Tears of the Kingdom Death Mountain Guide

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Monica Phillips

Monica has been in love with the Zelda series ever since she picked up Wind Waker in 2013. The lovely art style combined with the incredible feeling of sailing mixed to create an unforgettable experience, which led her to loving games like Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, and especially Breath of the Wild.

Latest posts by Monica Phillips (see all)

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• Tears of the Kingdom Death Mountain Guide - June 7, 2023
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In Breath of the Wild, Death Mountain was a dangerous and challenging area to enter, given it lit you on fire immediately, but Tears of the Kingdom allows you to enter the Goron Village with no armor or potions required. However, there are tons of ores, items, armor, an entire dungeon around Death Mountain for you to find, and no firewall on the outside.

In this Tears of the Kingdom Death Mountain guide, I’ll walk you through the Death Mountain dungeon, what changes when you complete it, and go through some of the things you can find around the fiery volcano. This includes some excellent materials, some NPCs giving plentiful sidequests, and shops selling cool armor that will keep you alive in the heat.

Bottom Line Up Front

Death Mountain contains the Fire Temple, as well as being the home of the Gorons, a race of rock people who pride themselves on having great minerals around the foot of the volcanic area.

Death Mountain at a Glance

Some general info about Death Mountain is helpful to have on hand before entering and committing to spending quite a lot of time here. First, it takes up a large portion of the total map size, being a vast volcanic mountain with many things like hot springs and smaller structures surrounding the base of the towering volcano.

You should know that one of the primary forms of travel in Death Mountain is through Minecarts. Of course, you’ll have to bring your way of powering them most of the time, so if you have many fans in your inventory to spare, here’s the place to use them. You can also fuse a Minecart to your shield to ride the rails like Sonic Adventure 2.

The main thing to note is that, unlike Breath of the Wild, you won’t die instantly heading into any part on the outside, but as soon as you enter one of the caves, you will start burning up. You can make a flameproof elixir with Lizards, but the Flamebreaker armor from Goron Village is a more straightforward and long-term solution.

The Main Quest

The main quest of Goron City will have you following Yunobo to the Fire Temple, with death mountain currently heavy under the influence of Ganondorf, and Yunobo selling Marbled Rock Roast to Gorons, making them go into an almost comatose state. This mission will likely take a few hours, but it should be done before anything else.

Yunobo of Goron City

Once you land in Goron City, you’ll go through a cutscene with Bludo trying his best to talk some sense into Yunobo, with Yunobo revealing that Zelda has been telling him to get the Marbled Rock Roast and feed it to the Gorons and that the YunoboCo HQ is at the northern mining site. So naturally, we must go there and figure out what’s happening.

Once you arrive there, either by minecart or just running to the quest marker on your map, you can talk to the YunoboCo employee in the nearby structure that tells you they’re highly short-staffed and that the caves you’ll be going to are very hot. I’d recommend buying one piece of Flame Breaker armor since it will make you not catch fire.

Clearly Not Himself

Go to the right of the office you were just at, and then you can talk to the Goron kids guarding a cave, telling you Yunobo is inside. Once you convince them to let you through, you will encounter Yunobo talking to Zelda and rolling into a big rock to uncover more Marbled Rock Roast. The kids try to convince him, making Zelda make him angrier.

This will start a fight with Yunobo. This encounter won’t take long, and Yunobo only knows how to do a single thing.

Just be sure to have some fire protection. He’ll charge up and then roll at you, and I’d recommend just backing away, letting him hit the wall, then hitting him when he’s stunned. Repeat four times, and you’ll finish this fight.

The mask controlling him this time will break, and he’ll finally be on your side. Now you can interact with him by pressing A, then direct him to explode whatever is in front of you, including the rocks blocking the cave entrance. This ability is pretty specialized to this area, sometimes getting to be inconvenient and exploding things you don’t want to go.

Up to Death Mountain

There’s a shrine inside a cave you can access now, signified by the big glowing red rocks blocking it. Of course, you can always return for it later, but why not get some convenient fast travel now? Either way, Yunobo will direct you toward the top of Death Mountain, where Zelda got the mind control mask on him in the first place.

Once you climb the mountain, you’ll eventually want to hitch a ride on a minecart. Unfortunately, the Minecarts don’t have an easy bomb-powered boost like in Breath of the Wild, so whenever you want to ride, you must attach something like a Zonai fan or rocket or have some other method of making it go forward.

While on a minecart, you can make Yunobo smash into anything you want, including enemies and rocks you find along the way. On the rails up to Death Mountain, you’ll come across a point where you have to switch tracks and a few enemy camps you might want to either avoid or clear for some goodies. Overall, a pretty bumpy ride.

There’s another (really fun) shrine near the top of Death Mountain right underneath where the rails are going to take you anyways, and I’d recommend doing it quickly before we return to this. After that, you’ll ride up to the peak, where Zelda will walk into the mountain, summoning a giant, rocky, molten monster.

Yunobo mentions that you’ll have to get up high enough to hit the heads, and conveniently, there’s a Zonai glider with batteries, fans, and a steering stick right nearby. Mount this glider, and you’ll find that Yunobo’s cannonball ability works the same here. Hit all the heads dead-on with Yunobo, and the fight ends as quickly as it begins.

