As you know from our last blog, the Gerudo Desert has a lot to offer the visiting hero — if you can get past all the clothing requirements. (“It’s too hot!” “It’s too cold!” “She’s yelling about the sapphire circlet again!” It’s almost worse than having kids.) But if you’re up for some adventures, we suggest obtaining the Sand Boots and defeating a couple treasure-filled Moldugas for good measure! Along the way, obtain and retain the Snow Boots, just to make life easier.
Before starting your adventure, consult our Cocktails page, and begin chilling a Cava Sangria. You’ll appreciate it when roaming the desert.
No matter which set of armor you choose to sport around Gerudo wearing, or how many potions and meals you consume because the weather is always changing, you’ll want the Sand Boots for running any distance in the desert. To get them, you need only talk to one semi-lecherous creep and fulfill a (reasonably) fun quest.
The Quest of the Eighth Heroine
Talk to Bozai outside the Gerudo city walls and, as quick as you can say “Stop hitting on me, creep,” he’ll lend you his Snow Boots so you can climb the Gerudo Highlands (where, yes, it snows) and take a photo of some ancient stone statuary.
If you’ve already opened the map from the Gerudo Tower, you can pretty much paraglide and climb your way to the canyon in the northwest corner of the Highlands, where the statue is hidden in plain sight. The Gerudo Tower is incredibly tall and insufferably annoying, so we understand you might be saving it for a later day. (Zelder Tip #1: When you do open the Tower, avoid walking there from the desert floor, slogging up the long ramp, and trying to kill all the enemies. Transport to the Kay Noh Shrine and then walk/climb (hello, Climbing Armor, our old friend) northwest through the Great Cliffs until you find a platform from which you can sail — “SAVE FIRST,” Demelza yells — to nearer the Tower’s peak.)
If you haven’t opened the Gerudo Tower with its accompanying maps, but you have opened the Tabantha Tower or the Tena Ko’sah Shrine, both located north of Gerudo Highlands, you can paraglide/climb your way to the canyon in question. Head slightly south by southwest.
Whichever way you get to the base of the Eighth Heroine, use the updrafts and the nearby cliff ledges to paraglide up to the statue’s arms and snap a photo. But wait! Do not return to Bozai in Gerudo Town, do not leave the area!
Zelder Tip #2: As long as you’re in the vicinity, climb to the top of the Highlands plateau located to the east of the Eighth Heroine (and, while we’re here, doesn’t that sound like a smashing title for a never-made Bette Davis film?!). You’ll find a giant sword sticking out of the snow (hello, Snow Boots, we’d like to keep ye), about which more in a minute. Take another photo. Get all of the sword in the photo. You might be photo-bombed by a Lizalfos patrolling the statue’s base, but that won’t affect the photo’s upcoming usefulness.
Get yourself back to Bozai in Gerudo Town and show him the photo of the Eighth Heroine. (It’s automatic, so you don’t have to rifle through your vacation pics to get the right one.) He’ll reward you with the Sand Boots. And he’ll take back the Snow Boots. Then — Zelder Tip #3 alert — walk away, walk back, and Bozai will (creepily) ask for a picture of the Eighth Heroine’s Sword (the little-known sequel to the nonexistent Bette Davis film aforementioned…before). Voila! Show him what you’ve got (so to speak) and win the Snow Boots for good!
Sand Boots on your feet and, surely by now, Cava Sangria in hand, it’s time to find and defeat some Moldugas. (“Moldugas” being the original Spanish for “wasn’t Bette Davis in that?”)
Bonus: Los Moldugas
There are four Moldugas to be found in the Gerudo desert, specifically: Arbiter’s Grounds, North Dragons’ Exile, Southern Oasis, and Toruma Dunes, You’ll want to find them all. They are the local version of the sand worms from that science fiction epic “Dune” – but with piñata fillings inside. Zelda Tip #4: stand on any of the available stone outcroppings where the Molduga appears, throw a bomb on the sand, and when the Molduga erupts from the desert to swallow your bomb, thereafter lying down with a resultant stomachache, run over (hello, Sand Boots!) and whale on its belly with the sword of your choosing. Try a spin attack for fun. Rinse and repeat. Gather up all that treasure!
And then, courtesy again of the Sand Boots, race on to the next Molduga and have another Cava Sangria.