Breath of the Wild Switch Log, Entry 4

carrying some Lynel weapons with Vah Medoh at the horizon

After defeating Calamity Ganon and bringing back peace to Hyrule (not really), it was time to get back to my original goal of quickly clearing all the Divine Beasts to claim that precious Master Cycle Zero. And I've made a good amount of progress since last Monday, where now there are four red beams shooting at Hyrule Castle.

But before that I went on a Lynel hunt to grab some of their gear before it's gone. It's not terribly important, because I'm not planning on taking any pictures for Hyrule Compendium in this run, but my inner OCDevil still wants to have had all their weapons in possession at least once, so they are not just "???" any longer. However, to my surprise the Red Lynels already had upgraded their bows to the Savage Lynel variant after my victory over Calamity Ganon, where I've completely skipped over the Mighty Lynel Bow...

Now, I can still get one from the fixed Blue Lynel at Hyrule Castle, where you need to save and reload in his chamber to get the glitched weapons, but that was still quite shocking for me in multiple ways (those bows combined with Shock Arrows hurt a lot). In my future "Master Mode Custom Compendium" run I will have to be very careful with progression to not miss anything crucial for my photos.

But overall you simply need to know that weapon scaling is independent from enemy scaling, while both are tied to the same invisible EXP system. I'd suggest to check out the linked topics on reddit for all information, they are very helpful.

The Lynel hunt also brought me back to the above spot in Akkala... It's just this weird spit of land at the northern shore with absolutely nothing on it. No treasure chests, no Korok, not even some ore. And you even run into an invisible wall before you can reach the end. It just feels so unfinished, like the developers wanted to put something here, but ultimately ran out of time. And hopefully Tears of the Kingdom will make up for it. Of course this is not the only empty spot on the map, but it's one of the more notable ones.

at Tarrey Town with a dog looking into the camera

I've also purchased the house in Hateno and set the whole Tarrey Town quest in motion, which was a good timing, because I was heading to all the different villages anyway and clearing the side quests there.

Divine Beast Vah Medoh

As for the order of the Divine Beasts, I decided to clear Vah Medoh first, because Revali's Gale offers the best utility. There were even some Korok Seeds left in Akkala, where I felt like they wouldn't be worth the trouble without this ability.

Since I've already visited Rito Village, I only needed to go the Flight Range to get things started here, but my obsession with Lynels still got me sidetracked into the southwest of the Hebra Mountains... That's only a very small part of this area, though, where I will keep most of it for later, for when I got all the tools.

Vah Medoh itself pretty much felt like a sneak peek for the sky islands in Tears of the Kingdom, where you're high above Hyrule and you can look at most of the land. I wouldn't be surprised if this Divine Beast is where the whole idea came from. Of course you can't just jump off, where the game treats it like an abyss, but that's actually to your advantage, because it will put you right back to where you fell off. Falling off a sky island in Tears of the Kingdom will probably be a lot more punishing, because you will have to backtrack to the exact same spot...

Divine Beast Vah Naboris

For the next Divine Beast I chose Vah Naboris, because this felt like the biggest chunk of work and I wanted to be done with it. The closest I've been to the Gerudo Desert were the Oseira Plains, the infamous Lynel spot, so I've simply headed over the mountains there as an unusual entry into the desert. So, I've approached the Spectacle Rock from the south to reach the Wasteland Tower, then went to the Gerudo Canyon Stable, and then just proceeded from there normally.

Gerudo Town was another case of Korok confusion, where I was looking in spots that have a Korok hidden in Age of Calamity, but not Breath of the Wild. With Koroks seemingly coming back in Tears of the Kingdom, I'm already getting headaches, but as you can see in my screenshots I'm wearing the Korok Mask most of the time. And that's not really because I'm afraid to miss any, but because I'm afraid to waste too much time with looking for Koroks in suspicious spots where there aren't any. With the mask I can quickly confirm that nothing is there and move on, but for some reason you can't wear in Gerudo Town.

If you put a veil on your face, the Gerudo won't recognize you as a male. But if a leaf completely obscures your face, you will immediately be spotted and thrown out of town. It's a bit silly. But maybe the people can't even see the mask, just like they can't see Koroks? (Not that it matters, because other masks don't help either, only the Thunder Helm is allowed.)

