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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →A traversal item can change exploration by opening routes, reaching previously inaccessible places, or giving you a new way to move through familiar terrain. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the paraglider makes high-ground travel a distinct option; in Metroid Dread, new abilities prompt players to revisit earlier areas for routes they could not use before. These games show two different ways a single tool can reshape where you can go.
What makes one item change exploration?
The key is not how powerful an item looks, but whether it changes the routes available to you. A useful exploration tool might let you cross a gap, pass through an obstacle, or reach a place from a new direction. Some games use an item to change how you travel across a broad landscape; others use new abilities to unlock parts of a connected map.
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- Route access: Does the tool open a door, break an obstacle, or reveal a route back through an earlier area?
- Traversal mode: Does it let you travel in a new way, such as gliding from high ground?
- Vertical access: Does it help you move through or past terrain above you?
- Discovery: Does the game give you clues about where the new tool might work?
Breath of the Wild: the paraglider turns height into a route
Nintendo describes the paraglider as a way for Link to travel through Hyrule. It makes high places useful as launch points: from a mountain or other elevation, you can glide toward a destination instead of following only the ground-level route. Nintendo’s feature page presents the paraglider alongside horseback travel, rafts, and shield surfing, so it is one part of a broader set of ways to move around—not the game’s only means of exploration.
Nintendo’s Explorer’s Guide also describes creative use of the paraglider, including gliding from a mountaintop toward a horse. The larger change is that elevation can become a starting point for a journey: looking down at a landscape is not only a way to survey it, but also a chance to choose a different approach.
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The scale of Hyrule gives that freedom room to matter. Nintendo’s feature page says the game includes more than 100 Shrines of Trials and over 180 weapons. Those figures describe content on the page; they do not measure how much players explore or how often the paraglider is used.
Metroid Dread: new abilities make old areas worth another look
Metroid Dread shows a different exploration pattern. An ability can open a door, destroy an obstacle, or provide a route through an area that was previously blocked. Nintendo’s development team describes the loop in Metroid Dread Report Vol. 3: “Picking up new items and weapons along the way lets you expand the areas you can visit, allowing you to explore new destinations and discover alternate routes.”
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That means getting a new tool can make a familiar corridor newly relevant. Nintendo’s guidance encourages players to check the map for obstacles they may now be able to pass and to look beyond the area they are currently in. Its reader-facing prompt captures the question to ask after an upgrade: “What new locations can you now explore with the ability you just acquired?”
Unlike gliding across a broad landscape, this is exploration through access and return trips. A blocked passage becomes a reminder to come back; an ability changes the map’s possibilities without changing the map itself.
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- Be Mad Max - Become the iconic post-apocalyptic warrior, crafting and upgrading Max's equipment and weapons to survive by combining melee combat, gunplay and tactical techniques. Gamers must form alliances as they work towards the goal of building their "Magnum opus."
- Immersive savage Wasteland - Explore the gritty, dynamic world while braving the treacherous landscapes, hostile weather patterns and deadly marauders.
- survive the open-world landscape - Staying alive isn't easy. Players clash with deadly factions and gangs through scores of dangerous side-missions and quests in the dynamic open-world full of exploration.
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Tears of the Kingdom: Ascend adds a vertical route
Not every exploration-changing tool is a physical inventory item. Nintendo describes Ascend in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as an ability that lets Link pass through solid objects above him, adding a new dimension to exploration. See Nintendo’s gameplay overview.
Ascend changes how overhead terrain can be treated: instead of only going around or climbing toward a surface, Link can use the ability to pass through it from below. That is a vertical-access change, distinct from the paraglider’s use of height to travel across open space.
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Three ways a tool can reshape a map
| Game and tool | Exploration change | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Breath of the Wild — paraglider | New traversal mode | High ground that offers a glide toward another part of Hyrule; other options include horses, rafts, and shield surfing. |
| Metroid Dread — newly acquired abilities | Route access and revisits | Doors or destructible obstacles on the map that may now be passable, including in earlier areas. |
| Tears of the Kingdom — Ascend | Vertical access | Solid terrain overhead that Link can pass through using the ability. |
The examples are not a universal formula: one changes travel across an open landscape, another opens routes through a connected map, and the third changes access through overhead terrain. In each case, the item or ability matters because it changes the set of places or paths available to the player.
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