You’re standing on a floating island, looking down at a sea of clouds, and you have absolutely no clue how to get that chest hanging from a platform two miles away. We’ve all been there. Most people looking for a legend of zelda tears of the kingdom walkthrough are just trying to find a specific shrine or figure out why their wing glider keeps disappearing into the abyss after thirty seconds. It's frustrating. The game is massive—like, "lose your job and forget to eat" massive.
Hyrule isn't just a map anymore. It’s a physics engine disguised as a fantasy world. If you try to play this like Ocarina of Time, you’re going to get crushed by a falling rock or run out of stamina halfway up a cliff.
The Great Sky Island is Actually a Tutorial (and it's Hard)
Seriously, the opening area is deceptive. It’s beautiful, but it’s also a gauntlet designed to break your old habits. You can't just climb everything. You have to use Ultrahand. Honestly, if you aren't gluing three logs together every five minutes, you're doing it wrong. The real trick to the Great Sky Island walkthrough is mastering the Ascend ability early. Most players forget it exists because it feels like cheating. It’s not. It’s the core mechanic of the game.
When you're stuck on the icy peaks near the Gutanbac Shrine, don't just eat raw peppers. Cook them. Use a pot. Or, better yet, find the Archaic Warm Trousers tucked away in a hollowed-out tree near the pond. Small details like this make the difference between a smooth run and a miserable slog through the snow.
The Physics of Ultrahand
It’s clunky at first. You’ll rotate a board the wrong way, drop it off a cliff, and scream. That’s the experience. But here’s the thing: the game doesn't care how you solve a puzzle. If you want to build a bridge that's 50 feet long by sticking every tree in the forest together, go for it. A proper legend of zelda tears of the kingdom walkthrough shouldn't tell you exactly where to put every bolt; it should tell you to stop overthinking it.
I’ve seen people spend forty minutes trying to build a perfect car when they could have just attached a rocket to a shield and bypassed the whole canyon.
The Surface: Why You Should Head North First
Once you dive down to Hyrule proper, the sheer scale hits you. It’s overwhelming. You’ll see a dragon, three towers, and a bunch of weird holes in the ground emitting red smoke.
🔗 Read more: Lust Academy Season 1: Why This Visual Novel Actually Works
Ignore the holes for now.
Go to Lookout Landing. Talk to Purah. Get the Paraglider. It sounds obvious, but I know gamers who spent ten hours wandering around the Central Hyrule plain without a glider because they wanted to "explore naturally." Don't be that person. You need the glider.
After that, head to the northwest. Toward the Rito. The Wind Temple is widely considered the "intended" first stop, and for good reason. Tulin’s ability—a horizontal gust of wind—is the single most useful exploration tool in the game. It makes gliding feel twice as fast. If you go to the Gerudo Desert first, you're going to deal with heat, sandstorms, and some of the toughest enemies in the game without any backup. It’s a bad time.
The Depths are Not Your Friend
This is where the game turns into a horror movie. Below Hyrule is an entire second map called the Depths. It’s dark. It’s covered in Gloom, which lowers your maximum health.
- Throw Brightbloom Seeds. Don't waste your arrows if you don't have to; just throw the seeds.
- Find the Lightroots. They correspond exactly to the Shrines on the surface. If you see a shrine above, there’s a lightroot directly below it.
- Build a hoverbike. Two fans and a steering stick. That's it. It’s the "meta" way to travel because it’s cheap on Zonai charges and avoids the Gloom entirely.
Combat is Different This Time
Forget what you know about Master Swords and Hylian Shields. In this game, your base weapons are garbage. They’re decayed. They break if you look at them funny. This is where Fuse comes in.
If you aren't fusing monster parts to your swords, you’re basically hitting enemies with a wet noodle. A Bokoblin Horn attached to a rusty broadsword doubles its damage. A Lynel Saber Horn? That’s how you start seeing the big numbers.
