Runes in Zelda: Breath of the Wild are an integral part of the game. From the stasis rune, which can stop any moving object, to the camera rune for snapping beautiful vistas, there are six runes in the game. Three out of six runes can be upgraded and one of those is the Zelda: Breath of the Wild bomb upgrades.
While we recommend upgrading all three runes as soon as possible, in this guide we are going to focus on upgrading the bomb runes in Zelda BOTW to improve the devastation of your explosives.
How to upgrade bombs in Zelda: Breath of the Wild
To upgrade any rune in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and specifically the remote bombs, you need to visit Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. Hateno Tech Lab is in Hateno Village, North of Necluda Sea and South of Mount Lanaryu.
Visit Hateno Ancient Tech Lab and talk to the Purah, who oversees the lab. She will tell Link to upgrade his Sheikah Slate at the Guidance Stone to unlock Camera Rune and Hyrule Compendium. After unlocking both items, you need to talk to Purah again.
Talking to Purah will unlock a new side quest called “Slated for Upgrades“. Purah will ask Link to bring her ancient materials dropped by ancient guardians in Zelda BOTW for her to upgrade the bomb runes in return.
Upgrading your remote bombs to remote bombs+ will also upgrade normal bombs to bombs+. Bombs+/Remote Bombs+ have a larger blast radius and shorter cooldown time. Have fun blasting the enemies and breakable rocks with a brand-new upgrade to your arsenal.
After collecting the required materials, return to Hateno Ancient Tech Lab and talk to Purah. You need to talk to her for each upgrade as you can’t directly interact with Guidance Stone. Upgrade all three runes to finish the “Slated for Upgrades” quest.
How to complete Slated for Upgrades quest
To complete the quest, you need to find 3x Ancient Screws (for the Sheikah sensor), 3x Ancient Shafts (for remote bombs) and 3x Ancient Cores (for stasis).
All these items can be looted from the rooting corps of ancient guardians or by killing the live ones. Killing the still-active ancient machines will give you a lot of ancient upgrade materials including Ancient Cores.
Another way to get these items is to visit a lot of shrines, especially the ones with “Test of Strength” trials. You can always loot a lot of ancient Cores from treasure chests inside shrines.
Best Zelda BOTW Ancient Materials farming locations
There are two locations in Zelda: Breath of the Wild which are full of dead Ancient Guardians. First is Ash Swamp, located West of Fort Hateno and North of Blatchery Plains, and the next is Torin Wetland, South of Tarrey Town and Northeast of Akkala Citadel ruins.
Ash Swamp is basically a graveyard of ancient machines, and you can loot a lot of upgrade materials by interacting with them. Some Guardians will still be alive and attack you on sight. We recommend bringing Hylian shield to deflect the laser attacks, for killing those immobile guardians in one hit.
You won’t be able to collect a lot of Ancient Cores or Ancient Shafts here. Go to the Torin Wetland and defeat a couple of fully functional ancient guardians. They are extremely formidable foes with lots of HP, so beware.
