401 zelda breath of the wild - beating up the three hinox brothers

Dear Readers,

Up until now I had barely explored the mountains south of Dueling Peaks Stable. While searching for that shrine next to the river I got a taste of it and wanted to continue.

I started from the hot spring and continued roaming the mountains. I found lots of ponds, trees and hillsides that felt new and unspoiled by road construction or warp points. I kept an eye out for any new shrines and eventually I found a pedestal!

When I got closer, it turned out to be three pedestals! There was a stone plaque that told me about the three Hinox brothers that lived in the surrounding areas. Each one of them had an orb and I had to go to each area and beat them all up. It's a good thing I didn't have to take them all on at once.

They were all nearby. The first one I fought was at the Rabella Wetlands and he was surrounded by Bokoblins, many of whom just seemed to be chilling out. I haven't really seen them be chill like this before. Maybe it was because they lived so remotely. I beat some of them up before I took on the big guy. I managed to keep him on the mound he was sleeping on with lots of attacks and arrows to the eye. I defeated him handily.

I used a different strategy with the other two brothers. They were both at a much lower elevation than the area with the pedestals. They were both sleeping under giant skeleton rib cages so I just stood on top of the ribs while I rained bombs and arrows down on them. I beat them all handily. These other brothers didn't have any Bokoblins around them.

I gathered all the orbs, placed them in the pedestals and Tawa Jinn Shrine burst from the ground. No further trial inside — just a blessing.

400 zelda breath of the wild - tilting controls at toto sah shrine

Dear Readers,

I get the feeling this shrine was meant to be found earlier in the game but I find it now about 400 blog posts in with postgame experience and strength.

It was all about tilting the controller to make staircases line up with the path. Very straightforward really and it felt like an early game novelty. It also retained that sense of fun that an early novelty has.

I made my path, grabbed the treasure chests while I was here and got the blessing.

399 zelda breath of the wild - the hidden shrine in hickaly woods

Dear Readers,

I went to the Dueling Peaks Stable and took on the quest that two guys had, but they wouldn't give it to me unless I paid them 100 rupees for information. For a second I felt like Tingle from Rosy Rupeeland. 

I got their information and headed to Hickaly Woods nearby. It was where I came across my first sighting of a bear in the game. I also came across a Stalnox and picked a fight with it, knocking its eye out of its socket as much as I could. To recover from the fight I climbed a cliff to the east and made my way to the hot spring I spotted on the map. I took a nice long dip! I also dived into the ring of flowers for a Korok seed.

What I really needed to do in this area was follow the smaller stream and up its waterfall and gather the treasures from the cave at the top of it. There were some nice minerals and weapons here. The guys were pretty mad when I told them I had found it. At least I get to gloat.

While I was in this area, my shrine radar went off. I explored the mountains to the south to see if I could find it. I got a bit off course and ended up fighting a Guardian Stalker. I really didn't need to be up there though, as the shrine was right next to the tiny river I had to follow earlier. I didn't notice the rocks covering the cave it was in at first. I blew them up and went into Toto Sah Shrine.

398 zelda breath of the wild - conquering south lomei labyrinth

Dear Readers,

I decided to go and conquer South Lomei Labyrinth. I warped nearby and glided all the way in.

On the map it looked like it was just squares within squares, but it didn't show any gaps in walls and it didn't show any levels the gaps were at either.

The only enemies I found here were Bokoblins and Stalkoblins. All of the Bokoblins were on top of the walls of the maze, patrolling around for some reason. I wondered why they were doing that. There was no stopping anyone at the entrance.

I also came across the evil goop but I didn't find any eyeball to shoot.

I explored the maze until I got all the treasure chests. Some had weapons and some had rupees, which was nice.

I felt this was a bit easier than the other mazes I took on, but it seemed pretty mysterious. Navigating the passageways and gaps in the wall was challenging, even though it looks fairly unassuming on the map. I eventually got to the shrine at the centre of the maze and obtained the blessing.

397 zelda breath of the wild - the girl who fell in love with an orb

Dear Readers,

I recall meeting someone who was clinging onto an ancient glowing orb when I was exploring the coastline and I said I'd come back to them another time. I decided to go back to her now.

Her name was Loone and she was hugging and doting on a glowing orb that she named "Roscoe". The altar that housed the orb was nearby.

I was thinking maybe the tough times in this post apocalyptic world were too much for her and she took solace in this glowing thing. The poor girl.

I talked to her for a bit and she said what she really wanted was to see a small Guardian, a walking Guardian and a flying Guardian. If she saw those then she would forget all about Roscoe and daydream about Guardians.

She seemed hardy and hopeful after all, yet still quite a bit silly. I decided to indulge her request. I wasn't able to show her the entries in the Compendium though. I had to have pictures of these Guardians in my album.

I warped to the shrine outside Hyrule Castle and found the flying and walking Guardians pretty quickly, but it wasn't as straightforward with the little one. I tried taking a picture of a Guardian Scout III, but it wasn't what she wanted. I warped to the very first shrine I did, the Magnesis trial on the Great Plateau. Inside I took a picture of a Guardian Scout I and that did the trick!

I brought all three photos back to her and it made her extremely happy. She said she burned the images of the Guardians into her imagination and decided to daydream about them instead of Roscoe. I'm glad she acknowledged the fact that Guardians are too dangerous to approach casually. I'm sure she'll be ok! Maybe it's good to just daydream about certain things! That's food for thought!

With Roscoe freed, I brought it do the altar. Shoqa Tatone Shrine burst out of the ground and I went inside. It was a modest test of strength and I smashed up the Guardian to gain access to the monk's blessing.

396 zelda breath of the wild - solving the secret of the snowy peaks

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore this mountain that was between Faron and Gerudo Desert. It was called Mount Granajh. I was well able to climb it with my maxed out stamina and explore it with my Rito gear. It was very interesting to be in an area with temperature extremes so close together.

I kept climbing and exploring until I found a pedestal on the side of a cliff. Nearby was the remains of a hut with a diary lying around. The one who wrote it spent many many days trying to figure out the puzzle of the place and they were running out of supplies. The poor thing must've had an awful difficult time.

They left a very big clue to the pedestal and it was something about casting a cold shadow on it. Initially I thought it was about throwing the big snowballs that were lying around the place at it, but it turns out I had to hold one and cast its shadow at a certain time of the day when it was glowing. After a short time I eventually found that it was sometime in the evening before sunset. I held a snowball over my head and got into position that made the sun cast the snowball's shadow onto the centre of the pedestal. When that happened, Suma Sahma Shrine burst out of the ground! Hooray!

Inside the shrine was a blessing. That was a pretty satisfying puzzle to solve!

395 zelda breath of the wild - placing the laser in ishto soh shrine

Dear Readers,

This shrine had a very simple puzzle. There was a moving platform and a laser shooter I could carry around. All I had to do was put the laser on this platform and point it towards a direction where it would shoot the switch every time it passed it. This made the platforms shift up and down by themselves and I was able to access treasures and the monk easily. Nice little shrine.

394 zelda breath of the wild - the lady in the mountains who couldn't cook

Dear Readers,

While I was on my way to find Telma, my shrine radar went off, so I decided to ride her back to the area and look for it. My journey took me up a mountain that divided this area and the Gerudo Desert on the other side.

I didn't have to do any climbing thankfully and I was able to ride Telma all the way to the shrine. When we got there we found a lady who was cooking something badly. She told me about recipes that definitely wouldn't produce good food and it sounded like handy advice to avoid!

Near her was the shrine I was looking for. It was surrounded by a lot of trash with flies buzzing all around! It was like something from the real world! I went into Ishto Soh Shrine.

