Using Amiibos in Breath of the Wild

To use or not to use Amiibos while playing Breath of the Wild, that is the question we ponder in this post.

Collectible Amiibos, small plastic figures that grant the user certain in-play items, generally cost from 15-50 dollars, depending on the retailer and type of Amiibo.  The bottom of the figurine includes a Near-Field-Communication or NFC thingy (which sounds like a sports league to us).  When scanned, an Amiibo “drops” the in-play items in a treasure chest or barrels with a smattering of other goodies, right out of the sky. They’re like magic!  Or cheating.  Depends on who you ask.

Question the first:  Is it cheating to use Amiibos, or does it enhance game play and perhaps (for less expert or less frequent gamers) even make play possible in the first place?  

This is the crux of the decision, and one that we expect engenders a rabid response from those who pride themselves on doing it the “right” way. Surely no self-respecting speedrunner would use an Amiibo.  And even non-speedrunners of a certain ability would scoff at the edge that Amiibos give.  For others, it can make the difference between slogging through the game or moving forward in an enjoyable, but still challenging, fashion. 

When we first began playing, we (Demelza) ardently scrounged for mushrooms, gathered fruit, and hunted for crickets and lizards, and we (Itzal) shot at anything that moved in the hopes of acquiring some drumsticks or steaks that could be sold, cooked, or eaten when our hearts ran out – which was often, given how few hearts we had then and how limited was our skill and our armor.  A great deal of every play session was spent looking for apples and herbs, and in battle we often found Link holding out his hand, empty palm up, as if to wonder, “Hey, where’s my weapon?” 

After a dozen or so sessions (which translates to countless hours of shouting and a good 10 to 20 points in Itzal’s high blood pressure), we purchased our first Amiibo.  We liked it, and gradually added to our collection over the next couple of months. Our onscreen larder filled much quicker, our wallet ranneth over with rupees, and we were less often reduced to using soup ladles for weapons and pot lids for shields.  Instead, we spent more time exploring Hyrule – climbing towers, finding shrines, and completing quests.  Better still, the craft cocktails that accompanied our play became craftier, because we had more time to create and savor them.

Amiibos made a difference to our enjoyment of the game, so we didn’t, and still don’t, consider them cheating. Don’t judge.

Question the second: Which Amiibos are the most useful? 

Zelda-themed Amiibos compatible with BOTW include Links and Zeldas of various kinds; the four Champions; Ganondorf; a Bokoblin; and a Guardian.  At the time of this writing, there are 24. We didn’t buy all 24, but probably close to 20.  (Let’s not tell Demelza’s spouse.)

If you purchase just one Amiibo, we’d recommend the Guardian, which is modeled on the aggressive Stalker version you encounter in the Wild.  We think the figurine’s kinda nifty looking, and you can move his arms around – something that’s not always possible with elder arms, ammiright?  (Itzal gives a hardy-har-har laugh.)  The Amiibo generously offers you one treasure chest and four banged-up metal boxes, but don’t let the condition of those boxes fool you. We became right fond of this Amiibo, unlike its in-game counterpart.

The Guardian Amiibo’s chest may contain an Ancient weapon, ranging from the humble but still effective spear to swords and battle axes of varying power; Guardian shields; Ancient cores; an Ancient arrow (once, oh happy day, it gave us a bundle of three); and, occasionally in a very, very, blue moon – a Giant Ancient Core.  The metal boxes contain Ancient screws, springs, and gears, and also ordinary arrows and certain precious metals. (To be sure, Ancient parts are also obtainable by seeking out and defeating Guardians. But it’s not a given, particularly early in the game, that you will kill the Guardian before it kills you.  And there’s no guarantee they’ll drop what you need.  We’ve killed a lot of Guardian Stalkers and even some Skywalkers as we’ve wandered Hyrule, and we can only remember twice getting a Giant Ancient Core.  Then again, sometimes we don’t remember breakfast…) 

If one wishes to purchase other Amiibos, read our separate post  on the various types for additional considerations.

