the process.
When the battle ends, the small rushes off until it finds . notices that the has reacted to the , and decides to head to the to study it. is appointed as 's bodyguard, and joins them on their journey. On their way to the lab, possesses a ruined and attacks 's party in the battle, "". Though initially outmatched, the reactivates some ruined in the area, breaking the armor of the corrupted and allowing and his allies to destroy it. After defeating the , they eventually reach the .
 and confirm that the small is a previously unknown form of able to amplify the effects of other ancient technology. They are also able to decode part of its memory, revealing to the devastation that will occur if is not stopped.
===Chapter 2===
As is cut off by monsters and 's sealing power has not yet awakened, sends and to meet with the four candidates selected to pilot the . With some reluctance, he allows the small to accompany them as well.
(The following four segments up until "" can occur in any order, as decided by the player.)
====Mipha====
, , and travel to , where they request for , the princess, to pilot the . is reluctant to allow to pilot the , as he believes it will not be safe for her to go without the . 's protest is cut short by a warning of a monster attack from . sends for and , when realizes that is missing. , , , and search for , eventually finding him trying to fight a on . The is driven off, allowing to escape.
 is upset by her brother's recklessness, but cannot help but be proud of his courage. They are interrupted again by the sight of a monster horde approaching , and in response is summoned for to pilot. She drives off the invading army, saving in the process. After the battle, acknowledges that the were not able to hold off the Calamity on their own and gives his permission for to pilot the .
====Daruk====
, , and travel to and ask the to pilot . agrees, but warns and her allies that the path to the is overrun by monsters. He persuades the party to accompany him and wipe out the monster infestation. After an intense series of battles, they reach , which uses to eliminate the monsters on .
Following their victory, confirms his willingness to pilot , offering a celebratory rock roast.
====Revali====
 and her party travel to , but are attacked by warriors under 's command, who believe them to be raiders sent to attack . and fight and prove to be equally matched, but intervenes in the fight before it can get out of hand.
's party learns that had recently been attacked by an army of monsters led by a small , and had thought it had returned to launch a second attack. While is grateful that neither nor were hurt, points out that the presence of another small linked to is worrisome in its own right. interrupts to volunteer his service piloting and questions 's competence as a knight. When the small also chimes in, apparently to insist that it is also a knight serving , can only grumble.
====Urbosa====
As the party arrives at , they are attacked by forces seemingly commanded by to kill them. is confused by their unexplainable aggression, but is sure that the chief can clear it up.
When they reach 's palace, she attacks, claiming that she wishes to "thwart their destiny". Before she can strike, however, the real appears and exposes the one they had seen as a disguised . flees after summoning the to surround the town, and 's allies fight them off. With assisting them, they summon a to distract the forces long enough to launch an assault on the . is defeated, but his lieutenant helps him escape. thanks and her allies for helping her deal with the , and agrees to pilot .
Meanwhile, and are reprimanded for their failure by the dark prophet . He calls upon the corrupted small seen earlier, which he calls the , to show them a vision of the future in which the goes unchecked, and warns that he will not allow the future to be changed.
====The Champions Assembled====
With her magic still dormant, dedicates herself to calibrating the for their pilots' use. However, she is increasingly disheartened by 's frustration with her lack of progress. On their way through , near the , they are ambushed by and the , who are supported by monsters. The fend off the attack and make their way to the enemy stronghold, only to find that it was a diversion. This leaves on his own to battle , and he ultimately prevents the Yiga second-in-command from assassinating . Defeated, then calls for the to retreat.
===Chapter 3===
 commands the ' pilots to find a knight able to wield the , which will first require them to fight off the monsters in . accompanies them to gather more data to calibrate the , and follows as well. After delivering a few more petty insults towards , summons to eliminate the monster outposts surrounding the .
The party enters the forest, where they meet . The musician agrees to escort them through the woods in exchange for protection against the monsters. After fighting their way past a , the party's progress is stymied by a pool of conjured by . They trace the source of the to four - dark replicas of the composed of . When they are destroyed, the dissipates.
 volunteers to hold off the monsters long enough for and to reach the 's resting place. They find waiting for them, and he summons the to attack. The ' combined assault overwhelms and breaks his sword, but before they can kill he draws the from its pedestal and is able to defeat the once more. takes matters into his own hands and battles himself, but the 's power forces him to withdraw.
