Spirit Temple | Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom  

The rock'em sock'em robots fight lol

I know what you mean. I took more damage in that section trying to do it the way the game wanted than I did in the rest of the entire game up until then to the point where I shouted "This is not the way I normally play!" I would've preferred to ride my tank instead. That said, if you attach powerful items to Mineru like frost talus hearts/silver boss bokoblin horns she does a pretty good job fighting for herself. Just riding her is inconvenient.

I actually think the Seized Construct boss fight is pretty outstanding, even though a lot of the content in the Construct Factory/Spirit Temple leading up to is mid.

@@Lytic1000 Yeah frost talus heart is good. But I'd just as soon stick it to the end of a durable spear and I have a long range quick durable very damaging instant freezing weapon that is easier to use than if I have to bumble around on Mineru's back. I will give you props for thinking of any way to make her decent in combat. As usual it involves adding the freeze ability. Freeze is so OP.

@@askthepizzaguy I don't actually ride Mineru after I put the frost talus heart on her arm. I just let her handle enemies that aren't in line of sight. My normal freeze and lightning weapons for fast disarms are gleeok horns on gerudo spears to get the double damage for the attachment + the special effects.

Makes me want them to port Xenoblade X so Nintendo fans can really get a taste of playing a good robot lol.

huh....i was wondering if attaching a Zonite sword would count as it being attached to a zonai device for doubling the power.

According to "The STATS behind Sages in Tears of the Kingdom" (this is a video title on RU-vid; not going to include the link because that seems to trigger RU-vid's spam filter), Mineru's arms deal 27 base damage, 40 damage at "level 2" (when you've upgraded her with four Sage's Wills), and 53 damage at "level 3" (upgraded bond + Zonaite Helm), effectively doubling her damage output with both buffs applied. Any fuses (monster parts or melee weapons) add the corresponding amount of damage. This isn't to deny that Mineru "feels" weak/underpowered, particularly against damage-sponge silver enemies, only to point out that she can deal substantial damage under certain circumstances, and the reason that she doesn't "feel strong" may not be easily ascertained from the stats/numbers alone. After all, 27 base damage (at "level one") is weaker than many late-game melee weapons, but only a little weaker than an unfused Master Sword (30 base damage), yet few people vocally complain about the Master Sword feeling "weak". This is only a guess, but I would hypothesize that Mineru "feels weak" to the majority of players because: A.) Nintendo encourages extremely weak fusions in the introductory area, such as spike balls and beam emitters (the latter do almost no damage by design, "draining" tiny amounts of health each second, and actually do less damage than Mineru's arms with nothing attached); B.) Mineru's arms are not quickly spammable like some weapons, but rather are slow-moving, and tend to send smaller enemies flying far away from her, thus exacerbating the length of battles, even apart from the question of damage; C.) Mineru has no spin attack, nor any ability to get huge (eight-times) damage multipliers from sneak strikes, although the triple-damage multiplier for breaking a frozen enemy still applies; D.) Melee weapons fused to Mineru's arms generally last for a maximum of 15 arm swipes, even if the weapon could have taken more than 15 hits when wielded by Link (still, if there are melee weapons, such as Gloom weapons, that you would rather not wield directly, or just don't have space for in your inventory, then it would be efficient to give those to Mineru). (Monster parts generally last for just eight arm swipes.) As someone who has defeated Lynels and Gleeoks with Mineru's construct, it is possible to use her effectively with the right fuses, but the most efficient way to use her is probably as a tool to traverse gloom/lava/tar, to easily mine for resources in the Depths with no loss to weapon durability or other resources, and by dismounting her for easy access to bullet time, rather than as a "battle bot" per se. It may also be more efficient to fuse powerful unused materials to Mineru but then dismount and let her AI do the actual fighting (even if her AI, like that of the other sages, is rather dumb). Outside of the Seized Construct itself, the only boss that feels specifically designed for Mineru is Frox, but she is paradoxically more fun to use against large bosses than waves of smaller, faster enemies. I can't imagine making it this late in the game with such a pitiful amount of battery, though....

