When I resumed my game of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I made my first visit to the Coliseum Ruins. There, I fought a Thunder Gleeok. It was quite a struggle, but I ultimately defeated it.
This is random, but don’t you hate when you’re using Sensor+ to search for treasure chests and it’s taking you all around in circles? And then you realize there’s an Aerocuda flying around overhead, carrying the treasure chest, and you didn’t even notice? Thought I was going crazy. 😆😆😆
While I was chasing it down, I encountered a Battle Talus that I encountered early in the game (but couldn’t defeat at the time). It brought back memories of those early days in the game. I planned on crossing that bridge (Orsedd Bridge), but I had to change my plans after that Talus kicked my butt. 😆 But now, it was no trouble at all.
In that same area (near Crenel Peak), I found Jojon Shrine. I had to fight some constructs on spinning gears, without using any outside equipment.
It wasn’t particularly notable, except for one fact: It was my 100th shrine completed! I knew Breath of the Wild had 120 shrines, so I wondered if I was really 5/6ths of the way through TotK’s shrines. But I googled it, and apparently this game has 152 shrines, not 120. I was relieved, because I don’t want this journey to end yet.
In Tarrey Town, I helped out Mattison and she set sail for her new life in Gerudo Town. I was then able to help Kilton out with his art project for Tarrey Town. I have to take photos of various monsters, and he (with Hudson’s help), makes sculptures of each one. I already had a photo of the first monster (a Bokoblin) on my camera, so he built that right away.
There are more monsters yet to come, so I’ll keep an eye out for his requests.
After helping out with the school in Hateno Village, I unlocked a new side quest where I can plant my own vegetable garden! With Uma’s help, of course. I started out with a Hylian tomato plant.
At the Abandoned Gerudo Mine in the Depths, I ran into Master Kohga (the boss of the Yiga Clan) again. I defeated him, and he fled to the Eastern Abandoned Mine. I found a schema stone for a hovercraft down here. In other parts of the Depths, I found the Yiga schematics for a monocycle, a super spring, a triple cannon, and a tank! So my collection of schematics is growing.
I’ve collected enough Sage’s Wills for another companion upgrade, so I chose to strengthen my bond with Tulin. I’m hoping that means he’ll be of more use in battles with tough enemies like Gleeoks.
Back at the garden, I harvested my tomatoes, and then I gave Uma a hearty radish. I’d really love to grow more of them, so that I can cook up some strong food dishes.
In the meantime, I continued exploring the Depths, tracking down Master Kohga in the Abandoned Lanayru Mine. Or was I just…killing time?
I defeated Master Kohga here, and then again in the Hebra region. That completed the side adventure, and the game indicated that he’s now gone for good. Before he left, he let me know where to find the Demon King.
But I didn’t rush there just yet (do I ever?). I returned to Hateno Village, to check on my hearty radish garden. They were ready for harvesting, but there were only two radishes to harvest! So one hearty radish turned into two, that’s it! 😠 Considering how long you have to wait for it to grow, this doesn’t seem worth the effort. Oh well. I tried.
Next, I made my way to Thyphlo Ruins. There were several side adventures here, hidden amongst the ruins. I wanted to solve them all while I was here, so I burned through them, one at a time.
After that, I dropped into a nearby chasm and found a couple more lightroots in the Depths. But I reached a point where I realized I’ve been stalling long enough. So I headed for Hyrule Castle to beat the game once and for all.
I fought my way underneath Hyrule Castle, and battled the many hordes of enemies that appeared at various points along the way. It’s a long way down, and finding the right way to go can be a bit confusing at points. But eventually, I made it to Ganondorf himself. Of course, I don’t want to spoil the final fight or the ending, but I did beat Ganondorf…and the game. 🙂
After another Google search, I confirmed that I did get to see the “good” ending because I’ve completed all of the main quests and recovered all of the memories.
Beating the game earned me a star on my save file, and it gave me access to some additional stats I couldn’t see before. My map completion percentage is at 56.94%, and my quest completion is as follows:
- Main Quests: 21/23 (really all 23, but it doesn’t save the last two)
- Side Adventures: 51/60
- Shrine Quests: 16/31
- Side Quests: 64/139
- Memories: 18/18
The most surprising thing (to me) is that I’m not even halfway done with the side quests! As for my other stats, you can see the image here:
My shrine count is up to 113 (from 95 last time), my lightroots are up to 94 (from 65), and my Korok seed count is at 207 (up from 160). Here is my Hyrule Compendium progress:
- Creatures: 79/92
- Monsters: 106/110
- Materials: 116/126
- Equipment: 137/175
- Treasure: 6/6
Even though I’ve beaten the game now, I’m still far from done. Even though I won’t be going after every single Korok seed, I do want to at least complete all shrines and complete all of the side quests/adventures. So there will be more entries yet to come. See you next time! 🙂