393 zelda breath of the wild - taming and naming telma the giant horse

Dear Readers,

I took on the quest about finding the giant horse. I went to the guy who gave me the quest and made my way west to the area where the horse was found.

On the way there, I had to put on my Bokoblin mask for the big gang of Bokoblin riders, and after that I had to put on my Lynel mask for the two Lynels I had to ride past. After that I found the giant horse.

It took a couple of attempts, but I was able to tame it. Just like when I tamed Blondie, I used nearly all of my stamina. 

I took it back to the stable and thought for a while. I considered naming it "Ganonhorse", since it looked a bit like Ganondorf. I couldn't use that many letters though. In the end I named it after Telma, the busty barkeeper in Twilight Princess. I'll think of her every time I take this horse out!

Telma is enormous and doesn't seem to have any limit to the amount of times you can do a speed boost. It's slower than the fastest, but it covers a lot of ground quickly since its strides are so big.

Riding it into enemies and other creatures is pretty devastating! Especially the goats, who die in one hit when they get in the way.

392 zelda breath of the wild - lomei labyrinth island

Dear Readers,

I thought I might as well take on this maze too, so I headed to the Akkala Lab and glided all the way to this island. It took most of my maximum stamina to get there. Glad I had it topped up to the max.

There were a lot of Guardians there and it was being patrolled by scary looking flying ones above it. They didn't give me any trouble though.

I had some trouble with regular ones on the ground and in some parts of the maze but I was able to handle them easily enough.

With the main ones out of the way I explored the maze itself. I explored the whole maze, even though it turned out I didn't need to do very much at all! Still, it was fun to do though. I had to use Magnesis a couple of times to shift metal boxes out of the way of some passages. Those tall pillars in the centre had tall empty shafts in them. Some had treasure chests, which was nice.

When I reached Tu Ka'loh Shrine I went inside for the blessing.

When I came out, there was a hole in the floor with wind blowing up from it. I became curious and went down the hole, which led to a massive basement below the island with disused Guardians scattered everywhere! It was really cool to see.

I explored the area and found that many of the Guardians were still alive and some were stalker ones. I had to be careful down here. I found a treasure chest that had  a diamond circlet in it. Apparently it had some protection against Guardians but I didn't take the time to see. I guess this would be a good place to come back to after every blood moon if I wanted to hunt Guardians.

This huge basement got me thinking about the lore of the place. Maybe the Guardians were tested here when they were built?

391 zelda breath of the wild - many guardian lasers at the forgotten temple

Dear Readers,

I thought it was about time to go explore the Forgotten Temple. I warped to Serenne Stable and made my way towards the entrance of the temple.

However, I decided to explore the rooftop first. It was really interesting. It was very quiet but it was a lot like when you climb on the roof of a big building and you see another side to it that you wouldn't normally be allowed see. There were a lot of weird structures up here but there was very little of anything else. I found a few Koroks around here alright but that was it.

After that bit of fun I made my way back to the entrance and parachuted down to go inside.

Immediately I was targeted by at least 3 or four Guardian lasers. I didn't have much time to hang around and explore so I moved as fast as I could through the temple, dodging lasers. 

After that ordeal I came across a gigantic goddess statue and Rona Kachta Shrine. I went in the shrine and got the blessing. I'm not sure why the goddess statue was so gigantic.

390 zelda breath of the wild - solving north lomei labyrinth

Dear Readers,

I was looking for another challenge and decided to take on this one. I ran along the top of this labyrinth once before but now I decided to take the challenge head on. I warped to the area and made my way to the maze while wearing my Lynel mask. When I got there I was tasked with making my way to the end as a shrine quest.

The shrine was right there ahead of me, but it was obscured by cage bars and by purple goop. I had to navigate the whole labyrinth with help of the Sheikah Slate. There were mostly Lizalfos enemies the various corridors, and I never really got lost or confused. The path roughly made a big circle, but the little branches did look a little intimidating. I found treasures at most corners of the maze and there were corridors at the compass points leading to other treasure too. I wasn't in too much trouble at all and I had a lot of good weapons to use here.

I eventually found the goopy eye and cleared the purple goop. Then I found the way to Qaza Tokki Shrine. Inside was a blessing.

The maze wasn't too difficult at all. It just took a bit of time and it was something I was looking forward to with a while.

389 zelda breath of the wild - flying through rings on eventide island

Dear Readers,

When I came out of the shrine, I met a Rito who was relaxing on the mountain. I had a very nice chat with them and they told me about this minigame where you fly through rings. I had a few goes of it.

It's kind of like Superman 64 or Nights Into Dreams where I had to use the glider to fly through rings and use updraughts to regain height. It was fairly challenging! On my first attempt I got about 11 and on my second I got over 30 but I still didn't get them all. I had my own stamina to deal with as well, so again I was glad I upgraded it to the max.

I only had two goes at it and the Rito gave me rupees as a prize. I earned more than what I had to pay for it. Might have another go later.

388 zelda breath of the wild - beating the eventide island challenge

Dear Readers,

I ran out of shrine quests and decided to go all the way to Eventide Island to do the challenge there.

I was here before but I decided to do the challenge later. Now that I have maximum stamina, I was able to just glide over there from Cape Cales without running out.

The trial started and my stuff got taken away. It was nighttime so I was already to a bad start, dealing with stalkoblins. I had to blow them up with my bombs and beat them up with their own arms.

I gathered as much food as I could — mushrooms, fruit, anything I could get my hands on. I blew up some more Bokoblins partying on the beach and stole their stuff.

I gained enough supplies to attack a Bokoblin base where I found my first orb. I carried it to the altar on the corner of the island. I chopped down a tree to form a bridge to it.

My second orb was around a Hinox's neck. I had to pick a fight with it to obtain it. I'm glad I waited until I had more hearts to do this. I took advantage of a lightning storm and left a metallic weapon under the Hinox's foot so it would do a lot of damage. When I defeated it, I brought this orb onto a hill where there was another altar but also another Bokoblin camp. I attacked them in their sleep and wiped them out. I took advantage of their cooking pot and hearty durians.

The last orb and altar was on the mountain guarded by a big enemy base. I had to fight many Bokoblins and a Moblin or two as well. I had to use stasis to knock the slab off the altar and the third orb was nearby.

Korgu Chideh Shrine burst from the ground on top of the mountain and there was just a blessing inside waiting for me.

I was very happy to get my stuff back!

387 zelda breath of the wild - massive switch at toh yahsa shrine

Dear Readers,

I forgot to mention that this shrine was what appeared when I solved the puzzle at Thundra Plateau. I went inside and I was surprised to see that I didn't get a blessing immediately, as it was challenging to uncover. 

In this place I was faced with giant cracked stone blocks and there were tons of them. The monk was above them behind a locked cage. I took out my bombs and started blowing things up. This was pretty fun.

I uncovered a big metal box, a massive pressure switch, and a treasure chest that had part of the rubber armour inside! That was a nice treat. I now have the full set.

There was another chest on top of a pillar I wasn't able to reach by myself, so I used the metal box to knock it off with Magnesis.

After that it was just a matter of laying the big box on the massive switch and that opened the cage to the monk. I had blown up all the stone blocks at that point so I had to move the box after I had used it to gain some height.

386 zelda breath of the wild - solving the secret of thundra plateau

Dear Readers,

With the thunder helm, I felt a lot more confident about exploring the Thundra Plateau, so I ventured there.

It was perpetually thundery here, so I figured the helm would be good here, but I didn't really see any trouble I could get into without it. There's that worry gone at least.

I got to a raised mound and saw some weird structures on top of it, each with their own colour. They seemed to correspond with the orbs that were lying around the place. There were hollows I could put the orbs into.

There were four orbs and the first two were easy enough to reach as they were on the raised mound. The other two were down from there and I couldn't bring them up by myself.

