How to beat the ‘strong current’ puzzles in Zelda Echoes of Wisdom

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is filled with niche puzzles that require out-of-the-box thinking to solve. One of these puzzles involves some strong currents, and it can be a little perplexing at first, but there’s an easy solution. 

I first encountered this puzzle in a small cave just northwest of Hyrule Castle Town, and it had me stumped for a good few minutes before I finally figured out what I was supposed to do. 

How to get through strong currents in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Before we start, you won’t be able to get through this until Tri is at least level 3, and you’ve unlocked the ability to summon Echoes from a distance. As long as you’ve got that ability, you can get through this puzzle very easily. 

Using my first encounter with this problem as a guide, here’s how to fight strong currents in EoW.

Swim as far to the right as you can, and then turn and face the way you came. Once you’ve done that, make sure you have a floating Echo equipped (I used the Wooden Box Echo), and then press and hold Y until you have a long yellow line. Release the button and your Echo should appear on the opposite side of the wall.

As soon as the Echo is present, press X to bind onto it, then press and hold RB to reverse-bind. This will allow the Echo to float to the surface, taking you with it.

Allow the Echo to take you all the way to the surface, then let go of RB and swim out of the current. This will leave you free to collect any resources or open any treasure chests.

On the way back through the current, it will actually help to speed up the swimming process, dragging you down with it and allowing you to swim back the way you came.