Question the third: What about NFC cards?   

There are Near-Field-Communication cards that, for the price of a single Amiibo, give the player all 24 Amiibo drops.  These cards are available on various online sites.  But they are not, to our knowledge, legal.  Accordingly, we chose to purchase the Nintendo Amiibo figurines we did (mostly using credit card points, Demelza’s Spouse!), and we will not suggest or encourage the purchase of NFC cards and therefore (hello, FBI web readers) we will not go to jail). 

And some final thoughts

By the time we freed all four Divine Beasts, it became less necessary to scan the Amiibos.  How many Hyrule bass can one Hylian eat, after all?  How many sapphires and opals are enough?  Many days, we didn’t bother with Amiibos.

Indeed, it bears noting that in our second playthrough, we decided to go on an Amiibo diet, to see if we could do without manna from Nintendo heaven.  We are chagrined to report that we are far better at restricting our Amiibos than our alcohol or potato chip intake; Itzal wields a mean pot lid now, and Demelza’s shouted instructions are more germane, so we’re doing just fine living off the land.  

Thus, we recommend starting your play without Amiibos.  Enjoy exploring Hyrule as it was meant to be done, by the seat of your pants (well-worn ones, even) and using your wits and your hunting and gathering skills.  There’s nothing like it.  Except possibly Eventide Island, but that’s a story for another day.  After a few sessions’ play, then decide if you want to use one Amiibo, lots of Amiibos, or none at all.

Like Amiibos, craft cocktails have been known to enhance gameplay.  If you decide not to use Amiibos, try one of our cocktails instead.  Aw, heck. Even if you’ve decided to use Amiibos, does that preclude a beverage assist?

Firing Up the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab

It’s one of our favorite locations in Hyrule:  the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab.  It’s where we bought the best armor ever – which we lovingly call the Ancient Cure-asses and Ancient Grievances – as well as the Ancient Shield, Ancient Bow, and many, many Ancient Arrows.  Seriously, this place sells some good stuff.  Who says old is worn out?  Ancient is the new New!  We spent a lot of time (and rupees and hard-to-get materials) at the northern lab.

But first, just like its southern counterpart in Hateno, you must open the lab for business.  And there’s a similar requirement:  You must carry a torch of blue flame from an ancient furnace nearby (or not so near), pausing to light lanterns along the way, until reaching and igniting the tech lab’s own furnace.  Unlike the earlier quest, however, the path to the Akkala lab is riddled with enemies, mostly Moblins and wolves, but also a Guardian just down the hill.  Consider lighting the Hateno lab’s furnace a warm-up for Akkala’s.

First, you’ll enter the lab and speak with the director, a goofy guy named Robbie with huge goggles.  He reminds us a bit of Dr. Emmett Brown in Back to the Future. That is, if Dr. Brown also shared Marty McFly’s desire for rock stardom.  And if the good doc was in love with a robot named Cherry and had a wife who was jealous of same.

Continuing the inanity, Robbie also requires proof of Link’s identity, not by inspecting his driver’s license, but rather by asking our poor hero to disrobe and show his scars. (Hello, HR Department?) Once Link’s in his underwear, Robbie will agree to help.  But first, he needs Link to light the lab’s furnace out front.  As it happens, there’s a torch inside the lab; we looked, pointedly, after our failure to note the torch in the Hateno lab.  Nevertheless, we didn’t take this torch either.  You see, we decided to follow Zelder Tip #1 below.  And then we got distracted.  You know how it goes.

Robbie at the Akkala Ancient Tech lab

Zelder Tip #1:  Clear the area of enemies before you attempt to carry the torch.  This tip is courtesy of gamers who came before us, discovered in Demelza’s research. In particular, the Guardian just down from the lab is right in the torch relay path. Absent this advice, we might well have given up on the lab’s furnace and its resulting goodies.  Indeed, we have visions of Itzal dropping his torch when kicked by a Moblin and suffering an ignominious death, not once but multiple times, before throwing the torch down and the towel in, and declaring himself DONE.  As it was, we thought we cleared the area a couple of times – maybe we were a mite slow cautious, and a few of the enemies came back.  Maybe. 