@@JMurrinYT I did not realize she could essentially be double upgraded, and given her weak performance in this section that is supposed to showcase her abilities, I never upgraded her once. Nice to know there is some reward for investing in this thing, even if limited.

You still keep your memories so when you get your body back you're going to be hungry?

You make a lot of insightful points. There were undoubtedly numerous missed opportunities to make Mineru more fun (or, perhaps, deliberate nerfs made to Mineru at some point in development because Nintendo doesn't want players to have too much fun). However, I have some slight objections to the following points: 1. Mineru is pathetic at low battery. However, with a fully maxed-out battery, and considering that the battery gauge for Mineru is the equivalent of Link's stamina wheel, Mineru effectively has more "stamina" for running than Link himself does. 3. As you state, mounting Mineru causes Link to inherit her enormous hitbox, which is the biggest "con" to riding her. (If Link still retained his standard hitbox, then mounting Mineru would be an entirely different experience.) However, Mineru's shield more than covers that entire hitbox, while leaving both of her arms free for duel-wielding. While mounting Mineru, it is possible to Z-target an enemy (ZL), thereby raising your shield, freeze the enemy with a frost emitter on your right arm (R), thus dissipating the shield, and then release the emitter (let go of R) and automatically project your shield again (assuming that you are still holding ZL). Additionally, if you dismount Mineru for bullet time, an alternative to immediately remounting her (and inheriting her hitbox again) would be to simply take cover behind her (same shield protection, but with no extra liability for Link). Finally, Mineru's shield actually has an increased window for parrying enemy attacks. 5. The durability point is only half-true. Yes, fusing Zonai devices to Mineru is considerably less efficient than attaching them to an autobuild. (Although Z-targeting helps with aiming these devices, particularly Zonai cannons, and is not possible on an autobuild.) However, outside of building vehicles/mechs yourself, fusing Zonai devices (e.g., frost emitters, flame emitters, and cannons) to Mineru is more efficient than fusing them directly to Link's shields/weapons (in which case, the attached devices would rapidly drain not only their own durability, but also that of the base shield/weapon). I would not dispute the rest of your criticisms (i.e., 2, 4, 6, and 7). For example, Mineru probably should not require such heavy fan consumption just to run at a good pace. Furthermore, Mineru's combat design and damage output fundamentally does not work well with the way that BotW/TotK scales/calculates damage. In point of fact, you might be very surprised to see how easily Mineru can defeat entire rows of early-game red enemies with just a single swipe of her arm, but she is not scaled (or upgradeable) to the extent that would increase her utility against damage-sponge silver enemies in the late-game. The only true "fix" for this problem is liberal use of a frost emitter, combined with the three-times damage multiplier for breaking a frozen enemy, to get Mineru dealing damage at a level that "feels" appropriate for a giant battle mech. Nevertheless, it would be difficult to avoid the conclusion that the mech concept (like so much of TotK) is compromised by having been forced onto the preexisting engine/combat system of BotW. (I would argue that the custom "Seized Construct" boss, specifically designed around Mineru's abilities and moveset, showcases the potential of this concept well, and is an outstanding boss, despite the Construct Factory/Spirit Temple as a whole being the most lackluster dungeon in the game.)

Yeah but she sucks

My favorite sage is easily Yunobo. He's useful for mining/excavation, scatters enemies with his attack (and does good damage when you upgrade him), does fire damage. I'd say Tulin next. I know that Riju and Sidon can be really useful and I've seen people use them a lot better than me but I don't use them as much. I thought the implementation in Breath of the Wild was better because it was one click or in Mipha's case automatic and you were there.

@@Lytic1000 Yunobo takes forever to swing and often misses with his attack especially against fast enemies. I will concur when he hits or when he mines, it's great.