Since the last time I followed my goal of beating Vah Rudania and clearing enough Shrines around Death Mountain to claim the Master Sword.
And I have to say that Vah Rudania is certainly the most impressive Divine Beast when it comes to moving around the environment. It's not the most dangerous in the environment, however. Other than the scripted sequence, when you enter Goron City, it only shot at me one more time, when I was moving down the way to the Abandoned North Mine for a second time. With Vah Ruta and Vah Naboris you get a clear feeling that those things are causing natural disasters. Vah Rudania has the potential to be on the same level, but it doesn't really use it. Of course it would probably be annoying, if it constantly hailed molten rocks at you, but it could have been more threatening. Well, still better than Vah Medoh.
But I just love watching this thing climb around Death Mountain, it's always an amazing sight. And that's why I decided to go for all Shrines, Koroks, treasure chests and quests around Death Mountain before entering the "dungeon". This way I always had the moving titan in the background:
It was also a good idea to go to Akkala first, because I could make good use of the free Ancient Arrows that you get from Robbie, because there are two Guardian Stalkers roaming the grounds below Eldin Tower. Of course you can also get some free Ancient Arrows from Beedle around Hyrule Field, but I didn't go there yet.
The Eldin Tower is also one of the few places around Death Mountain, where you have the new floating platforms in Master Mode. It's probably because they are made of wood and would burn in the inner perimeters of Death Mountain, but so far they seem quite rare in general.
In general I also have to say that I enjoy doing the Sheikah Shrines again. I wandered around all of the landscapes many, many times and for hundreds of hours, when I was searching for all the Koroks, but I visited the insides of nearly all of the shrines only once. So, it's nice to refresh my memories here and there with the puzzles. Sometimes I'm even finding easier or at least different solutions to some of the puzzles, which is nice.
However, it also seems like they upgraded some of the Guardian Scouts in Master Mode as well. I would have to check, but I don't remember fighting three Guardian Scouts III at the end of the Shora Hah Shrine, which was near impossible for me at this time. I had to run past them carrying the torch with the blue flame. I've heard that the basic Guardian Scouts will even be completely gone after some point. Oh, joy.
Overall it seems like you can do almost all of the Shrine and Side Quests around Goron City before dealing with Vah Rudania. That's quite different from the Zora and Gerudo, but I don't mind much in this case, because it allowed me to engage in all Goron activities with the Divine Beast crawling through the background.
On a side note, I got the "Death Mountain's Secret" Side Quest this time by talking to the Goron kid named Dugby at the Hot Spring. It did appear in the Adventure Log, which during my Normal Mode run wasn't the case. There I found the stash with the Drillshaft before ever talking to Dugby, which caused a glitched behavior, where I couldn't figure out what to do. See Entry 35 of my Adventure Log.
Majora's Mountain
Again Majora's Mask has proven to be a very useful tool in my Master Mode run. For example, there were two Koroks around Death Mountain, where you have to take a stone from enemy camps to bring them to a stone circle. Normally you would cause an alarm and have a horde of monsters on your back, but not with Majora's Mask.
It was also a little helpful with the "A Brother's Roast" Shrine Quest, where you have to carry up a Rock Roast up a slope full of monsters. It doesn't help with the Keese and the Chuchus, and the Moblins will start shooting at you at some point, but it gives you a head start.
Also, with a good majority of the enemy camps you can just glide in, be safe thanks to Majora's Mask, steal the treasure and go. This only works, if the camps don't have a "Skull Chest", where you have to defeat all enemies to unlock it. But if it's any other chest you can just take it without much risk.
At least with the Kilton masks you still would have trouble in camps, where there are mixed types of enemies, like Bokoblins and Moblins. But Majora's Mask tricks all of them likewise.
Akkala Aufräumen
So, I wanted the Heart Container from Vah Rudania to be the one that completes the 13 hearts for the Master Sword. But even with all the shrines around Death Mountain done, I was still short five Spirit Orbs. And as it so happened, there were exactly five Sheikah Shrines left in the Akkala region, right in the neighborhood. Of course I could have went back to some easier areas and do some shrines there, but it felt right to complete these two areas next to each other in one swoop.
However, I was up for a little challenge with all of the remaining Akkala shrines. For starters, I needed to conquer the Lomei Labyrinth Island. It's quite rewarding, so it was certainly worth the trouble. You get the Barbarian Helmet, a Diamond Circlet and the Travel Medallion, all in one swoop. I also noticed, how you mostly run around the west half of the labyrinth to find everything, including all the treasure chests. You don't have to touch the southeast corner at all.
