“Quarantine baking” has been one of the hit new trends online. Everyone from celebrities and social media influencers, to ordinary folks like us are showing off the culinary creations we were inspired to make while being stuck at home due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. After all, when you can’t go outside, what else is there to do? (The answer, of course, is to play video games. Lots and lots of video games. But that’s not the point of this article.)
It turns out that even The Legend of Zelda protagonist Link isn’t immune to the carbohydrate craze. Breath of the Wild speedrunners have recently become obsessed with “Bread%” runs, which involve – as the name suggests – collecting the ingredients to make a loaf of bread and then successfully baking it. Having Link eat the bread is not required, although some players have allowed him to enjoy the tasty treat he so frantically created.
Being such a massive open world game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild of course is filled with limitless possibilities for speedrun topics. There’s the standards, which include “get off the Great Plateau”, “free the four Divine Beasts”, and “infiltrate Hyrule Castle and kill Calamity Ganon.” However, speedrunners have also raced to “Throw a rake in a lake”, “Get Link killed as quickly as possible”, “Pet every dog in the game” and more. “Bread%,” a race inspired by the baking trend, is only the latest crazy idea fans have come up with.
Baking a loaf of bread in Breath of the Wild involves visiting the Tabantha Frontier region to harvest Tabantha Wheat from grass and mine Rock Salt from ore deposits. Then, you’ve just got to light up a cooking fire, combine the two ingredients together, and voila! You’ve got tasty bread for Link to enjoy!
The current “Bread%” record is held by a speedrunner named Xeryph, who completed the task in just under twenty minutes. Xeryph’s race to fluffy, carb-filled deliciousness involves shield surfing, bouncing off of Bokoblin enemies, and flinging a totally shirtless Link into the air until he reaches Tabantha. Xeryph, who also holds the speed record in the “Rake in the Lake” and “Killing Link” categories, stated that it is highly likely that his current record can be beaten someday, as Tabantha Wheat is a random drop and he did not have very good luck when cutting down grass.
Hope Link gets to enjoy all that delicious bread!
