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[GendoIkari]

One could argue that some of the frustration arose from outside information (location of the shrine) being only partial information, whereas the game counted on you having no information... I guess?  It's an apologist's viewpoint for sure.

Actually, that relates to another issue… a lot of people, myself included, assumed that going to Hyrule castle to confront fake Zelda would lead straight to the end of the game. Had I known that wasn’t the case, then I wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to find shrine 152 right then. I would have gone and beat the castle, gotten the ring quest, cleared up thunderhead, and guessed right away that the missing shrine must be on this big sky island I had never been to. So I never would have used any external source to get all shrines.

[pacovf]

Got back to TotK after a summer break. I have two temples done, and all 12 tears, and seen most of the surface world other than the areas around Gerudo and Zora domains.

Did a quick trip to Hyrule castle, and explored the surface and floating areas, since a note from Zelda implies you should visit the throne room. It felt less epic than in BotW, but I assume because there is more left underground. Without spoilers, should I be leaving the underground part of the castle until the endgame, or is it fine to visit earlier?

[GendoIkari]

Got back to TotK after a summer break. I have two temples done, and all 12 tears, and seen most of the surface world other than the areas around Gerudo and Zora domains.

Did a quick trip to Hyrule castle, and explored the surface and floating areas, since a note from Zelda implies you should visit the throne room. It felt less epic than in BotW, but I assume because there is more left underground. Without spoilers, should I be leaving the underground part of the castle until the endgame, or is it fine to visit earlier?

You can easily get the light root under the castle without doing anything endgame, but there’s not a whole lot else to explore there until you want to beat the game.

[GendoIkari]

All wells found! We did just fully use a map for the last several. We got a companion app for the iPad which works really well. Basically going to an area we haven’t explored well, and using the app to mark off every korok as we find it. Only using map for koroks and wells so far. Because caves have more in-game ways of finding them, trying to see if we can get them all without a guide. Only 13 left!

[Cuzz]

I'm toward the end of the main story, and am just really confused about something, based on having done some things out of order. I got Mineru's mask and did the construct factory before going to the castle, and so after doing the castle they try to prompt me on my big quest to find the fifth sage and then are just like "oh wow you already found her, ok I guess you can just go try to find Gannondorf now."

The weird thing then was I immediately go to talk to Purah again and she says again (paraphrasing) "Ok, now you need to go find Gannondorf." But it then showed the Link talking animation, and Purah says "Oh you found him already? He's in the Depths? Go tell Josha." I talk to Josha, and she's like "Oh wow, you found him! My work paid off, yay!"

What's confusing is that I have no idea what I did to trigger that interaction. I had never had any opportunity to talk to Josha about Gannondorf, and as far as I know I have not actually found him yet (in the game at least--it's no real surprise where he is). I have not been into the chasm under the castle, nor into the part of the Depths anywhere near there.

There's either something I did ages ago that I don't remember, or it triggered just based on getting close enough to the chasm for it to mark on the map, or it's a logic error in the game, but it's very bizarre.

[GendoIkari]

I had a couple guesses as to what quest would lead to that dialogue happening, and found this article that confirmed one of them was correct. Basically it's when you fight Kohga, he says "in the darkness below the castle, where the Demon King now dwells. Yes, where the end of all things will begin! In the deepest reaches of the Depths... Far beneath Hyrule Castle!" So technically speaking Purah didn't expect you to even find him or do that whole quest until after everything else.

The whole "intended" order is pretty weird, really. Clearly a lot of people are going to do a lot of things before Purah tells you to. Fun fact, you can even beat a regional phenomena without talking to Purah the first time to get the paraglider, and there's special dialogue for that too.

[Cuzz]

Ah ok that makes sense. I had no memory of that dialog since I did all that ages ago, plus it’s weird to even treat the location of Gannondorf like a mystery if he’s gonna end up in the first place anyone would guess.

[GendoIkari]

Not only the first place anyone would guess, but also literally exactly where it shows you he is in the opening prologue. The game begins with Link and Zelda exploring the depths under Hyrule Castle and stumbling upon Ganondorf there. There's no suggestion that he's moved or left since then.