The awakens to speak with , telling her that the has chosen to wield it and that she must have faith in herself. With his message delivered, he returns to his slumber.
Even with the 's message, still fears that she may not be able to awaken her power in time. The small soothes her by playing , and she recalls that she has met it once before. However, the realization is cut short by the appearance of monsters blocking the road to , which the party fights through.
 reflects on how much stronger has become, and correctly guesses that she finds herself to be lacking in comparison. The champion reassures the princess that is no different from who he was before he claimed the , and in that respect is just like herself.
The ceremony is held in which , , , , and are named . The small and get into a fight, distracting the princess from her worries for a time. Mipha reminds Daruk about their earlier discussion about training, which Daruk accepts. She looks at Link, who overhears her intentions to fight alongside him and she stammers in panic as he approached her, wanting to know more about her thoughts on him. The scuffle between Impa and Terrako gets Revali caught in the middle, upsetting him to the point where he leaves the vicinity in disgust.
===Chapter 4===
's research into the reveals the presence of other towers hidden underground, all linked to a control system within . The set out to bond the with the towers, which will activate the control device.
 continues to express his irritation with 's failure to manifest her powers and focus on the relics, but accepts a relic from that she and her mother believed to have unknown potential and gives her permission to continue studying the ancient technology.
Back at the , and realize that if the are activated the will be exposed. quiets their dissent, reminding them that they will have their parts to play. The corrupted is revealed to be possessed by itself, and declares that he will use it to seize power over all of . warns the prophet that cannot be controlled by mortals, but his words go unheard.
 activates the first tower with the , triggering the appearance of the other towers across . and his allies continue to activate the towers until they reach the last one in . There, they are informed that the has captured , which was previously thought impenetrable and is where the last tower is located. They break through the 's defenses, defeating again and forcing the to retreat. With the last tower activated, explains how the towers can provide maps for a region. uses the maps to lead a preemptive strike on the , clearing a path for a follow-up assault. The party confronts and once more, and the leaders flee to save themselves after being defeated.
 and confront , demanding to know why he failed to tell them that they would be defeated. merely comments that all is going according to plan, reminding the that they are bound to serve and that will punish them if they try to harm his chosen seer.
 continues to lead research on the , demonstrating their ability to be used for teleportation. gives her support to further study, but she is troubled by her own lack of progress.
The 's records indicate that will return on 's 17th birthday. In the hopes of awakening 's power in time, sends her to train at the . 's ruminations over her perceived failure are interrupted by a horde of monsters that besieges the spring. They are able to make it out of the spring thanks to 's knowledge of the relics in the area, and chides for thinking so little of her efforts.
===Chapter 5===
As nobody younger than 17 is permitted to set foot on , plans to train at the as soon as she comes of age. As the small 's memory indicates that this would be the day that would awaken, makes arrangements for evacuations and deploys the to prepare for the 's coming.
 and finish analyzing 's memory, only for them to be captured by spies. manages to slip the with the decoded data to the small , which delivers the slate to just as she leaves for the . It is at that exact moment that arrives, to Zelda's horror. Daruk appears on the Eldin Tower when he hears a sound and is shocked by what he sees at Hyrule Castle, while Mipha is unpleasantly surprised, Urbosa notes that he had revived sooner than they thought. Meanwhile, initially calm upon witnessing these events unfold at the castle, Revali saw the Sheikah Tower's circuitry malfunctioning before the ground shakes harder, scaring the Rito Champion as the Sheikah Towers all across Hyrule begin to shut down.
, , and retreat from the castle as the are possessed one by one by . As they reach the exit, saves them from a attack. He entrusts with protecting at all costs and stays behind to give them a chance to escape. is dragged away by as three surround the king and his men, and he is seemingly killed by their lasers.
As emerges from the castle, shows the , revealing that has attacked the . She breaks down in despair, lamenting her inability to awaken the sealing magic. However, the small opens a new set of time portals and they see Divine Beast Vah Medoh still glowing blue but with Malice trailing off of it, indicating that Revali is still alive but is in serious danger as are the other Champions, the party realizes that there is still a chance to stop the Great Calamity.
====Water and Fire====
 fends off 's fireballs as struggles against . As the blow that would have killed in the original timeline is about to land, an adult bursts out of one of the time portals summoned by the small , declaring that he will not lose his sister a second time. At the same time, emerges from a second portal just in time to block the attack that would have slain .
