As for yesterday's play session, now that I had found the Spring of Wisdom and Power, I was really itching to find the Spring of Courage and to finally use one of the dragon scales I had been carrying for it once I clued in that the other springs had required them.
The first time I encountered Farosh was in the Faron jungle as I was trying to get to different towers and fill in my map. As I encountered him, my shrine seeker was beeping. I saw him go into some water and then come out. I thought there might be something hidden around the water there. So, off I went to the Faron region. I hurried over to the spot of water I had seen him go in. I battled a few enemies on the way and my Shrine Seeker would beep intermittently. But arriving at the spot didn't really yield anything but a couple treasure chests. So, I decided to thoroughly cover the area since I'd now gone through it a bit and had run through it before so best to make sure it was complete and keep from having to cover the same ground again later. As I began to cover the jungle area around Lake Floria and its surrounding falls, I encountered a Stalnox (I think is how you spell it). I had encountered one before but day came before I finished fighting it and it disappeared before the battle I could defeat it. This time, I was able to take it out. Much like a Hinox, the battles against these guys aren't as scary as they initially were. Later, I encountered a Stone Tanus which I think can be a little bit tougher than a Hinox, particularly if the ore weakness is on the side of the body where it is hard to swing and hit. Fortunately, this one was on the top and after climbing to the top once, I was able to take it down on that first try thanks to the Royal Claymores I'm rocking. I uncovered all kinds of treasure chests in the area and a few Koroks. I found out why my Shrine seeker was kind of useless for awhile and that's because there are 3 shrines in that area and are all kind of hidden. Part of the reason I haven't gone on a Shrine hunt is because I like how they sort of break up the game when you just come across them in your trials. After uncovering some treasure and carefully searching the land, its nice to have a puzzle break to do something different for a bit.
Having come up empty on my search for the Spring of Courage, I kept debating myself if I should get back to my Mei search or finish searching some other areas I'd been putting off. However, I'd just keep covering a bit more of the Faron region and a bit more. Suddenly, I heard the roar of a Lynel as I was exploring. I figured it must have been coming from the top of a plateau nearby that I couldn't see from my vantage point. I carefully climbed up to be able to see with my camera but not let myself be spotted and, sure enough, there was the Lynel. A white haired one also. Thinking about the Link memory a couple days ago of him having defeated a bunch of these guys at once, I decided to go for it and see if I could take down one of these guys. I equipped myself for that battle, ate a bit of food to make sure I was at full health and then went for it. It went pretty darn smooth. I was a bit more aware of it's attacks so I knew to jump when it struck the ground with its spear and was able to dodge out of the way of its charge attacks. I wasn't able to activate any fury rushes but using other weapons to shock and stun it, I was able to take it down anyways and didn't even run out of hearts or need to recover anything during the battle. This time I got some better gear and parts out of it. A short while later, I also encountered a Red Hinox and took him down. I was just dominating all the powerful enemies of the game. Having thoroughly covered a good portion of the map with easy to remember borders of where I left off and prevent missing or redoing parts of my Hyrule exploration, I decided it was time to move on.
Looking at my map, there was one area that sort of intrigued me between Lake Hylia and the Lake Floria/Faron region. It was in the back end of some woods and looked like it might be a structure or villain dwelling of some sort but definitely almost like a mouth of some sort. Heading in that direction, I encountered some rusted old Guardians stuck in the ground. I always have my guard up when encountering them and, sure enough, one came to life which was good. I was hoping to get the chance to try deflecting the laser beam with a shield like Luigi Dude and Nickmitch were talking about and this one would be stationary. It fired its beam and I knocked it right back destroying it which is good and bad. Well, it was another great game ego boost to take it down instantly, I don't know if I already have the timing right for deflecting it or just got lucky so I'll have to find some more to see for sure. Got to a point where I could see my objective and began paragliding down to it.
