On my second attempt, I knew where to go, so I didn't spend much time exploring or taking advantage of places/items I didn't think I'd need, like the woodcutter's axe in the bog (I chop down trees with bombs just fine, thank you). (I'd already fought a Hinox or two elsewhere in the world, so I was familiar with the mechanics and knew about the biggest threat-not getting slammed by a tree trunk, but by having it sit on you if you spend a little too long slapping away at its feet-but knowing what to do didn't save me from my own mistakes.) I was very low on arrows on this attempt, even though I fought as many low-health enemies as possible with bombs, as I had been doing elsewhere in the game to conserve durability/ammunition.

Attempting to burn its necklace didn't work and only served to wake it up, so I fought it, and a minor misstep led to my being crushed. I did everything and approached the Hinox last. The first attempt was very lengthy as I took my time to get the lay of the land and figure out how everything was organized. The challenge took me two attempts (unless I'm forgetting a needless early death in between).

Since I aimed for the orange glow of the starting point, I landed nearby and entered the challenge without having experienced any of the island's geography separately. With no sense of scale for the island clearly visible on the horizon, I aimed for it expecting a tiny place (and, from the map, a larger island further off to the southeast on the sea), and was surprised to find myself beached on the large island after all. I made it there by flying off Cape Cales, though my original intention was not to aim for it but for the smaller Tenoko Island to the northwest. I arrived at the island with about 30 shrines completed (six hearts total and a second full stamina bar), so by then I was quite comfortable with how the game works.

Isle of eventide