Breath of the Wild, Part 23: On Every Golden Scale

I don't know if you'll get this feeling from reading about it, but I did quite a bit today. Basically I explored almost the entire plateau area north of Lake Floria (there are a couple different biomes in this part of the world, so I'm taking them one at a time), which led to many interesting discoveries.

The first discovery was that there was a shrine hiding behind a waterfall. The challenge in this one was called "Impeccable Timing", and it involved five balls, two launchers, and two sockets. On the left was a stationary socket that had two walls in front of it that moved up and down, so you had to time the launching of the ball correctly so it landed in the socket instead of hitting one of the walls. On the right was a moving socket, so you had to make the ball land on the socket...and not roll off it. Each time you got a ball in a socket, another launcher shot a chest at you. One had some kind of weapon and the other had a small key. I'm now up to 6 or 7 spirit orbs so I really need to turn them in. I meant to do that in Kakariko and forgot.

I also found several caves behind bomb walls. At least two contained a chest with a purple rupee inside, and one was empty except a ton of ore on its ceiling, which would've been great if I had any bomb arrows...but I don't.

Treasure abounds in this region. I can't tell you how many treasure chests I pulled out of the water through Magnesis or Cryonis, not to mention how many were under black slabs. There are so many black slabs here for some reason. But the treasure chests were usually really good - I even found a gold rupee! (And a couple silver ones.)

As my exploring continued, I happened upon a large circular plain that I was all ready to explore...until I noticed a Lynel standing in the middle of it. And even that didn't even truly deter me until he noticed me too. These things are relentless, and surprisingly agile for their size. They're jumping around all over the place AND they do this scary thing where they run on all sixes! Yikes. Not to mention their excellent archery skills.

So I peaced out of there as quickly as I could and landed in another fairly open plain, this time with a Hinox in the middle. I continue to try to figure out how to get weapons from him without waking him up and/or killing him, and I have not yet succeeded but I have made progress. I thought I could maybe use the Flameblade to cut his necklace string without hitting him. No such luck. So I definitely woke him up and that meant I had to fight him off in (sort of) self-defense. But I learned that if you hit him in the eye, he sits down and cries for a bit, at which time you can just walk up to him and snatch the weapons off his neck. I'm glad I don't have to kill them for sure anymore, but I would like to get to a point where I don't have to hurt them at all.

Next up is very important: I GOT FAROSH'S SCALE!!! It was a bitch, but I did it. I finally broke down and looked up a YouTube video so I knew what to look for. I don't consider this cheating because I knew exactly what I had to do, I just wasn't completing the process for whatever reason. And thank goodness I did because I never would've expected it to look like what it looks like. Instead of automatically getting the scale or getting a cinematic of its falling to the ground below or something like that, it's a barely imperceptible streak of white that shoots off in a random direction. Which means I've probably been getting scales this whole time but didn't know to track them down. I got it now, though, so it's time to head back to the Spring of Courage.

On the way, I ran into a Stone Talus and my first Treasure Octorok, and unfortunately, I didn't get a picture. I also found a Korok puzzle in the bird statues. It's similar to the Korok puzzles where you have to leave apples at the altar of the small statues, but this time you have to leave durians at the altars of the big statues.

At the Spring of Courage, Hylia asked me to drop the scale into the spring, which unlocked the door behind her to reveal a shrine that featured "Shae Katha's Blessing". It also gave me the Thunderspear, which is exactly what it sounds like! After completing this sidequest, the Hylia statue acts like a normal Hylia statue, which means I was able to increase my stamina meter again.

It couldn't have happened at a better time! Since I'm so close to the borders anyway, tomorrow I'll be exploring northern East Faron so I can remove the markers from my map. And it's a mountainous area so that'll mean a lot of climbing. See you next time!

Breath of the Wild, Part 22: Thunderbolt and Lightning, Very Very Frightening Me

A new region to explore is always exciting, and this one is expansive, even noting that a pretty big chunk of it is unexplorable water on the southern coast. And that's not even counting the equally large Hateno region.

Before I unlocked these regions, I started using the pot symbol to mark region borders that aren't equally recognizable. It's one thing if the region ends at a cliff, but sometimes they end in the middle of a field, and that makes it hard to cover ground without accidentally ending up in an uncharted region or re-covering ground I've already seen. But Faron Tower is in the south, so instead of starting in the north where those marks are (so I can take them off the map) and making my way south, I did the opposite. But that's all right because it means I'll be spending a lot of time around Lake Floria, giving me plenty of chances to get Farosh's scale.

