The Weapon Connoisseur

Waking of Sunday, February 24, 2019

The Weapon Connoisseur

I jumped off Kass’ Landing in Rito Village, and sailed for the western shores of Totori Lake. Making my way back to Gisa Crater and its sleeping Talus, I set out to continue my exploration of the western edges of the Tabantha Frontier. I killed the Talus, kept on northward, killed a Lynel—Silver. Gads, why are they all so strong now?—but could not find any shrines anywhere. Where are the shriiiiines....

I might have spoiled myself some days ago; I’ve heard a number on the shrines. I have 117 right now. Not many more to go, I think.

But I still couldn’t find any just now.

After exploring around far and wide, hunting high and low and still coming up empty.... I decided I wanted to try and finish Nebb’s quest instead. That would certainly still throw me for a world tour; I could still keep my eyes open for shrines.... just passively rather than actively.

I checked my quest log to see what weapon Nebb wanted to see next....

Where the heck could I find an Ancient Battle Axe +?

My Compendium said Hyrule Field and the Akkala Highlands.

Hmm.

So I started checking the shrines around those parts. I found a few with some little Guardian baddies inside, namely KAAM YA’TAK for one.... but none wherein the baddies had that weapon.

So I tried Katah Chuki. A Minor Test of Strength. And to my surprise.... the enemy popped up again! Even though I’d defeated it!

THEY RESURRECT. The Test of Strength Guardians come back.

I wonder if they do that every time you enter, or just on Blood Moons....

Unfortunately Katah Chuki’s Guardian Scout carried only a regular Ancient Battle Axe. And so I decided to bump it up a notch and return to the shrine of Muwo Jeem, way out on the east end—the Modest Test of Strength. My first Modest Test of Strength. The only shrine-fight I had ever run away from....

And this Guardian Scout—IS THAT THE WEAPON I’M LOOKING FOR? I thought madly as I sported with it!

I killed the thing, and.... IT WAS!

An Ancient Battle Axe +!

I took it to Nebb, and let him have a good long look at it, and he gave me a silver rupee! 100 rupees! Man his pockets were deep.

“Grandpa said ‘Give it to the one who shows you how to fight!’” he said happily.

Aww, this kid had such a great grandpa. ^_^

And then.... NEXT, he says.... he wants to see a Frost Spear.

Well that should be easy, I thought, I just saw some guys with that kinda thing over in Hebra when I was wandering around.

And I spent the next very long time bouncing back and forth between Hebra and the Gerudo Highlands looking for a Frostspear. It’s one word. Frostspear.

No.

Luck.

ANYWHERE.

I looked around for so long. David recommened I just turn on my sensor. I told him I didn’t have a picture of one.

“Oh.”

I looked and looked and looked....

Nothing.

I tried jogging out west from Selmie’s spot and paragliding to the big baddie treehouse on the very northern border. I swooped down from higher up the mountain, drawing nearer to the monster-nest, lookin’, lookin’.... oops they saw me.

One of ‘em sounded a horn and they all flew into a tizzy, yowling insults and casting arrows of various types.... Okay just scan, I thought, staying on the move, scan, scan.... Nobody’s got it. I couldn’t see a Frostspear anywhere.

So I dropped to the ground, started from there, and just marathoned it back to the east. The frigid shelf of land was not broad, and there were plenty of baddies. Surely somebody had to have the wanted Frostspear....

I was running, running, there were guys blowing their horns and shooting arrows after me, wolves howling—so many freaking wolves—more baddies, Lizalfos either popping out of the snow or jumping out of their ill-camouflaged hunkerings. None of them had the spear that I wanted.

Man, it’s everywhere except when you’re trying to find it.

I was coming up to a skull-den. Somehow the lookouts didn’t see me until I’d come up the left side and around to the front. Ran right in the open mouth. Three Bokoblins and two Lizalfos. But no Frostspears. Ran back out as fast as I’d run in.

Of course they all started at once and came chasing after me. Monsters were yammering all over the snow in pursuit, the animals were going nuts, every creature was freaking all the other creatures out, a rhinoceros was chasing me....

