325 zelda breath of the wild - conquering vah naboris

Dear Readers,

Time to finally take on the last of the divine beasts! I warped back on board and went straight to exploring this huge machine shaped like a Bactrian camel. I started on the underside and climbed up inside the torso of the mechanical creature, beating up some guardian scouts and shooting eyeballs as I went along.

I navigated the torso until I got to the navigation terminal. This time I was able to turn the three cylinders that make up the torso, which helped me reach higher places whenever I wanted to shift a platform. There were power circuits on these cylinders and I was able to line them up to power other parts of the beast, such as the neck and tail.

I felt my way along, opening treasure chests and switching on terminals as I went. Some chests seemed unnaturally out of reach.

I got a bit stuck at one point. There were eyeball barriers and I could only clear them by shooting the eyes inside the humps, but I couldn't reach the humps very well. I climbed right on top of the camel's head and glided to the top of the humps. It didn't seem like something I could do naturally and I felt like I was breaking the game.

Anyway I now had access to the humps and I cleared them out too eventually, activating the final terminal in the centre (after getting all the treasure chests of course). Just like before, this central terminal made the boss appear. This time it was called Thunderblight Ganon. Urbosa gave me a warning about him being really fast.

She wasn't kidding. He was extremely fast and I got hit a lot. He had a sword and shield and lightning attacks so he was tricky to reach as well. I had mostly heavy slower weapons and I eventually stopped using them so I could get some hits in.

Eventually he started driving lightning posts in the ground. I had to use Magnesis to pick them up and carry them over to him so he would hit himself with lightning. After this I kept on hitting him until he was defeated.

Urbosa's spirit appeared before me, congratulating me and granting me her ability to use Urbosa's Fury, a lightning spell that can make for a very powerful attack. She had very high regard for me and for Zelda and asked me to take care of her, and Hyrule too.

After I left, she took Vah Naboris, climbed to higher ground and aimed its head at Hyrule Castle to fire a laser, just like the other Divine Beasts. She said it was going to be so delicious when she can hit Ganon with this beam. She said she liked that she can take this matter personally, since Ganon once took the form of a Gerudo. I love how angry and vengeful she is! It's going to be a good moment indeed!

324 zelda breath of the wild - yigas attack in random places now

Dear Readers,

Ever since I beat up Master Kohga, Yigas will randomly appear when I'm roaming around. It's not just the case of them pretending to be Hylians and catching me out on the road. They'll just appear out of thin air.

They have more difficult attacks now too. They'll float in the air and shoot arrows from a distance. It's annoying but they're still beatable in an easy enough way.

The big Yigas will appear now too and they've got this move that burrows under the ground and chases you around. They take a small while to beat but they're manageable too. They also drop windcleavers, which is nice. I took one to Hateno Village for the weapon connoisseur quest.

It kinda reminds me of Grand Theft Auto III when you get too good at the game and you get randomly shot at when you enter certain areas.

323 zelda breath of the wild - gerudo obsessed guy is now barefoot

Dear Readers,

I talked to the guy who was running circles around Gerudo Town in sand boots. I forget his name.

I showed him the photo of the statue. One thing led to another with him trying to ask me out on a date but I kept his leading attempts at bay. Out of sheer flabbergasted-ness, he offered to give me both pairs of boots. He asked for evidence of the eighth statue's sword, thinking I wouldn't be able to get it.

I passed by this sword in the Gerudo Highlands. I warped back to the shrine, because, again I didn't feel like hiking this way again, and from the shrine I did the remaining hiking I needed up the steep slope to the summit and found the sword around the southern part of it. The Lynel was around so I put on my mask as I was passing through.

I took the photo and warped back to him. I ended up with both pairs of boots and he ended up barefoot. He made one final attempt to lead conversation to asking me out and he got the question out but I came back with "not a chance" immediately. Nipping it like that was the only decent thing left to do. It ended badly for him but it would be worse if it carried on.

I feel really sad about this! I look at myself too and think about times I get silly and enamoured. I will use the boots with gratitude.

322 zelda breath of the wild - finding and photographing the eighth statue

Dear Readers,

I found the statue of the eighth heroine! It was just north of the shrine I just beat as well. It looked a lot like the other statues in the desert too, at least on the map. All I had to do was hike over and take a photo of it.

I had a bit of trouble with enemies and I stopped a lot to unearth treasure chests too. It took a good while.

I took the photo and warped back to Gerudo Town. I didn't feel like hiking again.

321 zelda breath of the wild - kicking butt at kema kosassa shrine

Dear Readers,

I took on this shrine and it was a major test of strength. I was outclassed and outmatched by the Guardian Scout IV, so I reloaded my save many times. I even warped back to Hateno to obtain the Guardian weapon I was hoarding for some reason.

After a slow process of getting my own butt kicked, I defeated it using Master Sword, arrows, flurry rushes, heavy weapons, guardian weapons, Mipha's Grace, simmered fruit meals... lots of stuff.

I mainly shot arrows when it was doing its spinny laser thing that made the wind flow up. Daruk's protection came in very handy as well.

I hadn't fought one of these in a long long time. They take a lot longer than the Guardian Stalkers.

176 pokémon picross - s12-09 yveltal

Dear Readers,

This 20 x 15 puzzle was very dense and had some super big clues, but then got smaller and harder to find towards the end. I had a good start with Zygarde 10% and Manaphy, but it still took over 10 minutes to complete. It's a bit too detailed to tell what it is as well. Bigger, meaner Pokémon can be like that.

320 zelda breath of the wild - exploring the gerudo highlands

Dear Readers,

I went through the Yiga hideout again to reach the Gerudo Highlands. No one was here anymore except for the Yigas at the entrance. None of the big dudes were here. The huge stash of bananas respawned though, so if I ever wanted some I can come right on back here and stock up!

I went through the hideout to the Gerudo Highlands and trudged my way all the way to the summit. I couldn't wear an enemy mask and snow boots at the same time so I often did without. They are very effective when exploring in the snow though, so I'll hang on to them.

There are so many treasure chests up here! All just half buried in the snow.

I met my fair share of Lizalfos too. It just felt very dense with enemies and treasure chests of basic stuff. When I got to the summit, I spotted a Lynel, so the fun was over. I continued going west until I spotted a shrine in the distance. There was no sign of the statue I was looking for, so I ended up gliding all the way down to the shrine. This was a major test of strength shrine. I may have to come back this way with stronger weapons but I don't think I'll hike especially for it.

319 zelda breath of the wild - getting caught up in the sand boots/snow boots sidequest

Dear Readers,

I warped out of Vah Naboris to do some preparations. I also got quite a bit distracted as you'll see.

I cooked some meals to be fully prepared. I also decided to finish one of my oldest side quests, to show the duplex bow to Nebb in Hateno Village. I rode all the way there and back, which took a bit of time but it was nice to be out of the desert for a while.

When I got back to the desert, I took the notion to take on the sidequest of the guy who runs around the perimeter of Gerudo Town. He's trying to get the attention of the Gerudo ladies, or of what seems like any lady really. He seemed silly and desperate and I feel for the guy! I would hope he doesn't end up scaring anyone, but the Gerudo seem like they'd be well able.

He was trying to get their attention because he was wearing very rare sand boots. I talked to him in full vai and he got more talkative, asking me to get a picture of the eighth Gerudo statue for him in exchange for the sand boots. He gave me snow boots so I'd be able to navigate my way in the Gerudo Highlands where the statue is located. I agreed to all this and set off for the highlands through the Yiga Hideout. Vah Naboris will have to wait!

318 zelda breath of the wild - teaming up with riju to access vah naboris

Dear Readers,

I took a sand seal to the lookout place. A Gerudo and Riju were there. This time I wore my desert voe outfit and Riju was intrigued with how I looked. She told me about her plan to take on Vah Naboris.

The two of us were to use sand seals, I was to use bomb arrows she gave me on Vah Naboris' feet and she was to use her heirloom to create some kind of barrier to protect us from Vah Naboris' electric attacks. I considered everything carefully and told her I was ready to go.

It felt nice to have her as a companion with her encouraging words. She moved at a consistent speed and I was always slightly lagging or too fast while doing the rushing move, so I had to concentrate a lot on steering and making sure to be within the circle while the electric attack was going on. I fell off the sand seal a few times but I didn't give up. I kept at it and eventually I shot all four of Vah Naboris' feet and brought it to a stop.

Just like before with the other divine beasts, I climbed up on this one and said farewell to my companion who helped me access the place.

On Vah Naboris, I heard Urbosa's voice, telling me I knew how to keep a woman waiting. It was a very long time indeed. Just like with the other beasts, she gave me instruction to find the mapping terminal.