As is surrounded by lava, 's party chooses to make their way to first. 's aid is able to keep alive long enough for and his allies to join them in fighting . is not at its full strength and so cannot summon enough rain to clear the lava, so moves ahead to slay the producing the lava flows. With the dead, the is able to cool down the lava. 
 begins to panic as continues to pressure the two , but rallies his spirits with a reminder that was supposed to save him. and his party arrive, and is destroyed. thanks both and for their help, as explains to that he is indeed her brother from the future. then explains what had happened at .
 and move out to support the Hylian forces at , wiping out an army of monsters and Guardians.
====Air and Lightning====
Despite her best efforts, is losing her battle against . is faring little better against , not withstanding his insistence otherwise. But at the fateful moments in which they would have died, (with ) and appear out of the time portals to support their respective .
With too high in the air to reach, the heroes set their sights on . and are nearly overwhelmed by , but and his allies arrive in time to help defeat it. helps the party clear the path to , and they arrive to help . is bested, but teleports away before it can be killed.
 thanks for saving her, though the younger is sure to ascribe credit to the whole party. on the other hand insists that he would have been just fine on his own; is surprised to learn that the Champion was so arrogant, but suggests he not say that out loud. After tells the about the events at , and move out with to clear the skies around . They confront again in the aerial battle, ultimately slaying it.
====Heroes from the Future====
 recalls how told her that he had a vision of being attacked by , only to find himself within with her. She realizes that the small was responsible for summoning him and the other future heroes and thanks it for its help. Their next destination is , where has escaped to.
Elsewhere, is harvesting the souls of slain members to resurrect the four blights. and are outraged by his treachery, and demand that the prophet explain himself. informs them that their enemy has grown strong enough to warrant a change of tactics. Summoning a of to attack them, he declares that they can be useful "for once in their lives" as blood sacrifices for . requests that escape, but he cannot bring himself to abandon "his favorite lackey." Seeing his master's resolve, vows to protect even if it means he must die to do so.
===Chapter 6===
The defenders of are besieged by and , and it seems as if the stronghold will fall to their assault. has a feeling that their luck will change, and he is proven right when arrives. and clear the way for , , and to reach the citadel. leaves the to provide aid to the defenders, and the rest of the party makes their way to . When they reach him, they fight off a -infused and destroy the citadel bridge to keep any further monsters from reaching it.
 directs the party to , where is located. However, it too is under siege. and fight off the army of and monsters occupying as and the others depart. As the seemingly endless swarm draws closer, the other three appear to reinforce them.
The party rushes to the fort, only to find commanding the invaders. Taunting over her imminent death, he summons the four blights to attack. is nearly defeated by their combined power, but unleashes her sealing magic to save him and destroys and . attempts to shut down the using devices based on the small 's design, but only succeeds after and are also defeated.
After the battle, gives a speech to motivate the soldiers, urging them not to let despair get the better of them and assuming command of the armies of the . Some time later, and meet with a soldier who turns out to be , who has come to join her forces in order to avenge the members that has betrayed.
===Chapter 7===
The party responds to news of forces in battle at the by rushing to their aid. While it is too far to reach by foot, is able to reactivate the and enhance their teleportation abilities. The report that rubble is blocking the way to the where most of the soldiers are, and comes up with the idea of using the as a travel gate. They break through into the temple and discover that is alive. He explains that the relic gave him turned out to be an ancient shield that saved his life, and father and daughter reconcile.
The unified forces march to . They find that the castle is blocked off by a wall of , generated by a group of -infused monsters. is able to dispel the wall after they are slain, so the Champions can fire the Divine Beasts’ powerful lasers, only for the to revive all the monsters in the field shortly afterwards. However, the combined strength of the heroes is enough to make one final push towards the castle.
 confronts the heroes as they enter the castle. He is accompanied by the possessed , which is now clearly visible as the small of their own timeline. The latter, now the being known as , shapeshifts into a monstrous humanoid form as the mad prophet rants about how his destiny is to destroy and her allies.