When suddenly I came upon Lynel country. Silver to boot....

Nope. Not again. Where the heck was I?

I considered my surroundings and realized I’d reached the northern end of the snowfield. I was back in the familiar territories.

Hey, I thought, the shrine is right there. That shrine at the north end of Hebra’s big snowfield. And according to my Slate, there was treasure left inside it. I went to check it out....

No luck.

But the shrine gave me an idea—there were other shrines, plenty of other shrines, where I had likewise left treasure unclaimed. Weapons for which I had no room in my hammerspace. Maybe one of those had been a Frostspear....

So I started looking in shrines whose treasure I had left. Not a lot of luck. A whole lot of not luck. In all the icy regions. I searched and searched and searched every icebound shrine I could find.... And in one icy shrine, I found a FLAMESPEAR.

NOT THE KIND OF THING I WAS LOOKING FOR.

So that’s the game, is it?

I went to the volcano for a bit to look at the unclaimed treasures in shrines there. No luck there either.

Where where where where wheeeeerrrrrre....

In my Slate I looked at the shrine at the Spring of Wisdom. It was a Blessing Shrine. It had treasure unclaimed. That would be easy enough to check. Easier than a combat shrine anyway....

So I went there, and I checked.

AND IT WAS A FROST SPEAR.

YES.

I warped straight to Hateno, straight to Nebb, and showed it.

Gold Rupee. 300 rupees. Oh he liked that.

“Grandpa said ‘Give it to the one who can show you the real deal!’”

Where was his grandpa getting all this cash anyway? Must’ve been a real doter....

Next....

Oh man, Nebb, how far can you take this? But I had hope.... 300 rupees was the highest value you could go in one gem. Surely this would be the last thing.

Next Nebb wanted to see.... an Ancient Short Sword. “You can’t get those around here,” he said as my only clue.

Ancient Short Sword?

I had a one-handed Guardian blade in my inventory, but that wasn’t what it was called.

Hm, I could only think of one place to try....

Robbie.

Away to Akkala I went, and checked in at the Tech Lab. The Ancient Short Sword was there. Cherry could make that all right. For a thousand rupees, a bunch of nuts and bolts or whatever and two of my precious ancient cores? (Out of eleven, one of which I’d only just bought from Teli in Hateno on a rainy day.)

I came back out and paused to check my Ancient Armor. It was already upgraded all the way.

....

Hnnng. I could.... spare the cores....

I asked Cherry for the Short Sword. Freakin’ thing so expensive when weapons were so transient anyway....

And she made it. 40 damage. Looked cool.

Back to Hateno.

But Nebb was headed to bed.

Dang it!

Okay, okay.... It had been this long, it could be a little longer. I slept in my house, too. And had Blood Moon dreams.

The next morning I did some shopping around town: arrows, Bomb Arrows, Tabantha Wheat.... Came out of the shop and it was hard to tell all those little running kids apart when they wouln’t stop moving....

But I eventually found Nebb around midday, playing with his sister Narah.

And I showed him the Ancient Short Sword.

And he gave me a diamond.

“Just like in the books!” He thrilled. He was always saying things like that.

He was really pleased.

“Thanks for showing me so many things! I’m sure my grandpa is super happy... wherever he is! Bye!”

I drew a quick breath. Wait.... his grandpa.... who gave him all these rupees, he was.... was he....?

Nebb?

And before I knew it the banner flashed across my screen, the gleaming sound effect sheened, and I’d completed the The Weapon Connoisseur sidequest.

What.... but....

Uh?

The sidequest notes confirmed it for me:

You showed Nebb, the young man in Hateno Village, all the weapons he could ever want to see. He rewarded you with a diamond.

He feels that his grandfather is unquestionably smiling down on him from the next world now.

....

Man.

Nebb.... I’m sorry for thinking ill of you.

It was late and.... I needed to go to bed, and.... it was late afternoon for Link, so.... I’d put him to bed, too.

