Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough: Shrines, Armor Sets, and Best Weapon Fusions for Every Region

My first playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom took about 120 hours. My second took 50. The difference wasn't skill or knowing enemy patterns. It was knowing where to go and what to skip. The game throws an overwhelming amount of stuff at you right after the tutorial, and if you try to do everything at once, you'll burn out before you reach the second temple.

Start on Great Sky Island and don't leave until you've done all the required shrines. You need the Recall, Ultrahand, Fuse, and Ascend abilities before the game really opens up. The tutorial teaches each one through the shrines on the island. Gutanbac Shrine in particular teaches combat basics including parry timing. Don't blow through it. Parrying is the single most important defensive skill in the game, and the tutorial gives you safe, low-stakes practice. Later on, against Lynels and Ganondorf, the parry timing you learned here will save you repeatedly.

Once you land in Hyrule, go straight to Lookout Landing and find Purah. She unlocks the Regional Phenomena main quest and, more importantly, the Skyview Tower network. Activate every tower you can reach. Each one fills in a chunk of your map and serves as a launch point for reaching sky islands. The towers also reveal shrine locations on the map, though you still need to physically reach and enter each one. I cannot emphasize this enough. Do the towers first. Everything else is harder and slower without the map filled in.

For the Regional Phenomena, the order matters more than most guides admit. Rito Village first, and here's why: the Wind Temple boss Colgera is the easiest of the four regional bosses, and Tulin's gust ability makes all subsequent exploration dramatically easier. You can cross horizontal gaps that would otherwise require building vehicles. You can reach sky islands that are just out of paraglider range. The quality of life improvement from Tulin's gust alone justifies making Rito your first destination.

After Rito, I'd go to Zora's Domain for the Water Temple. Sidon's water shield protects you from environmental damage and doubles the damage of Zora weapons when Link is wet. If you fuse a Silver Lynel Horn to a Zora Longsword and activate Sidon's ability, you're looking at roughly 114 damage per swing depending on the base weapon stats. That's enough to one-shot most common enemies and chunks boss health bars. Splash Fruit makes the wet condition trivial to activate. Just toss one at your feet before combat.

Goron City should be your third stop. The Fire Temple is manageable with decent armor, and Yunobo's rolling charge ability breaks rock walls without consuming weapon durability. This is huge. Weapon durability is the most precious resource in TotK, and anything that lets you bypass it for environmental obstacles is worth prioritizing. Yunobo also does significant damage to armored enemies and can be used as a projectile during exploration.

Gerudo Town and the Lightning Temple should be last. Queen Gibdo is the hardest regional boss by a comfortable margin, and you'll want the practice and gear from the other three temples before facing her. The heat-resistant armor requirement also demands more preparation than the other temples. Riju's lightning ability is excellent for the final boss sequence, though, so don't skip Gerudo Town entirely.

For weapon fusions, there are some patterns worth knowing that the game never explains. Gerudo weapons double the attack value of the fused material but reduce overall durability. A Gerudo Scimitar with a Silver Lynel Saber Horn becomes a glass cannon that hits absurdly hard but breaks after maybe 20 swings. Zora weapons double the total damage when Link is wet, including both the base weapon damage and the fused material. Royal Guard weapons do double damage when they're one hit away from breaking. So a Royal Guard's Claymore at critical durability fused with a Molduga Jaw and combined with the Radiant Armor for bone proficiency can produce damage numbers in the hundreds per hit. Speedrunners use this setup for the final boss.

The Master Sword has a fixed base of 30 damage and never permanently breaks. It runs out of energy and recharges after 10 minutes. Fuse a Light Dragon Horn to it for 70 total damage against gloom enemies, which covers most of the final boss sequence and Depths combat. The Light Dragon flies a circular route around Hyrule. You need at least two full stamina wheels to pull the sword, which means 10 stamina upgrades from shrines. Get those upgrades before attempting it.

Armor sets are scattered across every region and the Depths. The Fierce Deity set gives a 50 percent attack boost at two stars and is the best combat armor in the game. Pieces come from Misko's Treasure quests and Depths miniboss encounters. The Zora Armor lets you swim up waterfalls and is sold by the Zora merchant after completing the Water Temple. Climbing Gear pieces are in three separate caves across Hyrule. The Zonaite Set in Depths mines reduces Zonai device energy cost, which is essential if you build vehicles.

For armor upgrades, Great Fairies appear at four stables across Hyrule. The unlock cost increases each time: 100, 500, 1000, then 2000 rupees. You need all four unlocked for 4-star upgrades. Most armor sets get their signature bonus at two stars, so prioritize getting at least two fairies before the endgame sequence.

After all four Regional Phenomena, Purah sends you into Crisis at Hyrule Castle. There's a Phantom Ganon fight here. A two-handed weapon fused with a Lynel horn handles it efficiently. Then you descend into the Depths under Hyrule Castle for the Ganondorf encounter. Four phases total. Bring sundelion meals for gloom recovery, your best fused weapons, and the Fierce Deity set if you have it. The Master Sword glows in the Depths and does bonus damage against gloom enemies during the final sequence.

A mistake I made on my first run that cost me hours: I went into the Depths way too early. Right after the sky island tutorial, I found a chasm near Lookout Landing and jumped in. Huge mistake. The Depths are covered in gloom that reduces your max HP just from contact. The only ways to restore it are Lightroots or sundelion food, and you won't have many of either that early. You need at least 10 hearts, a bow with decent damage, and a fat stack of brightbloom seeds before the Depths are worth exploring seriously. Wait until after at least two regional temples.