beat the game spoiler free and now realize I missed on so many useful things. Missed the inventory expanding korok Npc so went through entire game with starting inventory space, also missed the hateno house quest.

Now. The first dragon I saw was Farosh while crossing the bridge of Hylia, and I immediately turned and went back the way I came, after snapping a pic. I thought it was a mini boss and noped the **** outta there.

At some point I found one of the Springs (Courage/Wisdom/Power) and learned I'd need a scale from each dragon to activate the spring and access the shrine. So I can shoot the dragons and they won't kill me? Awesome. Cleaning off Naydra was nowhere near as exciting as it could have been.

Oh, but now I need shards of horn to upgrade the Champions tunic? Goddamn it.

I'm still not sure which parts will upgrade which sets, but there are four dragon parts you can collect - scale, which you get for any hit that isn't specific to another part, horn (shard), acquired by hitting the horn, claw, acquired by hitting the foot, and fang, acquired by hitting the mouth. Any part can also be sold for rupees or mon, and using them in elixirs extends the life of the potion up to 30 minutes (horn shard).

The problem in obtaining all of these is two fold. One, unless you've memorized their patterns or get exceptionally lucky, by the time you know there's a dragon near you it's difficult to get in a good spot to shoot, particularly if you are aiming for something other than the scales. Two, each dragon has elemental energy balls that shoot off them, which can knock you out of the sky if you do get in position for a shot.

In retrospect, I wish I had known how critical it was to acquire the Flamebreaker, Snowquill, and Rubber armor sets ASAP. Once you have all three parts to each set, and have leveled each piece up twice, you are now immune to fire, ice, and electrical attacks with those armors eqipped. Which obviously makes gliding in and aiming at the dragons way, way easier. I only completed the rubber set today. So many shocks that could have been avoided, although in general the rubber armor is harder to obtain since it is in shrines rather than sold in a town store. I just broke down and bought the last rubber piece I was missing from the night armor guy in Tarry Town.

So, now that you are properly armored and/or good enough at dodging elemental balls to want to approach the dragons, where the **** are they? Or, a better question, where is an optimal place to go to be able to shoot at a specific part, and hopefully without wasting too much time.

I read somewhere that the dragon spawns and courses might not be predictable until you've been to their associated Spring; I don't know if that's true, but it's been reported. The known blood moon glitch can also effect spawns, so if a dragon is not appearing where and when you think it should, try turning off the system (not sleep mode) and starting it back up.

You can only farm a dragon once per game day, but you can hit all three dragons in the same game day. The route I ended up putting together does not require starting your own fire to advance time, but it does require three specific shrines (two next to stables). So, here's my dragon farming route.

Start at Lakeside stable (Shai Utoh shrine). Sit at the fire until morning (5 am). Make sure you are as shock resistant as possible. Immediately go to the nearby Floria Bridge and look out over the waterfalls to your left - Farosh should be gliding down. She spawns somewhere around Riola Spring, I've read. But the bridge is a good spot to watch her come down, and it's high enough with the updraft that accompany all dragons to get up a bit and drop/glide in on your preferred target. As with all dragons, once you've hit, immediately redeploy your glider and watch for where the dragon piece falls. IF the piece falls basically straight down, wait for the dragon to finish passing under you before dropping down. Colliding with the dragons hurts.

Once you've got your piece of Farosh, warp to the Tabantha Bridge stable (Shae Loya shrine). Sit until night (9 pm). Don Firebreaker set and head towards the bridge. Once you're about half way across, look to your right. You should see Dinraal approaching down Tanagar Canyon. Wait for updraft, aim, fire, collect. I should mention I also know that Dinraal passes over the Leviathan skeleton in Eldin at the same time daily, but not at a particularly convenient game time, even if you set up your own fire. Although I've read that she appears in that area at about day break as well, which would make setting up your own camp at the Leviathan and just advancing time a viable method, for me she's appeared before day break, at around 3 am game time, which isn't particularly convenient to fire sit then wait. Plus, I rather enjoy hitting all three dragons in a cycle rather than just hitting one and resetting over and over (I've tried both with Dinraal and Farosh).

The last spot is the only one not near a stable, and with enemy that can be found in the area. You'll also need to climb, so a couple game hours of rain could negate this round for a cycle. Still, I've never had an issue with getting set up to shoot. Having a maxed out stamina wheel to speed climb is also a huge plus here.

Warp to Dow Na'eh shrine, which is southeast of Kakariko on the Lanayru Promenade, between the Phalian Highlands and Lanayru Bluff. Naydra spawns on top of Mount Lanayru then glides west through the Promenade. You have plenty of time to leave the shrine and glide/climb across to your right up to the bluff if you want to speed things up a bit, but if you just climb the walls/cliffs nearest the shrine and head towards the Promenade, she will appear eventually (look right).

Unless you lost sight of the final Naydra piece and had to look for a while and/or waited further down the cliffs for her to come to you (as opposed to moving right once out of the shrine area to meet her), you should be able to grab this final piece and warp back to Lakeside stable to restart the cycle with time to spare.

So that's my route. Takes less than 10 minutes of real time to farm three pieces, and I can obviously cycle repeatedly. I really, really wish I had grabbed the Firebreaker and Snowquill armor sets much earlier in the game so I could have upgraded them and started farming dragon parts that much sooner - the rubber set is just harder all around to obtain, I still don't know where the chest piece is, I presume in one of the 18 shrines I have yet to find/complete - but if you find yourself cash flush fairly early and want to speed that up, you could use the armor in Tarry Town to speed that up as well. Ah well, I'll know for next time I play.

If you just want to farm scales then the easiest way is to set up a fire at the waterfall Farosh comes out of every morning. Shoot him, sleep until morning, repeat. Also use a 3 shot bow and you will get 3 pieces if they all hit.

I prefer to cycle through the dragons rather than hit one over and over, which I found boring. And scales usually aren't the issue, since a mi**** on any other part will net a scale. I didn't know a threeshot bow would net three pieces, though, I'll have to try that.

He's supposed to be found quite early in the game. Use the ROADS.

Yeah I found him super early on the way to going to some place I was supposed to go

Maybe it's just me but fighting a bunch of enemies including some new ones that aren't in the main world map and also tracking down keys to access locked areas and an important item in the dungeon hands down seems better than just having a few puzzles and a couple of the same enemies sprinkled in. Also, they have 0 mini bosses in these things. I want to rant more on this but I need to watch my blood pressure lol.

I miss looking for dungeon keys exactly negative one million percent.

You can get about 3 per minute. If the triple bows give 3, then it could be more, although that might not work out without a sniping bow.

snowling is about 25000/hr and dragon parts are twice that