I took him back to his Hateno House, and because I am a girl, I first had him remove the Master Sword, and the faithful Rusty Shield that has seen me through all the way from Divine Beast Vah Medoh, and the Knight’s Bow. And I put him in his Warm Doublet because it looked warm yet loose-fitting, and his Snowquill Trousers because they looked comfortably warm as well.... and I put him to bed.

Good night, Hero.

Big Sticks

Waking of Saturday, August 11, 2018

Big Sticks

It was always nice at Dueling Peaks. My very first stable.

Poor in both money and supplies, I thought about taking a horse out to ride over to Faron Woods, combing the land for materials along the way. There was also that pesky leaf stamp I had left over there; couldn’t remember what that was about; needed to clear it up....

I chose Memory, and we started out well enough, but on the way we ran into a Big Yiga.

I’d seen David duke it out with these guys. They were slower than their lithe and lean, scythe-wielding counterparts, but thick and tough as old jerky. And they had a few nasty tricks of their own, one of which sent some burrowing devil-flame toward you through the ground....

Fortunately I’d seen David deal with that too.

I leapt as the flame came near and rode the updraft as it combusted beneath me, sailing toward my assailant to get in a few hits of my own....

He went down in due time, and at the end of it all I came back to Memory and found him unharmed; that was good. We weren’t even safe while riding....

The Yiga had dropped a Windcleaver, its long blade shimmering in a ripple as if from water-reflected light....

Nebb wanted to see that. It was a long way to Hateno, not to mention in the opposite direction from Faron Woods, but.... as long as the Windcleaver had just fallen into my lap like that.... I decided to head that way anyway.

However, I was still combing for materials, regardless of my destination. And I found that you can’t really make good progress in any direction when you make it your top priority to chase every little thing you spy along the wayside.

I became VERY distracted near Fort Hateno, climbing all over the hills to the north after Rushrooms and Swift Violets and mineral deposits and critters.... I wandered all OVER those hills and all the dips and climbs beyond....

For certain it did slow me down, but I definitely did not come away emptyhanded—for aside from my scroungings I discovered another Meteor Rod. It was held in the clutches of a prancing Fire Wizzrobe whom I sniped with an Ice Arrow from a high hill. Poor devil never knew what hit him.

I wonder if it respawns when he does at the Blood Moon....

I’m pretty sure that was the case with that insanely powerful Trilizal Boomerang in the western desert. The one with which the Silver Bokoblin zlashed me in the face.

That brute could hit.

The Meteor Rod Wizzrobe danced at the head of the river that ran beneath Kakariko Bridge. I’d definitely have to see whether he’d come back later.... and what heat he’d be packing.... No pun intended.

I eventually came back to the deep-grey clifftops at the south end of all the ranges I had wandered, and looking down to the valley floor saw poor Memory still standing, waiting for me between Fort Hateno and the ensuing forest. He’d been so patient with me. Good boy.

I sailed down and we continued to Hateno, where I showed Nebb the Windcleaver, for which privilege he dropped a sweet hundred rupees. Cool.

Return to Hateno

Waking of Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Return to Hateno

I wanted to play, but there were people around; I could not continue on with my main quest with that kind of buzzkill risk hanging in the air.

Have I only lost faith in humanity?

Hm.

I warped from Gerudo Canyon to the Shrine of Kaam Ya’Tak. There were plenty of crawlies in there; surely one of them would drop an Ancient Core for me....

No joy.

So I warped to Hateno—I could have sworn there was somebody who sold Guardian parts SOMEWHERE near there.... someone I’d met a long time ago on the road....

No luck.

But I did buy that fancy armor set David had reminded me of in his playthrough—the Soldier’s Armor. And I showed Nebb the Moblin Club, for which viewing he gave me fifty rupees! That was nice. :) The next thing he wanted to see was a Duplex Bow....

Haeh, well.... given where I was fixing to go in the near future that didn’t seem like too tall an order.

I also cleaned up an old sidequest by stepping behind the counter and addressing the lady inkeep directly. Dunno why I hadn’t tried that before.... I asked her what she liked, and she told me “Darners!” more out of a desperation to get rid of me than out of honest consideration. I relayed this to the lovesick chump down the street who’d put me up to it, whereafter he paid me a royal rupee for a handful of my own darners. I don’t even remember which kind.... I had plenty to spare.

