The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY!) (Last Update: September 6)

Messing around with self-hosting the MP4s, so I’ll test that out for the next couple updates. If it goes well, I’ll throw some money down at it and replace all the links in previous updates, as I think a few are now broken due to one of the hosts being discontinued.

Next update will probably be Friday at the earliest.

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Let’s check this shrine out, then.

oh no

Yep, another Gyro shrine. Sigh.

https://mp4.mega64.net/botw/u40/003.mp4

The first one is a very simple sliding puzzle, at least. Nothing major.

The second has a switch that will rotate blocks, giving you enough time to get past the lasers.

At the end is a large floating block that will travel around the walkway.

We want to time it so we can jump on it as it rises from the left side. Fortunately the edge of the top side is blocked so you won’t accidentally walk over it as you navigate on top.

This is so we can get a spear that’s inevitably going to be too weak to care about by the time you trek up here. I imagine most people who reach Akkala will have reached it through Zora’s Domain.

The last puzzle is one of those cheap plastic toys where you try to get all the balls in the holes. At least it’s only three of them, but the thing is too sensitive and it ends up taking forever for me to get it down.

I may have tossed the balls in rage a couple times.

But it’s no big deal, and I get the balls where they need to be, leading to the monk.

After one last fond farewell to the mechanism…

We finish the shrine.

Next up, let’s visit the nearby stable. There’s actually two stables in the Akkala region, interestingly enough.

Let’s start off by looking into this side quest.

Just relaxing.

We’ll see about that… Hmmm… What’s that? What do you have there? That’s armoranth, isn’t it?!

Knock yourself out.

Thank you! For you to be walking around with my favorite plant… It seems you and I may just get along after all. That said…

Even though we’ve already found him, we can ask about Hudson.

Hudson? Oh… That carpenter did stop by here, as it were. He said something like, “I’m gonna build a village from the ground up.” I think he went off toward Lake Akkala. Lake Akkala is to the east of here. If you’re curious, you should head over there.

To start the quest, we need to tell Jana we’re a traveler.

I see… A traveler, eh? In that case, I have a request for you.

But apparently there’s a certain insect she’s dying to see in real life. She won’t tell me about it, though. I suppose there are some things you just can’t talk about with those you’re closest to. Anyway, would you mind talking to her and trying to figure out which silly insect she’s so crazy about?

Sounds simple enough. We’ll get to that in a bit.

First, Beedle as usual.

Huh? Could that be?

P-p-please! Would you please consider giving your energetic rhine beetle to Beedle?! I just can’t leave here without that beetle! I’ll trade you a energizing elixir for it!

Sure, why not.

You just don’t see these very often! This has to be a sign… Anyway, back to business…

This time, Beedle carries some lizards. I decline for now, but they may be useful to remember later.

I also found a mop.

This one was added to the DLC and points toward one of the new items added in. Might as well give it a read!

Basically, this DLC item acts as Mark/Recall from other games. You mark a spot you’re at and you can teleport directly to that spot without needing to visit a shrine. Definitely has its uses! You can only mark one spot at a time, though.

As for where it’s located, well, I’ll surely be going there eventually. It’s certainly something worth showing off, but that will have to wait for awhile.

Just some traveler, no biggie.

Hmph. Show-off.

Yeah, we’re pretty good.

Your modesty is overwhelming… Anyway… I was really into sword fighting, but I’m in a bit of a rut with it. Doesn’t help that the sword I’m using right now is way too blunt.

Legendary sword? Have we heard of this before…?

That’s right! I finally figured out that it’s near Death Mountain. However…it doesn’t seem to be in this direction. Maybe it’s on the opposite side, closer to the Woodland Stable

We’re on the eastern side of Death Mountain, so I imagine Woodland Stable and this legendary sword would be on the western side. Might be something worth looking into later.

This is probably the sister Jana was talking about earlier.

Hey?

Hey, guess what! I have? A SECRET!

Tell us your secret!

Tee heeeee! OK, I’m gonna tell you! Ready? Here it cooooomes!

Dragonflies?

Yeah!

But when I showed them to Jana, she said their eyes were creepy and got mad.

Oh… That was a secret, wasn’t it?! Jana is gonna be mad at me again! But I think that’s because the pictures were all up close and stuff! I bet real ones are super cute!

We’ve got a lead. Somehow I don’t think Jana will be excited to hear the news…

No… No way! Of all things, she wants to see a gross dragonfly?!

Ugggh… Anything but dragonflies… Just thinking about their eyes makes me feel sick. I see. So Gleema knows that I despise dragonflies, and that’s why she wouldn’t tell me how much she loves them… Well, this is her birthday wish… I didn’t have a choice.

I want to surprise Gleema, so don’t tell her about this!

The warm and cold ones are easy enough, but the electric ones are a pain. They’re one of those types that only spawn in rain, and only in certain regions. It may be easier just to hope we find Beedle selling one at one of the stables.

Ah…

Yep!

OK, good.

They say he’s the owner of something called the Fang and Bone. It only appears at night, or so they say. It seems the East Akkala Stable up north is hiring soldiers for protection because of the rumors about Kilton. Be careful out there.

Something to be aware of. Maybe we’ll check that out soon.

Akkala’s pretty hilly, but not really mountainous, plus we’ll be sticking to the roads because there’s not really much off the beaten path on the route we’re planning to travel. Plus, the Dark Knight needs his dark steed!

As usual, there’s a variety of travelers on the road.

This one is actually holding her own against a blue Bokoblin.

Doesn’t stop us from giving an assist.

Yet another eli- …what.

It’s called monster extract. A guy named Kilton brews this stuff up at Fang and Bone. It’s a kind of flavoring that makes any food taste amazing. I know it’s made of monsters, but it’s good stuff.

They say he does all kinds of hair-raising research with them and came up with a bunch of strange stuff as a result. I kind of want to meet him at least once to see if the rumors are true, but he’s a hard guy to track down.

Didn’t we see such a thing on the map? Really sounds like we should check this out later.

For once, there’s travelers besides Hylians in the area.

The road there’s dangerous, but there are travelers who go to try out the hot springs… Or so I’ve heard! That sounds dangerous, though… Non-Gorons would be risking their lives if they tried that.

Hot springs, huh? May be worth taking a trip at some point to get a nice soak? I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?

First a Goron, and now a Gerudo.

You there! Hylian kid! It’s nice to meet you. Out here in Akkala, we have all sorts: Zora, Goron, Rito, you name it. Time was, we didn’t mix much, but things change. And I’m glad they have!

Easy there, though, kid. You’re way too young for me.

The Akkala region is gorgeous in general. It’s perpetually autumn up here, with lots of small hills and amazing scenery, even for this game.

After a few distractions…

…we make our way to the northeastern area of Akkala.

We’ve reached East Akkala Stable. Next time, we’ll chat up the people here and maybe investigate that odd Kilton fellow and see what his deal is.

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Another stable, another opportunity to chat up the locals, starting with…

If you find another, please come again tomorrow! I’m just going to concentrate all my love on this little guy for today…

Some decent stuff. Might be good to remember a couple of these…

There’s a couple of quests here, including one relevant to our current goals, whatever they may be.

I’ve been on patrol duty lately. The name’s Hoz!

Tell us about it.

Yes!

He runs a shop called Fang and Bone. They say he goes around pushing some kind of cart night after night. He’s been making people around here uncomfortable with his suspicious and otherworldly activity…

We’ve heard about him but haven’t met him yet.

I see… Well, if you see any suspicious people, please tell me what they look like in detail!

Basically all we have to do is take a picture of Kilton. Sounds simple enough. Might be time to pay this fellow a visit.

I don’t know how to play it, but I don’t really care. The information is probably bogus, anyway! I mean, the original version is just so perfect…

I’m personally a fan of the goon variant myself. Or a simple game of Stone Sheet Clippers.

Here’s the other quest around here.

Pretty much. What’s your story?

Sorry! I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Nobo. I’ve traveled everywhere, but at the end of the day, I like Akkala best of all. That’s why I’m pretty familiar with stuff around here.

Where’s Hudson?

Hudson? Who’s that? He’s a carpenter? I’m not quite sure… I’ve been hearing clanging and banging by Lake Akkala. That’s south of here. Why don’t you go check it out?

This area?

Let’s see… If you go west of the stable, there’s a sacred place called the Spring of Power!

Maybe it was part of a ritual the princess of Hyrule Castle used to perform?

Farther areas?

There’s a lighthouse-lookin’ home north of here. No one was there when I last stopped by, though…

So we need some sort of sacred relic… Might be worth investigating, even if we don’t have it yet. Or maybe we do!

?

???

Oh, sorry! Guess I was daydreaming. Life has been so dull since I married into this family. I used to pass the time by staring at the lantern’s blue flame

Lab?

Yes… Its director used to light the lanterns with a blue flame for his experiments. But he’s getting up there in age now, so maybe he can’t get out as often as he used to.

They remodeled it from an old lighthouse, so it’s easy to spot.

We’ll get to that eventually. Maybe.

Who’s ready for another Rumor Mill?

These things are a pain to find. I’ve been lucky to see three so far and unlucky that I only managed to get treasure from one of them.

We know Kilton hangs out at the skull-shaped lake at night. It’s close to 8, so we should head over there soon.

Before we go, look who else is here!

Hey! We meet again. Are you out traveling as well? I’ve traveled all over the world, so I’m happy to tell you about new places, if you want.

Clues are always welcome!

Hmm… I know I’ve seen that spring and that Goddess Statue before… There was a place like this at the ruins in North Akkala Valley, to the west of here.

So we’re done here. But you may have noticed coming in that there was a shrine here.

So let’s check it out!

OH NO

Fortunately, this one is very simple as far as the gyro puzzles go.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u41/074.mp4

Use your controller’s gyro to swing the hammer. This one is simple enough and directly leads you to the monk.

However, there’s a bonus area.

The top section is slanted downward, and since the goal’s right side has an incline, it’ll be tough to jump the hole directly without overshooting things. It’s really all about trying until you get the right angle to knock the ball at the goal. The hammer controls don’t help.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u41/078.mp4

Here’s my winning attempt. The ball certainly takes its time to enter the hole.

Our reward is a Great Frostblade, which certainly isn’t a bad thing!

Goodbye, crappy spear!

Goodbye, gyro dungeon!

Hello, Spirit Orb!

Next stop, the skull lake.

After a Korok Detour, of course.

You…might want to get out of here, buddy.

There’s a shrine jutting up all on its own.

Then, suddenly, I feel a breeze and some familiar music starts playing…

Music: Dragon

So…this doesn’t look like Naydra. Must be another dragon!

The chase begins.

I bomb a Fire Keese, which was kind enough to burn grass and create an updraft for me.

This dragon is too far above us to shoot at from here. But at the same time, I don’t know if I can catch up to it.

