The most important gameplay mechanics in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are stamina and health. These allow you to survive challenging encounters and seamlessly traverse the world. You will also need at least two full stamina wheels to get the Master Sword.
While the game starts with Link having full heart containers and stamina wheels, he immediately loses them in a predictable manner. Later, you start the opening area with only three heart containers and one stamina wheel, which are not sufficient, to say the least.
In this guide, we will teach you how to increase your health and stamina wheels in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and why you should prioritize one over the other.
What is a Goddess Statue and Light of Blessing
Like its predecessor, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom allows you to increase your health and stamina wheels by offering Light of Blessing at any Goddess statue. These Light of Blessings can be obtained as a reward for completing Shrines of Raru spread throughout Hyrule.
Each shrine offers one light of blessing for completing its challenge. You will need 4 Lights of Blessing to get one Heart Container or 1/5 of a Stamina wheel. Once you have enough Lights of Blessing in your inventory, fast travel to any location with a Goddess statue.
The most famous Goddess Statue is present in the Emergency Shelter of Lookout Landing, the first place you will reach on the land. Talk to the guard named Scorpis, and he will open the gate of the hidden lookout for you. Interact with the statue and offer Lights of Blessing to obtain a Stamina wheel or a Heart Container.
Two more Goddess statues are in the game: one in the Gerudo Dessert and the other on the Great Sky Island. You can use them for the same purpose.
Another way to obtain a full heart container without using Lights of Blessing is to kill major dungeon bosses in the game. You can kill six bosses to obtain six full heart containers, one from a quest involving the bargainer statue.
Can you get the maximum number of Hearts and Stamina wheels?
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has 152 shrines, which means you can get 152 Lights of Blessing. If you want to get three stamina wheels, you will need to spend 40 Lights of Blessing (as you start with one wheel and both the second and third wheels cost 20 Lights of Blessing each).
Now, you will be left with 112 Lights of Blessing (152-40 = 112), which translates to 28 heart containers (112/4 = 28). As you start with three heart containers, adding them makes it a total of 31. It can be increased by seven by defeating all the dungeon bosses and completing the A Call from the Depths side quest.
This brings the total number of heart containers to 38 (3+28+6+1), the maximum you can have with full Stamina Wheels. However, the game has a hard upper limit of 40. In Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you can sacrifice 2/5 of your final Stamina Wheel for maximum health.
Should you prioritize Health or Stamina?
This is an important question to think of, as both are crucial for progression in gameplay.
We believe that gaining stamina vessels is more beneficial in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom than hearts. First, stamina is needed to equip Master Sword. To gain more stamina, you have to go for the stamina vessels, as these are fuels for making stamina wheels.
Secondly, extra stamina wheels allow you to glide for longer periods. A Zelda player knows better how important gliding is for approaching major locations. Thirdly, several actions, such as charged attacks, swimming, climbing, and shooting from your bow, are only possible when your stamina wheel is full.
How to trade Health with Stamina (or Vice Versa)
After finding the Horned Statue in Lookout Landing, you can use it to respec your Heart Containers and Stamina Wheels. It will purchase one Heart Container or one-fifth of a Stamina Wheel from you for 100 rupees.
You can then repurchase it or buy the essence of the opposite item for 120 rupees. So, by losing just 20 rupees, you can change a heart container into a chunk of stamina wheel and vice versa.
How to Temporarily Increase Your Hearts and Stamina in TotK
While the Heart Containers and Stamina Wheels we mentioned above are permanent upgrades (you can recover lost heart containers by eating or resting, and stamina automatically regenerates over time), other options exist to increase both temporarily.
In Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you can cook meals or drink elixirs that grant temporary Health and Stamina. Unlike red hearts and green stamina, these are marked distinctly in yellow.
Another way to increase temporary hearts and stamina is to rest at a stable and purchase the Malanya Bed. It costs 50 rupees per night and grants you three temporary hearts and one temporary stamina wheel. However, if you lose the temporary hearts and stamina wheel, they will be gone permanently.
The only way to get them back is by eating a meal or drinking elixirs. They can’t be recovered like normal ones. Temporary Hearts are always used first, while temporary stamina is used once you run out of your original stamina meter.
