Jeff's Gaming Blog

After a 3-month hiatus from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I continued my game earlier this month at the Lightning Temple. I had to move some mirrors around to reflect beams of light to different parts of the dungeon. It reminded me of the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of Time, although I think some other Zelda games have used a similar mechanic as well.

With Riju’s help, I had to charge four batteries to proceed through the dungeon. There were a variety of puzzles and traps throughout the temple, but the last battery I found was actually the easiest of them all. I don’t know how I missed it. 😛

I fought another battle with the Queen Gibdo (the flying mummy bug), and I ran out of arrows halfway through. Because of how Riju’s power works, I thought I needed arrows to continue. But I decided to press on, and with the help of my other companions, I beat the boss on the first try…even if it took longer than I’d hoped. With the boss defeated, Riju officially gave me her power, and I was advised to head back to Lookout Landing.

But, of course, I was in no rush. I decided to make my way to the Gerudo Canyon Skyview Tower. I had been there before, but wasn’t sure how to activate the tower. But this time, I approached it from a different angle (literally) and I finally figured it out.

It was well worth the weight (pun intended), and I have now activated all of the towers on the surface.

After some exploring, I tried to see if I was able to beat a Lynel or a Gleeok yet. I failed on both counts. 😛 As I continued my way (on foot) in the general direction of Lookout Landing, I spotted a chasm that I hadn’t investigated yet. So I dropped down into it…and boy, am I glad I did. After activating a lightroot, I found an abandoned mine…where I learned the Autobuild ability!!

It allows me to automatically build things that I’ve built before with Ultrahand (as long as the materials are nearby). It remembers my previous creations, so this is going to be incredibly helpful!

Unfortunately, some members of the Yiga Clan were spying on me, so they learned it too? Even though they don’t have my magic monster hand or legendary hero/Triforce powers or whatever? I mean, seriously, how can they use it too? They can’t even open shrines or, you know, simple treasure chests without my magic fingerprints! So how they can use the most powerful ability in the game? 😛

But after they performed a little dance number, I had to fight Mr. Moneybags here.

After defeating him, he headed off to another mine, while I acquired some schematics for an existing vehicle (a fanplane).

I returned to Lookout Landing, and Josha gave me a schema stone that lets me autobuild a hot-air balloon. She told me to try it out on Robbie’s broken balloon, and I fixed it instantly.

Anyway, I told Purah the other news: That I’ve fully investigated all four of the regional phenomena. With the help of her telescope, we saw Princess Zelda at Hyrule Castle! It’s my job to check that out, of course, but I wasn’t ready for that just yet. 😛

There was a lot I want to do first! So I stocked up on arrows, I did some cooking, I completed a few side quests, and then I sought out the 4th great fairy. If I’m going into battle at the castle soon, I want to enhance my armor as much as I possibly can.

Once I figured out where the remaining fairy was, I had to help out the Stable Trotters again by fixing their wagon. Apparently, they refused to travel uncovered in the snow, so I simply put a roof on it. They’re still completely exposed to the snow and bitter cold, but they’re okay with it just because a plank of wood is over their head now. 😛

I towed them to the Great Fairy Mija, and they performed a song to wake her up. They announced they’re changing their group name from the Stable Trotters to the Stable Heroes, in honor of me. (Because I “saved” them by helping out, not because I saved the world or anything.) 😛

Anyway, I can now enhance my clothes to the maximum. And I did enhance a lot of it, but I still need many more materials to enhance everything.

While exploring the Hebra Mountains, I encountered a giant skeleton of some huge creature! I used Ultrahand to put two bones back in place, and I heard the classic “puzzle solved” jingle…but then nothing happened. This must be for a side quest that I haven’t been asked to complete yet. No bones about it.

At this point, I think I’ll wrap up this entry with a status update. Unfortunately, I haven’t unlocked my map completion percentage or side quest counter yet, but here’s my other info. I’ve played about 115 hours to this point.

