In Which I Am a Backtracking Shutterbug

I walk into the lab after warping in, moving to Symin in the back. I hand over the three sunshrooms as requested, and in return he gives me 3 Hearty Truffles. He asks if I liked using the Sheikah Sensor+, and then also let’s me know he has something else he wants to talk to me about, when I have a chance.

Wait, is she making rocker hands?

No time like the present, my dude! He says he’s found another way to help my search for stuff with the Sensor. He again goes over how I can use pictures to blahblahblah. Then he asks me to put my Slate back on the Guidance Stone. Even Purah is in the dark about what he’s about to do, but wants to see it anyway so she allows it. (Snap!)

Rather than a rune or an upgrade, a picture is added to my Hyrule Compendium - this one is for Mighty Bananas, something I haven’t found in the wild yet (heh). Apparently, Symin discovered that it’s possible to recover pictures that were in the compendium in the past. Which they will be happy to do for me...for a nominal fee. I mean, that’s cool but I think I’ll enjoy taking these pictures myself. In fact… It probably wouldn’t hurt to fill in what I can right now, right? Then It’ll be easier to keep updated as I go along.

Time for a quick trip back to the Great Plateau! It won’t take too long, just enough to grab shots of the enemies and items that I can, then I’ll make the walk down to Dueling Peaks Stable, and then I’ll warp back here. Anything on the Kakariko-Hateno path I can grab on my way back to Impa. Actually that reminds me, I have another side quest I can complete now, I should be able to find a Traveler’s Sword somewhere on the plateau.

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Back back back again...

The Great Plateau

I don’t find a single Traveler’s Sword on the plateau. Not a single one. Did the ones i found earlier all come from chests? I scour the plateau, hitting all of the Bokoblin camps I can remember, but none of them are carrying one. Sigh.

I work quickly though, cataloging things as I search. I learnt hat while you can add enemies, you cannot add the parts they drop. The same is true for animals. But the Compendium lists what each creature can drop, so you essentially are still able to hunt down anything you need, you just have to find the thing to kill for it first.

I also learn, entirely by accident, that you can take selfies! You can even have Link make a number of different poses using the left thumb stick. And even more when you hit the ZL button, for a total of nine. I screw around a little with it, taking pictures of my equipment for the Compendium while having Link make any number of ridiculous poses.

Once I’m finished there, I make my way down the path through the East Post and Outpost Ruins. I take pictures of the Moblins and a few other ingredients and items I couldn’t find on the plateau. Bugs and other critters prove particularly difficult, since the camera requires you to be fairly close for the picture to register, even with the zoom.

In an attempt to capture some of these creatures on camera, I wandered a bit far from the path, ending up southeast of Outpost Ruins on a small hill. A hill with a boulder on it that I don’t think twice about… until it starts moving, revealing itself to be a Talus. That makes three. This one looks different from the last two though - instead of a normal Ore Deposit weak point, this one appears to have a Luminous Stone Deposit sticking out of it’s back. It also has the subtitle (Luminous) after it’s name, if that wasn’t clear. Didn’t realize these could have subtypes!

Oww.

Before the fight gets going, I snap a picture of it for my compendium - it registers different to the one on the plateau that I snapped a picture of not too long ago. Similar to the different colored bokoblins and moblins, they are considered different creatures. Incidentally, I also learned that the bokoblins I’ve been referring to as black are in fact blue.

This fight seems more difficult to my tumbles with the last two taluses. I don’t know if it has higher defense or HP, but it’s health bar seems to be going down much slower than them. His weak point is also placed in something of an odd location, directly on the center of it’s back, and I end up relying on my bombs more than I do arrows to know it over. But, when it’s knocked to the ground I can nail him head on with a sledgehammer pretty easily.

It’s a more difficult fight then I care to admit to - he actually even killed me once, forcing me to start the battle over upon reloading - but I eventually manage to take him down in a nice explosion of Luminous Stones, Flint, and even a Diamond! I mark my map with a skull to mark the location of the Talus for future reference.

