Shrines Are Returning for 'Tears of the Kingdom' — Here’s How Many You’ll Find in Hyrule

There’s no shortage of incredible places to discover in Tears of the Kingdom, but few are as intriguing as Shrines. These serve as small, standalone dungeons that often task you with solving a puzzle or defeating a group of enemies. In return for completing a Shrine, you’re given the ability to upgrade your stamina and health bars.

But how many Shrines are in Tears of the Kingdom? And do they function similarly to the way they did in Breath of the Wild? Here’s what you need to know about these popular destinations.

Note: This article contains spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom.

There are 152 Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom. These can be found in all corners of Hyrule, and finding (and completing) them all is bound to take dozens of hours. You’ll discover more than 120 by exploring the surface of Hyrule, with the remainder found on the Sky Islands.

For completing all the Shrines, you’ll be rewarded with an exclusive outfit — the Ancient Hero’s Aspect. You’ll also be able to increase your stamina and health as you could in the previous game, this time by using items known as Lights of Blessing.

Using four Lights of Blessing allows you to increase your health or stamina and is essentially how you level up in Tears of the Kingdom. Of course, Shrines have seen a few tweaks when compared to Breath of the Wild, but they still serve as small instances that give you a break from your normal adventures.

Shrines also double as fast travel locations. This makes them important to seek out, as unlocking them will give you an easy way to quickly zip around the expansive map of Hyrule. Once you find a Shrine, it’ll show up on your map in orange. Once you’ve completed a Shrine, it’ll change to blue.

Some Shrines are easy to complete, and can be tackled within hours of launching the game. Others are a bit more complex, and might be best to attempt after you’ve learned the intricacies of Tears of the Kingdom. But since any Shrine you discover will remain visible on your map, it’s worth tracking them down as soon as possible so you don’t need to hunt for them later.

No matter how you cut it, Shrines are an important part of Tears of the Kingdom. Offering both fast travel locations and a way to upgrade your stats, there’s plenty of reason to check them out. And with 152 to complete, they should keep you busy for quite some time.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on May 12.