TotK #18 – All Shrines

For a long time, I’ve had a side adventure on my list requiring me to dress as a Yiga Clan member and enter their hideout. I’ve had two of the three required outfit pieces practically forever, but I never could find the third one. The hint still led me to the hideout in the Akkala region, even though that’s one that I had already found long ago. But I decided to check it out again anyway…and this time, I noticed a map.

Several spots were marked on the map, but it included more than the three branches that were supposed to exist. And the map wasn’t very detailed, so it didn’t give you precise coordinates, just a very general idea of where to look. But I checked out a couple of the supposed locations, and at one of them, I found what I was looking for: the Maritta Branch.

After a brief fight, I freed the captive tailor; she gave me the Yiga tights. I then had the full Yiga Clan outfit, and I knew where to take it. I went over to the Yiga Clan Hideout, and they fell for the disguise. Even the Master Sword doesn’t give me away! It’s funny, because I could even chat and shop with the Yiga Clan members who would otherwise fight me. 😆

Speaking of fighting, I participated in some training battles while I was there. Each one had a different reward, and the most interesting one was that I learned a new attack move that I can use…even when I’m not holding a weapon! That’s really cool, and it’s not something I would have ever expected.

After leaving the hideout, I also completed another side adventure in the area that required the Yiga disguise. It led me to a new shrine as well.

Back at Lookout Landing, I found a tunnel that led me all the way to Hyrule Castle! I’m surprised I never found this before! I found quite a few treasure chests at the castle, and I also completed a side quest there as well.

At this point, I made a decision: I wanted to find all of the remaining shrines. By using my map to compare locations of shrines and lightroots in the Depths, I was able to find where most of them were. One or two of them were right out in the open, but several of them were well hidden. Very well hidden. One in particular took me more than an hour of searching, looking all around a mountain for a cave that led to the underground shrine.

Since there are 120 lightroots, I figured there would also be 120 shrines on the surface. And that meant the other 32 should be on sky islands. So I counted up the shrines on my map, and there were only 31. I thought I might have trouble finding the last one, but I just went to the largest cluster of sky islands that didn’t have a shrine, and I found it pretty easily.

But my last shrine of all was the Oogim Shrine near Lanayru Road in East Necluda. It wasn’t particularly difficult to find, it was just in an area I hadn’t explored yet. Once I followed the beam to the crystal and brought it back, the statues inside the shrine gave me the final Light of Blessing.

They also told me to go to the Temple of Time for a reward. There, I found a very unique outfit. I won’t spoil what it is, but it was quite…unique.

Even though I have now cleared all 152 shrines, there is still one shrine quest I haven’t completed. I guess I just have to find (and speak to) the right person, so they can tell me about a shrine and I can say “been there, done that.”

In Tarrey Town, I finally spent some money and bought myself a house!

It came with two rooms (a foyer and a bedroom), but you can purchase additional rooms. I bought a weapon stand room, so I can display/store three weapons. I’m not sure if I’ll expand my home further, though. There are still a ton of armor upgrades I need, and they require rupees (in addition to materials).

While looking through my Hyrule Compendium, I noticed that I still needed some pictures of horses. So I took out some of my special horses, snapped some photos, and filled in some gaps in my compendium.

I’ve also been revisiting my list of side quests, and completing many of them. Some of them will take some effort…like tracking down dragon’s claws for the goddess statues at the springs; I’m still working on those.

But I’ve recently found a fishing boat for a merchant, gave materials to Teba to make a Great Eagle Bow in Rito Village, and helped Bolson build a racing course on the water at Lurelin Village.

After defeating a white-maned Lynel, I even saw a double rainbow in the sky! I’ve been seeing a lot of rainbows in video games the past month! (In Animal Crossing and New Leaf are the others this month, if you’re wondering. And back in July, I also spotted my first rainbow in New Horizons as well.)

In the Depths, I found some more Yiga schematics to build a “bomb bouquet,” a headlight raft, and an all-purpose raft.

Over on Mount Lanayru, I had a chat with a guy who told me about a legend. It mentioned passing through some rings of light to see a Light of Blessing. This was the missing shrine quest! So I immediately told him I already found it, and now I’ve officially completed all shrine quests.

Now that I’ve completed all of the shrines, I decided to upload Part 2 of my “Contraptions I Built for Shrines” video. I may have solved some of these differently than you did, and it can be fun to see alternate ways of completing them. If you’re interested, here’s that video:

My map completion percentage is up to 70.14%, and my adventure log progress is as follows:

• Main Quests: 21/23 (really 23/23) ✅
• Side Adventures: 57/60 (up from 55)
• Shrine Quests: 31/31 ✅
• Side Quests: 96/139 (up from 86)
• Memories: 18/18 ✅

Here are my other stats:

My Korok seeds are up from 292 to 322 since last time. And here’s my Hyrule Compendium progress:

• Creatures: 88/92 (up from 84)
• Monsters: 109/110
• Materials: 121/126
• Equipment: 155/175 (up from 152)
• Treasure: 6/6 ✅

As for what’s next, Echoes of Wisdom is now available! _{(I may earn a small amount for qualifying U.S. purchases through that link.)} I’ll be getting Echoes of Wisdom very soon, so I’ll probably be taking a break from Tears of the Kingdom for a while. But I hope you’ll return to this blog to see my thoughts of the new game! And I’ll return to TotK at some point, too.

Have a great day, everyone!