With the Snow Temple clear, the blizzards have lifted from the track maze leading to it. Unfortunately, the tradeoff is that a couple of Dark Trains now patrol the area, which is particularly tedious since there are five (!) rabbits to catch before heading out. Beedle has taken to the skies in a hot air balloon. Stopping at Wellspring Station, Link is able to freeze the water to get to the stamp station, and he receives a letter from Beedle, announcing his hot-air balloon store. The letter explains that if Link wants to flag him down to browse his wares, all he has to do is blow the train whistle.
Beedle sells a bomb bag for 500 rupees, and then sells Link a membership card for 100 more. With the card, Link accumulates 1 point for every rupee spent (but no retroactive credit for the bombs, so he should have 50 more points). As in previous games, earning points unlocks rewards: 200 points is silver and earns with a free item coupon (no points for that transaction, either); 500 points is gold and earns a heart container; 1000 points is platinum and earns a quintuple points card, and 2000 points is diamond and earns an ultra-rare treasure. Each tier also has a discount: 10% silver, 20% gold, 30% platinum, and 50% diamond.
Stopping at Castle Town before heading to the Tower of Spirits again, Link gets another letter from Russell, the captain of the guard, inviting Link for advanced sword training. This is the minigame of “hit the target so many times before he hits Link three times,” only now it’s Link versus three guards at once. I had more trouble with this than with Orca or the Prince of Red Lions guy, but got the 60 hits required for a heart container eventually. Also in town, having bombs gives Link access to the ramparts where he can find the stamp station, and before leaving he gets the letter from Beedle welcoming him to the club along with his membership card.
At the Tower of Spirits, Link can go back to the levels he’s already visited to use the items he’s collected to get some previously-inaccessible treasure. He has to get the three Tears of Light again for each set of levels he revisits, but the Geozard stays defeated from before. There are switches he can hit now with the boomerang, walls he can blast through with bombs, and in my favorite example, the Whirlwind is strong enough to blow Phantom Zelda across a gap. This lets Link fully explore the areas I noted he couldn’t reach on the second set of floors – and the missing Geozard fight gets made up for by having Link and Phantom Zelda fight two of them at once in the new areas. (And I couldn’t get the boomerang trick to work, so get Phantom Zelda to hold aggro and sneak around and backstab it is.)
The new section of the Tower of Spirits is dark except for a few torches, and the map doesn’t show the way either. Most of the torches are out, forcing Link to use the boomerang to light a path from one torch to the next. To get one of the Tears of Light, Link needs to blow out a torch to see where the light shines through a cracked wall, then bomb the wall. The Phantoms in the area are a new type, Torch Phantoms, who have flaming swords, so once Link’s sword is powered up and Zelda installed in one of them, Phantom Zelda can light the torches herself. In addition to the Phantoms, the area is patrolled by the ghostly Nocturns, who cower if exposed to light (either caught when a torch is lit or Phantom Zelda walks into the area), letting Link or Zelda kill them.
On the tenth floor, there are tiles on the floor in the shape of a Z, which Link needs to draw on a door to find a Boss Key. This key is electrified, so only Phantom Zelda can carry it. While she does, Key Masters show up, and Link needs to keep them at bay. This has the side effect of illuminating the entire floor, so it’s not all bad. A Boss Key means a boss fight, so up the stairs Link and Zelda find a Geozard Chief waiting for them. It breathes fire at Link, but due to the plus sign-shaped arena, it’s easier to keep it somewhere where Link and Phantom Zelda can flank it, so it’s actually easier than the weaker Geozards. The next rail map opens up the Ocean Realm, and while Zelda’s eager to keep going, further levels haven’t been restored, so this is where they stop. Anjean says the sage of the area is named Carben.
Next: It turns out those signs are there for more than target practice.