Fighting their way through the castle, the party battles the blights once more to reach the gatehouses. They battle and there, forcing them to withdraw. Enraged by his defeat, commands to destroy the heroes; instead, consumes uses his power to manifest itself as . To make matters worse, it lets out a surge of power that corrupts the other small , forcing it to attack and as well. They have no choice but to battle it.
 is grief-stricken by having to fight their friend, who is now critically damaged. As she weeps over it, it begins to play for her, as if trying to comfort her. A flashback reveals the origins of the , revealing its name as : as a young girl, had activated it as a playmate and proudly shows it to her mother. It had helped console her after her mother's death, and had eventually been confiscated by when he assumed it was nothing more than a simple toy. The Champions caught up to her and were also saddened by Terrako’s broken state. Her resolve strengthened as well as the warriors, swears to stop at all costs.
Despite their best efforts, the heroes cannot even harm . As the abomination prepares a devastating attack that struggles to hold back, reactivates. The uses the last of its energy to launch itself at and self-destructs, breaking through 's shield but leaving behind only a single screw. 's sacrifice renews the fighting spirit of the party, and after a long and grueling battle and seal away .
As the sun rises, the united Hyrulian people rejoice to see that the is ended. 's screw begins to shine, and realizes that she, , , and must return to their own future. The say their farewells to their descendants, and vows to treasure their friendship for all time.
===Epilogue===
An unknown amount of time after 's sealing, , , and have finished repairing using parts gathered from all over . While they initially fear that they were unsuccessful, the sight of 's face causes to fully reactivate. , , and the happily look on as tearfully welcomes back the whose aid and sacrifice ultimately changed the course of history.
===EX DLC Storylines===
==Development==
By mid-2012, following the reception to , producer Eiji Aonuma had determined that the franchise was in urgent need of reinvention, in order for it to remain relevant. Aonuma decided that the development team would focus on rethinking the conventions of Zelda, and that this would largely center around two misconceptions:
#That Zelda games needed to be linear
#That Zelda games were strictly meant to be single player experiences
The development team tackled the notion of non-linear Zelda games with and . While both games were in development, Nintendo was approached by publisher Koei Tecmo, whose studios had previously worked with the company on titles like Metroid: Other M and Fatal Frame, with a proposal to develop a new kind of Zelda game using its Omega Force studio—the team behind the Dynasty Warriors series of games. The original pitch by Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi involved a number of elements that were staples of Zelda, such as dungeon exploration, with elements of the Warriors series mixed in to create something new. However, Nintendo "Fellow" Shigeru Miyamoto asked that Hayashi graft the world of Zelda onto Dynasty Warriors gameplay instead.
At the time, Aonuma had been playing One Piece: Pirate Warriors, another Warriors-style game developed by Omega Force, and saw the potential in a similar crossover with Zelda. Development of this game, dubbed (Zelda Musou in Japan), was completed in 2014, making it the first multiplayer Zelda game since Four Swords Adventures. In parallel, a small portion of the Zelda team also worked with Grezzo, the studio responsible for and , to develop , a three-player Zelda game for the Nintendo 3DS.
While work progressed on , Aonuma had already begun thinking of ways to explore another multiplayer Zelda title, this time using lessons the team had learnt from the development of that game. After development wrapped, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and art director Satoru Takizawa pitched Aonuma the idea of a second Warriors title, this time set in Breath of the Wild's past, against the backdrop of that game's "Great Calamity" event. Fujibayashi and Takizawa already had some sense of the kind of game they wanted to see, and the extent to which they had thought through their plans spurred Aonuma to discuss a second collaboration with Koei Tecmo.
Yosuke Hayashi would serve as producer on the new project, alongside Omega Force's Masaki Furusawa, the director of the first . Ryota Matsushita, who had served as a game designer on Samurai Warriors 4, Warriors Orochi 4, and Dynasty Warriors 9, was tapped to direct. Once the game's core elements had been decided upon, Omega Force proposed an outline for , with the Zelda team supervising each draft of the plan.
Omega Force collaborated much more closely with the team this time around, than they had on . Elements such as gameplay, graphics, the depiction of Hyrule, and all character dialogue were discussed with the Zelda team to ensure consistency with . Breath of the Wild's characters had fragments of lore scattered throughout that game, and Omega Force used these as a starting point. They held discussions with the Zelda team to understand the team's impression of each character, which helped flesh out their personalities in . In the case of characters that were now going to require younger variants, such as Impa, Purah, and Robbie, Omega Force proposed new designs for each.
