Well, after several months and 120 hours game time, I’ve finally cleared the four regional phenomena 
. Now to explore the depths a bit! Still seems an awful lot to do before I think of going close to the castle.
Playing without any guide and there’s still some basic things like auto build,shrine sensor, the master sword, hero’s path etc that I haven’t stumbled across yet
I’m at 105 hours and still have only finished two 
Also basically still don’t know what zonaite does? Got fucking thousands of the things
Don’t unspoiler if you want to work out zoanite for yourself take it to a forge construct, who will swap your zoanite for either Zonai charges (for instant energy cell boosts or the Zonai device gumball machines) or crystallised charges (which you can convert into extra permanent energy cells at a crystal refinery)
Reckon I’ll keep it spoilered for now, but I’m not going to let myself finish the game without working out what’s the point of it. Presumably was told at some point and just skipped through it 
Yea it was really poorly explained, or at least explained very early in when you wouldn’t take notice of it.
You def need to get auto build, and the shrine sensor, and the master sword though. Auto build you may or may not come across. Master sword…look in a similar place to last time. Same for shrine sensor
Found the auto build last night and that unlocked Robbie to go to Hateno for the shrine sensor etc. So two in one stone
Also lucky to have already stumbled upon midna’s helmet before really starting exploring the depths. Makes it a fair bit easier
Yassssss, finally worked out how to get into Korok Forest. Oh my, this isn’t good 
This has been bugging me and I can’t figure out how to get in so just left it. Do you have to go via the Depths?
Spoiler - yes, you can.
Just also figured out after 340 hours or so of playing these games that you can click ‘check recipe’ by a meal and get a book full of recipes and their effects rather than just cook up any old shit as I’ve been doing since forever
I think that’s a TOTK thing only? If it was in BOTW I missed it too 
Just presumed the menus were the same but maybe it is a new feature and that’s why I ignored it? Makes it… slightly less embarrassing
Edit: And you can tell it to take out all the ingredients for a recipe at once? 
I’m pretty sure it’s new, but not willing to commit to that
Finally, all shrines! Weirdly, when it tells you where to go after the final shrine I went straight o the Temple of Time on the Great Plateau, only to find it was the new one on the Great Sky Island!
200 koroks, which is still incredible low given I’ve had my korok mask on almost permanently for the last 20 hours since I finished the story.
Gotta say, since I got all the light roots I have barely been down to the depths. Just did not enjoy that place. I’ve enjoyed the game so much more since I’ve been above ground all the time.
Still don’t have some bits of clothes I’d like, still haven’t levelled up some either, but they need crazy items I’m not going to get soon. I’m sure I’ll pick at those, and what side quests I have left. I have almost all the stable picture quests to do as I didn’t discover there was anything to do with those empty frames until I’d almost finished the story.
Overall I have enjoyed the game a lot. But there’s been way more than I haven’t enjoyed compared to BotW, so I doubt I’ll look back on it as favourably.
Edit: I’d love to tick off all the caves and Hudson signs, but they are not easy to track how many you’ve done. Could be a bit of a pain.
I’m now 115 hours in and have only found 37. Really struggling to track them down for some reason. TBF, I am generally ignoring the hitchhikers, I CBA with them just yet
Oh I skipped lots of hitchhikers and wasn’t really looking for koroks initially. But once I got the korok mask it became quite a nice distraction every now and then. And of course, if the kids and me want to watch the Hestu dance again I need to actually have enough seeds!
Still absolutely loving exploring the Depths. I know it’s all the same and it’s all busywork, but I dunno, with my current situation and mood, there’s just something incredibly cathartic and satisfying about working out how to navigate the darkness, gathering poes, firing muddlebuds at enemy camps and watching the carnage, farming zoanite and just generally cutting about down there. It settles my mind. Now have 102 lightroots and only 60 shrines, illustrating my Depths love 
Can confirm it’s a new feature for TOTK
I’m at that point now where I am more than happy to carry on and dick around ticking stuff off I haven’t done. The odd korok (no way I’m doing all of them, 800 left), the 50 side quests I haven’t done, finding and upgrading armour, filling out my recipe book! (Wife shamed me on that one, fair), Hudson’s, Caves…the list goes in. I’m apparently at 68% complete so far