Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Beginner Guide: First 20 Hours, Shrine Locations, and Early Weapon Fusions That Actually Work

I spent my first hour in Tears of the Kingdom falling off sky islands and getting absolutely destroyed by Soldier Constructs. Not a great start. If you're coming from Breath of the Wild, forget your muscle memory. Seriously. This game plays differently. Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall are not optional gimmicks. They're the core loop. Everything you do for the next hundred hours revolves around these four abilities, and the faster you internalize that, the smoother your run goes.

Great Sky Island is your tutorial zone, and you should take it seriously even though it feels slow. I know it's tempting to rush through. Rushed it myself on my first run. Big mistake. The shrines here teach each ability in sequence. In-isa Shrine covers Ultrahand construction. Gutanbac Shrine teaches combat mechanics including the parry and dodge timing that will save your life against Lynels later. Do not skip the combat tutorial. I got to my first Lynel fight with zero parry practice and it went about as well as you'd expect. Poorly. Very poorly.

Once you drop into Hyrule proper, go directly to Lookout Landing and find Purah. She kicks off the main questline and unlocks the Skyview Tower network. Every tower you activate fills in a section of the map. And serves as a launch point for sky islands. Activate every tower you can physically reach. All of them. The map information alone justifies the detour. You'll see shrine icons appear. You'll know which sky islands are reachable from which tower. It just makes everything easier, and honestly there's no reason to skip them.

Early shrines should be your priority for the first few hours. You can knock out about 20 shrines between the Great Sky Island and Hyrule Field regions alone, and that translates to five extra heart containers or stamina upgrades. I'd recommend splitting the first 20 Lights roughly two hearts for every one stamina wheel until you have about eight hearts, then balancing from there. The combat shrines in Hyrule Field are the fastest to complete. They're short survival challenges that reward you with a Light of Blessing and sometimes a decent weapon or shield.

Weapon fusions in the early game don't need to be fancy. A Boss Bokoblin Horn fused to a Soldier's Broadsword gives you about 29 total damage and lasts a respectable number of hits. That combo carried me through the first 10 hours. Didn't even think about replacements. Blue Lizalfos Tails fused to a Zora Spear are even better if you can reach Zora's Domain early. The tail extends your weapon's reach significantly. You hit enemies before they can even swing. And Zora weapons double their damage when Link is wet. Splash Fruit at your own feet. Boom, instant wet condition. Cheap setup. Punches way above its weight class. Tbh it almost feels unfair once you get the timing down.

Bows deserve just as much attention as melee weapons. Keese eyeballs fused to arrows create homing projectiles. You don't need to aim precisely. Shoot in the general direction of an enemy and the arrow curves to hit their weak point. This is invaluable against bosses with small hitboxes like Gohma's eye or Hinox eyes. Keese wings increase arrow speed and flatten the trajectory for long-range sniping. Stockpile these materials whenever you see Keese swarms. They're common around caves and at night.

Armor in the early game is mostly about not dying. The Hylian set from Lookout Landing gives solid defense and is cheap. But the real priority should be the Stealth Set from Kakariko Village. 1800 rupees for all three pieces. Sounds like a lot until you start cooking and selling meals. Then it's nothing. The stealth bonus lets you walk right up to enemies for sneakstrikes that do eight times normal damage. Eight. Times. You can clear entire monster camps without breaking a single weapon. Plus you'll catch more bugs, fairies, and critters, which feeds back into rupee income through cooking. It's a self-sustaining loop and I honestly think it's the single best early game investment.

Do not go into the Depths early. I made this mistake and I am actively warning you not to repeat it. The Depths are covered in gloom patches that reduce your maximum HP on contact. You can only restore it by activating Lightroots or eating sundelion meals, both of which are scarce early on. Wait until you have at least 10 hearts, a bow with 20 plus damage, and a solid supply of brightbloom seeds for lighting your path. The Depths are one of the most rewarding areas in the game, with exclusive armor sets and massive Zonaite deposits for battery upgrades, but they will punish you hard if you jump in underprepared.

The Autobuild ability is something most new players miss entirely. It comes from a side quest called A Call from the Depths, available after you complete at least one Regional Phenomenon. Autobuild lets you instantly recreate any Ultrahand construction you've built before, using Zonaite to fill in parts you don't have in your inventory. This saved me probably 10 hours of rebuilding the same fan plane over and over. If you only do one side quest in the entire game, make it this one.

Cooking is the other system that seems optional but really isn't once you get into harder content. Five Hearty Durians cooked together give a full restore plus 20 temporary hearts. Five Endura Carrots give you two extra stamina wheels. Sundelions specifically cure gloom damage and are essential for Depths exploration and the final boss. Here's a rule most guides don't explain clearly: don't mix different effect types in one dish. If you're cooking for attack up, use five Mighty Bananas and nothing else. Mixing a Mighty Banana with a Hearty Durian cancels both effects. Cook single-effect meals in batches of five for maximum duration. And honestly, just sell the mixed dishes. They're worth more rupees than they are as food.

The main quest order I settled on after multiple runs: Great Sky Island tutorial, then activate all reachable towers around Hyrule, then Rito Village first for the Wind Temple and Tulin's gust. After Rito, Zora's Domain for the Water Temple and Sidon's water shield. Then Goron City for the Fire Temple. Finish with Gerudo Town and the Lightning Temple. Queen Gibdo is the hardest of the four, and you'll welcome the extra sage abilities and better gear when you face her. One final tip that I wish I'd known: the Master Sword sits on the Light Dragon's head, and you need two full stamina wheels to pull it out. That's 10 shrine upgrades dedicated to stamina. Start working toward that early if you want the sword before the endgame.