I’ll certainly try, though!

Eventually, it came down to a choice between the Skull Lake and running beyond Akkala to reach the dragon.

I chose the lake this time. I’m sure we’ll meet the dragon again someday.

I don’t want night to finish up before I find Kilton, so I activate the shrine so I can teleport to it later, then head on down. We’ll get to the shrine after I find Kilton.

Music: Kilton’s Monster Shop

Turns out there’s something…strange on the other eye of the lake.

I believe we’ve found who we were looking for. Let’s chat him up.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u41/104.mp4

… Hmm?

Uh… What’s your deal?

Me? My name is Kilton.

Well that’s…wait, monster shop?

Yes. I’m opening a monster shop called Fang and Bone. But I’m still preparing for my grand opening. Here’s my business card…

I’m…going to need that card back. It’s the only one I have.

Not a fan.

Although, it saddens me to know I truly am all alone in this world.

Then he ends the conversation. If we try again…

Uh, sure, I love monsters, whatever.

Oh, I really ADORE them. Totally.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u41/121.mp4

I just love the field of monster research so much that I decided to open a shop all about monsters! I call it…Fang and Bone! I travel all around Hyrule in search of rare and exciting monster parts. But I’m not sure which village I should visit next.

I suppose I could go all the way to Gerudo Town or Lurelin Village. But Lake Akkala is much closer.

I can’t just sit around while there are monsters to be studied! I’m off!

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u41/133.mp4

So that’s Kilton. His shop’s a bit different from the other ones we’ve seen, but more on that once we find him.

From now on, he’ll start showing up at all the villages he listed during the night, though he’s in some really distant places for some of these areas. I’m sure we’ll come across him sooner or later.

Anyway, so about that shrine…

Turns out it’s just one where reaching the shrine is challenge enough. Even though it wasn’t much of a challenge since we paraglided from a pretty high area to begin with.

A fresh one of these isn’t bad. Lets me toss my old one!

Another Orb gotten!

Alright, time to report our results.

Before we do so, there’s someone new to talk to.

Welcome to East Akkala Stable! The premiere stable of the east! By the way, good sir… The outside is crunchy while the inside is chewy. Take one bite, and your energy will go through the roof!

Sounds tempting.

Thank you soooo much! Oh, one thing to note… Akkala buns go bad fast since they’re made of fresh ingredients.

Sure, whatever.

Thank you soooo much!

OK.

Hm? That’s odd. Your energy didn’t go through the roof?

Eh.

Allow me to take a look…

I see… How strange.

Well, I must return to my mission now. Farewell!

Another quest done.

So…you know what, why don’t I open things back up to voting. Where to next? There’s the lab, that weird place north of it, that Spring of Power, the eastern archipelago, we could meet Kilton again, explore more of Akkala, revisit old areas, check some shrines, recover some memories, find that legendary sword, find the Divine Beasts, explore the western half of Hyrule, or just say this is a good time to finish the game and take on Ganon. Thoughts?

Also another Stamina Orb vote.

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Today we’re going to focus on this quest…well, that and all the other random stuff that usually happens in our misadventures.

The quest doesn’t give a marker, but considering the appearance of this area to the west of the stable…I’m willing to guess this is probably it.

It’s pretty much a straight shot down to the spring.

You know, when you’re ignoring distractions. But these leaves look awfully weird…

There we go.

Looks like we found the spring. Now let’s see if we have the relic we need.

Offer Dinraal’s scale, received from the red spirit, to the Spring of Power. I, Goddess Hylia, will guide you.

The Triforce consists of three parts: Courage, Wisdom, and Power. We found the Spring of Courage in the woods of southeast Hyrule, which requires Farosh’s scale. Now the Spring of Power requires Dinraal’s scale.

But we’ve got the information to parse this together. Remember that we’ve also encountered the Spring of Wisdom at the peak of a tall snowy mountain. You may remember the giant dragon we fought in the air. At the end, the dragon dropped a scale, which we offered in the spring, opening the way to a shrine. Now remember that we encountered a red dragon in the northwestern part of Akkala last update, watching it head west.

Our best bet is to head back to the area, but give ourselves a better chance to chase it until we can find a point to shoot at it and grab its scale.

That’s not all, though! There’s also a memory within this spring.

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u42/016.mp4

https://youtu.be/H92QjJYXi1A

I come seeking help…regarding this power that has been handed down over time…

And yet…

Music: Link’s Memories - Slumbering Power

And Mother said her own power would develop within me.

Father has told me time and time again…

Curse you…

I’ve spent every day of my life dedicated to praying! I’ve pleaded to the spirits tied to the ancient gods… And still the holy powers have proven deaf to my devotion. Please just tell me… What is it…?

The running theme of these memories are Zelda’s struggles to find her powers. The prophecy relies on the courage of a hero and the sealing powers of the princess to keep the beast at bay. But being a figure of such vital importance is…kind of stressful for a teenage girl, especially if you’re struggling to even obtain such powers. This becomes less a prayer session and more Zelda venting some frustration and crying out in desperation over still not having these powers.

And of course this game is minimalist in a lot of its music, especially past themes, but that just makes them hit harder when they do land. So Zelda’s Lullaby shines pretty well here.

Meanwhile, all Link remembers is how incredibly awkward it was to pretend not to listen or pay attention. Watching people meltdown in person is…not usually a great memory later on.

Anyway, the actual entrance is obscured with vines we can simply walk through.

And right outside are a bunch of flying guardians. Oh, joy.

The quarry is lower than the surrounding terrain of course, with several large column-like rocks dotting the area.

And of course, since it’s a quarry, there’s ore and gems to be had. We do want 500 rupees to get that Great Fairy, after all!

We just, er, have to be careful.

So…what could go wrong?

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u42/045.mp4

Oh.

Somehow I don’t die and come off a richer Champion of Hyrule. Kind of a shame Link didn’t have a savings account a hundred years ago, he’d be pretty loaded by now.

The ore tracker draws me to the northwestern mountainous area. The dragon spawns close by, so the plan is to get some more gems and scale upward until night falls, then make our way parallel to the dragon, with the idea of paragliding from a great height to get much-needed distance, since that dragon moves pretty fast.

So higher we climb.

Quite the view!

Also quite the view!

We’re not alone, however. A few powerful enemies pepper the mountain paths.

Not that they’re much issue.

Yawn, another spear.

So onward we travel on the edge of the mountains.

Eventually we reach the south end of Skull Lake. We’ll continue along the western edge since it’s relatively unexplored.

There’s the rare ruined building here and there.

With the usual rewards, of course.

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u42/072.mp4

And of course it’d be pointless to climb a mountain if you didn’t have foes to knock off it!

Further up, we find another Meteo Wizzrobe.

It guards some really valuable loot.

I decide to let it live because I heard if left alive, it’ll pull a trick from its sleeve.

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u42/080.mp4

SOMEBODY PLEASE SEND HELP

It goes freaking ballistic and rains living hell on the area.

It’s time to cool off.

Night has fallen. Hopefully the dragon will show up again soon since it was dark when we first saw it.

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u42/085.mp4

I pass the time in my usual ways.

And then…

Music: Dragon

Jackpot!

This leads us to this hot spring area.

Hot springs are rare in this world, but relaxing in one will slowly recover your health.

Hmmmm.

This area looks intriguing.

And apparently there’s a shrine on top of that massive pillar!

Sadly, I don’t think the dragon will wait for us if we explored here, so we’ll mark it and revisit it later.

Finally, it starts descending rapidly.

Towards that very large skeleton…

Blast… We couldn’t catch up to it.

I think this skeleton is supposed to be a callback to a giant creature in a previous Zelda game, but I’m not sure which one.

Anyway, I have an idea.

The dragon approached here around dawn, so if we wait until morning…

There we go.

This is Dinraal, the dragon of fire.

You can’t kill or harm the dragons. The way the dragons work is you simply shoot them with an arrow.

The first time you shoot one, they’ll always drop a scale. However, they’ll respawn daily, and always in the same locations. Subsequent times, if you shoot them in their fangs or horns, you’ll grab shards of those parts instead. Anywhere else on the body results in another scale.

We might end up farming these parts in the future…

For now, though, we’ve got what we were looking for. Time to head back!

If ya have any ore, DO NOT eat it! Instead, sell it at this stable! Though, I guess a non-Goron wouldn’t be tempted to eat it anyway… Weird.

Alright. We’ve got the sacred relic. Let’s finish this up!

Quest complete!

Now we have just one things left to do…

What, you think we were going to enter the Spring of Power and not come out of this without a challenge of physical fortitude?

Major Strength Challenges are more endurance than anything, namely weapon endurance. Foes have a ton of HP, so we’ll want to bump our offense up high. Fortunately, the move set the scout has is identical to past fights.

This Scout has two powerful weapons and a sturdy shield. This won’t be a cakewalk.

Spin to Win.

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u42/133.mp4

There’s no columns in this arena for the scout to spin into, so we have to make our own!

I burn through several weapons during the course of this fight.

It’s basically the same as every other one of these fights, just five times or so longer.

It does drop some nice loot, though.

This shield is now our strongest shield.

The spear’s good, not the strongest spear but it’ll do nicely against Guardian enemies.

And this is really nice for a one-handed weapon.

And a bonus.

Another job well done!

And we finally get another heart. Hooray, now we’ll die slightly less often! Probably!

Next time, we’ll spend money to acquire more power and then explore the eastern coast of Akkala.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone enter the Spring of Power from the right side, tbh.

I can’t remember if I entered it through the secret entrance or from above the first time I played. Pretty sure I found it using the map, so after I found it I just came in from above because that’s the fastest way to enter directly from the stable.

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We’ve got a bit to do today.

First off, our misadventures have left us fabulously wealthy again. Let’s go blow it all!

Thank you. You are too kind.

Pretty much the same animation as last time.

Music: Great Fairy Fountain

I was expecting someone…bigger, I guess… But a slim little lad like you will do just fine. Yes. Thanks to you, my power has been returned to me. And I think you’ll agree - a good deed deserves a good reward.

With the second fairy, we can now upgrade our clothing to level two, though of course that means it’ll require rarer materials. Fortunately, the Great Fairy in Kakariko will now also upgrade our clothing to level 2, and as we find more fairies these two will upgrade to further levels.

We have the mats to upgrade all three pieces of armor for the Hylian (8 Bokoblin Horns and 5 Bokoblin Fangs), Sheikah (5 Blue Nightshade and 5 Sunset Fireflies), and Zora (5 Lizalfos Talons and 5 Hyrule Bass) sets. We can do one of the Climber’s Set (5 Electric Keese Wings and 5 Hightail Lizards), which I opt to do the Bandanna of course. Also two of the Soldier’s Set (3 Keese Eyeballs and 3 Moblin Guts, got 7 of each).

