The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available worldwide on the Nintendo Switch, amassing some of the best critical scores and already being hailed as one of the best sequels and one of the best videogames ever made. If you’re one of the many people that have picked up the game, this guide is for you to help you make your way through the earliest minutes alongside the very first area that will mark your start of the game.
We’ll be speaking about a few specifics that are necessary to talk about for better information giving but we’ll still keep all unnecessary spoilers to a minimum.
The Opening:
As soon as you start the game, you’ll be welcomed into Hyrule once again as exploring one of the newest additions Zelda Totk has introduced. This part is straightforward, and most of it is plot progression and you’ll breeze by the great intro that’ll set up Tears of the Kingdom’s story.
The Beginning:
Once you’re through the intro phase, you’ll be officially welcomed to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s tutorial area. As it was with Breath of the Wild, this huge tutorial area ( although a very very VERY small part of the whole Totk world) will be where you’ll be introduced to all the new things the game has up its sleeves. This tutorial area itself will be another big addition since Breath of the Wild; Sky Islands, as you will find yourself in the sky learning all the new skills that Link will essentially need.
When you get up, just progress ahead slowly as you’ll only have to walk ahead through the first Island where your new ally directs. Soon, you’ll be diving down to the Tutorial Island which has a few things you’ll need to know to make it easier and more convenient for you to play through.
Swim out of the pond you dived in, and you’ll want to head towards the north. Take your time however look around, as you’ll find many items that would be useful later on. You’ll then run into your first enemies, but you’ll have sticks lying around in ample that you can use as your earliest weapons. Work with your controls to get a hang of all of Link’s attacks and more, and you’re all set to progress ahead.
At the place where you dived into, it’s a good thing to check the back and both East and West sides because they have plenty of things that you can pick up. Then slowly make your way to the first blinking location. You’ll get a small cut scenario, and then you’ll be directed to the next big thing of the game, the brand-new shrines of Tears of the Kingdom.
Ukough Shrine:
For this now you’ll be firstly moving to the Northwestern side of the Tutorial Sky Island, the place that has the Ukough Shrine. Note that if you did find and go to this shrine location before, it wouldn’t be accessible before you go to the blinked location towards the very North. It’s visible and easy to reach with a bit of climbing and hiking.
When you enter, this will be the first shrine that bestows you the Ultrahand ability. You’ll use this to combine parts lying around you to make a bridge and more and progress ahead. Don’t forget to open up a conveniently placed chest on a high podium that you can reach by using the same ability to place a 45′ walkable incline that you also used as a bridge by merging two pieces. You’ll also get more options to reach the final podium that will bestow you a Light orb. This will have you successfully complete the first shrine of your game fully and open you up to making all sorts of combined things in the game now.
After you’ve done the Ukough Shrine, you’ll need to venture downwards from the northwest to the west, and then towards the south slowly. You’ll be needing the Ultrahand ability frequently to make and move contraptions to go from Island to Island, so this will be good practice for you on how to venture and explore using the basic skill of the game.
The next shine will soon come at the sound western part. You will learn to make a boat using your Ultrahand ability by combining logs with fans, and you’ll also learn that caves are a big part of the game that holds many secrets.
In Isa Shrine:
This will be the second main shrine that will give you your Item-Merging-ability as soon as you enter. To progress further, you will use your combining ability by merging a stick with a rock to make a more durable and powerful weapon that can break through rocky blockades. Break the ones in front of you and progress further. Ahead in the same shrine, you’ll also have the option to get a chest, for which you’ll learn how to merge items with arrows that give them special effects. Towards the East side will be the part where there is a chest atop a bush of leaves. There will be arrows and a bow and conveniently placed growths that have a fiery element. merge those with your arrows while aiming and when the arrows become fire arrows, shoot and let the chest drop to open it. Then proceed to the end of the shrine.
In this manner, you’ve successfully now learnt how you can make weapons more durable and usable, as well as how to make arrows more powerful if you have the right items.
When you exit the shrine, make your way downwards towards the south. You’ll also get the Energy Cells that will power Zonai items that are necessary to make contraptions work over here. Making your way towards the very southern part of the map will also give you the second piece of your Archaic Armor Set in a chest that you find near the exit of the cave that you were directed towards before. Venture towards the East now, and then you’ll be heading for the snowy region of the map now.
The Snowy climate makes it necessary for you to protect yourself from the cold, or else you will slowly take damage and won’t be able to venture further. It is also necessary for you to venture into the Snowy region because that is where your third shrine will be, and it is an essential step. Don’t fret, however, as this is completely normal and it gives you the chance to learn another essential element of the game; Cooking and Armor.
Cooking and Armor:
Firstly speaking about cooking, as you would by now have a good variety of edible items that you may have found and gathered by exploring around, you can use those items to make many kinds of dishes. Some food ingredients have certain capabilities that affect the dish that you make when you use them. This is how you will learn that some dishes give you a Cold-Resistance for some minutes, which is the cure to the cold snowy region.
To cook, you need a cooking bowl or station atop a lit fire. stand towards the bowl, and open your item inventory, then one by one, pick the ingredients you want to use to cook and select and hold them. You can hold 5 items in this manner. For cooking you should use edible items only, like the Skyshroom or an apple or a spicy pepper. The Spicy pepper is the vital ingredient you need to make cold resistance dishes that will allow you to venture ahead. You’ll luckily find these near the border of the Island in the South where the cold region starts. Go ahead and experiment a little with the food ingredients and items you have to make some dishes that restore your health as well as make some dishes that give you cold resistance. It is recommended that you make at least five to six dishes with cold resistance so you have almost 30 minutes of total cold protection, just to be safe. When you’ve cooked them, go to the edge from where the snow starts, eat it, and you’ll realise you won’t get damaged from the cold after you’ve eaten the dish that gave you the cold resistance.
