Steps 1 through 28, grouped by where you physically are. Completed steps are marked done — tap any to reopen. The early steps are written out in full so this works as a from-scratch guide on a replay.
The tutorial, and the only part of the game that's genuinely linear. You leave with all four abilities and the cold gear that carries you through the next ten steps.
Four shrines, four abilities, one heart container, then a dive to the surface. The order is fixed by the island's layout, but two things here are easy to walk past and both matter for hours afterwards.
Spicy Peppers grow all over and cook into cold resistance — carry a stack, because the Greaves alone are only level one. Feed Zonai charges into the device dispensers and hoard fans and wings; they're free transport for the whole early game.
The island is bigger than it looks. Optional chests sit on the outlying platforms, including three spare wings on the eastern island. Nothing here respawns once you leave for good, so sweep it before the dive.
The game hands you its whole structure here: paraglider, towers, the four Regional Phenomena, and the quest chains that everything downstream hangs off.
The skydive down. You can aim anywhere, but aim at Lookout Landing — the tented camp with the tower, due south of Hyrule Castle. Everything you need is there and you're on foot until you arrive.
The densest hub in the game. Four separate threads start here and three of them run for the next fifty steps.
-0205, 0451, 0021 — combat training (parry & flurry basics), in the castle town ruins just north of Lookout Landing. Worth doing for the tutorial alone.-0240, -0374, 0026 — Ultrahand shape puzzle, directly south of town by the Hyrule Field Chasm — bank it on the Camera Work trip.Central Hyrule out to Tabantha. Your first memory, your first cold wall, and the newspaper job that gates a surprising amount of the rest of the list.
Long ride northwest. The point of doing it on the ground rather than warping is that you don't have warp points yet — so light everything.
-0877, 0423, 0049 — Zonai fan-and-wing puzzle, at Quarry Ruins right beside the bridge on the northwest road. Directly on the path.Impa is parked outside with a hot-air balloon. Talking to her starts Impa and the Geoglyphs and by extension The Dragon's Tears — the memory hunt that runs the whole length of this list.
-1412, 0966, 0123.-1413, 0756, 0089
Right at the stable — a hot-air-balloon puzzle, fittingly. Light it and you can warp straight back to this stretch of North Hyrule Plain later instead of riding out again.
This is the last comfortable stop before the blizzard. Treat it as a supply run, not a quest stop.
-2846, 0630, 0233 — archery combat training, right at the stable.-2530, 1169, 0178 — build-a-carrier puzzle on Upland Lindor, a hill-climb northeast. Optional — only if you're cutting overland anyway.A converted stable at -3256, 1764, 0119, southeast of Lake Totori by Rito Village's broken bridge. Small stop, disproportionate consequences.
Your first temple. Doing it first is the right call: Tulin's gust is the most broadly useful sage power in the game, and clearing it lifts the blizzard over the whole northwest.
Rito Village is snowed in and run by children while the adults scavenge. Tulin has gone to investigate the storm. The quest is a long vertical climb into the sky, ending on the Stormwind Ark.
-3581, 2252, 0141 — two big bonfires outside — to sort out his bow.-3079, 1617, 0243 — rocket-launch puzzle on the stone arch over the road in, southeast of the village. Ascend up from the road.-3652, 1806, 0168 — paraglider updraft puzzle in Rito Village itself, below the main outcrop on the west side.-3352, 2384, 0360 — laser-dodge trial on Corvash Peak, easiest gliding in on the temple approach. Cold country.-4059, 1990, 0183 — across Lake Totori west of the village; revealed by the village quest The White Bird's Guidance.-3950, 1138, 0112 — blessing atop Gisa Crater to the south, but it's a crystal-carry shrine quest. Optional; skip unless the crater's on your line.The geoglyph on the southern side of Tabantha Hills, drawn as Hyrule Castle. Now that the blizzard's gone you can actually see it.
-2551, 1888, 0319.Cold country. You come away with the best early horse in the game and, more importantly, the map that makes every later memory findable.
A freezing-climate stable, so it's a gear check as much as a waypoint. It also pays out one of the best horses in the game — but only because you stopped at the Gazette in step 7.
-1640, 2573, 0233, northeast of Rito Village, southeast of Pikida Stonegrove Skyview Tower.-1818, 3380, 0236, among ruins with ordinary horses.-1372, 2861, 0199
Don't just walk in — talk to the campers outside the stable first, who turn this into a proper side quest. The cave is on the road at the base of the mountain and has no enemies. Bubbulfrog hides behind breakable rocks high on the left wall; use a Bomb Flower from inside the cave.
