Let's Kill a Giant Skeleton Because It's There

Since I’m already here, let’s take care of Mr. Skeleton first. It’s still too early in the day for the undead to come out, so I spend some time replenishing meals and double checking my weapon inventory. It was late afternoon, night would fall soon, so it seemed like the perfect time to get moving.

Once I was satisfied, I hop onto Fabio and lead him back across the Big and Little Twin bridges, back towards Misko’s treasure cache. As we trot around the river’s edge, something along the mountain on the other side catches my eye. A cracked wall! How did I miss that the first time around?

This hiding place seems a bit...excessive.

I dismount Fabio and swim across the river, placing a square remote bomb down on the other shore. Blowing the rocks reveals the cave’s secret: an entire shrine within! I had turned off the shrine sensor, because that beeping was really getting on my nerves, but maybe I shouldn’t going forward.

Hmm, I know I'm supposed to be hunting a skeleton right now, but...shrine. Ol' Skelly is already dead, he can wait a little while longer. I make my way into the cave, activate the shrine, and lower myself down.

Toto Sah Apparatus

            ~Toto Sah Shrine~

An apparatus huh? Immediately ahead of me is a an archway, beyond which lies a pillar of some kind. It has a pedestal for the Sheikah Slate, but on top is some kind of rotating gyroscope, glowing orange. There is a gap in the path extending behind it, a black stone column hovering in the middle of the gap. Examining the pedestal pulls the camera back wide, the floating stone column at the center of the screen.

Simple enough...

Following the on screen commands, I figure out I can rotate the column by rotating my controller. I play with this a little bit before noticing a chest attached to one of the sides of the column. I then rotate the column so that the chest is sitting up right and end my control of the gyroscope and column. I get a Shield of the Mind’s Eye out of the chest before continuing beyond, as the path winds up and to the right.

Another gyroscope puzzle, though one more difficult. Instead of just rotating a column into a bridge, I have to line up three sets of stairs. The middle stairs are attached to a long beam, and the stairs slide up and down it as I rotate the gyroscope. Very carefully, I tilt the controller, slowly edging the stairs into place after first overshooting it a couple of times. I jump to the first set and climb up the other two, following the path up once again to a final gyroscope puzzle.

Oh fuck you, Toto Sah.

What the hell is this. I don’t even know what to call this shape honestly. It looks like one of the puzzles from Intelligent Qube for PS1. Just a bunch of cubes stacked together into a weird diamond shape. I activate the gyroscope and try rotating the object this way and that. I need to find a position where I can both jump onto and off of the puzzle at both ends, AND make sure I can walk across it as well. There’s also the added benefit of another one of those sliding staircases that needs to be placed just so, AND there’s another chest, on a totally different section, so I’ll need to do this twice.

Sigh. It’s not nearly as complicated as my complaining makes it sound, but this is the internet, so you get to hear me bitch. First up is the chest. Awkwardly clutching my controller, I get the jagged, narrow path to the chest lined up so I can cross, opening it and gaining a Small Key! So I guess the chest actually was required to finish this.

It's a pretty cool door opening animation IMO.

I walk back over to the gyroscope and activate it again. I slowly move the puzzle around, gauging for the possible solutions. The stairs are a good clue, I don’t think they’d stick those there if I didn’t need to use them. After realizing that, the rest was easy. Holding my controller at an awkward angle, I line up both ends of the puzzle as the stairs slowly slide into place. Bam, I climb onto the puzzle, up the stairs, and onto the path on the other side.

The only things standing between me and another Spirit Orb are a locked door and Toto Sah himself. Neither put up much of a fight, and I’m back outside before I know it. Well, outside but in a cave. Whatever. It’s still night time, so let’s go see if our skeleton friend is out and about.

Hickaly Woods

I swim back across the river to Fabio, and I notice two things. First, right next to me in a tree stump is a rock. Pick it up, and voila! Korok. The second is that it’s daytime. Sigh. I walk over just to confirm, yep, he is asleep. Well, we can fix that: I fast travel back to the stable, wait until night by the campfire, and then fast travel back to Toto Sah Shrine. Bam, Skelefriend is awake. I can see him lumbering around his “section” of Hickaly Woods from a distance. Now to figure out how to kill him. I hop off Fabio, leaving him just outside the treeline for his own protection. Skellie hasn’t noticed me, so I circle around the forest, keeping him in my sight.

I can see that just behind him are some rocks that look perfect for launching a few arrows from. I inch closer, still making sure he doesn’t notice me, until I make a dash to hide behind the rocks. It seemingly works, as no health bar appears no does any boss music start. I doubt I’ll have long once I’m up there before he notices me. No idea what his attacks might be but I’ll at least be able to land a few good shots on him, hopefully. Let’s do it.

I climb the rocky hill to the very top, putting me just above Skellie. I finally get a real good look at him. Not that there’s much to look at: he’s a giant skeleton. He has a single giant eye, which appears to be the only part of him that ISN’T bone. He also seems to have weapons sticking out of him - like, actual, usable weapons. Maybe I can pry them out when he’s dead? Or redead (I'm here all week).

Here goes nothing...

The boss music suddenly kicks in. I see the health bar appear on the screen finally, along with the Skellie’s real name: Stalnox. Similar to the stone talus on the plateau, this one also lists our location - Hickaly Woods. Wonder why that’s labeled… I pull out my bow and take aim, waiting for the giant to lumber just a little closer. Since I’m not pulling any punches, I switch over to bomb arrows.

Oof. There’s goes that eye… I watch him stumble on the ground helplessly as the orb flies from it’s socket. I can see it on the ground, moving, probably trying to get back to its body. Well, we can’t have that can we? I float down and begin attacking it immediately. I manage to get a few good licks in before the eye is scooped back up and placed back into the stalnox’s head.

This is the part where I remember I am a tiny squishy Hylian and he is a gigantic monster who wants to kill me. Eep. I start to move away from Skellie, his slow lurch not enough to keep up with me. I try and hit his eye with another arrow, but miss, and once he gets close enough he attempts to squish me with his bony bottom. Even without hitting the eye though, I still manage to do some damage. At least I’ve got an attack pattern now.

Warning: Do not explode bomb arrows near eye.

I repeat this, doing moderate if not steady damage. Eventually Skellie gets fed up with all my running around and just straight walks up to a tree and yanks it from the ground. Shit. Better hit that eye again. I run north towards the river and take aim. Bullse...skeleton’s eye. Said eye rolls towards me next to the river bank, and I once again start hitting it. Funny enough, the weapon I have equipped is called a bat, and we all know what bats like to do to balls…

Though it doesn’t go far, it goes far enough - over the cliffside, and onto the riverbank. I immediately give chase. I have no idea how the body is gonna get to it from there, but I bet I can kill it before it figures it out. The helpless eye struggles as I wail on it over and over, futilely attempting to reunite with its body. I can hear the Stalnox’s stomping in the distance, still safely far away from me and it’s eye.

The fight doesn’t last much longer. I almost feel bad for the eye as I watch it helplessly flail around.

Almost.

---

Heart Containers: 5
Shrines Completed: 9
Koroks Found: 20
Hidden Shrine: Discovered
Bomb Arrows: Exploded
Skeleton: Fossilized