Zelder Tip #2:  Be sure to finish the Hateno lab quest before this one, or all your work will be for naught.  This tip, too, is courtesy of another gamer, who had the humility (or the sense of humor) to post a video online of his successful torch carrying but unsuccessful igniting of the Akkala furnace because he had not completed the Hateno quest first.  (Incidentally, we searched in vain for this video on our second playthrough, so as to give credit here; we failed to find it again, although we enjoyed a couple of other videos including one of a barefoot Link ignoring Moblins entirely and jauntily completing the quest in perhaps one-tenth the time we did.  And by “we” we mean Demelza; Itzal is too competitive to even look at such videos, much less enjoy it.) 

Complicating matters, we had not yet activated the supremely daunting Akkala Tower, and thus our map was dark.  So, after clearing the area of enemies – erm, mostly – Itzal surveyed the lay of the land, then began his torch-lighting ceremony with a tree branch.

Now, we’re not saying the land changed its lay as went on, but….let’s just say, we did not light the furnace in record time.  What we did was persevere.  We lit up the ENTIRE Akkala region, we’re pretty certain, in our attempts to find our way back to the lab without benefit of map.  Fortunately, the lanterns once lit do stay so, even in the middle of a rainstorm, which, naturally, we encountered. We may have started a forest fire and wasted a lot of time, but the job got done.

Zelder Tip #3:  Smaller saplings yield tree branches but larger trees give bundles of wood, so avoid the latter if you have lost, destroyed, or forgotten your torch.  We had to bomb a couple – or five – or eight – young trees in our marathon run back to the lab.  Indeed, we left a devastated ecosystem in our wake.  And the pickings grew slimmer.   Once, a wolf attacked, and Itzal, forgetting he was carrying a newly bombed tree branch, used it to defend himself, resulting in a horrified gasp from Demelza:  “You used the tree branch!!”  (Perhaps she would have been happier had Itzal succumbed to wolfbite.)

Eventually, as we got closer, the saplings were seriously depleted, so we sacrificed a spiked enemy club to the blue flames.  As it happens, this came in handy:  When a Moblin tried to sneak up on Itzal, he swatted the big guy with the flaming blue club and then continued on his relay.  Again, Itzal insists, the job got done.

Once you’ve ignited the furnace, the Akkala tech lab is activated as a fast-travel point, and better still, you’ll be able to shop for ancient weapons, if you have the considerable cash and other requirements of ancient parts.  But you’re given one gift for free:  three ancient arrows.  Use them wisely – they are dear, but very, very effective.

Suggested cocktail:  We considered something in the blue family of beverages, but that’s better left to the gloomy and wet Zora domain, so we opted instead for a glass with a blue flame up the side to house our Lost Bank Martini.  Guess where it gets its name?

Wearing Your Rubbers

Faron Tower, near the southeast coast of Hyrule, is in a rainy and often electrifying area.  Indeed, it’s guarded by an Electric Wizzrobe and swarms of Keese, so it can be daunting.  But you’ll want to scale this tower early to reveal the map and better find the luminous stones, hearty durians, and other materials and treasure the area affords. Doing so also opens up the view toward the southern route to Gerudo desert.

There are two possible approaches to scaling Faron Tower. Okay, likely more, but two that we tried.

The first is the peaceable, airborne approach.  (See: Climbing Towers the Zelder Way.)

If you have upgraded Climbing gear, you could get yourself to a high cliff nearby and glide over to get a leg up on the climb and possibly avoid the tower’s defenders. Perhaps you’ve marvelously already defeated Divine Beast Vah Medoh and thus have Revali’s Gale to get you in the air. (We were not so marvelous.)   

