BOTW – Two More Shrines Down

When I left off in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I was at the Ja Baij Shrine. Inside, I acquired a rune that lets me use bombs! I can use round bombs or square bombs. The best part is that you can remotely detonate them. No more waiting around for bomb fuses. It’s a blast!

After completing a couple of simple obstacles/puzzles, I obtained another spirit orb and finished the shrine.

Back outside, I climbed a tree and did a little pole dancing. I know, I’m weird. 😛

I continued on, until I found a little hut. Inside was a book, but not just any book. It was the old man’s diary!

Unfortunately, his diary was just about cooking. He’s hoping someone will bring him the missing ingredient to a recipe. But as I left camp, I ran into the old man himself. He asked me to help him cut down a tree with his axe, so I did. He went to rest by the fire, so I continued exploring.

I started climbing up a mountain, but it was getting dangerously cold. Even though I had swiped some spicy peppers from the old man’s house, apparently you have to cook a dish with them before they will help you withstand the cold (eating one plain did not seem to help me). So I tediously scaled back down the mountain.

The next day, I had a chat with the old man. He told me I could use his pot to cook myself some food. So I experimented by cooking some apples, plants, and mushrooms. I even made some honey candy!

It seems that this game doesn’t have hearts that you collect to refill your health. You have to eat food, which will generally need to be cooked first. Perhaps this is more realistic, and provides more depth, but the cooking can be a bit slow and tedious. Not my favorite aspect of the game so far.

Instead of going up the mountain again, I set off to explore elsewhere…

It’s fun to just go around, trying to blow things up.

After walking through the Hopper Pond area, I encountered something I was not mentally prepared for. Some large boulders started moving and formed into a large creature: the Stone Talus.

I threw some bombs at it, but they didn’t seem to do much. But when he started walking towards me and throwing his huge stone hands at me, I had a “holy crap” moment. There’s no way I could beat this guy, and I had to run for my life!

I ran through the forest, but he was on my tail. When I reached a mountain, I knew I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I started climbing, thinking I was finally escaping, but he threw his rock hand (or was it his boulder shoulder?) up at me and knocked me down, nearly killing me.

I ran off in another direction, and I eventually made my way to safety. What a scary experience. 😛 I wrapped up my night after that.

The next day, I decided to get back on track on my shrine quest. I started off by returning to the old man’s camp. I cooked some more of the ingredients I’ve found along the way, and most importantly, I cooked some spicy peppers I swiped from the old man’s hut. Now I’ll be able to stay warm up on the mountain.

But near camp, I noticed a gap where it looked like I could cut down a tree and use it to cross over. Unfortunately, my last sword broke in the process.

One thing I don’t like about this game is that weapons wear down and break pretty quickly. So you constantly need to replace them…what a pain! I looked around for a sword or axe to use, but no luck. But then I thought I’d try using a bomb. Fortunately, it worked.

I crossed the log and climbed up the mountain. At the top, I found the Owa Daim Shrine. Inside, I learned the power of stasis. I can use it to stop the flow of time for an object. I used it to stop a spinning gear so that I could cross a gap inside the shrine.

It can also be used to store kinetic energy. After freezing this ball with stasis, I hit it repeatedly with a sledgehammer. When time resumed, all those stored hits acted at once, launching the ball out of my way.

Completing the shrine earned me another spirit orb. Just one more to go! I’ll go after that one next time.