Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video does NOT contain spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom.
Environmental storytelling does not always provide enough information for full-blown tin foil hat theories, and more often than not you have to fill in the blanks with guesswork, but those small stories are everywhere in Hyrule. Neat little details carefully hidden in plain sight, telling silent stories about the recent or distant past of those locations. It is clear that a lot of thought, love and care went into the environmental design, which is also one of the reasons why I'm still not bored / done with BotW even after 5+ years. Every time I *think* I've seen it all and there can't be anything new anymore, the game proves me wrong.
This video does NOT contain spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom.
Environmental storytelling does not always provide enough information for full-blown tin foil hat theories, and more often than not you have to fill in the blanks with guesswork, but those small stories are everywhere in Hyrule. Neat little details carefully hidden in plain sight, telling silent stories about the recent or distant past of those locations. It is clear that a lot of thought, love and care went into the environmental design, which is also one of the reasons why I'm still not bored / done with BotW even after 5+ years. Every time I *think* I've seen it all and there can't be anything new anymore, the game proves me wrong.
![[BotW] The Truffle Sisters](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FMPmo6ZRcfE/mqdefault.jpg "[BotW] The Truffle Sisters
This video does not contain spoilers for TotK.
The Minimalist 100% run will still start next week, but every time I didnt make enough progress for a full video (or had to redo / fix too many mistakes) Ill post a BotW video instead. Since I am still unsure about a lot of the requirements to discover certain special / unique map locations, Ill likely make more mistakes than in the BotW run (especially since I had already a couple years experience in BotW before starting that challenge, which cant be said for TotK as of now)")
![You can (rarely) get normal-sized Ancient Cores by flipping over dead Guardians [TLoZ: BotW]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JTOHx4B_VTo/mqdefault.jpg "You can (rarely) get normal-sized Ancient Cores by flipping over dead Guardians [TLoZ: BotW]
These are the loot tables: https://github.com/MrCheeze/botw-tools/blob/master/all_drops.txt - that stuff determines what enemies drop under certain circumstances.
If you SEARCH a dead Guardian, you have these drops:
RuinGuardian - x1
* 52.0% - Ancient Screw
* 25.0% - Ancient Spring
* 15.0% - Ancient Gear
* 8.0% - Ancient Shaft
Translation: You get ONE item and it will never be a core.
If you FLIP a dead Guardian, youll have these drops:
FldObj_RuinGuardian_A_Dynamic
Normal - x2-4
* 22.0% - Ancient Gear
* 35.0% - Ancient Screw
* 26.0% - Ancient Spring
* 15.0% - Ancient Shaft
* 2.0% - Ancient Core
Translation: You get 2-4 items and each of them has a 2% chance to be a normal-sized Ancient Core. Its random and rare, but it does happen - even if you havent left the Great Plateau yet.
Please note that you can not flip over ALL dead Guardians in the game. Most are stuck in the ground and wont move, and you cant flip the ones that still shoot laser beams - but if you find a dead one sitting on the ground, you can flip it over with either Cryonis (if there is water beneath it) or by pushing something heavy against it using Magnesis (like a treasure chest or a Boulder Breaker). You can also topple them by stasis-launching something heavy against them, but it can be tricky to hit the correct spot for that.
Some dead Guardians in Akkala are also sitting in shallow holes that only fill with water during rain and thunderstorms. If you dont have a convenient Boulder Breaker on you ATM, just wait for rainfall and use Cryonis then. (...and since were talking about Akkala, waiting for the next rainfall never takes long)
PS: savescumming works, so if youre super adamant about obtaining a core this way, just save in front of the Guardian, topple it over, and if it didnt drop a core, reload and try again. It will work eventually.")