As I got close, I could see something sparkling since it was night time but the sparkle reminded me of a Metroid Prime save station. I was wondering what the heck this object might be. Landing on top of the stone structure, I realized it looked sort of like a lizard with an open mouth and surrounding this structure amongst the ruins were a bunch of Lizalfos. Had I come upon the Lizalfos home or some sacred Lizalfos spot? I snipered away a few I could reach but was eventually spotted and had them sounding their horns of danger. Fortunately due to the positioning of them, I ended up just going through one on one battles against the rest so it was an easy enough task to defeat them all. With that taken care of, I went into the gaping maw to this mysterious glowing only to see it was a circular glow around a Goddess statue surrounded by water. I had just found the Spring of Courage after all! And here I thought I was wrong about it being in the Faron region! Offered a scale, got the blessing of a shrine and that was that.
One thing I want to mention before I forget it is that having unlocked the last Great Fairy, I was down to 799 rupees. However, my careful examination of the Faron region and uncovering various treasure chests meant that by the time I left it and moved on to other stuff, I was at 3,200 rupees. It's part of why I like looking for treasure chests and taking my time with this game. Instead of trying to grind away at rupees and find ways to acquire them and other things instantly, if I just take my time, I will get everything I need. I'm in no rush. Plenty of other stuff to explore and cover with what I do have. There's always something to discover whether big or small. It also hit me that the Korok seed search is like the biggest game of Video Game Hide and Seek yet created.
Wanting to work on upgrading my Champion's tunic, I needed some shards of horn from Naydra. Off I went to Mt. Lanayru in hopes of spotting it. I finally saw it come into sight but it was flying off to the valley with the Lanayru Prominade. I went in that direction. I remembered still about a Lynel and Hinox I saw early, early on in this game by an Eastern gate of the Lanayru Prominade. In fact, this was the first Lynel I had encountered in the game. I took a picture of it from far away but it somehow noticed and spotted me far up on the mountain I was on and started shooting arrows at me. This surprised me as most other enemies didn't have that range so I began running in the opposite direction I was I was running, I was hit by something from above and got a Game Over. That left me stunned because I couldn't see the Lynel from behind the mountain after I put some distance on it and me. Could it fly? Had it been flying above me and shot me down? I later learned that Lynels just have great aim with arrows but that encounter left me very, very wary about Lynels ever since. Well, here was a chance to get revenge. I paraglided down to it but was surprised to see it was also a white-haired Lynel. I could have sworn it was red before. No matter. My sudden sky attack began the battle and it was on! Having gotten more use to Lynel attacks I was able to dodge him even better. Still got knocked around a bit but it never ended up being anything too serious and I took him down. One thing I noticed was that at times it would blow fire at me causing the grass to burn which then signaled there was an updraft. So I started paragliding up into the air and back down on it from different angles and could even mount it a couple times this way. Another successful Lynel battle. I then went to the Hinox I knew was nearby and quickly dispatched it to. My Link is now a warrior and I'm feeling close to invincible in this game provided I don't go making a bunch of mistakes like my encounter with the Bokoblins on horses. Got my items and then went to upgrade some more armor and call it a night.
That's when I realized what the difference has probably been between my disaster encounter with the first white-haired Lynel I tried to fight and the recent ones I have fought. The first one I fought was in the Gerudo Highlands which are covered in snow. This meant I was wearing different clothing to counter the environmental effects and that clothing was weak / hardly upgraded. The other Lynels I've been fighting have been after I've equipped my best clothing. At this point, I have some items that are fully maxed in upgrades. For instance, the Hylian outfit is completely maxed. It was easy enough to do and I always had the needed products to do so. As such, my defenses have been much higher in these other battles. That's why I've only been losing half a heart of so when I Lynel does get in a blow compared to the first battle where it could wipe out most of my health in a couple hits. Some of you players, maybe even all of you, may have clued into that fact but it only hit me last night and it was a revelatory yet "oh duh" moment that I figured I should mention it in case it hasn't occurred to others who may be struggling with Lynels or other tougher enemies still. While the Zora's Domain Lynel may be weaker than other Lynels, better armor is probably the bigger factor in why that was my first successful encounter besides how powerful or weak it may be.