Tears of the Kingdom Paraglider Guide: How to Unlock the Glider

About
Latest Posts

Cody has been in the video game business as part of media and content creation for more than 10 years. During that time, he has contributed and even led some of the largest sites in the world dedicated to gaming and entertainment. He has also dabbled some in PR and was a tester for Activision in the past working on the Call of Duty series. When not playing games or writing about them, he enjoys cooking, sharpening his Japanese skills, and watching the latest anime shows.

Bottom Line Up Front

The paraglider is one of the most essential pieces of equipment for Link in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Without it, you aren’t able to glide, so you won’t be able to likely even do much of the content in the game. In fact, reaching the final boss alone requires you to have a glider.

But the odd thing about the paraglider in this game is that it isn’t a reward for completing the tutorial area like it was in Breath of the Wild. Instead, you’ll have to complete a specific main story quest if you want to unlock the glider and start soaring through the skies of Hyrule.

Tears of the Kingdom Paraglider Overview

The paraglider was your best friend in Breath of the Wild, and that hasn’t changed in Tears of the Kingdom. It is your trusty companion who will still through the skies above to reach whatever destination you’re trying to get to. Actually, I would even argue that the glider is somehow even more important this time around.

Because of the various sky islands in Tears of the Kingdom and another particular area in the game, the glider is even more valuable than ever before. Without it, you aren’t able to reach the various sky islands and access all of the shrines and other goodies that they have to offer to you.

For this reason, it is imperative that players unlock the glider as soon as they reach Hyrule. Without it, you will be grounded for the vast majority of the content, which will lock you out of pretty much everything, including some shrines, locations, side quests, gameplay features, and, of course, the main story. Here’s what you need to do to unlock it.

How to Unlock the Glider in Tears of the Kingdom

To unlock the glider in Tears of the Kingdom, you must complete the tutorial area known as the Great Sky Island. After you complete this, you’ll be able to dive to the surface of Hyrule and explore the world at your leisure. The problem is that the tutorial doesn’t give you the glider like the last game.

Instead, you want to continue with the main story quest you currently have in your Adventure Log. This quest is known as To the Kingdom of Hyrule, and it has you heading to Lookout Landing, which is the new hub town that is featured in this game.

Head here, talk to the townsfolk, and it will eventually lead you to speak with Purah. At this point, she will give you a new quest known as Crisis at Hyrule Castle and tell you all about a group of knights who have gone to storm the castle and find out more about what’s happening.

You need to find the captain, Hoz, and speak with him to complete the first objective of this main story quest. You’ll know that you are still without a glider at this point, but go ahead and head north to the floating Hyrule Castle anyway.

Though this may feel like endgame stuff, I highly suggest doing this anyway, as it is not going to lead you to the final boss but the glider. Continue north from Lookout Landing, and you’ll need to get around the first gate. Thankfully, you can walk around and climb around to get around the gate into the castle area.

Follow the path here, and it will be relatively safe compared to in the last game. You’ll see a few soldier NPCs here and there that will continue to guide you toward the captain. Once you reach the first gate checkpoint, the captain will be at the top of this guardhouse, and you’ll need to climb your way to him.

After speaking with him and seeing the cutscene that follows, it’s now time to return to Purah. Head back to Lookout Landing, and you’ll be able to unlock the tower here and earn yourself the paraglider. It is a lot of story stuff and effort just to get the glider, but it is absolutely worth it. You’ll be able to use it in the game just like before.

How to Use the Glider

Tears of the Kingdom paragliding — Image by Cody Perez

Using the glider in Tears of the Kingdom will be familiar to anyone who played Breath of the Wild. Anytime that you are in the air high enough to pull out the glider, the game will give you the option to press the X button (by default) to pull out the glider and start gliding to your destination.

You can only glide for however long you are in the air, and it will automatically go away when you touch the ground. The glider is also essential for avoiding fall damage, and it can save you from even the longest falls if you pull it out at the right time.

Furthermore, you can glide for as long as you want to in this game, so long as you are in the air and you have enough stamina to do so. Unfortunately, gliding uses up your stamina in Tears of the Kingdom, like in BOTW, and once you run out of stamina, you will instantly start falling to your death.

That said, this game has a neat feature that tries to help players not to die as often. When you run out of stamina while gliding, you’ll start falling, but the game gives you just enough stamina to use the glider one last time.

The key here is to leave that final glider use for just before you hit the ground, and you’ll be able to land safely without any fall damage whatsoever if done right.

I use this all the time in the game to survive insane falls from the sky whenever I am gliding to somewhere. But there is still a whole lot more to using the glider than meets the eye in this game.

