One of the locations that pop up again and again throughout The Legend of Zelda games is the humble laboratory. Each of these locations is integral to the plot, containing characters, items, or knowledge needed to further one’s quest.
In this mini-series, I’m going to explore these buildings in more detail, looking at what makes them all so individual, despite mostly sharing the same basic purpose. The first in this series was Hateno Ancient Tech Lab from Breath of the Wild.
Here, I’m going to delve into its sister lab, the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab.
While this lab may seem quite a way off the beaten track, visiting it is part of the main quest, and en route, there are some excellent areas to explore, including the fabulous Tarrey Town and the haunting Citadel Ruins.
Once you’ve passed the East Akkala Stable and begin the climb uphill, if you survive running by (or attacking) the dormant Guardian hidden behind some rocks to the East of the dirt track, you’ll see the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab sitting on the crest of the hill. Unlike the Hateno Ancient Tech lab, which looks like a strong gust of wind would blow it off the precipice at any moment, the Akkala Lab appears a much more squat building on the flat top of the rolling Akkala hillside. The trees here are autumnal, with vibrant orange leaves, but the grass is as thick and green as the summer.
This is a windy spot. Rainy too. The clouds come on thick and fast, stubbornly lingering for most of the day. Approach the building itself and you’ll see several similarities to the Hateno Lab. It’s more a remodel than a restoration, it has a large telescope, and it’s got a Blue Flame Furnace out front, but the two differ greatly.
This patched-up ruin has a large windmill sail on its rear side that catches the sea air all day without pausing, but this was not a windmill in its former life. Look to the west side of the building and you’ll see a shattered lighthouse beacon perched upright on some collapsed brickwork. The lens is visible through the broken glass, and the whole thing is mostly intact. It’s a wonder that Robbie hasn’t reattached it to the building, though he probably doesn’t want to signal that he’s there.
The fact that this was a lighthouse at one point in history leads me to many questions, none of which I can answer. Why here? Was there a port? Were there ships sailing these waters frequently enough to need light? Were they coming from Hyrule or to Hyrule? I have no idea. Honestly, it now looks more like a ship from Phantom Hourglass — with its mess of sails, winches, metal, wood, and gear — than it does a lighthouse.
Around the outside of the building are ruined Guardians. Are these part of Robbie’s research, where they purely scavenged for parts, or did he have to fight them off in the time after the Calamity? Again, there’s no indication. It made me wonder if the Guardians could sense if someone was tapping into an Ancient power source somehow.
But returning to the building itself, there’s a lovely aesthetic touch in keeping with the other Sheikah’s homes: the presence of the frog statue and the Sheikah Eye symbol at the entrance. Like the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, the eye is painted on the door, and the frog is above the lintel. This time, however, the frog is wearing comically large goggles, much like Robbie himself.
The lab within is considerably barer than its sister lab in Hateno. Its gray stone walls lack warmth. It is poorly lit, possibly more from necessity than anything else; it would take an absurd amount of lamps to make it feel bright and airy. The single circular room is not particularly large and it is dominated by a wooden staircase, a looming mechanical apparatus, and a strange robot thing.
The robot officially goes by the name “Ancient Oven.” It was originally named and modeled after Robbie’s first love, Cherry, which made his wife and lab partner, Jerrin, unhappy. So he pared back the personality it displayed and now refers to it as an Ancient Oven.
While it looks like a techno version of the ancient Japanese Dogū statues, the Ancient Oven is actually a Guidance Stone, installed by Robbie and modified by him and Jerrin until it could produce enhanced weapons. If you’ve got enough pieces of defeated (or scavenged) Guardian in your inventory then it can make you a whole host of Ancient weapons and armor.
Something about it is reminiscent of the Gossip Stones from earlier games, which were also Sheikah inventions. The Sheikah frogs also remind me of the strange Stones that gave hints or told the time when slashed with a sword. Give them an offering and something happens, but not with all of them. I wonder if there was more planned for them, or if they were just a stylistic choice. The Ancient Oven sits beneath a large cog, the shaft attached extending into the floor behind it. Head up to the roof and its uses will become apparent.
Beyond this, the room is pretty bare, and there is less to investigate than in Hateno. To the left of the front door is a messily made bed with a small rug beneath, and next to it a bedside table bearing several books, one volume sitting askew as if it is the one being read recently. There are several drawings on the wall above the bed and more above the staircase.
It’s hardly a cozy home; certainly more of a lab that they sleep in rather than a house they also experiment in. Next to the living area are several bookcases of various sizes, and as the stairs descend there are parcels and boxes stacked haphazardly beneath.
There are niches above the stairs and on the one wall with no furniture pushed against it. All of them bear books and the occasional box, contents unknown. There’s a small desk and a blackboard in a nook, a low bookshelf giving them a cramped look. Then next to that is Robbie’s desk.
It looks to be made of reclaimed wood, with the side panels possibly being made of old doors, a strange blue pattern splashed across them. Diagrams are stuck randomly on the walls above, red X’s scored through them, some others circled or annotated. Books are, of course, stacked on the desk, and Robbie’s Diary sits open, waiting for you to discover his life story.
Pay close attention to the diary and look right. There is a smaller bed in the next little nook round. Could that have been Granté’s? If so, what a sad and cold place to grow up. If you think back to the warmth and whimsy of Purah’s bedroom, or even Symin’s ordered-but-inviting chamber, and then look at this pokey corner, it’s no wonder he ended up where he did.
The only window in the room is a tiny one, set halfway up the wall, giving it the appearance of being a wide arrow-slit. You can climb on some racking to see through it to the Akkala Sea, but its actual purpose is unknown.
Head upstairs and you’ll realize that the room doesn’t just look cold and damp — it is. There isn’t an actual roof, the wooden covering is merely a platform for the enormous telescope that happens to cover most of the room except the stairs. If you’d entered the lab on a stormy day, you’d see the room lit with flashes of lightning and notice all the gaps in the roof above.
There’s a small stretch of canvas above the staircase hole, but it doesn’t cover it sufficiently and was clearly an afterthought. If downstairs was orderly but bare, then the roof area is the polar opposite.
There’s a small set of steps in the remains of the original wall, head up them and you’ll find what looks like a small shanty town on wooden platforms. Sheds with sloped roofs and weatherbeaten sides are banded to small octagonal towers with planks just wide enough to walk across. Holes, doors, and windows are boarded up, rusty sheet metal riveted over rotting wood. You can’t enter any of these, and they look completely derelict anyway.
The final shed on the platform has a ladder handily painted bright red so as to be spotted even on the grayest rainy days. Climb this, then another on one of the towers, and you’ll find another plank that leads you to the telescope.
There’s a platform with a sun lounger and an umbrella made of scraps sheltering it. There are some odds and ends lying around it, and a Korok can be found here, but there’s little else to admire apart from the view. Strangely, the telescope is pointed towards Death Mountain, or possibly just past it. I can’t work out what significance this has, if any.
Between the telescopes massive steampunk cogs, the windmill components, and the funny little huts, something about this building makes me think of Windfall Island from The Wind Waker. There’s just something so familiar about it all.
Though this structure has seen better days, you can’t deny that it is striking. Is it my favorite lab? No, but I think it tells the story of Robbie’s life and ambitions and beliefs. With or without his diary, this building shows you Robbie’s journey in parts; not all of them beautiful, but all serving a purpose.
And who wouldn’t want a colossal telescope like this anyway?