Inside Death Mountain

Now you can finally go inside Death Mountain, where you never got to go in Breath of the Wild. You’ll be surrounded by lava when you land, and since this entire dungeon takes place in the Depths, you’ll want to get a bunch of Brightbloom seeds planted since the lava doesn’t light everything up.

If you’re like me, you might have landed in this big pool of lava and been mildly stranded. I auto-built a glider to get out of this situation, but you could also make an updraft with a ton of wood or try and fast-travel and paraglide to a better spot.

Yunobo will be hanging out around one of the Lightroots, and you can go ahead and talk to him after activating it.

The internals of Death Mountain will be a dangerous venture; most enemies are covered in gloom and will permanently decrease your health if you aren’t careful. So I’d recommend going around and lighting up the place to the best of your abilities, only engaging with enemies if you’re confident or necessary.

Once you reach the objective marker (and hopefully grab a few lightroots along the way), you’ll find yourself in front of the towering Fire Temple. For any fire enemies you see along the way (and, in general, for the whole game), I’d recommend fusing an Ice Arrow and shooting it at them to almost always instant-kill them.

The Fire Temple

The path to the Fire Temple is almost entirely covered in lava, so you’ll want to use the nearby material cache and make a vehicle to get you over the lava safely. After that, you’ll be able to get into the temple, and it’s the typical fare of activating five switches by exploring the dungeon, then fighting a boss.

Make sure to talk to Yunobo at the entrance since, otherwise, you can’t progress. He’ll point out Zelda entering the temple, and you can be on your way. You’ll spot Zelda again and be able to open up the switch that lets you progress in the rest of the dungeon. A voice will explain you can unlock these locks and mark your map with where to go.

Almost all the switches are on different floors, except for the first, which has two. The northern one is currently locked, but the southern one can be reached by crossing a gap with hydrants and riding a minecart.

There is not much in the way of obstacles; you flip a switch, get past a like-like, make a water bridge, break a rock, and hit the gong by throwing Yunobo at it.

Floor 2 and above can be reached by climbing up in the minecart destination room. Most gongs can be achieved simply by climbing up, heading toward the destination marker, and solving a puzzle involving lava or other fire-related things. Learning to use the Minecarts can be tricky, but this skill can be picked up through practice.

Fiery Finish

Once all the gongs have been hit, you can head back to the central room for a boss. This fight against a Marbled Rock Gohma won’t be extremely challenging, but it is a spectacle. The main point is hitting the crab-like monster’s legs with Yunobo’s ability, then climbing on top and going to town with its eye.

Gohma only has a few attacks; the one it’ll try most often is slamming one of its claws into you. Either hit a different claw with Yunobo or run away to avoid this. It will also drop rocks on you that you can destroy with Yunobo and climb up to the ceiling in phase 2, where you can roll Yunobo onto the wall and up to the top to hit it.

Overall, this fight isn’t tricky and mainly involves keeping track of where Gohma is, throwing Yunobo at it, and then hitting it with your highest damaging weapon. Once you’re done, you get a heart piece and permanent access to Yunobo’s ability, and the Marbled Rock Roast will disappear immediately, restoring Death Mountain to its former glory.

Sidequests

Death Mountain contains a bunch of sidequests, usually involving Goron shenanigans and often giving some decent rewards. This section assumes you’ve done the entire main quest and have access to Yunobo’s ability, as most sidequests will be locked or much easier once you’ve completed the Fire Temple.

I’ll only cover some of the more notable sidequests with special rewards in this guide. There are way too many side quests to count in this game, and most of them end up giving you just a few Rupees or some other mundane reward, so the ones covered here give something notable or valuable for the rest of your playthrough.

If you need some in-game guidance, talking to Yunobo has him inform you of a side quest you can do.

Lizard Lakes

When you get back from your huge dungeon dive, you can talk to Yunobo again, and he’ll be talking with Bludo about Lizard Lakes that Zelda told him not to find.

So, naturally, you can find two Lizard-shaped lakes at the northern part of Death Mountain, both of which point to a cave containing Vah Rudania’s Divine Helm, a two-defense headpiece with Flame Guard.

Moon Gazing Gorons

Outside the Inn, you’ll find a lovely pair of elderly Gorons looking to retire to a cave that shows the full moon, even during the day. This refers to the Lake Ferona cave on the west side of Lake Ferona, located just south of Death Mountain. Go to this cave, take a picture of the circle of sunlight peeking through, show it to them, and get a 100 rupee reward.

Soul of the Gorons

The Boulder Breaker was Daruk’s signature Champion Weapon in Breath of the Wild, and it’s still obtainable in Tears of the Kingdom by talking to Rohan, the weaponsmith. The Boulder Breaker requires a Cobble Crusher, three diamonds, and five flint. While this is a bit high of a requirement, this weapon is excellent and worth going for.

