Zelda: Breath of the Wild patch improves frame rates

Nintendo has released a patch for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that has been reported to dramatically increase frame rates when the game is played in docked mode, a situation that used to hurt performance as the hardware and software struggles with the jump in resolution.

The patch notes for version 1.1.1 of the game don’t give us much details about what has actually been changed, however. “Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience,” Nintendo wrote on the official page. Thanks?

“Went to a forest outside of the plateau with two Moblins where I had major FPS drops,” one Reddit user stated. “Now have a consistent 30 there. It seems that there are still specific areas that tank your frames (the first cliff at the plateau, Kakariko, ect.) but I've never had that stable FPS during combat while randomly out in the world.”

You can watch a video below that shows off the improvement.

Our review of the game detailed the frame rate issue that the patch seems to address. “While the controls are generally excellent, especially on the Switch’s Pro Controller, the camera can occasionally be a real jerk, particularly while using a bow around trees or fighting multiple enemies in tight quarters,” Arthur Gies explained. “And from a technical perspective, while Breath of the Wild is beautiful, playing the game docked on my TV often resulted in severe frame rate drops. It was never unplayable, but it was distracting.”

This patch is a welcome improvement.