Saturday, April 1, 2017

Breath of the Wild Adventure Log, Entry 22

Today I mostly explored, where I went along the shorelines to the east, through the Necluda region and to the center of Hyrule. I also lost a couple of horses...


My starting point was Lurelin Village, where I discovered the Palmorae Ruins, after following a kid in the village. The "Monument Shards" here really reminded me of the broken Mirror of Twilight from Twilight Princess and that was probably even intentional. The Shrine Quest opens Kah Yah Shrine, where no Blessing awaits you, but the "Quick Thinking" puzzle. Overall I was positively surprised today that I didn't ran into a single blessing shrine, even though some of them involved Shrine Quests.


Tingle Islands


My main goal at the eastern shore were the four islands named after the Tingle siblings: Davdi, Knuckel, Ankel and Tingel Island. You don't have to worry that you will run into any of the brothers, but you might want to worry about the Guardian Skywatchers patrolling the area. But it didn't turn out too bad. It seems like the two Skywatchers at Tingel Island have the sole purpose of preventing you from flying to the Kah Mael Shrine directly, which is hidden there, so you would have to take the tour over all four islands, which are connected via long wooden bridges.

After solving the little "Drop and Rise" puzzle, I followed the shoreline down south to the "Tarm Point". There are two chests filled with Gold Rupees there in a small ruin, which gets protected by a Lynel. However, you can steal the two chests from under the nose of the Lynel by just climbing up from the south. I did fight the Silver Lynel anyway, where I'm happy that I have reached a point in the game, where I always seek the confrontation no matter what. I'm finally strong enough so that I don't have to avoid enemies anymore.


Long Hiking

Sometimes it's just great not to teleport for a while in this game, but just simply take a long tour over the landscapes to see what you may find. In this case I was making may way from Lanayru Bay over Kakariko to Hateno, exploring a good chunk of the areas in between.

During that I did find the "The Cursed Statue" Shrine Quest leading to the Kam Urog Shrine. Again, besides there being a puzzle to open a shrine, the shrine did contain another trial, the "Trial of Passage". This was one of the shrines that Nintendo had showcased during last year's E3, where I totally forgot about the thing... I suppose, most people will find this shrine quite early in the game, but for me it was kind of refreshing to play this shrine as late in the game.


Afterwards I was taming a blue horse near the Cliffs of Quince, but then found a bombable rock on my way to Dueling Peaks stable, where it was not a good idea to leave the horse during this moment, because a Yiga and three Stal Bokoblins appeared scaring the horse off... In general this is a little issue, where the game wants to spawn annoying enemies, but it has to wait, until you set your foot back on the ground, where everything then spawns at once.

Well, the horse ran away and I couldn't find it afterwards, but it seems that the game tends to place the same horses in the same area, because later on I found it in the same place again. I also found another black horse with a white blaze on the face (like my Hilda) at the Sahasra Slope west of Kakariko the other day. So, it might not be completely random, where you find certain horses. The stats seem to be random, however, because the next blue horses didn't have offer the same stamina.


Ancient Weapons

Back in Hateno, I decided to go buy all of the ancient weapons from the Akkala Ancient Labority to fill some more gaps in my Hyrule Compendium and to get some more decoration for my house. In the end I placed the shield and the bow in the displays and overall the ancient weapons look really cool:



However, they don't seem to be any different from the Guardian++ weapons. The damage values are the same and unless they offer a lot more durability I don't see, how the price of 1000 Rupees and several Guardian materials is justified for these weapons.


Seeking the Middle


Because I wanted to put my newly purchased weaponry to good use, I decided to fully explore Hyrule Field. Yesterday I discovered, how much fun it can be to fight a Guardian on horseback, and Hyrule Field certainly is the best place to do it. So, I grabbed Firsta, put on my silly helmet and went on my way...



Lon Lon Ranch Tragedies

The biggest discovery for me here was the realization that the "Ranch Ruins" provide an almost identical layout to the Lon Lon Ranch from Ocarina of Time. You have the tower to the southwest, the circuit, the gate to the north, the houses and so on all in the right place. The ranch is even located southeast of Hyrule Castle Town.

However, the place itself was crawling with death. One Guardian and two Silver Bokoblins on horses were ready to attack me. And it can only be irony that the place, where you find your first horse in the Zelda series, now became the place, where my first horse in Breath of the Wild found its end.

R.I.P. Firsta

I know that you can revive horses, but Firsta wasn't that great to begin with. I only brought her instead of the others, because she was expendable. And I found a replacement soon after...


However, this horse didn't last long either. At the gate to Hyrule Castle Town I fought another Guardian, while being targeted by a Decayed Guardian, which wasn't the best idea. One hit of the beams and my replacement horse was gone as well. Firsta even had the Knight's Bridle and Saddle set, which didn't seem to help. So, these might just be for the looks. By the way, I've found exactly five horse sets so far:

  • Traveler's Set
  • Knight's Set
  • Royal Set
  • Extravagant Set
  • Monster Set

I wonder, if that's really it, because you can also only register five horses at the same time. So, basically you could use a different set on each horse.


Current Progress:
  • Main Quests: 15/15
  • Side Quests: 66/76
  • Shrine Quests: 36/42
  • Shrines: 100/120
  • Koroks: 323/900
  • Talus: 11/40
  • Hinox: 18/40
  • Molduga: 4/4
  • Map Rate: 48.63%

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