I didn't want to start straight away. I wanted to do some preparations first, so I warped out of there.

317 zelda breath of the wild - bringing riju's heirloom back

Dear Readers,

It was a good laugh fighting Master Kohga and seeing him make his own cartoony demise! I was a bit stressed after the stealth section so it was very enjoyable.

After this I looked for the imprisoned Gerudo and she was gone already. I looked for the sand seal as well and it was gone too. I decided to continue through the canyon into the snowy mountains. I met and fought many Lizalfos. I even fought some more Yiga. I put on the Lizalfos mask to make things easier.

After a while I decided to glide back towards Gerudo Town. I replenished some stamina in the air and made a cool splashdown landing at the oasis. Then I continued on foot.

When I got back to Gerudo Town, I mingled some more and everyone was happy to see I brought the heirloom back. 

I brought it up to Riju in her bedroom. She put it on and asked me how it looked and I said it looked good on her.

When I saw her wearing the heirloom it triggered a long buried memory I had from 100 years ago. Urbosa and Zelda were relaxing on Vah Naboris. Zelda was asleep on her shoulder. Urbosa had a chat with me for a while. Then she made Zelda wake with a start when she summoned a bolt of lightning to strike far away. It was a nice scene.

Riju is Urbosa's descendant and she's still young. She's still developing her confidence as a leader and it's looking like she'll be a great one. She told me she'd meet me at the lookout place where we could start our plan to take on the Divine Beast Vah Naboris.

316 zelda breath of the wild - battle with the goofy master kohga

Dear Readers,

I walked out through the secret door and found myself outside at the bottom of a big weird canyon. There was a big gaping bottomless looking abyss in the centre of this clearing. I didn't dare to explore it.

A Yiga with a pot belly appeared in front of me and gave me a big dramatic introduction. He knew I was Link by the sight of the Sheikah Slate and drew me into a battle with him. He was very goofy and humorous, reminding me of Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy.

He was very easy to fight. He tried throwing stuff at me, but I distracted him by shooting him in the face with arrows, making him drop his heavy rocks on top of his own head. I was able to whale on him with whatever weapon I had then. There was the odd variation on this as he lost health. Eventually, he made a boulder so big that he couldn't stop it from rolling on top of him and knocking him into the bottomless chasm.

A chest appeared and I got the heirloom! Hooray!

315 zelda breath of the wild - storming the yiga hideout!

Dear Readers,

I took on the stealthy section of the Yiga's lair. I failed in it so many times I can't count and eventually I just reloaded my save whenever I did get caught to avoid the hassle of dealing with them.

There are big Yiga dudes here, the biggest I've seen so far. I had to sneak around them and distract them with bananas before murdering them with sneakstrikes. I had lots to add to the compendium, including many Gerudo equipment I hadn't seen until got access to Gerudo Town.

Not counting the amount of times I got caught, I had a lot of fun sneakstriking the big Yigas. I loved distracting them with bananas. They make this funny noise when they're trotting happily to grab a banana for themselves! It's like "hup hup hup".

After a lot of trial and error. I reached the end and got every treasure I could find. Some I had to unearth with Magnesis, which helped me spot a secret panel in the wall I could open like a door. I opened it and it led to outside! There was someone waiting for me out there though.

314 zelda breath of the wild - looking for riju's heirloom

Dear Readers,

After mingling with the Gerudo, I went in to meet with the main leader. She was shorter than the others and she had a hulking bodyguard Gerudo with her. The leader's name was Rija and she welcomed me and my offer to help with the Divine Beast that was stomping around the desert. She wanted me to help obtain her heirloom that was stolen from her first and I gladly agreed to it.

There was some amusing chatter about the champion Urbosa and how there was a voe named Link that fought alongside her. The bodyguard was very stern with me but I had the Gerudo's support. I was able to ask the soldiers for directions to the place where the Yiga took the heirloom.

I took out a sand seal for the first time too! It was a nice quick way to surf through the desert and go where I wanted to go. My path took me all the way to the Yiga hideout. I fought some of them on the way inside.

In the hideout, there were curtains obscuring doorways and was able to find the right one by burning them. Some had treasures and keese behind them as well.

When I got inside, I met the Gerudo that had been captured. She warned me to be careful and to leave before I got caught.

Next up was a stealthy section. I had to sometimes leave bananas to distract Yigas patrolling around the place. I got some ways in and even found a huge stash of bananas! I'm gonna have plenty to help with distracting them!

313 zelda breath of the wild - more mingling with the gerudo in gerudo town

Dear Readers,

I took my time to chat with the Gerudo in Gerudo Town. It was really interesting to see them living their lives in their own community. Many of them were guards, some had big fierce personalities and some were able to see that I wasn't a vai, but they promised not to spread it around.

It was amazing to see the school where they were learning about relationships with voe. Their responses to what the teacher asked were very amusing!

There was a pub but it wasn't called a pub, it was just equivalent to one. There was one very sad down on her luck patron who was airing her grievances about voe. She was just as beautiful as the others and here she was, sad about being single and drowning her sorrows. It was amazing and something I'd never expect to see.

There was a Gerudo who was practising her conversation on a dummy of a voe, which was very sweet. She got annoyed whenever I tried to listen in.

There were three ladies who had a password. I was able to overhear it from next door through a window. I found the place to use the password and found a shop that sells the desert voe gear and some kind of glow in the dark gear too? I'm not sure what it is yet. I'll check it out later.

I learned about a bunch of side quests and I even met the lady who was on the rooftops of the town, sitting by herself eating hydromelons. She discarded the rinds into the waterways that flowed on the rooftops of the town, which is how I found her.

These waterways were very interesting. Is it like a cooling solution or something? Is that kind of thing done in real life? I've never seen anything like it. I must look it up soon.

175 pokémon picross - forgot a day on the grind

Dear Readers,

I'm still grinding as usual but I forgot one day! Then it was late and I just did the next day. I could just change the clock but I don't really want to change over and change back. I'll just take the loss of a day.

It's no worries and I won't beat myself up over it. I'll just continue on as much as I can. Things will get done. The next session I did went fine and it was just over 3 and a half minutes.

I realised earlier in the evening but then I got distracted by something else and forgot to play before midnight. That's the plan if I ever miss a day, to make sure I play before and after midnight.

312 zelda breath of the wild - mingling with the gerudo in gerudo town

Dear Readers,

At last I get to enter Gerudo Town! I went all the way to the desert, dropped Spotty off at the stable and continued into the desert on foot. I went beyond the oasis and all the way until I reached Gerudo Town. Now that I had the Gerudo outfit on, I sauntered in without a care.

There is a lot to do here and I'm very interested in mingling with all the Gerudo. It's not really something that happens much in Zelda games. The Gorons, Zoras and Rito have always been friendly, but up until now the Gerudos are usually enemies. This whole thing of going to a town and mingling with different townsfolk and going to shops has never really been done with the Gerudo before. I had to do it all in disguise as well, which makes it even more interesting.

I chatted with many Gerudo but not all of them yet. There were a lot of shops. One of them knew I was a man, but she didn't seem to mind much.

There was a Goron wandering around too, wondering to himself as to why he was allowed in here. Who knows! Maybe I'll find out soon. Anyway, I've got a lot more mingling to do.

311 zelda breath of the wild - upgrading the desert voe armour set

Dear Readers,

With my new armour I went to the Great Fairy and asked for upgrades. I was able to upgrade everything once, but after that I was short on a couple of things.

I had to collect 9 icy lizalfos tails and 24 ice keese wings.

I rode all the way to Hebra. Along the way I tried out the Lynel mask again, this time not stopping at all. I got on much better and the Lynel looked, but did not attack.

When I got to Hebra, I stuck around the stable. There were plenty of Lizalfos and Keese of the icy kind around the area and there was a nice wide open flat area behind the stable.

It was easy enough and fun hunting for these enemies, but I had to hunt for Keese at night and I often got attacked by skeleton monsters. I had to stay at the stable a few times as well as I took a lo of hits.

After all this, I went back to the Great Fairy and got my desert voe equipment upgraded.

310 zelda breath of the wild - the big wedding!

Dear Readers,

I headed back to Tarrey Town where Hudson and Rhondson were finally getting married! It was a very nice moment and it was quite amusing when one of the vows was about naming children according to Bolson's naming tradition of ending in "son". Rhondson raised an eyebrow about it but Bolson was very enthusiastic about it.

They got married and we all clapped. It was very nice and they seem so happy running Rhondson's shop!

Speaking of which, I got right to cooking and made enough simmered fruit to earn what I needed for the full desert voe outfit! Finally!

There was lots to celebrate! After the wedding, I chatted with Bolson, who then returned to Hateno with Karson. I forget if the lonely music played or not. In any case, there was no loneliness or sadness here in Tarrey Town anymore. 

