Mechanics

This game has a great many systems and very few fuels. Pull any mechanic apart and it runs on one of eight things: the borrowed arm on Link's right side, the Zonai battery, Lights of Blessing, rupees, something you ate or wore, a sage standing beside you, a horse, or the clock. Our 44 mechanics pages sort cleanly along that line, and knowing which fuel a system burns tells you what to farm before you try it. This guide groups them that way, fuel by fuel, and links every page.

Rauru's arm: the five abilities and what you can undo with them

Everything that costs nothing runs on the arm. Our Link's abilities page is the map of where each is unlocked: Ultrahand at Ukouh Shrine to grab, move and glue, Fuse at In-isa Shrine to bond a material to a weapon, shield or arrow, Ascend at Gutanbac Shrine to swim up through a ceiling, Recall to rewind an object's last few seconds, and Autobuild from the Depths after Master Kohga, which rebuilds a saved contraption from parts or, if you lack them, from Zonaite. None of these has a cooldown or a meter. The one thing the arm does that people miss is undo: the remove fusion page explains how to take a material back off a weapon and put a better one on, so a rare horn is never stuck to a stick you have outgrown.

The battery: boats and rafts

Two pages are about builds that only move while the battery holds. The fan-powered boat is tree logs and fans glued with Ultrahand, and the raft is logs and a propeller or sail for crossing water without drowning. Both drain the same green bar, which is why the Crystal Refinery arithmetic in the items guide, 100 Crystallized Charges per cell and 4,500 for a full battery, is really a boat-and-raft budget.

Lights, seeds and stamina: the body's own upgrades

Five pages run on what shrines and Koroks pay out. The health and stamina guide sets the rate, four Lights of Blessing per Heart Container or per stamina fifth, and does the sums: three full wheels cost 40 Lights, and the Master Sword wants two full wheels before it will come out of the dragon. The Temple of Time's second door is the one place those four Lights are spent on the Great Sky Island, behind the angel statue. The inventory guide is the Korok Seed side of the ledger, with Hestu's growing price per slot. Climbing the snowy mountains of the Great Sky Island runs on peppers and stamina, through the Pondside, Mining and Bottomless caves to Gutanbac. The Paraglider is free from Purah and never wears out; only its fabrics cost anything, and those are quest rewards fitted at the dye shop.

Rupees: the systems that are shops in disguise

Six pages run on money. Buying a house in Tarrey Town costs 1,500 rupees for the land after Mattison's Independence, then 450 for each of up to 15 rooms. Upgrading armor at the four Great Fairies costs 10, 50, 200 and 500 rupees per star on top of the materials. Farming crops in Hateno turns a field into ingredients and then into rupees. The other three are the income side: farming rupees by selling gems and dishes, shooting Blupees and winning the dart game; farming Diamonds from shrines, rare deposits, Stone Taluses and Goron City; and feeding Luminous Stones to the Dondons of Bronas Forest, who pass gems the next day.

A meal or a garment: the resistances

Seven pages describe systems you switch on by eating or dressing. Cold, heat, Gloom and lightning resistance each come two ways, a temporary one from a dish or elixir and a permanent one from a set of clothes, Snowquill for cold, Desert Voe and Flamebreaker for heat, the Rubber set and Lightning Helm for storms, with Gloom the odd one out because Sundelions are the only thing that gives the lost hearts back. Blinding enemies runs on Dazzlefruit, thrown or fused to arrows. Lighting the Depths lists six sources from Brightbloom Seeds and Lightroots to the Miner's set, torches and elixirs. And the crafting guide is the pot itself, with a full recipe list of every dish, effect and ingredient, and the best recipes roundup on top of it.

A Sage's vow: the temple locks

Seven pages are puzzles that cannot be solved without a sage at your side, which is why each belongs to one Regional Phenomena quest. Tulin's gust opens the five Wind Temple locks and carries you up the Rising Island Chain in Investigate the Storm Cloud. Yunobo's charge opens the five Fire Temple padlocks after Moragia. Sidon's water clears the four Water Temple faucets with Ultrahand and Recall alongside. Riju's lightning is needed three times over: to destroy the Gibdo hives around Gerudo Town, to fire the arrow that answers the Gerudo mural riddle and raise the Lightning Temple, and then inside it to charge the four batteries that draw Queen Gibdo back for the finish. The shrines and temples guide puts the four temples on the three-layer map.

A horse: six pages on four legs

The horse pages run on a mount you already own or can import. Breath of the Wild horses come across from a save file and register free at any stable, and Epona arrives the same way or from an amiibo. Ganon's Giant Horse is tamed southeast of Hateno, and the Stalhorse at night in Sanidin Park Ruins or any time in the Depths, where it walks through Gloom unharmed. Feeding horses builds bond and calms wild ones, and Ride the Giant Horse is the Faron shrine quest where the Horse God's mount is the key to Ishokin Shrine. The stables roundup is where all of them are registered.

The Blood Moon and the clock

The last four pages run on time passing or on a route existing. Pristine weapons appear on the stone pillars of the Depths after seven in-game days and a Blood Moon, once you have broken the decayed version above. Weapon modifiers are attached when a Rock Octorok repairs a weapon, in tiers from white to gold. The Korok Forest cannot be walked into through the Lost Woods this time; the route is up from the Depths. And the Royal Hidden Passage is a tunnel from the Emergency Shelter to Hyrule Castle that opens two ways, with a Stalnox inside worth the detour. The Blood Moon guide explains the reset behind the first two, and the weapons guide is built on it.

Frequently asked questions

Do the abilities have a cooldown?

No. Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, Recall and Autobuild are free and unlimited; only Autobuild's Zonaite substitution costs anything. The battery is the limit on what you build, not on the arm that builds it.

How much does a house cost?

1,500 rupees for the Tarrey Town plot after Mattison's Independence, then 450 per room for up to 15 rooms. Our house page has the room types.

Which resistances can I make permanent?

Cold, heat and lightning, through armor sets ranked in the armor guide. Gloom resistance is always temporary, and the hearts it takes only come back with a Sundelion dish or a trip to the surface.