I noticed there were many Octoroks around, so I figured if I could set some Octo balloons to the orbs to raise them in the air. I could then blow them towards the platform with a Korok Leaf. I tried this out and had great success with it! It took a bit of practice alright but I got it!

385 zelda breath of the wild - another gerudo rescue in the desert

Dear Readers,

I had unfinished side quests with the Gerudo, so I warped back to Gerudo Town to see who needed help.

One of the guards went missing on her own mission to find the Great Fairy and I was asked to go find her. I was told about Moldugas and every other kind of hazard in the desert. When I warped out there, I prepared myself to take on another one of those creatures.

That was until I found the missing guard, half collapsed in front of the leviathan skeleton. I didn't need to venture out after all!

She was dying for a hearty durian, so I gave one to her. She recovered and thanked me before going back to Gerudo Town.

When I got back, I had all the problems in the town solved, so Riju gave me the thunder helm! Hooray!

When she gave me the helm, she got off her throne and went to see the sand seal that gives words of wisdom. Not sure why, but it is nice.

384 zelda breath of the wild - finding royal guard equipment in hyrule castle

Dear Readers,

Someone at the Riverside Stable wanted to see a piece of the Royal Guard's gear, so I went to Hyrule Castle to seek it out.

While I was at the castle, I decided to unblock one of the doorways in the library. I had to go in from the other side and make my way towards the goopy eyeball so I could shoot it.

Along the way I came across a rare Stone Talus so I had a long slow fight beating it up, collecting the gems when I was done.

I went exploring more hallways in the castle and came across an armory with a Moblin inside. Inside there were several pieces of Royal Guard gear. I took the shield and brought it back to the stable to finish the quest. I even sold it to the one who wanted it.

383 zelda breath of the wild - beating up the hinox at ralis pond

Dear Readers,

A Zora asked me to beat up the Hinox here so I went ahead and took it on. I don't fight Hinoxes very often!

It wasn't too difficult a fight. It is annoying when they cover their eye but I was able to fight and beat it without too much trouble. I got walloped a few times but I didn't have any emergency thankfully. It'll go towards the Hinox defeat score that Kilton keeps as well, so that's nice.

382 zelda breath of the wild - finding the missing zora wife

Dear Readers,

I decided to help the Zora family whose wife and mother were missing. Both the husband and the poor kid looked very troubled and didn't know what to do. The husband said she disappeared when the river was flooded and that she could be anywhere along the way, even all the way at Lake Hylia.

I took the hint from that and warped to the shrine on Hylia Island. I got on the raft and went sailing around the surrounding little islands, which was exactly where I found her! I was very fortunate!

She was in great spirits, catching fish. I told her about her family being worried and she immediately went back home to them. She was very thankful too.

381 zelda breath of the wild - performing the zora ceremony at veiled falls

Dear Readers,

I headed to Zora's Domain to do some quests.

The first one I did on this trip there was the one with the ceremonial trident. I listened to the little girl's song and checked out the glowing platform at Veiled Falls.

One of the elders had the trident but it seems that he dropped it off "the bridge" by accident.

I spent ages looking for the trident in the water and I searched all the wrong bridges on the way to Zora's Domain. Eventually I found the trident which was directly under the very bridge he was standing on. I should've copped it sooner.

I used Cryonis and Magnesis to reach the trident and pull it out.

The next thing to do was to do the action described in the song. I used Revali's Gale while standing on the glowing platform at the waterfall and then pressed Y while in the air to stab the trident directly into the very centre of the platform. This made Dagah Keek Shrine appear, which gave me an immediate blessing on entry.

This took a lot longer than it should've but I did have fun finding treasures and Koroks in the river.

What'll I do with this trident though? I don't have room in the house to keep it and I don't exactly want to waste it either if it has anything else special to it. I know I can always recreate it at least.

380 zelda breath of the wild - korok trials: fighting with wood only

Dear Readers,

This last trial had me facing a bunch of enemies on the way to the next shrine, using wooden weapons and equipment.

This wasn't too bad except for the stupid bow, which forced me to shoot three arrows at once. I didn't want to!

I was able to wear the Bokoblin mask at least, which helped make things less chaotic.

At one point I failed when I got electrocuted and dropped the wooden sword I was given. I also failed when I sank into the swamp. Redoing from the start wasn't too bad as I knew what to expect. I took on the annoying Octoroks one by one swiftly when I spotted them. I had enough arrows thankfully for this wasteful bow I had to use.

Eventually I survived my way to Maag Halan Shrine and I went in to get the blessing. 

379 zelda breath of the wild - korok trials: stealth escort korok mission

Dear Readers,

A Korok was worried about their little Korok doing the trial by itself, so they asked me to follow them without being seen. This was kinda nerve wracking to do.

I had to follow this tiny creature in the fog and watch out for its little movements, as well as its speech bubbles and listen to its chirps and murmurs on my headphones as it navigated aloud to itself. I was always afraid of losing them and at one point I got interrupted by a stupid wolf. A swift arrow between its eyes and I was grand again to carry on. I was glad to get rid of it so quickly!

Eventually the little Korok reached the end of the trial and there was Daag Chokah Shrine. I was able to reveal myself and chat to the happy little Korok who had finished the trial all by themself. They didn't know I was following but they knew I was the hero and encouraged me to go ahead.

I went into Daag Chokah Shrine and got the blessing.

378 zelda breath of the wild - korok trials: feeding the scary trees!

Dear Readers,

I had unfinished business in Korok Forest ever since I got the Master Sword. There were Koroks who had trials for me to take on, each one with a shrine blessing at the end. I started with the one at Lake Saria and this one was my favourite of the three!

With this one I had to turn on Magnesis to see the metal boulders inside the scary tree mouths and follow the trail of them to the next part.

I came across signs with words narrated from the perspective of the scary trees, telling me to feed them with various objects. I simply had to put stuff in their mouths like a rusty shield or a treasure chest that was lying around. This would unlock the next part of the puzzle. At times the narration got a bit dramatic when the signs said stuff along the lines of "That tree stole my treasure chest. Bring it back to me please", which I found nice and amusing! The trees themselves didn't move or do anything. They just had mouths that made something else happen. It felt like they were trying to get my imagination going with their own storytelling, which was fun!

I solved the puzzles and eventually revealed Kuhn Sidajj. I went in to get the blessing.

377 zelda breath of the wild - a good-sized horse for zyle

Dear Readers,

I kept this guy in Gerudo Canyon in my mind and decided to just catch a random horse for him. I warped to the Great Plateau Tower and parachuted down to the road and headed in his direction. I knew there were wild horses along the way, so I mounted one and tamed it as I rode it on the way to Gerudo Canyon.

I wasn't really concerned about the size as I just grabbed the first one I could reach really. He was happy with the size of the horse and gave me a good lot of rupees for it. It's nice to see he's not stranded here anymore. It's definitely not safe at all. I always felt kinda bad for him as I rode past on Spotty.

376 zelda breath of the wild - finding the hebra leviathan skeleton cave and to quomo shrine

Dear Readers,

I got pretty tired of looking for the cave with the Leviathan skeleton in Hebra, so I looked up a guide. The guide said to go to a tiny pond that can be found as you go down the tundra, situated southeast of the Hebra North Summit. It mentioned stuff like snowballs, cryonis and a cave. Truth be told, I did spot this tiny pond on the map but I dismissed the notion of going to explore it. How wrong I was!

I went to the area and the shrine radar finally started going off. There was another big door to a cave I had to open with a snowball. What I had to do with the tiny pond was create ice pillars with Cryonis. I found the snowballs at the top of the slope. I sent one hurtling down the slope and across the pillars all the way down to the doors, knocking them down. This revealed a massive cave with the Leviathan skeleton inside. I took a photo of the skull.