My shrine count is up to 66 (from 61 last time), lightroots up to 39 (from 37), and Korok seeds up to 95 (from 67). I’m low on bells rupees though, since I spent a lot upgrading my gear with the Great Fairy. Here’s my Hyrule Compendium progress:

• Creatures: 64/92 (up from 61)
• Monsters: 87/110 (up from 83)
• Materials: 97/126 (up from 96)
• Equipment: 106/175 (up from 102)
• Treasure: 6/6

I’ll definitely head to Hyrule Castle next time! And plenty of other places, too. See you again soon, most likely! 🙂

Finally deciding to make progress on a long-overdue main quest, I headed over to the Forgotten Temple to find Lady Impa.

There, we found a map of all of the geoglyphs. Impa encouraged me to seek them out, and investigate them to see if I have more visions at each one. I’ve already seen several geoglyphs along the way, but I don’t always see a way of doing anything with them. But with this map in mind, I returned to one geoglyph nearby. After looking very closely, I ultimately found the dragon tear and activated a surprising vision.

I then backtracked, going back to Rito Village to complete a few side quests that I’ve had on my list forever (including building that bridge). While I was there, I also redeemed some Lights of Blessing for another stamina vessel, which completed a 2nd wheel of stamina for me.

A bit later, I finally made my first visit to Tarrey Town. There are several side quests and things to do here now, but at least I don’t have to build the town from scratch this time. 😛

When I later explored more of the Depths, I was surprised to run across the Spirit Temple! However, I didn’t find a way inside. And since I was kind of focused on finding more lightroots at the time, I didn’t stick around. I’m sure I’ll return someday, though.

Once I was done in the Depths, I decided it was time to finally head towards Gerudo Desert for the 4th temple; I’d been putting it off for long enough! After a stop at the Kara Kara Bazaar, I was told that a sand shroud would make it impossible for me to get to Gerudo Town. Compasses don’t work in the giant sand storm. But “impossible” was an exaggeration, because I lined myself up and simply ran through the desert unscathed!

I arrived at Gerudo Town, but it wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t have to dress as a woman to get inside, and that’s because nobody was around! Everyone was hiding from monsters that had taken over the town…except that the monsters were half-dead mummies that could hardly move. Sure, they’re resistant to physical attacks, but a fire arrow wipes them out pretty quickly.

Before long, I met up with Buliara, the Gerudo Captain of the Guard. She let everyone know that I was allowed to walk around freely, despite being a voe (man). 😛

She told me that I could find Lady Riju training in the ruins to the north, and I headed out that way. Once I tracked her down, she needed my help in perfecting her lightning attack. I just have to shoot an arrow, and somehow that helps her focus her attack. 😛

Suddenly, more mummies (they’re called Gibdos) attacked Kara Kara Bazaar. This gave me and Lady Riju a chance to practice our new combo attack. We also learned how to destroy the Gibdos’ hive, to keep them from spawning endlessly.

When we returned to Gerudo Town, we prepared for war! I had to choose which of the town’s three gates to defend with barricades, and where to deploy the Gerudo forces (and cannon). It’s basically a strategic mini-game against the Gibdos.

Once I was prepared, the Gibdos (including flying moth Gibdos) began their attack. But after several minutes, Riju was defeated and I lost the battle. But I realized what I did wrong: I spent too much time playing defense, and I didn’t make it a priority to attack the hives. So I changed my strategy, and we succeeded on my 2nd attempt.

After that, Riju translated a mural for me. It told me what I needed to do next. So I ventured into the desert and shined some light on the situation.

With some help from the pillars of the community, I unearthed the next dungeon: The Lighting Temple! After defeating a mini-boss, I was able to go inside the temple. But after a quick look around, I decided to take a break…and wrap up this entry for now.

As an update, here are my latest Tears of the Kingdom stats. My shrine count is up to 61 from 50 last time, my lightroots have increased from 28 to 37, and my Korok count is up from 51 to 67.