The basement room of the Lomei Labyrinth Island was probably the most interesting part, but I managed to grab the chests there without any real confrontation. The Travel Medallion is right below the southern exit of the labyrinth, but you can go there without awakening any Guardians. Do this first and open the chest with the Diamond Circlet afterwards, where you can just quickly escape from this hell. I used my last of the three Ancient Arrows from Robbie on the Guardian Stalker above, however, so I could get all the treasure chests in peace.
Well, the next shrine was at the Spring of Power and I thought that this was going to be the easiest, because I only needed a scale of Dinraal, who happens to fly around the north of Death Mountain. Perfect. But I forgot that the shrine wasn't a Blessing like the others, but a Major Test of Strength. Well, I can't let me stop this now, so I took on that Guardian Scout IV...
Luckily, this was one of those rooms with a water floor, where you can use Cryonis at any time to defend yourself. But the regeneration puts quite a lot of pressure at you at the end. You can't just wait too long for the right opportunity. And I had trouble parrying the consecutive laser shots at the end. I need to practice this... But it's good to know that I can take those guys on already. This step took me certainly a lot longer on my first playthrough. But this also means that I can get the full Climber's set next.
Next shrine was the hidden Ke'nai Shakah Shrine in the mining area northeast of Ploymus Mountain. When I first found this shrine, I could easily use some Bomb Arrows to open the cave. But this time I still had Vah Ruta giving me a constant shower, so Bomb Arrows were not an option and I actually had to shoot one of the many rocks with stasis in the right angle and speed. Still a lot easier than getting the second part of the Mirro Shaz right... Well, this had a Modest Test of Strength, but this was child's play after the Major Test of Strength before.
From there I made my way over the Tingle Islands to the Kah Mael Shrine. And I wonder, if it was a conscious choice to fill "Tingel Island" with the most annoying enemies in the game... Octoroks!
The last step was carrying the orb over the spiral shore. Again, this is a scenario, where Majora's Mask shines. You can just keep carrying the orb without being hassled by the Bokoblins, Moblins or the Lizalfos. The Octoroks, however, are still happy to annoy you even here. They might even draw attention to you for the other enemies... Well, for once I was happy about receiving a Blessing. Ritaag Zumo's, to be exact.
Vah Rudania Revisited
Similar to re-experiencing the shrines, it was also nice to be back in one of the Divine Beasts again. The "dungeons" are certainly underrated for what they are. Yes, they are all very similar and they are all quite short, but I still find the idea of having giant mechanical beasts as dungeons, where you can alter their state at any time, quite amazing.
And Vah Rudania is quite nice in this regard, because you can flip the entire dungeon around in 90°. It requires some good three dimensional thinking.
Naturally, I got through this dungeon a lot faster this time. Only the chest behind bars got me confused for a little while, but the spawning enemies on the outside gave it away. The boss was also much easier than expected, even with the regeneration on. It's funny, when mini-boss-like enemies like Guardian Scouts IV or Lynels give you A LOT more trouble than the regular bosses. But I suppose, this isn't the first Zelda game with this "issue".
13 Hearts to Claim it All
After completing Vah Rudania, I bought my house in Hateno, put the Boulder Breaker on its wall, finally got the Fierce Deity's Mask from the Majora's Mask Link amiibo (I usually use all the daily amiibo next to the house in Hateno) and then I claimed the Master Sword in style:
It's on, now! But I won't visit Vah Medoh anytime soon. My plan is to focus on some areas without Divine Beasts, like Faron or Mount Lanayru to collect all the things there. I also want to battle at least 10 Blue Lynels, before they grow extinct in Master Mode.
So, here's my Hero's Path for the majority of this entry:
As you can see, it's a much more defined route. I'm actually done with everything around Death Mountain except one enemy camp or so. But for the entire east half of Death Mountain one single tour was enough to cover all Koroks, locations and chests. There is little to nothing to find there. To think that on my first playthrough I climbed every single rock around the mountain... I also left my Travel Medallion back at the Deplian Badlands again. This should come in handy later on.
I'm not completely done with Akkala yet, however. There are still some Koroks left to find and some Hinox to crush. And of course there is the Tarrey Town quest, which I just have started.
Master Mode Progress:
- Divine Beasts Freed: 1
- Main Quests: 6/20
- Shrine Quests: 12/42
- Side Quests: 25/90
- Memories: 4/23
- Shrines: 36/136
- Koroks: 162/900
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