Highlights
- Ancient Shrines in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild provide creative and challenging puzzles that test players' logic and problem-solving skills.
- The Katosa Aug Apparatus puzzle utilizes the Switch's gyro controls, resembling a mini-golf course, and is one of the easier puzzles in the game.
- The Kuh Takkar Shrine puzzle, named Melting Ice Hazard, requires players to navigate flame-spewing traps while quickly moving an ice block to the end, adding realism to the puzzle.
Ancient Shrines in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild provide fun and unique challenges for players who are intrepid enough to discover all 120 of them (or 136 if the DLCs are included). The puzzles in most of the Shrines will test players’ logic or how they can think outside the box when it comes to figuring out the solution. All of them show how creative the developers can be when designing such interactive puzzles.
From all the Shrines in the game, there are bound to be ones that stand out. Here are the top Ancient Shrines that players should experience in Breath of the Wild.
10 Katosa Aug Apparatus: Katosa Aug Shrine
One of the more creative and divisive puzzles the game devs made in Breath of the Wild is the utilization of the Switch’s gyro controls, and in the Ancient Shrine puzzles, they made full use of it through their cleverly designed Apparatus puzzles.
The Katosa Aug Apparatus puzzle plays like a mini golf course: players are tasked to direct the sphere towards the socket by putting the ball. This Apparatus is one of the easier ones since this can be done by aligning the correct angle before swinging the Joycons.
9 The Current Solution: Hawa Koth Shrine
As far as harnessing the power of electricity, some Ancient Shrines provide such interesting puzzles that challenge players to create a current that goes from the source to the designated outlet which opens doors towards the objective.
The Hawa Koth shrine is one such electricity puzzle. Players need to connect the current across the room using the metallic objects found in the area. What makes these puzzles fun to solve is that players can use their metallic weapons and armor to serve as conductors. Once players realize this, they can get creative when they encounter electric puzzles on their journeys.
8 Steady Thy Heart: Maka Rah Shrine
Once players have familiarized themselves with the different Rune abilities, approaching Ancient Shrines becomes a matter of which Runes and weapons are the best to solve whatever puzzle they are facing. The Maka Rah Shrine is a good test to see how players have mastered the Runes.
Players utilize the Cryonis, Stasis, and Magnesis and clever maneuvering to safely cross rotating spikes, dispatch ancient guardians, and dodge and manipulate the huge metal spike balls to get the hidden treasures to finally reach Maka Rah at the end.
7 Melting Ice Hazard: Kuh Takkar Shrine
Game devs also took note of how realistic the interactions between fire and ice should be in Breath of the Wild. The Kuh Takkar Shrine puzzle, aptly named Melting Ice Hazard, tasks players to haul an ice block from the start of the puzzle all the way to Kuh Takkar.
What makes this challenging is the various flame-spewing traps that lead to the end. Players have to toss the ice block across jets of fire as quickly as possible to prevent it from totally melting. Managing the size of the block adds more realism to this puzzle since Link’s movement and ability to carry it are affected by the ice block's size.
6 Blue Flame: Shora Hah Shrine
Fire in the Ancient Shrine puzzles often serve as traps for players to overcome. But in some puzzles, fire is the solution to complete the trial. Players need to light braziers with the Blue Flame to advance into the last area - said braziers are placed with different obstacles for players to solve.
How to harness the Blue Flame is also up to the player. They can either stand close to a brazier with their arrows, aim and shoot at the braziers from a distance or if they have a torch, they can use it and walk towards the other braziers.
5 Trial Of Thunder: Toh Yahsa Shrine
Some Ancient Shrines have their puzzles located in the open world. One such puzzle is the Trial of Thunder Shrine quest. Located at the Thundra Plateau near the Ridgeland Tower, players have to look for different colored spheres and hit them towards the plateau, golf-style, while they are in Stasis. Once the spheres are on the plateau, players have to place them in the correct location.
Adding to the challenge is the perpetual thunderstorm that will target any metallic object with lightning bolts. Players need to be mindful of that along with the enemies that will spawn near the spheres to stop them from completing the quest.
4 The Three Giant Brothers: Tawa Jinn Shrine
While some Ancient Shrines challenge players by testing their mettle against Shrine Guardians of varying strength, some Shrine challenges utilize enemies found around Hyrule. The Three Giant Brothers Shrine Quest, for example, pits the player against three Hinoxes who possess three spheres.
Taking down Hinoxes is not that hard, and once defeating all three, and collecting whatever weapons they have, players need to place the spheres on the correct locations. Doing this rewards players with the Tawa Jinn Shrine and a Great Thunderblade weapon.
3 The Stolen Heirloom: Lakna Rokee Shrine
The Stolen Heirloom Shrine Quest is found in Kakariko Village and involves some character progression from side characters in the village. Players need to complete three minor side quests to activate this Shrine Quest. Players should speak with the guards outside Impa’s house where they will inform them that someone stole the sphere that Paya was protecting.
After progressing through the quest, players will eventually follow Dorian up to the Giant Fairy Shrine. A member from the Yiga Clan will emerge and try to take out Dorian, but the player will engage the Yiga Clan member instead. After besting the Yiga Clan member, Dorian will give the sphere to the player.
2 The Spring Of Wisdom: Jitan Sa'mi Shrine
Breath of the Wild has three iconic dragons that traverse the sky at certain points during the day. One of the Shrine Quests involves Naydra, the Ice Dragon. Players have to scale Mount Lanayru and discover that Naydra is infected with the Malice.
Naydra begins to fly around, and players have to hit the glowing eyes around Naydra to free it from the Malice. Updrafts created by Naydra allow players to use their gliders and cover some distance. When in firing range, they have to use their bow and arrows to shoot at the malicious eyes. After freeing Naydra, it can be seen benevolently patrolling its area.
1 Stranded On Eventide: Korgu Chideh Shrine
One of the more memorable Shrine Quests has to be the Korgu Chideh Shrine. Players have to get to Eventide Island, and once there, they will be stripped of their weapons and armor. They will then need to take out three different camps that have a sphere in which players need to activate the shrine.
The challenge here is that players will need to scavenge for whatever weapon they can around the island while dealing with different enemy camps, one of which is a Hinox. Being crafty is essential to complete this quest since the environment has some items that can be used to turn the tide in the players’ favor if they think outside the box.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently available on Switch.