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If you are starting The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, do not rush straight toward difficult fights. Finish the four Great Sky Island shrines, learn each ability by experimenting, reach the surface, and get the Paraglider as soon as the opening quest allows. From there, alternate between a marked objective, nearby shrines, useful materials, and occasional detours. That rhythm builds hearts, stamina, equipment, rupees, and knowledge without forcing one “correct” route.
The advice below is spoiler-light and uses Nintendo’s game as the concrete example of a modern Zelda-style open world. The same habits apply to similar games: gain the core movement tools, scout before committing, turn found materials into options, and treat exploration as progression rather than a distraction.
What to do first in Tears of the Kingdom
Your first priority is completing all four shrines on Great Sky Island. Each shrine introduces a permanent ability that remains useful throughout the game and teaches the basic logic of the open world: combine objects, modify equipment, move through spaces creatively, and reverse problems when a plan goes wrong.
Complete the four Great Sky Island shrines
| Ability | What it does | Beginner uses |
|---|---|---|
| Ultrahand | Moves, rotates, and attaches objects. | Build bridges, rafts, vehicles, platforms, and improvised solutions. |
| Fuse | Attaches materials to weapons, shields, or arrows. | Increase damage, extend reach, add elemental effects, or change how gear behaves. |
| Ascend | Passes through a solid object above Link when there is a usable surface. | Reach ledges, escape enclosed areas, bypass climbs, and gain a high position. |
| Recall | Reverses an object’s recent movement. | Return thrown objects, reverse moving platforms, and send projectiles back toward their source. |
Do not treat the shrines as disposable tutorials. Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall are the main verbs of the game. If a puzzle or route seems blocked, first ask whether one of these four abilities changes the situation.
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Reach the surface and obtain the Paraglider
Once you reach the surface, follow the map marker to Lookout Landing, speak with Purah, and advance the “Crisis at Hyrule Castle” Main Quest until you receive the Paraglider. It is vital for safe gliding, surveying terrain, and reaching places that would otherwise require long climbs. Exploring widely before obtaining it is possible, but inefficient and riskier.
After the Paraglider, the “Regional Phenomena” quest opens four regional routes. Nintendo’s official beginning guidance notes that the northwest route toward Rito Village can be a manageable first direction for beginners. You can follow that suggestion without committing to a rigid order; the world remains open, and side trips are often worthwhile.
A reliable exploration loop
When you are unsure what to do next, use a repeatable loop instead of wandering randomly. Nintendo describes the experience this way: “Every player’s exploration experience will be different.” Your route can differ from another player’s and still be productive.
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- Find high ground. Climb a tower, hill, ruin, or other safe overlook. A high vantage point reveals roads, caves, shrines, enemy camps, and materials.
- Use the Scope. While surveying, place map markers on enemies, chests, caves, deposits, useful materials, and routes you want to revisit. Marking a location is faster than trying to remember it.
- Choose a route, not just a destination. Gliding, climbing, Ascending, building with Ultrahand, and following roads each trade time, stamina, and materials differently.
- Gather what you can reach safely. Pick up plants, mushrooms, fruit, fish, wildlife drops, and sparkling objects. Visible materials become healing, stamina recovery, resistance, ammunition, weapons, or rupees.
- Try a detour when it is efficient. A nearby cave, shrine, village, or marked resource can improve your next attempt at the main objective.
- Reassess after every discovery. If you gain a new ability, useful material, or map marker, decide whether it changes the safest route to your current objective.
If one approach fails, change the approach rather than repeatedly forcing it. A climb may be replaced by Ascend, a fight by stealth, a gap by a vehicle, or a thrown object by Recall. Open-world puzzles often reward a different angle more than a stronger weapon.
How to manage materials and cooking
Keep a varied supply of food in your inventory. Cooked meals restore health and can provide stamina recovery or protection from environmental conditions. Raw ingredients are useful, but cooking turns them into deliberate answers to a problem you expect to face.
Collect first, cook with a purpose
- Healing: combine restorative ingredients when your hearts are low or before entering an unfamiliar area.
- Stamina: use energizing ingredients before a long climb, glide, swim, or traversal challenge.
- Environmental resistance: prepare for heat or cold instead of waiting until Link begins taking damage.
- Emergency supplies: keep a few meals ready rather than carrying only raw ingredients and hoping to find a cooking pot later.
Nintendo UK gives two early examples: cooking a Stamella Shroom with a Stambulb makes an energizing dish, while Spicy Peppers produce a cold-resistance meal. These examples illustrate the principle: match an ingredient’s effect to the obstacle ahead.
Use surplus materials for money
Cooked food sells for more than raw ingredients. Ore-derived gemstones, including amber, can also be sold for rupees. Keep materials you are likely to need for Fuse, cooking, quests, or upgrades, then sell genuine surplus rather than emptying your inventory indiscriminately. If you are short on money, a few deliberate cooking and selling sessions are more useful than selling every unfamiliar item.