Sadly, we don’t have the necessary mats for the Rubber Helm or the Champion’s Tunic. The tunic upgrades are slightly annoying, though much easier to obtain than all the various Amiibo armors that just happen to almost all require Star Fragments…

https://e.mega64.net/botw/u43/022.mp4

The second-tier upgrades have their own unique animation as well.

There we go! Most sets have 8 defense at L2. Sheikah set is a mere 6, while the armor is a really nice 12.

I upgrade everything I can. You see, there’s a reason you want to get clothes to L2 in particular.

Set Bonuses! Many sets give an additional bonus if you upgrade all three pieces of clothing to L2. The Stealth Set adds Night Speed Up, which lets you move faster at night. The Tingle Clothes also let you do this, but the Stealth Set has the added bonuses of higher defense, added stealth, and not creeping everyone out.

The Zora Set adds Swim Dash Stamina Up, which means when using Y to dash in the water, it takes less stamina to do. You can swim much longer before drowning because of this, and it’s a really nice upgrade in general.

Even though we got the Hylian Set to L2, it has no set bonus due to being the generic option. Likewise, the Soldier Armor would have no set bonus either since its gimmick is its higher defense.

Now it’s time to explore! What is this thing? Why is it here?

https://e.mega64.net/botw/u43/031.mp4

How did Link survive that?

There’s various ruins scattered about Akkala. Not as thick with them as Hyrule Field, of course.

I heard there’s a great big monster along the way to East Akkala Stable, and I’ve been shaking ever since. Shaking with excitement, that is!

Uh, good luck with that.

My plan for today is to explore the eastern coast of Akkala. In particular, there’s this weird spiral area that sticks out as something we should visit.

More ruins.

This is the only point of interest, though.

There’s a rather steep descent to the bottom. Along the way are flowers, where hitting one spawns another.

Guess what they lead to!

Anyway, you may have seen a ball right next to us.

And here’s the center of that spiral.

Hmmmmm.

The solution is obvious. Take the ball to the center!

The obvious way is to walk the entire length. But that’s long, boring, and littered with enemies. If only there was a faster way…

https://e.mega64.net/botw/u43/056.mp4

Scratch that, a faster way that doesn’t require competence on my end.

We need this for a side quest.

Anyway, I opt to use Cryonis to either push the ball forward or to have a platform from which I can toss the ball.

Eventually I reach the middle part of the spiral.

Where it just so happens that a swarm of various enemies are hanging out. Lizalfos and Moblins, but since it’s night the skeletal enemies and Keese also pop up.

There’s a ton of them, so I get beat up a bit.

Eventually I wipe them out.

https://e.mega64.net/botw/u43/070.mp4

I didn’t notice the ball flying into my face when I let off the bomb.

After a minute of searching for the ball, I find it and realize what happened.

Turns out I accidentally discovered that much faster way to move the ball to the center!

It even hits the center area on the first try! Now we just need to swim over and finish this thing up.

After this Korok, of course.

Bingo.

Now for our reward!

These things are pretty rare, so a free one is handy. Soon they may even have more value than vendor fodder!

And another Spirit Orb, of course.

Next, I backtrack to those ruins, but I decide to go beyond this time.

You see, there’s four large islands nearby, and they look interesting enough to explore.

This particular one looks pretty well-guarded. Probably because there’s a shrine on it.

You’re supposed to enter from the other end and reach this island last. But of course, enough stamina and you can go wherever you want!

A few enemies and flying Guardians, but the only real concern are the Octoroks.

A decayed Guardian and a stone slab…

Of course.

And we found our shrine!

This is a rather simple one-note shrine.

At first, this seems simple. Drop the metal barrel on the scale to lift Link up to the platforms.

The issue is the platform doesn’t rise up high enough to climb up there.

“Drop and Rise” suggests dropping the barrel from a large height might do it, but the thing isn’t that heavy.

…That may be, though.

https://e.mega64.net/botw/u43/107.mp4

Looks like that worked! The chest gives us a Diamond for our troubles.

Repeat and we get our next Spirit Orb!

Honestly, there’s not much else to this group of islands. A few minor treasures and some Koroks, but otherwise they’re more obstacles than anything.

That said, even though I already knew that from the first time I played, I do it again because it’s simply fun to explore these tall islands that still have plenty of secrets between them. It helps that there are streams of air to propel you upward, so you can thoroughly explore each island without having to climb constantly. And it’s also fun to walk between islands on these small bridges. Seriously, who else would be crazy enough to willingly walk on these things? Link’s not the Hero of Courage for nothing!

There’s lots of ores scattered on these islands, which is always nice.

In the middle of these magnetic rocks is a magnetic chest with Topaz inside.

Some gliding around leads me to this odd bridge.

At the end of it is a Korok.

These rocks hide a really nice item. This is the ice version of the Meteor Rod.

I already have two ice weapons now so might as well get rid of one to make room.

I really would not want to cross that bridge.

On top of one island is a decayed Guardian and, weirdly enough, a boar. Just how did that boar get on the island, and how is it managing to survive? These things are small and very steep!

Nice try, buddy.

On to the next island!

Speaking of the islands, here are the names.

A random sledgehammer. I guess some brave people used to mine these islands?

Some ore behind here.

Some unfortunately encounters here.

And some more air exploration here.

That’s an odd one. Don’t look down!

A beautiful view as we make our way to the next island.

But first, some more bomb arrows.

Anyway, the last island.

Another decayed Guardian, and another boar. Do the boars cross these bridges, or what?

Weird thing: There are fish in that pond. Don’t ask me how.

On top of this island are Big Hearty Radishes, which are really nice to have.

Finally, this small island with a bombable stack of rocks.

WHAT A SURPRISE.

And this is how you’re supposed to reach these islands.

Nothing too exciting, but as I said, I genuinely loved exploring them again. They just look so cool and there’s so many interesting things that make you wonder just what the deal was with these islands.

For instance, how were these bridges made? Who was crazy enough to make such flimsy-looking bridges at that height?

I think we found the old home of the person who used to mine these islands.

And at the other end is, uh…

There’s this large quarry with a weird-looking wall that the shrine sensor is screaming at.

It’s a shrine hidden behind a bombable wall. Bomb Arrows will do it here.

This is the intermediate level of the Tests of Strength.

I mean, I’ve beat the hardest one. This guy has the same moves as the rest. There’s really nothing new to talk about here.

So let’s get to the loot.

And what loot it is!

Alright, that’s enough goofing around. Next time, let’s finally check out that lab we’ve been hearing about for so long.

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Click here to open the update!

Before we start today’s adventure, let’s get creepy with Beedle.

Never change, Beedle.

Today’s the day we finally check out that lab we’ve heard so much about.

It’s a mostly uneventful trek up this steep road.

…Mostly.

I reach the lab, but that Guardian might be a problem later. Let’s go ahead and take care of it.

While we could beat it up, why not use one of our instant kill weapons?

https://f.mega64.net/botw/u44/011.mp4

The Ancient Arrow will kill almost anything in one hit. There are exceptions, like the scouts within shrines and a lot of hardier enemies. But they’re perfect for Guardians, at least if you hit them directly in the eye.

In fact, Guardians are the only thing that drop loot when shot with Ancient Arrows.

Anyway, the lab. Let’s check it out.

Coming in is…uh…

An…it’s…

Hmmm… Hm?

OK, so there’s someone…slightly less weird to talk to.

Yep!

Hm? Hm. That’s too bad. If you WERE the legendary Link, there would be something important I’d need to tell you. But how can I determine with full certainty whether or not you are the true hero? Yes, how indeed? Hm?

Yep, to progress we need to strip down for Robbie.

Hm. Yes, I acknowledge you as the real Link. So let us begin again… I am the lead Guardian researcher and director of the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab.

https://f.mega64.net/botw/u44/031.mp4

In any case, I really am impressed that you made it all the way out to this rather remote location.

Well, sort of

The latter.

Hm? Are you certain? Hm! So she’s as crazy as ever. Okeydoke. Knowing her, I’m guessing she screwed up some experiment. Hm, hm, yes. Typical. Let us return to the subject at hand, hm?

Yeah, we may have heard about that.

Let’s hear it!

Hm! Yes, I see. In that case…

…to rid Hyrule of its dark influence…and above all…to rescue Princess Zelda, who is now a prisoner of the Calamity. We have worked ourselves to the bone conducting our research. For a time, I feared I’d pass before we could prevail. HOWEVER! You, Link, managed to awaken before this old sack of flesh gave out. That means…

You! Now is the time to join forces with us Sheikah, yes?

Sounds good to us!

You and I are going to join forces to put an end to the Calamity!

Hm! Hm? Did you catch all that?

Hm. I’m afraid someone will have to bring the blue flame from the ancient furnace again…

Oh, gee. I wonder who will be the one to bring the blue flame to the ancient furnace.

Before we puzzle out who this lucky person will be, let’s chat up Robbie again.

So what’s this about ancient soldier gear?

Ancient soldier gear is something we Sheikah developed with ancient power. It’s easy to make it. Yes, hm! A breeze!

And toss them into Cherry. I mean…into the ancient oven. Yes. That. However! The ancient oven is still out of sorts. Hmm… Who do we know who can do something about that?

Beats me. So what’s this about the ancient furnace?

An ancient furnace can be simply described as a singular place that gathers massive amounts of energy. Get the blue flame from Tumlea Heights, put it in the furnace, and then Cherry…I mean…the ancient oven will be fixed. However! At my age, it’s not so easy to climb mountains and cross rivers. Hm. And my wife is jealous of Cherry, so she refuses to get the blue flame for me… sigh

So the two people who live near and know about the flame can’t or won’t get it to power Cherry, I mean, the ancient furnace. So it’ll fall to someone else to do it. That’s a tough one.

In the meantime, why does Robbie keep calling the ancient furnace Cherry?

Isn’t she adorable? Yes, hm? My first love… She shares the name of my first love, you see. My wife…isn’t as crazy about her as I am.

Well, I…guess that makes sense.

I guess standing here won’t solve anything. We better go find someone to bring that blue flame back here!

Aaaaand.

…How was that? I figured I’d give an impression of Hateno Ancient Tech Lab’s director, Purah, a shot.

Considering everything we’ve seen so far, we have no issues with it.

Aww, Link, I’m really glad you’re such a friendly guy!

Who are you?

Heya! I’m Jerrin!

I’m an amateur scholar of ancient history. To be honest…I’ve been focusing a lot of my research on shrines.

I know there’s a shrine there, but it’s a challenge to get to it… The left eye of Skull Lake is higher up. The right one is lower down. If you run into Kilton, you’re on the wrong eye!

Way ahead of ya there. So about Robbie

He was studying Guardians at Hyrule Castle 100 years ago.

Married? That’s…quite the age difference.

Yes, indeed! Together we run the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab. I’ve got a son, as well!

