Tears of the Kingdom Adventure Log, Entry 21

on a hill on Grinnden Plains with Shadow Sidon and Ghost Yunobo

This is just going to be another small update, before I proceed with the main story. I've been mostly just wandering along paths where I either haven't been yet or haven't been in a long time, picking off from my last adventures around the Faron region, slowly moving towards the northwest of the map, where the last sage is waiting. This normally wouldn't warrant its own post, but I've achieved two major milestones along the way and want to talk about them now, or else the next entry might become too large again.

Boss Brush-Off

One habit I've kept from Breath of the Wild is marking bosses on the map, where I use the sword icon for the ones that still need to be defeated, which then gets changed into either an ore for Taluses or a skull for everyone else. It would be awesome if the game(s) did something like this automatically, but that's not the case...

And the areas where I've been very early, like West Necluda, were still riddled with sword icons, so I had some cleaning up to do. I'm not sure whether the medals for beating all bosses have returned or not, but I'm still being thorough and I got one step closer to finding out, because the trail of bosses led me ultimately to that infamous Flame Gleeok on the Bridge of Hylia, which was shown in the trailers.

Same strategy as with the Thunder Gleeok in Faron, so I was mostly relying on Mineru to get close and land my shots. But this is a fantastic setting for one of the coolest boss fights in the series, where this certainly won't be the last time that I've fought this particular Gleeok.

Anyway, now I only need to find a Flux Construct above the Hebra region and then I will have completed all the side quests around bringing down specific overworld bosses. My theory is that the guy at Lookout Landing will let you earn the medals afterwards...

To the Edge of the World

From Lake Hylia I then was cruising towards the Tabantha Frontier and using the hoverbike to cross Hyrule is such a breeze. As much as I love the Master Cycle Zero in Breath of the Wild, it can't hold a candle to this thing when it comes to speed and the possibilities. You can go pretty much everywhere with it. And with over 2400 Zonaite in my inventory from my adventures in the Depths, it's also as convenient to summon by now. The only inconvenience is that you often need to upend the hoverbike after a landing...

flying over Hyrule Field with the hover bike

The best example of how much faster exploration in Tears of the Kingdom can be is probably the Tamio River. In Breath of the Wild you need to use a raft and there are lots of treasure chests waiting to be picked up there, so it can take a while to make your way through this area. Luckily, Tears of the Kingdom doesn't needlessly spam treasure chests and you can just use something like the hoverbike to quickly fly above the river and check for anything interesting, so the whole thing can be explored within minutes.

The game makes up for it with all its other additions, like the caves, where the one at the end of the Tamio River features another Gloom Spawn that doesn't go away. It's also wet inside, where you can't climb walls so easily, which caused a bit of a problem for me there...

Also, I didn't notice this before, but in its glowing state the Master Sword still makes the "bam!" sounds, like it did in Breath of the Wild. It's just that it rarely ever enters this glowing state, even though it often looks like it with things fused to it. But in Breath of the Wild every enemy taken over by Malice would cause this effect, mostly the Guardians, and you also could make it permanent via the Trial of the Sword, so you would experience it a lot more often. The enemies covered in Gloom in the Depths won't do the same for you, but the Gloom Spawn and what comes out of it will.

At the west edge of the map I couldn't resist the urge to try and reach the giant landmass in the distance, but the game blocks your path right before you could land on it. This was most certainly the same already in Breath of the Wild, but with the new vehicles it's easier than ever to truly test your boundaries.

flying towards the Tabantha Frontier from the west

I've been to the Tabantha Frontier before, but I hadn't fully explored it until now, where the Lightroots in the Depths certainly helped with finding at least one of the hidden shrines here. And that shrine where you have to get a crystal from a hole in one of the craters was a neat idea.

flying towards said hole with the big Awakening head

In the end I've just used a spring from my inventory to do the trick. This worked really well, unlike the shrine where you have to giant metal balls in the right way to activate switches. For the last puzzle there I simply shot a Bomb Arrow at the switch, after I grew impatient trying to do it the "right" way.