Prior to development, Aonuma had requested that the Zelda team allow Omega Force a degree of freedom whilst creating the movesets for each playable character, which would allow them to explore more outlandish special moves for each. While designing moves for the game's cast, Omega Force based Link, Zelda, and Impa on existing archetypes—namely, a knight, a mage, and a trickster. Of the three, Zelda proved hardest to design, owing to the fact that she was never intended to be a fighter in , and that making her a combatant would potentially be at odds with her personality. The development team eventually settled on the idea of Zelda being driven by a sense of duty and taking up arms using the Sheikah Slate, using her backstory in as a point of reference. In contrast, Impa's moveset came together more smoothly, as a byproduct of her being from the ninja-like Sheikah tribe. According to the developers, the individual Sheikah Slate abilities for the rest of the cast were easy to derive from their personalities as well.
During development, the team used its learnings from having worked on the first , but encountered challenges while deciding how to integrate the open-world design of into the stage-based style of a Warriors game. The development team ultimately chose to design each stage to be more three-dimensional, with height or interconnected terrain, to create the feel of a more expansive world. Omega Force found that working on required less trial-an-error than its predecessor, as it had already understood how to incorporate Zelda-like concepts into a Warriors game, and was instead able to allocate resources towards creating a game that was of higher quality. All throughout development, the Zelda team reviewed each aspect of to ensure that the game inherited the look and tone of .
The following members of the team are credited as part of 's credits:
Name 	Credit on Age of Calamity 	Credit on 	Notes
Yoshiyuki Oyama 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Senior Lead Artist - Character / Item	
Ryuji Kobayashi 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Senior Lead Artist - Animation 	
Manabu Takehara 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Lead Artists - Structural 	
Keijiro Inoue 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Senior Lead Artist - VFX / Technical 	
Daigo Shimizu 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	UI Design 	
Makoto Yonezu 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Senior Lead Artist - Landscape 	
Aya Shida 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Wildlife Art 	
Tomohisa Saito 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Graphics/Terrain Programming 	
Atsushi Asakura 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Graphics/Terrain Programming 	
Yoshiyuki Sawada 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Technical Artist 	
Manaka Kataoka 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Music 	
Yasuaki Iwata 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	Music 	
Koji Kondo 	Nintendo Zelda Team 	 	Not credited on .
Daiki Iwamoto 	Supervisor 	Assistant Director 	
Satoru Takizawa 	Supervisor 	Art Director 	Pitched the idea for .
Takuhiro Dohta 	Supervisor 	Technical Director 	
Hajime Wakai 	Supervisor 	Sound Director 	
Hidemaro Fujibayashi	Scenario Supervisor 	Director 	Pitched the idea for .
Eiji Aonuma 	Zelda Franchise Supervisor	Producer 	
Note: At present, it is unknown whether all of the employees listed above are permanent members of the team. Some (like Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi) have worked on the Zelda series throughout most of their careers, while others move between various Nintendo projects as required.
==Gameplay==
The gameplay is similar to 's which is itself a based on Koei Tecmo's series of video games, in which characters fight large armies of enemies and generals on a battlefield, with the the setting and characters originating from , specifically from . As such, it is much more combat-intensive that most Zelda games, with hordes of enemies on the screen at once.
===Controls===
The player controls multiple characters throughout the game including , , , , , , and through the story, with the player being able to switch characters on the fly depending on the scenario. Characters also fight alongside regular and other playable characters, and the game will alert if an ally requires assistance. The player can use many abilities seen in such as , , and . The player can also use multiple elemental rods, such as the , , and .
===Gameplay Footage===
==Game Information==
===Graphics===
===Audio===
===Limited Edition===
A limited treasure box edition of the game was released in Japan. It included a copy of the game, an acrylic art plate, a parasail blanket, and a metal charm.
===Speedrun Records===
==Listings==
===Characters===
===Bosses===
===Enemies===
======
======
===Items===
===Translations===
===Credits===
==Reception==
===Sales===
On November 24, 2020, four days after the release of Age of Calamity, Koei Tecmo stated via Famitsu that the game had shipped over 3 million combined physical and digital copies worldwide, becoming the first game in the Warriors franchise to reach 3 million shipments as well as becoming the best-selling Warriors game of all time. As of January 2022, the game has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.
==Nomenclature==
==Gallery==
==External Links==
*Official North American site
*Official UK site
*Official Japanese site
es:Hyrule Warriors: La Era del Cataclismo
fr:Hyrule Warriors : l'Ère du Fléau
pt-br:Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
zh-tw:薩爾達無雙:災厄啟示錄