To Quomo shrine was inside here as well. All I had to do was go inside to receive the blessing.

375 zelda breath of the wild - exploring hebra falls and lanno kooh shrine

Dear Readers,

I tried checking behind many waterfalls in order to find the leviathan skeleton, but didn't find any here.

Instead I found many Koroks as I went downstream. I lost a lot of hearts in the freezing waters as well as I discovered the shrine hidden in a little cave the water flowed through. There was no way of getting into it besides the water. I didn't think of chopping a tree for a handy log to ride downstream on but I did it on the way out with logs that were lying around. I found a Korok behind the shrine too.

The shrine was one of those that gave you the orb just by reaching it.

Beyond this, I picked some fights with enemy camps made up of silver lizalfos, black moblins and black bokoblins. I beat them handily but I had to recover health a lot!

374 zelda breath of the wild - releasing heavy stone balls at gee ha'rah shrine

Dear Readers,

This was a very simple and peaceful shrine where I had to release suspended heavy stone balls to land on heavy targets to make doors open.

I had to shoot arrows at the ropes holding these balls. The first was straightforward, the next few I had to make them swing into the target, which included getting access to the treasure, and the last one was held by two ropes that I didn't want to swing.

This made me stop and think for a small while but I copped fairly soon that I had to use stasis on the ball while shooting the two ropes. This opened the way to the monk. Nice little puzzle.

373 zelda breath of the wild - rolling snowballs to the big weird door

Dear Readers,

I warped and hiked around Hebra looking for the cave that may have the Leviathan skeleton in it but didn't find it yet. One of the places I looked was in Kopeeki Drifts.

When I came here before I found a big weird door at the bottom that wouldn't open. I hiked back up the slope looking for an answer and I found some snowballs. Now I realised why the area was so lumpy. It was all made of little trenches, one of which lead to the big weird door.

I had a few goes and traced the path of the trench to the door, then I got a big snowball rolling towards it. The snowball knocked the door down completely, revealing Gee Ha'rah Shrine.

No leviathan skeleton this time, but I had a shrine to explore at least.

372 zelda breath of the wild - leviathan scavenger hunt

Dear Readers,

I finally reached the Sarenne Stable where I met three guys who were arguing over how the Leviathans went extinct. Between them they wanted me to find skeletons in Gerudo Desert, snowy Hebra and volcanic Eldin.

I was able to find the Gerudo one no problem as that's where the Great Fairy is. The guy who wanted me to find the Eldin one wanted me to find the others first so he could rebut both of them.

I hiked extensively over Hebra but so far I couldn't find the skeleton. The guy looking for it imagined it would be in a cave. I found a bunch of other stuff though. I'll talk about them in the following posts.

371 zelda breath of the wild - revealing maag no'rah shrine in the cliffs

Dear Readers,

I left Outskirt Stable with Blondie and started riding towards Serenne Stable for a quest when the shrine radar started blinking.

I went in the direction of the blinking and came to a Bokoblin camp at the bottom of a cliff. I beat them all up and picked the apples off all the trees in the surrounding area, but there was no shrine to be seen.

I looked up the cliff and saw that there was a pile of loose rocks coloured differently from the rest of the cliff. That was the ticket. The cliff was easy to access because there was a gentle slope nearby I was able to use to reach the top with Blondie.

I dismounted above the pile of rocks and floated down, getting a bomb arrow ready to blast the rocks away, revealing a little cubby hole cave with Maag No'rah shrine inside.

I went in there and there was no further challenge to get to the monk. Just getting here was seen to be challenge enough.

When I left the shrine I floated back down to the bottom of the cliff. I wasn't sure if Blondie would answer my call from the top of the cliff so I tried it and she galloped back down the slope we took to get up there. I was glad that Blondie got back to me so easily.

370 zelda breath of the wild - taming and naming blondie the horse

Dear Readers,

I went to the Outskirt Stable and hung out there for a while, doing some treasure hunting and finding Koroks. I got attacked by the Yiga a lot as well. I guess I'm just cursed forever to be attacked by these guys randomly and as often as the skeleton enemies.

One of the old quests I had for ages was to tame a pure white horse for an old man who was staying at this stable. I decided to take it on and hike all the way to Safula Hill.

After a few more Yiga attacks I found the pure white horse that was here. I got on its back and it took a while to tame, but now that I was at maximum stamina I had no problem at all with taming it. I think I remember having trouble with it before when I only had one stamina wheel. I'm not sure though. I'd have to look it up.

I rode the horse back to the stable, soothing it as we went along. I named the horse "Blondie" because it was a beautiful white horse with a golden mane and I figured the old man here longed for beauty in this world. When he saw Blondie he said he was so happy to have lived so long in this godforsaken world. He had memories of his grandfather telling him tales about Princess Zelda's horse. He gave me royal horse equipment too, so it looked even more beautiful with the colours and Triforce symbols on it.

I fed Blondie a few apples to max out our bond. She's different to Spotty. She has a wild temperament and she's got higher speed. I'll see more of what she's like when I take her out for a ride.

369 zelda breath of the wild - nice easy fight at dah kaso shrine

Dear Readers,

I haven't had the shrine radar running for a long time. I turned it on while leaving Gerudo Canyon to go back to Hyrule.

I got an alert while crossing the bridges. I never noticed it before but there was a shrine directly underneath one of them next to the water. I parachuted down to it and went in.

There was a minor test of strength inside. I hadn't done one in a while and it was nice to see all the pillars again! I destroyed the Guardian Scout here in no time at all. I was hardened from major battles and I had big swords for days.

368 zelda breath of the wild - tilting the controller at joloo nah shrine

Dear Readers,

After the Goron heat test, I went in here to do this puzzle.

Well, it was two puzzles. The first one involved this block with fans I had to rotate with the controller by tilting it around. I had to make them blow into the propellers to open the gate and keep it open. I used the wind to grab the treasure chest first, then I aimed the fans at the propellers.

The trouble was, two of the propellers were elevated with pressure switches and I only had one weighted object to place on them. The other switch I had to keep pressed with stasis and then run through the open gate before it closed again.

The next puzzle had another tilty block but this one was about lighting lamps while also avoiding the water pumps extinguishing them. Kinda tricky, kinda taxing, kinda annoying, but I managed to get them all lit and open the door. I had to use the metal treasure chest that was on a wooden shelf high above the puzzle to keep a switch pressed down so one of the water pumps was out of the way. I used stasis on the other water pump and tilted the best I could to light all the lamps.

To be honest, I was relying on luck to keep the torches tilted away from that remaining water pump! I'm glad I didn't have much trouble because I didn't have a lot of confidence in the tilting.

I met the monk and that was that for this place.

367 zelda breath of the wild - enduring the heat test with the gorons

Dear Readers,

I went back to the Gorons training at Gerudo Canyon. I took on their challenge and stood with them in the heat while wearing the desert voe gear. It didn't affect me at all! I was surprised to see these Gorons not being able to handle this level of heat. One by one they flopped and dropped out. It was very funny and it played this cute music while the trial was going on.

It was strange to me because I thought Gorons were just naturally built for the heat. I didn't know they had to train for it.

There was a second part to this challenge where I had to stand in even greater heat. I wasn't allowed to wear the fireproof armour so I had to bring out the fireproof elixir instead. I didn't think I needed it anymore but I was wrong. I won't sell all my fireproof lizards yet.

I only needed a couple of minutes and I passed the test. This made a shrine burst out of the ground, which impressed the Gorons greatly. All that was left was to go into this place, Joloo Nah Shrine.

366 zelda breath of the wild - meeting the gorons training in gerudo canyon

Dear Readers,

During the last sidequest, I spotted what looked like a massive weird cooking pan up on the cliffs of Gerudo Canyon. After a brief scrap with a silver lizalfos at a camp on the other side of the canyon, I went over to investigate.

