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I generally never bother with bait. It’s more effective to just sneak up on fish while swimming, or flat-out kill them.
We’ve got our first horse, so now’s a good time to register it. This way you can access it from any stable, assuming it doesn’t die of course.
The red is hard to see, but there’s a 20 rupee cost for registering a horse. This is a bargain so sure.
A variety of names, but Spot and Speckle stood out, so I combined the two.
There are three horse stats that can go up to five stars. Stamina is basically how many times you can spur the horse to go faster before it has to rest. Temperament determines how difficult it is to bond with the horse, and the bond is how far along you are on a scale of a hundred.
Saving Spockle’s life and it having a gentle temperament cuts out a ton of work for us. Spockle’s immediately going to be significantly more obedient than most horses we’d normally tame.
Down on the D-Pad lets us whistle our horse to us. It’s also handy to distract enemies, who will come toward the sound of the whistle. There’s also a glitch where you can alternate between the whistle and run buttons to run with infinite stamina, though the position your hand has to be to pull it off isn’t really worth it.
https://mp4.mega64.net/botw/u09/007.mp4
And off we go!
Actually let’s do this shrine first so we have a quick travel spot to this stable. Generally where there’s a stable, there’s a shrine nearby.
This is a puzzle shrine, and a rather simple one.
Same thing here as the final “puzzle” of the Magnesis shrine.
This is really one puzzle. There are four raised platforms, one of which has a ladder. The other three are inaccessible at the moment.
Left side is a room barred by doors. The chest has another Traveler’s Bow.
A couple guardian scouts, no biggie.
Though this one has a melee weapon. It’ll lunge it at you close-range and fire projectiles at you long-range to discourage fighting from a distance.
When defeated, it drops its spear. It’s a nice upgrade, so worth a grab.
Beyond the platform to the right is where the monk is. So we have to figure out how to get up there.
The name of the shrine generally gives a good hint as to how to approach that shrine’s puzzles, and this is no different.
The left door is attacked to these stones, but if we blow them up…
…Magnesis will let us use the door as a bridge.
It also lets us access this Opal.
All the shrines end the same way, so I’ll spare you from that. Got another Spirit Orb, though!
There’s a new traveller here. We tell her we’re passing through.
Ah, I see. Well, I love it here. There are so many horses around. It’s just so delightful. You know, I heard a rumor that there’s a fountain near here where you can revive lost horses. That’s why I traveled all the way here. I…I wanted to be reunited with a dear friend, a horse I lost a long time ago…
Feedback was to take a detour from our current route to visit this horse god. So let’s do so.
Another utensil that can be used as a weapon.
The map has a “Lake of the Horse God” to the southeast. Seems like as good a place to investigate as any!
We’ll have to take the road by horse to the west and then southeast. Alternatively, we could’ve just climbed over stuff without a horse, but we did just get Spockle, so might as well put it to use!
Once you’re far enough away from civilization and going full speed, this music plays. During the day, it slowly transitions into Zelda’s Theme, one of the classic series themes stemming back from Ocarina of Time.
The road is rather narrow through here.
Eventually we reach the Horse God Bridge, which probably means the Horse God is near.
At the end is…uh…
Various Summerwing and Winterwing Butterflies surround it.
Of all the things to find here, I wasn’t expecting this.
Sweet boy…
Uhhh… How can I refuse?
I am Malanya…
If my power is returned to me, I may be able to help you out in some way… So please… I beg of you… Help me regain the power I’ve lost…
When my power has been restored, I should be able to be of use to you, who loves horses so.
I think it’s safe to assume this…thing…is the horse god, though they have no power.
So how do we help it regain its power? You may think a special item, or undergoing a difficult quest.
But nay, what we need is cold, hard cash. Cash we unfortunately don’t have.
What’s this? You don’t have enough rupees?
For now, we can’t do anything about it. If we sold everything we have we might scrounge up the money, but it’ll be easier to come back later when we get more things to sell. Then again, getting the money wouldn’t be that difficult. Either way, we’ll address this later.
The map has stamps we can use to mark locations, which is handy here even if the map itself makes this area rather obvious.
This briefly increases max stamina, which can be quite handy.
Nothing to do but go back, though this weird hole does stand out. You know what that means.
Follow the mountain up to these rocks.
Then push the rock down towards the hole…
…and then push it in from the other side after it overshoots its target.
What a shock!
https://mp4.mega64.net/botw/u09/063.mp4
On the way back to the stable, I run over a goat and get some free meat.
Sure!
Oh, but you should know I’m only interested in horses that are raised with lots of love! How’s your horse faring on that front?
https://mp4.mega64.net/botw/u09/071.mp4
I can tell this little one is just head over heels for you. That settles it! I’ll gladly help you out with some gear!
We have no other bridle or saddle yet, so all we can change is the mane.
We’ve got ten to choose from.
I opt for floral mane for now, but if you guys want something different let me know!
The other thing I was asked to do was investigate the Giant Horse. It’s all the way at the Taobab Grassland, pretty much clear on the other side of the area. It’ll be awhile before we get there.
So let’s pin the area and get to it!
There’s different horse music for night. This time, after awhile, it plays the main Zelda theme, a staple since the very first game. It’s one of the very few places the theme plays too, appropriately enough. Apparently the piano is also a sped-up version of the flute you get from Link to the Past as well.
Same initial path as before, but now at the fork in the road we go west instead of southeast.
This leads us along the southern edge of Hyrule.
I see an interesting structure and, because this is Breath of the Wild, decide to go on a detour (of a detour (of a detour (of a detour))).
Along the way we run across Electric Keese, which…well, the name kinda explains itself, doesn’t it?
I’m not interested in fighting them for now, so we just ride past.
I get to the structure and see a Lizalfos. Seems simple enough.
Crynosis for some leverage…
Simple!
Even got a nice bow upgrade out of it.
Oh, I forgot to mention there’s two Blue Lizalfos as well!
They’re hardier and almost take me down, but I get the first one easily enough.
There’s some good loot on them. This shield is our strongest by far yet.
Seriously, I love doing battle screenshots.
The higher-tier Lizalfos drop tails, which can be useful for various things.
Also higher-tier boomerangs, which I’m more than happy to have.
The chest here contains the final type of arrow, Shock. These things are effective against metal objects and wet things. They’re especially effective in the rain, but generally they’re a solid get.
I then scout for underwater chests since there’s usually one or two around areas like these, and what do you know!
Not all chests have items. Some have cold, hard cash as well!
Then another floating chest to get Crynosis’d.
And more money.
There’s a new type of fish swimming around beyond us.
A shame that armor can’t defend against bombs. Defense boosts are pretty handy, so not a bad get.
In the distance are some glowing ore rocks. In the foreground is a sparkling light running along the shallow water.
It’s a Korok.
As for the ore…
These sell for a good bit of money, but they have some really nice uses as well.
Flint is mediocre, but it’s a solid and cheap way to start a fire if nothing else.
A bunch of bombable rocks unlock…another rock.
And that rock has a Korok.
A star missing a rock on one edge? And a rock nearby?
Yep!
OK, that’s enough faffing around. It’s time to get to that giant horse already.
https://mp4.mega64.net/botw/u09/120.mp4
Well, one last thing for this update. There’s a new enemy, the Talus.
They’re rather sturdy, though a sledgehammer will take them down easily.
And alternatively, you can simply pick them up and throw them. They drop all sorts of stones and gems.
Next time, we’ll get into the hard-fought battle between Link and the giant horse. Expect lots of death.