Video evidence of assertion that Itzal hates Stasis
and isn’t particularly good at it.

One could also use Stasis and weapon whacks to move metal slabs around the tower’s base, unleashing air drafts that give Link a lift up with his paraglider; we did move a slab, and it did create a draft, but we didn’t get sufficient lift to warrant the effort. In addition, the Wizzrobe wouldn’t simply let us be while we were whacking the slab. Lastly, Itzal hates Stasis and isn’t particularly good at it. 

The other approach is a more conventional one taken by more expert players, in which one simply girds ones loins and climbs the tower from the bottom up without aerial assistance of any kind.  Upgraded stamina or temporary stamina wheels are recommended, as there are no resting places in the beginning of the climb.  [Editor’s note, July 2022: On a third playthrough, we jumped from the base to the tower and started climbing, more or less ignoring the enemies, and it went without a hitch. Either we were plumb lucky or, despite our best efforts to be unfailingly terrible, we are getting better.]

As previously noted, the tower is guarded by swarms of Keese in addition to the Electric Wizzrobe.  A single ordinary Keese with a health point of one – even two or three Keese – is generally of little concern to Link.  Keese swarms, on the other hand, are like killer bees and cause our hero considerable distress.  Fortunately, striking dead a single Keese can cause the rest to disperse – unlike killer bees.  

In any event, it may be rough going unless you take out the Wizzrobe – and to do so, you should either (1) consume an electro-resistant elixir prior to battle or (2) wear some rubber protection, lest you lose your weapons at best or your life at worst. 

The Rubber Armor set, like the Climbing gear, is among our most recommended armors. (We realize we sound like a salesperson at Brooks Brothers, Macy’s, or similar.)  Whether it’s electric enemies or the elements themselves, Link often finds himself in a state of shock.  Wearing all three pieces of Rubber Armor, upgraded twice, permits him to cavort in a thunderstorm without damage.  But even a couple of pieces of upgraded armor are helpful.

Rubber Helm
Cima at Lakeside stable at the conclusion of the Thunder Magnet quest.

Talk to Cima at Lakeside Stable near Faron Tower. She’s troubled by all the lightening that strikes the stable. That’s your clue to investigate, Link! (To get to the top of the stable, you’ll need to glide down from the cliffs behind.)  

When you’ve found the offending culprit, Cima will hand over the Rubber Helm as a token of her appreciation.

Zelder Tip #1: It’s best to divest yourself of anything metal you might be wearing or carrying, once it gets stormy on top of the stable.

Rubber Tights

The Rubber Tights – there’s a joke here, but probably not one for polite company – are also relatively easy to obtain.  (We say relatively because the third rubber piece is more exasperating.) Complete the Qukah Nata shrine and open a chest therein for the tights.  

Zelder Tip #2: The shrine is located near the Calora Lake, and your first thought might be to scale the cliffs below it.  Given the unrelenting rain and thunder in that area, we urge you to discard such thought and instead come around the back way, even if you have to hoof it overland after a paraglide from Hateno Tower.  The distance is not as great as it seems, and even without the regional map extracted, this strategy may prove quicker than trying and failing over and over to scale the cliffs.

As long as you’re in the area, Demelza helpfully suggests fishing for Hearty Bass in the upper and lower Calora Lakes.  (“Eye on the prize!” Itzal will snap, to which Demelza will retort, “Who went swimming in the lake when you wanted your Zora gear upgraded?  You think these fish fall from the sky?”)

We digress.  We do that a lot.

Body Armor

The body armor piece of the Rubber set is more troublesome than the other two, as evidenced by the name of the shrine quest whereby it’s acquired: The Trial of Thunder.  To activate Toh Yahsa shrine, you’ll have to work in rainy, dangerous weather on the Thundra Plateau near Ridgeland Tower.  To wit: There are four colored orbs which must be placed in a bowl in front of a pillar emblazoned with a symbol of the same color. One is easy: the purple orb is on the ground next to the appropriate pillar. The green orb is easy enough: it’s within the playing field, at least, although you must first get it down from atop a statue. (Strike it with Stasis and an arrow or two.)