On the back of Vah Naboris wearing the Vah Naboris Divine Helm

Riding Divine Beast Vah Naboris is another impressive sight. While not as impressive as Medoh, it's just fantastic how the titan still wanders the desert while you're on it. Both Rudania and Ruta are sadly stationary, so Naboris is the only one where you can experience a Divine Beast in ground motion.

It's also the most clever of the four with its three rotating cylinders inside the belly. I think this was even the first time during this playthrough where I struggled to remember what I had to do, where there are some good puzzles and things hidden well from sight.

Though, this is only true for the dungeons in this game, because I keep running into side and shrine quests, where I know that something can be done in place xyz, but I haven't triggered the quest yet and I completely forgot how this was achieved. This was true for two quests at Death Mountain, but also for some around Gerudo Town, where I really wanted that Thunder Helm before I move on.

towering above Gerudo Town with the Thunder Helm put on

One example was the whole "Noble Pursuit" quest, where I forgot that you need to talk to Pokki at the shrine in the southeast of the desert first. I simply went to the ice house and cleared the whole area, wondering what I had to do to trigger the quest. The bar owner tells you that she is wondering about Pokki, but I couldn't even remember who that was or where to find here, at least not right away. I then had the right idea after some back and forth, but not before a Blood Moon made everything respawn around the ice house.

Anyway, I figured everything out (for the third time) without looking up anything, so I was still happy and ready to move on...

Divine Beast Vah Rudania

Vah Rudania was only an interlude at this point, because I already had cleared the quests leading you into the Divine Beasts. It was at the time where I had entered the dungeon that I've realized that I need to do something more unique with this playthrough, which led to a whole lot of distractions. I've obtained the Master Sword, stormed Hyrule Castle, beaten Calamity Ganon, and then went on to free to other Divine Beasts...

And during this whole time Vah Rudania was just parked inside Death Mountain, which was funny, especially since Yunobo kept waiting at the edge of the crater as well. Entering the Divine Beasts creates this weird state for the villages, where they are technically not in danger any longer, but nothing is really progressing.

Anyway, the dark inside of Vah Rudania looked a lot better than I remember. With the Wii U version of the game I kept complaining about the "fake darkness" effects, but it looked actually quite okay this time and I still have the same TV as back then (which I've bought to play Breath of the Wild in 2017). I'm not aware about any graphical differences like that between the two versions, so maybe it's just my mind playing tricks, but I will see with the Thyphlo Ruins and the dark floors of the Trial of the Sword, because I remember those to be the real offenders. In any case, I still hope that Tears of the Kingdom has improved the lighting a bit, but this looks to be the case from what we've seen so far.

Divine Beast Vah Ruta

After a detour to Upland Lindor to catch myself a good horse with maximum stamina (named her Athena), I went on to Zora's Domain, constantly interrupted by Sidon's cheering.

riding a horse with the Ancient horse gear over a long bridge on the route to Zora's Domain

Taking on Vah Ruta at this point in the game has caused a couple of unintentionally funny moments. Like, when Sidon gives you a Electro Elixir, I just put it in my pocket and then put on my Thunder Helm. I've defeated Thunderblight Ganon twice by now, I can deal with a couple of Lizalfos shooting Shock Arrows. But I still remember how tough this part of the game was the first time. And I certainly came overprepared...

facing Vah Ruta, fully equipped with Savage Lynel gear

Sidon: "You will need at least 20 Shock Arrows!"

Me: "Okay, I've got 270."

Well... needless to say that there wasn't any real challenge, but I still enjoy the trunk mechanic. While the Divine Beasts could have been more diverse in their overall theming, a bit larger, and a lot more challenging, I can still really appreciate what Nintendo was going for with these giant machines. It's very unique within the Zelda series and I find them quite uplifiting.

activating a terminal on top of the trunk with Death Mountain at the horizon

As for my order of clearing them, it coincidentally lined up exactly of how they are ordered on the loading screen from left to the right: Vah Medoh, Vah Naboris, Vah Rudania, and Vah Ruta.

For a moment I was even confused, because I knew that this order is fixed, but now it looked like it was following my progress. But as already said, this was just a coincidence. And if there was an intended order here (which probably isn't the case), then it would read from the right to the left, because that's how everything is arranged on the loading screen. The Master Cycle Zero even gets placed to the left of Vah Medoh.

Speaking of, I'm getting closer to my goal of obtaining the bike, where my least favorite part of the game comes next: the One-Hit Obliterator trial... Ugh.