You're staring at a map of Hyrule that looks like a Jackson Pollock painting of blue and orange icons, and yet, the loading screen says you’re still missing three. It's frustrating. Honestly, it’s usually that one shrine tucked inside a cave you’ve run past twenty times, or a sky island so high up it doesn't even show on the default zoom.
Finding a totk all shrines map that actually makes sense isn't just about staring at a JPEG. It’s about understanding the "logic" the developers at Nintendo used to hide them. There are 152 shrines in total. If you’re coming from Breath of the Wild, that number might feel high, but remember: we have two extra layers of map to deal with now.
The connection between the surface and the depths
Here is the thing most players figure out way too late: the Depths and the Surface are mirrors.
If you find a Lightroot in the Depths, there is a shrine directly above it on the Surface. Every single time. No exceptions. If you’re stuck at 119 shrines on the ground, stop looking at the grass. Open your Depths map and look for any Lightroots you've activated that don't have a corresponding blue icon on the Surface map.
It gets cooler. The names are literally just reversed. The Oshozan-u Shrine in the North Tabanta Sky? Not that one, let’s look at the surface. The Kyononis Shrine in Central Hyrule corresponds to the Sinonoyk Lightroot. It's a clever bit of world-building that basically gives you a built-in "cheat" for the 120 surface shrines.
Why the sky is different
You can't use the Lightroot trick for the Sky Islands. There are 32 shrines floating in the clouds, and they operate by their own rules. A lot of these aren't even "puzzles" in the traditional sense; they are "Shrine Quests" where you have to haul a green crystal across a series of floating platforms while fighting off a Flux Construct.
If your shrine count is off, check these sky archipelagos:
- North Hebra Sky Archipelago: High altitude, easy to miss.
- South Hyrule Sky Archipelago: Often requires specific Zonai wing builds to reach.
- Thunderhead Isles: If you haven't cleared the storm yet, you're basically flying blind.
Finding those "missing" cave shrines
The biggest headache in a totk all shrines map search is the cave system.
The Shrine Sensor will go absolutely nuts, beeping at a wall, but you won't see a thing. This usually means the entrance is 200 meters away behind a clump of breakable rocks or hidden under a waterfall.
Take the Kyokugon Shrine for example. It’s "under" the Great Plateau, but you have to find a specific cave entrance on the side of the cliff to get in. If you're struggling, look for Cherry Blossom trees. Leaving an apple in the bowl at the base of these trees will cause Satori to highlight every cave entrance in the region with a pillar of light. It lasts for a good chunk of in-game time and makes those last few surface shrines much easier to pin down.
The "Activated but not Finished" trap
Check your map icons. Seriously.
A completed shrine is solid blue. A shrine you've "interacted" with but didn't actually finish—maybe you got bored of the puzzle or needed more arrows—will have a blue icon with a small orange center. These count toward your fast travel points, but they do not count toward your total of 152 in the loading screen menu. It's the most common reason people get stuck at 151.
Breaking down the numbers
Let's look at the math so you can audit your save file properly:
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- Surface Shrines: 120 (Matches the number of Lightroots).
- Sky Shrines: 32.
- Total: 152.
If you have all 120 Lightroots and your surface map is still missing an icon, you likely have a "Quest Shrine" that hasn't been triggered. Some shrines don't even exist until you talk to a specific NPC or interact with a green pedestal that starts a beam of light.
What you actually get for the grind
Is it worth it? Sorta depends on how much you like lore.
Once you hit 152, you’ll get a final quest notification. Head back to the Temple of Time—the one on the Great Sky Island where the game started. Inside a chest, you’ll find the Ancient Hero’s Aspect.
This isn't just a piece of clothing. It’s a full-body transformation that makes Link look like a Zonai hero. It has a massive base defense of 12, and if you upgrade it at the Great Fairies, it becomes one of the strongest sets in the game. Plus, it just looks cool as hell during the final boss fight.
Actionable steps for your hunt
- Sync your maps: Toggle between the Surface and Depths. Look for a Lightroot without a Shrine above it. Mark it with a pin.
- Satori scan: Find a Cherry Blossom tree (there’s a map of them in the Outskirt Stable) and drop an apple to reveal cave entrances.
- Check the Sky: Zoom all the way in on the Sky map and look for the circular "arena" shaped islands. Those almost always house a shrine or a boss guarding a shrine crystal.
- Sensor+: If you haven't talked to Robbie at the Hateno Research Lab to upgrade your Purah Pad, do it now. The Shrine Sensor is essential for those caves.
Stop searching for a single image that has all the icons—it's too cluttered to be useful. Instead, use the Depths as your guide for the ground and the Satori lights for the caves. You'll have that 152/152 notification in no time.
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Once you've cleared the map, you might want to start farming the materials needed to upgrade that Ancient Hero's Aspect, specifically Silver Lynel parts and Gleeok Guts, which are a whole other challenge on their own.
Check your loading screen now—how many are you actually missing? Cross-reference your sky islands first, then dive into the caves. Hyrule is a lot bigger than it looks when you're hunting for that last tiny glow of green light.