And here is my Hyrule Compendium progress:

• Creatures: 61/92 (up from 55)
• Monsters: 83/110 (up from 74)
• Materials: 96/126 (up from 90)
• Equipment: 102/175 (up from 94)
• Treasure: 6/6

As you probably know, many shrines (particularly those that involve use of the Ultrahand ability) can be solved in various ways. Each player’s builds may be different. So I recently posted a video showing some of my builds that I used to complete some shrines (and some other tasks as well). Take a look!

See you next time!

Someone in Hateno Village kept telling me about Lurelin Village being taken over by pirates, so I decided to head that way. The “pirates” (really just monsters, as usual) were found throughout the town, and one of them was hidden. I ultimately defeated them all, and some of the evacuated (or hiding) villagers returned. But the damage had been done: Many buildings were damaged or destroyed.

Rebuilding the village would be quite a big task, but I agreed to help out Bolson the carpenter by repairing the vandalized homes and businesses. First, I had to gather some logs to use as building supports, and find some Hylian rice to make thatched roofs. Then I had to clear out debris and install logs as support pillars. (Bolson did the rest, off-screen.)

Once we restored all of the buildings, many villagers returned and had a party/feast for me and Bolson. Bolson even started dancing with some of the kids in town.

This whole side adventure reminded me of building Tarrey Town in Breath of the Wild. They’re both fairly big projects, even if this one can be done essentially all at once.

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After I (finally) figured out how to activate Skyview Tower, I descended into the Depths…into the Yiga Clan Hideout Chasm. I explored for quite a long time, and I found (and activated) a bunch of new lightroots. Even though the Depths are barren and generally not very exciting, it is satisfying to seek out and turn on each lightroot.

And occasionally, you do find something interesting down there. These lava falls were pretty cool. Well, hot, but cool.

But I inevitably run out of arrows in the Depths (from shooting brightbloom seeds on arrows to see where I’m going), so I have to return to the surface eventually. 😛 And once I did, I started exploring the Hebra mountains. At Snowfield Stable, I learned that Zelda’s horse had run away. (This was for another story Pete was working on.) Of course, this was a side adventure, and I set out to track it down.

Of course there’s a giant flying enemy called a Frost Gleeok along the way, and its ice lasers ended my game a couple of times. But I eventually got past it, and I found Zelda’s golden horse! I took the long way back to the stable (to avoid the Gleeok), and I was ultimately told I could keep the horse. I knew just what name to give it. 😆

By the way, there is something else interesting about stables: Horses that were registered in Breath of the Wild are still available in Tears of the Kingdom! So I still have horses like Amazing, This Loon, and Big Red, which some of you might remember from my BOTW blog entries or videos.

Over at Highland Stable, people said they heard the sound of a flute nearby. I tracked down the mysterious source of the music: A guy up a tree, playing a flute. 😛 I gave him some fireflies to help him impress a girl, and then I called her over to watch the show.

The guy was Pyper, and he is one of the Stable Trotters musicians. Since I helped him out, he was willing to rejoin the group. So I, once again, helped the group get to another fairy. After playing their music, the Great Fairy Kaysa came out of her shell.

That allowed me to upgrade my clothing and armor up to a third level. I’m starting to feel like I’m not such a weaklink weakling any more. 😛

In a shrine nearby, I was having a bit of trouble on the last part, where I needed to make a mine cart go up an inclined track. After trying a few things unsuccessfully, I resorted to something simpler: Just walking across the track. It worked!

I then returned to Lookout Landing to redeem some Lights of Blessing (for another heart container and some more stamina). I also traded in some Korok seeds for some weapon/shield slots. This seems like a good time to wrap up this entry, so let’s take a look at my current stats…

That’s 50 shrines completed and 28 lightroots activated so far. I’ll also include my Hyrule Compendium status for the first time:

• Creatures: 55/92
• Monsters: 74/110
• Materials: 90/126
• Equipment: 94/175
• Treasure: 6/6

And I’m up to 85 hours played. But there’s still soooo much more to do! I’ll see you next time!