309 zelda breath of the wild - telling bolson about the wedding

Dear Readers,

I returned to Tarrey Town, where Hudson and Rhondson were delighted that I had sent a Zora who had actually been a priest, and had a name ending in "son". They were now very ready to have their wedding! The only thing they needed was to invite Bolson and Karson. I agreed to go all the way to Hateno Village and invite them.

It had been a while since I had been to Hateno, so I had a lot of apples to pick along the way. I was still saving up for that desert voe outfit after all.

I picked apples from trees along the way and I picked apples from the trees all around Hateno Village and surrounding fields. When I had picked the trees clean, I told Bolson and Karson about Hudson's progress and his wedding. It was a very nice surprise for them! When they walked away, that same sad music played, even though this time I didn't feel the sadness. They were gonna come back here after all.

308 zelda breath of the wild - finley and sasan finally meet

Dear Readers,

I hiked back up to Zora's Domain to see Finley's love letter quest through to the end. She wasn't where I met her anymore so I had to go all the way there.

Before I left Sasan's camp, I found two Bokoblins in a nearby cave and beat them up for their treasure. It was a lot of rupees!

Finley and Sasan had finally met and they were chatting with each other and enjoying each other's company. Finley liked Sasan's stories about travel and Sasan promised to get all buff for Finley. She treats him like she's his elder and it seems like he does look up to her, even though he's taller. They gave me a good reward for helping them too.

Finley's mother isn't thrilled but she doesn't seem too unhappy about it either. 

174 pokémon picross - s12-04 quagsire

Dear Readers,

Quagsire has a very simple shape and face, so it was really easy! The missions were very easy too and I only had to do three of them. Setting grass types was the only major restriction besides the 5 minute time limit.

173 pokémon picross - m01 second row, sixth column

Dear Readers,

This one was very tricky because the clues had very small numbers. I had to inch as much as I could and I got stuck for a while until another clue jumped out at me. Then I was able to push all the other answers out smoothly. The result was like the edges of two opposing circles or you could say it was like a closed parenthesis with an open parenthesis coming after it. It all seems out of place on its own but it joins well with the tile underneath in a nice straight line.

172 pokémon picross - s12-03 grovyle

Dear Readers,

I didn't have Combusken, so I couldn't do all the missions. I chose Zygarde and Swirlix. It was all random reveals and it revealed a good bit in my favour, so the puzzle itself only took 17 seconds. I took the reveals gratefully!

171 pokémon picross - s12-02 sandile

Dear Readers,

Again I couldn't do all the missions, so I just picked Pokémon to blast this puzzle in just a few seconds. I chose Zygarde and Talonflame. Between the two of them I revealed a lot. I revealed so much that I only had a small amount of squares to fill which took just 9 seconds.

Sandile has a nice big smile and big eyes. Very cute and goofy looking Pokémon! Also I finally have a Pokémon that knows slash reveal! Yay!

170 pokémon picross - s12-06 pidgeot

Dear Readers,

I still don't have a Pokémon that has slash reveal. When am I going to get one? I have no idea. In any case, I can't do all the missions on this one right now.

I can do the electric mission no problem.

I used Zygarde to reveal as much as I could. I revealed the centre square straight away and waited until I had 2 remaining blank 5x5s to use the other 2 goes I had of its reveal move. I was able to do this big puzzle in a decent amount of time.

169 pokémon picross - a nice day on the grind

Dear Readers,

I'm still getting around the 3 minute finish time on my grind and the puzzles seem to be getting easier. Maybe I'm getting better at them as I do them every day? Who knows. It'll be nice to get bonuses again. It's taking ages to get to new areas now.

168 pokémon picross - m01 sixth column, seventh row

Dear Readers,

This tile had an interesting beginning because the big fills came from hints going from 10, 9, 8, 7 and so on which made a bit of a pyramid. Other clues came in and I was able to do the puzzle handily. It ended up looking like a filled triangle with an empty triangle perpendicular to it, especially when joined with the tile to the left of it. If you use your imagination it kind of looks like a lady in a dress holding a weapon and pointing it to the left.

167 pokémon picross - s12-05 alakazam

Dear Readers,

This was a biggish puzzle and I needed 3 Pokémon to do all the missions, so I just used Zygarde and got as much revealed as I could so I could do it quick. I'll have to return to this puzzle anyway so I didn't really feel like doing much. I got the mural tile anyway so that's good for now.

166 pokémon picross - s12-01 scraggy

Dear Readers,

It feels good to unlock another new area after so long! The first stage here is Scraggy. For this I just set a fighting type and used Zygarde to get it done ASAP. I didn't really bother getting a real feel for the puzzle. I was able to do all the missions this way so that was good enough for me right now.

165 pokémon picross - daily grind in 3 minutes

Dear Readers,

Today I made a grind in about 3 minutes! Usually I'm much longer, like 3 and a half or 4 or 5 minutes. Maybe I'm getting better and I'll start getting bonuses again, which will be nice. I don't mind either way as long as I keep getting some kind of pay.

307 zelda breath of the wild - finley's love letter in a bottle

Dear Readers,

I caught up with the Zora girl who wanted to send love letters. Her name was Finley and she was corresponding with a man down river. She was very excited about meeting him and she wanted me to make sure her letter flowed down the river without obstruction or getting lost. I agreed to do it.

I failed once when those dang Octoroks started shooting at me, so I made sure to clear them out before doing it again. I also used bombs and fire arrows to carefully clear the path of wooden fences that got in the way.

I followed the letter until I reached Spotty, then continued following it until it went all the way through until it reached Mercay Island in the Lanayru Wetlands. There was a little inlet there where I met the man who was corresponding with Finley. He was camped out on this little beach. It was quiet even though there were lots of Lizalfos crawling around in the wetlands nearby.

I chatted with him for a while and he regretted giving Finley a more exciting impression of himself than what he really was. I chose to say something along the lines of love prevailing in order to encourage him. He decided to go and meet Finley for himself. I'll need to catch up with them at some point too.

306 zelda breath of the wild - finding the remaining zora stone monument inscriptions

Dear Readers,

I was dying to finish that Zora monument text quest once and for all so I asked Jiahto and he offered to give me clues about the remaining ones I hadn't found yet. There were 10 in all and I had found all of them except for 3.

He said one was on the cliff to the southeast of Upland Zorana. I would've never thought of looking there. It's not on the main path after all. I did some upward waterfall swimming and climbed to higher ground to find it. While I was there I found another one further to the southeast. I checked them both out.

One of them talked about Sidon's feat on the beach where he burst out of a huge Octorok's belly and the other was of the sculptor's own musings on this sculpting gig, which were pretty amusing.

I went back to Jiahto for the clue on the remaining monument and it was in the eastern part of the Zodobon Highlands. I thought I found that one already but apparently I didn't. I decided to just warp there and back. It was a nice one talking about Princess Ruto from Ocarina of Time, which was pretty cool. It straight up said that Vah Rutah was named after her. It was a very nice bit of lore!

I went back to Jiahto and he gave me a diamond for finding them all. I found this quest very enjoyable, at least when I found the dang things! I badly needed the clues too.

305 zelda breath of the wild - meeting the zora whose name ends in "son" and sending him to tarrey town

Dear Readers,

I left Tarrey Town with Spotty with Zora's Domain in mind. I wanted to talk to the Zora whose name ended in "son" for Hudson's quest.

I stopped at the moblin/bokoblin camp near the Akkala Span because I really wanted to beat them up for some reason. I was just in time for them to go to sleep. I shot out their lookout, snuck up on others and drew the remaining to separate them from their group. I did some flurry rushing as well, which helped me win. After looting them out, I continued towards Zora's Domain.

I left Spotty at the usual place and continued on foot. This time, I had the lizalfos mask, so this hike was going to be different. I still beat up quite a few Lizalfos because they drop bundles of arrows, which is very nice indeed. I picked up loads!

I walked past the part where they had the shock arrows. I only wanted them to look at me and nothing else.

I met a Zora girl along the riverside, who was sending love letters in the water like a message in a bottle. I said I'd help her later. It's nice that she has no fear in such a dangerous place.

I tried looking at monuments for that quest as well but nothing was happening. I found some Koroks as well and just kept going until I reached Zora's Domain.

I chatted with the Zora whose named ended in "son" and told him about the young couple wanting to get married. It was just the job he was looking for. The same sad sentimental music played as he made his way to Tarrey Town. I'll catch up later.

304 zelda breath of the wild - the monster cake saga of tarrey town

Dear Readers,

I chatted with the elderly couple and they mentioned how the rich guy argued with his wife a lot at night. I tried talking to them but they wouldn't open up to me about their troubles.

