One of the Shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the Pumaag Nitae or A Minor Test in Strength. This Shrine requires Link to prove his strength by killing a Guardian Scout, as its name suggests. This Shrine may seem a little intimidating, but in this guide, you’ll learn how to complete the Pumaag Nitae Shrine, get the chest, and claim a Spirit Orb.
Link obtain Spirit Orbs as rewards for completing Shrines. The Spirit Orbs can be exchanged for more Heart Containers or Stamina Vessels. Since there are 120 Shrines all over Hyrule, Link can get a total of 120 Spirit Orbs. You get to decide whether you want Link to have more Hearts or more Stamina.
Location
The Pumaag Nitae Shrine can be found in the middle of Finra Woods, Pagos Woods, and Faron Woods, all found along the road from Lake Tower. The Shrine is located just west of Lake Tower or southeast of Lake Hylia. The Pumaag Nitae Shrine is one of six shrines in the Lake Tower region.
A Minor Test in Strength
Before descending to the Pumaag Nitae Shrine, make sure that Link has enough weapons, shields, bows, arrows, and food for health (cooked or not) to use.
Upon entering this Shrine, you will see an entrance to a large room just ahead of Link. In this room, you can find giant concrete pillars. To complete this Shrine, this is what Link must do:
- Proceed to the entrance. After going through the door, a gate will close behind Link and a Guardian Scout will emerge from the ground. This Guardian Scout will be armed with a sword and a shield.
- Next, you must kill the Guardian Scout. At the beginning of the battle, the Guardian Scout will come towards Link with slow attacks. It will use its shield to deflect Link’s attacks then use a slow slice with its sword. You can easily spot this because because it will wind up. You can simply dodge this attack or dodge at the perfect time to perform a Flurry Rush. The Guardian Scout may also shoot lasers that you can avoid by dodging away or deflecting them with the shield.
- After taking enough damage, the Guardian Scout will eventually jump back and start spinning rapidly towards Link. When it charges towards Link, hide behind a pillar so that it will hit the strucure instead. This will stun the Guardian Scout, opening an opportunity for Link to deal damage.
- After depleting its health to around half, the Guardian Scout will start to jump back and fire a constant laser in a large arc around it. This will inflict damage if Link is hit. Fortunately, the spinning laser will also cause an updraft. You can jump towards the updraft and quickly use the Paraglider to go high up in the air. Once Link is up in the air, aim the bow and arrow to slow down time and fire an arrow towards its eye to stun it and deal damage. If you don’t want to do that, you can simply stand out of the laser’s range then aim and fire an arrow at the right time to hit the Guardian Scout’s eye. This method will stun it and deal damage (but, come on, that first method is just cooler to do).
- When its health is nearly depleted, the Guardian Scout will turn blue and will start absorbing energy while targeting Link with a red laser (just like Guardian Stalkers and Decayed Guardians). After absorbing enough energy, it will fire several blasts towards its target which can inflict major damage. To evade this, sprint or close the distance by running towards it and dodge the blasts. Alternatively, you can fire arrows towards its eyes again to cancel the attack by stunning it and dealing some damage. You can also attack the Guardian Scout while it is still absorbing energy.
- After defeating it, the Guardian Scout will drop its weapons – a Guardian Sword and a Guardian Shield – that you can take along with a couple of Ancient Screws.
- Move towards the altar where you will see a chest on the way. Open the chest to obtain a Boomerang.
- Then, continue up the stairs and talk to the monk to claim your Spirit Orb.
As mentioned above, the Pumaag Nitae Shrine or A Minor Test of Strength is one of six shrines in the Lake Tower region. The other shrines are the Ka’o Makagh Shrine or Metal Doors Open the Way, the Ya Naga Shrine or Shatter the Heavens, the Shae Katha Shrine or Shae Katha’s Blessing, the Ishto Soh shrine or the Bravery’s Grasp, and the Shoqa Tatone Shrine or A Modest Test of Strength.
