'Tears of the Kingdom' Begins With a Quest on Finding Princess Zelda — How to Complete It

Spoiler alert! This article contains early gameplay and story details for Tears of the Kingdom.

Following the climatic prologue, players will leap and climb as Link to explore the unusual Great Sky Island over Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom. Here, you will meet one of the Constructs made by the forgotten Zonai tribe tending to the island, instructed by Princess Zelda to give her Purah Pad to Link.

The Construct will point to a distant temple where Zelda might be and starts the "Find Princess Zelda" quest.

While the objective pushes the story forward, it also acts as a tutorial that sends you to different areas over the Great Sky Island to solve shrines, understand the flow of exploration, and use the powers surging from Link's new arm.

If you just started and need a breakdown of how to complete the quest, here's everything you need to know.

While on the Great Sky Island, you will work toward completing the Find Princess Zelda quest through several objectives. The first requires you to reach the Temple of Time mentioned by the Construct.

Follow the path ahead and use the Temple of Time to determine which direction to head. You will encounter several enemies along the way. Pick up branches to defeat them and swipe fruit on the golden-leafed trees to heal.

Once there, you will meet Raura, the founding king of Hyrule and the original owner of the arm Link has. He explains that Link must enhance his strength and awaken the powers within the arm to open the door to the Temple of Time.

Raura suggests activating the Ukouh, Gutanbac, and In-isa shrines scattered over the island, each with puzzles you must overcome to acquire a Light of Blessing.

Solving them demands clever uses of Ultrahand to assemble makeshift objects, Fuse for combing items with your equipment, and Ascend to climb through ceilings.

These powers are also instrumental in reaching the shrines, so get familiar with their capabilities while exploring.

You'll return to the Temple of Time to get inside but have to leave again to complete the Nochoyah shrine near where you started the Find Princess Zelda quest.

The shrine unlocks the Recall ability to reverse the movement of a targeted object and will be needed to turn back the wheels inside the Temple of Time to proceed further.

A second door will stand before you, which you can open by giving up the Light of Blessings you acquired from the shrines to the Angel Statue nearby and get a Heart Container. It gives Link enough vitality to force the door open.

After a few cutscenes, head to Hyrule from the edge ahead. Below is a lake to dive into, not far from the Lookout Landing town north of your position.

Head there to meet Purah and look into the crisis at Hyrule Castle to complete the Find Princess Zelda quest.

This early main story quest is very involved, but it helps set up the general gameplay hook for Tears of the Kingdom and nudges you to explore while setting the groundwork for Zelda's whereabouts.

If you get stuck, follow these steps to get back to adventuring!