Horseback Archery Mini-Game Walkthrough
The Horseback Archery mini-game may be a bit frustrating at first notion. But if you want to try, head to the Mounted Archery Camp while riding a horse. It’s a short distance northwest of the mouth of the Menoat river in the Lake Tower region. Speak to Jini from the saddle. Once you do so, he’ll ask you if you want to do the drill.
However, to do so, you’ll need at least one bow and a dozen of arrows. Your goal is to ride the horse while simultaneously shooting arrows to pop the balloons. Each try takes you 20 rupees.
But the problem isn’t the course. It’s the actual coordination of steering your horse while shooting targets. But if you do succeed, you receive the Knight’s Bridle and the Knight’s Saddle.
Tips for Horseback Archery
Hitting 20 balloons under one minute is stressful. But there are various tips you can use to make your life a whole lot easier:
- Ride in a steady fashion. Any jerky movements will make it harder to aim.
- While shooting your arrows, try to stay on the main path. It’s much easier to rotate the camera than it is to steer the horse.
- Ride in straight lines while shooting, only turning when required.
- You can use motion controls to aim better.
- Equip your bow with the quick shot perk to increase your firing rate. If you want suggestions, it’s better to grab either the Eagle Bow or the Falcon Bow.
- Slow down to a trot which you have multiple balloons. But don’t spend so much time as you only have a minute.
Well..allow me to tell you something ly friend’s..THIS CHALLENGE IS TOYAL BULL****!! ITS MOTHERF***ING IMPOSSIBLE!! ITS CLEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A GOOD AIM AT A TARGET WHILR MOVING ON HORSEBACK AND IF YOU TRY TO MAKE IT TROTTING ALL THE WAY YOU SIMPLY WONT MAKE IT!! AND NOW THTT THATS MENTIONED LETS TALK ABOUT THE TIME..THE TIME GIVEN TO DO THIS IS WAY TOO F***ING LOW!! ITS SIMPLY UNFAIR TO REQUIRE THE PLAYER TO RIDE A HORSEBACK,HIT MULTIPLE TARGETS THAT MOST OF ARE AT FAR RANGR AND ONTOP OF ALL WITH JUST 1 MOTHERF***ING MINUTE!! THANKS NINTENDO FOR GOVONDÄG US AN IMPOSSIBLE PIECE OF **** OF A CHALLENGE..
It’s very frustrating for me as I’ve tried and wasted 4 bows and tried at least about 30 times and I can never get the balloons to even get the bridle. I’ve only ever gotten to 15 and the last few milliseconds to jump off the horse and use a bomb arrow for the bonus group of 5 balloons, I’ll probably try again in a few weeks as I have a love for the horses in the game.
I got 22 the first time and he gave me the bridle, but I’ve tried again 2 times now, 20 the first and 22 again, and he’s only given me bomb arrows? Do I need to get more than my previous score?
Yeah nvm you did need to get more than your last score. I finally got a 24 and then he gave me the saddle
A) practice with boko bows and save your best bows for later.
B) when you are done practicing, use any 3x Bow (forest bow or lynel bows do wonders) coupled with bomb arrows. –> this is what got me 25 out of 25
C) trot while aiming, gallop in between sets. do not play in the rain.
i was stuck getting 16 and 18 using falcon bow but after i changed my horse to one with four stars in speed i was able to get 22. so it may not be you but actually how fast the horse is 🙂
“But the problem isn’t the course. It’s the actual coordination of steering your horse while shooting targets.”
Nope..! The horse automatically follows the road, all you need to do is control the bow. You only need to press A between batches of targets to gallop and save time.
Also, best tip is to use a bomb arrow for the last batch, it gives you immediate 5 hits.
XD that is exactly what I did. Got the job done. I actually used a ancient bow for the arrow distance factor.
My bow keeps on breaking WHEN IM AT 19. This is the only part of the game that I H A T E
No matter what I do I can not get passed 16 F*CK
Use the Ancient Bow, it’s arrows fly straight no matter the distance
Thanks for the tip
Another good tip is to not steer your horse. It’s on rails.
I wonder what gives I am not getting the saddle just a bunch of bombs I’ve done this 5-6 times no saddle
never mind you have to get 21 for bridle and 23 for saddle
Alright, I’m the dude who just left the last comment.
Let me ACTUALLY give you some tips that you can use.
1) save before starting it all
2) make sure you have bomb arrows with you
3) know that there are 25 balloons, so if you miss 2, jump off your horse. Also, if you see yourself falling too far behind (i.e. looking behind you) and you’re still on the first few balloons. just stop
4) NEVER LET YOUR BOW BREAK WHILE DOING A RUN! If it gets weak, switch it after your next shot
5) Get some wine, or some other alcoholic drink, you’re going to be here for a while
6) drink
7) at the end, with the 5 balloons, press x to jump in the air, assuming you have a decent amount of stamina, you should be able to knock out the 5 with guarenteed hits (and if you’re low on stamina, use a bomb arrow while in the air
8) drink
9) Find your struggle parts (for me it’s the mountain on the right), use bomb arrows for these parts
10) seriously, drink… like, a lot
11) if you’re as bad as I am, you’ll be here a while, patience is the key
12) and alcohol
13) seriously
14) if you have a bow that shoots multiple shots at once, save it for after you’ve done 7-8 runs.
15) if it’s raining, remember your bomb arrows won’t work, don’t waste them
16) drink as much as you possibly fucking can without being too far gone.
love this
inspiring.
Just did this the last hour, got frustrated, took a break, did a search on line, and found this first hit…exactly the advice I needed, LOL!
Ok, just spent 2 solid hours honing my mounted archery skills, got 22 twice, but still no 23…
In addition to the above tips, here are some others that worked for me:
1) In addition to drinking, do whatever meditation practice you need to achieve peace of mind before starting this,
2) Feed your horse an Endura carrot before you start (& save that too). Then, during the initial 3-4 targets (where they are single and pretty much straight on, with nice gaps between them) accelerate by pressing “A” to get there faster, blow them out, and use the time saved for the last bit of the course
3) after each target, re-center your field of view by pressing “ZL”…when I didn’t do this, I wound up in some crazy positions, due to me basically being spastic…
4) Bomb arrows, heck yeah! I would go as far as to say, if it is raining, stick around and come back when it has stopped, blowing up multiple (closely spaced) target with one shot is a life saver
5) Using a bow that fires multiple arrows helps quite a bit. I’m using the Lynel bow…if you are doing this early on, getting a Lynel bow might be harder than completing this archery mini-game, just fyi, don’t get overly frustrated early on, just do more adventuring and come back.
I’m going take a break and try for the saddle later. I hope you all are enjoying this game as much as I am! When I’m not swearing at the TV when I miss a target, that is :0
LOL, just got 23! YES! I took a couple of breaks, analyzed my strategy some more, and came up with some different things to try…which all failed miserably, but then I noticed something. I don’t want to give anything away, but, I’ll just give this hint…bomb arrows are really, really, *really* helpful…
😉
Awesome comments guys!
After an our with using a soldier’s bow with quick shot and normal arrows, getting mostly 14 points, I gave up, went online, and read the comments from both of you.
Then I equipped my Lynel bow and bomb arrows, saved my game and went for it. 25 points on first try 😀 Now lets do it again to get the briddle!
This is actually fucking impossible.
Like Silver Surfer on the NES impossible
Why Nintendo do you keep adding archery games to Zelda….. No one like them. Please stop