Link is well-known among the Zoras, who live a long time, which means more of the yes, Link’s really lost his memory dance. King Dorephan is particularly distressed to know Link doesn’t remember his daughter, Mipha, whom Link was particularly close with. One of the king’s advisors, Muzu, is against the idea of asking a Hylian for help, because he blames them for failing to stop the Great Calamity and Mipha’s death. His objections are mostly ignored, and Dorephan explains the problem: the Divine Beast Vah Ruta can create water, and has been doing so nonstop, filling a reservoir; if it continues, the reservoir will burst, and the floods will likely destroy Zora’s Domain and cause more damage downriver.
There’s a plan to stop the flooding –Ruta has orbs on its shoulders that are supposed to regulate the water flow, but they’re out of power. A Zora shot one with a Shock Arrow and it helped, but Zoras are too vulnerable to electricity to do that large-scale. Hence, they recruited a Hylian. This works nicely with what Link was already planning to do; stopping the rampage will make it easier to board the Divine Beast and rid it of Malice for good. As everyone’s on board with the plan, the king gives Link a set of Zora armor that will let him swim up waterfalls.
Well, almost everyone’s on board with the plan – Muzu balks at giving the armor, which was made by Mipha for the one she intended to marry, to Link. He storms out, and Sidon follows to try to talk to him, and the king sends Link. He finds Muzu and Sidon arguing in front of Mipha’s statue – Sidon says it was Link Mipha was in love with, which Muzu dismisses as preposterous. Hearing that and standing in front of the statue triggers a memory in Link – him and Mipha, sitting on the tip of Ruta’s trunk. Mipha heals a cut on Link’s elbow, and says she healed him the first time they met, and promises to always do so. She expresses hope that when Calamity Ganon is defeated, things can go back to normal. It’s hard to say from one cutscene, but she reminds me a lot of Saria.
When Link snaps back to the present, Muzu’s still skeptical that he actually remembers anything, but when Link puts the armor on, it at least convinces him that it was made for Link. He tells Link where to find shock arrows – on Shatterback Point of Ploymus Mountain, there’s a Lynel that shoots Shock Arrows, and for whatever reason [1] they don’t break apart like other Shock Arrows do [2][3]. One thing I forgot to mention about Lynels – they carry multishot bows and use elemental arrows and are ridiculously accurate with them; the basic idea seems to be to force Link to stay close enough that they stick with their melee attacks and charges rather than breaking out the bow. The trickiest part is approaching them at the start of combat – they can see Link from a fair way off, so my fights with them start by sneaking up until Link’s noticed then sprinting straight at them and hoping they start with their sword. Anyway, this one is supposed to be the introductory Lynel (it gets a cutscene the first time Link comes to visit) and more of an environmental hazard than something Link’s supposed to actually fight, but there’s nothing stopping a brave Link from giving it a try, and killing it is a sure way to get the arrows Link needs.
Link joins Sidon for the first phase of the plan to retake Ruta: Link rides on Sidon’s back as Sidon swims around Ruta. Ruta shoots ice blocks at Link that he can destroy with Cryonis. After a volley of ice blocks, Sidon rides close to Ruta so Link can catch one of the waterfalls, shoot up in the air, and shoot the orbs with shock arrows. Once all four orbs are active, Ruta stops shooting water into the air and the skies clear, Ruta rises a bit more out of the water, and Sidon drops Link off for phase two. There’s a Guidance Stone near where Link walked in, and linking it with the Sheikah Slate opens a travel gate so Link can teleport back if he needs to leave to restock. Or, say, now that the rain’s subsided, unlock the Lanayru Tower. The base of the tower’s guarded by enemies, but nothing too hard, and unlike the Hateno Tower, once Link starts the climb there’s no further obstacles, just a long way to go to the top.
Next: Well, I was somewhat mistaken when I said no dungeons.
[1] Said reason being so the player can take them here, of course.
[2] Or, for that matter, all arrows shot from a Lynel Bow when Link does it.
[3] I already had a fair collection of Shock Arrows from amiibo, but decided to do the quest normally. (Hey, Lynel-fighting practice.)
