The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom features a staggering 152 Shrines. Each one offers its own unique challenge that the player must navigate through by using one or more of Link’s new abilities to retrieve the Light of Blessing at the end. Many of the shrines found right after leaving The Great Sky Island are straightforward and essentially act as short tutorials, but as the player ventures further into Hyrule, shrines will require Link to think about other unusual ways he can use Fuse, Ascend, Ultrahand, and Recall.
Breath of the Wild fans will already be familiar with how complex these shrine challenges can be, but with the larger emphasis on physics that Tears of the Kingdom brings to the table, it results in some tricky trials which can make getting that 100% completion a little more complicated.
Updated September 8, 2023, by Ewan Lewis: As players have continued exploring every inch of Hyrule, many more challenging Shrines have been discovered. Players will need a good grasp on each of Link’s abilities to successfully complete these tricky areas. Some are just fun brain-teasers, while others allow players to seek out rare equipment. Regardless, it’s always worth seeking out these Shrines when booting up a new playthrough.
12 Ishodag Shrine
Most players will stumble across the Ishodag Shrine when traveling to Rito village. Although it’s encountered early in the game, it’s not a walk in the park. This Shrine can take a lot of trial and error. It’s best to try attaching the fans to every inch of the room since some platforms are more hidden than others.
Uncovering the hidden chest can be especially tricky, but if Link carries over one of the fans used to navigate across the water, he will be able to elevate a small bridge. He can then uncover a few arrows and other goodies which will prove extremely useful in the long run.
11 Tenmaten Shrine
Most shrines can be spotted from afar thanks to the green glowing aura that hovers around them. However, the Tenmaten Shrine doesn’t really work this way. It’s located in a cave which players can only access by jumping inside the Elma Knolls Well, and there are plenty of Horriblins along the way who make the journey to this shrine even more difficult.
Luckily, this shrine’s challenge comes from actually seeking it out. Players will only need to pick up the Large Zonai Charge and the Blessing to leave. Still, it is undoubtedly the hardest shrine in the game to actually find without a guide.
10 Tadarok Shrine
The Tadarok Shrine, located just east of Mount Hylia, tasks the player with finding the most creative ways to use Ultrahand, Recall, and Ascend to reach the Blessing at the end.
The player will need to use Ultrahand to safely pass over an electrified pool of water before then figuring out how to protect blocks of ice from melting after being dropped into a blaze of fire. The final section involves using Recall to shift a small platform over a lava pit. Finally, Ascend to the top platform by stacking up all the blocks and chests acquired up to that point.
9 Makasura Shrine
Players can find the Makasura Shrine on the outskirts of Kakariko Village. While it isn’t too difficult to pass once getting the hang of it, the difficulty comes from the fact that it includes a mechanic that isn’t really seen until much later on.
The entire trial centers around ramps and platforms that move into an upright position when players interact with their circular device. It’s easy to assume that connecting multiple platforms outward is the correct way to navigate this shrine, but this is an easy way for players to fall down into the pit, which can add so much more time to the challenge.
8 Orochium Shrine
Nintendo decided to play on conventional gaming norms in the Orochium Shrine by placing a hidden passageway underground that can only be accessed by stepping into the second laser trap. Anyone who has any prior gaming experience will know that lasers are always something to be avoided. This includes in previous Zelda games such as A Link to the Past, in which Link must block them using his Mirror Shield.
However, in order to find the Small Key needed to progress through this shrine, players must run into the lasers in order to access a ball which will unlock the makeshift aircraft device, making for a unique challenge that messes with a staple of video games that gamers have become all too familiar with.
7 Jiukoum Shrine
By the time players reach the Jiukoum Shrine in the Popla Foothills, they should have already crafted a few different modes of transport to help them travel across Hyrule. This shrine puts this experience to the test, with the whole area being surrounded by rails.
While it starts off fairly easy, things become much more complicated when the walls are removed, forcing the player to create a make-shift minecart that needs to be perfectly balanced. Otherwise, it will easily topple over. This can happen all too easily in the last section where the rails split apart.
6 Mayaumekis Shrine
High up in the Hebra Mountain Sky, players will be able to test their paragliding skills in the punishing Mayaumekis Shrine. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when seeing all the elevating staircases and floating platforms that reside inside this gigantic Shrine, but things really start to get tricky when Link begins leaping into the air after bouncing from a launching pad.
Players will need to carefully glide between several different points. It can be easy to get confused because of the sheer amount of space there is to explore. The final challenge comes in the form of a trap door which must be unlocked by firing a deadly accurate arrow between a few bars. Be prepared to miss a few shots when attempting this.
5 Riogok Shrine
The Riogok Shrine, found in Central Hyrule west of Hopper Pond, requires an incredible level of patience and certainly isn’t for the faint of heart since the entire place is full of giant cogs and miniature devices that the player will need to interact with in order to open each door.
Throughout the shrine, Link will need to use poles to connect two spinnings cogs together, to raise a platform, and to create a make-shift lever in order to proceed. This is one of those trials in Tears of the Kingdom which really tests the player’s constructive and mechanical thinking skills, so it can help to have a bit of prior engineering knowledge to complete this one.
4 Mayaotaki Shrine
At the top of the map to the west of the Eldin Mountains, players will encounter a gigantic labyrinth which is actually the home of the Mayaotaki Shrine. While this shrine doesn’t contain any puzzle or combat inside, finding the entrance is the challenge.
The best way to go about this is entering from the west of the maze. Upon reaching the purple goo, place a few acorns together and set them ablaze with some Fire Fruit to propel Link into the air with the glider. Once the player travels a little further and finds the shrine with help from the Shrine Sensor, they will need to fire at the entrance multiple times in order to destroy the ice blocking the way to finally open the doorway.
3 Mayachideg Shrine
The Mayachideg Shrine is located between Kanalet Ridge and Broca Island. It essentially puts the player in the shoes of a contestant on BattleBots, as Link must craft and control mini robots to take down a wave of enemies.
The player’s robots can be destroyed incredibly quickly, so unless the player immediately creates other robots equipped with flamethrowers to help them out, the trial ends, and the gateway to the endpoint is blocked. While this is a fun way to utilize the abilities and their mechanics, the short time limit gives players barely any time to admire the mechanical mayhem that is taking place.
2 Zakusu Shrine
The best way to reach the Zakusu Shrine is to head over to the Mount Lanayru Skyview Tower, propel up into the sky, and then keep moving north to land on the tiny island that features a shrine device. Once the player interacts with this, use ashield to snowboard down a ramp that leads back to the mainland, where they must drift their way around the challenging course.
This is all just to open up the shrine, which itself features some very defensive enemies, all of which need to be defeated in order to progress. With how much effort is required to even enter this shrine and the dangerous positioning of the enemy archers, this certainly isn’t a trial that players can expect to complete in just a few minutes.
1 Sifumim Shrine
Water hazards, slow-moving rafts, and dozens of enemy archers make the Sifumin Shrine by far the most frustrating and challenging shrine in the entire game. Considering that all of Link’s weapons and armor are removed upon entering, it just makes dying even easier.
The majority of this shrine can feel like one giant tower defense game, requiring the player to quickly scavenge any arrows they can find to stand a chance of surviving until the end. The Sifumim Shrine can be found just northwest of Lurelin Village, but it is heavily advised that any players willing to take it on are deadly accurate with their bow and know exactly how certain materials, like the Zonai Charge and Soldier Construct Horns, can affect their arrows.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on Nintendo Switch.
