Froggy Armor Is Tears of the Kingdom's Best Quality-of-Life Improvement

Of all the changes and improvements in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom from its predecessor, the addition of the Froggy Armor is definitely one of the most helpful. Course correcting on the mistake that was never allowing Link to climb in the rain, Nintendo finally created an armor set that made exploration so much easier… and then locked it behind an extremely involved, multi-stage quest.

Then once you unlock it, you'd need to upgrade each piece twice at a Great Fairy to fully enable it to be slip-proof. It's an amazing quality-of-life addition that Tears of the Kingdom desperately needed, but one that will require many hours of dedication for the die-hard players to unlock. In many ways, this extra work doesn't feel worth it, even for something as amazing as this armor set.

Does the Froggy Armor and its slip-proof abilities justify the countless hours it takes to unlock and upgrade?  

 Was The Froggy Armor Worth It?

As mentioned above, the Froggy Armor is a huge quality-of-life improvement. I remember thinking years ago while playing Breath of the Wild that I would give anything to be able to climb in the rain, no matter how involved the process was. It feels like Tears of the Kingdom granted my monkey's paw wish.

The Froggy Armor is admittedly an amazing reward for any quest, which is a relief. Too many of the Tears of the Kingdom side quests have poor rewards, leaving little motivation to actually complete them. In other Zelda titles, you could get a cool item or weapon, but the durability system even makes those rewards feel less exciting.

Of course, there's a committed contingent of fans who don't care about the rewards: a quest is a quest, and anything that expands on the lore or furthers the story is something good to include, and I definitely respect that.

It's up to the player to decide what is and isn't worth their time, which is why I'm sure there are many who will never get their hands on the Froggy Armor despite how much of an upgrade it offers.

Seeking Out the Lucky Clover Gazette for One Incredibly Long Quest

To even get this quest started, players need to travel to the Lucky Clover Gazette in the Hebra region, just outside Rito Village. A conversation at the newspaper headquarters begins the Potential Princess Sightings side quest, which requires players to visit 12 separate stables across Hyrule.

If one happens to visit the Lucky Glover Gazette early in the game, it's a fun quest that can be organically worked on while investigating the regional phenomena. I wanted to get this quest done relatively quickly, but even by prioritizing it, I was over 70 hours into my play time before unlocking and upgrading the full Froggy Armor set. 

To upgrade to level 2 through a Great Fairy, players need to acquire many sticky lizards, among other resources. These are available in caves all across Hyrule, but I found tracking them down was more of a chore than it should have been. Even if you do find one, it's possible they'll run away before you have an opportunity to capture them. Thankfully, Beedle sells them near South Akkala Stable, making this part of the quest move more quickly.

I was elated at having an armor set that will make my time in Hyrule far more enjoyable, but at the same time, the amount of effort it required to obtain made me question if this side adventure was truly worth it.

Do Yourself a Favor, Get the Froggy Armor as Fast as You Can

The Froggy Armor is an amazing addition, but it has diminishing returns the closer you get to fully exploring Hyrule. It's better to acquire it when you still have some peaks and valleys to explore. It almost makes me wish Tears of the Kingdom had a New Game+ mode that allowed you to carry the armor set over onto a new run. 

Tears of the Kingdom is an incredibly well-designed game that expertly follows up Breath of the Wild with the task of creating a gigantic, lived-in world with no real set direction of what needs to be done first. I definitely have some gripes with the process for obtaining the Froggy Armor, but that doesn't change it from being the best quality-of-life improvement that Tears of the Kingdom added. 

Not to mention that this armor set should be hugely useful whenever we get inevitable DLC. 

The Potential Princess Sightings quest at the Clover Gazette is absolutely worth undertaking, but understand that it's a significant time investment. Once I got the Froggy Armor though, my experience in Hyrule is hugely improved now that I don't need to stop climbing any time a little rain comes down.

It may have been a time-consuming and at times annoying task to complete, but the permanent upgrade is worth the effort.