This part of Faron is a red clay plateaued area with a rainforest on top. In short, beautiful. The first thing I noticed were statues in a South American Indian style of bird people. Are they Rito? I can't say. And they don't seem to have any purpose except flavor. 

Below the plateau this statue was on is Lakeside Stable, and the stable had a book inside called "Traysi's Rumor Mill volume 6". Traysi's rumor was about a blue bunny that leaves behind lots of rupees if you hit it with an arrow, and she rated the rumor 5 stars...until she realized she didn't have any arrows. Then she changed her rating to 1 star. Traysi's awesome and I cant wait to read more of her work.

My sensor started pinging and I climbed a cliff looking for it...until I realized I was climbing a bomb wall and the shrine was probably behind there. It was. The shrine was called "Halt the Tilt" and it involved Stasising see-saws to get across them. There was a chest inside that I'm not sure how to get, and I kind of think that it involves using a see-saw to launch me somehow, but I can't figure it out and that may not even be right.

On another plateau, there was a pond with a metal door at the bottom. What is the door for? I didn't see anything it could be used for or anything under it, but I might go back and look at it again because it's driving me crazy.

I came across another lake called Rassla that had four chests inside it. That seems to be a common thing in this part of the world. One of the chests contained a Knight's Shield, which is my new best shield.

Soon after that, I finally defeated a Stalnox! I lost my royal bow and royal claymore, but it was worth it because I got a Knight's Broadsword and a...Great Flameblade! It's like a Flameblade but stronger and spikier. Whereas Hinoxes have weapons hanging around their neck as a necklace, Stalnoxes have weapons sticking out of their bones, which is metal as hell.

Also metal as hell? Fucking Farosh, a giant electric dragon who hangs out at Lake Floria all the dang time, but I cannot fucking figure out how to get a damn scale. I know it involves hitting him, but I've tried that and it didn't work! Plus, touching him is pretty much instant death, and if you somehow run out of stamina or fall into the water, you're pretty much done. You won't get out of the water and back in the air near him before he disappears into his portal thing. Think teleporting will help? Absolutely not. If you try that, he flat out disappears, no matter where he was when you tried it. It sucks.

Related to that, though, I got a new sidequest: Thunder Magnet. Someone at the stable is really afraid of lightning and wants to know why it happens all the time around here (she's right about that; it's pretty much constant). I haven't made any headway on that, but I did discover that you can feed a dog and it'll follow you around. It didn't do anything beyond that, but I've heard that sometimes they'll lead you to secrets. Must investigate further.

I also noticed that near the stable was another one of those diving platforms, but I learned it's actually called a watchtower. An NPC told me to climb it to get a better view of a strange formation on top of a waterfall. It looked like a shrine, so I decided to check it out, which involved going through a lot of places I've never been before and being greatly hindered by the rain and lightning. But I eventually made it and Kass was there! Good ol' Kass. He played me a new song that gave me a new sidequest: A Song of Storms. I somehow had to call down lightning to strike this rock. I stood on top of the rock and drew a sword - the only way I know to call down lightning - and it worked! But I died. So I tried again and tried to jump out of the way this time. No luck. Finally, I dropped the sword on top and jumped off, and that did the trick. The lightning blew the rock apart and there was a shrine inside. That shrine was thankfully "Qukah Nata's Blessing", so instant spirit orb for me. Also inside were Rubber Tights, which help protect me from electricity.

Other quick things of note:

1. I found a Korok seed on accident because I saw something weird in the eye of one of the bird statues. It was a luminous stone, and pulling it out caused the Korok to appear.

2. In Riola Spring, on the way to the Qukah Nata shrine, I found three...stations for lack of a better word. The first one was a Korok puzzle. The second one required me to use Magnesis to move a boulder and then Cryonis the two wooden chests below so I could reach them. The final one required me to Cryonis a boulder so that it was withing reach, then Stasis it to hit it out of the way, and then Cryonis the two chests below it. I really appreciated the mixture of Shiekah apps to solve the puzzles.

My final stop for the night was going to be the Great Fairy so I could update my Rubber Tights, but I figured I should stop at Hateno Village on the way. The game already expects me to have gone there and therefore have whatever clothes were in its shop, aka Ventest Clothing. What I found was a whole set of armor! I also noticed that Hylian in this era is based on the English alphabet, so I'm able to read the signs (with some work). Nothing particularly enlightening has jumped out so far, but it's fun.