💡 You might also like: OG John Wick Skin: Why Everyone Still Calls The Reaper by the Wrong Name
Arrows are the Real MVP
In Breath of the Wild, arrows were precious. In Tears of the Kingdom, they are your primary utility. Attach a Fire Fruit to burn wood. Attach an Eyeball for homing shots. Attach a Gibdo Bone for massive damage. Honestly, the Gibdo Bone trick is what most speedrunners use to melt bosses. They have high attack power but low durability—perfect for an arrow that’s going to break on impact anyway.
Hidden Mechanics Nobody Explains
There are things the game just... forgets to tell you. For example, did you know you can rewind time on objects that fall from the sky? If you see a rock fall from the heavens, climb on it and use Recall. It’ll take you straight up to the Sky Islands. It’s a free elevator.
Also, the "Hylian Shield" is still in the game. It’s in the docks of Hyrule Castle. You can sneak in there very early if you’re brave enough to dodge some Gloom Hands. Speaking of Gloom Hands—don't fight them with a sword. Use bomb flowers. Lots of them. From a distance. If you try to melee them, you're going to have a bad time.
The Story Flow
People get caught up in the "Regional Phenomena" questline. There are four main regions.
- Rito (Northwest): Easy boss, great reward.
- Goron (Northeast): Fun traversal, boss is a bit of a gimmick.
- Zora (East): Heavy on the lore, helps with swimming up waterfalls.
- Gerudo (Southwest): The hardest puzzles and a boss that will actually kill you.
Try to find the Geoglyphs (Dragon's Tears) alongside these missions. They tell the actual story of what happened to Zelda. If you finish the game without finding the tears, the ending feels a bit hollow. But fair warning: find them in the order shown on the walls of the Forgotten Temple. If you watch them out of order, you’ll spoil the biggest twist in the game within the first five hours.
Managing Your Resources
You’re going to run out of Zonaite. It’s the blue ore found in the Depths. You need it to upgrade your battery. Without a big battery, your cool tanks and planes will die in three seconds.
📖 Related: Finding Every Bubbul Gem: Why the Map of Caves TOTK Actually Matters
Don't spend your Zonaite on buying Small Charges. Spend it on "Crystalized Charges." You need 100 of those to get a single battery segment. It’s a grind. To speed it up, fight the "Master Kohga" boss line in the Depths. It’s a hilarious quest, and it gives you a massive amount of charges.
Why You Keep Dying
It’s probably your armor. Or lack thereof. Go to the Great Fairies. You have to complete a specific questline involving a troupe of musicians to unlock them. Once you do, you can upgrade your gear. Even a level two upgrade on a basic set of armor can be the difference between getting one-shot by a Moblin and actually surviving a hit.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Session
If you’re sitting there looking at your screen wondering what to do next in your legend of zelda tears of the kingdom walkthrough, here is a concrete plan:
- Visit the Cherry Blossom Trees. If you drop a piece of fruit in the bowl at the base of these pink trees, Satori will appear and light up every cave entrance in the region. It’s the best way to find Bubbul Gems.
- Farm Dragon Parts. Dragons don't hurt you anymore (mostly). You can land on them, walk along their backs, and pick up shards of their spikes. These are incredible for fusing to weapons or cooking into high-level potions.
- Get the Autobuild Ability. It’s in the Great Abandoned Central Mine in the Depths. If you don't have this, you're manually building every vehicle every time. It saves your "blueprints" and lets you rebuild them instantly using Zonaite.
- Stop Hoarding. Use your zonai devices. Use your high-level materials. The game gives you plenty if you keep exploring.
The biggest mistake is trying to save everything for "the end." In Hyrule, the journey is literally the only point. There is no "perfect" way to play, but there are definitely ways to make it less frustrating. Start by heading to the Rito, keep your eyes on the sky, and for heaven's sake, stop trying to fight the Lynels until you have at least ten hearts.
Go find the Purah Pad upgrades at the Hateno Lab next. The Sensor+ is a godsend for finding specific materials or those last few elusive shrines.