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- The Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom
How to survive early combat
Early combat is not a test of whether you can defeat every enemy you see. It is a decision about risk, equipment, terrain, and the value of the reward. When you are under-equipped, avoiding a camp is a valid way to continue.
Read enemy strength before engaging
Among comparable enemy types, color communicates relative strength: red is weakest, followed by blue, black, and white. Horn shape also provides a strength clue. These indicators are not a promise that every encounter will be easy or hard, but they are a fast warning that a familiar enemy type has become more dangerous.
- Red enemies are generally the safest targets when your weapons and hearts are limited.
- Blue, black, and white variants deserve more preparation, better fusions, or a tactical alternative.
- A camp with several enemies can be dangerous even when each individual enemy looks manageable.
- If the reward is not worth the healing items and weapon durability you would spend, mark the location and return later.
Fuse before you spend good weapons
Fuse monster parts or other materials to weapons, shields, and arrows. A fusion can increase damage, improve durability, extend a weapon’s reach, or add an effect that changes the fight. Check your materials before attacking with an unfused weapon; a common drop may turn a weak tool into an appropriate one.
Fusing is also a resource decision. Save rare materials for fights that justify them, use ordinary drops for routine enemies, and do not assume a weapon’s original appearance tells you its final strength. The material attached to it is part of the weapon’s practical identity.
Turn materials into openings
| Material | Tactical effect | Best beginner use |
|---|---|---|
| Bomb Flower | Area damage | Pressure groups or damage enemies positioned close together; use space and cover to avoid your own blast. |
| Puffshroom | Conceals Link | Create a cloud, reposition, and ambush an isolated target. |
| Muddle Bud | Provokes enemy infighting | Confuse a group so enemies attack one another while you stay at a safer distance. |
| Dazzlefruit | Blinds foes or makes them drop weapons | Interrupt an attack, disarm a dangerous enemy, or create time to retreat. |
These materials are alternatives to a straight damage race. They can buy time, separate a group, or let you choose whether to finish a fight at all.
Use terrain and abilities defensively
Ascend is not only a traversal tool. Use it to escape an enclosed space, reach a roof or ledge, or create a high position from which to reassess. Recall can reverse a thrown object or projectile and can turn an enemy’s attack into a brief opening. High ground, cover, and distance often matter more than a small difference in weapon damage.
Should you follow the main quest or explore?
Use both. The main quest provides direction, story context, and access to important early progression, while exploration supplies the shrines, materials, quests, and equipment that make the next objective easier. A practical rule is to keep one main objective active and allow short, purposeful detours.
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Follow the objective when
- You have just obtained a key ability or the Paraglider and need to learn its intended use.
- Your Adventure Log points toward a village, character, or quest that unlocks a major system.
- You are low on equipment and need a reliable destination instead of a distant, unmarked expedition.
- You want story direction and a clear next step.
Detour when
- A shrine, cave, village, or material marker is close to your route.
- You need healing, stamina recovery, better fused equipment, or environmental resistance.
- A fight looks too strong and a nearby exploration reward could improve your odds.
- You have discovered a high vantage point and can see several useful, low-risk destinations.
This is guided discovery rather than a choice between two incompatible play styles. Check the Adventure Log when lost, then let nearby discoveries shape the route.
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Track the right objective
Press the Minus button to open the Adventure Log and select the objective you want to track. The map’s circle marker shows the active destination. If several quests are available, select the one that matches your current region, weather, equipment, and interest rather than following whichever entry appears first.
Talk to peaceful characters
Speak with villagers and other peaceful characters, especially when an exclamation point appears in a speech bubble. It signals a potential quest or useful lead. Conversations can reveal locations, problems to solve, and reasons to revisit an area even when no large marker is visible.
Use shrines as progression checkpoints
Shrines contain puzzles and reward a Light of Blessing. Four Lights of Blessing can be exchanged at a Goddess Statue for either a heart container or a stamina vessel. Shrines therefore serve three purposes at once: they test your abilities, create fast-travel points, and build the resource you exchange for permanent survivability or mobility.
How to increase hearts, stamina, and inventory space
Choose hearts or stamina deliberately
At a Goddess Statue, four Lights of Blessing become either one heart container or one stamina vessel. Hearts give you more room for mistakes in combat; stamina improves climbing, gliding, swimming, and other traversal. There is no universal best order.