-2397, 2278, 0172
South of Pikida Stonegrove tower at the bottom of the snow trenches. Nouda Shrine is inside, so it's a warp point as well as a supply run. One Ice Like. This is your bomb and light resupply before step 11.
Don't cook the Chillshrooms. Everything growing in this snow — Chillshroom, Cool Safflina — makes heat resistance, not cold. You'll want it in Eldin at step 19 and the desert at step 37. Bank it.
The most important step in this stretch. It puts every remaining geoglyph on your map and fixes the order the memories are meant to be watched in — which is what steps 21, 29, 40, 52, 53, 54 and 57 are all keyed to.
A dozen Brightbloom Seeds and at least one Giant. If you skipped Kopeeki Drifts, this is where it costs you — the monsters see you before you see them.
-3003, 1638, 0201
On the rim path south, at the base of the hill east of Oromuwak Shrine. Two campers outside give the side quest Cave Mushrooms That Glow. Deep inside, a thorn-ringed altar hides a chest with the Frostbite Shirt — burn the thorns with fire fruit. Bubbulfrog is on a ledge at the very end; Ascend gets past the thorns around it. One Black Horriblin.
-3312, 0788, -0101
Same canyon, west end past Piper Ridge — the entrance is on the canyon floor, so glide down from the rim. Worth it because Iun-orok Shrine is buried at the far end — one you'd otherwise never find. Ice Like, Shock Like and a Stone Pebblit guard the passages. Bubbulfrog hides behind the big blue rock wall at -3484, 0727.
Learn the rubble colours here. Red sediment breaks to one Bomb Flower. Blue is a tougher grade, not bomb-proof — two Bomb Flowers break it (corrected 08.22 after the old "physical only" line cost two rock hammers). Melee alternative: a Talus Heart fused to a two-hander far outlasts flint hammers. From step 20, Yunobo breaks any of it free.
The biggest capability jump in the list — Autobuild, the Depths map, your first Kohga fight. Shorter than it looks if you already ran Robbie's quest back at step 3.
Straight talk: transit step, nothing gated behind it. Lookout Landing has been a warp point since step 3, so the only reason to ride it is to bank map coverage.
-1106, 2089, 0104 — fire-and-ice puzzle on Rowan Plain, the canyon's east rim ~500m south of the Forgotten Temple. Right on the southbound line.-1830, 1149, 0147 — blessing at the end of a short crawl through Lindor's Brow Cave, as the route swings south.Ore deposits along the ridges either side. Hit them with a rock-fused weapon — you need ~1,900 rupees by step 20 (two Flamebreaker pieces), so gems are worth taking.
Buffalo, moose, wolves and foxes on this snowfield drop prime and gourmet meat. 5x Raw Gourmet Meat cooked plain sells for 315 — the best steady earner in the game, and this is its best ground. Details on the Wallet card.
Reporting the Rito temple to Purah advances Regional Phenomena. Then Josha sets up the Depths run.
This is A Mystery in the Depths, and it's the highest-value step in the list so far. It ends with Autobuild, your first Kohga fight, and the Forge Construct that turns raw Zonaite into battery charges.
-0822, -1940, and the Great Plateau North Chasm (-0665, -1510 on the surface) drops you a short hop northeast of it, past Nogukoyk Lightroot — faster than riding the whole statue line if you lose the thread.Trades Zonaite for Crystallized and Zonai Charges. This is the pipeline that grows your battery for the rest of the game, so mine deposits on the way in rather than walking past them.
Poes only spend at Bargainer Statues, and the biggest one in the game is directly below this mine — from the schema-stone construct, face the main structure and take the stairway down underneath. Worth a look while standing here; otherwise the excavated head at Lookout Landing serves the same purpose at step 16. Trade zonaite at the Forge (3 → 1 charge) but keep ~20-30 raw — Autobuild spends zonaite to conjure missing parts.
Short wrap-up. Tell Josha about Autobuild, she hands you a second Schema Stone, you use it on the spot.
The list is vague here, so here's what's actually worth your time. Lookout Landing is a bank of upgrade services and you're walking in holding exactly the currencies they take.
Two steps, but the second opens two long-running chains: the Great Fairies and the Bubbul Gem trade. Both pay off for the next forty steps.
Short ride north out of Lookout Landing. Bring a horse — you need one at the stable and towing is easier if it's already registered.
0494, 0731, 0041
Right beside the road, and it holds the Barbarian Armor (chest piece — attack up). Inside, the chest is behind the second elevated stack of luminous rock on the right — one bomb arrow opens it. First of three: the helm waits near Kakariko (~step 24) and the leg wraps by Hateno (step 28).
