Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 31: Solar Plexia Cries; So Does My Backside

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I visit my chiropractor for the first time in 2021!

Welcome back to another KoopaTV Fitness Friday! I want to be in better physical shape, so I'm playing Ring Fit Adventure for Nintendo Switch and doing some other things to achieve that goal. Throughout this series of articles, you might get to know me a bit differently than you usually would across other KoopaTV articles.

Last week, I cleared World 30, which featured the master of legs, Allegra. This week, I'll be dealing with the master of abs, Abdonis.

This week, I increased the difficulty level to 29 (from 28—the difference notably brings the number of Chair Pose and Boat Pose repetitions from 12 to 14), and I'm in World 31: Extra Fitness Lv. 204. This is a return to the setting of World 8: Tears of Solar Plexia, with Solar Plexia being a deity, pretty much, that is crying and causing world-wide rain due to her powers being stolen. At first, it was Dragaux that took them, but then we took it from Dragaux and Ring never gave it back, since her powers let us double jump starting in World 9. ...So she's still crying even now, hence the first level, Gutterflow Temple, being filled with water.

Ring is a jerk.

After Gutterflow Temple and its various transportation mechanisms, I did the nearby Crate Crasher (Novice) Game Gym and won an Onyx for performing well. An optional level to progress—but not to WORLD CLEAR!—is the Drench Trench. There's milk and honey here, though I don't know if I'd trust the contents of those yummy things due to the perpetual rain surely diluting its flavour.

How often do these rain-exposed rails have to be replaced?
...And how would they physically replace them? (And who is “they”?)

In Town, there is the General Store Number 27. The only new clothing they have is the full Mustard Skeleton II set, which while it looks cool, confers no additional benefits for wearing it. You'll need one Onyx to buy the whole set, plus a lot of money.

Reminder that Ring Fit Adventure came out before the Chinese Communist Party Virus pandemic.

The next level is Talisman Trail, and this one has reminiscing Ring dialogue associated with it that's interrupted by reminiscing Abdonis. Ring recalls that Abdonis (disguised) forced us on a fetch quest to collect raindrops. This time, he wants to give us an honest training session, and says we must clear Talisman Trail without using smoothies. ...Since it's abnormal for us to drink smoothies on ordinary courses anyway, this isn't anything we'd do different than normal. ...Still, Abdonis believes he's a genius for this idea. Pretty boy ain't so smart inside...

Abdonis is claiming to be a genius, but I'm not convinced.

Actually, I'm being too harsh on Abdonis. Pumpkins grow in Talisman Trail, and I had a whole paragraph in Week 30's article about how Pumpkin are very valuable ingredients and you'll want to use ingredient-doubling smoothies to get more of them whenever a course features Pumpkins. A Milk Pudding to do easier knee lifts would also help in Talisman Trail's many swamp lands. Unrelated: A squat Treasure Chest in this level contained one Dragon Fruit ingredient.

Abdonis was impressed and he jumped into World 31's warp zone, and I'm following him. The last level I'll do today is the Battle Gym in the warp zone. This has four rounds, but only eight total enemies. (One, two, one, and four per round, respectively. ...Though in the last one, the Red Megaphauna summoned a Blue Matta Ray, making it five enemies.) There was no bonus for completing the Battle Gym, sadly. But I did get the Insatiable Arm Twister title!

On Monday morning, I visited my chiropractor for the first time in 2021. You may remember that, based on my chiropractor's advice, I was supposed to be playing Ring Fit Adventure throughout the latter half of 2020 to get my core into better shape to reduce my aches and pains. ...And, uh, I didn't do that. But now that I've been consistently playing it, what did he have to say about my fitness level? Well... he didn't make any judgment around it. But the adjustment cracking noises were minimal, with the exception of my neck (on the left side)—doesn't help that Ring Fit Adventure doesn't seem to have any exercises that help your neck. (Though shoulders benefit your neck, and I should be doing neck exercises anyway.) He did a lot to help my crappy left hip, using several minutes to move my left leg joint as I was lying down on the table (shell-side up, of course).

Later Monday evening, feeling physically powered up in real life by my chiropractic appointment, I tackled the warp zone, heading north and getting 400 coins for clearing Thigh Rider (Novice) Game Gym. After that is a Gold Hoplin fight (but there is only one—beating it will give another 500 coins, or 1,000 if you drink a money-doubling smoothie). After that is the (Novice) Game Gym where the prize is a Strength Drink. Circling back to the south half of the warp zone is Springload Shrine. Clearing that filler gives access to the overworld Treasure Chest with a Defense Drink. For context, these increase your attack or defence stat by 1 each, but my stats are at 1,132–1,134 right now (and they increase by 4–5 per level-up), so that's basically nothing. Finally, I went through the pre-miniboss level, Dangling Overpass. In the overpass is a squat Treasure Chest with an Onyx gem inside, and a whole lot of squat jump pads (or trampolines as I call them). There's also wild Carrots to pick up, useful for Carrot Soup.