This dialogue opens up a new choice where we can ask Jerrin about her son.

Not yet.

Really… Well, if you see him, be nice to him, OK?

At this point I triggered the first question (Who are you?) again to see if dialogue changed. And it did!

…Oh, you don’t have to tell me anything. My magical Sheikah nose implant gives me a supernatural sense of smell. Just one sniff tells me everything you did yesterday and what you ate for dinner last night.

But judging by your dormant sense of humor, I’m guessing things didn’t go as smoothly as you had hoped. In any case, thanks for the report. I wish I could give you a reward, but we’re short on funding as it is. That’s life in Hyrule for ya!

And so we begin and immediately end the quest for the Skull’s Eye shrine. Yeah, sometimes you’ll accidentally fulfill a quest without even being aware of it. So simply finding all 120 shrines isn’t enough if you want 100% quest completion percentage, you also have to find the actual quests too!

Anyway, the blue flame. If you remember the quest from the Hateno Lab, it’s pretty much the same thing, except…a bit more of a walk. I hope we can find someone capable to do this!

Distance-wise, it’s not that far. It’s just there’s…a bit of a gap between the flame and the lab.

There’s also a good number of Moblins and Bokoblins around the area.

Good photo-op opportunity, at least!

So if we’re going to find someone to do this, we’ll need a torch to give them. Unfortunately, there’s no torch nearby. Even the Sheikah Sensor failed us. And we don’t have any wooden melee weapons, either.

A notched arrow works temporarily, but it wears off too quickly to be a functional solution.

I guess for now we’ll scout the area and clear off potential hazards.

And photos, of course.

Anyway, the Hateno Lab has a torch to do its blue flame thing, so it’s a good a source as any!

As usual, rain makes flame transportation difficult. Thankfully it wears off by the time I backtrack to where the flame is.

With the torch, we can carry the blue flame around until we can find someone willing to carry the torch to the Tech Lab and light the furnace.

Like the Hateno task, there’s tons of torches littering the area that will keep the blue flame safe from weather once lit.

I was fortunate this time, as the first time I did this there was…quite a bit of rain…

Well that looks interesting.

This particular Korok puzzle is pretty difficult to do right now. Maybe once we get another trick up our sleeve…

Otherwise, it’s trying to get back to the lab while having to navigate the lower areas you glided over before.

It’s rather uneventful.

Oh! Well, look at that! We accidentally did it ourselves! I guess when you put your mind to something, you accidentally do something else!

About that…

Oh… Well, thank you. Yes, quite. Now then, please take this as a gift of my gratitude now that Cherry is fixed!

That’s…not a bad reward!

They are made using secret Sheikah technology. With the addition of my upgrades, they have morphed into…Anti-Calamity weapons! So to speak… Needless to say, they are an incredibly powerful type of ancient soldier gear. I like to call them…

In addition to ancient arrows, Cherry can make all kinds of ancient soldier gear.

What was that last part?

Did you hear that? Ah! Forgive me, Link. Ever since the fall of Hyrule Castle, we haven’t had much in the way of funds for our research.

Then let’s do it, hm? The two of us, as soon as possible, yes. Let’s…

Let’s do it!

So now we’ve unlocked the ability to buy ancient soldier gear.

There’s some updated text for the Who are you option.

I am the lead Guardian researcher and director of the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab. But I think it’s unwise to try and make the Guardians our allies now… Just…too difficult… I think I’ll offer you ancient equipment in exchange for Guardian parts, instead.

So what exactly is a Guardian?

The Guardians are self-guided weapons built to fight Calamity Ganon and developed by our Sheikah ancestors. For many years, the Guardians were kept below Hyrule Castle. However, when the Calamity struck, they were stolen away. I’ve been researching ways to take them back…

Alright, let’s check out this ancient oven.

So Cherry, er, the ancient oven will give you powerful weaponry and armor in exchange for rupees and ancient materials. This is where the majority of the Guardian drops you find will come in handy, and also why you should never sell them.

First off are Ancient Arrows. They’re expensive but arguably worth the money and resources.

Next are the various ancient weapon types. These are all very solid options, with high durability and damage. The Ancient Bow in particular is one of the best bows in the game and arguably the best you get under normal circumstances due to its high strength and durability as well as the longest range of any normal bow (the Amiibo-exclusive Twilight Bow has a range 160 (yes, 160, the range is ludicrous) times that of the Ancient Bow but is also a very rare drop from the Smash Bros. Zelda Amiibo). I’ll certainly grab the bow at some point.

Finally, there’s the Ancient Armor Set. These are very expensive mats-wise, but they’re tied defense-wise with the regular Soldier Gear, meaning they have the highest defenses in the game outside the Champion’s Tunic, plus they give resistance to Guardian attacks, which is great under a lot of circumstances since Guardians lurk in a lot of places you don’t expect them to. These will likely be my primary focus after I get the necessary materials.

This may shock you, but there are dead Guardians around the lab where they research Guardians.

There’s also…uh…this. Looks like there might be a shrine there?

Next time, what the hell, let’s check it out! Also vote for our next Spirit Orb upgrade.

Groovy.

Gonna start writing up the next update now, should be up soonish.

Click here to open the update!

This place looks interesting. Let’s check it out!

So this area pretty much requires gliding in from the Tech Lab, as it’s high above the ocean. There’s also quite a few flying guardians about…

Welcome to the Lomei Labyrinth Island. It’s…quite the place.

Music: Maze

The goal is simply to reach the shrine in the middle of the labyrinth. Simple enough, right?

First fun fact: There’s a walking Guardian patrolling the central area.

The walls here are tall, but completely climbable.

There’s six pillars in this central room.

Each one actually has a little hidden aclove in the center, though only the two central columns have chests in them. The left one has Bomb Arrows, the right a Silver Rupee.

We can also use the platforms to give us a bit of height to climb up top. We have just enough stamina to pull it off this way!

So the shrine is at the center of the labyrinth, but we’re not getting in through the front door. That’d be too easy.

And honestly, while you may thing scouting from above is useful, it’s not going to lead you to the solution. It’s better to treat it like a regular labyrinth.

Plus it’s a bit risky with all the Guardians about.

I make liberal use of the Hero’s Path tool from the first DLC for this place. The map in general is a useful, albeit not perfect tool in navigating this place.

You see, the map does a pure overhead view of the dungeon. However, there are places where there’s a ceiling that obstruct the view from overhead, making these “secret” passages in a way. So the map is useful but won’t show you everything.

Otherwise…it’s a maze. One with plenty of secrets, but also plenty of nothing. Of course I’ll only be showing the highlights and not the tedious parts.

Like, say, this random Guardian just lying here.

I dispatch it relatively easily. It’s simple to stun the stationary guys with arrows to the eye.

Over here is a neat little story.

Arrows, a bow, and a shield.

And also some random Thunderstorm Rod just lying around here. Sure, we’ll take it.

So far, we’re exploring the west end of the labyrinth. Some areas seem inaccessible, such as the top area and the section to the left of the giant square, but don’t forget there are likely passages to those areas.

There’s various obstacles as well. Metal blocks usually hide secret passages and treasure.

In this case, a sapphire.

However, from this vantage point you can see another treasure chest on the other side (well, you can’t from that screenshot, but take my word on it since I’m the one doing the actual playing).

Time to go around and see what it holds!

Once night hits, the Keese come out to play. And die. Mostly die.

The other treasure chest has some loot which is…eh.

Progress!

The end of this branch has a nice Ancient Core.

Remember how I mentioned this area to the left of the giant square seeming inaccessible? Surprise, there’s a secret path here that leads into there.

It leads to more treasure.

And to the first of several Electric Chuchu traps.

And also, this…ladder?

We’ll get back to this in a moment.

Looks like we found the entrance!

The other path is a dead end, so let’s claim our prize while we’re here.

That was simple enough!

And our reward, besides the obligatory shrine orb?

The first piece of Barbarian Gear. This stuff gives Attack Up bonuses, which…yeah, they’re pretty solid. The only real problem with them is that they’re somewhat difficult to get upgrade materials for, since they mostly require Lynel parts.

…Yeah.

We’ll save that for another day, though.

With that, the gate is now open and there’s a new hole in the floor with a nice updraft.

But we’re far from done exploring yet!

This path we passed a bit ago leads to another handy weapon.

After we dispose of some old flame weapons to make room for it, we take it for ourselves.

We’ve thoroughly explored the west half of the labyrinth, but there’s still the entire eastern half to explore, too!

Though, there doesn’t seem to be as much loot in this half.

Another Chuchu trap…

…and this seemingly dead end.

Which of course isn’t, and after a bit of climbing we find some Knight gear.

Otherwise it’s rather uneventful until we find the secret path to the top section of the map.

After we finish up this current area, which leads to a spear, we explore this final area of the map.

Some decent stuff.

And the last stretch ends in a bow I already have three of.

And with that, we’ve fully explored the labyrinth! Nothing else left to find!

…except this.

Yeah, just a massive basement full of dead Guardians. Nothing too special.

Though there are a couple of chests, including a new DLC item.

The Travel Medallion lets you create a teleportation place. It’s this game’s Mark/Recall. Quite a few handy places to use it.

And near the center is this chest.

Our first piece of head jewelry. The Diamond Circlet has the defense values of the Soldier Helm, but with bonus Guardian Resist. How appropriate.

https://g.mega64.net/botw/u45/115.mp4

…For reasons that suddenly make sense.

And now we’re finally done exploring! In fact, I’ve pretty much showed off most of the interesting stuff in Akkala. So I think it’s time to plot our new course!

I’m going to cook up one last update where I check the map and visit the shrines I marked, solely because I like having an even number of updates per chapter. But in the meantime, it’s time once again to plan what we do next!

First off, our current map:

That’s seven regions still undiscovered! Not to mention there’s still a ton of stuff to discover in the places we have discovered…

Our current available quests. You can also check the third post for available memories as well.

And here’s our current fashion.

So let’s get to it:

I’m planning to change ISPs soon so I might be without service for a bit, thus a new excuse for why I may not update promptly. Otherwise, I’ll make polls for the suggestions and we’ll have a vote as usual.

Until next time!

I’ll do a poll for choices tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, I’m now 1/3 done with shrines. After what will be 46 updates.

This will probably take awhile.

Sorry for the delay, but next update won’t be up until Friday anyway.

Anyway here’s the poll finally. Don’t forget you have multiple choices!

Results!

Going back to the Stamina Vessel well.

And it looks like we’ve got our next destination decided!

And I also finally got off my lazy butt and got the screenshots for the next update ready and will write it up shortly. I’m on vacation this week so hopefully I’ll get this thing back to a decent pace again.

Click here to open the update!

I’m dedicating today’s update to cleaning up a few shrines, since there’s quite a few I missed during my previous adventures. I’ll be covering four of those today.