Then I noticed they were arguing next to an open window.

I went outside and I was able to listen in on what they were saying. It was about how their daughter needed food to regain her strength after her illness but she would only eat cake. Eventually monster cake came up.

The next day I chatted with the old lady and I was able to ask her for the recipe for monster cake. I had the wheat and the monster extract, but I didn't have any butter or cane sugar.

I warped to the Korok Forest for the cane sugar and I rode to Kakariko for the butter. I made sure to get extra in case I needed them again. It seems I'm only able to buy these in shops.

In the end I was able to make the monster cake and give it to the family for their little girl. She was happy and well again! She's a very happy and active kid and also very carefree. She was now living her best life!

164 pokémon picross - listening to wario land 4 hurry up! theme while grinding

Dear Readers,

Having already listened to the Pizza Time theme from Pizza Tower, I thought I'd try out the theme that inspired it!

I listened to the Hurry Up! theme from Wario Land 4 while doing the grinding today. I got it done in just over 4 minutes, which was longer than what I got while listening to Pizza Time. Hm...

It could mean something with the musics, but the puzzle differences matter as well. There are other themes I could use as well. I'll see.

163 pokémon picross - listening to pizza time from pizza tower while grinding

Dear Readers,

On one of the daily grinds lately I decided to carry it out while listening to the Pizza Time music from the Pizza Tower soundtrack. It's equivalent to the Hurry Up! theme from Wario Land 4. It made the grind enjoyable and I finished it in 3 and a half minutes, which is better than my usual records lately! Listening to music could be the way to go!

303 zelda breath of the wild - fyson's new shop and other news from tarrey town

Dear Readers,

I visited Fyson's new shop in Tarrey Town and he was selling different kinds of arrows. He seemed pretty happy which was the main thing.

Rhondson had some news: she and Hudson were now engaged! He offered her a gem he mined up. Very nice!

Hudson didn't say much about it, not yet anyway. He wanted me to find more wood for him and I agreed to.

The rich man's daughter was now awake and happy but she still had health problems. I'll see how that develops.

An elderly couple moved in! They have dogs as well. The lady was a cook in her time apparently. I'll chat more with them as things develop.

No big news from anyone else really. It's becoming quite the town.

302 zelda breath of the wild - telling fyson about tarrey town

Dear Readers,

I rode to Rito Village through Hebra and looked for Fyson. He was in his usual spot, moping about wanting to open his own shop. I told him Tarrey Town needed a general store and he was immediately inspired to go right there, collecting stock along the way. As he left, the same sad sentimental music played out. I hope he can stay in contact with his mom and the other Rito.

On my way back I stopped at the Rito stable to give the old man the Goron Spice I promised him. He told me his recipe for curry rice and how you can combine a bunch of other stuff with it. That's good. After this I rode all the way back to Tarrey Town to visit Fyson's new shop.

301 zelda breath of the wild - trying out the lynel mask! it didn't go well!

Dear Readers,

I set out from Tarrey Town to ride all the way to Tabantha. Along the way I wanted to try out my new Lynel Mask. I decided to ride past the Lynel that lurks north of Hyrule Castle to see how it reacted.

For a while it just stared and followed me. Then I got a notion to get off Spotty and take a picture of its weapon and that's when it started attacking me. It very quickly knocked all my health away and Mipha's Grace had to rescue me. I jumped on spotty and rode away as fast as I could!

The Lynel caught up to me and tried shooting at me. I did everything I could to try and avoid it and eventually I did, going out of its range. I saw it warp back to its usual territory.

That was a close one! It'll be a while before I brave one of those again!

300 zelda breath of the wild - met a weird rich guy

Dear Readers,

Well here we are, post 300! I'm picking up the pace nicely in this game! I haven't played Xenoblade in ages. I will someday but I'm not in any hurry right now. I want to play Zelda!

The new residents I met in Tarrey Town were a rich man and his wife and daughter. I chatted with them for a bit and it seems the daughter is sick, which is why they moved to a new place like this with clean air and low traffic.

I wasn't able to do anything for their problem right now, but the rich man offered me money immediately before making a proposition. It was weird and I was hesitant to take the money, but I eventually did. The man gave me 100 rupees and went on to tell me what he wanted me to do.

This guy had a very haughty, snooty way of speaking. He boasted about being very rich, which made him unlikeable, but interesting. He pointed out towards Torin Wetland and told me there were two Guardian Stalkers that were just roaming around the place out there. He wanted me to destroy them and report back to him. He sat himself at the edge of the town, where there was a really good view of the wetland.

It was news to me that there were two Guardian Stalkers out there! That was handy to know before I decide to do some random exploring there someday! I set out with Spotty for our new gig and rode all the way to the wetland, looking for them.

The battle didn't exactly go smoothly when I found them. They both targeted me at the same time and I got hurt trying to separate them. On top of that, there was a lightning storm. I took cover until it passed so I could use the Master Sword. I did that for the first Guardian, then on the other I just used Daruk's protection thingy to bounce its lasers back. I thought I might as well. With both of them destroyed, I grabbed all the lovely drops and went back to Tarrey Town with Spotty.

The rich guy saw the whole thing and was happy with what I did, giving me 20 rupees as a reward. He then made a comment on how it was a habit of poor people who expected a low deposit and a big reward, the opposite of what he just did. He then said he didn't want me near him, seeing how I was so poor and our business had concluded. Yeesh... Rich people are so weird. Still, I was saving up for the desert voe outfit, so it all helped.

299 zelda breath of the wild - catching up with rhondson in tarrey town

Dear Readers,

I rode all the way to Akkala with Spotty in my shiny new Gerudo outfit, collecting apples along the way. When I got to the great fairy, I got a shock when I discovered that I couldn't upgrade the Gerudo outfit at all! That's an awful pity! It has such low armour value as well.

After this I went to Tarrey Town. Rhondson had opened her own shop! She was selling special desert equipment for voes! Hooray! A solution so soon! I'm glad. I'm gonna save up a few thousand rupees and buy them all at once.

Rhondson herself was enjoying her new life here. Like many Gerudo, she was hoping to meet a husband for herself and talked about how Hudson was always sweaty and damaging his clothes. Oh well. Hope she gets what she's looking for.

Hudson himself asked me to give him 30 pieces of wood, so I went out chopping. He also wanted someone to run a general store and said someone among the Rito would be very capable of running and stocking their own store. I know just the guy!

Then I met someone else I'd never seen before who just moved in...

162 pokémon picross - m02 eighth row, sixth column

Dear Readers,

This one was lovely and easy. Lots of empty spaces and the resulting fills had nice easy clues. When I got it done it looked like a minimalist drawing of a man holding out a golf club, though that takes a bit of imagination to see!

161 pokémon picross - s11-05 espurr

Dear Readers,

Espurr was more or less just a face with beady eyes and small mouth. It is cute but not the most compelling. However a couple of interesting things happened here.

I wasn't able to get all the missions, but I set Snorlax for the rising reveal and Zygarde 50% for the square reveal. The square reveals for this are random and it landed on a bunch of squares that I had already filled, so I got the unlucky medal for failing to reveal anything new! Hooray! I'm glad I got something good out of this!

I met the target time and got a mural piece as well.

160 pokémon picross - i could swear the dailies are getting harder

Dear Readers,

It took me almost six minutes to do the grind today. It's ok but it took me ages to even do the first one. I'm just glad I didn't make mistakes so I was extra careful. It was nice to get it done and out of the way. Gimme my 9 Picrites, Professor!

159 pokémon picross - m01 second column, seventh row

Dear Readers,

Oh my goodness this was an extremely hard one that just popped up without warning. All the clues were of really small numbers and I had to get right down to the bare amount to help me fill in the squares. It took ages and I had to clear the slate twice because of mistakes. This one was tough to do. The pattern was kind of like a messed up ribcage or fence. I'm just glad it's finished. Get me outta here!

158 pokémon picross - m01 first column, sixth row

Dear Readers,

This one was complex enough. It took a bit of time edging out the fills. There were a lot of fills and it ended up looking like some kind of hairy Pac-Man. That takes a bit of imagination to see but it's kind of funny.

157 pokémon picross - m01 seventh column, fifth row

Dear Readers,

Been ages since I did a mural slate and now all of a sudden I have three to do. With this one I had one column completely full and another completely empty. That helped with doing this puzzle which turned out to be mostly on the left side with some kind of crevice shape in it.

156 pokémon picross - s11-07 arbok

Dear Readers,

A weird thing happened with this one. I don't have a ground type yet so I didn't try to beat all the missions, instead using Zygarde and a Pokémon with hyper scan to just get through it and use what I needed to use.

