TotK #11 – Purah Pad Upgrades

I’ve been continuing to play a lot of Tears of the Kingdom lately! After finding a Korok seed on Satori Mountain, I enjoyed this beautiful sunrise.

A beautiful sunrise from the top of Satori Mountain in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

When I returned to Lookout Landing, I spoke with Robbie and he thanked me for fixing his balloon (in the previous entry). He surprised me by telling me he could now return to his laboratory in Hateno Village! He told me to meet him there, and he could make improvements to my Purah Pad. I went there immediately, and he added the sensor.

Robbie: The sensor reacts when you're moving toward a shrine...

Yes! I’ve been wanting this for a long time! It’ll help me find shrines, treasure chests, or any other items I’m looking for (assuming it’s something I have in my Hyrule Compendium). He added more features to the Purah Pad, and the most interesting one (other than the sensor) is the Hero’s path mode. It shows my path around Hyrule, and it will store up to 256 hours of gameplay worth! Very interesting to see which areas I haven’t touched yet.

My hero path to date in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

In Breath of the Wild, this feature was included in the paid DLC (which I never bought)…so this was my first time experiencing it. You can even “play” your history in sequence…complete with Link’s yells for each death. It was funny seeing my 6-7 deaths in row on the map, from early in the game when I got stuck up on a sky island with no way down. 💀 This will be very helpful going forward.

One other interesting thing about Robbie’s Purah Pad upgrades is how low the requirements were for the extra features. One feature required five types of monsters added to my compendium…and I had at least 87 at this point. I feel like I must be late in getting these upgrades.

Once my Purah Pad was completely upgraded, I finally headed off to Hyrule Castle…not knowing if I was going into the “final” battle or not. When I arrived, I had to visit several areas around the castle. At each point, I was ambushed by groups of monsters.

Fighting monster forces at Hyrule Castle in Zelda TOTK.

Eventually, I reached a point where I fought a boss, of sorts. I try to avoid spoiling the plot too much in the blog, but I will say that it was not the final fight. I won the battle, and I was told to return to Lookout Landing.

On the way back, I used my sensing ability to seek out treasure chests. But some of them weren’t worth the effort, with as little as a single rupee inside! 😛

(Warning: Slight spoiler in this paragraph. Skip to the next paragraph to avoid it.) Back at the landing, Purah, the sages, and Link discussed what we should do next. It was determined that there should be another sage (besides Zelda) out there, that we haven’t met up with yet! So Purah told us to split up and look for clues. This basically gave me free rein to do what I’d been doing anyway: Exploring at my own pace. And I’m okay with that. I’m in no rush.

I decided to go back to where it all started: The Great Sky Island. But even though it was a nice trip down Memory Lane, I didn’t find much that was new or particularly helpful there, aside from a few treasure chests.

Back down on the surface, I spotted a rainbow in the distance from near Rassla Lake. I think it’s the first one I’ve seen in this game, although I know I’ve seen some in Breath of the Wild before.

A rainbow in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

I found a new geoglyph in the southeast region, and then I returned to Lurelin Village to complete a few side quests.

Zuta: Huh? You smell like my dad, mister!
Oops. Did Link have a secret “side adventure” in Breath of the Wild?

A short time later, a Korok that was separated from his friend gave me a reason to visit Eventide Island. In Breath of the Wild, Eventide Island provided a unique challenge, where you had tasks to complete without access to your normal clothes/armor or weapons. Honestly, it was rather tedious, and I wasn’t interested in doing that again. But fortunately, Eventide Island doesn’t operate the same way in this game. I was very relieved.

The island still has its challenges, but they don’t feel cheap like the BOTW ones. Although I had a problem defeating one group of monster forces, because one (or more) of the enemies kept disappearing and I couldn’t finish them off. But eventually, I completed the task (after dropping into the Depths for a bit).

Fighting in the Depths of TOTK as an explosion goes off near me.
I’m having a blast with this game.

I found a pretty cool helmet down there in the twilight, but I won’t spoil exactly what it was. 😉

I finished up what needed to be done on Eventide Island, and then I took a break. And this where I’ll wrap up this entry. Here are my latest stats:

My Tears of the Kingdom stats as of late January 2024.

My shrine count is now at 73 (up from 66 last time), my lightroot count is up by just one, and my Korok seed count has risen dramatically, from 95 to 124. Here is my Compendium progress:

  • Creatures: 72/92 (up from 64)
  • Monsters: 94/110 (up from 87)
  • Materials: 106/126 (up from 97)
  • Equipment: 119/175 (up from 106)
  • Treasure: 6/6

There’s so much more I want to do! I’ve been in a groove lately where I don’t want to stop playing. 😆 I’ll see you all next time. 🙂

TotK #10 – Lightning Temple

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.

Using mirrors on statues to reflect a beam of light in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
This is where I really shined.

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.

Tower repairman: I've gone up...

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!!

The Autobuild ability in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

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.

Master Kohga, leader of the Yiga Clan.
“Cash me outside, how ’bout that?”

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

The Autobuild schematics for 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. 😛

Mastro: Then please, let's go to the Great Fairy as soon as we can!

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.) 😛

Mastro: In honor of this genuine hero, let us be known as...the Stable Heroes!

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.

A giant fossilized skeleton in the Hebra Mountains of TotK.

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 TotK stats as of January 19, 2024.

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! 🙂

TotK #9 – Gerudo Town

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

Impa: I can hardly believe what my eyes behold. Who could have guessed this old ruin still held such secrets?

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. 😛

Rhondson: But...I'm so sorry. We're still not ready to open for business.
You don’t look like Rhondson. 😛

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.

The Spirit Temple in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

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.

Fighting a mummy in Gerudo Town.
“Have you seen my mummy?”

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). 😛

Buliara: Gerudo Captain of the Guard

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. 😛

Riju and her shocking power.

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.

Teake: Understood. They will defend the east gate.

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.

The Gerudos celebrate a victory.

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.

Shining a light on some pillars.

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.

My TOTK stats as of October 18, 2023.

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!