First off, remember that one area we passed by with the Gorons a few updates ago in favor of chasing a dragon? Maybe we should go ahead and revisit that.

So back to the shrine atop Skull Lake, and then parasailing our way to our destination.

With the usual distractions along the way, of course.

I get distracted (of course) by a lower ledge and feel compelled to explore it.

This is the northern boundary of the map. Nothing but bottomless depths that will respawn us with less health.

It did let me find this, though. These guys can be a pain to find since lizards scare easily, and it’ll be valuable to be able to find these guys later.

I make this guy into an elixir later, but I won’t be showing that this update because, well, I want it to be a surprise.

Otherwise there’s nothing of interest down there and after a few failed attempts to climb up, finally end up near our destination.

Welcome to Gut Check Rock!

Hi… I’m trainin’…and sweaty… Go me… I can do it… Brother… Argh… If I were a Rito…I could just fly right up there… If only…

Guess he doesn’t have the guts.

This hotness here is a training ground for manly Goron men. We climb this cliff like it’s nothin’, to prove our grit! If you’ve got some guts in that tiny bellt of yours, then talk to my big bro up top and prove it!

Let’s do just that, then!

Music: Death Mountain

Well, would you look at that! Let’s just mosey over to that shrine and-

Hm. I get the feeling entering this shrine won’t be as simple as I hoped.

By the gods, I love me some muscle. This right here is our hard-core training ground, string bean.

That sounds nice. Could you, uh, move?

This is a special platform! Sacred even! Only real Goron men, as decided by us three Goron Blood Brothers, are allowed. Besides, my littlest bro is in the middle of trainin’ right now. A brother does NOT interrupt a brother’s trainin’, brother!

Considering everything else Link has been through so far, I’m sure we can handle whatever you throw at us.

Ha! Good answer, brother! We’re gonna shred you to pieces, little man. Prepare your tiny self! OK, lemme explain how this hard-core training works. The rules are dead simple. Simple as a deadlift, brother!

Get up the cliff within the time limit, and grab a passable number of rupees. Do that, and you pass the test! If ya run outta time or decide to give up halfway through your climb…

We’re gonna help ya push past your limits, brother. Your physical, mental, AND emotional limits! OK, enough messin’ around. It’s time for the hardest of hard-core feats…

So yeah, to access this shrine we have to complete this minigame.

Let’s just say this isn’t the only shrine that requires a minigame to be unlocked. Luckily the minigames in this one are pretty simple and pretty fun.

Let’s do it!

You’ve gotta collect 100 rupees as ya climb. A hard-core Goron man should be able to handle that no problem! Even if ya reach the goal before time runs out, if ya don’t grab enough rupees, ya fail! DON’T FAIL, BROTHER! Got it? Good. Then it’s finally time for…

Gut Check Challenge!

Music: Racing Minigame

This challenge is simple. There are plenty of platforms to give Link a place to rest. I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a single stamina wheel, but it’s more than doable with two wheels. The climbing gear also lets you climb faster, so of course it’s a good idea to have it on for this challenge.

Honestly if you know what you’re doing this game is pretty simple. The rupees give a helpful path for climbing between outcroppings, where there are more rupees.

There’s enough blue and red rupees surrounding the mountain that reaching one hundred isn’t difficult.

You get three minutes, but I manage to do it with more than enough rupees in slightly more than two. More stamina gives you a lot of leeway for this one.

Nice goin’, brother! Now let’s see how many rupees ya scored. Looks like ya got… 132 rupees!

You’ve passed our training with the grit of a true Goron, my brother! In fact…you’ve earned the right to call yourself…

As promised, you are now allowed to stand on this sacred platform of Goron manliness. A real honor, I know. You’re officially one of us now! Our true Goron brother, brother! Welcome to the family! And good news, fourth brother! That means you can do the GUT CHECK CHALLENGE all you want! As a Goron Blood Brother, you’re ready for the HARD stuff! Just lemme know when you’re pumped enough to try it!

There’s a hard version of this minigame, but I’m going to save it. I…may have plans on when I want to show it off.

Anyway, this is another “accessing the shrine is the challenge” so the shrine itself is a freebie.

I’ve already got one of these. At least I have an excuse to photograph it!

And another shrine done!

Next up, the Great Fairy to upgrade a few things. I have the mats to upgrade the Rubber and Soldier Helms now, plus these two new headpieces I just picked up at the labyrinth.

And also another Heart Container. The next one we get will be a Stamina Vessel.

Next up, back to Lurelin Village. There’s a couple shrines I want to do in this area.

Before, I couldn’t access the quest for this location because I happened to be missing the camera rune, which is required to do this quest. But now I have it, so…

Ahhh!

What’s up?

I was just examining this stone monument. This place has a very…spiritual aura to it. Do you feel it? I recently realized that there is writing engraved on this stone monument…

I think if we help this guy, it might lead us to a shrine. Call it a hunch…since those platforms certainly look familiar. So let’s help.

Ah, so you’re the curious type, too. This stone monument was once much larger, but it broke apart during an earthquake a while back. If you really want to help, help me find the missing fragments, will you? They’ll be scattered all around. I think the fragments had the same kind of script carved into them… If you find a fragment, please draw a picture of it and bring it to me. I’ll be here finishing my examination of this stone monument! …Oh, right.

That should make them easier to find. One of them should be right around here. Please find that first!

I’ve already futzed around here previously and know just where one of them is.

Simple.

After you show Garini a fragment, he’ll give a clue to the location of the next fragment.

That’s not it.

The next one is along the left mountainside coming from the ruins.

The final one is across the bay to the peninsula.

The Cyro-jump method worked until I pushed my luck and drowned.

But Zora Link makes it across easily since with the set bonus swimming uses up little stamina.

There we go!

Also this.

Excellent. Thanks to you, I’ve got a good shot at deciphering the entire monument. Give me a second to see if I can put this all together…

Thanks to you, I’ve deciphered the entire passage!

…Ah! I…haven’t the foggiest what that’s supposed to mean.

There’s two platforms here…

Yep. Just gotta do a simple Tebow on the platform.

…Is that it?!

That is indeed it.

So the two who needed to “find their place” were you and me… Makes sense. Good job figuring that one out! I sure never would have…

Oh, sorry. I won’t keep you any longer. Off you go!

Time for our next shrine!

This one is another puzzle shrine. It’s also one of the few I didn’t do my first game (I ended up missing eight or so shrines total, including this one), so it’s fresh to me. Luckily it’s still pretty simple.

On each side is a locked chest along with some barrels.

And a moving platform leading to a switch. The goal is to get the barrel to the switch using the platform.

This path has a gate that blocks the right path, then a full gate with an opening to let the barrels through, and then a gate that blocks the left side. Thus no matter where you put the barrel, it will fall off if left alone, plus the middle gate prevents Link from simply holding and moving with the barrel.

It’s all about quick timing. Link can duck under this gate then quickly pick up the barrel and move it to the right side. Stasis can help a lot here, for obvious reasons.

This unlocks the door to the shrine’s monk.

The bonus chest is on the right side. There are three gates, and a switch that alternates them.

https://h.mega64.net/botw/u46/167.mp4

The switch alternates between 1/3 and 2. The timing’s a bit tight since if you’re too early the gate will close on Link and also break the barrel.

Otherwise, it’s pretty simple once you learn not to go too early.

Overall, it’s alright. Nothing really challenging, though.

You aren’t just a normal lad, are you? I’m just happy that the mystery was solved! I don’t want to do more snooping than is absolutely necessary!

Alright, next shrine is off in the distance.

I opt to swim for this one, too.

Though it’s a lot farther than I anticipated. But that’s why I keep stamina food for just such an emergency.

Again, there’s really nothing to talk about for the strength shrines anymore. Attack food and my current weaponry and skills more than outmatch these guys at this point.

Though the loot is still nice, and gives me an excuse to photograph discarded weaponry.

That said, this shrine was more than worth doing since it unlocks the final piece of climbing gear. Now we just have to get the mats to upgrade them all to L2 and we’ll get one of the better set bonuses in the game.

And another Spirit Orb never hurts, either.

Also another Korok Seed.

That’s three down. Let’s do one more for today.

Back to Faron.

So originally I was going to do another shrine in the area.

Music: Dragon

…but I got distracted. Again. You see, this area is one of the various spawning points of the final dragon we’ll meet.

I say final but it’s the one most people will find first since it also pops up in Hyrule Lake. It’s easiest to find here, though.

Same deal as the other dragons. Shoot it for its scale.

Shouldn’t surprise you that this Dragon is Farosh.

The same Farosh whose scale we need to open up the Spring of Courage.

So back to Faron Tower to go back to the Spring of Courage!

During which we get more photos and get hit with another Blood Moon.

…Welp.

I get back in the spring area and notice another Korok Puzzle.

This one’s a bit trickier than usual since the other part is all the way on the other side of this giant statue.

That said, Magnesis gives you a lot of distance to manipulate, so it’s still not too difficult.

Alright, let’s complete this final spring.

And we’ve now done all three Springs of the Triforce! Sadly nothing interesting arises from doing them besides the shrines.

Another Blessing shrine, at least.

And appropriate of the Thunder Dragon, this weapon is lightning-elemental.

And that’s Spirit Orb #4! And Shrine #40! We’ve now done a third of all the shrines in this game!

Next time, we’re gonna head over to the volcano and meet the Gorons! I get the feeling we may also continue our quest to quell the Divine Beasts by doing so. Call it a hunch…

Click here to open the update!

Before we begin this update’s adventures, I wanted to check to see if Kass was still around since it came up in the thread.

It’s really not that hard to believe there’s 900 of these things considering how many I’ve found already. Now think about how many I’ve missed.

Also can’t believe I didn’t take a photo of this until now.

No Kass but I did find some cash so it’s all good.

Today we’re heading to the volcano. It’s in the region directly to the west of Akkala. Our closest point of contact will be right here.

We’ll use Ganonhoof for roughly 15 seconds before I eventually ditch him.

For now, the plan is to take the road south and see if there’s a good way to go north from there. Coming in from the northern border is…probably ill-advised.

Normally you should be approaching Akkala Tower from this region, though I have to imagine most people simply parasail in from the northern edges of Zora’s Domain like I did.

I usually avoid combat because it’s pretty samey, but it’s been awhile so let’s kick some butt and finally use some toys I’ve been carrying for awhile.

First, let’s make use of exploding barrels because of course.

https://i.mega64.net/botw/u47/014.mp4

Let’s show off some beautiful synergy using the Blizzard Rod…

https://i.mega64.net/botw/u47/016.mp4

…and the Thunderstorm Rod.

When frozen enemies get hit with lightning attacks, it’s like they’re in the rain or a pool of water. The electricity expands into a large radius that affects other enemies. The best part is any other frozen enemies hit by this electricity don’t become unfrozen, making it trivial to cheese large groups of enemies.

