After locating and completing all Shrines of Light in Tears of the Kingdom, my goal was to find the last four missing pieces of armor. While I found one of those, the Climbing Boots, the last missing set turned out to be a dead end, and I've ended up locating and completing all caves instead.
This will be a small update, before I return to Lookout Landing and finally continue the rest of the main quests... Pinky promise!
The Unsolved Mystery of the Zonai Ruins
My theory was (and still is) that there has to be another armor set based on Farosh, which brought me back to the Zonai Ruins, where you can find multiple dragon pillar statues. Those were already there in Breath of the Wild (I've checked), but they have now risen from the ground and have a horn on them, resembling Farosh. If you look closely, you can also see that their inside is made out of the Zonai technology, because the stones are crumbling off on some ends, revealing the slick shrine surface underneath.
Near some of them my treasure chest sensor still goes off, pointing below the ground, where I'm guessing that those might be the chests with the armor. But I already had explored the area for caves a while ago (see entry 20) and I've checked for any missing caves with an offering to the nearby cherry-blossom tree, but it doesn't show any pillars of light at the ruins...
However, one of those dragon statues has also destroyed walls around it, which gives access to a small altar under the ground with a bowl at its feet, just like other Zonai statues or the cherry-blossom trees. It looks like there is a door there that leads you underground, but I have no idea how to open it. I've tried putting all the different body parts of Farosh into the bowl, but nothing ever happened...
I'm clearly missing a quest here that tells me what I need to do... Where is Kass with his accordion when you need him? My best guess is that all of this has something to do with finding Mineru inside the Thunderhead somehow, which I did without any guidance, but maybe it's part of the multiple main quests that I have yet to obtain...
So, I've decided to move on for now. And I'm sure that you probably already know the answer when you're reading this, but don't worry, I will find out soon enough. Being confused from time to time is all part of my journey through this game.
The Unspectacular Search for the Last Caves
While I knew that I probably should return to Lookout Landing and do whatever there is left to do in the story, I wasn't really satisfied with giving up just like that. In the very least I wanted to find the Climbing Boots, so I made it my goal to look for the rest of the caves first. I had seven Bubbul Gems left to find and this felt like the next best milestone after the shrines. And if whatever may be below the Zonai Ruins doesn't count as a regular cave, then I should be able to find them all at this point. Which I was.
My first method was just looking at the map, studying the Hero's Path for any obvious gaps. It sometimes even surprises me in what areas I haven't been at all yet, where it's a bit of a blur with my latest Breath of the Wild playthrough from earlier this year. "Wait, didn't I explore this area already?"
The most obvious omission were huge parts of the Lanayru Wetlands. I've been there early in the game, since I've went for the Water Temple first, but exploration is very limited when you first go there because of all the mud. And I've never really bothered going back down the Zora River after everything was cleared, but I've wanted to look for the rest of Sidon's tablets at some point. They are easy enough to find, since they are in the same locations as in Breath of the Wild, but this wasn't something high on my priority list.
Maybe it should have been higher, because this area turned out to be the cave searching jackpot... Within a couple of hours I've located five of the seven missing caves, all of them around the Zora River and the Upland Zorana, where one of the caves also had the Climbing Boots in them.
Now, that I have the full climbing set with its bonus, I'm also finally starting to make use of it again. As already mentioned the last time, this used to be my favorite set in Breath of the Wild, but in Tears of the Kingdom I've always tried to avoid long climbs as much as possible... Maybe that was because I didn't the right gear for it, however.
The wet area and caves also made me truly appreciate the addition of the Froggy Armor and its "Slip Proof" set bonus. This thing needs to be put into Breath of the Wild, should they ever remaster the game or make a Definitive Edition. It's just so good to finally have this option.
The Lanayru area also offer a bit more variety from the usual cave cost with its wet underground ruins. Combined with Luminous Stones I'm instantly reminded of the original teaser trailer for the game, but sadly none of the caves had this amazing bridge structure...
After this huge success I got into a low, looking for other gaps in my path that could house some caves, but ultimately didn't. I found a lot of Korok Seeds on my way, so there was still some progress, but not exactly the kind of progress that I was looking for...
So, I grew a bit desperate and also had to consider the option that there may caves hidden in places where I've already been. Luckily, the game makes it easy enough to find all caves, because you can always consult this guy:
I already had checked the Faron area and at some point also Death Mountain, but these beams appear much further than what you can immediately see. With the cherry-blossom tree at Death Mountain, for example, it will also activate beams at Akkala, behind the mountain. So, it's easy to miss something if you only do a quick check.
One cave then truly turned out to be at a place where I've been many times: it was above the waterfall at Kakariko Village. Even with the beam showing its location, it took me a bit to find the entrance, and there is nothing really in there, except for some ore and one more Bubbulfrog. But at this point it was just all about those, so I was happy with the discovery.
The last cave then just had to be at the Hebra Mountains. Actually, my next guess was the Gerudo area, but I forgot where its cherry-blossom tree was (should have marked them on the map)... So, I went for Hebra first and quickly spotted it.
It was right at the Rospro Pass, very close to the Skyview Tower. There is even a side quest there, "The Blocked Cave", to help a Rito get inside to look for more food supplies. And I'm not sure how I was able to miss this before, but it's the Hebra Mountains, so whatever... I'll just pretend that the cave at Kakariko was my last one, because this one was at least hidden more cleverly.
Well, not going to lie, this was a bit anticlimactic after how my last shrine truly was something that's very hard to find without the activated Shrine Sensor on your Purah Pad. It felt like a real accomplishment and the perfect finale for my shrine hunt. This here on the other hand was just completely unspectacular. At least the reward has to be something special... right?
The Unexpected Reward from the Bubbul Gems
If you have followed this blog series, then you should know that I had certain expectations for what's to gain from collecting all the Bubbul Gems for Koltin. I thought that it would be awesome if he could really become a Satori and you were able to summon him at will.
So, it was time to finally find out... And what do you get? What's in it for exploring all caves in Hyrule and collecting 147 Bubbul Gems in total?
The Unsatisfying Gain by Plastic Figurines
Last week the new amiibo for Zelda and Ganondorf were finally released. I guess, it's a good thing that I'm still playing this game, because I wouldn't have much use for them otherwise, at least not until I replay this game in the very distant future. There are so many fabrics in this game that two additional ones probably won't get you playing again if you're already done with Tears of the Kingdom, one way or another...
I suppose, if there were a Master Mode, I would probably use them there more actively, but it felt too much like cheating in the normal difficulty...
Progress:
- Main Quests: 18/23
- Side Adventures: 59/60
- Side Quests: 120/139
- Memories: 17/18
Caves: 147/147- Korok Seeds: 616/1000
- Old Maps: 25/31
- Recipes: 101/228
- Map Completion: 84.99%
Remaining Medals:
- Taluses: 73/87
- Hinox: 56/69
- Flux Constructs: 33/35
- Froxes: 35/40
- Gleeoks: 14/14
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