Simmerstone Springs

This quest has you talking to Lima, a rare Hylian in Goron Village. He’s looking for Simmerstone Springs, located in Gorko Tunnel, to the Southeast of Goron City. You can use Yunobo to break through the rocks and find the springs. The quest reward is just 100 Rupees, but another chest in this cave has a 50-damage Ancient Blade.

Bedrock Bistro

The Bedrock Bistro, found by taking the Southern road from Goron City, is a neat place for a few sidequests. The main one is getting the shop owner some Marbled Rock Roast by just taking the nearby rails into a cave, getting some from the end of the rail, and bringing it back to him on a minecart to open up the shop and get a Large Zonai charge.

You can now buy various types of meat from this shop, as well as go and give him another Marbled Rock roast for what is typically a Gourmet meal. You can also find another NPC here named Gomo, who can provide flint and have about a 1% chance to get an absolute boatload of rupees, but that does require a ton of flint.

Shrines

There are nine shrines around Death Mountain, some are pretty obvious, and others are more obscure. You should prioritize going for any you see and visiting Robbie in the Hateno Ancient Tech lab to get your shrine sensor up. Do note that every Lightroot in the Depths correlates to a shrine on the Surface.

But if you don’t want to find them yourself, here are all the locations:

1. Timawak Shrine is in the open next to the Bedrock Bistro, located at 1799, 1638, and 0311.
2. Marakuguc Shrine overlooks Goron Village and should be one you go for ASAP. It’s at 1761, 2508, 0437.
3. Isism Shrine is located inside a cave that can only be accessed using Yunobo’s ability and is right outside where you get the same ability. It’s at 1841, 2841, 0363.
4. Jiotak Shrine is accessible by riding the minecart rails directly north of Marakuguc shrine, the rightmost rail specifically. It’s at 1833, 3179, 0257.
5. Sibajitak Shrine is right in the north and accessible as soon as you reach it. It’s at 2398, 3273, 0402.
6. Sitsum Shrine is right near the peak of Death Mountain and is easy to come across on the main quest. It’s at 2369, 2595, 0790.
7. Kimayat Shrine is a bit of a freebie in the upper right corner of the Eldin region. It’s at 2862, 3634, 0240.
8. Momosik Shrine is to the right of the peak of Death Mountain and requires you to steal a shrine crystal from a Talos in a cave. It’s at 2959, 2758, 0524.
9. Moshapin Shrine is at the bottom right of Death Mountain, a blessing shrine stuck in a cave that requires either a ton of stamina or for you to make a contraption to cross a lava pit. It’s at 2678, 1905, 0131.

The Skies Above

Unfortunately, the Sky Islands above Death Mountain leave much to be desired. There are a few smaller islands scattered around the skies of Death Mountain and some Flux Constructs on the circular islands that are closer to the Akkala region, but otherwise, you aren’t missing much by staying grounded here.

Extras

While what I’ve said above is a significant chunk of the content in Death Mountain, there are a few extra things you might want to go for if you’re in town. These aren’t usually tracked by any completion percentage or extremely important, but they are things that I found interesting or useful to know.

Octoroks

Octorocks may seem like a regular enemy, but they have a hidden ability you might want to exploit. While in Breath of the Wild, they could clean rusted weapons, in Tears of the Kingdom, they re-roll the modifier on your weapon, often giving you extra damage. They can do this one per weapon, Octorok, and blood moon.

So, essentially, an Octorok can re-roll the modifier of any weapon once, but if you want to re-roll that weapon again, you’ll need to find another Octorok. This limit will reset each blood moon, so if you’re trying to turn a triple shot bow into a quintuple shot bow, hit up every Octorok you can find, then try again after a blood moon.

Minerals

Around the base of Death Mountain and especially within its caves, you can find a whole host of rocks containing a ton of minerals. There’s no better place to go if you want gems, flint, amber, and especially diamonds. The rocks can be a bit hard to break, but you can utilize Yunobo or one of the plentiful Boulder Breakers in the area.

Shops

The shops in Goron City are pretty plentiful. The typical shop sells Rock Salt (a seasoning for food), Cane Sugar (an ingredient in many dishes), Goron Spice (something that creates a few unique dishes), Fire Fruit (that fruit that makes fire arrows), and Arrows. All of these are pretty useful, especially if you cook extravagant things.

The armor shop sells three pieces of Flamebreaker Armor. This armor is essential for traversing any caves on Death Mountain and is especially helpful for the main quest. This entire set can be bought for a total of 3,300 Rupees, but you only need two pieces of it to get the full effect of complete heat protection (unless it’s desert heat, that doesn’t count).

FAQs

Tears of the Kingdom Death Mountain Guide: Conclusion

Death Mountain went from one of my least favorite places in Breath of the Wild to one of the places I’ve explored far more in Tears of the Kingdom. But, of course, it’s all in that change to how the extreme heat works; who knew that being able to explore most of it with my preferred armor made all the difference in the world?

I do miss bombing minecarts to (somehow) make them go super fast, and I just miss bombs in general. But the quirky Gorons, super fun caves, a fantastic dungeon, and some excellent set pieces more than make up for it. Overall, I recommend hitting Death Mountain anytime in your Tears of the Kingdom playthrough.