The Thunderstorm Rod one-ups this since it doesn’t unfreeze any enemies at all. Usually you’ll have to hit a frozen enemy with an electric weapon or Lightning Arrow, which unfreezes the target enemy. Not with the Thunderstorm Rod, though!

Finishing this group off is trivial, and our reward is more explosives. I’m sure these will come in handy near the volcano!

Not so far away, I find a shrine.

But not just any shrine, but one next to a stable. I’d say it warrants checking out.

Time for our next shrine!

This is a simple one.

I change clothes a few times during this update because why not. I go back to the Sheikah set later since it makes it crazy easy to get lizards and flying insects, something which will be very important soon enough.

Also there’s some chest that simply requires a Bomb Arrow. Doesn’t have anything to do with the actual shrine, of course.

There’s giant balls rolling down these chutes. We’ve seen this before a few times. Stasis this one to reach the middle platform with two more chutes.

The right one is special because, like the shrine’s name suggests, it’s metal and probably key to solving this shrine.

It also houses an outdated-for-us sword.

The left chute leads to the monk, but there’s many balls rolling down there. Kinda difficult to just Stasis one and sneak by when it causes a bit of a traffic jam. But Magnesis is pretty powerful and can counteract the forces of several large balls.

https://i.mega64.net/botw/u47/034.mp4

You know, if the camera wants to cooperate.

So screw it, Stasis it is! It helps I did it on a ball that hadn’t fully descended from the chute yet.

Another shrine done.

Music: Stables

This stable isn’t as populated as the rest for whatever reason.

That said, there’s a rather important NPC here if you don’t know what you’re doing.

That’s the plan!

I thought so.

Are you questioning our fashion sense? Just be glad we aren’t wearing the fairy clothes…

See…this is how tourists get a bad rap.

Normally I wouldn’t stop a stranger from heading to their doom, but I kinda like ya. So I guess I have no choice but to sell you these fireproof elixirs. They can protect you from the burning air. Even Goron City regulars usually take at least three elixirs with them.

Nah, we’ll be fine.

I see. I won’t waste my breath arguing about it. Just trust me when I say you should give up on going to Goron City.

Remember that last update we found a Fireproof Lizard while wandering near Gut Check Rock? This is one of only two critters in the game that give the fireproof buff. Note that fireproof doesn’t mean you won’t catch fire, it simply prevents your body from burning to death by getting too close to a volcano. It’s a lot like cold or heat resistance (yes, heat and fireproof are two different things in this game, and having one won’t protect against the other because of course) in that there’s two levels of it.

I mixed it with four Bokoblin Guts to make it last long. There’s no food alternative to give Fireproof, elixirs or nothing. At any rate this baby should last more than long enough to get us to Goron City, and I’m sure we’ll figure out other methods of not burning to death by then.

Anyway, look who’s here! He doesn’t have a quest for us today, but might as well chat him up all the same.

In case you were wondering about the song I perform at the stables, there are many theories about its origin. But according to my teacher, it was a song performed by the ancient hero to call to his horse companion. If you ever feel like hearing it, feel free to drop by. Anyway, time to get back to it…

This is the same “10,000 years ago” tapestry story we’ve heard like twice before. I’m not going to recap it in screenshots because you likely know it by now. That said, I’ll go ahead and link a video because it’s not a bad watch and the music is pretty solid.

https://youtu.be/v6Y7iLJYNwo

At least listen to the music. It’s a mix of the shrine theme, Ganon’s theme, and BotW’s main theme.

The only other NPC besides the stablemaster has a nice short shrine quest for us, even if he isn’t aware of it. You can probably see it in that painting.

Have you come to look at this picture too? It’s so beautiful… I could spend hours just looking at it. This painting was made by Ozunda, the owner of this stable, or so I hear. That volcano in the background… It’s so majestic. And the stable is subtle in the scenery.

The “painted from the south” clue is kinda unnecessary considering even from this stable the volcano is north from us. It makes sense it’d be further southwest from our current location.

A simple-yet-valuable recipe.

As I decide to search for the shrine, guess who’s back?

But don’t get the wrong idea now - Beedle’s heart belongs to Hyrule.

It upsets me that the game never resolves the sexual tension between Link and Beedle.

A couple of nice rare critters if you’re hunting for buffs.

According to the painting, the stable’s to the east. This is a nice start and gives a glamorous view of the path to the volcano, but it seems we’re not quite far back enough.

oh hey two people getting clobbered by monsters, I wonder who they could be

Who’s crazier, the Crazy Truffle Lady or the person who follows Crazy Truffle Lady? At some point you’ve got to cut your losses, and considering this is the third (and likely not last) time I had to save you dunderheads…

Anyway, behind all that was the briefest glimpse of orange, and considering the shrine sensor is going off…

Puzzle solved!

This one has to do with fire.

No torches or wood weapons in sight…

But it’s fine because a notched arrow works just as well.

Simply rub your flaming arrow on the walls until you burn the vines that lead to the rest of the shrine.

There’s a lot going on in this one section. The middle has a chest suspended by (flammable) boxes, the right has a platform leading to a monk suspended by (flammable) boxes…

This locked room has (flammable) vines leading to a (flammable) platform holding up a (flammable) chest…

It’s time to burn everything.

Burn.

Burn.

Burn.

And a bonus burn because why not.

This weapon’s not so impressive. I think it might be useful for ore collection but eh, there’s better options for that.

I ditch it but not before I briefly drop my halberd to make room for it, since shrines will track if you grab every treasure chest.

Anyway, after we burn everything, we grab another orb.

Back to the stable. Before we start our trek, I want to explore this side path to the right.

So a Black Lizalfos, two Fire Chuchu…

…and explosive barrels. HMMMMMM.

https://i.mega64.net/botw/u47/116.mp4

It didn’t work quite as well as I hoped, but I’m still happy it worked at all.

I felt bad about scorching the fella so I let him chill out a bit.

Then I walloped 'em all the same.

More loot. Boomerangs are always fun so I grab it.

Oh yeah and there’s a shrine near here because of course there is.

Off in the background is the region’s tower. We’ll check that out next update.

A rather large enemy camp in the distance…

I skip all that in favor of solving another “fill in the rock circle” Korok puzzle.

The enemies didn’t seem to care.

Butterflies are a pain to photograph, flutting so erractically that you can’t really focus on them.

Oh hey.

This is another “burn everything” shrine.

Again, notched arrows do the trick. It burns away the vines which reveals crates which…also catch on fire and burn away.

A brief beatdown of a scout later…

Bog-standard "clip the rope to crash the flame down and burn the path forward.

Final room is…kinda interesting. A bunch of the same suspended torches from before.

However there’s also regular torches so rather than waste arrows sniping these things I just light one arrow from a nearby torch and just burn everything down.

The chest has yet another one of these. Drowning in these things but, uh, thanks.

The trick is there’s a stone slab over the switch that opens the path to the monk, suspended by two (flammable) crates, each of which is next to easily-accessible (flammable) vines.

Yep.

I still haven’t cashed in my other orbs yet. Sitting on seven right now.

Next time, we begin our trek proper to Death Mountain. It should be a blast!

Click here to open the update!

This is the entrance of Death Mountain, at least in the way a mountain can have an entrance. As you may expect, there are many ways to climb this thing.

Lot of warm-weather-loving insects in the vicinity, plus hot springs if you want to relax a bit. Unfortunately we don’t have the time.

Believe it or not, travelers go to and from a volcano named Death Mountain. I don’t know why, but there you go.

If there are a lot of tourists hanging around up there…there could be some good selling to be had.

Hmmm, should I climb a volcano where I could burn alive? Tough choice.

Ah, the tough questions.

Anyway, this Goron sells ore if you’re desperate for some. They’re…pretty expensive, though. It’s easier just to mine it ourselves.

Death Mountain has its own fauna, understandably.

And of course Fire Chuchus love this place.

I’d like to meet the person who took down a Guardian with that spear.

…ehhhh let’s not go that way.

This side’s steep but gives us a direct route to the tower.

Besides, there are some flat surfaces to recover and beat up enemies on. The usual fare apparently don’t seem to mind the intense heat.

Probably because they have these to cool off.

https://j.mega64.net/botw/u48/021.mp4

These don’t do much damage to the black forms of enemies, but it’s still fun to do.

Anyway, I give them the ol’ freeze-and-shock.

Death Mountain has a lot of ore around here. Putting the Sheikah Sensor on rare ore deposits and wandering around the mountain is one of the quickest ways to get money.

Anyway, we soon make it to where the tower is.

Pfft. How bad could it be?

https://j.mega64.net/botw/u48/028.mp4

Uh, pretty bad! This isn’t like extreme heat or cold where your health will slowly sap away. No, apparently being on fire freaking hurts and will quickly drain your health. While you could eat-and-run, I really would not recommend it.

Anyway, there’s no gimmick to this tower. Just climb it as normal.

Welcome to the Eldin region! Or at least the eastern half of it.

Yep, there’s a lot of lava around here. Surprising, huh?

Hmm, I wonder what’s up on the volcano…

https://j.mega64.net/botw/u48/034.mp4

Hmmm… I bet we’re going to know this guy a bit better soon.

The tower lies next to a path that, if we follow it west and then north, seems to lead us to what looks like a town. Sounds as good a lead as any!

But first, let’s take care of that whole “burning alive” thing, shall we? Just look at the temperature gauge.

Music: Field (Volcano)

There’s some cool music when exploring Death Mountain. It’s actually the music of the final dungeon of Zelda 1.

We’ll get to the shrine momentarily.

But first, a new enemy.

https://j.mega64.net/botw/u48/044.mp4

These guys will suck up everything in the vicinity to fire explosives toward you.

https://a.mega64.net/botw/u48/045.mp4

Including your own explosives.

There’s another neat trick involving these guys that I’ll show off later.

There’s a shrine over here, but we’re going to come back to it later. Your buffs keep going in shrines, and the potion we just used is the only thing keeping us from burning alive.

Next up is this rather large cavern with a neat little thing to it.

Music: Talus Battle

Meet the Igneo Talus.

It’s pretty much the same as a regular Talus, except it’s understandably too hot to climb. Enter ice arrows.

Cooling it off will stun it and keep it cool for a brief time, letting you wail at the usual weak point.

Most of my healing involves buff foods which would overwrite the “don’t set on fire” buff. All I have are one health elixir, fairies, and Mipha, so it’s a wee bit tense right now.

I haven’t shown this off yet, but upgrading Stasis lets us freeze enemies. Most will stay frozen for a few seconds, but larger and more-advanced enemies like this one will only stay frozen for a second or two. This is still enough to be very useful.

In this case, it gives us enough time to scale the thing and wallop on it.