I also made a friend at the inn, Worten. He was just sitting out on this patio I had never explored, looking content with the world. He was a traveler like me, and he told me about a few of the places he’d visited—or at least tried to; he hadn’t actually made it to Goron City. Nor had he been able to enter Gerudo Town. But he said if I was looking for adventure, I might try Zora’s Domain or Rito Village, though both of those were quite a ways away.

The sight of him contentedly sipping from his mug as he sat there in the breezy shade was so happily striking that I took a pictograph.

It’s a good one.

I felt like I might have been overworking poor Cotera, so I warped to Mija’s fountain in Akkala to see what she could make of my new armor set. She was able to enhance each piece two levels at least—three levels for the greaves. But I needed Hinox guts for further upgrades.

Fortunately I knew where a few Hinoxes could be found.

At Digdogg Suspension Bridge I left I think it was Memory a couple of bridges out while I marched straight in and killed the Hinox myself—ON FOOT! And I didn’t even get squished. :)

But the brute didn’t drop any guts. Cheapskate.

I boarded Memory again, warped to Dueling Peaks, took out Brown, and—dear me.... as I had done long ago in the dreary, dreary rain.... rode him down the long Hateno Road.

I had not taken that road in so, so long.

Why is that?

....

I don’t know.

Maybe my very first Yiga encounters had made me shy of it.

Maybe the pressing danger of the Yiga and the madness of the Valley of Terror had made me detest Hateno, and its road.

I still have not purchased that house.

....

We’ll see.

I spoke to everyone I met along the Hateno Road, and this time.... good luck was with me—I met a man named Teli, who sold GUARDIAN PARTS. Er, Ancient Tech, I mean.

However bad luck was with me too, for he carried no cores.

Hhhhh.

I rode Brown onward into Hatenooooish lands. One more place to check.

David keeps saying They’re in shrines! The cores.

Well, I knew of one shrine with a high chance of core capacity, that’s.... an odd way to word it.... core containment, no.... breach the core, um.... mockingbirds—

—I knew of ONE shrine with a high chance of containing an Ancient Core. I had quit from it many moons before in a bid to preserve mine own life. Just quit from it—I hadn’t known how to load a previous save from within the menu.

I had Brown take me back to it this time, while I maintained a rotation of different masks; for we passed roaming Moblins in the Woods of Concussion, and Bokoblins in the heights beyond.

The great, jutting mountain-cliff beside the sea was perhaps not well suited for horses, but we picked our way as best we could between stones and along ledges (Brown at one point attempting to align to a path crossing forty feet below us), and we made fair progress until we reached the highest, broadest open shelf.

The Shrine that stood at its tip over the ocean may very well have been the most prominent Shrine on the map. You could see it for miles from many directions. Maybe that’s what had drawn me to it so long ago. I’d been out of my depth, then. But now.... I was stronger.

On the flat, open ground Brown and I broke into a welcome gallop, slipping past the strong camp of curious Bokoblins until we were safe about the reaches of the shrine.

Even so, I led Brown around to the shady back of it, out of sight of the baddies.... just in case.

And then I stepped inside the shrine—the Muwo Jeem Shrine—and faced the long-feared Modest Test of Strength that had so daunted me into retreating before.

I beat it easily this time.

But there were still no cores for me.

Hhhh.

Well, it was another Spirit Orb anyway. I was overdue to pray at a Goddess statue....

I rode Brown back down the mountain [back toward home I wrote in my original notes—To Hateno? Strange of me....]—it was a little tricky to reclaim the path we had imagined for ourselves to get up here in the first place. And when we finally reached the road, I met Teli again.

I asked him about his wares just to see.

AND HE HAD A CORE!

I BOUGHT IT. FOR A COUPLE HUNDRED RUPEES AND THEN SOME.

SWEET.

Aha! So Ancient Cores could be bought!

It was raining as I galloped back westward. But I was feeling too jubilant—this called for a change of outfit! I ripped off my Bokoblin Mask. And then.... I ripped off everything else! And rode back to Dueling Peaks in my skin.