With THAT adventure down, I should get moving again...right after I explore that building I now see just a little further southeast of here, on a place called Scout’s Hill.

Scout’s Hill

This game really needs a photo mode. So creepy/beautiful.

There’s not much, just a solitary building/ruin, but it seems like it was important enough to label in fairly large letters on the map… oh well. It’s nice up here, peaceful. I would be very, very curious to see a version of this Hyrule with all the buildings still in tact. It would be a very different game. I also find a lone rock in the middle of the ruin. Korok!

There’s nothing else here for me to do, I suppose. I could hang out with my Korok buddy? Nah. I pull out my scope and scan the horizon for anything interesting. There’s plenty to the south and west, but for now I’m sticking to portions of the map that are uncovered - I’ve got enough to do as it is.

I see a few things across the river that could be interesting, but nothing that wouldn’t require some off-the-path climbing. So instead, I glide towards Proxim bridge, following down the Hylia River, name so because it seems to empty into Lake Hylia to the south. I can’t quite make the distance to the bridge and land on a beach just south of it - and right next to another Korok puzzle. It’s a Magnesis puzzle, so I switch runes and make the two sets of blocks match and get my Korok Seed.

...I could crush you so easily...

I climb up the beach hills, intending to walk my way back around to the path. Purely out of habit, looking for bugs or critters hiding under rocks, I grab one just up the first hill. And it reveals another Korok. This brings my Korok Seed total to 40!

After that little surprise, I notice a small Bokoblin camp on another beach just below me ahead. Been a little while since I’ve seen one of these I haven’t already slaughtered! They’re all red boys, so it’s not a difficult or long fight - and bokoblins still can’t swim, so with a few well placed swings, they are all quickly down for the count. I open a nearby chest to obtain an Opal, which I am happy to replenish my gemstone stores with.

This was intensely satisfying.

Standing on this small peninsula the bokoblins made camp on, I can see...something under Proxim Bridge. And even looking at the map, I looks like there’s a sandbar, or at least shallow enough water for me to stand under one of the awnings. Should be able to swim there from here…

It’s another Korok. Damn dudes, that’s like, four of them in a row. Now if I could just locate Hestu to spend them…

Hills of Baumer

Rather then continue on the path I’ve already traveled, I decide to follow along the hilltops to the south. I had already been up here once, avoiding the boulder traps as I navigated up the large fallen logs. This time I just climb up the old fashioned way. I can see a huge swamp to the south, just littered with burnt out buildings. It’s very tempting to explore down there...but I hold off.

...Jesus Christ is that another Korok? I see an orange pinwheel on one of the hills rocky peaks. As I approach and pull out my bow, three balloon targets burst into existence, and immediately begin to move about in a confusing pattern. Never easy with these guys. I waste about half a dozen arrows, lost to the swamp below, but I nail all three balloons and get my 5th Korok Seed in a row, bringing me to a total of 41.

WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH YOU!?

I continue along the hilltops further, passing by the Korok I found over here earlier, happily chilling in his spot on the giant logs. A few more hilltops over and I find another oddity. Three trees, all lined up perfectly. Two of the trees hold only a single apple, while the third holds many. Even the two trees that have the single apple have them in the exact same location. Hmm. This has to be a puzzle, right?

But what? First, I try picking all the apples. Nope. Maybe the apples make some kind of arrow that I just can’t see from this angle? I try firing off arrows in the direction it would be pointing, nothing. Oh! Maybe I have to throw a boomerang around all three trees? Nope, nothing, and I almost lost my boomerang too. Finally, I try cutting the trees down, starting with the one that held the most apples. And still nothing happens.

Sigh.

I hate Koroks.

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Heart Containers: 5
Shrines Completed: 11
Koroks Found: 41
Symin: Sunshroomed
Traveler’s Swords: Lost to the ether
Korok Puzzles: Frustrating as all hell