There are many ways to cheese puzzles, but the first time I'd really like to go for the intended solution, whatever that may be. Best example is probably Addison, where I usually try to make use of whatever is in the proximity to support his signs. But theoretically you could just use a hover stone to solve most of the sigh situations easily and even keep it perfectly straight while doing so. Well, I like the charm of the slightly slanted signs everywhere, but if I'm ever going to replay this beast of a game (e.g. in a theoretical Master Mode), then I will probably just rely on the hover stones to be quicker.

Sir Stashalot

It was time for a pit stop in Korok Forest, because I've collected enough Korok Seeds to upgrade all my stashes. It takes 20 less seeds than in Breath of the Wild to do so, for a total of 421.

Hestu: "Shakalo? It looks like you've expanded all of your stashes as much as you can."

Like always, I've completed the shield stash last, where the required numbers were a bit weird. In Breath of the Wild only the last shield upgrade costs 20 Korok Seeds, but here several of the last upgrades cost 20, except for the second-to-last one, which for some reason goes back down to 15 again.

And I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't go further with this. The menus make it look like there might be a fifth line for each stash, but it's the same amount as in Breath of the Wild. Bows also have the same amount, even though the last row with the different arrow types is now gone entirely. Well, technically, it's one more slot, because you don't need to reserve a spot for the Bow of Light anymore, but they still could have let the player pump some more Korok Seeds into additional expansions there and maybe in all three categories.

Well, I don't need a reward for collecting Korok Seeds, as I have proven several times in the past, but it does feel more overwhelming here in Tears of the Kingdom than it did in Breath of the Wild. After my recent tours through the Depths I came back to the surface and realized that this is also still a thing and I'm not even halfway done yet... There is simply too much to achieve in this game, it's exhausting. At least the combination of the hoverbike with the Korok Mask should speed up looking for the last Korok Seeds significantly.

The Last Lightroot

Rito Village is a place that I have been avoiding successfully since the beginning of the game. I've been at its doorsteps early on, so I could talk to Tracey at the former stable, but I had no interest in going any further. The changed setting, where the whole village got covered in snow, is quite impressive, however, even though they already had done the same in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. I also like the frozen ponds of water, where you can break the ice. That's new.

at Rito Village, below the snow covered housings

Anyway, I haven't spoken to any Rito yet, because the first person I found was someone from the Depths exploration team, who actually exist to my surprise, because almost everyone down in the Depths turns out to be a Yiga in disguise. Well, he's pointing you right towards the chasm that leads to the last bit of the Depths where I haven't been yet, so I was in for one last detour.

You have found every lightroot. They have dispelled all of the darkness.

Dispelling Darkness Medal - An award for one who has conquered the darkness by lighting up every lightroot. This special item commemorates blessings received.

This is the first thing that I have fully completed in the game, even before activating all the Skyview Towers. But they should follow shortly after, together with the rest of the Shrines of Light.

No Glory for Master Kohga

With all the lights turned on, a familiar face was already waiting, meditating at a temple in the middle of the abandoned Rito Village Mine. The Master Kohga battles all have been quite creative so far, where the last one may be an exception:

Wielder of the Ultimate Yiga Power - Master Kohga

He's getting his own ARMS Construct, same as Mineru's, where you are basically re-enacting the Seized Construct boss fight. But I personally like this ring fight with Kohga so much more, where this is a fantastic finale for the character, and I still wish that they had something else with the Spirit Temple.

Like in Breath of the Wild, Kohga then takes himself out and afterwards you will get randomly spawning Yigas everywhere, hunting for revenge. Unlike Breath of the Wild, however, there was nothing really to gain here, just a diamond and 100 crystallized charges, as well a schema stone from the mine. It's not exactly worth the trouble and probably something where you just want to wait until the very end of the game to save yourself from the annoyance of even more enemies spawning out of nowhere...

It would have been awesome if you could have gotten Kohga's mask and have everyone in the Yiga Clan react to you as their new master. That would have made the whole chase after Kohga a worthwhile effort. Or at least something that can't be gotten elsewhere.

Anyway, other than some bosses and probably the Cap of Time, I should be finished with the Depths. Next time I will really go for the Rito and finally finish all pieces of the story.