It’s still a Talus, so it’s not really difficult while still being pretty rewarding.

We’ve still got a ways to go, though.

This next area has a lot of Fireproof Lizards, which is good. This is the main reason I’m opting for the Sheikah Set.

My shortcut to the tower led us to skip Marker #2, I guess. You guys are lucky I’m not simply skipping most everything here like I did my first time!

Which I regret because there’s something very useful in this area.

This is the Southern Mine, which is also our first real encounter with Gorons.

And also there’s a Hylian…?

But those folks from Goron City, I’ll tell ya… Sure are amazing, huh? Eating hotpot even in this heat. I’m on my way back from Goron City but forgot to buy souvenirs. I wanted to capture some of those fireproof lizards that live here on Death Mountain, but those suckers are quick. Say, you look pretty speedy. I bet you could catch a ton! If you bring me 10, I’ll even give you some heat-resistant armor.

Ten lizards is a lot, but if it means getting a permanent way to not burn to death, we’re game.

Great! Thanks, buddy! Just 10 fireproof lizards should be enough. You can probably find some right around here!

Fortunately, there are a ton around the immediate area.

Heck, we’ve already got 8 just from exploring the area.

That was easy.

Well, a deal’s a deal. Hand them over and I’ll give you this heat-resistant armor.

As you might have guessed, Goron City sells clothing that protects against the volcano’s heat. I’m still going to stick with the Sheikah Set for now since I’ve still got a good bit of time left on my elixir buff, but the Flamebreaker stuff is pretty much what we’ll be wearing during our adventures on Death Mountain.

My helmet? Sorry, it ain’t for lending! It’s too expensive for that. You can buy your own in Goron City. To get to Goron City, head north from here. It’s the fifth stop up the trail. I’m sure you’d agree, buddy, that it’s always handy to have some spare souvenirs on hand.

And if I get my hands on some fireproof lizards and some monster parts… I can make some fireproof elixirs to boot!

A very useful side quest.

Three of these babies for twenty rupees is a terrible deal, though. Besides, we’ll want these for armor upgrades.

Alright, let’s chat up some of the Gorons around here.

Just passing through.

OK, fine, we’re actually the hero of legend in the middle of our quest to vanquish the evil that has stricken the land for the past hundred years, you got us.

I’ve gotta interrupt ya real quick! You’ve got good eyes on ya, little guy. Honest eyes. At my age, I’ve seen a lotta things. I can tell you’re no run-of-the-mill Hylian just by lookin’ at ya.

Where are we?

This place here… Well, as you can see, it’s a mine. We make a profit from sellin’ the ore we dig up. Our home, Goron City, benefits from our hard work!

This opens up an option to ask about Goron City.

The trip can be dangerous, so keep your eyes open on the way there!

So who are you?

I’m Bohrin of Goron City. I was once young and strong… Now I’m old and wrinkled. But worry not! There’s still a lot of fight left in me.

We’ll chat us these two before we go on our way.

Who are you?

Me? I’m Jengo. I’m a proud Goron of Goron City. If we dig up ore like this, Goron City will prosper. Everyone wins!

What is this place?

Take a look around. This is where we dig up ore. We call it the Southern Mine. But right now, we’ve got that lizard monster sittin’ up on Death Mountain. Normally we can pull up good ore from near the mountain peak… But for now, we have to mine here instead.

The Boss?

The Boss is the most important Goron in Goron City! His name is Bludo. He’s the visionairy who thought to set up dig sites here and at Death Mountain so we can sell the ore we find. Thanks to the Boss, Goron City is happy and prosperous. Nowhere else can even compete! No way, no how!

I’m sure that’ll be important soon enough. For now, let’s chat up the last Goron here, who’s interesting for reasons you’ll probably notice as soon as you see his name…

So what’s your name?

I’m a digger here, as you can see. I dig and I dig… Day in and day out… To be honest, I’m sick of it. I feel like…maybe I’m not meant to toil away in obscurity like this. sigh

A Goron who wants to make use of his strength whose name ends in “son”? Buddy, do we have an opportunity for you!

Huh? There is?

Let me tell you about a little place called Tarrey Town

Tarrey Town? Never heard of it. What’s the deal with that place?

Tarrey Town… So there is somewhere out there that needs me… Hmm, Akkala isn’t too far from here. All right! I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna strike while the iron is hot!

While I’m at it…

https://a.mega64.net/botw/u48/143.mp4

Doing our small part to help Tarrey Town prosper.

I’m sure that can wait for another day, though. For now, let’s focus on this whole volcano thing.

Near the edge of the mine is an air current.

Leading us to this small blocked-off cavern.

Sweet.

Luckily there’s a bridge back so returning won’t be so bad.

Even in this heat, Bokoblins and Moblins are happy setting up camps to ambush travelers.

Looks like we’re on the right track, though! Not much longer.

In fact, this is pretty much the final stretch to Goron City.

This is the only other thing besides Fireproof Lizards that will give the Flame Guard buff, so it’s nice to grab them where we can find them. We’ll also want plenty of these to upgrade the Flamebreaker set once we get the other parts.

Continuing on…

https://a.mega64.net/botw/u48/155.mp4

Oh yeah and sometimes this happens. No biggie.

At last, we’ve made it! Once we pass that entrance, we’ll be in Goron City!

https://a.mega64.net/botw/u48/157.mp4

https://youtu.be/e6dpfiUwNp4

Looks like this guy’s suddenly getting a lot more active…

Next time, Goron City. I get the feeling we’re going to be here awhile…

Since I’ll likely get another orb in the next update, vote for our next upgrade. Don’t forgot I’ve already got a Stamina upgrade queued up.

Click here to open the update!

Music: Goron City (Day)

Welcome to Goron City!

How…? Word must travel fast up here!

To be honest, we haven’t had too many visitors here since those magma bombs started fallin’ from the sky.

Oh, in case ya didn’t know, Link is the little Hylian who fought alongside the Goron Champion, Daruk. If ya wanna hear more, talk to the Boss. He lives further in town.

The other races don’t live nearly as long as the Zora, so unlike Zora’s Domain nobody here is going to recognize poor Link. Might be for the best, though.

Goron City isn’t as large as Zora’s Domain, but it still has all the basic amenities you’d expect from a town.

Today will be focused on exploring the city and chatting up the locals, ending with meeting up with the boss of this place.

In that case, I’ll take ya somewhere nice. Follow me.

https://b.mega64.net/botw/u49/013.mp4

…You could’ve just said “hey check out this building right next to me”.

Recently, somethin’ called the Divine Beast Vah Rudania showed up on Death Mountain. Since then, it’s gotten a lot hotter here. That’s why we’re sellin’ fireproof armor.

We’ve already gotten one piece last update, but might be worth it to pick up the rest!

So what is this place?

As you can see, this here is my armor shop. Funny thing is, Gorons normally don’t wear anything at all. We started sellin’ flame-resistant armor for the tourists. I recommend the flamebreaker boots over all else. They’re made using gems mined from this very soil. As you’d expect, they have great flame resistance. Give 'em a try! They’re the envy of famous warriors the world over!

I want to buy.

Of course ya do! If ya gear up here, you’ll be set to stay cool at places even hotter than Goron City. With what you’re wearin’ right now… you should really give up on goin’ anywhere hotter than Goron City. Places that hot are forbidden to anyone who isn’t a Goron anyhow.

The legs and body armor are pricier than we’ve seen so far, but not too bad. The helmet, on the other hand, is crazy expensive.

Honestly, you can get by with the legs and body armor. You only need two layers of Flame Guard to handle anything, and even with the body armor you can just drink an elixir for the two or three places where you actually need two layers. One is enough for the majority of this area. I’d really only get the helmet if you want to eventually get the set bonus (or like the way it looks, fashion is the most important factor after all).

That said, I sell some of the gems I’ve accumulated recently to get the two pieces I lacked. Once my elixir runs low later in the update, I’ll swap to said gear.

Huh…wasn’t expecting Pikango of all people to be here.

Yeah, I’m not sure I’ll be able to draw anything here… So I’ll just burn this scenery into my memory.

As usual, he’s eager to give a hint towards a picture.

Hmm… I can see Hyrule Castle and the Great Hyrule Forest, which neighbors it to the north. Looking down on the Great Hyrule Forest from the southeast, you can see scenery like this.

I hear there’s some high ground north of the Woodland Stable with an incredible view. Sorry… That’s all I know.

At some point it might be worth searching for a few more of those memories. You know, since they have the plot and all.

Come watch us train at Gut Check Rock!

- Bayge, Heehl, and Kabetta

A couple of these homes are empty, including this place that houses the Gut Check brothers we met previously.

In the center of the city is the boss. We’ll save him for last.

Meanwhile, there’s a youth rolling around town.

Huh?

Probably. (but not really)

Er, nothin’!

We’ll pass. Much cheaper to make our own, after all!

Nice sales pitch, there.

Just passing through.

Hmmm…

Uh… Bye!

…What?!

Heh. I like your style! In fact, I’m gonna do you a favor and accept you as my student.

Who are you?

Siergo.

Where am I?

Goron City.

Where do you live?

The smithy’s place.

Informative!

The last building on the right side of town is the inn.

What is this place?

This is the distinguished Goron establishment, Rollin’ Inn!

Er…that’s what I’d like to say, anyway. But Boss’s house is kinda in the way.

Yep, I think you should definitely stay here, friend!

Hmmm.

There’s the innkeeper and…a Gerudo?

I think you’ve got the wrong idea…

So what’s a Gerudo doing out here?

I’m Ramella. As you can see, I’m from the Gerudo region. I came for the jewels that are to be found in Goron City. These days, those magma bombs are causing trouble and preventing me from working. I’m not too happy about it.

Shouldn’t you be burning alive right about now?

Oh… Well, I slathered fireproof elixir on my skin, so I’ll be fine. If you want to buy fireproof elixirs, a little Goron brat is selling them. I suggest you buy one and use it. I’d pay anything to save myself from this wretched heat.

Later on she’ll serve as a nice way to get some extra money. But on to the next NPC.

A massage?

New to the art of Goron massage, I take it? That’s OK. First time for everything, as they say. A Goron-style massage is done on top of a hard rock bed. Pressure is applied to your body to squeeeeze the tension out. But I’ll tell ya, it doesn’t hurt one bit. Mostly. Honestly, I doze off sometimes! When it’s all over, you’ll sleep like a rock and feel great when ya wake up. You’ll be all limber and full of energy!

Uh… I think we’ll pass.

The left side of town starts off with a quest.

Your brother?

My little brother, Gonguron. I’m really proud of him, but… He said he was gonna go dig up the secret of the hero, and then he just took off!

Secret of the hero?

Southwest of Gorko Lake, there’s an abandoned spot called Gorko Tunnel. Behind that hard bedrock, there lies not just ore…but the secret of the hero! …Or so the legend goes. True or not, it makes for a good story.