Skydiving vs. Glider

There is a new feature in Tears of the Kingdom known as diving. With the addition of the sky islands in this game, players are now able to dive through the air to gain a lot of speed and go quite fast. This is different from the glider, which is noticeably slower, and has a more horizontal movement style, rather than the skydiving’s vertical style.

In Tears of the Kingdom, you want to master using both of these gameplay features equally, as they are essential to dominating the skies above Hyrule. Towers are another massively important part, as using them will send you into the sky, where you can dive and glide to your heart’s content.

Unlike gliding, diving doesn’t use up any stamina, so it is a challenge to know when you need to dive to gain speed and ground and then when to glide so that you accurately land at the destination you’re aiming for. But no matter what, unlike diving, you almost always want to use gliding at the end of your journey because it will save you from falling to your death.

How the Wind Dungeon Power Helps Gliding

Tears of the Kingdom paragliding up the sky — Image by Cody Perez

This next part is spoiler-filled for those who haven’t visited Rito Village yet and dealt with the dungeon that is there. This is your final warning before I continue with how to make the paraglider even better. Unfortunately, there are no upgrades in Tears of the Kingdom to make the glider work better.

That said, there is a gameplay feature you can unlock in the main story that helps the glider to work better most of the time. As you will find out, there are four powers you can unlock in this game that are similar to the champion powers from Breath of the Wild.

For the Rito side, there is Tulin’s power that you unlock during the Wind Temple section of the game. This particular power is helpful for gliding, but doesn’t work the same as Revali’s Gale, for better or worse. Instead, it focuses on a more horizontal boost that is mainly there to help with gliding.

When you use the gust, it sends forth wind you can ride using your glider in the air. It gives you a nice boost, but it is noticeably light and does not really help you out all that much. On a side note, I find that Revali’s Gale is a much better ability, but you make do with what you have.

The one benefit of the new Tulin ability is that it at least helps you to get where you’re going faster. I suggest using it as soon as you start gliding because of its cooldown. This will let you use it as often as possible so that you can have the most effective gliding possible.

If done right, it can help you reach destinations you possibly wouldn’t be able to otherwise with your current stamina wheel.

How to Customize the Paraglider

While you can’t upgrade the paraglider to work better than it usually does, what you can do is customize its visual appearance in Tears of the Kingdom. You don’t have to stick with the standard glider design, as there are many other options to use in this game.

If you want to customize your paraglider and make it your own, you’ll want to head to Hateno Village. It is in the same spot as it was in the last game, in the southeastern corner of Hyrule. Here, you’ll find Sayge, who runs the dye shop, which returns from the previous game.

Sure, you can use this shop to dye your clothes and make them look cool, but you can also dye your glider fabric now. To do this, though, you’ll first need the glider fabric you want to change it to and some Rupees to make the change happen.

It costs only 20 Rupees to make the change, though, so pretty much any player can start customizing their glider as soon as they get the glider. Even better, the dye shop owner launches you into the air after completing the customization, so you can head wherever you like and test out your new fabric design immediately.

How to Unlock All Paraglider Designs

Tears of the Kingdom how to cutomize paraglider — Image by Cody Perez

The problem with customizing your paraglider is that you need fabric beforehand to do this. There are some truly amazing designs, ranging from Majora’s Mask to a style that is more similar to the glider from the previous game.

Here are all of the current paraglider fabrics in the game and how you can unlock them right now. Some of them require amiibos while others need you to do some obscure task:

Aerocuda Fabric: All you need to do is pull out the camera (ensure you have it unlocked) and take a picture of any Aerocuda to get this fabric.
Ancient Sheikah Fabric: You’ll want to scan specific amiibo figures, such as the Guardian. It is a randomly generated drop, so you aren’t guaranteed on the first try.
Bokoblin Fabric: Bokoblin amiibo, but, again, it isn’t ever guaranteed.
Bygone Royal Fabric: This Zelda-themed one requires you to use the Toon Zelda amiibo figure from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Not a guaranteed reward.
Cece Fabric: This is the default reward you get for simply heading to Sayge’s dye store and speaking with him for the first time.
Champion’s Leathers Fabric: You’ll want to use the new Link amiibo for Tears of the Kingdom. Not a guaranteed drop.
Chuchu Fabric: Use your camera power to snap a picture of a Chuchu enemy in the world.
Cucco Fabric: Use your camera to take a picture of a Cucco animal.
Demon King Fabric: You’ll need the Ganondorf amiibo figure for this one.
Egg Fabric: This requires the Link amiibo figure from the Link’s Awakening game.
Eldin Ostrich Fabric: You’ll want to snap a photo of an ostrich in the world using your camera power.
Gerudo Champion Fabric: The Urbosa amiibo figure will help you out.
Gleeok Fabric: One of the most fabulous fabrics, all you need to do is take a picture of a Gleeok using your camera power.
Goddess Fabric: Use the Zelda and Loftwing Skyward Sword HD amiibo.
Goron Champion Fabric: Use the Daruk amiibo figure.
Grizzlemaw Bear Fabric: Take a picture of a bear using the camera.
Horse Fabric: Use the camera to take a picture of any horse in the game.
Horse God Fabric: You’ll need to earn at least five Pony Points from the stables in the game to get this one.
Hudson Construction Fabric: When you complete the side quest known as Home on Arrange, you’ll get this as a reward. You can find this quest in Tarrey Town.
Hylian Hood Fabric: This is another excellent fabric you can get using the Rider Link amiibo.
Hyrule Princess Fabric: The Zelda amiibo from the Breath of the Wild lineup is necessary for this one.
King of Red Lions Fabric: The Toon Link amiibo from Wind Waker can grant you this one.
Korok Fabric: There is a side quest in the Korok Forest known as The Secret Room quest that will grant you this as a reward.
Lon Lon Ranch Fabric: You’ll want to use the Link amiibo from Ocarina of Time to get this one.
Lucky Clover Gazette Fabric: All you need to do is become a reporter for the Lucky Clover Gazette and then complete two separate side quests from the stables.
Lynel Fabric: Use the camera to photograph a Lynel in the world.
Majora’s Mask Fabric: Use the Link amiibo from Majora’s Mask for a chance at this one.
Mirror of Twilight Fabric: Use the Wolf Link amiibo figure for a chance at this one.
Nostalgic Fabric: Head to the Great Plateau and find the Temple of Time there. This fabric is in a chest near those ruins.
Ordinary Fabric: This is the default glider look. You can change back to this one at any time.
Pixel Fabric: You’ll need the Link amiibo that is an 8-bit style from the 30th Anniversary.
Rito Champion Fabric: You’ll need the Revali amiibo for this one.
Sheik Fabric: You’ll want to use the Sheik amiibo to get this one.
Sheikah Fabric: First, you must do the Gloom-borne Illness side quest in Kakariko Village to unlock the armor shop. At that point, buy any armor there, and you’ll get this as a reward for your first purchase there.
Stalnox Fabric: Use your camera to take a picture of a Stalnox.
Tunic of Memories Fabric: Use the Archer Link amiibo figure for a chance of getting this one.
Zora Champion Fabric: Use the Mipha amiibo for a chance at this gorgeous paraglider design.

Tears of the Kingdom Paraglider Guide: FAQs

Question: How do I get the paraglider in Tears of the Kingdom?

Answer: You can get the paraglider in Tears of the Kingdom by first going to Lookout Landing after completing To the Kingdom of Hyrule. Then head to Hyrule Castle to speak with Captain Hoz, return to Purah, and you’ll unlock the paraglider and the first tower.

Question: How do you use wings in Tears of the Kingdom?

Answer: Wings are one of the Zonai devices in Tears of the Kingdom. It glides like a glider but on a larger scale and without using stamina, but you can use fans, rockets, and a controller to make it much easier to control in the game.

Question: How do you get the Travel Medallion in Tears of the Kingdom?

Answer: You can get the Travel Medallion by first visiting the depths with Robbie, then helping him out with the Autobuild ability, and then visiting him at the Ancient Hateno Tech Lab. Then, you’ll need to visit the Ancient Akkala Lab far to the north, retrieve its prototype, and bring it back to Robbie.

How to Complete to the Kingdom of Hyrule

The paraglider is handled in such an odd way in Tears of the Kingdom. Perhaps because of the improved and much better storyline in this game, Nintendo wanted to force players to check out the story right at the start and see how good it can be, but it seems odd that you have to do so much just to unlock the glider.

Thankfully, once you have the glider, though, you are pretty much free to do whatever you want in the game. You can glide around, climb whatever you want, and then fly your way through the skies. This is also how you can go about exploring the sky islands in the game, too.

But to do all of that, you need to complete the To the Kingdom of Hyrule main story quest. This isn’t a very long quest, but it is the first one you get when you first land on Hyrule. For a more detailed explanation of this quest and what not to miss on the way to Lookout Landing, be sure to check out our full To the Kingdom of Hyrule quest guide.