Standing before me were a group of Gorons, looking like they meant business. They wanted to build up their tolerance to heat, as they felt it was too hot for them up on Death Mountain. They offered to let me join them and I said yes to get the quest registered, but I ducked out of it right away as my health was too low after having that fight with the silver lizalfos earlier.

I'll come back later to do the quest when I'm at full health. It's a shrine quest too.

365 zelda breath of the wild - saving sesami's friends

Dear Readers,

While at the Gerudo Canyon stable, there was a man who wanted help rescuing his friends. His name was Sesami and his friends' names were Oliff, Flaxel, Canolo and Palme. I found this pretty amusing as it seems they were all named after different types of oils found in food!

This quest also gave me the chance to explore all those weird wooden walkways and scaffolding all around the canyon every time I pass through here. I found the part of the walkway that reaches the ground in the canyon and made my way upwards, bashing bokoblins as I went. I was finally able to tell where the calls of distress and bokoblin grunts were coming from as I rescued each and every one of the friends along the walkways.

They all thanked me and headed back to Sesami at the stable. When I went back to them, it was nice to see them all together and all caught up. They forgave Sesami as well. After all, he was able to call me for help!

364 zelda breath of the wild - giving the gerudo canyon stable man his rushrooms

Dear Readers,

I had this side quest outstanding for a while but I finally decided to finish it.

I left it for ages because the man at the Gerudo Canyon stable wanted 55 rushrooms. I didn't have many and I felt they were scarce so I held off.

That was until now. I've seen many of them since and I don't have much more than 55, but I'm confident I can find loads more very quickly if I need to. I gave him what he wanted and he left a diamond in the treasure chest behind the stable. He offered to give me more if I keep giving him rushrooms in bunches of 55.

363 zelda breath of the wild - a drink for pokki at misae suma shrine

Dear Readers,

While I was hiking to the ruins, I spotted a shrine in the distance. After my business at the ruins was done I hiked happily to this newly discovered shrine, thinking it was going to be straightforward.

When I got there, I spotted a Gerudo slumped over the access panel face down, bum up, blocking me from getting in. She didn't raise her head at all when I spoke to her since she was exhausted from the thirst. She said she was glad to discover the shrine, but she was exhausted now and wasn't able to move. She longed to have her favourite drink again and she felt she was done for.

I was impressed that she didn't seem to have any fear in her at all.

I warped to Gerudo Town and told the lady running the canteen about Pokki. She knew just what to do and asked me to bring ice from the icehouse to the entrance of the northern ruins.

I went to the icehouse, explained the situation to the Gerudo there and got a big ice block to carry. I had to carry it back in time before it melted.

I had to deal with the heat so I dodged it between shadows in the ruins. It was full of enemies as well so I wore the Lizalfos mask and made sure the Bokoblins couldn't see me.

I got to the canteen lady with the ice block. She was surprised that I wasn't a vai but she didn't really care as long as she got her ice. She told me to tell Pokki that she was going to make a special drink just for her and that it was waiting for her.

I took a sand seal back to Pokki and told her this. She became very energetic and excited, thinking it was a very special occasion and that this was going to be the best drink she ever had. She legged it back to town, leaving me with the shrine, finally.

There was no puzzle inside, just like the previous one at the ruins. Helping Pokki was good enough to give me access to the monk.

362 zelda breath of the wild - unlocking korsh o'hu shrine at the east gerudo ruins

Dear Readers,

I went to the ruins and beheld all the tall statues. There were these holes at the foot of each of them and I had to place these metal balls in them that matched the patterns of the ones on the statues.

Some of the metal balls were just lying around and half-buried and some were way up high on the statues themselves. Similar story with the patterns of the statues. Some were on the swords and some were on the feet or the head of the statues themselves. It wasn't too difficult to figure out. It really had the feel of something that was just abandoned rather than stuff that was hidden.

One of the statues had scaffolding that led all the way up to the head and that helped a lot with jumping and gliding between them.

I sussed all the answers by looking at the patterns and placed the balls in the holes accordingly. The last one was just out of pure elimination as I didn't see its clue.

A shrine burst out of the ground in the centre of the ruins and I went inside. I didn't have to do anything else so I got to the monk straight away.

361 zelda breath of the wild - stopping the ball at kema zoos shrine

Dear Readers,

There wasn't much to this place. I just had to bring down the electric ball that was being tossed back and forth by two columns. I used Stasis and that helped bring the ball down. From then on it was just a matter of using Magnesis on the ball to carry it to activate the power points in order to open cages to the treasure and to the monk.

360 zelda breath of the wild - navigating the silent swordswomen

Dear Readers,

One of the Gerudo Town guards told me about the statues of the swordswomen and how they pointed towards a treasure. This was a good while ago and it came up as a shrine quest. I'm a lot better equipped for the desert now so I decided to go where they were pointing.

I went through a dense sandstorm but kept going as best as I could. I couldn't use my Sheikah Slate map but I was fortunate enough to keep finding more swordswomen statues. I kept going in the directions they were pointing and eventually I came across Kema Zoos shrine.

359 zelda breath of the wild - hunting moldugas for the first time

Dear Readers,

I thought it was about time to hunt down a Molduga. A Gerudo in town wanted some of its guts to use in medicine for her husband and Kilton wanted me to beat some of them up, so I got to it. I ventured west from Gerudo Town and found one burrowing around some rocky mounds I was able to use for safety.

I took out my round bombs and rolled them towards the Molduga whenever it came near me. Detonating them made the Molduga burst out of the ground and flop on its side, dazed. After that it was just a matter of whacking it with weapons to get its health down.

I had some annoying distractions like Lizalfos and Stalizalfos, and I got tossed around several times by the big creature, but I managed to slay the beast. I got the remains I wanted and headed back to town.

The Gerudo with the unwell husband was very happy with the Molduga guts I got for her. I also feel a bit more confident in dealing with Molduga now.

358 zelda breath of the wild - firing the cannon at bareeda naag shrine

Dear Readers,

Bareeda Naag shrine was a simple one puzzle shrine. I had to use the cannons to shoot at a target in order to open the way to the monk. There were objects in the way but I was able to use stasis to make one thing stay in place for a while. There was another cannon I could use to get at a treasure chest.

357 zelda breath of the wild - the heart-shaped hole in rito village pillar

Dear Readers,

I forgot to mention this one. There was a song that one of the Rito was singing and I needed to speak to another Rito to complete it. The second one wouldn't finish it for me until I answered memory questions about the first part.

So I did a little bit of memorisation and answered the multiple choice questions correctly. She was happy to give me the second part of the song then.

The Sheikah slate remembers the song in full in the quest update. I won't have to remember it anymore.

The song referred to a spot in the area surrounding Rito Village where the sun shines through a heart-shaped hole in the giant stone pillar above the village at noon. I spent a night in this hole with a campfire and woke at noon to see where the light landed. It was on a Shrine platform to the south. I glided over there and had to spend another night by a campfire on it to make it light up again at noon. After that I relit the campfire and that made the shrine come out of the ground. This was Bareeda Naag shrine.

356 zelda breath of the wild - beating up igneo talus for a quest

Dear Readers,

After the shrine, I used a couple of Revali's updraughts so I could reach the lava lake shore. I headed to the spot where the igneo talus was.

Luckily I happened to have a great frost blade! The opposite of when I was fighting a frost talus with a great flame blade!

However, I had a much harder time here. I kept getting pounded by the igneo talus. I had enough supplies for recovery but it was a very clumsy battle for me. I really get the feeling that going close quarters is not the way to fight these guys because it just feels so clumsy to stun it and then climb up on it and stay climbed up on it to batter its weak point.

