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Skyward Sword is a game about a commute. Skyloft floats above three provinces, and our pages on the game split cleanly along that line: every price any of them quotes is charged in the sky, at the Bazaar, at Beedle's flying shop or at Batreaux's House, and only three of the 31 enemies our bestiary describes are ever met in the sky. What connects the two halves is the cargo. Link carries shields, potions and ammunition down, and carries treasures and insects back up, because the Scrap Shop and the Infusion Shop take payment in things the surface drops, plus a rupee fee. This guide follows that loop: what to buy before the first descent, what each province hands over and what waits there, and what to bring home. If you want the order the game itself demands rather than the economy behind it, our walkthrough runs the whole route from the Wing Ceremony to Demise.
Before the First Descent
Skyloft gives four things away and sells the rest. The Practice Sword, the Goddess Sword, the Sailcloth and the Adventure Pouch all arrive free, from the Sparring Hall, the Goddess Statue, Zelda and Fledge respectively, and the items and upgrades page says who hands over each. After that the Bazaar takes over. Its seven stalls are the Gear Shop for shields and ammunition, the Potion Shop, the Infusion Shop beside it, the Scrap Shop, the Item Check, the Fortune Teller and a general Items Shop, all listed with prices on the shops page. Beedle sells medals, the net and pouch slots from the air, and only opens up when the bell is rung with a Beetle or Slingshot, so his shop is really a Faron reward. The enemies and shops guide pairs each purchase with the enemy tier it is for. Two enemies are already in Skyloft before Link leaves it: Chuchus and Keese come out at night and haunt the Waterfall Cave, and both are sword work.
Faron: The First Tools and the Most Walls
The forest province is where Link's kit starts to grow. The Slingshot and its Seed Satchel come from Bucha, the Kikwi elder; Skyview Temple's Stalfos guards the Beetle, the Ancient Cistern holds the Whip, and the forest's Silent Realm pays out the Water Dragon's Scale for swimming. Thirteen of the 31 enemies name a Faron location and seven of them are found nowhere else: the stationary Deku Baba, the back-stabbing Guay, the two-weapon Stalfos, the wall-hugging Walltula and web-flipping Skulltula of Skyview Temple, and the whip-caught Furnix and zombie-like Cursed Bokoblins of the Cistern. Faron also has the densest concentration of the Goddess's Harp's secrets: three of the four Goddess Walls our page locates are here, down the entrance stairs of Skyview Temple, on the path outside the Sealed Grounds shrine and in the Cistern's whirlpool room, and two of the eight Gossip Stones share the province, one on that same path and one beside the Cistern entrance at Lake Floria.
Eldin: Digging, Fire and the Wooden Shield Problem
Eldin is where a wooden shield stops being enough. Ledd gives the Bomb Bag in the Earth Temple, a Mogma gives the Digging Mitts once the temple key's pieces are dug up, the volcano's Silent Realm pays out the Fireshield Earrings, and the Fire Sanctuary later hands over the Mogma Mitts as the mitts' only upgrade. Seven bestiary entries name Eldin and five belong to it alone, and the Earth Temple's lava-spitting Fire Toadpoli is one of the two entries (the fire Keese found elsewhere are the other) that the enemies page warns will damage or destroy a wooden shield: the Braced Shield, third rung of the wooden line, is the one that blocks fire, and the Iron Shield goes on sale at the Bazaar once Skyview Temple is done. Pyrups hide in holes and are bombed out, Lizalfos taunt behind their own shields, and the Cursed Spume throws projectiles inside the Earth Temple. Eldin's one Gossip Stone stands on a platform to the west of the Earth Temple's entrance, and this is the one province where our page locates no Goddess Wall.
Lanayru: Half the Bestiary and All the Electricity
Lanayru gets more of the bestiary and more of the tools than either other province. The Gust Bellows come from the Mining Facility, the Bow and Quiver from the Sandship, the Clawshots from Nayru's Silent Realm, the Hook Beetle from an Ancient Robot in the desert, the Goddess's Harp from Zelda in the Temple of Time, and the Hylian Shield at Lanayru Gorge once eight straight rounds of the Thunder Dragon's challenge are won. Sixteen enemies name a Lanayru location and ten live nowhere else, including the page's entire electrical contingent: Ampilus, Scervo, Tech-Bokoblin and Electro Spume all carry a charge, and the Electro Spume cannot be struck with a sword at all. That is what the Braced Shield's electricity resistance is for, and why the Fortified Shield, for all its strength, is a poor choice here. The Mining Facility's alarm-raising Sentry Sentinel is one of the two entries that cannot be fought, and it can summon the other, the Silent Realm Guardian; the Gust Bellows fights against Aracha and Armos are here too. The eighth Gossip Stone waits in the Lanayru Caves on the way to the Gorge, and the fourth Goddess Wall is up the Sandship's far mast, a Heart Piece chest beside it.
