Palace of the Wild
Solution
The puzzle consists of a map and some clues. The map style resembles those of older Legend of Zelda games, and it contains rupees. This, along with the title reference “of the Wild,” hints that the clues should be locations in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We can use an interactive map to help find these locations. In addition, the enumerations of the location names are given in alphabetical order below the clues. This can help disambiguate which names are correct, as some clues have multiple reasonable answers. The solutions to the clues are as follows.
| Step | Clue | Location | Reasoning | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You begin at the place where the hero woke up. Man, what a dingy little room. | SHRINE OF RESURRECTION | You begin the game waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection. | 6 2 12 |
| 2 | Feeling daring, you head to a thunderous location, which is aptly named. As you arrive, you see the hero in the middle of a quest, when suddenly — all the thunder stopped! Looks like the hero finished his quest. | THUNDRA PLATEAU | The Thundra Plateau is under a perpetual thunderstorm. Here you unlock the “Trial of Thunder” quest. Completing the quest causes the Toh Yahsa Shrine to appear. After completing the shrine, the thunderstorm dissipates. | 7 7 |
| 3 | Looking to meet people, you go searching for a village. Eventually, you come across a town that appears only partially built. The locals mention how the hero has been helping build up the village. | TARREY TOWN | When you first arrive in Tarrey Town, it is uninhabited. After completing the “Hylian Homeowner” quest, Hudson appears in Tarrey Town. Talking to him unlocks the “From the Ground Up” quest, which entails building up Tarrey Town into a village. | 6 4 |
| 4 | You find yourself in the mood to admire some artwork. What better piece than the statue of Mipha herself? | ZORAS DOMAIN | Mipha’s statue is located in the center of Zora’s Domain. | 4'1 6 |
| 5 | Continuing in the same direction, you notice a large curved peninsula. What a peculiar shape! | CAPE CRESIA | Zora’s Domain is south of Tarrey Town. Heading south again, the only large curved peninsula is Cape Cresia. | 4 6 |
| 6 | You’ve always been curious about riding horses. You find the horse god to see if they have any tips, but they overwhelm you with details and jargon. You decide to take a dip in the nearest lake to cool your mind off. | LAKE OF THE HORSE GOD | The horse god, named Malanya, resides at the Malanya Spring. The nearest lake is the Lake of the Horse God. | 4 2 3 5 3 |
| 7 | You reminisce about your favorite game from the series — one of the biggest on the GameCube. As you’re wandering, you notice a location with the same name as a dungeon from said game. How lucky! | ARBITERS GROUNDS | The biggest Zelda games on the GameCube are Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. The only locations that share a name with any dungeon from these games are Arbiter’s Grounds (TP) and the Temple of Time (TP). Temple of Time only fits one enumeration and is used later, so this must be Arbiter’s Grounds. | 7'1 7 |
| 8 | In the distance, you notice a fight breaking out between the hero and Kohga. As you approach, it looks like they’re not taking advantage of each other’s weaknesses. This must be the first time they’ve fought. | YIGA CLAN HIDEOUT | The first and only place you fight Master Kohga is at the end of the Yiga Clan Hideout. | 4 4 7 |
| 9 | All this adventuring has worn you out. You heard about these so-called secret springs, and now is the perfect time to look for them. You find the nearest such spring. Ah, just as relaxing as you’d hoped for. | STURNIDA SECRET HOT SPRING | The only Springs with “Secret” in the name are the three Secret Hot Springs. The nearest one is the Sturnida Secret Hot Spring. | 8 6 3 6 |
| 10 | Now you have an archaeological itch. You head out in search of a location forgotten to time. Wow, it’s even named as such! | FORGOTTEN TEMPLE | The only location with “Forgotten” in its name is the Forgotten Temple. | 9 6 |
| 11 | Next, you decide to challenge your fitness. You head outdoors to a place that tests your vertical mobility. This should be fun! | GUT CHECK ROCK | Gut Check Rock is a tall pinnacle where the Goron Blood Brothers reside. Talking to them initiates the “Gut Check Challenge” quest, in which you must climb Gut Check Rock. | 3 5 4 |
| 12 | In the distance, you notice a giant maze. Sounds like a fun test of your mental skills! You fly in, as there’s no other way to enter. | LOMEI LABYRINTH ISLAND | There are three Labyrinths in the game. The only one with a raised entrance is Lomei Labyrinth Island. | 5 9 6 |
