Temple of Tears

Solution

by Austin Lei and Sebastian Cordova

Art: Olga Vinogradova

Answer:
PURAH

The two maps and the puzzle title reference the previous puzzle, Palace of the Wild. The “Tears” from the title implies this puzzle is about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, rather than Breath of the Wild. The flavortext “repeating your steps” implies doing the puzzle over again with the same clues, this time inTears of the Kingdom. We can use another interactive map to help find these locations. Once again, the enumerations of the location names are given in alphabetical order below the clues. 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.	ROOM OF AWAKENING	After a short intro segment, you begin the game in earnest waking up in the Room of Awakening.	4 2 9
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.	THUNDERHEAD ISLES	The Thunderhead Isles are under a perpetual thunderstorm. Completing the “Secret of the Ring Ruins” quest causes the thunderstorm to dissipate.	11 5
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.	LURELIN VILLAGE	Lurelin Village is overrun by monsters. After clearing the monsters in the “Ruffian-Infested Village” quest, talking to Bolson unlocks the “Lurelin Village Restoration Project” quest. This quest involves gathering materials to restore Lurelin Village to a habitable state.	7 7
4	You find yourself in the mood to admire some artwork. What better piece than the statue of Mipha herself?	SHATTERBACK POINT	Mipha’s statue has been moved. It is now located at Shatterback Point.	11 5
5	Continuing in the same direction, you notice a large curved peninsula. What a peculiar shape!	RIST PENINSULA	Shatterback Point is north of Lurelin Village. Heading north again, the only large curved peninsula is Rist Peninsula.	4 9
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.	BLOODLEAF LAKE	Malanya Spring has moved. The nearest lake is now Bloodleaf Lake.	9 4
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!	WIND TEMPLE	The only additional location that shares a name with a dungeon from Wind Waker or Twilight Princess is the Wind Temple (WW). Arbiter’s Grounds and the Temple of Time still exist, but neither fit an enumeration.	4 6
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.	GREAT ABANDONED CENTRAL MINE	After unlocking the Autobuild ability in the Great Abandoned Central Mine, Master Kohga will initiate a fight. Only after this fight will Kohga appear in other locations.	5 9 7 4
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.	SECRET SPRING OF REVIVAL	The Secret Spring of Revival is the only additional Spring with “Secret” in its name, and is nearer than any of the Secret Hot Springs.	6 6 2 7
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 FOUNDATION	The only additional location with “Forgotten” in its name is the Forgotten Foundation. The Forgotten Temple still exists, but does not fit an enumeration.	9 10
11	Next, you decide to challenge your fitness. You head outdoors to a place that tests your vertical mobility. This should be fun!	COURAGE ISLAND	Dive Ceremonies involve diving from a high platform through rings of light and into a pool. There are three sky islands with a Dive Ceremony — Courage Island, Bravery Island, and Valor Island. Following the path on the map, Courage Island is the only one that fits. Note that Gut Check Rock is now uninhabited.	7 6
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.	SOUTH LOMEI CASTLE TOP FLOOR	There are six additional Labyrinths, three of which have floating entrances, as they are in the sky — Lomei Sky Labyrinth, North Lomei Castle Top Floor, and South Lomei Castle Top Floor. Following the path on the map, South Lomei Castle Top Floor is the only one that fits.	5 5 6 3 5
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!	MOUNT NABOORU	There are no additional mountains named after an Ocarina of Time sage. Ruto Mountain and Mount Nabooru still exist, but only Mount Nabooru fits an enumeration.	5 7
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.	NORTH TABANTHA SNOWFIELD	The “Dragon’s Tears” quest has you recovering Tears — memories — from locations indicated by glyphs in the terrain. The only Snowfield with a Tear is North Tabantha Snowfield.	5 8 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.	WELLSPRING OF POWER	There are three additional wellsprings named after a piece of the Triforce — the Wellsprings of Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Only the Wellspring of Power fits an enumeration.	10 2 5
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.	TARREY TOWN	After completing the “Mattison’s Independence” quest in Tarrey Town, you can purchase a nearby plot of land from Rhondson. Here, you can build your own house.	6 4
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.	LOOKOUT LANDING	Purah gives you the paraglider at the Skyview Tower in Lookout Landing.	7 7
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.	GLOOMS LAIR	Again, you can choose to skip any of the dungeons, and instead head straight to the final boss, triggering a boss rush. This happens in Gloom’s Lair, which is a circular platform.	5'1 4
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.	ROYAL ANCIENT LAB RUINS	Serenne Stable has moved, and is now called New Serenne Stable. The Ruins nearest to New Serenne Stable are the Royal Ancient Lab Ruins.	5 7 3 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.	FLOATING COLISEUM	The underground coliseums are arenas with waves of enemies. The Floating Coliseum is the only coliseum with Lynels. Note that the Ancient Coliseum now has a Gleeok instead of a Lynel.	8 8

Tears of the Kingdom has three “layers” — the sky, the surface, and the depths. With this in mind, “2F” (second floor) refers to the sky, while “B1” (basement) refers to the depths. The original map from Palace of the Wild can then be assumed as the omitted “1F” (first floor), referring to the surface. The art can hint us towards this conclusion, since the torn edges of the maps line up.

Aligning the maps vertically, we can traverse the same as before, except this time we can take the stairs to change layers. Note that taking stairs does not count as “moving between rooms”, as we do not move in a cardinal direction. The final path is as follows.

Again, the rupees are used as an index into their room’s corresponding location. We only take the rupees from the layer on which the location resides (apart from the first location, this is always before taking stairs). From this, we get the phrase REVOODESARHPEMAS. The flavortext “look back on your long journey” implies reading backwards, getting SAME PHRASE DO OVER.

Step	Location	Rupees	Letter
1	ROOM OF AWAKENING	1	R
2	THUNDERHEAD ISLES	6	E
3	LURELIN VILLAGE	8	V
4	SHATTERBACK POINT	13	O
5	RIST PENINSULA
6	BLOODLEAF LAKE	4	O
7	WIND TEMPLE
8	GREAT ABANDONED CENTRAL MINE	10	D
9	SECRET SPRING OF REVIVAL
10	FORGOTTEN FOUNDATION	8	E
11	COURAGE ISLAND	9	S
12	SOUTH LOMEI CASTLE TOP FLOOR	12	A
13	MOUNT NABOORU	11	R
14	NORTH TABANTHA SNOWFIELD	5	H
15	WELLSPRING OF POWER	6	P
16	TARREY TOWN	5	E
17	LOOKOUT LANDING
18	GLOOMS LAIR	5	M
19	ROYAL ANCIENT LAB RUINS	6	A
20	FLOATING COLISEUM	13	S

The phrase from the first puzzle was LEADER CLUE FOUR. Reading the list of clues backwards, the solution to the fourth clue (step 17 in the given order) is Lookout Landing, whose leader in Tears of the Kingdom is PURAH, the final answer.

Authors' Notes