The Return Leg: What the Surface Pays In
Everything Link carries back up has one of two destinations. Treasures go to the Scrap Shop: the items page prices nine equipment upgrades in fourteen treasure types plus a rupee fee, the shield lines climb twice each, the Beetle climbs twice after the robot's upgrade, and the Slingshot becomes the Scattershot. Four of the nine recipes want Monster Claws and four want Amber Relics, so those two are worth hoarding. Insects go to the Infusion Shop: between the items page and the shops page twelve kinds of bug appear across the seven infusions, with the Blessed Butterfly in three of them, and the Bug Net (50 rupees) and Bug Medal (1,000) are the two purchases that make the catching practical. The items guide has both tables, with every recipe written material-first.
The Harp is the other thing that pays on the way back. Played among a swarm of Blessed Butterflies it reveals either a Gossip Stone, which gives a hint or a reward and flies off if attacked, or a Goddess Wall, on which a charged Skyward Strike draws a shape for a reward: a heart shape for hearts, a circle for 30 bombs, a rupee for rupees, an arrow pointing right for 30 arrows and a Triforce for fairies. A wall works once until the game is restarted, and Gorko explains the shapes outside the Sealed Grounds shrine. The third currency on the trip is Gratitude Crystals, and they go to one address, Batreaux's House. His rewards are marks on a running total rather than prices: the Medium, Big, Giant and Tycoon Wallets arrive as the count of crystals handed over passes 5, 30, 50 and 80, and the Cursed Medal comes with the Big Wallet. There are 80 crystals in the game, so the top of that ladder is all of them. Beedle's entire stock comes to 5,650 rupees, so the wallet ladder is not optional.
Reading Order
| Read this | When | What it settles |
|---|---|---|
| Walkthrough | when you are not sure what the game wants next | the three fetch quests, and the item and boss in each dungeon |
| Shops | before leaving Skyloft | the Bazaar and Beedle prices and six infusion recipes |
| Items locations and upgrades | on each descent | who hands over each tool and what the Scrap Shop charges |
| Enemies | on meeting something new | the counter for all 31, and which shield survives it |
| Goddess Walls | once the Harp is in hand | four wall locations and five shapes |
| Gossip Stones | once the Harp is in hand | eight stones, four of them in the sky |
| Items guide | when planning purchases | the map order of every item and the material-first recipe table |
| Enemies and shops guide | when a fight goes wrong | which tool each enemy demands and where Skyloft sells it |
| Bosses | before each dungeon's last room | thirteen fights, and the tool each one is an exam on |
| Side quests | every time a dungeon ends | which Skyloft jobs have just opened and what they pay |
| Heart Pieces | when the health bar is the problem | all 24, grouped by what each one asks for |
| Gratitude Crystals | once Kukiel is home | the 80 crystals and Batreaux's seven marks |
Questions Our Pages Answer
Does Skyward Sword have the Hylian Shield, and when? Yes. The items page puts it at Lanayru Gorge and calls it indestructible, and it is paid out for an eighth straight win in the Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round, with a Heart Piece already banked at four.
What is the best shield? The Hylian Shield cannot break. Below it the Goddess Shield, the top of the Sacred line, regenerates on its own, and the Fortified Shield is the strongest iron one but weak to electricity, which matters in Lanayru.
How do I get the Sacred Shield? Buy it at the Bazaar after beating the Imprisoned for the first time; the shops page prices it at 150 rupees. Its meter refills by itself, and two Scrap Shop upgrades take it to the Goddess Shield.
What is the Master Sword's route? Three Flames in turn: Farore's Flame makes the Goddess Longsword, Nayru's the Goddess White Sword, and Din's the Master Sword.
The Errands Are Where the Upgrades Live
The commute has a second timetable running underneath it, and it is all on Skyloft. Twelve jobs for the neighbours pay 65 of the game's 80 Gratitude Crystals, and the other fifteen crystals lie around the island after dark, which is why a player who never sleeps in the Knight Academy bed finishes the quest board and is still short. Those crystals are what buy the wallet ladder, and the wallet ladder is what makes Beedle's 5,650 rupee stock reachable, so the errands quietly fund the shopping. Most of the board is locked behind story beats rather than hidden, which our side quests page lists gate by gate; the crystal arithmetic and Batreaux's seven marks are on the Gratitude Crystals page.
Health works the same way. Six hearts to start, six more from the dungeon bosses, and six more again from the 24 Heart Pieces, four to a heart, which leaves the last two hearts sitting in the Adventure Pouch as Life Medals. Six of those pieces are Goddess Cube chests, and a cube struck on the surface always pays out somewhere in the sky, so the sensible habit is to hit every cube you pass and collect the whole set on one flight.
What the Trip Is Building To
Thirteen boss fights against eight opponents, and they follow the same logic as everything else here, because a dungeon gives Link something new and then sets a fight that only that thing answers, which our bosses page walks in order. Ghirahim is the exception three times over, because he only ever tests the sword. The two characters with pages of their own bracket the whole journey: Fi, the spirit in the blade who runs dowsing and whose nineteen targets find most of what is on this page, and Demise, the last fight, who cannot be solved with any of the kit the sky sells.