Tears of the Kingdom Champion’s Tunic Guide

The Champion’s Tunic was a classic item in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was featured in most of their promotional artwork and was a staple armor piece once you got it in the game. I know I, at least, never took it off (unless I absolutely had to).

The Champion’s Tunic has made its return in Tears of the Kingdom, though even better than before. Now known as the Champion’s Leathers, it is the strongest armor piece in the game, and it isn’t even that hard to get your hands on.

If you wanted, you could wear it for the entire game, and not a soul could say a word because you’d be just for doing it (assuming you don’t mind cooking food to get through Hebra, Gerudo Desert, and the Elden caves). I, at least, would encourage you to go for it as soon as possible.

Dive On Through

The Champion’s Leathers is the strongest defensive gear in the game once you’ve fully upgraded it. Its base power is more substantial than most other armor pieces at their first upgrade.

You can get it fairly early on in the game by picking up the quest in Hateno and heading straight to the Sanctum in Hyrule Castle (you won’t even run into any enemies!) Although, upgrading it will take a lot of time as you have to farm the Light Dragon for scales, fangs, talons, and horn shards, plus you have to have a decent amount of sundelions on hand.

In the end, though, it will absolutely be worth it and give you a better chance when you go up against Ganondorf.

Worthy Of Hyrule’s Hero

The Champion’s Leathers starts with a base defense of 5, which is significantly better than most other shirts in the game, which will generally range from 1 to 3 as their starting points.

Already, this puts the Champion’s Leathers a step above the rest, but it just gets better once you start upgrading. In fact, the Champion’s Leathers become the strongest defense item in the game if you take the time to gather all of the materials.

Even if you opt not to use the Great Fairies for upgrades, you’re still better off grabbing the Champion’s Leathers. It’s easy to get to, and there’s just not much of an excuse you could muster up that would justify not trying to go after it.

Accepting The Quest

Although you can just head straight toward the Champions Leathers, you might also want to consider picking up the quest first because doing so will lead you to a cozy little easter egg for those who played Breath of the Wild.

If you drop by Hateno village and head over to where your house would have been in Breath of the Wild, you’ll learn that this has become a lovely home-away-from-home for Princess Zelda (I would assume that Link stays there, too, considering it seems he never leaves her side).

Here she conducts research, helps to build up the community in Hateno, and apparently, leaves her journals about some of her secrets.

If you read the journal inside the house, you’ll learn that Zelda had a secret room built near the house where she could comfortably work in peace. To find it, you need to head to the well next to the back of the house and jump down it, and there you’ll find a small desk set up with another journal.

Go ahead and read that you’ll pick up the Champion’s Leathers quest. This journal entry also helps to explain why the Champion’s Leathers looks a little different than you might remember it being in Breath of the Wild.

Admittedly, I think it’s very sweet that Zelda went out of her way to repair the Champion’s Leathers and to try and make it a surprise for Link – though I can only guess as to what occasion she was waiting on to surprise him with a newly repaired tunic.

Taking Action

Now is the time to start on your journey, and you have to go to the place you probably fear the most (whether you’ve played Breath of the Wild or not). It’s time to head to Hyrule Castle, specifically into the Sanctum. But fear not!

You really shouldn’t run into any enemies on your flight, and you won’t trigger any boss fights if you head straight into the Sanctum. Really, the hardest part is just getting there, but it can easily be done in the early stage of the game.

If you want to make getting into the Santcum as easy as can be, you should probably have a few stamina upgrades and Tulin. I had two full stamina rings, though that proved to be a little bit in excess. Having a golden stamina wheel or stamina-restoring items would do just as well on this flight.

Tulin, however, is a must if you want to prevent any unnecessary climbs (to get Tulin, you need to complete the Rito Village Regional Phenomenon). Launch yourself from Lookout Landing’s Skytower and coast on over to the entrance – it’s as easy as that.

Let The Torches Lead The Way

Once you’ve entered the Sanctum, run up the stairs straight ahead of you. You’ll see two brazzers on either side of the throne. Follow Princess Zelda’s advice and let the torches lead the way to your treasure by setting them both aflame.

This can be done by fusing any flammable thing to an arrow (such as Red ChuChu Jelly, Firefruit, or a Fire Keese Wing), using a flint and a metal weapon, or any other way you can think to set something on fire. Once both are flicking with fire, you’ll be taken to a brief cut scene where the throne will shift aside, and a chest will be revealed.

Dive into the newly opened area just behind the throne and retrieve your prized tunic.

Kissed By A Fairy

The story of the Champion’s Leathers doesn’t end here, though. Like in Breath of the Wild, you can make everything, including the Champion’s Leathers, even better with the touch of a Great Fairy.

