Before heading back to the sky, Link revisits the Shipyard where, sure enough, the Goron has converted the minecart rollercoaster tracks to a minigame. The first, easier track isn’t too bad, but the second one is brutal. The top reward time limit is unforgiving, and leaning the cart too soon/too late/the wrong way will slow you down, and mess up on some of the harder curves and you’ll be thrown off. And it’s all controlled by tilting the Wiimote, and far too easy to go too fast so it doesn’t register and you end up with the Wiimote tilted left but Link still leaning right. Finally getting in under the buzzer gets a piece of heart, so that’s nice.
And it’s not the worst newly-available minigame. Back on Skyloft, Fledge is all roided up and doing thousands of pushups at a time and gives Link five Gratitude Crystals for his help. He sees Link’s bow and has a great idea for a minigame: he’ll toss pumpkins, Link shoots them out of the air. Even cheesing this so Link hits the pumpkin the second it comes out of Fledge’s hands is tough; there’s no rhythm to Fledge’s tosses, and it requires holding the bow very, very steady pointing at the critical spot, which my poor wrists don’t like. Again, there’s a heart piece for scoring high enough. While on Skyloft, Link upgrades his bow to the Iron Bow, then Sacred Bow, increasing its range and damage.
As expected, the third song is Din’s Power and points to Eldin Volcano. The Silent Realm for this one is huge, with the Tears spread all over the map. I managed to get it done in a single go, although I struggled climbing the first slope with the Watchers and I was sure I was going to get caught there. Also, I had the bright idea to bring a Stamina Potion+ so if I did get spotted I could run indefinitely, but Link doesn’t have the Adventure Pouch in the Silent Realms. (Maybe if I’d used it before entering, I’d at least have had a few minutes…) The reward this time is the Flameshield Earrings, which will allow Link to explore the caves that were too hot to explore before.
At the Volcano Summit, Link finds Gorko looking for Goddess Cubes, but stymied by flames blocking his path. Nearby there’s a frog head statue and a tablet telling Link to quench its thirst. Outside the caves, there’s a spring Link can visit to fill bottles with water (and a Goddess Cube he can reach with a leap of faith) that lets him appease the frogs get past the first two flames. The third flame, however, is much bigger, and needs more than just a single bottle of water. There’s also a Goddess Cube in the area.
The best source for water is Lake Floria in Faron Woods. There are two Goddess Cubes in Faron Woods Link can get with the Clawshots, one on top of the Skyview Temple, one at the Floria Waterfall. Faron is gracious enough to let Link have the basin she used for healing earlier, which ought to be enough water for even the thirstiest frog. Unfortunately, Link’s not going to be able to carry it himself, so that means calling Scrapper for help.
Link heads back to Eldin Volcano, only Scrapper flied ahead decided to land at the base of the mountain and we need the water at the top of the mountain. Scrapper refuses to go back to the sky with the basin, so it’s protect the robot as he climbs the mountain. The enemies weren’t any harder the last time Link visited the area, but now they are. And Scrapper has trouble keeping up with Link, complains if he gets too far ahead, but also whines if any enemies get close to him. It’s a long, tedious, stressful, annoying hike up the mountain. Eventually, they do make it up the mountain, and Scrapper pours the water on the frog statue, opening the way to the next dungeon.
Now it’s back to the sky for final preparations. Three of the Goddess Chests are easy enough to get: one beneath Fun Fun Island with a Gold Rupee, one on a large island in the Thunderhead region with a heart piece, and one atop the tower on the Isle of Songs with a Bomb Bag. The fourth is on the island where Beedle docks at night, and is in an area that’s tricky to enter from the Loftwing. (It’s not impossible – I got there by ramming the Loftwing into the door and basically getting thrown through.) It has a second Rupee Medal. Back at the Bazaar, Link upgrades his new Bomb Bag a couple times to max out its capacity, then chucks it back into the Item Check while getting his standard loadout (shield, three Heart Potions, two Life Medals, Treasure Medal, Heart Medal) for the next dungeon.
Next: “Great! Dig it! Dig it! Dig to the center of the earth!”