[GendoIkari]

Finished the sky last night. That is to say; we have all the old maps, sage's wills, and sky koroks. If anything else is up there, it's a couple random chests we missed somewhere with a random Zoanite Charge in it or whatever. No real way to know (not going to use the map/guide and specifically double-check every chest location... but we have had the chest sensor on almost the whole game and opened every one that was sensed). Theoretically there could still be an undefeated Flux Construct up there; but not likely at all.

[GendoIkari]

Ceave made a review! For those who don’t know, Ceave is a great YouTuber that used to do lots of very interesting mostly Mario-related videos, but he took a step away from being a full time YouTuber a year or two ago and rarely does new videos now.

Anyway, I’m only 6 minutes into this long video, but he already amazingly captured my exact biggest problem with the game, by pointing out yet another example where the game gives you frustration if you don’t do everything in the “correct” order. It’s something from the tutorial area that I had no idea was a possible issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ldmt3eU2I

[GendoIkari]

I've now watched a few different reviews from different YouTubers, and they all seem to say the same thing, which largely lines up with my opinion: Amazing game, 10 out of 10, deserves all the praise it gets, and filled with frustratingly bad gameplay decisions.

We have 3 caves left to find. Unfortunately it does look like we're on track to finish everything except armor upgrades well ahead of all armor upgrades; which will leave us with nothing to do but grind out lizalfos tails and gems.

[GendoIkari]

Lots of progress!

Found the last 3 caves, without any sort of guide or external hints. Actually found all 3 while not at all looking for them; just randomly stumbled upon them. Also finished the compendium. Did use a guide for that one; to learned what a few of our missing things were. All pictures found naturally other than the 2 monsters that were missed.

About 950 korok seeds, and doing pretty well on the armor. Mostly need Electric Lizalfos Tails and still plenty more topaz and sapphire, as well as a bunch of other random stuff still. But finished grinding out the Gleeok guts; which was fighting the King Gleeok in the depths about 12 times, ever time there was a blood moon. The other Gleeoks only have a small chance of giving guts.

Gleeoks are kind of stupidly easy now. I never see the final phase when they fly up really high. I always kill them as they're just starting that ascent.

[GendoIkari]

After only 445 hours playing since May 12, 2023, we have finished Tears of the Kingdom!

• Shrines: 152/152 (With all chests from all shrines)
• Lightroots: 120/120
• Towers: 15/15
• Memories: 18/18
• Korok Seeds: 1000/1000
• Map percentage: 100%
• Wells: 58/58
• Caves/Bubbul Gems: 147/147 (No guide used)
• Main Quests: 23/23 (Current save file only shows 21 because the fact that you completed the last 2 isn't one of the things that is remembered after beating the game)
• Side Adventures: 60/60
• Shrine Quests: 31/31
• Side Quests: 139/139 (Guide used for just the last 2)
• Miniboss Medals: 6/6 (defeating every Molduga, Talus, Hinox, Flux Construct, Gleeok, and Frox)
• Recipes: 228/228
• Compendium: 509/509 (2 permanently missed ones were bought; the rest were manually taken)
• Hudson Construction Signs: 81/81 (Guide needed for the final 8)
• Armor: 136/136; all upgraded to level 4 except the ones you can't upgrade
• Fabrics: 29/29 (not counting the many Amiibo-only ones)
• Horse Upgrades: 1 horse fully upgraded to max 5 stars on all stats
• Pony Points: Over 50 (where there are no more unique rewards)
• Schema Stones: 12/12
• Yiga Schematics: 34/34
• Old Maps: 31/31
• Energy Cells: 48/48
• Sage’s Wills: 20/20
• Horse Gear: 13/13
• Dungeon Boss Refights: 12/12
• Zonai Dispensers: 30/30 (All used so no more unknown devices listed)
• Treasure Chests: A pretty decent chance that we have 100%. Basically impossible to know for sure.

Did I miss anything? I know there's a lot of overlap listed there (like you have to get all wells to get 100% sidequests or 100% map completion). Also stuff I didn't list which is purely overlap (of course I unlocked all faeries if I got all armor to level 4).

