As Zelders of that Certain Age we’re so coy about naming, we think about time a lot. We think about the past a lot. (At our age, one tends not to think about the future quite so much, there being less of it and all…) We sometimes wish we could travel back to a time when our hips and knees didn’t hurt and we didn’t struggle to remember the word for, well, everything, now and again.. And so, we were excited to learn that the Lanayru Desert involved a fair amount of time travel. We were not disappointed.
This quest – remember, poor Link is still searching for the elusive Zelda, who’s got herself off somewhere with a mysterious, chiding stranger we suspect is this era’s Impa – this quest is a fun one, with fewer of the ills of Eldin. True, there is a form of quicksand called “sinksand,” and there’s a whole brave new world of dropping bombs (but even that is better than rolling them). Yet we found ourselves enjoying tripping the time fantastic and seeing what the Surface looked like before all the humans left for Skyloft.
As usual, Link returns to the Surface via his Loftwing, who drops him off at the vortex that opened when the Amber Tablet was returned to the room inside the Goddess Statue. He lands in a mine, out of which he must work his way to the Lanayru Desert.
[ASIDE: Is anyone else bothered that in this game, Lanayru is a desert, while in Breath of the Wild the region encompasses snowy mountains, rain and lakes, and verdant valleys? And isn’t mining the thing the Gorons do? We were bothered, truth be told, but no doubt in Breath of the Wild 2 there will come a grand explanation that involves climate change and the outlawing of strip mines or some similar tale. Meanwhile, we will sit and stew.]
Since we do not aspire to a walkthrough – okay, we do aspire, but we rarely achieve – what do we remember about the Lanayru Mine and Desert, this preamble to the Lanayru Mining Facility, aka the next dungeon, that may be of value to others?
Our takeaways (lessons learned, not British foodstuffs)
First and foremost, as evidenced by this post’s title, it’s about time. Whenever Link strikes a Timeshift Stone, the world is either returned to the past – a past certainly more verdant, as per BOTW, than the present – or, if striking a stone in the past, one is thrust back into the present desert. One strikes stones to reveal new paths or activate expired mine carts or similar. And the reverse.
Second, there are robots, which operate in the past but not in the present. It makes us wonder if these are some ancient precursors to the Guardians, or the Divine Beasts, both of which went awry, and perhaps Hyrule should stop tinkering with technology altogether. We are often thwarted by our computers and our smartphones and our HVAC units that think they know better than us what temperature we prefer; why should Link be any different? Nonetheless, we concede that one of these ancient robots, grateful when rescued by Link, gifts our hero with an upgrade to his first-gen Beetle: now it’s a Hook Beetle. After this enhancement, not only can one flit about via Beetle, one can also grab items and carry or strategically drop them whilst flitting.
Third, there’s a lot of sinksand, have we mentioned that? And the only way to cross sinksand is quickly, or by hopping aboard the shell left by an expired Ampilus. Thus, one must either run very fast between short distances or utilize the shell and shifting sands to carry one further.
It bothers us (to be clear, it bothers Itzal) that we have four points to be made here, not three. Itzal likes items in threes or tens; even fives will suffice. Not fours. There is nothing commendable about four. It’s…itchy.
Regrettably, itch we must, because there’s a fourth point about the Lanayru Desert and its environs: electricity. This section of the game reminds one of the Gerudo Desert in BOTW, where there are electrical enemies and electrical puzzles both.
As to the former, the electrical enemies: There’s the Technoblin, a sizzling form of Bokoblin; the Electro Spume, kin to the Flaming Hippopotamus of Earth Temple but which spews voltage instead of fire; and the aforementioned Ampilus, which looks like a Disney-ish friend of the Little Mermaid’s, but is in no way friendly, under the sea or anywhere else. (Note: When a timeshift to the past occurs, the Ampiluses revert to their ancient egg form, which though still Disney-like, remain electrically dangerous.)
As to the latter, the electrical puzzles: one needs to activate a generator that enables entrance to the Lanayru Mining Facility. There are three remote power nodes, in turn, that must be activated to make the whole kit and kaboodle…kaboodle. Once the three nodes are located and pinged into life, one must return to the main generator and align the dials according to the symbols of the three nodes. (We realize that statement is profoundly unhelpful, but it will be easier to figure it out yourself than for us to explain.) Oh, and good luck activating the node in the building to the southeast of the area in which you’re working. Itzal flitted off in a snit, even without the Beetle, over that one. Zelder Tip: stay to the right-hand side of the room, no matter what the Internet suggests!
(At this point in the game, Demelza, wanting to make the Internet out to be accurate, helpfully noted that if one were facing the other direction, the correct side to stay to would in fact be the left, to which Itzal snarkily replied: “Yes, that’s how lefts and rights work, Demelza.”)
As you make your way through the sands of time and Lanayru, no doubt you’ll feel just a bit parched and in need of a libation. Might we suggest the delightful Aperol Spritz?
This drink has been called “an Italian sunset in a glass” due to its vibrant orange color. Sure, it’s considered an aperitif and meant to be consumed before dinner, but we enjoy a refreshing Spritz while sitting on the veranda of our Italian villa…or we might have done in some past life. Where’s a Timeshift Stone when you need one? It proved to be just the ticket for traipsing about the desert (why?!) of Lanayru.