In this manner, you’ve now successfully learnt that by cooking ingredients, you gain many buffs that are essential for you to progress ahead in the game, to venture forth in many different kinds of terrains and climates as well as learn how to cook dishes that give you health back, alongside stamina and much more.
Now coming to the Armor part, you’ll guess that the game will also now have certain Armor Set items that give to buffs like Cold Resistance for free just by equipping them. This allows you to now depend only on dishes for the buffs needed to explore cold or hot places. There is a separate but convenient part of the Archaic Armor Set close to the next Shrine you’re headed towards atop a large tree trunk that gives you Cold Resistance when you equip it. You can reach this after clearing the next shrine that you’re heading towards now in the snowy region.
Eat your Cold Resistance dish and venture ahead towards the Southeast, this is where you will find the Gutanbac Shrine after hiking and climbing up two caves.
A New Enemy:
There will also be a surprise waiting for you towards the Western Side of the Map, right to the left of the large Stone Gate that you pass through to get to enter a Snowy Area. However, we recommend you stray away from this until the very end of the Tutorial.
Bring plenty of food dishes as well as plenty of Arrows and a full weapon inventory by merging weapons with stores and more. This part will hold for you a new challenge which you can still clear relatively easily if you’re good with your controls and movements. This enemy has a weak point that you will want to use to take it down.
Gutanbac Shrine:
This is the Snowy Shrine atop a high snowy mountain. You can view it once you’ve reached the snowy region as it’s not hidden, but it does require some effort for you to reach by climbing large tree trunks and clearing through caves. Once you enter, you will get the Ascent Ability. This ability basically allows you to fly up and clear roofs of any shape or size and pop up out of the other top side. This is the way how you will clear this shrine. go ahead and use it when you have a roof over Link. You will find a chest on a small roof towards the left side of the second roof you need to Ascend through to go ahead. Get that, go through the thicker right side roof to the top. Look towards the right where there will be a few rocky boulders blocking you from ascending through to a top terrace that has another chest waiting for you. Open that, then come down and cut the two ropes you see that hold a wooden roof from falling down for you to ascend through to its top, do exactly that and then walk to the final part of the shrine.
This is how you have gained another essential skill that will help you explore Hyrule’s lands, its caverns below, and the sky alongside its vast islands.
When you exit the Shrine, you’ll notice ahead that towards the left side, there is a large tree trunk with a convenient root making a small roof that you can ascend through. This is where the Archaic Set’s optional piece is available within a chest inside the trunk. Get that and equip it so you have no more fear of running out of cold resistance to explore ahead. Now before going ahead through the trunk, you would want to go ahead and move towards the eastern side first to explore more. Make your way down from the Southeast towards the East and you’ll encounter a few more Koroks that will give you Korok Seeds, pass down and venture northwards till you get to an end where there will be a low roof for you to ascend through up to the place where the Snowy Area started right out of the first cave. Now you can go head back to the Tree Trunk and go through it to get a look at the flying contraptions ready to take off. You can use them as they are, or you can attach a fan that will make them fly further. Do note you will have to make a few small movements when it starts flying to drive and control the flying contraption towards the North part of the Tutorial Island. You can also try to go through the middle Forest area again as you can find a few more areas accessible by the new abilities you have to get a few more chests.
This is how you make your way back to the Northern part of the Sky Island and you have officially almost completed the whole tutorial Area of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
There is a special surprise when players go in, and as it turns out, there is just one final thing left; another shrine to visit, and this one is at the place where the Tutorial started. You suddenly have one more essential skill now; the Rewind Function. This ability allows you to move things backwards in time.
You will be directed to Fast Travel back to the highest Sky Island where you woke up as the final Tutorial Shrine rests there. Remember the first time you activated the mechanical gears that started moving? You need to use the rewind skill on them to move them backwards. Ascent to the top roof on the left side of the room and use the rewind function on the smaller middle gear on the top to move the whole contraption backwards, you’ll be able to climb and jump over them to the opening on the other side, follow the small hole ahead, and you’ll make your way to the Nacoyah Shrine.
Nacoyah Shrine:
You’ll be practising your Rewind skill to get through here. Use Rewind to move the wooden raft pieces coming down the stream so they move backwards and get on top of them. You’ll realise that they also move the way they did before even without any action, so the wooden raft that fell down the stream will automatically go up the stream back, that’s how you’ll get up to the final part of the shrine. There’s a gear to the left that you can rewind to climb and get to a chest above. Come down, use the rewind function to move the dial exactly on top of the dial that is behind it to open the gate. Go through, and you’ve completed the last shrine.
Go out and you’ll be at a small sky port with the flying contraptions in ample, use them to get to three of the lower islands below, one a little towards the left of you as soon as you take off, one towards the right more below, and the other one to the right of the very northern building. You’ll clear out the whole Tutorial Sky Island in this manner. Go back to the Northern part and use the Light that you gathered from the four shrines to get a Heart Container, making you learn how you can get stronger in the game. That will allow you to open the final gate.
Just venture straight ahead, towards the Island right at the end. You’ll be in for an amazing scene, and your tutorial has finally been completed.
Enjoy the rest of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and all that it contains.
