Isn't it obvious? There are stones lying around that are shaped in a certain way. Just fuse them with a stick. You can also fuse construct horns with a stick since they cut. Only spears won't cut trees down.

I always thought weapon degradation was one of the least interesting mechanics in BOTW don't really love it or hate it. Doesn't change how i play. It's just something that's there. I hate it when people try to hype it up as this amazing game mechanic.

Crafting a balloon is also a way to get to the surface 

I mean yeah. No reason to hate it or hype it. But it is useful for the game to make you try a bunch of different weapons. So it's a cool feature, not perfectly implemented. If there was no weapon durability they game would be a bit less cool. If this feature was improved a bit the game would be ever so slightly better. But yeah no reason to hype it as the coolest thing or the worst thing, its just a good thing.

Thought about it, never tried it though - can it actually get to the surface before it disintegrates? Naturally, I'm not even thinking of using batteries, seems like waste of resource for that...

Hmm no it's not obvious, but thanks for the tip. I'll look out for triangle shaped rocks. How to make a stick next. It seems the bundle of wood is just good for camp fires.

I got a bit further, got the ascend ability last night after messing around in the cold. I got to the top the 'wrong way' so hadn't encountered any spicy peppers yet. A burning weapon keeps you warm too.

It would be nice if things were more stream lined, there are so many steps to things. Why can't I cook in bulk instead of 1 by 1, waste of time. Then the Zonai cooking pot is single use per meal. Every arrow has to be altered on the fly breaking the flow, everything feels designed to slow you down. Weapon durability is still a pita, especially with the axe. No idea yet how to make new ones (fuse flint to a stick?) but they don't last all that long, especially with trees resetting all the time lol. So now I have 1 inventory slot taken up by the broken master sword, 2 by axes, thus only 5 left for weapons that break rather fast.

I'm using the bow more now since arrows are quite abundant as well as construct bows. I rather melee but got to conserve the weapons :/ Kinda disappointed I couldn't fell the big tree. Hoping I could build with that or at least get some thick sticks out of it. Yet the axe just passes straight through.

Sure it's fun in a way and tries hard to make you feel clever. Too slippery to climb, glue a bunch of logs together to use as a ladder. Clever or turning a 15 sec climb into a 5 minute tree hunting and gluing task. Want to cross a gap, same thing. It's like the realized oh shit climbing everything is too 'easy' so lets break the land up into islands with surfaces you can't climb.

I want to check out the depths but this tutorial island is taking a long time and isn't keeping my attention for more than an hour. After finishing the Ascend shrine I looked at the 'path' to the temple and thought, not now, enough. It's more a resource management simulator than an adventure game so far. Plus I keep running back and forth, hard to recognize where I have already been without fog of war on the map. Not that it really matters as even a heavily defended chest that only unlocks after defeating the guards just holds a generic piece of amber. Not worth breaking a bow and rusty claymore for, plus food spend staying warm and healthy. Those encounters feel designed to consume your resources rather than offer anything worthwhile. (Sure more Zonai charging thingies, dunno what they are for though. At least they drop a replacement weapon and bow. Just got to find more food again)

I get the same feeling as TWD S&S Ch1 to Ch2. Pushing the unbalance further out of balance. But can't deny it's fun to play in the little moments, just like TWD S&S despite its flaws. It's just not as good as BotW was. And I'll never complain about the UI in GT7 again, tons of steps to get anything done there as well. TotK UI beats that hands down lol. Still looking forward to play more, in short burst at night. (I find it too hard to see the game during day time, the low contrast of the world doesn't work with bright sunny days)

The fps still drops too btw, it's weird and kinda random since the patch. Ultra hand will sometimes severely slow down the fps, yet turn a little further and it's smooth again. Resolution is bad while turning (I guess dynamic) very visible drop, and the stutter is quite noticeable. But that's right after playing Red Matter 2 on PSVR2 which runs at a rock solid 4K 120fps. Putting Zelda on right after that really shows how dated the Switch is.