The third orb, the red, is more challenging; it’s outside the pillared arena atop another statue-like thing. You must hit it with Stasis, knock it to the ground with an arrow or two, pick it up and place it in a strategic location, hit it with Stasis again, then thwack it with a melee weapon hard enough to send it over the wall into the arena. Whew.

The fourth orb is the worst. The orange orb ( yellow-orange, really) lounges atop a still higher statue-like thing. Unless you have Revali’s Gale at this point – we did not – there’s no way you’re getting on top with the orb. It’s a little harder to reach by Stasis, and still harder to aim appropriately and quickly enough to get it to fall. Once it does, take it to the strategic location, and repeat the Stasis and thwacking.

Zelder Tip #3: Start this quest first thing in the morning. There are a few enemies out then – some Octoroks and Chu Chus – but the enemies at night are worse.

Zelder Tip #4: Start this quest when you have wooden bows for shooting the orbs and wooden thwacking weapons for the Stasis. Even with an electric resistance potion consumed, we suffered significant lightning damage and loss of our weaponry during a critical point of Stasis when we tried a metal melee weapon. Wooden Bokobats and similar aren’t as easy to aim with as a sword, but they’re safer.

After all that, you’d think Toh Yahsa would be a blessing shrine, wouldn’t you? It’s not. That said, the treasure chest inside is worth the effort.

Meanwhile, back at the tower

By now you are wearing some rubber armor or have downed a (greatly recommended) high-level electro elixir or both, and you’re ready to fend off the Keese swarm and take out the Electric Wizzrobe.  

Zelder Tip #5:  Elemental arrows like fire or ice don’t work on this Wizzrobe.  You’ll have to rely on a well-placed ordinary arrow to the head, preferably before he notices you, and then some solid whacks with a melee weapon. Once he’s out of the picture, start your climb.  Given the dearth of resting spots, eat a meal providing temporary stamina wheels before commencing.

Whew.  That’s a lot of work to build out our map of southeastern Hyrule. But it’s well worth it – Lurelin Village, Lake Floria, and Floria Bridge are now open to view, there are new shrines to be discovered, and – what’s that lilting music?  A siren call?  So pretty…. (Here Itzal gets a starstruck look in his eyes, unable to concentrate, pathetically holding out his hand beseechingly and mumbling “Dragon….”)

In keeping with the area’s theme, Farosh the Electric Dragon travels through much of Hyrule, but it’s in the Faron region that you’ll find him (and thus Itzal, pining) most often. 

Our suggested cocktail for a day spent fending off bolts of lightning:  Electric Iced Tea

Into the (Lost) Woods

The first time we played BOTW, we entered the Great Hyrule Forest without having activated Woodland Tower, which illuminates this area on the map.  Before we’d learned to scale towers the Zelder way, we made a failing pass at Woodland and then abandoned the effort. 

Still, we wanted to meet up with Hestu again; we had Korok seeds burning a hole in Link’s satchel.  Accordingly, we got to the forest’s entrance by shrine-hopping our way there – that is, by meandering in the general direction of the Forest and activating shrines along the way so that we could fast-travel as needed to escape or return. We made it, but with some difficulty and a good deal of lost time.

In our second playthrough, we activated Woodland Tower early and easily, so the Great Hyrule Forest showed on our map. We imagined that this would make for a much easier trip through the Lost Woods, the section of the forest’s entrance which is full of fog that Link may (will) lose his way in.  And if (when) he does, he must start the journey over. This time, perhaps we would just sail from the top of the tower straight into the forest, bypassing a lot of busy work?

No, we would not. 

