The Sandship is easily my favorite dungeon in this game, and as a result, I've been obsessed with it. So naturally I have a save file starting at the beginning of the dungeon so I can replay it over and over. Next thing I know I start overanalyzing the structure of the dungeon and asking questions like "what's the least amount of times you need to strike the timeshift stone?" (I'm fairly certain it's 5 and there are multiple ways of doing this). The dungeon starts off very linear making you go get the first small key then return to fight Scervo for the bow. But then you have your first choice: You can timeshift now as Fi suggests or you can go down a floor and open up the southern generator room. Once you timeshift for the first time and unlock the stone, then the dungeon really opens up. You basically have two subgoals- the two power generators- and can tackle them in either order. Once you do that the dungeon is linear again and you need to free the crew and get the squid carving.
So I have tried numerous paths through the dungeon, and I think I found an optimal path. Keep in mind that I skip the Heart Piece and the Dungeon Map since this is just the shortest path from the dungeon entrance to the boss room. I abuse the extremely convenient rowboat which in my first playthrough I had no idea how I was supposed to use it. My path uses the rowboat as a shortcut most of the times you need to go somewhere, and minimizes the number of timeshifts. I used this path to go from the dungeon entrance to the boss room in 21 minutes which was a huge improvement from my original playthrough and all my other playthroughs. It always confuses me that the past is more advanced than the present so keep that in mind. Here's the path:
1. Get small key #1 on floor B2 next to the prison cell (combo for lock is down, up, down, right).
2. Fight Scervo for bow.
3. Bring ship to past for the first time (present to past), unlock the timeshift stone, and shoot down the rowboat (don't ride down).
4. Run down to B1 into the east half of the northern generator room, move the block onto the switch to open the portholes, and ride the rowboat up.
5. Shoot the timeshift stone (past to present), ride the rowboat back down, unlock the door to the hallway from the west half of the northern generator room, go into the hallway, and solve the puzzles to open the doors to the southern generator room.
6. Go back to the west half of the northern generator room, shoot the timeshift stone (present to past) through the grate in the ceiling, power up the northern generator, run across the hall, and power up the southern generator.
7. Go down to the engine room to rescue the crew to get small key #2. Since the engine room connects back to the northern generator room, ride the rowboat back up to the deck.
8. Shoot the timeshift stone (past to present), enter the captain's cabin, go into the northern room, and shoot the timeshift stone through the grate in the ceiling.
9. Kill the beamos, step on the switch, shoot the arrow switch, kill the 3 beamos in the other room, and grab the squid carving.
10. Ride the rowboat back down and proceed to the boss.
I'm posting this for the benefit of anyone who wants to speedrun the dungeon. If you know of a faster way to complete the dungeon, I'd like to know how.
Feel free to post your favorite way of tackling this dungeon, or reminisce about how long it took you to figure something out. For instance figuring out how to enter the northern generator room was probably the most difficult puzzle in the entire game for me to figure out. I knew they wouldn't put the rowboat there for no reason, but figuring how to use it took me a while.
Also this dungeon reminds me slightly of the Water Temple from OOT in that you need to minimize the number of times you need to make a global change to the dungeon in order to progress through the dungeon quickly. In the Water Temple people would change the water level so many more times than they have to before figuring out what to do, and the Sandship is similar in that people probably timeshift way more times than they have to. The Water Temple was even more nonlinear and even let you skip a locked door and thus any key. Because of this you could beat it by only changing the water level 3 times.
So I have tried numerous paths through the dungeon, and I think I found an optimal path. Keep in mind that I skip the Heart Piece and the Dungeon Map since this is just the shortest path from the dungeon entrance to the boss room. I abuse the extremely convenient rowboat which in my first playthrough I had no idea how I was supposed to use it. My path uses the rowboat as a shortcut most of the times you need to go somewhere, and minimizes the number of timeshifts. I used this path to go from the dungeon entrance to the boss room in 21 minutes which was a huge improvement from my original playthrough and all my other playthroughs. It always confuses me that the past is more advanced than the present so keep that in mind. Here's the path:
1. Get small key #1 on floor B2 next to the prison cell (combo for lock is down, up, down, right).
2. Fight Scervo for bow.
3. Bring ship to past for the first time (present to past), unlock the timeshift stone, and shoot down the rowboat (don't ride down).
4. Run down to B1 into the east half of the northern generator room, move the block onto the switch to open the portholes, and ride the rowboat up.
5. Shoot the timeshift stone (past to present), ride the rowboat back down, unlock the door to the hallway from the west half of the northern generator room, go into the hallway, and solve the puzzles to open the doors to the southern generator room.
6. Go back to the west half of the northern generator room, shoot the timeshift stone (present to past) through the grate in the ceiling, power up the northern generator, run across the hall, and power up the southern generator.
7. Go down to the engine room to rescue the crew to get small key #2. Since the engine room connects back to the northern generator room, ride the rowboat back up to the deck.
8. Shoot the timeshift stone (past to present), enter the captain's cabin, go into the northern room, and shoot the timeshift stone through the grate in the ceiling.
9. Kill the beamos, step on the switch, shoot the arrow switch, kill the 3 beamos in the other room, and grab the squid carving.
10. Ride the rowboat back down and proceed to the boss.
I'm posting this for the benefit of anyone who wants to speedrun the dungeon. If you know of a faster way to complete the dungeon, I'd like to know how.
Feel free to post your favorite way of tackling this dungeon, or reminisce about how long it took you to figure something out. For instance figuring out how to enter the northern generator room was probably the most difficult puzzle in the entire game for me to figure out. I knew they wouldn't put the rowboat there for no reason, but figuring how to use it took me a while.
Also this dungeon reminds me slightly of the Water Temple from OOT in that you need to minimize the number of times you need to make a global change to the dungeon in order to progress through the dungeon quickly. In the Water Temple people would change the water level so many more times than they have to before figuring out what to do, and the Sandship is similar in that people probably timeshift way more times than they have to. The Water Temple was even more nonlinear and even let you skip a locked door and thus any key. Because of this you could beat it by only changing the water level 3 times.
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