Penn's stop here is Serenade to a Great Fairy, gateway to all four fairies — the only armour upgrade path in the game. The balloon behind the stable is something else entirely, and it's why your Bubbul Gems stop being dead weight.
Horses graze in the paddock west of the stable if you arrived without one. A hot spring in the area restores hearts free — cheaper than eating through your food before a temple run.
Koltin trades at night and moves around. Don't hunt him mid-quest; he turns up at stables you're already visiting.
Your second temple, and the only step in this build with a hard cash requirement — ~1,900 rupees for two pieces of fireproof armour. Don't arrive broke.
The approach matters more than usual, because two things gate the region: heat and money.
1798, 1635, 0311 — lava-flow puzzle just north of Bedrock Bistro, directly on the Death Mountain West Trail. Chest: Strong Zonaite Shield (guard 26) — the same shield Ren-iz gave you.Fire-region critters cook into fireproof elixirs for short stretches. Ore is unusually dense on the mountain — rubies fuse into fire damage, so hold a few back rather than selling the lot.
Elixirs won't substitute for the armour. The Gorons check for fireproof gear before letting you into the storage area, and the underground stretch runs long enough that timed elixirs lapse mid-route.
Yunobo of Goron City, start to finish: a boss fight against a friend, a minecart run under the mountain, and the Fire Temple. Longest step in this build by a wide margin.
1649, 2447, 0381. Bludo is scolding a Goron flat on the ground who's eaten Marbled Rock Roast. President Yunobo turns up, denies everything, leaves for YunoboCo HQ.1761, 2508, 0437 — vehicle puzzle right beside Goron City.1841, 2841, 0363 — Proving Grounds combat gauntlet (gear stripped) at Goron Hot Springs, a short walk north of the city. Chest: Magic Rod — fuse a gem for elemental blasts.2358, 2602 — near the summit east of the city. Chest: Mighty Construct Bow (attack 24) — the chest upgrades this from a skippable summit pickup to worth the climb.The geoglyph sits directly south of Eldin Canyon Skyview Tower, wedged between the roads to Goron City and Zora's Domain. The shape drawn on the ground is the Purah Pad.
1828, 0737, 0089.Downhill out of fire country into water country. One stable, one Penn stop, and the road that opens the whole Necluda chapter.
From the memory-3 geoglyph it's one long glide south out of the Eldin foothills to the Hylia River's east bank. The stable sits just past Rebonae Bridge.
0888, -0158, 0026.0882, -0194 and 0859, -0261), connected underground — Brightblooms, Bomb Flowers, ore. Once you've met Fera the well-hunter (she roams stable wells) and reported at Lookout Landing, every well you've ever entered pays 10 rupees.0915, -0252, 0034 — right at the stable; Zonai-wheel puzzle. Chest: Strong Zonaite Sword (+50% power when fused with Zonai parts).1744, 0017, 0025 — out in the wetlands east; underwater-ball puzzle. Optional detour.~2277, 0150) — a blessing shrine whose chest is a Diamond (sells 500). Optional; the chest pays for the trip.Fleet-Lotus Seeds grow on the water everywhere here — this is the game's best patch. They cook into hasty (move-speed) dishes.
Don't sweep the marsh. Grab lotus seeds where the road touches water and move on — the wetlands reward ten minutes, not an afternoon.
The Sheikah village is buried under fallen sky rings and booked out by the Zonai Survey Team. Five quests, one shop trick, and the tower that unlocks the Necluda map.
A short leg — but the middle of it is the region's map unlock. Take the tower on the way through.
1341, -1176, 0166.1329, -1162), smash the cracked boulders with a rock-fused weapon (don't spend bomb flowers), stand in the alcove directly under the tower, Ascend through the ceiling, pull the sticks out.1705, -0653), on the northern approach to the village: Moza converts Dubious and Rock-Hard Food into real meals for 10 rupees a plate — a two-minute stop that cleans out your inventory's dead weight.1182, -0779 — on a tiny sky island resting on giant tree roots northwest of the slope; glide over from the tower launch. Spring puzzle.1770, -1051, 0166 — the ledge above Kakariko; stabilizer puzzle. This is the village's warp point — grab it on arrival.Everything in the village is open except the one thing the game dangles in front of you — the sealed ring ruin waits for step 55.
1877, -1156) holds 12. 50 rupees.Twenty minutes south, and the stable at the end quietly holds this chapter's armor upgrades — plus the best shield chest in the game.
