Zelda: Breath of the Wild walkthrough - Boarding Vah Rudania
The next step in Link's epic journey in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is to climb a mountain, and stealthily, to board the Divine Beast Vah Rudania.
In the last part of our guide to the Goron sections of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's four main quest strands, Link teamed up with nervous but powerful Goron Yunobo to hatch a plan to get on board the Divine Beast Rudania. Now it's time for action - even if the whole thing is a little crazy.
For even more help with this huge adventure, check out our full The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild guide and walkthrough.
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- Next: Vah Rudania Dungeon guide
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Walkthrough – Main Quest: Boarding Divine Beast Vah Rudania
The plan is simple, if risky: use Yunobo's unique ability to body-slam things to launch him like a Goron cannonball right at Rudania. The means to do that, a series of three cannons, rests on the mountainside past the Bridge of Eldin.
Now the Bridge of Eldin has been lowered, head across. Things get Immediately worse: Rudania senses a potential attack and deploys helicopter-like Guardian creatures with searchlights.
Avoiding the Guardian Searchlights & Guiding Yunobo
So, listen... this is basically a stealth section. I'm sorry. For Link it's actually pretty easy, but what you actually have to worry about is Yunobo.
You agree a signal with him (I picked the whistle, I have no idea how/if others work) and that meant if I pressed down on the D-Pad, he'd stop in his tracks. If you press again he'll follow you as closely as he can manage. Some tips:
Unlike the Guardians out in the rest of Hyrule, these search sentries don't have lasers they attack you with, but if they spot you or Yunobo (spotting meaning you go inside their searchlight) they will send a signal to Divine Beast Rudania that makes it beat its head against the mountain. When it does that there'll be an eruption, and that causes massive rocks to fall on you. You'll take a lot of damage, and there's no escaping it, so don't bother running.
The important thing is that being caught is NOT a Game Over, but it is hard. Further, it's impossible to just bodge this and force it through as after the eruption is finished Yunobo will be moved backwards to a safe spot - and always backwards. I thought I could force this section by finding a good way to hide from the onslaught. It doesn't work, so don't try. Don't make my mistakes.
With that said, if you do cause an eruption, dive for the nearest volcano wall. If you're lucky an outcropping will protect you from most of the damage.
Remember that you can hit the sentries with stasis - this is extremely helpful, but it depletes very quickly indeed.
Splitting up from Yunobo
When you reach an area with some updrafts, stop in your tracks and have Yunobo do the same. I spent ages trying to sneak through this section before I looked at the updrafts like an idiot and thought "hang on..."
So, leave Yunobo behind and use the updrafts without being seen. On an outcropping above the sentries you'll find some metal boxes and blocks.
Use either Stasis to smash these into the sentries or pick up the boxes with Magnesis and manually slam them into the sentry robots. Hitting them will destroy them - that's worth some loot and clears the path for Yunobo.
Along the way you'll also have to fight a few other enemies around the cannons. Keep making your way up the mountain, and after hitting Divine Beast Vah Rudania three times it'll get the idea that it's not welcome and move.
While it moves deeper into the mountain, you'll as a result be able to board. It's dungeon time!