Fortified with our chosen cocktail, a Flaming Eldin Volcano, we were now ready to tackle a less enjoyable Eldin Volcano and the Earth Temple it houses. Since the key to the temple’s door had been split into five pieces, the first order of the day was to find them.
The first piece is easy enough to find – in a patch of dirt in front of the temple – but that’s just a confidence builder. For the others, you’ll need to dowse with the sword for starters.
One piece is found by knocking over a bridge and uncovering a patch of dirt, still another by rolling a bomb to open a cave with, you guessed it, a patch of dirt.
Final two key pieces
The last two key pieces are more complicated to find. Dowsing will lead you to dangle along a ledge, climb some vines, and finally enter a blazing hot chamber that depletes Link’s hearts in short order. Therefore, one should not, you know, linger. After racing through that chamber, take a tunnel to the right and slide down a long slope. If you’re more adept than we were, you can snag some rupees, ride a geyser up to a platform, and activate a Goddess Cube just below it. Although we did – much to our surprise – inadvertently roll into some rupees along the way, that particular Goddess Cube remains unactivated, no doubt to haunt us forever.
On a side note, but an important one, it must be acknowledged that Itzal is not as diligent about activating Goddess Cubes as he should be. Indeed, Itzal has a distressing tendency to snap “eye on the prize!” when Demelza has her eye not on some distant prize but on one more immediate, such as a treasure chest in the vicinity.
Worse still, even if he deigns (or manages) to activate a Goddess Cube, Itzal has been known to eschew finding its corresponding treasure chest in the sky. This results in such situations as the Treasure Medal going unclaimed.
What’s a Treasure Medal? Why, Demelza is ever so glad you asked, as the answer, she hopes, will encourage Itzal to be more industrious. We refer to an item that, when carried in the adventure pouch, causes more treasure to appear around Link. Now, the discerning reader familiar with Itzal’s layabout propensities may wonder if he deliberately left the Treasure Medal unclaimed because he doesn’t want more treasure to claim. The discerning reader would be CORRECT, asserts Demelza.
On another side note, Itzal thinks Demelza should try using the controllers occasionally instead of fannying about Hyrule with a guidebook, shouting directions at poor Itzal, who barely has time to drink as he plays. And have we mentioned the pain in Itzal’s wrist from all this work? HAVE WE?!
OK, let’s turn our eyes back to the prize, shall we? The prize being the final two pieces of the key to the Earth Temple door, which are both to be found with strategic maneuvering down the aforementioned slide. For one, follow a path at the base of the slide to find a lava plug; use a bomb flower to clear the plug, and the lava will recede to reveal some rubble in need of additional bombing. That done, a cave with a dirt patch is revealed. Dig here for a key piece.
There are several different channels from the slide, and Demelza, who is writing this section, freely admits that she has no sense of direction. (Itzal does not so freely admit his desultory approach to Goddess Cubes and treasure, but he can assure the reader it’s a miracle that Demelza finds the top of her head instead of, erm, some other part of her anatomy to scratch, she is so directionally challenged.) Accordingly, Demelza turns the keyboard over to Itzal to describe which channel to take to find the two geysers that one must navigate to find the fifth piece of the key.
Itzal, no doubt suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome (see above) and thus unable to write, advises the reader to fend for him- or herself. Carry on!
Into the Temple
After fitting the assembled Tetris-piece key into the hole in the door, it’s time for the real fun: Earth Temple itself. The temple is full of molten lava (which might be redundant, unless we’re geologically incorrect and the appropriate term is magma). Link will also encounter Fire Keese, Lizalfos, a rock-spewing dragon statue, and a new enemy officially known as a Magma Spume but called a Flaming Hippopotamus by Itzal.
Zelder Tip #1: Before venturing within, it’s best to save at the bird statue just outside and return to Skyloft for heart potions and an iron shield.
Zelder Tip #2: After defeating the first Lizalfos you encounter, look for a statue adorned with bomb flowers. Use the Beetle to ignite one of the flowers, which will destroy the statue but leave a giant eyeball for you to roll around in the magma. (Honestly, who thinks these things up?)
Our next task was to find the Ancient Map to the temple, but along the way, even Itzal grudgingly agreed to the necessity and desirability of acquiring one particular item – a bomb bag, which enables Link to pluck and save bomb flowers instead of having to nervously pluck them at a moment’s notice.
Once you’ve got the giant eyeball, roll it around in the lava, mowing over any Magma Spumes in the path, until you spy a Mogma near a fenced-in area. The Mogma asks you to recover his bomb bag.
To do so, you’ll need to defeat some nearby Bokoblins and then a pair of Lizalfos, which are uncovered after you blast a crack in a wall. Your reward is a treasure chest containing the bomb bag. A bomb from the bag has a longer fuse than a bomb found in nature – not that we don’t still get nervous every time we pull one out – but fundamentally, we like having ten bombs always at the ready, even if we aren’t ourselves at the ready.
Return to the stone eyeball for more rolling around. Without going through all the particulars – hey, there’s got to be some mystery, right? – during your magma meanderings, you’re looking for a chamber with a ring of platforms and a couple of Bokoblins guarding a blue chest. That chest contains the long-suffering Ancient Map we started out in search of a thousand words ago.
Pyroclastic Fiend Scaldera
Map in hand, we once again leave our readers to their own devices. Follow the map, roll around, pick up treasure (or not, says Itzal), until you finally wend your way to the showdown with Pyroclastic Fiend Scaldera, the Temple Boss, who is politely introduced to you by none other than our old friend Ghirahim.
Here Demelza once again turns the keyboard over to Itzal. After all, as Itzal is wont to whine, who does all the work?
Barely able to type, yea verily with one finger of each hand, weary Itzal offers this Zelder Tip: Buy more heart potion before you start the boss battle.
This boss is a good one – that is, if “good” signifies the ability to increase the player’s blood pressure. Tackle him when you’re fresh. Spend a lot of time at the top of the sloping ramp, bobbing and weaving as fire balls come your way until he retreats a way down the ramp. Then get as close as you can bear whilst tossing bombs into Scaldera’s mouth just as he is inhaling. If you succeed, the bombs explode inside him, dropping pieces of his armor; while he’s still stunned, run up and whack away at the fiend’s eyeball with your sword.
Eventually, after your gaming partner has shouted at you for a little more than half an hour, she will retire to the kitchen to mix drinks or prepare snacks, clearly afraid to have the controllers handed to her. You, meanwhile, will soldier on, wrist hurting, until Scaldera loses all its armor.
Then, spend a lot of time at the BOTTOM of the ramp, using your sword when the boss rolls down and tries to flatten you. Continue to whack at the eyeball as you can. He will die eventually, if you don’t first…
Post-victory spoils
After Scaldera expires, you’re rewarded with a new heart container. There’s also Earth Spring to visit, where the Amber Tablet is to be claimed. But wait, there’s more: If you have an empty bottle – and all of ours were empty, their heart potions having been drunk up while battling the Pyroclastic Fiend – step behind the altar of the spring where you’ll find fairies to be captured.
Finally, at some point you meet up with an old friend and a not particularly nice new friend. But we’ll save that for another day. For now, you’ve earned some rest, repast, and a fresh cocktail! In honor of earning the bomb bag, and of countless bombs used to defeat Scaldera, we recommend a “bomb shot” known as the Flaming Dr. Pepper.