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| Priority | Choose it when | What it improves |
|---|---|---|
| Heart container | You are repeatedly losing fights, entering dangerous regions, or prefer a larger healing buffer. | Survivability and tolerance for mistakes. |
| Stamina vessel | You are regularly failing climbs, glides, swims, or long-distance routes. | Traversal range and the number of actions you can perform before resting. |
Observe what is actually stopping you. If you reach a destination but die there, prioritize hearts. If you cannot reach the destination, stamina may provide more immediate value.
Trade Korok Seeds through Hestu
Koroks reward seeds. Give those seeds to Hestu to increase weapon, shield, and bow capacity. Early inventory slots reduce the number of useful items you must leave behind and make Fuse experimentation less punishing. Because capacity is divided among weapons, shields, and bows, spend upgrades according to the category that limits your play most often.
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- Ultrahand: Using the new Ultrahand ability, Link can pick up, move, and rotate almost any object, and can even attach objects together to create bridges, vehicles, and more!
- Fuse: Magically fuse almost any object to Link’s current weapon, shield, or arrow to increase durability, damage, or even add a new effect. Experiment with lots of different combinations to come up with surprising—and sometimes hilarious—results!
- Ascend: Add a new dimension to your exploration with Ascend, which gives Link the ability to pass through solid objects above him. Rise up through ceilings, hillsides, and even certain enemies to create seemingly impossible shortcuts.
- Recall: Use Recall to make objects in motion move backward through time, letting Link ride fallen boulders skyward, recover thrown weapons, or send projectiles back where they came from.
Treat larger upgrades as medium-term goals
Great Fairy upgrades improve armor and reduce damage taken. Purah Pad upgrades can add the Shrine Sensor, Travel Medallion, Hero’s Path, and Sensor+. These are valuable goals after obtaining the Paraglider, but they do not need to interrupt your first-hour progression. Build a stable foundation first: core abilities, the Paraglider, food, a few inventory expansions, and enough hearts or stamina for your preferred route.
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Every route trades something. Climbing is direct but consumes stamina; gliding is fast from a high point but depends on launch height and stamina; Ascend can bypass a climb when a suitable ceiling exists; Ultrahand builds can cross gaps or carry you over hazards but consume materials and time. Choose based on the obstacle rather than using one method by habit.
- Need the safest route? Scout from above, mark enemies, and avoid camps.
- Need speed? Glide from a high point, follow roads, or build a vehicle when materials are plentiful.
- Need to conserve stamina? Search for a cave or ceiling that enables Ascend, or use intermediate ledges instead of one long climb.
- Need to conserve materials? Walk, climb, or follow an existing route instead of building for a short gap.
- Need a future shortcut? Record the location with a map marker rather than spending resources immediately.
Common beginner mistakes and fixes
Rushing past the opening shrines
Problem: You reach the surface without understanding the abilities that solve most early obstacles.
Fix: Complete all four Great Sky Island shrines and deliberately practice moving and attaching objects, fusing, Ascending, and Recalling before pushing onward.
Fighting every enemy camp
Problem: Weapons break, food disappears, and a low-value fight delays the objective.
Fix: Read enemy colors and horn shapes, scout the camp, use stealth or tactical materials, and leave when the reward does not justify the risk.
Ignoring materials on the ground
Problem: You run out of healing, stamina, resistance, ammunition, or Fuse options.
Fix: Collect visible plants, mushrooms, fruit, fish, wildlife drops, and sparkling objects whenever doing so is safe.
Carrying only raw ingredients
Problem: A dangerous climate or fight catches you without a prepared answer.
Fix: Cook a small, varied reserve: healing meals, energizing meals, and the resistance effect required for your next region.
Climbing without scouting
Problem: You spend stamina on a route that ends at an enemy camp, dead end, or inaccessible ledge.
Fix: Take a high vantage point first, use the Scope, place markers, and check whether Ascend, gliding, or an Ultrahand build is cheaper.
Leaving quests untracked
Problem: You become lost or follow an outdated destination.
Fix: Open the Adventure Log with Minus, select the current objective, and verify the circle marker before setting out.
Quick Recap
A spoiler-light first-session checklist
- Complete the four Great Sky Island shrines.
- Practice Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall whenever a safe opportunity appears.
- Reach the surface and follow the opening objective to Purah.
- Advance “Crisis at Hyrule Castle” far enough to obtain the Paraglider.
- Take a high vantage point and mark enemies, shrines, caves, materials, and routes.
- Cook healing food, one energizing dish, and any temperature-resistance meal your route requires.
- Fuse ordinary monster parts or materials before spending rare resources.
- Use the Adventure Log to choose a main objective, then take nearby productive detours.
- Avoid enemy groups whose color, horn shape, numbers, or terrain make the fight a poor trade.
- Talk to villagers, investigate exclamation-point speech bubbles, and collect Korok Seeds for Hestu.
- Exchange four Lights of Blessing at a Goddess Statue for the heart or stamina improvement that addresses your current bottleneck.
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