Amiibo Botw Cards: How They Work and What They Unlock
Amiibo botw cards give you access to exclusive gear, weapons, and daily supplies in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild without requiring you to track down expensive, rare plastic figurines. These NFC-enabled cards pack the exact same data chips as official Nintendo figures, letting you scan them once every twenty-four hours to rain chests, ingredients, and classic green tunics right onto the soil of Hyrule.
If you're tired of breaking fragile weapons early on or want iconic outfits like the Tunic of Time, third-party cards offer a cheap, pocket-sized alternative. This guide covers how to enable the feature, what specific figures drop, and how to use save-scumming to get the exact rare items you want on your first try.
Enabling Amiibo Functionality in Breath of the Wild
Before you can scan any card, you need to turn the rune on in your Sheikah Slate. Nintendo didn't lock this feature behind paywalls or long questlines; it's available right from the start of your adventure on the Great Plateau.
- Open your pause menu using the minus button on your Nintendo Switch.
- Navigate over to the System tab and select Options.
- Look for the amiibo setting and switch it from "Do not use amiibo" to "Use amiibo".
- Close the menu, hold down up on the D-pad to open your rune selection wheel, and pick the newly available amiibo icon (it looks like a glowing pillar with a wireless signal wave).
Once equipped, pressing your left bumper will project a glowing circular target on the ground. Tap your card against the NFC touchpoint on your right Joy-Con or Pro Controller to trigger the drop.
What Do Amiibo Cards Actually Unlock?
Different cards trigger different reward pools. Every single card drops a cluster of standard survival items—such as raw meat, fish, apples, or arrows—alongside a special treasure chest.
- The Link Cards: Figures like Smash Bros Link, Twilight Princess Link, and Ocarina of Time Link drop classic green tunics (Cap, Tunic, and Trousers of the Hero/Twilight/Time), high-tier swords, and even Epona on your very first scan.
- The Zelda Cards: Smashing the Super Smash Bros or Breath of the Wild Zelda card yields precious gems like rubies and sapphires, rare bows, and a chance at the legendary Twilight Bow.
- The Champion Cards: Urbosa, Revali, Mipha, and Daruk drop their respective signature weapons (like the Moonlight Scimitar) and the coveted Divine Beast Helmets, which grant ancient mastery bonuses and elemental resistances.
For official information on hardware compatibility and system software updates, check out the Nintendo Support portal. To see the broader history of these collectibles, you can read more on Wikipedia's amiibo page.
Mastering the Save-Scumming Technique
Rare armor pieces and weapons don't drop every single time. Most exclusive items sit on a drop rate between ten and twenty percent. If you scan your cards blindly every day, you'll end up drowning in traveler's swords and bokoblin guts instead of legendary gear.
You can bypass this RNG grind by saving your game right before you scan:
- Stand in an open field so your dropped chest has room to land.
- Open your menu and create a Manual Save.
- Equip your amiibo rune and scan the card.
- If the chest only contains standard arrows or a basic shield, open your pause menu and Load your manual save.
- Scan the card again. Repeat this process until the golden-glow chest yields the specific armor piece or weapon you want.
This trick saves weeks of waiting on real-world timers and guarantees you complete your retro outfit collections quickly.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Even though using cards is straightforward, a few rookie errors can ruin your farming routine or clutter your inventory.
- Scanning on Slopes: If you drop a chest on a steep hill or near deep water, it often slides away or sinks out of bounds before you can open it, destroying your daily roll for that card.
- Ignoring Inventory Limits: If your weapon pouch is completely full, you won't be able to pick up the high-tier swords dropped by specialized cards. Clear out duplicate gear before scanning.
- Buying Low-Quality NFC Tags: Cheap cards made with poorly written NTAG215 chips fail to register. Always verify that your card set explicitly specifies NTAG215 chips, which are the exact type required by the Nintendo Switch hardware.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use the same amiibo card multiple times in one day?
No. Each unique card has a strict one-use limit every twenty-four hours. However, if you use the manual save-scumming method described above before scanning, you can retry an unsuccessful drop without triggering the daily cooldown.
Do third-party cards work identically to official Nintendo figures?
Yes. Third-party cards use the exact same NFC data protocols embedded in the official plastic figurines. The Nintendo Switch reads them as if you tapped a physical statue.
What happens if I scan a card while a blood moon is active?
Blood moons reset enemy camps and environmental states, but they have no direct effect on your daily amiibo scan cooldowns or drop rates. You can scan your cards at any time of day regardless of the moon phase.
Are these cards legal to use?
Nintendo's official software allows third-party NFC tags and cards without penalizing players or banning accounts. Breath of the Wild is a single-player offline experience, meaning local save data remains entirely unaffected by external NFC scans.
