Jeff's Gaming Blog

Now that Ganondorf has been defeated, I’m now able to explore Hyrule more freely (even though I basically did that anyway). I started out by exploring sky islands I hadn’t been to yet.

Of course the Hero’s Path mode helps me find areas where I haven’t explored yet. But another thing that helps a ton is to look at the map, and then alternate between the surface and the Depths levels. The shrines on the surface and the lightroots in the Depths are usually (if not always) in pretty much the same spot. So that should help me find both.

Speaking of the Depths, I ran into something I found amusing down there: A Yiga Clan base where Yiga soldiers were riding on carts that endlessly went around a small track. It was like a little train ride at a kiddie park! I thought it was funny to see these determined fighters looping around on a ride that looks like it was designed for 6-year-olds! 😆

I’ve also obtained some additional Yiga schematics while exploring the Depths further. That includes an assault cart, a “charged charger,” a raiding plane, and a three wheeler. Cool stuff.

I had enough Sage’s Wills to make my bond stronger with another sage, so I enhanced Sidon’s power this time. It seems that you can only enhance each sage’s power once though, because Yunobo and Tulin were no longer options.

When I ran into Koltin again, I continued to trade Bubbul gems for treasure…until he ran out of treasure to trade!

Of course, he still wants me to give him every Bubbul gem in existence! He told me there are still 96 left for me to find! That will probably take quite a while. There are so many things to collect in this game, I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to them all. It does seem a bit more doable than collecting all of the Korok seeds, though. 😛

I’ve also been working on some old side quests that have been on my list forever. This guy has wanted to see a skeletal horse, and I originally thought I only needed a photo of one. But that never worked, so I tracked down a real one and rode it back to him. Giddyup.

By consulting the map, I found all of the stone tablets for the “Messages from an Ancient Era” side adventure. They’re easy to spot because they’re all on tiny star-shaped sky islands.

I returned to Wortsworth in Kakariko Village and showed him the photos of all the tablets. My reward wasn’t particularly exciting, but it feels good to have completed one of the bigger side adventures in the game.

While exploring in the Hebra Mountains, I found a cave that led me to the ultimate mushroom haven! (I found it before the mushroom hunter sisters, Nat and Meghyn.) There were glowing crystals everywhere, and of course, a wide variety of mushrooms. It was beautiful!

But I plucked it clean of mushrooms and went on my way. 😆

In the Necluda Sky, I beat my first King Gleeok. I’ve faced at least one of them before, but I previously couldn’t figure out how to beat its final attack, the lightning bolt barrage stage. But I finally found a strategy that worked, and I’ve obtained another Sage’s Will. I currently have three, so I’ll still need one more to enhance another sage’s power.

I also took a photo of that King Gleeok, so I headed back to Tarrey Town to show it to Kilton. Hudson built a model of it, and I placed it on the stage (but not without some difficulty, since the stage is kinda full now).

That completed the “A Monstrous Collection” side adventure, and I’m glad to clear another big project off my to-do list.

This seems like a good place to wrap up this entry and take a look at my progress. My map completion percentage is up to 61.23%, and here is my adventure log progress:

• Main Quests: 21/23 (really 23/23)
• Side Adventures: 53/60
• Shrine Quests: 23/31
• Side Quests: 67/139
• Memories: 18/18

My others stats can be seen here. I’ve now completed my third/final stamina wheel, so I’ll just be adding more heart containers from now on.

My shrine count is at 127 (up from 113 last time), my lightroots are up to 111 (from 94), and my Korok seed count is 227 (up from 207). Here is my Hyrule Compendium progress:

• Creatures: 81/92
• Monsters: 107/110
• Materials: 118/126
• Equipment: 142/175
• Treasure: 6/6

I’m still playing the game regularly, so I don’t think I’ll be dragging this out for five years like I did with Breath of the Wild. I’ll see you next time, but for now, check out my latest video showing many of the vehicles in the game:

When I resumed my game of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I made my first visit to the Coliseum Ruins. There, I fought a Thunder Gleeok. It was quite a struggle, but I ultimately defeated it.

This is random, but don’t you hate when you’re using Sensor+ to search for treasure chests and it’s taking you all around in circles? And then you realize there’s an Aerocuda flying around overhead, carrying the treasure chest, and you didn’t even notice? Thought I was going crazy. 😆😆😆

While I was chasing it down, I encountered a Battle Talus that I encountered early in the game (but couldn’t defeat at the time). It brought back memories of those early days in the game. I planned on crossing that bridge (Orsedd Bridge), but I had to change my plans after that Talus kicked my butt. 😆 But now, it was no trouble at all.