| 13 | You decide to go mountaineering. You find a mountain named after a sage from the first 3D game in the series. What a cool tribute! | RUTO MOUNTAIN | The first 3D Zelda game is Ocarina of Time. The only mountains named after a sage from Ocarina of Time are Ruto Mountain and Mount Nabooru. Only Ruto Mountain fits an enumeration. | 4 8 |
| 14 | In the mood for snow, you end up in a snowfield. As you’re playing around with the snow, the hero walks over to you. Seems like he just unlocked a core memory and wanted to talk to someone about it. | NAYDRA SNOWFIELD | The “Captured Memories” quest has you recovering Memories from locations indicated by photos. The only Snowfield with a Memory is Naydra Snowfield. | 6 9 |
| 15 | You feel a bit grimy, so you look for a spring to wash up. You find a spring named after a piece of the Triforce. Or is it a wellspring? Oh well, you’re feeling clean now. | SPRING OF WISDOM | There are three springs named after a piece of the Triforce — the Springs of Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Only the Spring of Wisdom fits an enumeration. | 6 2 6 |
| 16 | Eager to learn more about the hero, you decide to head to his newly built house. Wow, his decor is certainly something. You go to the nearest village to ask for the locals’ opinions. | HATENO VILLAGE | In Hateno Village, you can talk to Bolson to unlock the “Hylian Homeowner” quest. Bolson asks for materials to restore an abandoned house. Upon completion you can purchase the house. | 6 7 |
| 17 | Continuing in the hero’s footsteps, you head to where he received his iconic paraglider. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get your hands on a cool item as well. Sadly, no such luck. | TEMPLE OF TIME | King Rhoam gives you the paraglider at the top of the Temple of Time. | 6 2 4 |
| 18 | As you’re walking around, you overhear some travelers mention the hero was preparing to fight the final boss. Hang on, he hasn’t even finished any dungeons yet! You follow him into a circular arena, and watch him swiftly dispatch each boss in succession. Looks like he didn’t need to step foot in the dungeons anyway. | SANCTUM | You can choose to skip any of the dungeons, and instead head straight to the final boss. If you do this, you will have to face a boss rush of the dungeon bosses you didn’t fight. This happens in the Sanctum of Hyrule Castle, which is a circular room. | 7 |
| 19 | You find yourself at Serenne Stable. The stable owner mentioned the nearest ruins being interesting. Intrigued, you take them up on that and head over. | MARITTA EXCHANGE RUINS | The Ruins nearest to Serenne Stable are the Maritta Exchange Ruins. | 7 8 5 |
| 20 | In a tremendous lack of foresight, you decide to look for a difficult fight. You discover a walled arena that contains many strong enemies, including at least one Lynel. This goes about as well as you’d expect, but luckily you manage to escape alive. | COLISEUM RUINS | The Coliseum Ruins are a rundown combat arena overrun by strong monsters. A Lynel can be found at the center. | 8 5 |
Noticing the compass in the corner of the map, we realize that each location is a cardinal direction from the previous. If we follow these directions between rooms on the map, starting at the start square, we form a path to the end square. In other words, each location corresponds with a room on the map as we traverse the same path (ignoring distance) in the game and on the map. This can be used to narrow the scope of your search while finding locations. The final path is as follows.
Lastly, the rupees can be used as an index into their room’s corresponding location. Taking the canonical values of the rupees (blue = 5, green = 1), we get the phrase LEADER CLUE FOUR.
| Step | Location | Rupees | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SHRINE OF RESURRECTION | ||
| 2 | THUNDRA PLATEAU | 9 | L |
| 3 | TARREY TOWN | 5 | E |
| 4 | ZORAS DOMAIN | ||
| 5 | CAPE CRESIA | 2 | A |
| 6 | LAKE OF THE HORSE GOD | ||
| 7 | ARBITERS GROUNDS | 14 | D |
| 8 | YIGA CLAN HIDEOUT | 12 | E |
| 9 | STURNIDA SECRET HOT SPRING | 4 | R |
| 10 | FORGOTTEN TEMPLE | ||
| 11 | GUT CHECK ROCK | 4 | C |
| 12 | LOMEI LABYRINTH ISLAND | 1 | L |
| 13 | RUTO MOUNTAIN | 2 | U |
| 14 | NAYDRA SNOWFIELD | 13 | E |
| 15 | SPRING OF WISDOM | 8 | F |
| 16 | HATENO VILLAGE | 6 | O |
| 17 | TEMPLE OF TIME | ||
| 18 | SANCTUM | 6 | U |
| 19 | MARITTA EXCHANGE RUINS | 3 | R |
| 20 | COLISEUM RUINS |
The solution to clue 4 is Zora’s Domain, whose leader in Breath of the Wild is DOREPHAN, the final answer.