I cleared the top left, top right and bottom left 5x5 squares but I got stuck on the last one! That was pretty weird but I did eventually find where to put an X and I was able to solve the whole thing. I didn't have to use hyper scan but for a moment it looked like it was gonna come in handy.

155 pokémon picross - s11-08 keldeo (resolute form)

Dear Readers,

A rare Pokémon! I had 30 minutes and I had to use a water type. I didn't have anything advanced enough to use scatter reveal on a 20x15, so I used one of the Zygardes and Manaphy.

I was doing very well until the end when I made a 1 pixel mistake. Normally I would despair and clear the whole thing, but this time I did some guess work to shift squares around. It paid off in the end and I was delighted when it was caught! I was able to beat it in time too! 

154 pokémon picross - s11-06 aegislash (shield forme)

Dear Readers,

It is so strange when Pokémon have different forms or formes or whatever. For this I set Zygarde and a fire type, even though the fire type wasn't advanced enough to use in a 15x15 puzzle.

I managed to get all the missions here on the first go, which was nice!

153 pokémon picross - s11-02 bagon

Dear Readers,

I got all the missions on the first go here, which was nice! Nice and generous 5 minute time goal as well. I made sure to only use time skills as well. I was just after a string of not doing well in missions so it was nice to do so well in this one.

152 pokémon picross - s11-03 scizor

Dear Readers,

I didn't have Heracross so I couldn't fulfill that particular mission. I used scatter reveal alright for another mission. I didn't bother trying to get under a minute. I know I'll have to come back.

151 pokémon picross - s11-01 spinarak

Dear Readers,

I had no idea who this was for most of it. I had to use at least 2 Pokémon and to only use diamond reveal. I got these missions but not the minute one. Maybe I'll catch a Pokémon that has a bigger diamond reveal in the future?

150 pokémon picross - daily grind in area 11

Dear Readers,

Feels good to go to a new area, a new change of scene. Makes the daily grind of work a bit more tolerable to have a new place to look forward to going after work.

298 zelda breath of the wild - obtaining the gerudo outfit!

Dear Readers,

I love mingling with the Gerudo. I love how tall and strong and confident they are. They can roam the world without any fear, apart from the monsters I suppose.

There was talk about a suspicious character roaming around the place. I didn't pay too much notice to it. I came across them by accident when I climbed to the roof of the inn.

This character was a very interesting character! They were very interested in me too, in particular about how I would look in the Gerudo outfit. I paid the money they asked for and they gave me the outfit. I changed into it right then and there.

What a dramatic change! I was now able to pass as a lady! I'll finally be able to enter Gerudo Town now! On top of that, this outfit provides natural protection against the daytime desert heat! Woo!

Mingling with the Gerudo is different now... they say different things, praising me for being a pretty little thing. Other characters treat me differently now too. It's going to be a lot of fun! I love the feeling of these big strong ladies praising me.

Of course, I'm gonna have to upgrade all this equipment too. Lots to do ahead!

297 zelda breath of the wild - sending a gerudo to tarrey town

Dear Readers,

I set out from Hateno with Spotty and rode all the way to Gerudo Canyon Stable. I boarded Spotty there and continued on foot.

When I got to Gerudo Desert I found that I was able to use my Rito suit during the cold night but I wasn't able to be comfortable during the hot day in the Goron suit! It can handle volcanic heat but not desert heat! Learning something new all the time!

I got as far as Kara Kara Bazaar and mingled around. I told the Gerudo whose name ended in "son" about Tarrey Town and she packed up and left, the scene playing that same sentimental sad music from before. I'll visit her there soon.

296 zelda breath of the wild - bringing daruk's sword home with me

Dear Readers,

On the way back home I decided to be a bit adventurous and take a shortcut through the Lanayru Wetlands. There isn't a set road and there are baddies, but they're no trouble at all if you keep riding through. It was nice to see a change of scene!

It proved to be a good shortcut back to Kakariko as well, although I miss out on a few apple picking spots. I have loads of apples anyway so that's okay.

I got home, picked loads of apples and displayed Daruk's weapon in my house, next to Mipha's and Revali's weapons too.

295 zelda breath of the wild - sending gorons to tarrey town

Dear Readers,

On the way back down from Goron City, I decided to stop at the southern mine and talk to the Gorons whose names ended in "son". I told them about Tarrey Town and they decided to pack up and leave. The same sad sentimental music played when they left. It is a good piece of music about life's changing phases, but it still feels very sad. I wonder if they'll miss each other.

I decided to visit Tarrey Town and when I got there I found that the little one opened up a shop selling gems. Hudson wanted more wood to build more houses so I chopped some for him. He told me about needing a tailor and asked me to look for a Gerudo whose name ended in "son". That's all ahead of me. Really looking forward to doing the Gerudo stuff!

149 pokémon picross - the grind feels more difficult today

Dear Readers,

Today's grinding set of puzzles felt longer and more difficult than usual. Yet, when I finished them all I got more or less the same time I usually get, which is a good 3 or 4 minutes. I even made mistakes in a couple of them. Thankfully, they're so small I can fix them easily.

148 pokémon picross - earning over 100 again

Dear Readers,

I earned over 100 Picrites again finally with the daily grind. I haven't tried to get the bonus since I hit the level cap. I'd rather do a little leisurely thing every day to earn my few Picrites. It's like I can enjoy it and no one can take that enjoyment away from me, so it's nice.

Looking to unlock the next area, which will take another good few days.

147 pokémon picross - s09-09 shaymin (sky forme)

Dear Readers,

This was a rare encounter and quite a nice and satisfying big puzzle. For missions I had to set 2 Pokémon, use skills 10 of fewer times and clear within 30 minutes. I used Manaphy and Zygarde 10%. I revealed the centre 5x5 squares and after a while I revealed the bottom left 5x5 square just to speed things up.

It was a pretty nice puzzle and picture. Shaymin has a big furry head with distinctive features. I got everything done, missions and all!

294 zelda breath of the wild - beating the heck out of fireblight ganon at vah rudania

Dear Readers,

I was now upgraded to the max and ready to take on the Goron divine beast, Vah Rudania! I hiked up Death Mountain as far as I could. I got to that point where I fired the last cannon, but from that point on was just a big climb. I decided to just warp back into the dungeon.

It was pretty crazy to observe the inside of this volcano. I found a bunch of treasure chests outside straight away. When I finally went inside, it was pitch dark and the temperature wasn't scorching anymore, which was weird.

I fumbled around in the dark, shooting out evil eyeballs and using torchlight to navigate. When I finally got the map, Vah Rudania opened all its panels/windows to let the light in. This time, I had the ability to rotate the creature 90 degrees and back.

The very most of the dungeon was sussing out where I could get to the terminals and using the rotation mechanic to access them and the treasures, both inside and outside the dungeon.

Everything was going well until I came across torch lighting puzzles and didn't know what to do. I then discovered that I could carry a blue flame outside and my torch wouldn't disintegrate in the heat as long as it was lit with the blue flame. It made absolutely no sense but at that point I didn't want to argue. I lit the blue lantern outside to get the ball rolling and put away my torch quickly.

The other lamp lighting puzzle I had to shoot with an arrow through a small hole in a door. There's no such thing as blue flame arrows, so I was stuck for ages trying to figure out what to do. I found from a guide on zeldadungeon dot net that I had to hold the arrow shooting button and walk up to a lit lamp to light the arrow on fire, then, continuing to hold the button, walk over to the hole and shoot at the lamp through it. It was such a simple thing, such a basic mechanic that it was annoying because I had never used it in the game until now. I don't remember using it anyway.

There was one treasure chest that was eluding me as well. I found from the comment section of that zeldadungeon dot net guide that I had to go outside and rotate the dungeon where the ladder was so I could go over the wall. I shot out an evil eyeball along the way. There was this tiny opening nearby that was hard to notice but I had to fall down through it to reach the treasure chest that I spent ages trying to find. Glad I got that over with!

Fireblight Ganon was another floating torso but with a big fiery sword this time. It was hard to hit him with the Master Sword because he always went out of reach. He shot big flaming fireballs as well which I had to avoid by taking cover behind walls. I was stuck on that part for ages until Daruk gently suggested that Fireblight Ganon had an appetite for bombs. I disarmed him with a bomb or two and continued trying to hit him with the Master Sword and arrows until he was finally defeated.

Just like with the other Divine Beasts, Daruk piloted Vah Rudania to the top of the mountain and shot a beam at Ganon in Hyrule Castle. Yunobo saw him for a brief moment and they both observed each other with joy. Daruk was wondering how the Gorons were doing now and when he saw Yunobo, he felt good.

Daruk also gave me his red shield ability thing, which should come in handy!

