You're standing on a floating island, looking at a sky that feels impossibly big, and you have absolutely no idea how to get down without breaking every bone in Link's body. It's the Great Sky Island experience. We've all been there. Most people looking for a tears of the kingdom walkthrough want a straight line from A to B, but Zelda doesn't really work like that anymore. Nintendo didn't build a path; they built a chemistry set.
The reality is that "beating" the game isn't the hard part. The hard part is managing the overwhelming "choice paralysis" that hits the second you dive through those clouds.
Honestly, the biggest mistake players make in the first five hours is trying to follow the main quest too rigidly. You see a yellow marker on your map and your brain says, "Go there." Stop. If you do that, you're going to miss the actual power curve of the game. You'll end up at a boss with three hearts and a stick that breaks in two hits. You need to breathe.
The Great Sky Island is a Lie
Everyone calls the Great Sky Island a tutorial. It’s not. It’s a filter. If you can’t figure out how to bridge a gap using a fallen log and Ultrahand, the rest of Hyrule is going to eat you alive.
The most important thing to remember in any tears of the kingdom walkthrough for this area is the physics of heat. You’ll hit a snowy peak. You’ll freeze. Most guides tell you to cook peppers. Sure, do that. But you can also just fuse a ruby to a wooden shield. The ruby emits a constant heat aura. It’s basically a portable space heater that keeps you from dying while you climb. This is the kind of emergent gameplay that makes a "step-by-step" guide almost useless—there are always three ways to solve a problem.
When you’re up there, don't just rush the shrines. Look for the constructs holding fans. Those fans are your best friends for the next 100 hours.
Ultrahand is the Real Main Character
Forget the Master Sword for a second. Your real power is the ability to glue trash together. When you’re stuck on a puzzle, the answer is usually "make it longer." Need to cross a lake? Glue four logs together. Still too short? Glue four more. The game doesn't care if it looks stupid. If it works, it’s the right way.
I’ve seen people spend forty minutes trying to build a perfect flying machine with wings and fans only to realize they could have just used "Ascend" through a nearby overhanging rock. Ascend is the most underrated ability in the game. Look up. Always look up. If there’s a ceiling, you have an exit strategy.
Getting to the Surface and Not Dying Immediately
Once you hit the surface, the game "opens up," which is code for "you are now very easy to kill."
Purah tells you to go to Lookout Landing. Go there. Don't wander off yet. You need the Paraglider. It’s hilarious how many people (including me) spent hours exploring the Central Hyrule ruins only to realize they couldn't jump off a tower because they missed the most basic traversal tool in the game.
Once you have the glider, your first instinct will be to head toward the four regional phenomena. Most people go to the Rito (the birds) first. This is actually the correct move. Tulin’s ability—a horizontal gust of wind—is the single most useful exploration tool in the game. It makes gliding feel like you have a jetpack.
👉 See also: Why Pixel Tap Color by Number is Surprisingly Addictive (and How to Master It)
Why the Depths Will Scares You (And Why That's Good)
The Depths are terrifying. It’s pitch black, everything deals "Gloom" damage that breaks your heart containers, and the music sounds like a nightmare.
You’ll want to avoid it. Don't.
The Depths are where you find the "Autobuild" ability in the Great Abandoned Central Mine. This is a game-changer. It remembers your previous builds and lets you recreate them instantly using "Zonaite" or nearby parts. Without Autobuild, you're playing a construction simulator. With it, you're playing Zelda.
- Pro Tip: Throw Brightbloom seeds. Don't waste your arrows if you can help it. Just hold R and throw them like a baseball.
- Healing: You can’t heal Gloom damage with regular food. You need "Sunny" recipes made with Sundelions. These only grow on sky islands.
- The Map: The map of the Depths is a literal inversion of the surface. Where there’s a mountain on the surface, there’s a canyon in the Depths. Where there’s a river on the surface, there’s an impassable wall of rock in the Depths. Use this to navigate when you’re lost in the dark.
The Secret of the Shrines and Stamina
In Breath of the Wild, everyone told you to get hearts first. In Tears of the Kingdom, stamina is king.
You need at least two full wheels of stamina to pull the Master Sword later. More importantly, you need stamina to climb out of the holes you’ll inevitably fall into. The shrines in this game are generally shorter but more clever than the last game. If a shrine puzzle feels impossible, you’re probably overthinking it.
Take the "Proving Grounds" shrines. These strip you of your gear. They’re basically mini-stealth missions. If you’re struggling, look for the environment kills. There’s almost always a heavy crate you can drop or a patch of dry grass you can set on fire. The game wants you to be a jerk to the robots. Be a jerk.
Weapon Fusion is a Science
Stop using naked weapons. A base claymore is garbage. A claymore with a Blue Boss Bokoblin Horn attached to it is a murder machine.
The "fuse" mechanic fixes the durability problem people hated in the first game. It doesn't make weapons last forever, but it makes them hit harder.
- Elemental Arrows: Don't wait to find "Fire Arrows." Just fuse a Fire Fruit to a regular arrow.
- Keese Eyeballs: These turn your arrows into homing missiles. If you're fighting a Gleeok (the giant three-headed dragons), Keese eyeballs are mandatory unless you have god-tier aim.
- Shields: Fuse a rocket to your shield. Hold ZL. You now have a one-time-use vertical lift. It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card for puzzles.
Dealing with the Mid-Game Slump
Somewhere around the 40-hour mark, you might feel tired. You’ve done two temples, you’ve found 50 Korok seeds, and the map still feels empty. This is when you should stop following a tears of the kingdom walkthrough and start hunting for the "Dragon’s Tears."
✨ Don't miss: Black Ops 6 Crack: Why the Campaign Is Still Locked Down
These are the geoglyphs scattered across the world. They tell the actual story of Zelda and Rauru. Finding them gives the game emotional stakes that the main quest sometimes lacks. Plus, it guides you to parts of the map you’d otherwise ignore.
Just a warning: the final tear is a doozy. Don't look it up. Let it happen.
Actionable Insights for Your Playthrough
If you want to actually make progress without pulling your hair out, follow these specific steps:
- Prioritize the Camera: Follow Josha and Robbie’s questline in Lookout Landing immediately. This unlocks the Camera and the Sensor, which helps you find Shrines.
- Farm Zonaite: Spend some time in the Depths early on. You need Zonaite to upgrade your battery. A bigger battery means your flying machines won't plummet into the ocean after thirty seconds.
- The Hover Bike: This is the "meta" build. Two fans and a steering stick. Angle the fans 45 degrees downward. It’s the most efficient way to travel, and it costs almost nothing to build.
- Hylian Shield: You can get it almost immediately. Go to the docks under Hyrule Castle (sneak in from the back). Light the giant brazier. It’s the best shield in the game and has massive durability.
- Armor Up: Find the Great Fairies. You need to help the "Stable Trotters" musical group to unlock them. Without armor upgrades, late-game enemies will one-shot you regardless of how many hearts you have.
The beauty of this game is that it rewards curiosity over efficiency. Every time you think, "I wonder if I can do this," the answer is almost always yes. Don't worry about doing things in the "right" order. There is no right order. There is only your story and how many times you accidentally blew yourself up with a bomb flower.
To keep your momentum going, focus on completing the "Potential Princess Sightings" quest at the various stables. It’s one of the best ways to earn money (Rupees) while naturally discovering the map’s fast-travel points. Once you have a steady stream of income and a decent battery, the rest of the world becomes your playground rather than a struggle for survival.