Anyway, I eventually defeated it and the quest was done. I reported back and took a trip to the hot springs as well.

Fugo wanted me to sell the claim to victory to him for 100 rupees. Initially I was against it, but there wasn't any other option really so I agreed to it anyway. It made him happy but also vaguely unsure of himself since he didn't do it himself. A Goron should be able to handle something like this no problem. A Goron could literally eat the talus anyway since they eat rocks? Why not.

355 zelda breath of the wild - carrying blue flame at shorah hah shrine

Dear Readers,

I had a couple of quests I needed to do for the Gorons, so I warped to Goron City.

I took the long rail that wraps around the big lava lake to the north in order to get to the quest I wanted to do quickly, but when I got to the end of the rail there was a shrine! I thought hmm... it might be a difficult one since it was so easy to get to.

It was a fairly detailed shrine, but not too difficult. What I had to do was light lamps with a blue flame in order to clear obstacles on the way to the monk. Some of these were straight forward — just carry a torch to each lamp.

Then there were tricky ones where I had to hold an arrow up to a flame and shoot at unlit lamps in the distance. That caught me out before! Not this time!

Then there were these pumps shooting out water. I had to manoeuvre around them when they were flowing. I had to use stasis on the pumps a couple of times to stop the water so I could carry a blue flame through safely. Sometimes the pumps would shoot out a tiny bit of water to put out a flame, as if to mock my efforts! It was all very simple to figure out and it was just a thing to manage.

A few moments of excitement too where I got to beat up guardian scouts. That was fun.

The last puzzle was where I was surrounded with lamps and pumps. I had to do a spin attack with a lit torch to light all the lamps at once before any water could get out at them. After this, the way opened to the monk. Another nice little puzzle.

354 zelda breath of the wild - solving and conquering mozo shenno shrine

Dear Readers,

A little Rito told me a story about her granddad flying up to the lone tree on the mountain in the distance. She said he saw a big white bird and went after it. He saw something golden in its belly. This came up as a shrine quest and I went to check it out for myself.

I climbed up to the tree, but saw no bird except for an islander hawk. Then I saw a little snow pattern in the distance. On the ground there was what looked like the shape of a huge bird's wing. It seemed like this wasn't a literal creature but something that looked like one. I glided in that direction and as I got closer I could see a hole in the cliff under the bird pattern. In this hole was the golden gleam of a shrine! Woo!

It was all tucked away in there all snug! I went inside and it was another major test of strength. I went full force with my weapons, occasionally dodging for a flurry rush and I beat it in no time. Very nice little puzzle of a quest.

353 zelda breath of the wild - princess zelda is in love with me!

Dear Readers,

Kass asked me to meet him for a sing song when he daughters went to bed, so I met him in the evening near the shrine in Rito Village.

He told me about his music teacher, who used to be at the castle. He fell in love with Princess Zelda's beauty but was still very duty bound and the love was very much unrequited. He said Zelda only had eyes for the knight who was assigned to protect her, and her love for him awakened her powers at Fort Hateno. He witnessed all this and it inspired him to write a song about the hero who had fallen but was going to come back to regain his power. It was a nice little song about who I am and what I'm doing in this game as my main objective. 

There's all the tender moments and chemistry, but here it is confirmed that she was in love with me and it was what helped her powers come forth. What a wonderful thing!

352 zelda breath of the wild - beating up the frost talus for a mission

Dear Readers,

A sidequest from one of the Rito was about beating up a specific Frost Talus. I met it before so I warped up to the mountains and glided down to it.

I just happened to have a great flame blade so I was able to thaw its frostiness. I managed to get it into a position where I was able to whack it until it was defeated as well. I was very lucky as I'm usually not great at fighting these.

I got a nice little reward when I got back to the village.

351 zelda breath of the wild - voo lota shrine feels like a prank

Dear Readers,

I was a bit surprised that this shrine didn't give me the orb straight away, seeing how it took a detailed quest for me to gain access to it, but that's okay. Instead of the monk, I was faced with a really tall ladder.

It took a while to climb this ladder. I was half expecting a voice to sing "Snake Eater" while I was climbing.

When I got to the top, there was a switch. I hit the switch and the floor gave away, plunging me into lava! I was too surprised to react. I'm just glad I respawned at the switch.

I dropped and glided down to the main area. It was all a suspended winding path with fans above a huge pool of lava. I had to navigate this path and use the fans to glide to the next part of the path. I had to navigate around obstacles in the air that got in the way too.

Eventually I got a key from a chest and I collected the rest of the treasure before I got to unlock the door to the monk.

350 zelda breath of the wild - revealing the shrine with song at warbler's nest

Dear Readers,

I decided to go all the way to Rito Village for the next quest. One of the bird moms was worried about one of her little ones going to Warbler's Nest on her own, and I agreed to check on her.

When I got there, she was fine, but she was annoyed at her sisters who didn't come to practise singing with her. I went back to let the mother know, and then I went to find her sisters.

One of them wanted to eat a very specific salmon dish and the rest of them were out finding ingredients. I found them at the shop for the butter, at the pond outside the village for the fish, and on the rocks high above the village for the wheat. I warped to Vah Medoh for that last one.

I took all the ingredients to the cooking pot and made the salmon dish before giving it to the sister that wanted to eat. After this, I found them all at Warbler's Nest practising their singing.

They sang a song in a specific order and it seemed like their position corresponded to the numbers on the pillars in the area. It was easy to see what the order was after a few listens to the song and I used the Korok leaf they gave me to make sounds in the pillar holes. I got it right and a shrine burst out of the ground. They were all very impressed with it.

I went into the shrine. Unfortunately, I still had an extra task to do inside. I'll detail it next time. When I finished, I went back to the village and Kass was playing music with them! They sang the tune of the village and it sounded really nice.

349 zelda breath of the wild - searching for sunken treasure in the sea

Dear Readers,

An old man at Lurelin Village tasked me with finding sunken treasure, so I went out on the raft to find it. He said it was in the middle of a golden triangle.

It was a bit hard to find a golden triangle on the map, but when I got out to sea I could see three rocks that made the points of a triangle. I turned Magnesis on and there were a few chests in the middle of them.

I don't recall the chests having anything special in them, but the quest was now done!

That was a relief to get done, because sailing the raft isn't very fun at all in this game. It's novel, but it gets awkward and tiresome quickly. There's a knack to getting the raft to sail very fast, but you really need a straight line of water without any obstacles. Having to deal with Octoroks is a big pain as well.

348 zelda breath of the wild - taking back the sea at lurelin village

Dear Readers,

I went to Lurelin Village to do the quests down at the beach I had yet to do.

The first one was to clear the enemies out from Aris Beach. They had taken over the place and had tall campsites and lookout posts sticking out from the water. I was too timid to do it before but I was well able now.

They were all Bokoblins! Very weak ones too. Even if they weren't weak, I was able to just knock them into the water with a heavy weapon. Together with the Bokoblin mask I was unstoppable. I beat up every single one of them easily and the quest was completed in no time.

347 zelda breath of the wild - upgrading equipment slots with hestu

Dear Readers,

I finally decided to speak to Hestu and increase my equipment inventory. I had over 100 Korok seeds at this point but never upgraded.

I trotted out to Kakariko Village and chatted with him. He gave me a few item slots before saying he had to go home to Korok Forest. I guess I'll have to go there to do more upgrading. It doesn't make a lot of sense but I'll warp there to see him sometime.

346 zelda breath of the wild - salvaging treasure at riverside stable

Dear Readers,

I decided to go treasure hunting in the area around Riverside Stable. I turned on the radar to find chests in the area. Most of them were in the fast moving river nearby.

I couldn't reach any of the chests with magnesis from the bank, so I had to chop down some trees so I could obtain a korok leaf.

