Can you exit the Depths without fast travel?

Question

I have been trying to avoid fast travelling in this game as much as I can, when I tried to leave the depths near Lookout Landing, I attempted to build a balloon vehicle to fly up towards the hole I entered from. Unfortunately the vehicle broke so I could not fly out.

Another time I tried to use ascend near a ceiling of the Depths. Unfortunately I couldn't get good footing to use the ability.

Other than than one exception in the Goron region, I was only able to exit the Depths by fast travelling to a point in the overworld.

My question is, are there any other ways you can leave the Depths without fast travel? If so I am curious how.

Answer 1

There are a handful of... I guess you could call them upside-down towers, where you can use Ascend to end up on the surface. They're illuminated all down the column, so you can see them from afar, and it's quite obvious what they're for when you see them, but there are only a few of them. I'm pretty sure there are a few parts of the Depths that don't have one and are walled off from the rest of the Depths; those you won't be able to exit without some other method.

As an alternative method, you can use the powered floating platform zonai device in conjunction with balloons, fans, or rockets to go up, taking out another floating platform when the one you're on is about to expire.
(spoilers for a mechanic you may not have unlocked yet below)

By using Autobuild, you can just make floating platforms wherever you want. I checked, and Autobuild will not use something you're currently standing on to make a new construction, so you're safe from falling off when you make a second platform. (This answer previously recommended alternating between small and large floating platforms in case it did pull the one out from under your feet.)

You probably want to use the small powered floating platforms, not the large unpowered ones; the large floating platforms are by far the most expensive thing to make with Autobuild, costing about 100 pieces of zonaite to create. They do give you plenty of room to work without falling off, though.

It may also be possible to climb up the walls of the chasm, if you can reach it with a simple balloon-and-flame-emitter combo. Since chasm walls are covered in gloom, you'll need lots of sundelion and stamina-restoring food, and gloom-resistant clothing wouldn't hurt either.

Even if you can't fit enough food in your inventory (there is a limit), you can of course use Autobuild to generate a safe platform to stand on, using a zonai stake and some kind of wood, metal, or stone slab, and then use portable pots to make more. Just stock up on sundelions and endura shrooms first. (Remember, a stamina overfill effect gives you a full stamina restore as well! So even a single endura shroom or endura carrot can give you a full 3 wheels of stamina, plus a little extra. Much more efficient than stamina elixirs.) Even just the platform alone would allow you some time for your gloom resist to recharge, too.

Answer 2

There is a way to get from the depths back to the surface, but it only occurs at certain in-game times and places.

Each of the dragons travel in a cycle that loops between the surface and the depths. If you're at the right place and time, you can jump onto them and ride them back to the surface, or ride them from the surface down to the depths, providing a great jumping off point to finding light roots.

Of note - the dragon's drops refresh over time, so riding one in or out of the depths can be great for gathering the dragon's resources.

Answer 3

Yes. Using a hot air balloon, you can travel upwards through a chasm.

Due to the fact that Zonai devices disintegrates after a while, this works best where the top of the chasm is at sea level, as that also means the bottom of the chasm is near the ceiling of the depths, minimizing the length of the chasm.

I have done this in the North Akkala region, where I emerged from the skull's eye. The balloon disintegrated about halfway up the other eye.

The specific contraption I used was made of a Balloon, Flame Emitter, and a Sled (to stand on)

Answer 4

Yes. As Hearth mentioned, there are several upside down towers in the depths where you can use Ascend to reach the surface. I've found towers at the following map coordinates:

• [4720, -3786, -0557] Southeast corner of the map. Southeast of Ni-iram Lightroot.
• [4514, 3159, -0612] Northeast corner of the map.
• [3511, -3319, -0659] Southeast part of map. West from Kotimab Lightroot.
• [1240, -1932, -0845] Mid-southwest part of the map. East from Uisihcoj Lightroot.
• [0702, 2964, -0721] North part of the map. North from Uukukis Lightroot.
• [0436, 2094, -0588] Below the Great Hyrule Forest.
• [-1304, 3241, -0877] North part of the map. Southwest from Ikatoayam Lightroot.
• [-2424, 1840, -0716] South of Aduon Lightroot.
• [-3474, -1884, -0788] South of Umamustor Lightroot
• [-4774, -3894, -0460] Southwest corner of the map.

From what I can tell, most areas in the Depths outside of towers will not allow you to Ascend to the surface, even if you can get close enough to the ceiling. I have found one exception to this:

You can ascend to the surface from below the Deku Tree in the Great Hyrule Forest.

Answer 5

Turns out only balloons, wings, and those floating platforms (and possibly more) time out. Wooden/stone platforms do not time out. Neither do fans or steering sticks.

You find lots of fans and flat stone blocks in the depths. Hook these up as a quadcopter and add a steering stick, and you can fly for as long as you have battery.

I haven't tried this in the depths, but on the surface/in the sky, I have been able to fly these contraptions indefinitely. With enough battery, you should easily be able to fly out of any chasm.

Answer 6

This is quite an exploit, and not the way the game is intended, but you can build a contraption to launch yourself vertically.

You can achieve that in several ways:

• launching a spear with a plank attached, block it with Recall, attach a platform to it with Ultrahand and finally using Recall to exploit the spear spinning movement _{(courtesy of Deep40000)}

• using motor rotation (from Gemimik Shrine) and attaching a plank to it to create spinning movement, which can reach 900 rpm! If you jump in the machine while Recall is active, you get a huge vertical push _{(courtesy of Paradox Gaming)}

See the video for more details, after minute 17 the guy launches Link upwards Goron volcano's chasm:

Answer 7

If you can get a balloon on a platform close enough to the ceiling, you could likely just Ascend from the platform instead of trying to take the balloon all the way through the chasm to the surface.