After landing in Lookout Landing and getting your bearings on Hyrule for the first time in a few years, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gives you the complete freedom to go wherever you fancy and complete the main quest in any order you want.
For some that’s a dream, for me, it was a nightmare. Some of the areas and the temples you eventually turn up at are obviously easier than others, while some Sage abilities you unlock by beating those temples are so vital just for basic gameplay mechanics that some people could go entire days without knowing about it, struggling in the process.
In an effort to make your gameplay experience a lot more enjoyable than mine was, I’ve put together this list to give you what I feel is the best direction to go at the start of the game to make life easier for you and everyone else who plays this difficult game.
Feel free to follow it— or don’t, if you want to be a masochist like that.
- Rito Village, Wind Temple. Co-ordinates: -3650, 1895, 0168
- Goron City, Fire Temple. Co-ordinates: 1761, 2508, 0437
- Zora’s Domain, Water Temple, Co-ordinates: 3299, 0424, 0112
- Gerudo Town, Lightning Temple. Co-ordinates: -3881, -2961, 0123
Best Temple order to beat Ganondorf in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
1. Rito Village, Wind Temple. Co-ordinates: -3650, 1895, 0168
Riot Village is ideally the first place you want to begin. Not only is the path towards the Village one of the more lucrative, but most of the main quests are also easy and require you to just go through some caves to find Tulin before finally beginning your climb up into the Wind Temple.
It requires you to have two types of Cold Resistant Armor at the beginning though as most of the area is snowed over. But these can be purchased at Riot Village itself as you arrive should you need to.
The Sage powerup you get for completing this through Tulin is also vital, as it’s an ability that will propel Link forward as he is gliding, meaning you can make up more ground for the same amount of Stamina. This ability is the one we have used the most, 99% total, throughout the quest, and couldn’t imagine doing any of the other temples or quests without it.
2. Goron City, Fire Temple. Co-ordinates: 1761, 2508, 0437
Goron City is a quaint eastern stroll away from Rito Village and has a nice bonus when compared to what the place used to be like in Breath of the Wild.
There is no need for flame-resistant armor in the main city, and you’ll be able to walk around without everything combusting every five seconds. I’m sure you’ll be overjoyed to hear this like I was, as the armor is only required for the temple itself. A necessity to get, but not as bad as it was all those years ago.
Most of the quests stem around following Gorons to different locations before climbing Death Mountain via a nifty minecart system. Just make sure to stock up on brightbloom seeds because as soon as you pass this nice easy streak, you’ll be plunging into the depths to look for the Fire Temple in complete darkness.
Goro’s ability is also just really useful for exploring, allowing you to blow up large bombable areas without the need to grind for Bomb Flowers all the time.
3. Zora’s Domain, Water Temple, Co-ordinates: 3299, 0424, 0112
I was debating on where to put this on the list. Originally I thought putting it before Goron City would make the most sense but when I started to think about it more, the quests you take part in, along with the difficulty of the Sludge really makes it a lot more tedious than it should be, and requires a lot of item management and wider puzzle solving that would be better resolved after getting used to the game more through the previous two Temples.
It’s also just a pain to get to Zora’s Domain period and the Tulin Sage ability, mixed with Goro’s destructible ability, just make things more bearable. Especially when it’ll take you looking for a king, shooting a weird fused arrow into a teardrop, and a bunch of other painful quests and item gathering such as finding Zora armor for you to even get to the Water Temple in the sky in the first place.
The worst thing is, Sidon’s ability isn’t even that useful. I don’t think I’ve ever used it other than for clearing the Temple and beating the boss.
4. Gerudo Town, Lightning Temple. Co-ordinates: -3881, -2961, 0123
Do not—I repeat—Do NOT go to Gerudo Town in any order but last unless you want to have an unpleasant time.
The mixing of temperatures between hot and cold requires constantly switching your clothes. Visibility is poor and you’ll find yourself getting lost in all the sandstorms unless you know where you are going, and the enemies around here have such specific elemental weaknesses that they can be a pain to deal with. Not to mention the final temple is one of the most irritating, resource-heavy, and difficult boss fights of them all.
It is honestly one of the hardest challenges and even with all 4 Sages at this point even I had difficulty. I would advise anyone to really stock up on arrows, and elemental weapons, and get their stamina and health up as much as possible with shrines before getting this far. It can be grueling and puzzling and just not fun.
Published: May 25, 2023 08:37 am