I'm Russian Twisting what's apparently a family of two Belldogs and one Kennelbell.

The final level of the warp zone is the Secluded Shrine Approach, where Abdonis waits for a miniboss battle. He believes that it's up to him to bring out my abdominal muscles’ potential. His super attack, once he gets below half health, requires an extended Seated Forward Press defence. Otherwise, he has plenty of HP for the fight. I believe it took me six rounds, plus reflecting his special attack, to beat him. There is a wide selection of powerful and single-range Abs Fit Skills to choose from, so you have a lot of choice in how you want to beat Abdonis.

Abdonis doesn't look too confident in his ab attack versus my Ab Guard.

I'm exhausted and dripping with sweat both in-game and in real life after the fight, so that'll be it for Monday. Turns out that I've cleared the majority of this world already. (One level + one Battle Gym + Dragaux Stadium to go!)

After playing, I took a shower, and ate warm rice quinoa pasta with butter.
(I easily ate far, far more than the ~100 calories I lost playing Ring Fit Adventure today.)

When I next picked up Ring Fit Adventure on Wednesday and I left the warp zone to return to the main world, there was an overworld Treasure Chest containing three Kale Smoothies. ...I wonder where it came from, because it wasn't there before!

The original chest back in World 8 was for the Leg Scissors Fit Skill, but it's still just as unannounced.

Not needing them, I headed to Solar Plexia Archway. Not much to say here, but there is a bit of river rowing and I don't know if the river exists due to all of the rain or if it was always there anyway. I then did the four-round Battle Gym, which provided me a Dragon Fruit for completion.

One thing my chiropractor could've told me but didn't:
You'll ALWAYS want your (lower) back to be straightened.
Like, I don't think there's any circumstance where the opposite should happen.
Keeping this in mind helps with good form, which is what Ring Fit Adventure is about.

On Friday, the very last thing for me to do in World 31 is to fight Dragaux. Dragaux says I need to do a full-body work out after training with Abdonis, and invites me to where he's hanging out, Solar Plexia's Shrine. ...Does he have permission to be there...?

Before I get into fighting Dragaux and more importantly, our dialogue, I just wanna give a shout-out to when Ring Fit Adventure has interesting level design. Often you can go on autopilot (not many other directions you can go because it's on-rails) and not think about the level design, just keep running. But for the first EXP Medal in Solar Plexia's Shrine, you can only get it if you pause on the treadmill and NOT run. You can only know to do that if you look where the squat swings will be taking you, instead of mindlessly squatting and not paying attention. It's good mental fitness (observation, awareness) as opposed to the game just testing and developing your physical fitness.

We confront Dragaux, who says it's nice that Abdonis and his mom are getting along well, but Solar Plexia is still upset. Ring then has the audacity to blame Dragaux for taking her orb and not giving it back, despite Ring currently being in possession of it. Dragaux said he'd give her “spherical protein candy” to make up for it, and off we go to fighting.

Ring is literally gaslighting Dragaux right now, and Ring knows it. (See first screenshot of this log.)

Dragaux has a whole cast of minions in this fight, with a Yellow Matta Ray+ and Yellow Megaphauna+ at the ends, as well as a Yellow Scuttlebell+ and Scuttlebell+ in his hands. That Yellow Megaphauna+ can buff Dragaux's attack power, and while holding a Scuttlebell+ his punches are already quite strong. But after being all of his minions, Dragaux gets mad and jumps to the background, punching three wooden boxes at you at a time until he gets bored and jumps back. This is a relatively harmless form of healing yourself, since some boxes contain hearts, and you have to be inadequate in reflexes to fail to air blast a box before it hits you.

Upon defeat, Dragaux dropped 1277 coins (and 1277 more thanks to my smoothie drinking) and the never-before-seen Topaz item! He also dropped a brief self-question-and-answer session on who needs rain. (Life, including himself.) Then he flew off. World complete! But we haven't seen Solar Plexia again, and it's STILL raining in World 31 as we move on to World 32. ...Which you'll read about next week!

I got to spend far less time in World 31 compared to World 8, mostly because there aren't sidequests.

Will Solar Plexia cry until the end of time? How far will Ring go in demonstrating he's a jerk? Can Ludwig keep his back straight without rounding it? Stay tuned every week on KoopaTV's Fitness Fridays for answers to some of those questions, and more!


Here is the Week 32 fitness log!
Solar Plexia made a cameo in World 41, and she didn't end it crying.
The next time we visit Solar Plexia's Shrine, she isn't seen, but it is still raining.