Postbox: Early Mountain Village in Majora's Mask 3D

Hey there,

I'm a long time reader of your wonderful blog. Recently I stumbled upon a sequence break that let's your visit the Snowhead area early, before you get the bow, and I was wondering whether you were aware of that, since I haven't read anything about it on your blog.

There's a short video explaining how to do it on Youtube here:

MM3D: Mountain Village Early Tutorial

I think it's arguable whether this constitues as a glitch or not. I'm pretty sure it isn't intentional, but on the other hand it doesn't involve anything like glitching through walls or wrong warping, and it doesn't seem to break the game either.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this, in case you're interested. :)

I wasn't aware of this and it's certainly interesting. So, thanks for the find!

Usually I'm not one for glitches, which is why you won't find much about it on this blog, but if it's light oversights like this I do like to explore them. I guess, you could compare this to how you could enter Ikana Village with just the Hookshot in the Nintendo 64 version by aiming at the one tree. It probably wasn't intentional and didn't work for me anymore in the Nintendo 3DS version, but it's still fun to use this for some sequence breaking. (Another comparison would be using single wall jumps in Super Metroid to get certain items like the Wave Beam earlier.)

In general I think that Majora's Mask could have been more open and leave the order of the four regions to the player, instead of sticking to a certain sequence. The game can be open at times, but it should allow more.

That being said, with this "glitch" you should be able to get as far as Snowhead Temple, but not any further, because you will need the Bow there in order to finish the dungeon. Apparently you can't even get or use the Fire Arrows, if you go as far. But at least you will be able to use the Goron early in the game, which is neat. I might even try this, when I replay Majora's Mask 3D some time in the future.

Postbox: Bipin & Blossom's Son

Hello Tourist and congratulations for all the good work, especially about the Oracles!

I would like to ask you something about Bipin and Blossom's son, whom I called Link. I play the games with a New 3DS XL and the bought and downloaded versions (PAL I think).

I have chosen to take the Ages-Seasons-Seasons-Ages route and right now I'm at the first Seasons' Linked playthrough (with Ages' Secret to Holodrum), with 6 of 8 Essences of Nature at the moment.

At the initial Ages' completion I think that I have reached Link's childhood by 150 Rupees and Sing decisions, if I recall correctly. The result was the Shy one.

The problem is that at the Seasons' continuation, things seem to have stuck at this point. Link's parents refuse to ask me any questions and just keep telling me the initial hello stuff. It is as if the game thinks I haven't got any Essences yet. If I speed-catch Link, he says "You're Chris? I'm Link! No way!", or something like that.

If game mechanics correlate this situation with time somehow, besides story progression, neither changing seasons with the Rod, nor planting Gasha Seeds and harvesting them seem to have an effect so far. Even though I must confess that only after Level 6 completion I started to plant Gasha Seeds, because some Level 4 & 5 randomness rings are left for the collection, so it wasn't very urgent. I have harvested about 20 Seeds so far.

Could all this be a glitch?

Could I miss something that as long as I don't do it, the growth from childhood to adulthood effects aren't triggered?

Is there really an option for a forever Shy child? I certainly hope not, just for completion's sake.

The funny thing is that there are some opinions and discussions around the Web that comment about too much pampering! Well, I admit that according to this way of thinking, yes, I have pampered the child a little bit, but I didn't mean to freeze things forever!

Any clues or ideas?

Thank you very much and keep the devoted work!

Chris from Greece

Hey Chris,

thanks for the message!

The child's growth is indeed triggered by planting Gasha Seeds. However, 20 should be plenty, so it's weird that you haven't made any progress yet and neither the child nor the mother give you any choices.

As far as I know, there is no glitch or bug or bad choice that might prevent you from evolving the child. Even a baby can be fully grown in a Linked Game. So, that's the good news, we just have to find out what's blocking your progress. Try keep planting Gasha Seeds and visiting the family regularly in between. Also, try some of the lower class Gasha Spots as well, it might be that you also have to use some of them.

Let me know in the comments, whether this worked or not. If not, I'll do some more research. If anyone has any ideas, also please post them in the comments.

PS: Good choice with the Ages → Seasons → Seasons → Ages route!

Postbox: Ages vs. Seasons

Hi there,

I recently got Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages for 3DS, and never having played these titles before I was looking around to get some insight as to which to play first and why. Anyway, I was also reading through your excellent ring guide here:

Oracle of Seasons Ring Guide - GameFAQs

and there is a part with the following quote:

"(People prefer the first variant, because in a new game without any secret you will be permanently missing one Heart Container. And if you play Ages first, there's one spot on the overworld map, which cannot be visited. By using Ages as your starting point, you can keep both of these flaws in one save file.)"

That was part was confusing to me and kind of sounds counter-intuitive to my mind. I was wondering if perhaps you could offer some further clarity as to why this is desirable? Thanks.