Downhill from Kakariko, across Lake Siela, to the stable at the east mouth of the gorge.
1751, -1889, 0013.1564, -1943, 0157 — on the cliffs just west of the stable; shield-parry training. Chest: Mighty Zonaite Shield (guard 50) — the strongest shield in any shrine chest in the game. Do not skip this one.0931, -1902 — west past the gorge; gated behind the "Keys Born of Water" quest (ice slabs from White Chuchu jelly). Optional.He sells Hot-Footed Frogs at 10 rupees each. Buy 10 — a Hateno quest at step 28 wants exactly ten, and catching them wild is a chore.
100 rupees now saves an hour of frog-chasing later. That's the whole judgement.
A Yiga ambush, a ferry job that unlocks armor upgrades, and a two-cave puzzle inside the peaks themselves.
1322, -1956). Ultrahand the cage open — it's a Yiga ambush; spring it anyway. ~100 rupees.1766, -2172). This opens armor upgrades for the whole chapter — do it before Hateno, then feed her the Barbarian pieces as you collect them.1190, -1861): the ceiling carries a painted pattern — photograph it. Bubbulfrog and Brightcaps inside.The densest side-content stop on the route: a mayoral election, a school, a cheese industry, every Purah Pad upgrade — and the Barbarian set completes.
East across Blatchery Plain and through Fort Hateno — with the Barbarian helm a hundred yards off the road.
2496, -1485, 0014), northeast of Fort Hateno just off the path: the Barbarian Helm. Stone statues at each fork point toward the treasure; a breakable rock wall guards the chamber — one bomb flower or a rock hammer, then Ascend up to the chest (2519, -1532). Bubbulfrog at 2541, -1513. Second of three — the chest piece came at step 17, the leg wraps land at step 28.Houses, wells, an election, a school, and Robbie. If you do nothing else here, do Robbie — the Purah Pad upgrades are why this step exists.
3779, -2111). Robbie installs the Sensor and sends you downhill after the beeps — they lead into Retsam Forest Cave and Mayahisik Shrine. Report back.3318, -2280) — your old BotW house is hers now. Her diary upstairs starts A New Champion's Tunic (the tunic is in the Hyrule Castle throne room — log it now, collect during step 42).3469, -2179 — in the village itself; scoop puzzle. Chest: a Zonaite longsword (scales with your progress).3730, -2057 — blessing shrine inside Retsam Forest Cave; the Sensor quest walks you into it.East of the lab beside the waterfall (3929, -2066): the Barbarian Leg Wraps sit behind an ice chunk — bring a fire weapon or red chuchu jelly. Horriblins on the ledges, Bubbulfrog inside. The set completes here — take all three to Cotera (step 26) and the attack bonus starts compounding.
Entrance 3756, -2072, at the cliff base below the lab. Brightcaps, Hearty Truffles, and a Bubbulfrog in the east chamber past the left fork.
Sunset Fireflies in Retsam Forest, around the pond behind Zelda's house, and on the beach. Bank a handful — a Kakariko flute quest wants them later (step 44).
Hateno pays you in systems, not loot — cheese, crops, armor resale, pad upgrades. The election chain is long: run it between other things, not in one sitting.
Every fight here is written cheapest-first. The theme: almost nothing needs a bomb flower. Bank them — they're cave currency.
The stun never needed an explosive. Any hit on the exposed tongue — a plain arrow, or even a melee strike — stuns it for several seconds.
Every kill drops a Like Like Stone plus 5 arrows — the fight is arrow-positive if you skip the bomb. Wall and ceiling ones usually cough up a weapon chest too.
Zero ammo needed: run underneath, Ascend through its body onto its back, and melee the glowing ore deposit.
A regular one drops ruby/amber/opal/flint. A Rare Talus drops sapphire, topaz, ruby and diamond — one of the best early rupee sources in the game, and you need ~1,900 rupees by step 20. The Talus Heart itself is a strong hammer fusion.
Horriblin Horn is a decent early fuse. Kill them when they block a cave; not worth hunting.
At your current gear level the answer is run: climb anything — they have almost no vertical mobility and despawn if you stay out of reach. Pin the spot on the map and come back.
Phantom Ganon drops a Gloom weapon — fusing one is roughly a +30-attack jump, transformative at this stage.
Normal mechanics only, ranked by what they actually pay. TotK's economy runs on meat and gems; almost everything else that looks sellable is secretly an armor-upgrade ingredient.
The Great Fairy armor tiers eat gems by the hundreds. Selling the wrong pile early is the classic trap.