There’s a giant skull on top of the tower – we went to investigate the rumors of a Royal Claymore on the structure – and it blocks the ability to fly from about one-half of the tower top. But you can fly from the top of the skull straight into the woods.  This will, however, result in your being immediately “lost” and returned to your previous location, in our case, on top of a giant skull.  No gimmes in this particular adventure. Thus, your best bet is to fly from Woodland Tower to as close as you can get to the road’s entrance into the forest, or, if you’ve not activated the tower, start from Mirro Shaz shrine.

What’s more, having the area illuminated on the map didn’t mean we were any less lost in the aptly named Lost Woods. The fog was still there.  And we still had to navigate it without being enveloped in the mist that would bump us back to the beginning.

Fortunately, Itzal was now an expert at mists and fogs.  He spotted a lantern post and observed the direction its embers drifted.  He knew we wanted the wind at our back, so he went that-a-way. He knew to continue looking for and following lanterns.

When at last Itzal came to two lanterns together, he knew to light the torch (or a soup ladle, if you’ve missed the torch conveniently located near the two lanterns) and watch to see which way the flame blew.  He knew not to run blindly forward, but rather to stop periodically to check the direction of the wind, as it is not constant.

He knew to be careful, which required patience.  Er, didn’t he?

Perhaps we were kicked to the start once or twice for old time’s sake.

But when eventually we reached an opening between two rocks, we knew we were soon to meet up with our old friend, Hestu. 

This is the point at which a loyal reader of our blog will imagine that Demelza has something to say (or to shout, according to Itzal). 

“Save!  Save! Be sure to save!” She exclaims helpfully.

“Give me a minute,” grinds out Itzal. “I’m looking around.”

“We have to establish a travel point imMEEDjitly so we don’t have to do that again.”  Imagine Demelza, arms crossed, as she is familiar with Itzal’s propensity to be distracted by shiny objects rather than attend to the business at hand.

“We?  Who is this we of whom you speak?”  (It is an old point of contention.)

“Who does all the research?”  (It is an indignant rejoinder.)

“Who followed the fog?  Who does all the fighting?”  (It is a continuing refrain.)

Ahem.  We will not ask our readers to take sides (“Yes, we will!” says one or the other).  Rather, know this:  You do want to establish a travel point in the Great Forest, and that travel point is the Keo Ruug shrine.  Do not be a distractable Itzal; activate it before you do anything else.  Then talk to Hestu and exchange your seeds.

You can visit the Master Sword here, although you won’t be able to retrieve it unless you already have 13 hearts – and no, you can’t use temporary ones.  There’s also a small settlement in the forest, called the Great Deku Tree’s Navel.  The Navel includes a general store where one can buy apples, cane sugar, and Shock arrows, among other items; a more specialized store in which a variety of shrooms are the object of choice; a cooking pot; and an inn where Link can sleep and revive his health.  Unlike most inns in Hyrule, Link can stay here for free!

Link can sleep for free at this inn.

There’s a pond on top of the tree where you can engage in riddles with a sleepy Korok, but better still, you can recover fairies here, if you have fewer than three in your satchel.

Your adventures in the forest are not over, however.  There are three additional shrines to be found and completed.  All are blessing shrines, which means you won’t particularly enjoy the path to activate them, but once there, you don’t have to suffer more to get the spirit orb.  Maag Halan and Kuhn Sidajj shrines each contain a Giant Ancient Core, so they’re worth the pain. (Ask Itzal about this in private; he might have a different take.)

Daag Chokah, which involves stealth and following an annoying little Korok named Oaki, makes our list of the top ten most hated shrines and quests in BOTW.  Our experience with Oaki foreshadowed our future failure with an activity that claims the tippy top of the aforementioned list of most hated BOTW activities. Coming soon, or as soon as we can muster the gumption, to a blog near you.

And now, to the fun stuff:  what to drink when you’re lost in the woods.  We’re tempted to suggest shots every time you get sent back to beginning of the Lost Woods, but then, we’re tempted to suggest shots for a lot of quests, so we’ll go with a forest palette and suggest an Appletini. 