When starting a new game you will have three Heart Containers, as opposed to a total of four Heart Containers, whenever you start a game with a secret (doesn't matter which type of secret). So, in the game file, where you first started, you will only ever achieve 15 out of 16 Heart Containers, which could be viewed as a "flaw" by some.

In Ages there is also a square on the overworld that can only be visited in a Linked Game. Otherwise there will be a blank square on your map, which could be viewed as another "flaw".

So, by choosing Oracle of Ages as your beginning, you only will have one "flawed" savegame at the end, where both the missing Heart Container and the inaccessible square are present.

Keep in mind that you will also play in the other direction afterwards, so you play Ages → Seasons first and then Seasons → Ages in a Hero game. That's a total of four savegames. And only one of them will have "flaws" in the end, so to say.

If you don't really care about that or even are using a generated Hero's Secret right from the start, you can just do whatever you want. But I generally feel like starting with Oracle of Ages is the more rewarding experience, because of the way, how things play out. The "Hero's Cave" (an additional mini dungeon in a Linked Game) is also more fun in that direction.

Postbox: Minish Cap Quick Questions

Hi Tourian Tourist,

just two questions, you might be able to answer them from the top of your head:

1. In Minish Cap are there kingstone fusion points which are possible to miss due to advances in the story?

2. What is a good betting strategy for getting all the figurines? (I mean, if you can secure the shell supply you can always go for the 100% in betting for an individual piece and I don't think that is the case.)

Your answers will greatly define my enthusiasm in getting a 100% here.

Thanks.

1. None are missable. But you can miss the Light Arrows, which you can only get after fusing with the stranger in a house in northwestern Hyrule Town. This fusion creates a portal in South Hyrule Field (right above Link's house), which leads to a mysterious building of the Wind Tribe. In the upper floor you can find a sick, old man named Gregal, who is haunted by a ghost. Suck in the ghost with a Gust Jar. If you don't do that before reaching the building on the normal path later in the game, he will pass away and you can't get the Light Arrows from him. So, do this as early as possible.

Also, if you happen to play the European version, there's a glitch with one of the Scarecrows that prevents the fusion with him. This leads to missing one of the Gorons in the Goron cave, missing a bottle and ultimately the Mirror Shield. Very nasty. Just make sure that you have the blue Kinstone pieces (the squared off one) before attempting to fuse with him. If you're playing the North American version, don't worry, this got fixed.

2. It's best to only bet one shell at a time. The probability remains high enough and you will most likely get a new figurine per shell. Even probabilities of 30% to 50% are still good enough, so keep going with one shell. The amount of shells, which you need to get back to 100% is much higher than the amount of individual shells, which you will statistically waste on duplicate figurines. For example a chance of 33% means that you still get a new figurine about every third try. So, with 33% you would have to bet about 3 shells to get a new figurine, if you use one shell per bet. However, you would need to invest 67 shells to increase the probability back to 100%. It's always one additional percent per shell.

So, you see, the most cost-efficient strategy is to place one shell per bet, not more. You might get many duplicates, but you will save many more shells. But when the probability goes below 15% you might want to bet more shells to fasten the process. At this point it's unbearable to bet only one shell, because the chances are so slim.

To farm more shells, use the infinite Rupee trick at Link's house. Left to the door of his house on the outside you can dig up 20 Rupees. Go back inside and the 20 Rupees will be back again. Repeat this multiple times to get enough Rupees. You can buy 30 shells from the shop for 200 Rupees, but you can also get a Green Picolyte from Beedle for 100 Rupees, which is more efficient, if used right. Use the latter in the grassy areas of Trilby Highlands in combination with a Great Spin Attack to get many shells at once.


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I got the light arrows by myself, so this means I can backtrack all the areas and get my 4 missing fuses? I might got to the wrong conclusion based on this:


"This guide aims to help people find all the remain Kinstone fusions, but since most aren't available at the end of the game and that some fusers disappear as part of the plot."

GameFAQs: Kinstone Fusion Guide


I'm also missing 5 hearts, 1 chicken game (argh), 1 for figurines and 3 I think I can get by backtracking.

Also, if I understand correctly, there is no special reward for killing the golden beasts, they're just part of the kingstone process.

If you got the Light Arrows, there's nothing you can miss. And yes, the guide is correct that there are many fusers, which will be gone at the end of the game (like the King of Hyrule). But... there are more fusers than fusions. A majority of Kinstone fusions get shared by many people all over Hyrule. So, you can get the same fusion result from two different people. There are people, which will be gone at the end of the game, but it doesn't matter, because you can get the fusions from someone else. You can potentially fuse with every single character in the game, but when the fusions run out, the people won't fuse with you anymore. For example you might never fuse with Epona, even though it's possible. But you still get all 100 fusions.

There are Kinstone fusions, which you can only get from a specific person (like the Ghost at the graveyard makes he ghost at town disappear), but none of these persons will disappear. So, there isn't a single Kinstone fusion, which you can miss. You can get them all at the end of the game.

And yes, killing the golden beasts only yields Rupees and no additional rewards.