After that, I upgraded all my new clothes, and was going to visit Hylia to turn in some of my spirit orbs, but I forgot about it. Tomorrow, then!

Breath of the Wild, Part 21: Another Region Down

Today’s post is the first in this series to cover two days, and that’s because I accomplished so little on the first day, it would’ve been absurd to give it a post to itself. You’ll see.

Ok, so I went back to the stable to get Blackwind and there was a guy there who wanted to challenge me to capture a wild horse and bring it back to him in under two minutes. Do you know who you’re talking to, friend? So I did that without breaking a sweat and got a purple rupee for my troubles.

Ok, on to Day 2. (See?)

I learned that if Brigo sees you standing on the ledge of his bridge, he’ll talk you down! That’s adorable, but also hilarious because his bridge is only five feet off the ground. Take it from someone who’s fallen to his death many a time: I couldn’t kill myself on that thing if I wanted to.

It was now time to time explore the southern part of this region, and as I crossed the Big Twin Bridge to get there, two things occurred to me. The first was that some place names don’t appear on the map until you go there, which is very interesting. The second was that the Little Twin must be nearby, which means Misko’s treasure is too. I beelined it for there and found a bomb wall hiding five chests with treasures inside and maybe a weapon too? Overall a good haul and definitely worth the—

Wait. What is this? Another bomb wall?! That’s right! And behind that was another chest. One that carried a Flameblade. A what? Flameblades are forged by Gorons. They glow red hot and can set things on fire. I’m basically freaking Azrael over here.

The southern peak isn’t very notable, but I did find the rocks to help me complete a Korok puzzle from a while back. It was a tough one because the hole was at the top of a slope. At first I tried to slowly push the rocks up, using the other rocks to hold them in place, but that only worked for a while. Eventually I had to resort to Stasising them and hitting them towards the hole.

I also ran into Stone Talus (Junior) and, just like with (Senior), I don’t know how it’s different from a regular Talus. Is this just a Dueling Peaks things or what?

And at one point boulders tumbled down the mountain around me and I don’t know what this was about. I’ve never seen it before or since and have no idea what caused it.

Back near Misko’s treasure cave, there was a shrine that I couldn’t find anywhere. It wasn’t on top of the cliff, it wasn’t on a ledge on the side of the cliff, and I couldn’t see any caves within the cliff that it might be in. I eventually discovered it quite by accident. As I was mounting a bear that happened to run by me - that’s right, you can ride bears in this game - I noticed a bomb wall across the river from me. Sure enough, that’s where it was.

The shrine inside was “Toto Sah Apparatus”, and it was very tricky. There were multiple apparatuses in this one and they all had a trick to them. The first one was controlling a simple straight walkway...but it had a chest hidden on the underside of it. The second one controlled three staircases, with the middle one on a slider. So you had to line up the middle stair with the other two, and then line the whole thing up with your path without having the middle stair slide out of place. And the final one controlled a...sculpture, for lack of a better word - a mass of pathways and ramps and staircases going this way and that. You had to orient it one way to get a chest (I’m pretty sure the first chest that I was required to get, for reasons I’ll get to), and then orient it a different way to get to the end...and pretty much any way you could orient it looked right, so it took some trial and error. Inside the chest was a small key you needed to get to the shrine exit, and I was shocked by this because I haven’t seen a small key anywhere else in the game and I kind of figured we were past this technology.

Back in the woods where I rode the bear, I came across another Stalnox. I tried many, many times to defeat it and I just couldn’t. I needed more bomb arrows, I guess. There was also a hot spring in the woods, which is nice because it heals you without using items or taking time away from you.

As I exited the forest, I noticed a...dam? in the river. No, not a dam, the wall of a fortress! Fort Hateno, to be exact. And there were SO. MANY. Guardians in front of it. I’d say probably a dozen, with another dozen or two stretching from there to the Dueling Peaks Stable. And of course there were a couple real ones, but they’re pretty easy to take out since they can’t move around. Just keep firing those arrows.

And with that, I am finished exploring West Necluda! But before I left, I did one last thing: talk to Hino again. I don’t remember why I did that, but he did tell me it was a full moon tonight and it “looks like it could come falling down any minute.” Nice Majora’s Mask reference!

With West Necluda finished, I made my way south to the region east of Faron. Since the nearest shrine was the one near Highland Stable, and now that I have what I assume is a top level (non-giant) horse, I decided to try the horse riding competition again. It took many tries and I almost quit, but I finally got it with one second to spare. I got an Extravagant Saddle for my trouble, which isn’t worth the trouble, to be honest.