I Left My Heart in the Goron Mines

Once upon a time, when Itzal and Demelza were playing Ocarina of Time, they were having a rough go of things with the Infernal Dinosaur, King Dodongo, who was himself making life miserable for the poor Gorons.  

Brave Itzal-as-Link had been in Dodongo’s Cavern for some time, fending off Keese, Beamos (remember them?), Lizalfos, and Skulltulas, among other villains and nasties.  And now, this stupid king of the dinosaurs was trying alternately to crush or incinerate Link.  Itzal might have been a little tired or a little impatient or both. Suffice it to say, it was not a fun time.  (Itzal has other descriptive phrases; email us to hear them.)  

But with Demelza’s wise guidance and encouragement (also known as shouting), Itzal-as-Link persevered.  The ferocious dino-beast rolled into the lava and therein expired.  Itzal had defeated Dodongo!  He was excited!  He couldn’t wait to leave that stupid cavern.

Which he did.

Unfortunately, while virtue may be its own reward, victory is not, at least not when it involves extinguishing a fire-breathing reptile; in this case, victory (should have) included running over to grab a shiny new heart container, which was waiting to be claimed by the hero.

But the hero had already left the cavern, using the warp portal which had appeared along with the heart.

For days, nay, weeks, Demelza bemoaned the loss of the heart container, until Itzal, a master of sarcasm, said he was going to have a bumper sticker made up:  I Left My Heart in the Goron Mines. He did not in fact do so, being also a master of procrastination, but the phrase became an epic refrain each time Itzal did something wrong in gameplay. (We later realized we could have returned to the dungeon, but Itzal declined to do so, coining yet another epic refrain: “Let’s keep our eye on the prize,” which he employs whenever he doesn’t want to do something that Demelza believes he certainly ought to do.)

Years later, Itzal and Demelza were playing Breath of the Wild.  They were in the Myahm Agana shrine.  The shrine’s trial is an irksome version of pinball, requiring the player to manipulate the Switch controller to send a rolling sphere through an airborne, tilting maze, over a ramp, and into a hole (and apparently requiring the player’s sidekick to shout “Not like that! Just drop it in the middle!”).  Finally, Itzal managed the maze trick, and with a breath of relief, he raced over to retrieve the spirit orb from the monk.

Problem was, he left an unopened treasure chest in the maze.

Pinball puzzle in Myahm Agana shrine. Note treasure chest in maze row second from top.

The treasure chest contained a phrenic bow, which, Demelza had read, was a superior bow for the sort of shots needed to free the Divine Beast Vah Ruta.  She became obsessed with this bow, returning to the shrine night after night to try her own luck at the maze.  Eventually, she was successful.  You can imagine Itzal has not heard the end of this tale, sung to the tune of “I Left My Heart in the Goron Mines.”

Nearly a year later, Itzal and Demelza are playing BOTW again, this time for purposes of a blog to showcase their now clearly impressive (cough) knowledge and skills.

Demelza, from her corner of the sofa:  Remember the first time we played, and you were so happy when you finally finished this maze that you left without the phrenic bow?

Itzal, while maneuvering the controller somewhere behind his head:  And you went back after it.

Demelza:  I hated this maze.

Itzal:  What’s not to hate?  This is just stupid –

[Time passes.  Gameplay ends for the day. It is now the next morning.]

Demelza, in rude 5:05 am text to Itzal:  Did you remember to open the chest, or did you leave the phrenic bow again?

Itzal, in 6:49 am text response to Demelza:  (ellipsis in bubble)

The point of this post, Gentle Reader, is perhaps to make Itzal feel bad, but also this:  Always check seat-back pockets before leaving a given area to be sure you have all your belongings.  Sure, you might be able to return for them, but who wants to do a pinball maze twice? To set a good example, we have (that is, Demelza has) decided to keep a list of things we forgot during BOTW play.