After all this, I went back to Goron City and chatted with the boss. He congratulated and thanked me lots and gave me Daruk's old heavy sword. I took it gladly. I'm going to display this in my house with the other champion weapons!

293 zelda breath of the wild - finally found the smotherwing butterflies

Dear Readers,

After ages of searching the path to Goron City I found the smotherwing butterflies! I had trouble spotting them and when I finally did, a lizalfos ate the one I was trying to photograph. I smacked the crap out of him.

After a while I found more and after a bit of trouble, finally got a photograph of it and a compendium entry! I set the radar to it and found a bunch more to collect for the heatproof suit upgrade.

Afterwards I headed back to the great fairy for the upgrade.

It seems with these smotherwing butterflies they come out during the day but I don't know for sure. They're fairly elusive.

292 zelda breath of the wild - escorting yunobo to knock vah rudania back into death mountain

Dear Readers,

I headed back to the leader, but he really wasn't able to help Yunobo and me. I would have to go in his stead.

At one point during all this, Yunobo's ancestor came up. He was Daruk, the champion I knew a hundred years ago. I didn't remember at first, but when his statue was shown to me, the memory flowed back very quickly and I got into a flashback, where Daruk was congratulating me on becoming the one to protect Princess Zelda. At one point some rocks fell down on us and he used the red shield thing to stop it. His descendant Yunobo has that power now.

With all that out of the way I headed up to the Eldin bridge and saved Yunobo from some moblins. After this, I used the nearby cannon to shoot him at the drawbridge, making it come down in front of us.

When we crossed, Vah Rudania released sentries that would set off an alarm and make it rain firebombs all over the place if they spotted us. I had to escort Yunobo from this point on.

We came up with a signal system where I would whistle to make him move and stop. We had to travel along a very narrow and treacherous trail, destroying sentries with bombs and using the cannons along the way to blast at Vah Rudania, making it crawl back into the mountain eventually. This all took quite a while and we had to fight very strong moblins on top of all that. 

Eventually, we succeeded. We stood on the top of Death Mountain, looking at Vah Rudania below in the deep crater, lying on its belly. I glided down to it while Yunobo stayed.

When I got there, I heard Daruk's voice, just like I did with Mipha and Revali. Just like them, he instructed me to find the mapping point first. He has a really good voice.

However, I wanted to leave and prepare more for this place!

291 zelda breath of the wild - can't find smotherwing butterflies, went to help yunobo instead

Dear Readers,

I hiked all the way back up to Goron City, but couldn't find any smotherwing butterflies. I don't even have them in the compendium yet. I decided to just go and look for Yunobo.

I was now able to hop across the islands in the lava on the way to him, because I had the full heatproof suit and the lizalfos mask. The area was crawling with them. There were loads of updraught points, so I didn't have much trouble with gliding or anything. There were points where there were cannons. I was able to use my sledgehammer to aim and my bombs for ammunition.

I eventually found Yunobo, but I had to blast him out of the mine with one of the cannons as there was a cave in. We met, had a chat about everything, and became friends. He has this ability where he can make a big red shield form around him, making him into an excellent makeshift cannonball. He's often used to keep the divine beast at bay, whose name is Vah Rudania. He made his way back to Goron City.

I must say I find it weird how the Gorons keep their supplies all the way out here across these islands, including the medicine the leader needed for his back.

290 zelda breath of the wild - beating up tons of moblins in akkala

Dear Readers,

I went looking for more Moblins in Akkala, which led me to the East Akkala Stable near the research lab. I detected some Moblins so I boarded Spotty at the stable and went hunting on foot.

What a find! There's a huge trail of Moblins all the way along Bloodleaf Lake, across the bridge and up around the mountain of Tumlea Heights. Just tons of them! I mostly used stealth, though the odd time I had to get in fights with the Moblins too. It continued into the night were I was able to sneakstrike them as they slept. The moblin mask came in very handy too.

Up at the top of Tumlea Heights was a blue flame statue thingy like back in Hateno Village. There are torches all over this area too. I don't remember but maybe there's a quest to light all the torches here too?

In any case, I had more than enough moblin guts now!

289 zelda breath of the wild - beating up moblins on the way to ritaag zumo shrine

Dear Readers,

I wanted moblin guts, so I set the radar to blue moblins. I figured I was bound to find them on Rist Peninsula, the curly spit of land in Malin Bay near where I went to the Great Fairy.

Sure enough I found them there, along with Bokoblins, Lizalfos, Octoroks and fire Keese. It was very difficult to use masks for anything out here. I picked them off gradually. One strategy I used was to leave metal objects on the ground while it was thundering. The lightning got them good and was very handy when fighting them!

Another thing I did was carry this orb that was in some ruins at the start of the peninsula. There was a shrine socket in the very centre and I had to carry it all the way, occasionally leaving it down to fight off baddies.

Eventually I got to the centre of the spiral with the orb and Ritaag Zumo Shrine appeared. It was one of those where I was immediately rewarded on entering, so that was nice.

I got quite a few moblin guts, but I need more. The hunt continues.

288 zelda breath of the wild - catching more fireproof lizards for second heat suit upgrade

Dear Readers,

Just when I thought I didn't need any more fireproof lizards, the Great Fairy needed 9 of them to upgrade my fireproof gear. I took Spotty back to Eldin and used the radar to catch more of them. There's loads of them so I found them in no time at all.

Afterwards we went back to the Great Fairy and upgraded everything. There was another upgrade, but I needed moblin guts and smotherwing butterflies, an insect I haven't added to the compendium yet. I know they're in Eldin, but they're kind of elusive.

Looking forward to beating up some moblins though! Stalmoblins won't do of course, because they don't have guts or any other fleshy organs.

287 zelda breath of the wild - upgrading the fireproof suit once

Dear Readers,

I decided to head to the great fairy in Akkala in order to upgrade my new fireproof equipment. I followed the mountain trail back down towards where I left Spotty.

Along the way I beat the Igneo Talus that was on the path. If I was to do it again I would extinguish the lava that makes up part of it.

I reached Spotty and rode all the way to Akkala, beating up the Guardian along the way.

When I got there, I upgraded my entire new fireproof suit once. One of the things the great fairy wanted for upgrading the second time was a bunch of fireproof lizards. I'll go back to Eldin and get more next time. I'm just glad it's close by.

146 pokémon picross - working and daydreaming of travelling to new areas

Dear Readers,

Jumped into the grind just past midnight. I don't really remember how long it took me to do the 5 puzzles but after the second one was done I was well over 3 and a half minutes. I wasn't hurrying this at all.

There was a rare sighting today but it's in an area I can't reach yet. It'll take about a week or so to get there. I can daydream about it until then, like I'm looking forward to a holiday or something haha.

286 zelda breath of the wild - falling slowly at daqa koh shrine

Dear Readers,

This shrine was very short and easy. I took all the treasure before taking on the major puzzle, a huge stone block that was trampolining against a switch that opened the way to the monk.

I got on the trampoline, which was more of a catapulting platform before bouncing up with the stone block. I parachuted, letting the block fall down before me so I could land on top of it. Then I used stasis on the block when it touched the mechanism that made it open the path to the monk. I then went straight to the monk. 

285 zelda breath of the wild - burning a path through shae mo'sah shrine

Dear Readers,

I took on this shrine, which seems to be the main shrine and warp point near Goron City. There were lots of doors to open with weighted switches. I had to burn obstacles that were keeping me from getting the heavy barrels I needed.

There was lots of treasure to find and little guardians to beat up too. One of the treasures was a stone smasher. Looking forward to using that thing soon!

I kept pressing ahead and burning what I needed to burn. I needed to guide a metal ball at some point to make a wheel spin too, which wasn't much trouble. One of the treasures was a key and eventually I reached the monk.

284 zelda breath of the wild - mining and saving up for the full heat proof suit

Dear Readers,

After talking to the boss of the Gorons, I set off looking for Yunobo, the one who was going to help me. I met happy and grumpy Gorons and asked them more about where he was. They eventually pointed out in the direction of a few islands out in a big lake of lava. I followed until I got to a point where I couldn't go any further with the heat, even with my armour. I only had one piece of the fireproof set, so I was going to have to save up to get the other two pieces. I wanted to save up 2,700 rupees.

I went exploring, continuing on paths I was able to go. I crossed a bridge that was above Goron City and I also met many bomb octoroks, fire keese and lizalfos. I kept my lizalfos mask on most of the time.

The path led to the lava before Death Mountain itself. I couldn't cross here yet either. After this I wandered around, finding lots of ore to mine with my sledgehammer. There was so much of it in the end that I had more than enough to raise money for the other pieces of the heat armour. I was finally all suited up! I'll upgrade it with the Great Fairies soon.