On my way to Faron Tower, I met Meghyn and Nat, truffle hunters. There’s not much to say about them, but they seemed fun.

Faron Tower sucks, by the way. There’s an Electric Wizzrobe hanging around it who makes a swarm of dozens of Keese appear. So as you climb, you have both of those things trying to hit you, and climbing is pretty much a straight shot. No platforms to rest until near the top. It sucks.

And unfortunately, there weren’t as many surprises in the naming as I expected, but the one I did see was a doozy. In the far east of Hyrule, there’s an island; on the island are two named areas: Koholit Rock and Toronbo Beach. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? Neither do I, but I have some guesses. First you should know that Link’s Awakening takes place on KoholiNt Island, and the place you start the game is Toronbo SHORES. So either (1) Link’s dream in that game is inspired by this real life island or (2) these places were named after that story, meaning Link's Awakening takes place after Wind Waker and this game takes place even later than I thought. If it’s #2, that’s huge.

There’s also Lake Floria, which first appeared in Skyward Sword. It’s in roughly the same position as it is in that game, but if this game takes place after Wind Waker, it should be set in New Hyrule. Maybe it was named that because of its location on the map. Either way, I’m mostly excited because Farosh hangs out at Lake Floria and I need a scale from him. Since I’ll be spending a lot of time there, I’ll get plenty chances to obtain one.

Against my better judgment, I went ahead and unlocked Hateno Tower as well. This is the only time I’ll do this. My thinking was that since I’d already been pretty deep into it, I should just unlock it and then I won’t feel bad if I decide to go back for whatever reason. This was a mistake. Both of these regions are quite large, so it’ll be a long time before I’m even close to unlocking a new region. I’m also confused about what the names of these two regions are; “East Necluda” is written on their border. Are they both East Necluda? For ease, I’ll be calling them East Faron and Hateno.

Hateno Tower was covered in thorns, by the way. It was a thorn maze.

Anyway, tomorrow: East Faron!

Breath of the Wild, Part 20: Really? Part 20?

I can't believe I'm already up to Part 20. Even taking into account how the recaps for other games included multiple days in one post, this is already the longest series and I've barely scratched the surface. Where will I be when I finish? Part 50? Part 75? I don't expect to make it to Part 100, but who knows!

When we last left off, I was getting ready to face a Guardian Stalker in a wide open plain. Just the idea of that is quite scary. Even scarier is that there were really THREE Guardians in close proximity. I did manage to take them all out, but each one managed to take me out a couple times too (I'm pretty sure their laser cheats and can shoot through them). Also, I used up all three of my Guardian weapons trying to take them out, so who's the real winner in this scenario?

The area I was in now is not technically Dueling Peaks, but Sahasra Slope (Dueling Peaks foothills, basically), and they were a wide open area that took forever to get around. To ease that pain some, and to fight some mounted Bokoblins, I caught a new horse that I eventually named Blackwind. Blackwind's stats are 4/3/4, which I think may be the best non-giant-horse stats in the game. I could be wrong about that. Maybe there's a 4/4/4. I do know that only giant horses have 5's, so I'm at least close.

There was another damn Stone Talus in this area, but this one I didn't fight. All I had on me were blades, and I didn't feel like destroying any of them. But that's all right. He'll be there when I come back.

On my way to the stable to register Blackwind, I rode through Kakariko again, and figured that was a good time to get a new heart container since the statue was right there. I did just that, so I'm up to six now.

A little past the village, I ran into a giant Korok named Hestu. He was almost as tall as a tree, whereas normal Koroks come up to about my shin, or my knee at most. He was surprised I could see him because it's been 100 years since anyone has. He was upset because monsters stole his maracas, and he said he would help me out if I returned them. So I went nearby and beat up some Bokoblins and got the maracas back, and when he returned them, he told me that he uses Korok seeds in his maracas, so if I have some Korok seeds, he'll take them off my hands and UPGRADE MY INVENTORY.

If I have some Korok seeds.

This cat wants to know if I have some Korok seeds.

Man, I have 100 Korok seeds. I'm about to be carrying all. kinds. of weapons in this bitch.

Or not. I mean, technically yes, but after two upgrades, he peaces off to Korok Forest and told me I'd have to find him there to get more. I don't even know what direction Korok Forest is in (I'm guessing southeast, but I suppose we'll find out), so it looks like it'll be a while before I get some more. Still, two weapons upgrades is still quite helpful. Thanks, Hestu!

