#which is very bothersome but like. whoop got no other options right now

[sodapopbuoy]

btw i still have some asks to reply to and i promise i will soon ok ily

[galladeblades]

BotW Log #9-1 Gem Farming and NO FEAR.

Splitting in two ‘cause story progression = very lengthy log. No spoilers contained in this part. It’s all just exploration.

hey

guess what

today’s the day we arrive at the base of Death Mountain

its finally here :’)

Whenever I enter a new region, the first thing I go do is locate the Tower. I h a t e wandering around without a map. Which is the main reason why I chose to go everywhere besides Kakariko in the beginning of the game. Having that many empty spaces was quite bothersome. 

Despite having a simple goal of activating the Sheikah Tower, it still took at least an hour to accomplish. Kept getting distracted by enemy camps and somehow ended up back near the bottom of the Akkala tower where the Hinox was. whoops

Tower’s finally activated, high vantage point to look around from, where do we go from here? oh nice a stable. If there’s a stable, there’s a shrine near by AND most stable workers can give directions to nearby locations. Which is exactly what I needed because I have no idea where to go or how to get to Goron City. Which is presumably the site of starting the Divine Beast quest.

Inside the stables, there’s a lady who sells flame resistant elixirs and she had said it takes about 3 to get up to Goron City. Which was a bit worrying as I only had 1 that only lasted for 11 minutes. So I bought them all thinking that was a good deal.

It was not a good deal. 

I ended up getting to the Southern Mine off of one potion, the very same one I personally crafted, and an NPC gave up a piece of Flame Resistant gear in exchange for some flameproof lizards.

After leaving the stables, I had ignored the blatant pathway and climbed up all the mountains. Then kept getting distracted by ore deposits. 

So. Many. Ore deposits... I did get quite a few number of gems, but mostly got rock salt and flint. Plenty of Luminous Stone as well, so those can be turned into Diamonds back as Zora’s Domain. Lotta lotta rupees~ I believe I’m up to 20k now. Always try to keep my Rupee count at 10k or higher, but there’s really no need to. There’s nothing super expensive to buy. There was the house and fully upgrading it, a few Gear pieces are a bit costly, but nothing really demands Rupees. Maybe that’ll change later on.

Anyway, I was gliding from ore deposit to ore deposit and saw a few glittering up by a lava waterfall, so I climbed up in there and mined the whole tunnel and ended up at the Southern Mine. Which led to the free Gear piece and eventually found my way to the city. Pretty straightforward.

The first Goron right outside the entrance was pretty funny. He asks why you’re here and you can choose between three options; Pleasure, Business, or the Divine Beast. If you select one, go through that dialogue option, talk to him again  and select a different answer, he actually acknowledges what you’re doing and get a bit confused as to why you changed you answer. In his head of course. It would be rude to say that out loud. He’ll still go through with the different dialogue, but you get an extra line of text.

Anyway, moving past him. Immediately went into the Gear shop and picked up the matching helm and bottom piece to match the body armor given at the Southern Mine. Mostly just sticking to the pants, ‘cause I don’t really like the look of full suit. The pants look great with the climbing gear set tho.

Explored the rest of the town. Recognized an older Goron at the back of the town and assumed that to be the important NPC to progress/start the Divine Beast quest, so I ignored him and continued on exploring.

Lots of mountains, lots of birds, lots of ore, TOO MANY WEAPONS. 

I have not read any reviews or done extensive research on other people’s opinions on this game, but I have heard others complaining about weapon durability and how weapons break too easily. To that I must say;

What hell have you been doing?

If you just go do objective stuff and don’t do any exploring whatsoever, then yes, you probably are going to run short on weapons. Especially if you just rely on stuff you find on the ground or taking weapons from basic enemies. For the most part, those kinds of weapons have low durability. They are common and basic and not meant to be overly spectacular.

When you explore and find hidden areas/treasure chests, you can find some stronger, more durable weapons. In a way, the common weapons sort of train you up and help you develop combat skills. So by the time you get the better weapons, you should know how efficiently use it, and not waste it on chopping trees or missing a jump attack and slamming the weapon to the floor.

However, I will concede that the champion weapons definitely need to be more durable. Sure, you can remake them at anytime in exchange for materials, but that involves going all the way back to their respective hometowns. These are special weapons and should at least be able to last through a few battles. 

Speaking of fights....

So in the death mountain region, there are these birds called Eldin Ostriches and they drop Raw Bird Thighs [occasionally Raw Whole Bird too]. Chicken thighs are my absolute favorite and if you’re in a hot enough area, they’ll just roast right as they hit the ground. So free roasted thighs. So I’ve been obsessively hunting them down. Immediately whipping out the bow every time one comes into my line of sight.

During that second of readying an arrow, the Guardian battle music plays and there’s that bright red laser aiming in on my back. The birds run off, I swiftly turned around and immediately let an arrow fly, 

It was a perfect shot at the Guardian’s eye, who I hadn’t had the chance of fully seeing yet. It got stunned and instead of taking it down with Shield Parries, I dashed right up to. This was my first Guardian encounter after learning its legs can get chopped off, so I want to try beating that way.

Chopped off its legs, got extra material from those, and kept slicing at its underside. Not exactly time or weapon efficient, but it was soooo satisfying.

Even took a commemorative selfie for this flawless victory. It wasn’t dead yet in this photo, so it still had a chance to get one last attack off. No fear!

Ahaha~ I really wish I had a capture card to record that amazing shot. After that moment, my bow skill confidence greatly rose. Almost to borderline arrogance. Which would have been bad. Luckily, this simple line of thought shut that bad attitude right down. There is still much to learn/improve on and there’s no need to claim to be ‘one of the best’.

Anyway, continued wandering around the area. Found like 3 Stone Talus, or Igneo Talus as they’re called in this region. One of those fights was complete bullshit. I’m sorry, but it was. 

One is located on a small piece of land that is right above a lava waterfall/lake. And there’s a lava stream on both sides of the land too, so if you get hit once, you get flung off the land and into the lava. Then when you respawn, by the time Link gets up, the stupid rock will have punched you and you go flying off AGAIN, Because this was a stupid fighting ground, I defeated the darn thing in a bullshit way. Equip Mighty Lynel Bow, hit the weak spot with Ice Arrows. GG EZ. For some reason I had 189 Ice Arrows, so they finally came in handy.

The last area I had explored before starting the Divine Beast quest was the Northern Mine. The place that’s abandoned, over run with monsters and had cannons. Yeah, I had completely cleared that area out and gotten all the valuables. Fun operating the cannons and destroying the enemy platforms/camps, but...

Well, more on that later. Cutting this recap in two ‘cause this is getting a bit too long.