At this point, I’ve fully explored northern and eastern Hyrule, leaving the west (where the last two Divine Beasts are), center, and south. My original plan was to save the center for last so I could do Hyrule Castle alongside it, but after getting a couple of the DLC items (Korok Mask and Travel Medallion) and liking how incredibly useful they are, I looked at the quest log entries for the rest of them and decided to start clearing them out. Adding to this is the fact that with enemies spawning at max level, pretty much everywhere I’d go would be the same level of difficulty, and I don’t really fear Lynels or Guardians [1] anymore.
The first stop is the tower, which is easy to spot from the Great Plateau Tower. It’s surrounded by Guardians, but otherwise an easy climb. The second stop is the Ancient Ruins where Link first touched down from the Great Plateau; there’s a journal hidden by Misko who stole eight priceless relics from Hyrule Castle and hid them all over the area. The eight items are Majora’s Mask, the piece of the Fused Shadow Midna wore as a helmet, Tingle’s clothes, and a set of armor resembling Phantom Zelda from Spirit Tracks. Getting them all requires a tour of Central Hyrule. The fun one is the Coliseum Ruins where Link gets to have an imaginary gladiator match with a Lynel.
The armor items are mostly redundant with other items I’ve got (the Phantom set boots attack like the Fierce Deity, the Tingle set boosts night speed like the Stealth set and makes you look like fscking Tingle, Midna’s helmet gives Guardian resistance like the Ancient set). Majora’s Mask, on the other hand, is like combining Kilton’s Bokoblin, Moblin, and Lizalfos Masks (the latter newly added after clearing Rudania) into a single mask – plus it keeps Lynels at bay for a little while, simultaneously solving the sole difficulty I was still having (getting close without the Lynel pulling out its bow) and adding a bit of hilarity as the Lynel stares down Majora’s Masked Link down before the magic wears off. (And there’s plenty of time between the magic wearing off to switch to the Fierce Deity Mask, pull out a bow, shoot the Lynel in the face, and hop on its back and get some free hits in.) And that’s the bonus, on top of being able to ignore enemies I don’t want to fight – including the Stal- versions. Seriously, Majora’s Mask by itself is worth the $20 I paid for the DLC.
After some careful consideration, I decided I would go to Hyrule Castle to try to find the royal recipes and a royal guard weapon. (I forgot about the royal guard armor, though.) Following a tip from someone else wanting to explore the castle for treasure, I snuck in through the docks in the north rather than brave the main gate. Along the way into the castle, Link can light a giant torch to unearth Saas Ko’sah Shrine, which is A Major Test of Strength with no permanent pillars to hide behind when the Guardian does its spinning charge attack, but there are blocks in the floor Link can Magnesis up to use instead.
The path Link took into the castle leads straight to the Library, where the recipe books are. For the weapon, I went back to another entrance I saw gliding into the docks and wound up in the castle’s dungeons and took a spear off a Moblin. The more interesting discovery in the dungeon was a cell that, upon entry, Link is locked in and to get back out has to defeat a Stalnox. In addition to reopening the cell door, defeating the Stalnox spawns a treasure chest with a Hylian Shield that, while not unbreakable like the one in Skyward Sword… is pretty much unbreakable. The rewards for cooking the meals and showing off the spear totaled 500 rupees, and Link can sell royal guard weapons in exchange for gems.
Next: The first and last photograph memories.
[1] Guardians were the final straw on me using Wolf Link. You can tell him “stay,” and he will, but he understands it as “wait while I go and kill these guys,” not “this guy will kill you if you’re there when we fight, so stay here and let me handle it.” Guardians don’t understand “HEY! Shoot me, not the wolf!” And Wolf Link just can’t get the hang of shield bashing Guardian lasers back at them.
