The anticipated Nintendo Switch remake of 1993 GameBoy classic The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening launched today with a cutesy new art style and all of its dungeon-delving goodness intact. As players set out on the adventure, be it for the first time ever or perhaps just for a few years, they’ll no doubt be looking to acquire key items like the shovel and bow as quickly as possible. With this Link’s Awakening stealing glitch you can save time and rupees by making use of a little exploit.
Link’s Awakening stealing glitch | How do I steal all shop items?
Generally, when players steal in Link’s Awakening the shopkeeper will become hostile and kill poor old Link when he sets foot back in the store. That’s definitely still the case here, but through a little bit of save game manipulation, you can turn shopkeepers passive again and continue to steal more of their wares.
The free item exploit was unintentionally discovered by an unexpected source, specifically WWE Superstar and host of the UpUpDownDown YouTube gaming channel Xavier Woods. In a livestream from earlier today, he sought to show viewers what happens when you steal in the new game, pilfering a shovel from the Mabe Village Town Tool Shop and making a manual save before re-entering.
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There he met Link’s unfortunate fate at the hands of a murderous avenging shopkeeper, as was expected, but when subsequently selecting the retry option he found that Link is placed back in the shop with a now passive shopkeep. With the shovel still accounted for in the player inventory, this means that the process can be repeated until all of a store’s item stock has been depleted at no monetary cost.
Link’s Awakening stealing glitch | Step-by-step guide
Here’s precisely what you need to do in order to take advantage of the Link’s Awakening stealing glitch:
- Pick up the shop item you want to steal.
- Repeatedly circle around the shopkeeper until you can exit the door without them seeing you (this will take practice).
- Make a manual save from the pause menu.
- Go back inside and the hostile shopkeeper will kill you.
- Select the “retry” option.
- You’ll respawn in the shop with the stolen item still in your inventory and a now passive shopkeeper.
- Repeat this process from the top with the next item you’d like to steal.
