Fresh from our success with Revali’s Song, we jaunted off to the next stanza in the Champions’ Ballad quest: Daruk’s Song. In this post, we explore activating the three DLC shrines in Eldin.
As we’ve whinged before, Eldin is our least favorite land. We’ll even take the Guardian-infested area of Central Hyrule over lava lakes and heat (which may be a dry heat, ha ha, but lava is lava). In short, during the main game we spent the minimum time in Eldin as necessary to complete shrines and free Divine Beast Vah Rudania.
With a “get it over with” mentality, we swapped our snowsuit for heat protection armor and fast-traveled to the Shae Mo’sah Shrine, north of Goron City. We followed the path downward through town (stopping to speak with village Elder Bludo, who is not very Goron-like in his perpetual ill humor) until we reached a place just east of the marker on our map. From there we flew over the lava and up the hill, not to grandmother’s house but to Daruk’s pedestal.
As expected, Kass was there to serenade us – and by the way, why does HE not need heat protecting armor? You’d think the local restaurant would be serving up Roast Rito for dinner! Ahem. Kass offered these clues to the location of the three shrine-activating quests:
- Stop a titan of molten stone
- Follow rings of light alone
- Survive lava’s fiery fate
As you might imagine, we did not at all like the sound of those. We generally avoid Taluses as much as we avoid Eldin, so a Talus indigenous to Eldin, and a Titanic one as well? Perish the thought. Or perish us, more likely. And surviving lava’s fiery fate? That’s just setting us up for failure! Following rings of light sounded easy, though. Like following a trail of Korok flowers. Fun! We decided to save the fun one for last.
Zelder Tip #1: You can mark the expected locations on the map with a stamp and consult your map as you go, or use the Sheikah Slate scope to set a beacon that makes following the direction easier. Just remember that a red or yellow beacon in Eldin doesn’t show up as well!
Survive Lava’s Fiery Fate
After chatting up three Goron brothers on a small hill overlooking Darb Pond, south and slightly east of Death Mountain, we spotted a glowing ring inconveniently out in the middle of molten lava. (As an aside, we submit that molten lava does not constitute a pond, and it’s just cruel to name it that.) Beside the so-called pond’s edge were two metal blocks and not far from shore, a smattering of rocks. The task was this: use the metal blocks to move the rocks into a stepping-stone path across the lava to get closer to the ring and, ultimately, place a block in the ring that Link can stand on to activate the shrine. Just flying into the glowing ring, which is possible from up near the chatty Gorons, results in a fiery fate that one does not survive. (We know, we tried.)
Zelder Tip #2: If you have the travel medallion and you’re as prone to falling into lava as we are, set a travel point near the site of the shrine activation quest. Then if you need to retreat to more hospitable climes to replenish your hearts (and possibly your mind), you won’t have to make the overland trip again. We also found the medallion indispensable for getting ourselves out of, shall we say, hot spots, without leaving the area.
Zelder Tip #3: There’s a Lizalfos near the second, further metal block; best to dispatch with it before anything else.
Zelder Tip #4: Your goal is not to maneuver a metal block into the ring and, during the same attempt, er, swim or hop in the lava over to the block. You will fry. Instead, maneuver a block under the ring[1], transport to your nearby travel medallion, race back up to where the Gorons wait, and from there fly onto the metal cube inside the ring, activating the Rinu Honika shrine.
Zelder Tip #5: Do not rest on your laurels on a blisteringly hot metal cube inside a ring in a pool of lava. Resting on your laurels will get you killed. We realized this as our hearts began to not-so-slowly fade away while Demelza was busily jotting down notes. Transport back to your travel medallion safe place and seek the nearby shrine from there.
Stop a Titan of Molten Stone
The “titan of molten stone” holds court off the north shore of Lake Darman. That’s right, inside the lake; you’ll need to ride updrafts to get to it. (Again with the inappropriate use of bodies of water names. Proper lakes are made of water!) Like all Taluses, this one sports a large ore deposit atop its – head? torso? – really these defy description. Anyhow, you can’t just hop aboard the Igneo Talus Titan and whack away at the ore deposit; doing so will fry Link crispy. Instead, strike the Titan with an ice arrow to momentarily cool it off – if you are so foolish as to want to climb on its back, that is. Us? Oh, we tried that, and promptly slid off into the lava before we’d landed a single blow. It’s not like these things hold still.
We then consumed an attack up meal and rode air drafts to shoot electric arrows at the hump until the molten titan gave up the ghost and, sure enough, Kamia Omuna Shrine rose from the ground. (We also used ice arrows, and although they did cool off the Talus, we weren’t going to try landing again; what’s more, we found electric arrows did more damage.)
Zelder Tip #6: Although bomb arrows work well against a Frost Talus, woe betide the Link who notches a bomb arrow in Eldin. Not that we did this. Not that we did this multiple times before realizing it wasn’t the Igneo Talus blowing us up.
Follow Rings of Light Alone
At last we arrive at the fun part! This is gonna be just like following Korok flower trails! Yay!
Or not.
After warping to Divine Beast Vah Rudania at Death Mountain, you’ll see the first ring of light nearby on a mountain cliff. There are nine total. Glide to the highest point on the rock near the first ring. The clock doesn’t start ticking until you go through the ring, but once you do, you must balance time against stamina use, and of course, drowning in molten lava.
Zelder Tip #7: Although we generally don’t like adventuring at night, we found it easier to see the rings of light when it was dark.
The first ring is easy enough, and the second, located atop another nearby mountain, also. You’ll have to climb to get through that second ring, but it’s close, so stamina won’t be an issue, nor will time. Continue flying/climbing upward through the third ring.
And that’s where all similarity between Korok flower trails ends.
The fourth ring is located below you, and if you blindly sail off, not knowing where the ring is, you will most likely get disoriented and run out of time and into lava.
Zelder Tip #8: As you go through each ring, look for a beam of light to show you the direction of the next ring. The beam of light that emanates after piercing the third ring will point you downward, where you’ll see a ring of light atop a patch of rock.
The fifth ring hovers over a river of lava trailing down the volcano’s side, but it’s close to the fourth ring; there’s time to pause here and regain stamina if need be. (Or load up with extra stamina before beginning.) The sixth ring is also downward from the fifth, so remember to use B to drop down (but not TOO far down, into the lava!) lest you run out of time while sailing about at high altitude.
The seventh ring is further down still, very close to the lava and between two rocks.
The eighth ring is the worst: it’s very low, underneath an arch over lava. There’s not a lot of headroom here. But once through the eighth – it’s free sailing to the ninth and final ring, which opens up the Sharo Lun shrine.
Zelder Tip #9: You don’t have to go through the rings precisely in the middle; hitting a side or top works just fine.
Zelder Tip #10: Have an ice martini to cool down before continuing with Daruk’s Song!
[1] It helps to remember that the up and down arrows on the left D-pad move the cubes forward and backward. It’s too bad we didn’t remember the D-Pad for the first room of Rohta Chigah shrine. How on earth did we manage to get out of that room, we wonder? In our defense, we were in a BOTW drought and hadn’t played for a while! Still. “Designed by sadists” comes to mind.