Going on the raft and using a leaf to put wind in the sail is a novel idea, but it's a pain to have to do it for a while. It's an even bigger pain to go against the current, which I had to do sometimes. On top of that, I had to deal with octoroks shooting at me from the river and from the trees on the opposite bank.

It was very tricky to line up with chests to pull them out of the water while moving with the current, but I managed to do it. It made me long for the salvaging mechanic from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. From the chests were rupees, arrows, weapons, all kinds of bits and pieces.

I took treasure from nearby ruins as well as this one bokoblin camp that didn't have easy access. I used Revali's up draught thingy in order to access it.

345 zelda breath of the wild - giving cake to the guy at riverside stable who wanted royal food

Dear Readers,

I decided to give some food to the guy at Riverside Stable who dreamed of eating the food that was detailed in recipe books at Hyrule Castle library.

However, when I was at the castle, I could only find the monster cake recipe. This was a disappointment for me as I thought there was a treasure of knowledge in there. Also, the old lady at Tarrey Town already knew that recipe. I didn't know it off the top of my head so I warped there to talk to her.

Wheat, sugar cane, butter and monster extract were what I needed. I cooked it there and then. I also used the goddess statue to max out my stamina wheels. From now on, those orbs will be going towards hearts!

I warped back to Riverside Stable and the guy was very happy with his monster cake. Quest done! It was one I was holding on to for a long long while.

344 zelda breath of the wild - sand seal racing at raqa zunzo shrine

Dear Readers,

I tried out the sand seal racing thing that was happening now that the divine beast wasn't rampaging anymore.

It turns out it wasn't a competitive race against other racers but a time trial with a record to beat. The prize was a shrine orb.

The race itself was pretty easy. I just had to navigate around rocks and enemies and go through gates as best as I could.

I beat the best time by just a few seconds and got the orb. The Gerudos were stunned when I made the shrine pop out of the ground. It wouldn't happen with anyone else apparently.

The previous record holder was a strong but silent type. She seemed cool. She warmed up to me once I achieved a good record. She was excited to try and beat my new time too.

I went into the newly sprouted Raqa Zunzo shrine and it was all I needed to do to get to the monk.

I'll be able to make money here if I try to beat my time again but I don't know if I will yet.

343 zelda breath of the wild - puntastic current solution in hawa koth shrine

Dear Readers,

Nice pun on this shrine because it involved electric currents. I went from room to room connecting power thingies with action thingies that made doors open. Cogs were also turning to open doors too so that was nice.

Some switches made the floor turn sideways so you'd fall into the water.

There was also a nifty puzzle near the end where you had to shift columns of blocks by pressing a switch and make the electronic parts align up. I got stuck on it for a while until I realised that the columns could be separated into individual blocks. After that I was able to slip another block in the way so the circuit would get going.

Nice weak guardian scouts here I was able to smash up easily too.

342 zelda breath of the wild - looking for the great fairy in the desert

Dear Readers,

I recall from looking up guides that there was a great fairy in Gerudo Desert, so I set off to find her.

I warped to Gerudo Town and took a sand seal out to go exploring the areas to the south of the town. It was my first time going down here.

I thought maybe she was at the southern oasis, but the only thing I found there was a very troublesome Molduga, which tossed me in the air a few times. I haven't learned how to fight them yet.

I found the fairy eventually by going towards the bottom left corner of the map. There was a huge skeleton there and within that were the great fairy and another shrine.

The great fairy wanted 10,000 rupees to come out of her shell. That's gonna take a while... I'm glad I found her at least.

341 zelda breath of the wild - red giveaway at shada naw shrine

Dear Readers,

A tricky puzzley shrine where you have to land an orb into its hole while standing on a platform you raise with it. There were fans and platforms and everything. The nice thing about this one is that you could develop your own way of getting the ball into the hole.

It seemed intentional for you to use the fans and stasis on the moving platform and magnesis on the metal crate to put it on the hidden platform. However, I simply stood on the platform and used stasis on the ball to knock into a very specific location on the ramp so it would roll down into the hole.

The top of the platform leads to the monk.

340 zelda breath of the wild - power of reach at rok uwog shrine

Dear Readers,

I'm doing a bunch of shrines together. I discovered a string of them together without doing them and now I'm catching up.

This shrine had a few rooms with leaves and weak guardian scouts. I assume the power of reach was all about using the drillshaft I found here to smash some boxes that were sitting on a switch. Once I did, the way opened to the monk.

339 zelda breath of the wild - major test of strength at goma asaagh shrine

Dear Readers,

I warped back here to do the exact same shrine task except in a different shrine.

What can I say about this one? Well, the shrine itself was hidden behind huge icy obstacles I had to melt. I didn't even know a shrine was there I was surprised by it. I just wanted to get at a treasure chest.

Another thing I could say is that I did this one without a shield because all my shields were broken. I had to replenish health a lot sure but I didn't do too badly at all. These enemies are easier to deal with now. I'm getting more used to them.

338 zelda breath of the wild - major test of strength at hia miu shrine

Dear Readers,

I warped back here to do the major test. It's all the way at the corner of Hebra so I did not feel like hiking. 

I'm getting a little better at these fights as well. I used to make a really big deal out of them but I'm getting better at last. I still accidentally press the stick to crouch though.

I broke some shields and weapons but that's to be expected. I beat this guy handily.

337 zelda breath of the wild - picking a fight with the blue-maned lynel northwest of hyrule castle

Dear Readers,

I was in the mood for a scrap with a Lynel and I was now a bit more confident with them since facing two in Hyrule Castle, so I picked a fight with this one that kicked my butt earlier.

Even though I had more confidence, I still had to heal a lot and needed Mipha's Grace and Daruk's Protection badly. I broke a few weapons too and drained the Master Sword. It was a long battle and I got flurry rushes on its charges. Eventually I was able to defeat it and obtain its weapons. I had something new for the compendium out of this at least.

I still need practice with these guys but I'm doing much better than I was before!

336 zelda breath of the wild - going all in on stamina

Dear Readers,

I decided to upgrade for the first time since obtaining the Master Sword and I wanted all stamina. Health wasn't too much of an issue when facing Ganon and I wanted to have more stamina so I wouldn't be so limited in that area, so I went to the goddess statue in Kakariko and used all my shrine orb thingies to get more stamina for myself.

I also want to do more gliding at some point, and having a large amount of stamina will be very handy.

335 zelda breath of the wild - riding around on a stalhorse

Dear Readers,

I went looking for treasure near the stable and fished out a couple of chests from water over the hill to the east. Night fell and I was attacked by stalkoblins on horseback.

I grabbed a stalhorse and rode away from the battle. I wanted to see what it was like to register it so I went back to the stable and the guy there was just horrified.

He said he wouldn't register it as he was afraid the monster I had would try and eat the regular horses. That was a bummer but I see where he's coming from.

I decided to keep riding around, so I rode until it was daytime and immediately it vanquished, leaving me in the middle of nowhere. Good fun while it lasted though.

334 zelda breath of the wild - doing a bit of showjumping with spotty

Dear Readers,

I hung out at the stable in Faron for a while. One of the guys there had a showjumping challenge. I took it a couple of times.

The first time I didn't qualify for the horse decal prize he was offering, but he did give me a carrot.

The second time I did it I didn't beat his time but I qualified for the prize. He gave me something that makes a horse's head look fancy in parades.

I was wondering how to put it on but the stable hand was able to do it for me. She would only do it if the horse loved me though and she could see that Spotty loved me a lot, so she did it.

Spotty didn't look too bad at all. Might try to get more horse gear but I'm not pushed.