No apples grow around here unfortunately, so I couldn't continue my simmered fruit business, but mining the ore made up for it.

I also found the drillshaft, which a young Goron hid. I showed it to him and he let me have it during a side quest.

I found two shrines in the area too. I'll talk about them shortly.

145 pokémon picross - m01 seventh row, fifth column

Dear Readers,

When unlocking this I used Zygarde which made the process very quick and easy.

The tile itself was the easiest yet! I had a grand total of six squares to fill in on the top right! The rest of it was all X! Very fast and easy puzzle. Nice to get those now and again!

144 pokémon picross - m01 fifth row, sixth column

Dear Readers,

Unlocking this tile was annoying because I went to the trouble of using Mew, but I made a mistake and ended up having to rush to get within the 1 minute requirement. I made it thankfully.

Anyway, this tile was shaped like a cross with the top right chamber closing in a loop. It was slightly tricky but not too bad as there were a couple of big numbers. I felt I had to work from the inside out for the most part.

143 pokémon picross - m01 third row, seventh column

Dear Readers,

This tile had one full line and one completely empty line. The pattern it made was kind of like if you can imagine a bridge with a slope and supporting structure, though that kind of takes a bit of imagination. Time consuming but very doable.

142 pokémon picross - 9 picrite pay packet

Dear Readers,

Well, it's not much but it's somethin'. I finished today's grind in 5 and a half minutes and it's nice to be guaranteed this much at least. I made a little mistake here and there but I was able to pick it up without too much delay.

Again, I feel encouraged to unlock areas as quickly as possible so I can get higher and higher raises on my pay packet.

141 pokémon picross - s09-06 talonflame

Dear Readers,

With this one I set Zygarde complete and Umbreon in order to get the reveal and time missions. I'll have to come back later for the 2 fire Pokémon mission.

It was a bigger puzzle made easier with all the reveals I did. I had to do Umbreon's first as that had to be done at the start. After that it was time consuming but very manageable to do within the time needed.

140 pokémon picross - s09-07 manectric

Dear Readers,

Completing all the missions for this required Luxray, but I didn't have it yet. I used Snorlax for its rising reveal and Fletchling to grind for hyper scans. It wasn't too difficult and I managed to get the time mission goal too.

139 pokémon picross - m01 second row, eighth column

Dear Readers,

This tile only had a little bit of line in the top left corner and bottom right corner. It was divided by two columns of X-es in the centre. It was slow but satisfying puzzle to solve, with more clues coming in like dominoes as single squares got solved.

138 pokémon picross - jumping back on the grind after midnight

Dear Readers,

Well it's after midnight, so the daily grind lit up again. I did it now to get it out of the way so I wouldn't be rushing tomorrow. It's good to stay on top of these things. I finished it in 4 and a half minutes so I was quite leisurely about it.

137 pokémon picross - racing to get the grind done before midnight

Dear Readers,

I was racing to finish the daily grind before midnight. I didn't care about the grind itself, as long as I could do it before midnight. If I missed that, then I wouldn't get a chance to do it anymore. I'd have to do the next day's training and miss out on Picrites. I couldn't be bothered changing the clock.

136 pokémon picross - s09-05 meowstic (male)

Dear Readers,

This one seems tricky to get that 1 minute mission. I had to only set dark types and I can only use scatter reveal once. I revealed 30 squares with Umbreon and I still couldn't make it. Maybe there'll be a stronger dark type somewhere down the road. This won't be solved with extra slots this time.

After this, there was a rare Pokémon sighting in the area but I couldn't reach it due to having low energy. I'll be back to catch it in a few days or whenever it'll be spotted again.

135 pokémon picross - s09-04 leafeon

Dear Readers,

For this I had to set Glaceon and use auto fix 3 or fewer times. I had five minutes too.

Leafeon was easy enough to do thanks to Glaceon's blue force move. I had 2 uses of 120 seconds each and that's all I needed.

134 pokémon picross - s09-03 chespin

Dear Readers,

This was a nice easy puzzle to do. I had to set fire Pokémon.

But yeah, not difficult at all and Chespin has a cute round face. I was well able to complete all the missions as I had 5 minutes to do it.

133 pokémon picross - s09-02 fletchling

Dear Readers,

Fletchling has a nice circular shape with a beak and eye. It was fairly challenging too with slow but sure fills that came in like a nice domino effect. It was a pretty satisfying puzzle to do. 

It was time consuming though and I couldn't reach the 1 minute goal for the mission. I had to set only electric Pokémon, so I reckon I'll have to come back after unlocking several Pokémon slots.

132 pokémon picross - s09-01 swirlix

Dear Readers,

Back to catching! Swirlix is a big weird cloud thing with a face and it was hard to tell what it was even in the completed puzzle. I had to set a fairy type and use cross reveal for missions. I have to finish the puzzle within a minute and I don't think I'll get all the missions done until I unlock a third slot. The puzzle itself is speedy enough to do, but I don't really want to rush it.

131 pokémon picross - new area, new raise on the pay packet

Dear Readers,

Making the big bucks now. I went on the daily grind with my new 1 Picrite raise. I didn't meet the target time, but I feel good about earning that extra 1 Picrite every day on top of my regular pay packet.

I find that I normally finish these puzzles in about 4 minutes. 5 puzzles in 4 minutes. Trying to get it in 2 really does feel like a stretch.

Anyway, I feel encouraged to unlock more areas as much as possible.

130 pokémon picross - saved up enough on the grind to unlock area 9

Dear Readers,

I had to grind more today to have enough to unlock the next area. I didn't have to meet the target time so I went leisurely enough.

When I unlocked the next area, the professor gave me a 1 Picrite raise on my pay packet! Hooray!

283 zelda breath of the wild - mingling in goron city

Dear Readers,

On the way to Goron City, I heard a shriek from the divine beast in the area. It's a big lizard-shaped mechanical thing that crawls along the sides of Death Mountain.

The Gorons have big smiles and big personalities. I small talked with several of them and checked out their shops. I bought some Goron Spice because I remembered an old man back at Rito Stable wanted some. I'll give it to him later. I looked at the rest of the fireproof armour set. I've got some saving up to do. I stayed at the inn and got a Goron massage.

I like the lore about them thinking precious gemstones are weird food and they only mine them for tourists and other races that pay crazy amounts of money for them. That's pretty amusing.

I met the village elder/boss who was having back problems. Just like with the Rito and Zoras, there was this divine beast, the champion from 100 years ago perished, and now there was a local heroic guy who was gonna help me. I have to go look for him somewhere though.

282 zelda breath of the wild - fireproofing on the path to goron city

Dear Readers,

I took to the road with Spotty and rode all the way to Eldin. When I got to the Foothill Stable, I cooked up some fireproof elixirs and set my radar to fireproof lizards just in case. This area is crawling with them.

I also came across a guardian stalker that turned just as I was passing so it wasn't at all alerted to my presence. I thought about attacking but decided to just move on.

I continued on the path until we got to a checkpoint. Similar to the Zora path, I wasn't able to bring Spotty any further. I continued on foot and climbed over the rocks to continue on the path.

Things got hot. I had to change equipment that was gonna catch fire and start drinking fireproof elixirs.

I came across new enemies like the igneo talus that looked really cool. I also passed by some Lizalfos with my mask, which came in very handy, and dashed past some rock octoroks. I passed by the Sheikah Tower as well. I took a more difficult way the last time I was here. It was much easier now with my current preparations.

I passed more checkpoints and eventually met some Gorons and a Hylian that was looking for 10 fireproof lizards as a souvenir. Thankfully I had enough for him and he gave me some fireproof gear! I don't have to use elixirs anymore and I can finally relax in this volcanic area!

When I say relax, I mean I won't catch fire. There were plenty of other hazards along the way, including eruptions that made it rain balls of fire on top of me.

I kept pressing on until I finally made it to Goron City! Hooray! 

281 zelda breath of the wild - back home, picking apples, bought lizalfos mask

Dear Readers,

On the ride home I picked tons of apples. I was back to the peaceful life and running my little simmered fruit business. I returned to Hateno Village and spent all day and night picking and cooking apples.

While I was picking during the night I noticed the monster shop was out by the field so I went to visit. Kilton had a new mask! A Lizalfos mask! I traded him a bunch of Lizalfos parts so I could gain enough of his mon currency to buy it. I had way more than enough so it was no problem.

I'm delighted with my Lizalfos Mask! Putting it on makes me do this Lizalfos stance and mannerisms like tilting and twitching my head. I'm looking forward to using it, especially in Lizalfos heavy areas like the path to Zora's Domain!

After all this business, I went back to my house and hung Revali's bow on one of the weapon mounts.

