Quick Links

  • Start With The Wind Temple
  • Second Stop: The Lightning Temple
  • Third: The Water Temple
  • Hit The Fire Temple Fourth
  • Save The Spirit Temple For Last

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom remains faithful to the core Zelda formula, centering the story's progression around the completion of five dungeon-like areas called temples. Much like Breath of the Wild, you can visit the temples in whichever order you please, but this decision will significantly change your experience.

RELATED: The Best Weapons In The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, Ranked

Luckily, you're not left completely in the dark; NPCs will accurately encourage you to start in the best order to complete the temples. While there are no hard rules for how you want to play, visiting each temple grants you important sage abilities. These tools will be essential to puzzle-solving and exploration.

Start With The Wind Temple

Pros

Cons

  • Gain access to Tulin's wind ability immediately.
  • Easier enemies and simple Temple Boss fight.
  • Great way to familiarize yourself with the tools provided to solve puzzles.
  • Loot is average and quickly replaceable.
  • Must have armor or meals to combat cold temperatures.

The Wind Temple is the first temple you should prioritize in Tears of the Kingdom, and there's no lack of push to get you there. Follow the advice everyone you talk to gives and head to the northwest area of the map to help the Rito and complete the Wind Temple.

In addition to progressing the story and helping you get several side adventures started, this path allows you to gain access to Tulin, probably the most essential sage in Tears of the Kingdom.

His gust of wind ability allows you to propel yourself forward and is easily the best horizontal movement tool in the game. Every area from here on will be spaced according to the assumption that you have this ability.

You can extend your glides and cross massive gaps using Tulin and your paraglider, a must-have combination for exploring the rest of the map.

You'll be able to stock up on Zonai weapons as you fight your way to the temple, which will help fill out your likely sparse inventory without issue.

Given that this is an early-game section, the enemies you face will prove minor nuisances in the grand scheme of your adventure.

Considering the relatively short amount of time to complete this section and how essential gliding around the map is, the Wind Temple is simply the best to start with.

Second Stop: The Lightning Temple

Pros

Cons

  • Riju's sage ability is useful in and out of combat.
  • Access to key vendors in Gerudo Town.
  • Powerful treasures to be looted in the desert.
  • No easy fast travel point until you traverse the desert storm.
  • Difficult Temple Boss.

From there, you'll want to make your way south to the desert, where you'll help the Gerudo. Here, you'll meet a tenacious young woman named Riju, who will accompany you on your journey to conquer the Lightning Temple and the ferocious Queen Gibdo.

While Queen Gibdo will pose a tough challenge as one of the hardest temple bosses, Riju will help you strike out with tenacious bolts of lightning.

Riju's lightning attacks stun enemies, break boulders, and even can start fires on demand without flint.

Aside from Riju's powerful ability, Gerudo Town boasts some incredibly important shops and their associated quests.

Make a point to unlock these vendors, and be sure to purchase the Desert Voe Headband and other heat-resistant armor.

If you're not in a rush to complete the temple, take a stroll through the desert with Riju to collect some chests and Gibdo Bones.

If you're up for a challenge, you can fight a Molduga in the desert as part of The Missing Owner side adventure. The Molduga itself drops some great fusion material, so don't skip out.

RELATED: The Hardest Bosses In The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

Third: The Water Temple

Pros

Cons

  • Receive Sidon's defensive water veil ability before the endgame.
  • Access to the Zora Armor.
  • Lightscale Trident will be an excellent weapon for the second half of the game.
  • Fish sold after the Water Temple is complete.
  • Sidon's ability isn't offensively strong outside this area.

From the dry sand to the polluted waters of the Zora domain to the east. Here, Link must help purify the waters once more and complete the Water Temple by defeating the Mucktorok.

Before you even complete the Temple, you'll receive the Zora Armor, an immensely useful tool for traversing waterfalls and reaching higher ground.

Once you use the Zora Armor to complete the temple, you'll also gain access to Sidon and his water ability.

Sidon can function as a defensive ally, or you can use his water to attack foes at range. His water attacks are excellent for dealing with the Temple but become obsolete after you finish.

Before you finish this area, be sure to craft the Lightscale Trident, as it is easily one of thestrongest weapons in the game and will help you deal with larger, hard-to-reach enemies.

There's also a nice amount of Hyrule Bass and other fish available from the store in town once you can dispose of the muck.

Fish can be difficult to track down, so stock up if you have the extra Rupees and try them out in some meals that restore hearts or protect against Gloom.

Hit The Fire Temple Fourth

Pros

Cons

  • Diamonds and other gems are sold by vendors in town.
  • Good source of caves for farming gemstones.
  • Vendor items are incredibly expensive.
  • Enemies are difficult in the area and require stone-crushing weapons to deal good damage.

The Fire Temple to the northeast is your fourth stop, and it won't make you regret ignoring it until now. Overall, Yunobo's quest and the situation in the city are quite straightforward in terms of difficulty but don't provide much value compared to the other temples and their associated quests.

While the best order to visit each temple in Tears of the Kingdom leaves this option for later, you can choose to do it earlier if you just want it to be over. Yunobo's spinning rock ability breaks boulders but won't do much else.

On the plus side, the shops in Goron City sell Diamonds, which makes finishing the Fire Temple more tempting.

However, you'll need to amass 1,000 Rupees to buy a Diamond, so access to them might not mean much unless you've been collecting treasures throughout your adventure.

If you're low on Rupees, but still need to find some rare stones, check out the nearby caves and break any stone formations to harvest the gems inside.

Collect any weapons you find and utilize the large stones as fusion materials to make your battles easier.

Unfortunately, there's little else to gain here that you haven't already, so come and go as soon as possible.

Save The Spirit Temple For Last

Pros

Cons

  • The best final option for story purposes.
  • The challenges are easier the later you arrive with better gear.
  • An excellent sage ability for traversing The Depths.
  • Must travel to multiple locations with elongated sections from start to finish.
  • Temple is dimly lit and tedious.

The last temple you should visit is the Spirit Temple in the sky, not because the rewards are bad or the sage is uninteresting, but because it is the best story choice.

While you can theoretically access this temple early to meet Mineru, you'll completely disrupt the story beats that come in the final act.

If you begin the final act with Mineru alongside you, you'll get some dialogue acknowledging that you found her and then will skip to the next story beat.

Given that The Dragon's Tears quest can also be done out of order, it's best to stick to the script in your first playthrough to avoid confusing the order of events.

Other than Mineru's ability, there's not much else to this section, and there would be even less intrigue to the Spirit Temple if you complete it before prompted.

Enjoy Mineru's construct power once you've finished this temple; it's a perfect canvas to practice fusing items for incredible combinations.

NEXT: The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom - Every Temple, Ranked