However, unlike some other armor you can get your hands on, the Champion’s Leathers requires you to put in a lot of work, mainly through completing the Dragon Tears/Geoglyphs’ main quest.

The Great Fairies

Much like Breath of the Wild, in order to start upgrading your gear, you need to unlock at least one of the Great Fairies first. I unlocked my first Great Fairy at the Woodland Stable during one of Penn’s stable quests.

Required Materials

Before you dive into enchanting and upgrading your armor, there are a few materials that you’ll need to get your hands on, and they’ll require you to run around the entirety of Hyrule (if you haven’t already) and unlock just about every single Skytower.

There are two main materials that you’ll need to get: Silent Princess flowers and Light Dragon scales.

For each upgrade, you’ll need the following:

• Upgrade 1: Silent Princess (x3) and Light Dragon Scales (x2)
• Upgrade 2: Silent Princess (x3), Light Dragon Talons (x2), and Sundelions (x10)
• Upgrade 3: Silent Princess (x5), Light Dragon Fang (x2), and Sundelions (x15)
• Upgrade 4: Silent Princess (x10), Light Dragon Horn (x2), and Sundelions (x20)

Getting Silent Princesses

To make this as easy of an experience as possible, you’re going to need to collect every single Dragon Tear from the Geoglyphs.

Once that’s done, you’ll unlock the location of the very last tear. After viewing the memory inside of it, Silent Princess flowers will sprout along the edges of the pool, and you’re free to collect all of them (although there aren’t that many).

However, if you don’t want to do that, you could just gather the Silent Princesses from the Floret Sandbar island, which is just west of Kakiriko Village. I will say, though, that collecting all of the Geoglyphs will make it easier to find the Light Dragon.

Collecting Sundelions

Sundelions are found on just about any sky island and shouldn’t take too long to farm if you start at the Garden of Time and gradually work your way around.

Stick to the tops of the sky islands and dive from area to area, and you’ll gradually gather enough. Plus, you might find some cool treasures along the way that you can either upgrade with or sell for some extra rupees.

Getting Some Scales (And Other Items)

That was the easy part. The hard part comes in tracking down the Light Dragon. If you’re fortunate, it’s nearby when you watch the final memory, and you can snag some scales then. If you’re unfortunate, then you have a few more steps ahead of you to try and find it (or you can hope you run across it while you venture throughout Hyrule).

If you manage to clear up the Korok Forest from the gloom (you need to venture into the depths and go underneath the Korok Forest to do this), you’ll be given a quest to track down the master sword, which should put a marker on the Light Dragon.

This way, you’ll know where she is at all times. This looks like the easiest method at face value, but truth be told, it’s rather difficult simply because clearing out the gloom from Korok Forest requires you to defeat Phantom Ganon and make it through a rather harrowing journey.

The other method is to just go about your day through Hyrule and do quests as you please until you eventually meet the Light Dragon. She circles the skies of Hyrule, so it’s difficult to pinpoint where she could be at one time – let alone how low to the ground she is. I didn’t grab scales after watching the final memory, which was a horrible decision.

Instead, I ran across her above Tarrey Town much later on. I tried to chase after her but found she was much higher in the sky than I anticipated, which led to an extensive chase up and down different sky islands until I could finally get within range to take some arrow shots.

Words Of Advice

It’s worth noting that you can stand on the Light Dragon, which should make collecting scales and shards of horn easy to get.

You have to take a break between each drop, about ten minutes of live gameplay. There is a visual cue that accompanies this – if you pay attention, her glow disappears when she has just dropped an item. Once it comes back, she’s ready to drop another item.

With the talons, there’s a very brief window where you can grab them after they drop, at which point you can use the updraft around the dragon to fly back up onto her back. You might have a more challenging time getting lucky with the fangs.

If you time it well, you could grab them in the brief moments she is close to the ground or when you’re near a tower and can get back onto her back quickly.

FAQs

Tears of the Kingdom Champion’s Tunic Guide: Conclusion

The Champion’s Leathers is probably one of my favorite pieces of armor in Tears of the Kingdom. Not only is it a gift from Zelda as thanks for all of Link’s hard work and for sticking by her side, but it also looks really nice.

Honestly, I think it’s a step up from the Champion’s Tunic, and it looks like a genuine piece of armor. It’s also one of the nicer-looking pieces of armor in the game, which is great because it’s the strongest. There’s really no reason not to use it, even if you prefer to be an aesthetic-focused player rather than a strategy-focused player.

Yes, it’s a pain to get your hands on, what with farming material from the Light Dragon (who is, honestly, a pain to get to) and collecting an obscene amount of Sundelions, but it’s worth it.