333 zelda breath of the wild - the goofy horse god

Dear Readers,

After defeating Ganon, I was able to reload my save with a star on it. I wanted to do some goofing around. I went to see the horse god I heard about in Faron.

It wasn't too far away from the stable in this region. I just had go on a path south of there that hit a dead end. It was very much like one of the Great Fairy fountains and I had to donate 1,000 rupees to make him come out to see me.

He was like a Rayman or one of those stock Nintendo bosses that are comprised of a head and hands. He was very good humoured and made jokes about eating me. He said he was able to bring back horses that had died and he judged my treatment of horses. He said I was good with them.

That's about all I can expect with this guy for now I suppose. It was fun to meet him.

332 zelda breath of the wild - ganon destroyed!

Dear Readers,

I just took a notion to see if I could beat Ganon and I did. It wasn't hard at all and everything went swift and smoothly.

The reason why it was so smooth was because I had all the Divine Beasts freed and I had the Master Sword. I also had shields and plenty of health replenishments.

In the Sanctum after the Divine Beasts fired their lasers, I took whatever chance I could to attack Ganon with the Master Sword. I let him fire his lasers at me and I bounced them back with shields. It didn't take long before I defeated him.

Princess Zelda warped me out into Hyrule Field where Ganon had turned into his pig form, Dark Beast Ganon. Spotty was here conveniently too. Zelda gave me a special bow and I had unlimited arrows with it. Very handy.

All I had to do was ride around and shoot at spots where all these targets appeared. They were on his shoulders, hips, underbelly and finally the big eyeball that emerged on his forehead. I had a very convenient updraft which I used to shoot one final shot and that was it, Ganon was defeated and the game was now beaten!

I had chats with Zelda, the credits scrolled a bit and there were signs of hope for the future. Zelda was very interested in restoring the kingdom back to life.

It was very nice to finally see the credits and ending, and I got a star on my file whenever I loaded it. Maybe things went a little too smoothly? I did spend a lot of time getting stronger and gathering the memories and everything, but there's a ton of side stuff I didn't do. I did all the basic stuff I needed to do.

The ending is very nice but it feels very slight. I suppose it would, given the post apocalyptic, nature-healed setting of this world. It's not as magical as earlier Zeldas but it's still very nice. Breath of the Wild is a great Zelda, and it gave me a huge world to explore, which was what I wanted at the time, but the earlier Zeldas are still my favourites!

There's a lot more to do so I'll keep playing.

331 zelda breath of the wild - looking for the frostspear all over hebra and not finding it

Dear Readers,

After this I decided to just warp around and explore all the snowy peaks of this region.

I ended up finding a shrine behind huge pillars of ice but I didn't go in yet.

I explored all the peaks in the westernmost part of the area. Found lots of Koroks but didn't find any Frostspear.

Eventually I gave up and looked up a guide. Some frostspears are found in shrines but they're extremely rare when an enemy carrying them spawns on the field.

It's not in random places either. One location of the frostspear was in a skull fortress to the west of the Rito Village. This annoyed me because I was looking all over Hebra for it and it was in Tabantha all along. The compendium clue never said anything about Tabantha. It's getting annoying on a Xenoblade level now...

I raided the skull fortress here and took the frostspear back to Hateno Village. 

330 zelda breath of the wild - exploring the north-west part of the map

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the northernmost part of Hebra, along that bit of land north of the mountains. I started in the corner and headed east.

I came across many enemy camps, updrafts and a stalnox. The stalnox was a boss but not too hard to deal with. I was able to knock its eye out and keep attacking it for the massive damage.

I hiked and switched masks as needed until I got to the Lynel. No sign of the frostspear yet. I started warping around randomly to try and find one. It's more scarce than I thought.

178 pokémon picross - salary increased to 10 picrites!

 Dear Readers,

Glorious day! I'm working away as normal on the daily grind. A few days after I was banned for a day I kept at it and earned enough to unlock a new area. I unlocked an area that was branched off from one of the older areas and that made my pay packet increase to 10 picrites.

I was thinking if I concentrated on getting as far as possible that my pay would increase faster, but no, it depends on how many areas you've unlocked altogether.

177 pokémon picross - banned from earning picrites until tomorrow

Dear Readers,

Well this game sucks in a way I've just discovered. At the time of writing it's April and I set the clock forward on the 3DS. The game picked it up and banned me from earning Picrites until tomorrow. A game should not do something like that. I don't care if it's free-to-play.

329 zelda breath of the wild - exploring the hebra mountains

Dear Readers,

After I left Hyrule Castle, I sought reinforcements, collecting fairies, cooking dishes etc. until I got back tot he weapon connoisseur quest. Nebb wanted to see a Frostspear. I took the notion to go find one in the Hebra Mountains, since the compendium told me it was there.

I rode until the terrain got too steep in Hebra and I continued on foot. I was well equipped for the hike and swapped out various masks when I needed to.

I found Koroks, climbed some peaks and found several shrines, but didn't complete any. I also found a lodge of a shield surfer. I'll come back to that someday. I found hot springs and more shrines, but couldn't find any frostspears yet. My radar didn't even pick any up. I'll keep exploring.

328 zelda breath of the wild - storming hyrule castle

Dear Readers

I completely forgot I had Magnesis and climbed over the metal door of Hyrule Castle instead of opening it, so I was off to a great start!

I faced all the Guardians I found head on, bouncing their beams back and arrowing them whenever possible. There was a road going around the place and I went through as much as I could until I was stopped by the big purple eyeball blockades. I cleared as much of them as I could.

There are so many entrances and exits to the castle! It's just a big maze of a place. I explored hallways, bombed some walls, found rooms like the dining hall and library. I found a passage from the library that led to a shrine popping up when I lit a big torch! I must remember one of the quests wanted recipes from the castle too. I fought with so many enemies and did fairly well against most of them.

I even fought two Lynels! For the first time I finally fought Lynels head on to the death and eventually won against them. I like when I get a chance to mount them and attack them while they're trying to kick me off. I'm becoming more confident with them now!

Eventually I reached the place where Ganon was. I saved before it and went inside, watching the dramatic cutscene of the champion spirits firing the divine beast lasers right at Ganon. This resulted in half his health being zapped. It seemed underwhelming somehow.

I knew for sure that I definitely wasn't ready to fight him, so I just tested what I could do at all. It wasn't very far and I was so depleted of resources I knew I had to come back fully stocked and stronger. I reloaded the save I just made and warped out of the castle. This made for good reconnaissance and I'll be back!

327 zelda breath of the wild - heading straight for hyrule castle town

Dear Readers,

I rode all the way back to Hateno Village and displayed the sword Urbosa gave me. I forgot to mention she gave me one but she did, just like all the other champions. I don't know if I'll ever use it!

My next stop was to to go to Hyrule Castle. It was finally time to go and explore more of the place for myself. I've been there before to get the memory in Zelda's Study, but it was a very brief sneak in and sneak out kind of mission I set for myself. This time I want to go right to the front gates and take it head on. It's a very scary place with all the guardians around but I've been putting it off for too long. I gotta go.

I rode Spotty as far as the Wetland Stable and hiked the rest of the way to Hyrule Castle. I marched right into the castle town ruins from the east and had my first encounters with guardians, chopping their legs off and destroying them as I went. I fought my way to the front gate and this is where I began to storm the castle.

326 zelda breath of the wild - happy times in gerudo town at last

Dear Readers,

After beating Thunderblight Ganon, I hung around in Gerudo Town for a while.

Riju promised to give me a loan of the heirloom if I did some favours for the ladies that lived here.

One little girl wanted to grow fruits, but her water was contaminated with melon rind that kept flowing down from the rooftops. I chatted with the lady who was behind it and she finally agreed to stop.

Everyone was relieved. The soldiers were all happy too. Some other quests popped up and I'll try them out in due time.

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.