Hearts until I have 6, then one extra stamina wheel, then 4 more hearts, then the rest of stamina, then the rest of hearts.
By the time I got to 10 hearts, I could start upgrading armor and cooking full-heals, and I wasn’t taking many hits, so stamina was more important.

Hearts first. I think you only need 8-10 of them though before you go full stream ahead on stamina until it’s full

On totk I boosted stamina first. I just got annoyed with how far I couldn’t get with the glider in the sky. Turns out it was useful for spoiler reasons!

I went for stamina because of a huge emphasis on exploration. I found botw to be a bit frustrating because I was limited by my stamina so I forgone my health to complete a stamina wheel. I’m working on health since 2 wheels seems enough before cooking.

Also it forces me to find alternative strategies for combat such as stealth, weapon building, and cooking. Honestly, with the time saved in exploration but spent in preparing for combat, I’d say it balances out.

Hearts take priority

Over the course of my playthroughs, I usually upgrade stamina about once per two hearts - though I’ve gotten good enough at the game at this point that I could probably do one-to-one instead.

I think I did 6 hearts, then rushed stamina to full. I’m at something like 10 hearts right now, with a bunch of unclaimed.

Stamina all the way until full, both games. I hate failing to get somewhere due to lack of stamina and food to compensate.

However, since I hit max stamina, I never actually need it all in totk, so if there’s a master mode down the line making me replay the whole game, I’ll probably stop at 2 wheels then hearts to stop getting one shot earlier.

I like stamina first but I keep dying

I get a second stamina wheel so I can traverse the map, then go all out hearts.

Haven’t beat the game yet but stamina all the way! This is less of a problem in totk but in botw it feels like you need full stamina to be able to properly explore anywhere. Even in totk being able to climb up basically anything because of the max stamina is very nice.

Totk I went stamina until I had 3 circles then added some hearts. This allowed me to enjoy exploring and I liked the challenge of combat. The harder enemies could one shot me but that just made them more fun. The fusing and cooking means I can do a lot of encounters with only getting hit once by standard mobs and being able to restore to the 4 hearts I had.

In BotW, stamina bc nothing can really kill you early game, but there are some steep places you’ll wanna get

In TotK, hearts bc with the slight overworld adjustments, you can get pretty much everywhere with 1 wheel now and even basic mobs can one hit you at the start

I like stamina to make exploration more comfortable, and you don’t need hearts if you don’t get hit! Of course, I do get hit so after filling out the first stamina wheel I went up to ~10 hearts, then another stamina wheel. I don’t remember what I did in BotW but probably something similar.

Always hearts. The one time I actally need stamina I’ll just eat a meal or two.