Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: The Best Order to Complete the Temples
Need help figuring out the best order to complete the five Zelda: Breath of the Wild temples? With the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, there’s a fine balance between finishing the main story and completing optional content, including completing all five temples. Our recommendation is to leave the final one until last and focus on the others due to their crucial puzzle-solving and exploration elements.
Regardless of which order you pick to explore the Zelda: Breath of the Wild temples, you’ll need to complete each one in order to gain access to a sage ability. These will significantly impact your gameplay experience as they’re required to activate malfunctioning automated dolls and complete complex puzzles, as well as traverse to remote locations. Here’s the order we recommend going in and what you need to know about each temple.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Temple Order
The order for completing the Zelda: Breath of the Wild temples is as follows:
Wind Temple
Choosing the Wind Temple as your first destination because it unlocks the gust of wind ability is a no-brainer, as it’s the best horizontal movement in the Open-World game. Upon arrival, ask the men on the horse to take you to Baatar, then dash over to the village. Stock up on Zonai weapons and fight minor enemies if you want to get stronger.
Unleash the power of wind in front of the waterfall, then glide over to the climbable section to reach the top. Use a tree and a grass platform to propel yourself further – practice makes perfect. Find a Hylian Shield and Fairy Bottle, then defeat the Deathblade enemy before making the jump to the other side.
Lightning Temple
Make your way to the Gerudo Desert to help the Gerudo complete the Lightning Temple. With them in control of the shrine, you can re-equip the Lighting Rod and retrieve the full Thunder Helm before returning to Kakariko Village. Talk to Flavio under the former inn to complete the Zora Domain golden bug location, then make your way to the Zora Falls in Zora Domain.
Expect a challenging boss fight with Queen Gibdo in her second form. There are two ways to eliminate her – either shoot her on the head with the Lighting Rod multiple times, or let Riju show off her lightning attacks.
Ancestral Tomb Mankala Passages
When you arrive, Sidon suggests taking a few hours to rest to replenish hearts – we recommend stocking up on arrows or bombs and visiting the Gerudo Town Market, then choosing access the Ancestral Tomb Mankala Passages. You’ll also get a chance to purchase the heat-resistant Zora Armor, which is invaluable in terms of dealing with the desert heat.
Near the tree platforms, you’ll be able to climb up to the Ting-Ting statue, use Maboroshi to get past the invisible obstacle, then open the chest for 200 Rupees. Before sliding down, jump onto the grass platform to the right to find another Fairy Fountain.
Proceed to the waterfall at Zora Falls and use the Zora Armor to leap across. From here, you can leap to the next accessible platform and climb up to reach a chest with 200 Rupees. Make your way to the other side and climb up, then leap to the platform across with a Staminoka Berry, then the following platform.
Use Maboroshi and the grass to propel yourself to the grassy ledge ahead, and from here, you’ll able to use Maboroshi and the birds to reach the green platform with a Staminoka Berry. The next section is by far the most frustrating – Endah won’t be able to do anything here unless the secret wall functions just so, but you can take one step into the crawlspace and throw a bomb over to blast open the gate. Make a beeline for the statue, climb up, and Maboroshi over to the tree and climb up again to reach the next platform.
There’s also an invisible wall to sidle against and slowly walk against to get the Staminoka Berry, though you’ll want to do this after obtaining Mineru’s construct power.
Climb up again to the top ledge, then make your way to the chest with the 200 Rupees. You’ll want to throw a bomb on the left side of the gate for another Maboroshi away, then climb up and use bombs to glide over to the other side. Use the Korok Leaf to reach a Staminoka Berry, then climb up to the large branch.