  1. The treasure chest with the phrenic bow in the Myahm Agana shrine. 
  2. The treasure chest with the phrenic bow in the Myahm Agana shrine. 
  3. The Giant Ancient Core in the Mirro Shaz shrine. (This is not entirely accurate; we didn’t forget it, we couldn’t initially get it, but Itzal – who has a touch of OCD – likes lists that have three, five, or ten entries.) (P.S. Demelza got it later.)

We’ll update the list as we go.  And as we remember.  The two not being entirely parallel. 

Climbing Towers the Zelder Way

Remember back on Day One on the Plateau, when Link found himself rising up from the ground on a tower, and all around him, similar spires were emerging from the Hyrulean earth? 

There are 15 Sheikah towers in BOTW.  Placing the Sheikah slate on the tower’s guidance stone opens up a different section of your adventure map.  Although it isn’t necessary to activate a tower to explore that region, tower scaling is a priority if you don’t want to make like Moses for 40 or even more days. 

The game’s story line will likely lead you to Dueling Peaks Tower after the Great Plateau and probably Hateno Tower after that.  During our first playthrough, we next tackled Lanayru Tower, slogging through a dreary, watery footpath in gloomy rain, accompanied by nagging Zorans along the way.  But you don’t have to march through Zora land to find the tower and attend to the Zorans’ needs as you do.  You can, like Frank Sinatra, do it your way.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with following the path the game’s designers intend you to. But like the lyrics in Frank’s song, there were times when we bit off more than we could chew, and there was no doubt we wanted to spit it out.  (Seriously, who knew those lyrics were in such a lovely sentimental song?) 

During our first playthrough, we really, really disliked finding our way through Lanayru to the king’s palace in Zora’s Domain.  We weren’t particularly keen on jumping back into it the second time, even though we knew would have to get around to it eventually.  But we did want the tower activated, because of the map thing, even if we were postponing the rest of the adventure for the time being.

And that brings us to the Zelder way of activating towers:  We either spit out what we’d rather not chew, or we don’t bother biting it off in the first place.

Whenever you’re on top of a mountain or a hill, open your Sheikah scope to survey the landscape.  If you see an unopened tower through your scope, drop a pin on it.  You’ll be able to follow that pin to the precise location of the tower, as pins are visible on the vast black expanse of unopened areas when you (try to) consult the map.  

When we first played, we would compare the black expanse on our in-game map with Internet information as to the location of our desired destination, make a rough guess as to where a tower or shrine was, and then drop a stamp in the black expanse.  Although it served the purpose after a fashion, it wasn’t particularly accurate.  This resulted in a lot of shouting (from guess who?) and frustrated boredom (again, take a guess).  Using the scope-and-pin method is much better.  In our second playthrough, we were able to find and scale three towers in an hour or so without traversing half of Hyrule first in an effort to find just one. 

Most towers are guarded by something dangerous or someone vicious and usually both.  There might be poisonous bogs, flying Wizzerobes, evil Moblins and Bokoblins, tar-like goo called Malice, spiky brambles and thorns….it’s like the Walking Dead meet Rapunzel, but she’s quite reasonably left the tower and taken her hair with her, so Link’s on his own.  

Now, you could do it the hard way.  You could defeat the villains (or die trying, more like), build blocks of ice in the bogs, find and move sheets of metal to cover the goo, et cetera.  Or, you could, in many cases, just do it the Zelder way:  avoid all the drama around the tower by flying straight to the base of the climb, or better still, midway up the tower.  We did this with Woodland and Lanayru towers both, scouting out a nearby high location and deploying our paraglider (with only slightly upgraded stamina).  Later on, using Revali’s Gale, we did the same for more difficult towers – such as the Dread Tower Akkala.

Then again, you could travel each and every highway.  You could take on every foe, jump across every bog.  We’ll admire you.  In fact, we’ll salute you with any number of cocktail choices.  Have it your way, Frank.