[pacovf]

I am only about 100hrs in, been getting in and out of it over the past months. I admire your dedication though! Do you think you're done with TotK forever, or do you intend to replay it?

How do you track old maps? I think I have them all just based on my thorough exploration of the sky islands, but would be cool to know for sure.

[GendoIkari]

I am only about 100hrs in, been getting in and out of it over the past months. I admire your dedication though! Do you think you're done with TotK forever, or do you intend to replay it?

How do you track old maps? I think I have them all just based on my thorough exploration of the sky islands, but would be cool to know for sure.

Old maps show up in your special items inventory; whether the chest they point to has been opened yet or not. To know that I had them all, I just looked up how many total there were. Same with Yiga Schematics and Schema Stones.

I don't see myself replaying the game much; but I did just start a new playthrough for a very specific purpose... I want to get all compendium pictures manually. I plan to do the minimal amount necessary to make that as fast as possible. So I'll do some shrines just because the extra stamina and hearts will help with faster progression in general, but no idea how many. So far in just a couple hours, I've gotten off the great sky island, gotten the camera, and taken somewhere around 70 pictures. It's a fun challenge at the start because new stuff to add to the compendium is just everywhere. It will get more tedious when it comes to hunting down the remaining ones; especially pristine weapons. Doing this will require beating the game, to get the Ganondorf pictures.

One of the reasons I'm doing this is because there's a quest, "filling out the compendium", which is started when you first get the ability to purchase new compendium entries, and completed when you purchase your first entry. I want to see/know how it gets completed if you never purchase an entry. At the least there must be some different dialogue or something. No one on Reddit seemed to know the answer.

[GendoIkari]

Close to done with my "all pictures" run. A couple annoying snags... I have to do all the Hateno mayor sidequests stuff to get sun pumpkins to exist in the world. I knew about that from the start. But I just found out that it's impossible to get a picture of the Daybreaker shield without beating the Lightning Temple. I wasn't planning on doing any of the Gerudo mission stuff... All the other champion weapons can be gotten by finding the champion themselves, but Riju doesn't wield the shield.

A couple other weapons will require Amiibo, especially the Dusk Claymore which would otherwise require defeating all dungeons. I had planned on only doing the Wind Temple (you have to do 1 temple to get Robbie to go back to the tech lab, and it made sense to get Tulin for the movement). All the other main bosses should be able to be gotten in the final battle. I did have to do just enough Sidon and Yunobo stuff to get the pre-temple bosses that show up for those.

[GendoIkari]

Done! I had to save-scum the amiibo a few times to get them to drop the special weapons I needed. Same with the shadow statues for the last few pristine weapons. So the answer to that one side quest... basically after you get the fabric for getting all pictures (you have to interact with Robbie's compendium to trigger that), the "Filling out the Compendium" side adventure pops up as completed. Kind of what I expected; though it would have been nice if Robbie had some different dialogue for it or something.

[GendoIkari]

Forgot to mention the difficult challenge of the final boss when you aren't maxed out. Like in BOTW, you have to do a boss rush where you defeat all dungeon bosses you didn't defeat. You have to beat all those bosses without saving in between; though it does save after those and before Ganondorf. You're also fighting them without the helper that's specifically designed to help with that boss. Ghoma's not too bad; you just ascend up through him like you do a Talus. Seized Construct was quite difficult though. Then Ganondorf himself... no Master Sword, about 15 hearts, and only a total of 9 armor defense makes it quite a difficult fight. Took me 2 tries, and I used a lot of gloom healing and regular healing foods. The losing hearts thing actually felt like it mattered unlike when I went in with 38 hearts. I think by the end I was down to 9 to 10 hearts.

Then when the dragon part starts, you get a cutscene of pulling the master sword out of the light dragon, so you have it for the final phase. Interestingly, dragon ganondorf can be hurt without the master sword though. Regular weapons just do a very tiny amount of damage to him; so you clearly are supposed to use the master sword. Just for fun, I used a regular weapon for the final hits, though it auto switches to the master sword for the final "press A to end the game" thing.