The Un'Goro Volcano has Erupted!
Earlier today, reddit user /u/abouttogetdownvoted was messing around on the Un'Goro gameboard to see if he could make the volcano erupt, and it turns out, it does! Wait a second, how did we get here? Let's take a look back.
Mike Donais Knows a Secret
Last week, Mike Donais responded to a complaint on reddit about the new gameboard being "disappointing" with its visual effects unlike boards of previous expansions. He let out a hint that we were indeed missing something, and it was related to sound.
Luckily, the game board makes plenty of sounds.
Quote from Mike DonaisAs far as the new Un'goro board goes, I am a little disappointed.
I mean, conceptually and thematically, it looks bonkers amazing but, as far as the clickable objects go, I didn't really find anything that would stand out visually, like the Laser uuh... Rocket from GvG.
I don't think even the Volcano does anything spectacular besides just showing more lava where you click. BRM's lava at least had some cool items emerging from below the surface and such.
Did I miss something or did they just not include anything visually pop-eye in this board?
You missed the volcano going off secret.
We will literally never know
The sound team added it so you have to understand a bit about music to find it.
Spamming of the Board
Now we're going back to /u/abouttogetdownvoted's findings. He bound keys to mouse clicks over different areas of the gameboard which allowed him to spam the different musical notes present on the board to see if he could figure out the correct combination.
Image credit to /u/abouttogetdownvoted
It worked! After some repetition and key smashing, the secret was unlocked.
The Combination
Try it yourself! Head on to the Un'Goro board and push the buttons in the following order:
- (D) Drum
- (G) Big Leaf
- (E) Shell
- (G) Big Leaf
- (A) Medium Leaf
What did anyone have to understand about music to figure that out?
Here's a musical analysis!
So, a (major) scale has 1 (do) 2 (re) 3 (mi) 4 (fa) 5 (sol) 6 (la) 7 (ti) and 1 again or 8, (doh)
Minor scale goes do re me (minor third) fa sol le (minor 6th) te (minor 7th) do (what are those weird words? me instead of mi? In short, they're a half step down from their equivalent. These are the notes that let you know it's a minor scale)
So, where we start is G major for the first two notes (D and then G). This is because sol is the second strongest note after do, so we hear the second strongest note of the G-major scale followed by the first, a resolution (the most prolific one).
The last three notes are actually pretty cool. What happens is the scale modulates, or shifts, to A minor. How do I know this? E is the 6th note, or la, of G major, one of the least stable. It wouldn't make sense to go from sol to do then la do. However, E is sol, again the second strongest note of A minor. It then leads to G, which used to be the 1 (do) the most stable note, but in this situation is te (minor 7th, or the note right "under" the root in a minor scale) which really really wants to lead back into the root of the scale, A.
(an alternative analysis would be that we were in A minor the whole time and they just tricked us! What a clever idea XD)
So, basically
1. Sol of G major, strong but wants to resolve to
2. Do of G major, ahhhhh sounds nice
3. What is this note I know now it's sol of A minor but to my ear here it makes no sense
4. G again but this time it's off it wants to resolve to
5. A. Little less aaahhh little more ooh that's cool
How that would help? I mean, there's limited notes and this is a logical way to sort them, so music theory would be an approach to solve it. OR you can just do the monkey typewriter thing. That seemed to work.
Look I dropped out of music school I need to use these credits somehow.
Key of D major. Chord corresponding to notes are:
D (D-major chord), G (E-flat-major chord), E (A major chord), G (E-flat-major chord), A (A-major chord)
It is a simple fifth chord sequence (with a tritone substitution).
If you listen carefully you can hear the notes+chords when the volcano erupts :)
I was actually a music student a few years ago. Thanks for your analysis! Still don't see what the heck Mike Donais was talking about.
OHHHH MMMYYYY GOOOOD (super quiet excited voice)
Fluttershy says:"yay."
Do you even write? Bunny?
I'd hate to be that one guy who figured it out just by tapping things and then having no idea what the order was afterward.
Especially because you'd know the truth and no one would believe you.
the books easter egg did that to me
For me the wispers board was a dissapointment, i wanted a board with a purple place and tentacles and blue lagoons or something like that.
Ironic.
GVG board was the same thing. Bottom right clicky activated top left action.
That's not what irony is.
It would be cool if activating the volcano would cast the shaman Volcano spell, but that would be overkill
its animation? yeah, sure
yep, thats what I meant
Still kind of disappointing we can't do much that leaves the background looking permanently different during the game, but this is so cool! Definitely up there with the GvG cannon as one of the coolest background interactions!
Click twice to move it to the left and then fire it. It hits the rocket and it takes off.