10 things I wish I knew before playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

These 10 tips will help your journey through the skies and depths of Hyrule go smoothly

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out now, and I’ve played it for countless hours. Honestly, I’ve lost track of time since I started playing, and everything has been a total blur. Everything except the hard-learned lessons, of course, and Tears of the Kingdom had plenty of those for me.

In this run down I’m listing 10 things I wish I knew before I started playing. I’m man enough to admit when I messed up, and remembering exactly how to upgrade my Energy Well would’ve been nice before 40 hours had passed by on the in-game timer.

For a few pieces of wisdom just like that one, read through all of my tips below. Learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to make your own.

For more Zelda guides and tips, like how to find and activate all Skyview Towers, or an explanation of all Zonai Devices, make sure to read our full Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough.

Lookout Landing has it all – Zelda TOTK

If you don’t properly explore Lookout Landing, you might be missing a few things for the rest of the game. You need to come here early on to get the Paraglider, but if you leave too quickly you’ll miss a bunch of things. The shop here sells armor, for one, but you can also find Hestu to upgrade your inventory space, a Poe trader, and a fair few side quests. Don’t ignore Lookout Landing.

Energy Well upgrades – Zelda TOTK

Your Energy Well is the battery Link uses to power various Zonai devices, and you can increase it. Each third of a battery is called an Energy Well, and you can trade 100 Crystallized Charges for a permanent Energy Well. But to get Crystallized Charges, you’ll need to head down to…

Don’t ignore the Depths – Zelda TOTK

The Depths lies below Hyrule, and it is just as big as the world above ground. It hides loads of secrets, including the mineral Zonaite, which you can trade for those Crystallized Charges. But even better, there’s more than one Main Quest to complete in the Depths, and you can even get the Autobuild ability quite early if you visit the Depths at the start of your adventure. Just beware, it’s dangerous down there.

Ruin riding – Zelda TOTK

Why climb when you can fly? Link can get into the sky very easily thanks to Skyview Towers and falling ruins. If you see a ruin fall nearby – which is pretty common, honestly – you can hop aboard and use the Recall function to send it back into the sky with you on top. From there you could potentially visit a Sky Island, or paraglide back down to earth. It’s a fast way to travel.

Stables – Zelda TOTK

Stables are surprisingly important in Tears of the Kingdom, and you’re incentivized to come back regularly. Each stable has at least one unique side quest – but usually more than one – a Shrine nearby, a points system to keep you coming back, and travelers there will regularly update you about the goings-on in the world. Most importantly though, the Stable Trotter musician troupe is essential to accessing Great Fairy fountains and upgrading your precious armor.

Gems for Luminous Stone – Zelda TOTK

Luminous Stone may seem useless, but to the South of Hyrule near a stable, you’ll meet some special creatures that eat Luminous Stone and, for some reason, spit out gems. I don’t know why, but you should take advantage of it.

Horse upgrades – Zelda TOTK

If you visit Malanya the Horse God near yet another stable, you will not only be able to revive lost horses, but upgrade the ones you have. Malanya can increase the power, speed, and pull of horses to make them more capable for a variety of tasks. And it’ll only cost you some of your precious human meals.

Don’t find, Fuse – Zelda TOTK

Breath of the Wild wanted you to find weapons on the fly and improvise, but Tears of the Kingdom allows you to carry a stockpile of power. Kind of. To get a powerful weapon you actually want to take an average weapon you find on the floor, and then Fuse it with a powerful monster item. You can sort materials in your bag by their Fuse power, hold a few in your hands, drop them on the floor, and then Fuse several weapons at once with them. It’s as simple as that to get powerful weapons.

Ascend is good, actually – Zelda TOTK

Ascend will, initially, seem like the least useful ability, but it’s actually very cool. You can use ascend to get into multiple locations through alternate routes, or just far faster. With the Depths now too, finding select places to use Ascend and move back onto the overground can be very rewarding.

Shrine Sensor – Zelda TOTK

You should be sure to follow Robbie’s quest early on, as he’ll give you Purah Pad upgrades. It’s much easier to find those hidden, underground shrines if you have a general sense for it, and that’s where the Shrine Sensor comes in. The other upgrades are nice too, but this is going to make racking up Shrine Blessing much easier.