Link begins the game with a single green wheel of stamina, which is depleted by running, swimming, flying, charging an attack, soothing a horse – just about anything that requires effort. The most common activity where you’ll find yourself nervously watching your stamina is climbing. There are towers to be climbed, trees and spires, and most particularly, hills and mountains.
If you’re like Itzal, you’re impatient, so you want to hit the “jump” button to climb faster. You may even believe that preserving stamina is like swimming underwater and holding your breath; just swim faster and you’ll go further on a single gulp of air. You would be mistaken in that belief. Jumping while climbing will move Link upwards more quickly, but it will drain his stamina at a correspondingly fast rate. When you have only a single stamina wheel, you must seek out less steep paths to a hilltop, climb slowly, and look for ledges to rest on. And climbing in the rain? Fughetaboutit.
If only you could climb faster without depleting your stamina at a faster rate.
As it happens, there’s an armor for that.
Any piece of the Climbing armor (there are three pieces in the set) provides some assistance with climbing, so getting all three is an obvious early objective. What’s more, when each piece is upgraded at least twice, the resulting set bonus reduces the stamina used when jumping during a climb. Link will be able to get to the top without running out of stamina (well, in most cases), and to do so at a quicker pace. (Editor’s Note: upgrading armor for set bonuses is something you do with the Great Fairies, and something Itzal the Impatient does not understand, so you’ll have to read up on it.)
The set cannot be purchased; it must be earned in three separate shrines. Although you may do the requisite shrines in any order, one is more difficult, so we recommend the following sequence:
It’s quite possible you passed Ree Dahee shrine in the initial rush to leave the Great Plateau en route to Kakariko Village. Ree Dahee is located to the east and just slightly south of Dueling Peaks tower. In this shrine, you’ll use Magnesis, among other tools, to reach a treasure chest on a ledge. The chest contains the first piece of the Climbing set: the Climber’s Bandana.
Tahno O’ah is a blessing shrine, which is Zelda code for “If you’ve finally managed to get into this place, we’re not going to torture you further by requiring you to fight a Guardian, use stupid Stasis on a rock, or solve a maddening puzzle to get your spirit orb.” In the case of Tahno O’ah, you’ll have to complete the Secret of the Cedars quest, which is in turn activated by speaking to Clavia near the Hateno dye shop. She’ll give you a perfectly obscure clue to get you started. Oh! Remember to cook a cold resistant meal or potion; you’ll want that along with your Warm Doublet. Then, exceedingly important: Don’t forget to open the chest in the shrine to receive the Climber’s Boots.
Last – and most assuredly least, if we’re considering the frustration level – is Chaas Qeta, which is located on an island southeast of Hateno Tech Lab. There aren’t any rafts nearby to reach the island (although there’s one there to get you back), so you’ll have to paraglide across the ocean. If you’re tackling this shrine early in the game, you’ll likely have limited stamina; either eat a stamina meal or get an elevated head start, say from atop Cape Cales, before flying over. Or do both. (As noted above, paragliding, like climbing, is a big stamina suck.) Chaas Qeta shrine offers Link a “Major Test of Strength” in the form of a Guardian Scout IV. This guy has 3000, count ’em, 3000 health points, and he’s heavily armed, but if – uh, when you defeat him, you’ll get to claim his dropped weaponry as spoils. What’s more, after the GS-IV’s ignominious defeat at Link’s hands, access is cleared to a treasure chest containing the Climbing Gear. (We’d argue that every piece in this set is some form of gear, however – gear is what Nintendo calls the shirt or bodywear part of the climbing set.)
All three Climbing pieces enable Link to climb faster, but the set bonus is where the real rewards lie. Get to work collecting keese wings, electric keese wings, rushrooms, and hightail lizards – you’re gonna need ’em to feed the Great Fairy to get your upgrades.
And for all your hard work, what’s your liquid reward? We’d suggest a tart and bracing Pisco Sour. For the uninitiated, Pisco is a type of brandy produced in certain regions of Peru and Chile. Given the Andes Mountains’ stretch in both those countries, we find the Pisco Sour utterly appropriate to mark your future adventures in full Climbing Gear. Enjoy the, er, elevation!