129 pokémon picross - quiet quitting on the daily grind

Dear Readers,

I'm continuing the daily grind for my Picrites and continuing to finish the tasks without worrying about the target time. I got today's pay in 4 minutes. Had a nice relaxing time.

280 zelda breath of the wild - beating up windblight ganon

Dear Readers,

At the end of Vah Medoh was Windblight Ganon. It was a floating torso and it had some kind of arm cannon thing. Revali made a comment about how he was winging it when he died while fighting it, which was pretty funny. I guess he's developed a sense of humour over the past 100 years while he was dead up here.

Windblight Ganon moved around a bit, shot lasers and tornadoes for a bit, nothing too difficult. I was well able for it with the Master Sword. Halfway through the battle it brought out some drone laser thingies and started making laser webbing, doing some weird stuff like that.

At one point I got knocked off the side but I got back into it quickly. A few more arrows and whacks with the Master Sword and I defeated it handily.

In the scenes that followed, Revali was full of praise for me, even though it was in his usual haughty way. He gave me his ability to cause an updraft and gain some instant height, which should come in handy.

Everyone in Rito Village was very thankful and some had sidequests to do. I'll take part in them later.

The village elder had a chat with me too. I got a special bow that Revali used long ago. I'm gonna display it in my house later on.

On the way home I stopped by apple trees to pick them.

279 zelda breath of the wild - raiding and controlling vah medoh

Dear Readers,

When I landed on Vah Medoh, I heard a familiar voice. It was Revali's spirit. He was glad I was there and gently chastised me for leaving him wait for 100 years. Like with Mipha and Vah Ruta, he told me about getting a map and about activating the 5 terminals. It's very much a formula for another mini dungeon, except this time it's a giant mechanical bird whose wings I can control by either holding them level or tilting them. I set the radar to treasure chests and went exploring.

The treasure chests were simple enough to find. I had to shoot eyeballs again and many of them were on places just out of reach. I was able to barely climb onto their platforms, though it often felt like I shouldn't have been able to. There was even one on the beak of the bird's head. I grabbed them all as quick as I can.

As for the terminals, they were on the wings and in the various chambers inside its body. Navigating floors wasn't too difficult as there were handy propellers to help me gain height. One of the wings had a sliding cable car thingy I was able to manipulate with the tilting. The other wing didn't have one so I just tilted that point down and glided to it. One puzzle had a big metal ball and various stages that were all satisfying to do. Another puzzle had a hammer that needed momentum to hit a switch with enough force. That was an interesting one to think out and plan as well. I had to use Magnesis to hold a fan in place. It was mostly Magnesis I had to use for any of the slate related puzzles. Eventually I got all the terminals activated. Next up is the boss of the place!

278 zelda breath of the wild - breaking into vah medoh with teba

Dear Readers,

Teba flew us high above the clouds and above Vah Medoh. What a view it was up here.

By the way, before we came up, he asked me why I wanted to help him and I said I wanted to save Zelda. I wonder how different it would be if I chose another response?

Anyway, Teba told me about the cannons I had to shoot with my bomb arrows. There were four of them and they were very easy to take out, thankfully. To gain back some height I had to use my paraglider. It was more or less what it was like back at the flight range.

In no time at all I shot all the cannons out and the barrier surrounding Vah Medoh had disappeared. Teba congratulated me before telling me to go on without him. He got some other kind of injury and wanted to head back. I carried on ahead and landed on Vah Medoh.

277 zelda breath of the wild - rito gear upgraded, onward to vah medoh

Dear Readers,

I rode to the great fairy in Akkala as that was the closest and finally upgraded my Rito gear. After that, I rode all the way back to Rito Village, stopping to pick apples along the way.

At one point I also made a diversion to the Korok Forest because in the past I got an icy weapon from a wizzrobe and someone there wanted to see it. I opted to warp in and out of there. I didn't want to do the Lost Woods navigation puzzle again.

Back at Rito Village I got some rest and made my way to the flight range. I chatted with Teba, told him I was ready, got on his back, and away we flew to Vah Medoh in the sky. It'll be nice to finally go on board that thing. For ages it's been a constant shadow looming over me while I was saving up for the Rito gear.

276 zelda breath of the wild - searching for 24 fire keese wings

Dear Readers,

I just needed to hunt Fire Keese for their wings now. I slept at Foothill Stable and woke up at night to begin my search, presuming they came out at night. 

I was worried I was going into extreme heat, but it turned out okay. The path to Eldin had lots and lots of Fire Keese around. I just had to set the radar to them.

Along the way I picked up any fireproof lizards I could find, just in case I needed them.

I met some Stalmoblins of course but they don't scare me anymore. They drop lots of useful monster parts of course.

I even met a Guardian Stalker on the path! I wasn't expecting to see it. I went straight for it and chopped it to bits.

I had plenty getting in my way while I was hunting Fire Keese. Fire Chuchus were often with them and I had to deal with them also.

Thankfully, many of the Fire Keese I met dropped two wings, so I reached the 24 I needed sooner than I thought I would.

Some lovely hot springs around here too. I was able to replenish health easily.

275 zelda breath of the wild - searching for 15 sunshrooms

Dear Readers,

For the next upgrade I needed 15 Sunshrooms and 24 fire Keese wings. I didn't have enough so I checked the Compendium, which told me they were in Eldin. I had a bit of a journey to go on.

I decided to ride through the Hebra region to get there, now that I was able to go into cold places easily. I swapped Spotty for Snowbus, just for fun, and rode all the way through to the other side.

The next thing I did was ride through the area north of Hyrule Castle. It was like a weird mountainous region but I was just about able to get through. There was no road. I kept going until I reached Woodland Stable. I swapped Snowbus for Spotty again, just for fun, and rode to the path northeast of the stable that came to an end. From here I continued on foot across the mountainous Eldin Canyon with my Sunshroom radar on.

I came across many Bokoblin camps and got good use out of my mask as many of the mushrooms were growing near the camps. Eventually I got my 15! My search ended at Foothill Stable, which had some sunshrooms growing around. Maybe I should've begun my search here.

Along the way I found some Koroks. I'm not going to be specific about them anymore.

274 zelda breath of the wild - red chuchu jelly hack and picking warm safflinas

Dear Readers,

I forget where I learned it, but you can change the element of a chuchu jelly by exposing it to the element. I dropped some regular jellies on the ground, set fire to them and they turned into red jellies! Hooray! I changed a bunch of them so that was easy!

What wasn't so easy was getting the warm safflinas. I explored Hyrule Ridge but found very few of them with the radar. I pretty much had to head to the Gerudo Desert where they were far between, but they were plentiful. While I was there I came across some cool ruins I'll explore later.

After obtaining enough I brought them all back to the great fairy in Tabantha and she enhanced my Rito gear! Yay!

However, that wasn't all. She was able to enhance my gear again! This time I had to give her fire Keese wings and sunshrooms. Looks like I'll have to go back scavenging!

273 zelda breath of the wild - upgrading my rito equipment once

Dear Readers,

I went to see the Great Fairy here in Tabantha. I usually warp to the tower, but I wanted to ride there. I had to climb some rocks but it wasn't too bad.

I wanted to upgrade my new Rito equipment. I was able to upgrade them all once each, but I needed more materials. I needed 5 red chuchu jellies and 3 warm safflinas for each one, so that was gonna be 15 jellies and 9 warm safflinas altogether. I set out to find them.

272 zelda breath of the wild - buying all of the rito warm gear!

Dear Readers,

After all my collecting and fighting, cooking and selling, I finally saved up enough rupees to buy all of the Rito equipment! They were very pleased with me when I bought it all!

The headdress is pretty nifty, making me look like some kind of distinguished bird of prey.

So now I'll be able to explore the Hebra region in deep detail without fear of freezing. It seems like there's a lot there. I'll be able to go up to Vah Medoh as well. I'm guessing I'll be able to explore the desert at night too? I hope so!

271 zelda breath of the wild - picking a fight with the lizalfos camp near rito stable

Dear Readers,

I wanted some monster parts for potions to sell, so I decided to invade the Lizalfos camp up the hill from Rito Stable.

There were quite a few of them there and one of them was a Bokoblin that was on top alerting the others.

A bit too many of them ganged up on me at once. Thankfully, some of them were archers and stayed put. I lost a lot of health and had to eat quite a bit of food.

My fight with these guys was much clumsier than usual. Sometimes I crouched by accident and it was a bit messy. I did manage to beat them all up though, one by one. I threw their spears at the archers and completed my invasion of the camp by sneakstriking the Bokoblin on top. There was a sword in the chest, along with lots of other weapons and arrows dropped by the others. I grabbed what I could.

I cut some of the grass around here too, all while Vah Medoh flew above my head. I wonder if it's following me around the area.