“Well, you’re looking peppy today, stranger!” said Tasseren the stablehand when I came to board Brown again, and I laughed.

Taking Care of Business

Waking of Saturday, May 27, 2017 ~ 2

Taking Care of Business

I marked that shrine with a beacon, and found it to lie just north of the Honeydell, in the middle of a queer lot of huge circles in the topography that I had wondered about.... I warped to the Wetland Stable and went up the road to see—saving Leekah on the way again.

It was the giant tree stumps. And I discovered what they portended: Wizzrobes.

But they were easy enough to avoid, and the shrine was easy enough to find with a little dedication.

It was a Modest Test of Strength.

I’d seen David best a Major Test of Strength....

I decided to give this one a try.... and I conquered it!

My first Modest Combat win. ^_^

I’d had a lot of adventures all over the map. But I decided it really was time to go see Impa again after having regained a few of my memories.

I warped first to the Dueling Peaks Stable and chased down a few Koroks. After that I warped straight to Kakariko and—having about six thousand rupees to my name at this point—decided to look at the clothing shop.

That Sneaky Suit was 1800 all told.... Mmmm but I’d still have plenty left over if I wanted to go buy that house in Hateno as well....

But I passed on the heavy shopping for the time being.

TIME TO SEE IMPA.

There weren’t any deep cinematics this time aside from our conversation. But she acknowledged that I had regained a few of my memories—and she gave me something that she had been keeping safe for me....

The Champion’s Tunic.

Ah! So that was where David had gotten it! I thought.

Ah! I was finally garbed in the iconic blue tunic.... oh how smashing I looked....

I took it to Cotera straight away, and she took a few Lizalfos horns from my monster-bits collection and upped its defense from 5 to 8.

Awesome.

After that, it was off to Hateno Village! I had some business to take care of.... the first item of which was to find that kid, Nebb, for whom I’d been carting around that blasted worthless Traveler’s Sword!

I ran him down and showed it to him. And.... he gave me twenty rupees!

Well that was a nice surprise.

Next he said he wanted to see a Flame Rod. Man, if you give a mouse a cookie....

I happened to have one on me, and I showed that to him too.

And he gave me twenty more rupees!

Well!

Next he asked for a Moblin Club, and I didn’t have one of those, but hm.... Perhaps this Nebb merits some keeping up with, no?

My next stop was the Ancient Tech lab on the hill. I’d collected loads of ancient parts—I could upgrade my other runes: Bombs and Stasis.

So I did. And.... I was in a fine mood, so.... I gave Purah a couple of hearty “Snap!”s along the way.

Once my Stasis and Bombs were upgraded I ran outside to play with both. I glanced around to see if I could find any baddies to test the Stasis on. Accidentally discovered a hidden chest in a pool of water that way.... but no baddies. I probably would have had to leave town for that. As for my Bombs, they didn’t look any different, but I guess they packed a bigger punch now. And the reload time was definitely faster.

For a moment I thought. Outside the game.

I had just played a neat little chunk. If I stopped right here, that would make for easier logging, smaller bites, less stress. And moderation in all things was a good rule anyway.

I really should have just wrapped up the game.

I looked again at the house I could buy. It did have a lot of good points—a lit wok, an apple tree, a little pond, a place for my horses.... It opened right onto the hills, and it was very pretty.

I took a self portrait in front of it.

It was 4:15 in the morning, game-time. I sat by the wok’s fire until morning. By the time I stood up again forty-five minutes later, Karson, Bolson and Hudson had joined me and were sitting along with me.

You know Bolson really rocks the pink headband I must say. And the matching pink pants. Ah dear me. XD

Okay, that was a good little chunk to log about. It was always difficult to log when I took bigger bites than that....

Yes. I needed to stop.

Didn’t want to give myself too much post-game logging to do.

Yeah.

I rode out on the autosave, exited the game, shut down the console, and set the WiiU controller back in its cradle.

Yep. That was a good little chunk of game to play for now until I could log about it.

Time to leave the game alone now.

Yep.

....

I don’t think I lasted five hours.