Also, each upgrade apparently costs one more Koroks seed than the one before it, so they're going to get very expensive very fast. But by my calculations, that means I can currently get 11 more, and I'm just a couple shy from 12. By the time I find Korok Forest, that number could be up to 20 or more, and I'll still be able to get more after that. That's nuts.

Once I got to the stable, I met some interesting characters. The first was Hino, who studies the moon. He told me all about the Blood Moon, and I can talk to him at any time to find out what phase the moon is in. When I talked to him, it was a Seven Day Moon. I don't know how many phases there are.

I also met Prissen and Dak, short for Domidak. They're two brothers who are looking for the hidden treasure of an ancient pirate named Misko. They have a poem that's supposed to point to its location, but they can't decipher it. And they mistakenly told me this. They're not very good plunderers. I, on the other hand, am a quite good plunderer and I will definitely find it before they do.

The last thing I did was get back up to 100 Korok seeds, and I noticed one was near a frog statue. What's up with these frog statues? I've been seeing them all over Hyrule? Frogs and frog-shaped creatures are a recurring thing in Zelda games, is it related to them somehow? I need to know!

Breath of the Wild, Part 19: Taking a Peak or Two at West Necluda

It’s been a couple of days since I played, and I didn’t do this write up right after like I usually do, so the details are starting to get a little fuzzy. And I mostly just explored, so I don’t have much to report. Here are the highlights:

I saved a girl named Leekle (or something close to that) from Stalkoblins. She claimed to run back to the Riverside Stable so she’s safe, but I never saw her there. Did she die on the way?

I met a guy named Kazul who told me to go to a place (bar?) called Fang & Bone, near Skull Lake. No thanks, Kazul.

I ran into a Stone Talus on Dueling Peaks and it was called “Stone Talus (Senior)”. Not sure what that’s about.

I came across several boulders that I suspected were part of a Korok puzzle, but there was no pit around like there usually is. Instead, I had to roll it between two trees.

As I climbed the mountain, my shrine sensor started pinging. I reached the top and didn’t see any shrine...until I looked at the other peak. Inside was a challenge called “Twin Memories”. It had 25 ball sockets with 5 balls. You have to put the balls in the right sockets, but there’s nothing to tell you what the right pattern is. Except there is.

See, what I eventually discovered is that there’s another shrine right below the peak I was originally on. And it has a challenge also called Twin Memories. It’s the same setup except that the balls are placed differently. Here’s the trick: the ball placement in Shrine A is the solution for Shrine B and vice versa. Except it’s not quite that simple because there’s another trick. In one, the locked door is in front of you; in the other, it’s to the left. You can’t just copy the pattern, you have to make sure it’s oriented with the door correctly. 

These are cool shrines that are basically two orbs for the price of one, but they’re not as cool as “The Water Guides”, which is currently my favorite shrine.

It’s down at the bottom of Dueling Peaks, near a stable. But it has wooden spikes all around it, so you have to glide down to get to it. When you enter, you’re met by a small walkway with a canal of water flowing across it and a raised platform on the other side. You have to Cryonis an ice block to get high enough to jump onto the platform, unless you want to get to the even higher platform with the chest on it, which means you have to Cryonis the waterfall! This creates horizontally-jutting ice blocks you can use like stairs. 

After this, the branches. If you keep going straight, there’s a giant staircase to a raised platform. But you can also turn right, where a staircase will take you to a platform that has a locked door leading to the exit and a ball socket that will open the door. Parallel the giant staircase is an even more giant waterfall with a series of ramps sticking out of it. 

Here’s where it gets interesting: a puzzle ball periodically rolls down a ramp into the abyss below, so you have to put an ice block in the right place to bounce the ball to the next ramp. But guess what? The next ramp is actually a seesaw, so it tips when the ball lands on it and rolls the wrong direction. So you have to put an ice block underneath the seesaw to prevent it from tipping. THEN you learn that the ball ends up just a smidge too short to land on the proper platform, so you have to put an ice block in the right spot to keep it going. Fantastic stuff.

Upon exiting, I noticed the spikes were now gone, making this an easy way to get to the Dueling Peaks Stable. But I wasn’t ready to there yet, so I kept exploring Dueling Peaks and came across a very alive and very scary Guardian Stalker. My Switch died there, and thank goodness for that.

Will I die there too? Find out tomorrow!