Kind of late to the party here, but I'm getting close to beating the game and I've come to realize that I must have missed some important equipment somewhere. I've faced major balance issues for everything past the first few hours of the game. Pretty much every new area I explore was punctuated with the question of "Hey, I wonder what new thing I'll find there that can [nearly] one shot me?"
- Decayed guardian stalker - Okay, this was a learning experience and I'm okay with dying to a giant death laser from an ancient robot
- Dark bokoblin with an axe - Died 5 minutes after leaving the starting island, but okay, another learning experience.
- Stone talus - I was trying to run away, since this one was telegraphed as being bad news.
- Centaur (lynel?) I walked into by mistake - Okay, guess I shouldn't be here yet. I'll go a different way.
- Guardian stalker - Hmm, guess I shouldn't go that way either.
- Dark bokoblin with a spear
- Lizalfos with a spear
- Lizalfos with lightning arrows
- Another centaur I had to steal lightning arrows from - Have to do this but this guy can kill me in 1 hit and can hit me with lightning even when not in line of sight
- Lizalfos with a greatsword
- Moblin with fire arrows
- Moblin with a club
- Moblin stalfos with a club
- Flying guardians around a tower - See above about death lasers. I know you're supposed to just avoid them, but there's this one spot with moblins...
- Yiga clan swordsman - Yeah, I know, you're supposed to trick them with the bananas, but I couldn't consistently do this and had to fight. Ended up bomb kiting 3. 13+ hearts of damage in one swing seems kind of unnecessary, unless they're preprogrammed to instakill you regardless of health. Mipha's grace doesn't save you either, so maybe they are.
- Guardian scout with an axe - It was a major test of strength, but it would have been nice if Mipha's grace worked in the shrines so I didn't have to whittle down 3,000 HP without getting hit once.
- Vah Naboris boss - Okay, it's a boss, so I can understand being hard, but I don't know how I could have possibly done this if I didn't save it for last. 12+ hearts of damage per hit. I died to this thing way more than anything else in the game. You are supposed to be able to do the divine beasts in any order, right?
Not all of those literally one shot me, but most did. If they didn't, they did 75%+ of my total health in damage in one hit. Mipha's grace saved me sometimes, at least.
I don't bother fighting groups of enemies anymore. Lizalfos and moblins do absurd amounts of damage, so if I run into more than one at a time, I usually just run away. When I had 13 hearts I was killed in 2 bops from a moblin club or giant flaming arrows from moblin archers. Lizalfos would usually get me in 2-3 hits too if they had weapons. Bokoblins and wildlife at least seem to be okay, usually only dealing 3-4 hearts of damage. I've got 16 hearts now, so that helps a tiny bit.
Of course, I could just get good and learn to dodge attacks when beset by multiple super fast lizard men or giant pig monsters, but I still feel like I'm not supposed to be dying so easily when I get hit.
Preeeetty sure I'm not supposed to be at the end of the game with just the hero's tunic upgraded one level, but even the ancient armor that I'm
just now able to afford after reclaiming all of the divine beasts has comparable defense to it. The only other armor I've seen was for protecting against the environment and had worse defense.
Do upgrades past the first level make that much of a difference? I somehow managed to avoid stumbling across any other great fairy fountains, so I've been unable to upgrade anything past the first level.