In that same area (near Crenel Peak), I found Jojon Shrine. I had to fight some constructs on spinning gears, without using any outside equipment.

It wasn’t particularly notable, except for one fact: It was my 100th shrine completed! I knew Breath of the Wild had 120 shrines, so I wondered if I was really 5/6ths of the way through TotK’s shrines. But I googled it, and apparently this game has 152 shrines, not 120. I was relieved, because I don’t want this journey to end yet.

In Tarrey Town, I helped out Mattison and she set sail for her new life in Gerudo Town. I was then able to help Kilton out with his art project for Tarrey Town. I have to take photos of various monsters, and he (with Hudson’s help), makes sculptures of each one. I already had a photo of the first monster (a Bokoblin) on my camera, so he built that right away.

There are more monsters yet to come, so I’ll keep an eye out for his requests.

After helping out with the school in Hateno Village, I unlocked a new side quest where I can plant my own vegetable garden! With Uma’s help, of course. I started out with a Hylian tomato plant.

At the Abandoned Gerudo Mine in the Depths, I ran into Master Kohga (the boss of the Yiga Clan) again. I defeated him, and he fled to the Eastern Abandoned Mine. I found a schema stone for a hovercraft down here. In other parts of the Depths, I found the Yiga schematics for a monocycle, a super spring, a triple cannon, and a tank! So my collection of schematics is growing.

I’ve collected enough Sage’s Wills for another companion upgrade, so I chose to strengthen my bond with Tulin. I’m hoping that means he’ll be of more use in battles with tough enemies like Gleeoks.

Back at the garden, I harvested my tomatoes, and then I gave Uma a hearty radish. I’d really love to grow more of them, so that I can cook up some strong food dishes.

In the meantime, I continued exploring the Depths, tracking down Master Kohga in the Abandoned Lanayru Mine. Or was I just…killing time?

I defeated Master Kohga here, and then again in the Hebra region. That completed the side adventure, and the game indicated that he’s now gone for good. Before he left, he let me know where to find the Demon King.

But I didn’t rush there just yet (do I ever?). I returned to Hateno Village, to check on my hearty radish garden. They were ready for harvesting, but there were only two radishes to harvest! So one hearty radish turned into two, that’s it! 😠 Considering how long you have to wait for it to grow, this doesn’t seem worth the effort. Oh well. I tried.

Next, I made my way to Thyphlo Ruins. There were several side adventures here, hidden amongst the ruins. I wanted to solve them all while I was here, so I burned through them, one at a time.

After that, I dropped into a nearby chasm and found a couple more lightroots in the Depths. But I reached a point where I realized I’ve been stalling long enough. So I headed for Hyrule Castle to beat the game once and for all.

I fought my way underneath Hyrule Castle, and battled the many hordes of enemies that appeared at various points along the way. It’s a long way down, and finding the right way to go can be a bit confusing at points. But eventually, I made it to Ganondorf himself. Of course, I don’t want to spoil the final fight or the ending, but I did beat Ganondorf…and the game. 🙂

After another Google search, I confirmed that I did get to see the “good” ending because I’ve completed all of the main quests and recovered all of the memories.

Beating the game earned me a star on my save file, and it gave me access to some additional stats I couldn’t see before. My map completion percentage is at 56.94%, and my quest completion is as follows:

• Main Quests: 21/23 (really all 23, but it doesn’t save the last two)
• Side Adventures: 51/60
• Shrine Quests: 16/31
• Side Quests: 64/139
• Memories: 18/18

The most surprising thing (to me) is that I’m not even halfway done with the side quests! As for my other stats, you can see the image here:

My shrine count is up to 113 (from 95 last time), my lightroots are up to 94 (from 65), and my Korok seed count is at 207 (up from 160). Here is my Hyrule Compendium progress:

• Creatures: 79/92
• Monsters: 106/110
• Materials: 116/126
• Equipment: 137/175
• Treasure: 6/6

Even though I’ve beaten the game now, I’m still far from done. Even though I won’t be going after every single Korok seed, I do want to at least complete all shrines and complete all of the side quests/adventures. So there will be more entries yet to come. See you next time! 🙂