Instead of chasin’ dreams, I’d prefer to see him face reality and help us out with our important Goron work…

This one’s a shrine quest, so…the secret of the hero is probably a shrine.

We’ll save this for the backburner.

Next up, a shop.

How’s it goin’?

What is this place?

Well, take a look around. This is a grilling joint! Normally Gorons only eat rocks. Mmm, the good stuff! Still, we sell this kinda thing for the tourists. They love it. Come on! Eat up, and get yourself a meaty muscle body like us Gorons!

We might be interested in buying.

I’ll tell ya somethin’ interesting… Goron City is so hot, if ya put anything on the ground, it’ll cook up in no time. Once people figured that out, we lost all our customers. All of ‘em! So…yeah. If ya see somethin’ ya want, just grab it hot off the grill!

You…probably shouldn’t have told us that trick. But yeah, this entire area is handy since you can get a free health boost from forage by simply dropping it on the ground and waiting a few seconds. The temperature is so high food will cook immediately! And also burn away many items, such as all wooden gear…

What’s the deal with this shop?

Our motto is, “From the kitchen to the battlefield, we’ve got the right tool for you to wield!”

This place sells both Ice and Fire Arrows (though the latter is completely unnecessary since regular arrows are instantly set alight from the heat of this place, so all your regular arrows become Fire Arrows in a way), as well as a couple of cooking ingredients. The interesting one is Goron Spice, which a few recipes call for.

Further up, another side quest.

Who’s Rohan?

Master Rohan is a godly blacksmith. He’s responsible for keepin’ the ancient arts alive! He’s really strick with everyone - me included. In my case, he told me to beat every Igneo Talus around Goron City as part of my training.

If only someone would go in my place…

This isn’t even a request, this is simply Link feeling like a nice guy and wanting to surprise someone by doing his work for him.

Oh yeah, and Darunia was another Sage from Ocarina of Time, appropriately enough the leader of the Gorons.

And here’s the blacksmith.

Oops!

You’re distractin’ me!

He’s not very friendly, though.

Our elixir’s about out, so now it’s time to deck out in our new gear.

We’ve pretty much talked to most of the town. Let’s get things rolling by starting the main quest for this region.

Something wrong?

With Rudania runnin’ wild recently, Death Mountain’s eruptions have gotten real bad.

They say that 100 years ago, it actually used to protect our people from harm…but that was then, and this is now! Now all it does is mess up our mining operations! We’re all suffering because it’s stoppin’ us from doin’ business! I can’t tell ya how many times we’ve used the cannon to chase off that fiend.

https://b.mega64.net/botw/u49/147.mp4

Are you OK? That sounded…painful.

Hmph, it’s just some back pain…

Just passing through.

I see… So, then, you came all this way to pay your respects to me? I like you already, brother!

I’m the great Goron Boss who’s fearsome enough to silence a crying child! Or to make a silenced child cry, either way. Yes, it is none other than I, Bludo! I was plannin’ to drive off Rudania like I always do, but then this blasted pain in my back flared up outta nowhere…

Yunobo?

Yunobo is a young Goron who helps me drive off Rudania.

Hey… If ya happen to see Yunobo, will ya let him know I’m lookin’ for him?

Ugh… Ouch…

And so we begin our quest to pacify Vah Rudania. Seems like our best bet is to find this Yunobo fellow so we can get Bludo’s help.

Next time, we visit a mine! There will be explosions.

Click here to open the update!

There’s another Goron on the way to the mine. Of course we’ll be chatting him up.

There’s only an abandoned mine past this point. That and lots of monsters. In other words, it’s dangerous!

I don’t know what the bullseyes around Goron City are for. Well, this one makes sense at least.

Oh yeah, finally getting that Stamina Vessel I asked you guys about weeks ago.

Talking to Bargoh again gives us some new prompts. First, let’s ask about Yunobo.

Boss said to…

Well, if the Boss sent ya, I have no choice but to cooperate! If you’re lookin’ for Yunobo, he went to the Abandoned North Mine. It’s ‘cause Rudania is back again… I bet he’s tryin’ to help fix up the Boss’s back so they can drive back that awful beast, just like always.

If we say we’re lost

I guess if you’re not used to this area, it’s easy to lose your way… When that happens, try findin’ a spot that’s high up to scope things out.

Good, if kinda blatantly obvious advice at this point. So who’s this guy?

No matter how ya slice it, I’m Bargoh of the Gorons! Ever since that big lizard appeared on Death Mountain, there’ve been lots of monsters in this area. I’m here to make sure they don’t come anywhere near us!

Also there’s a shrine. Of course there’s a shrine.

For the third shrine in a row, the theme is “burn things”.

The door opens when the switch is weighed down. Of course, it’s one of those switches that pop back up if we get up. Luckily there’s a barrel nearby to weight it down, but how to get it down…

Yep.

I didn’t check to see if you could use Stasis on the switches, since sometimes that’s a viable option. And of course Fire Arrows trivialize this shrine.

A hint of things to come.

One burn later, and we get a rather nice two-handed weapon.

More generic stuff.

This one is…well, it’s metal so…

This releases the ball…

…which gets stuck at that gate.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u50/038.mp4

The other half’s not that interesting. It’s really only there so you can watch the ball hit the gear and actually see why the door opens after you drop the ball.

This leads to a key we need to advance.

Once again, there’s a switch that needs to be laid down by a barrel to advance. But this time, there’s a switch on a platform.

This drops two torches, and funnily enough neither are above the leaves. If you step off the switch and get back on, the torches respawn.

The name of the shrine and remembering what you had to do to get to this part should be enough to give you the answer (besides use Fire Arrows).

Use Magnesis to make the torch swing back and forth.

Time your shot just right…

And your reward is burning. Always burning.

And that’s it! Simple, but at least there’s a clear progression in learning puzzle concepts, so it beats a lot of other puzzles.

The trip to the abandoned mine is pretty short, just a quick two-minute walk past some Rock Octoroks…

Music: Abandoned North Mine

And here we are!

There’s a Goron at the entrance. Maybe he has some clues as to where Yunobo is.

This guy’s dialogue is going to be a pain to transcribe. Anyway, on to Yunobo.

Boss.

Well… Then I guess I better tell you wheeeeere Yunobo is!

This place is daaaaangerous, so ya probably shouldn’t go lookin’ for him.

Leave Yunobo to die, got it. So who are you?

Who, meeee? They call meeeee…Draaaaak! Ever since Divine Beast Vah Rudania showed up, there’s a tooooon of lava. It’s waaaay too hot now, and there are more monsters around too. Boss keeps waaaatch over this area, but he can only do sooo much…

Where am I anyway?

This is the Abandoned North Mine. Oh, and this is the little ditty we all used to siiiiing as we worked:

Yeah, this is a famous mine, my maaaan. Or it was…until Divine Beast Vah Rudania showed up. Now it’s waaaay too hot! There’s tons more lava and all kiiiiiinds of monsters out and about. It’s so dangerous, we can’t dig here anymore!

Good, I can stop writing all those vowels. Anyway, looks like we’ll have to venture in to find Yunobo.

This is one of a couple areas within the volcano area that requires two levels of fire guard. Luckily we’re decked in armor so the buff stacks and we’re good to go.

There’s a sledgehammer lying here that will come in handy…

For there is a rather delightful gimmick with this area.

We’ll be ignoring this advice. We have to in order to find Yunobo anyway, and using them in general will make this area significantly easier.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u50/077.mp4

Hitting the lever will move the cannon between two positions (so hitting it again would return it to its original position). Then we put a bomb into the cannon, explode it as normal, and launch an explosive in that direction. It just so happens you can point many of these cannons into enemies and rock clusters.

It’s not very intuitive though, or at least it wasn’t for me. I didn’t figure out the concept until I used the cannon that’s required to free Yunobo. Fortunately I won’t have that issue today!

This area we blew up also houses another cannon. And now we don’t have Lizalfos to interfere with our blowing up more Lizalfos!

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u50/080.mp4

Like so.

Quite a few air vents, so manuevering around this area isn’t difficult despite all the little islands surrounded by lava.

The Lizalfos here are more threatening than usual, letting loose plenty of Fire Arrows at you. We can still take fire damage in this gear (for now), so this is something we’d like to avoid. Fortunately, we’re coming up to our solution.

And what a solution it is!

This rock holds some valuable ore if we blow it up. The trick is we have to hit it while the cannon is moving.

Might take a couple tries, but nothing too difficult.

The Lizalfos here are Fire-Breath Lizalfos, which breathe fire. There’s also ice and lightning-elemental Lizalfos we’ll surely encounter later. Anyway, if you’re doing armor upgrades these colored tails are worth their weight in gold.

Anyway, our reward!

There is a skull encampment across from us.

Correction: There was a skull encampment across from us.

We just got ice arrows, and there’s two fire-breath Lizalfos near us.

https://c.mega64.net/botw/u50/097.mp4

Ice attacks instantly kill fire enemies. We’ve seen the reverse as well.

Some of these guys will even drop more Fire Arrows, which will likely be handy later.

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u50/099.mp4

This was too glorious not to show off.

This little rock island covers up a vent that gives us easy access to yet another cannon.

Not just any cannon, though. This one is the one we need to free Yunobo.

…Huh.

So who’s ready for the least-appropriate voice you’d imagine for a Goron?

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u50/108.mp4

This is Yunobo. Like Sidon, he will be our partner for this stage of the game. Don’t let the initial impression fool you, he’s far from a coward.

HMMM…

Were you the one who broke through that crag to rescue me, goro? Thanks, brother!

Looking for what I assume to be you.

Oh! So that’s it! Boss told you to come find me! Phew, thank goodness. In any case, I sure am glad you saved me, goro!

I came to get some painkillers for Boss, but a magma bomb caused a rock slide, sealing the entrance, goro.

With a big freaking cannon.

That thing is so difficult to use. I thought only Boss could handle it!

Sorry, I’ve gotta run! But do come by and see the Boss later, OK? He may be gruff, but he always repays a favor. I’m sure there’s a reward in it for you. OK then! Good-bye for now, goro!

https://d.mega64.net/botw/u50/129.mp4

Before we check back in, let’s loot the place.

Also a Cobble Crusher and Iron Sledgehammer nearby. Decent loot.

And of course Koroks are hiding near a freaking volcano. Why wouldn’t they be?

Next time, we’ll begin our plan to take down Rudania and maybe regain a memory on the way.

First, long overdue but…

Second, finally got around to getting some gameplay recorded, up through finishing Rudania. Somehow Game Overed on the build-up section to Rudania despite Mipha’s Grace and two or three fairies. It’s not even that difficult a section.

I’ll probably be done with Rudania in three updates, plus one more for post-Rudania stuff and side-quests. After that, who knows?