Botw Update 160 2021 Better

The official update for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

📅 Release context

• Released: June 2021
• File size: ~500–600 MB (surprisingly large for a “minor” patch)
• Preceded by: Ver. 1.5.0 (2019 – added Chinese/Korean support and Master Cycle Zero summon fix)

3. Hidden "Sequel Hooks"

The most controversial find: unused voice lines in the game’s files referring to a "floating castle" and "malice tendrils from the sky." These were later confirmed to be early versions of cutscenes from Tears of the Kingdom. Update 1.6.0 overwrote some legacy audio files with compressed, lower-quality versions to free up space for these data mines. botw update 160 2021

To understand why Update 1.6.0 was relatively small, one must look at the broader timeline of the franchise. By early 2021, Nintendo’s development focus had shifted entirely to the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. The official update for The Legend of Zelda:

• Speedrunners: Initially panicked, fearing glitch patches. Within 48 hours, they confirmed that major exploits (Infinite Arrow Glow, Trial of the Sword Skips, and Apparatus Storage) still worked. However, the "Moon Jump" glitch (using the Master Cycle Zero) was unintentionally broken and never restored.
• Casual Players: Noticed no difference except a slightly smoother frame rate in the Lost Woods.
• Dataminers: Celebrated. The 2021 update became a Rosetta Stone for linking Breath of the Wild’s code to the sequel’s early trailers.
• Cemu Emulator Users: Discovered that update 1.6.0 broke most shader caches. For three weeks, the community scrambled to rebuild them, but the payoff was a 15-20% performance boost on mid-range PCs.

If you see Ver. 1.6.0, you’re fully up to date with the 2021 patch. Released: June 2021 File size: ~500–600 MB (surprisingly