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- Tears of the Kingdom Regional Phenomena Guide - June 7, 2023
Starting Tears of the Kingdom, it seems bad enough that the Demon King Ganondorf has been revived. But after reaching the surface again after waking up in the Garden of Time, you realize that not all is well in the world.
On your quest this time, you’ll need to help the largest communities in Hyrule deal with the ‘regional phenomena,’ strange environmental changes that have appeared in the wake of The Upheaval. However, even reaching the towns to help them out can be difficult with the new treacherous environments.
In this Tears of the Kingdom Regional Phenomena guide, let’s look at the regional phenomena and what you’ll face on your way to unlocking the four temples to save the world yet again.
What Are the Regional Phenomena?
There are four different regional phenomena occurring across the four corners of Hyrule, one in each of the major non-Hylian settlements: Rito Village, Zora’s Domain, Goron City, and Gerudo Town.
You may be looking for Princess Zelda, but none of your friends can help you while such danger threatens their homes.
This setup is similar to Breath of the Wild. Each location has a crisis Link needs to help with to aid his own quest. Except this time, it’s caused by the Demon King’s minions rather than the corruption of the Divine Beasts.
In each of the four towns, you’ll team up with a key community member (all of which we met in Breath of the Wild) and work to save the area from impending destruction. You and your companion must make your way to a Temple which, once completed, will dispel the region phenomena and return peace to the cities.
Rito Village Frozen Over
In the wake of the Upheaval, the Hebra and Tabantha regions have been battered by a continuous snowstorm. It has frozen over the already cold land, forcing the usually idyllic Rito Village into an emergency.
Not only is there snow and debris everywhere, but the storm destroyed the bridge leading up to the village, so they can’t receive emergency supplies from Lookout Landing.
Rito Village has been left to the children to care for as all the adults are forced into the wilderness to scavenge for food and firewood. At the center of this effort is Teba, the new leader of Rito Village.
As he’s so busy trying to keep his people fed and warm that his place by your side is filled by his son, Tulin.
Getting into Rito Village
The first issue you’ll face upon reaching Tabantha is getting into Rito Village.
The village is built around a rock spire reaching out from the middle of Lake Totori. The now collapsed bridge used to lead up into the village. So jumping from the cliff to the nearest spire will require extra stamina. Hardly an impossible task, but it’s still a challenge.
The best option is to throw a Hylian pine cone onto a campfire to create a strong updraught to carry you across.
Tulin of Rito Village
Once you reach Rito Village, find Teba, Saki, and Tulin discussing the snowstorm issue on Revali’s landing.
Teba has no information regarding Princess Zelda but directs you to find Harth for help. Harth is at a supply lodge visible from the landing, indicated by a pair of bonfires.
Harth doesn’t have any news about the Princess either but says Tulin might. Tulin just left on a gathering mission with two other Rito at Hebra South Summit Cave, the entrance to which is also indicated by a bonfire.
Finding the cave is annoying; if you’ve found the cave where the Rito outside is looking for Chillshrooms, you’ve gone too far. Once you get there, you must work your way to the top.
The hardest part of the cave is the tall cavern with spikes up the walls to prevent climbing. To solve this, use the campfire at the bottom. Light it and throw a pinecone on it to create an updraught. At the top, a Rito named Gesane tells you Tulin followed a band of monsters up to Talonto Peak. When you find Tulin there, he’s lost his bow to the monsters and needs your help getting it back from an Aerocuda.
From here, you can use Tulin’s control over the wind to create sharp horizontal draughts to carry you while paragliding. Once you get his bow back, you’re beset by more monsters and can see Tulin’s use in combat. I think he’s the best companion because of his mobility and tendency to land critical hits.
The Legendary Stormwind Ark
After this, Harth catches up to you and sends the two of you into the storm to try and stop it. This is the final stretch before you reach the Stormwind Ark, also known as the Wind Temple.
From the top of the Hebra mountains, follow a trail of floating ruins up and up into the storm using your abilities and Tulin’s.
My best advice for this is to not forget about your ascend ability. Most of the platforms are long and verticle with space to stand beneath them. Don’t be like me and climb surfaces you’re meant to shoot up through.
You’ll be doing a lot of gliding and platforming throughout this climb, making as much use of Tulin’s ability as possible. Don’t worry if you run out of supplies or need a break during this trek, however, as there are two shrines to act as checkpoints along your way and a supply station halfway up.
Once you reach the top of the storm, you can drop inside onto the Stormwind Ark and start the Wind Temple.
After beating the dungeon, the storm will clear, and the snow will quickly melt away, revealing the beautiful Rito Village beneath. It won’t be perfect, the bridge is still broken and needs your help to fix it, but life in the village can finally return to normal.
Pollution Problem in Zora’s Domain
Since the Upheaval, sludge and grime have been raining down on the pristine waters of Zora’s Domain. This muck cakes the land, slowing those that stand in it, and pollutes the water, spreading sickness among the Zora. Only the support of the royal family and their trained healers keeps the people from succumbing to this plague.
Zora’s Domain is genuinely disgusting to walk through. The land is coated in purple slime, and the waters run green as giant clumps fall from the sky and splat around you.
Making your way through the ruined landscape with the sludge impeding mobility is annoying. And you don’t want to get stuck in the stuff while trying to fight something off.
The grime can be dispelled with clean water. This can be accomplished by throwing splash fruit or blue chuchu jelly at the ground or fusing an opal to a weapon for water magic. Clearing it away will free up your path and sometimes reveal hidden chests.
Lady Yona and the Zora Tunic
Upon arriving at Zora’s Domain, you’ll be introduced to a new character, Lady Yona. She’s Sidon’s fiancée and is working hard to keep the Zora clean and healthy. After you help her clean off the statue, she realizes who you are and directs you to Sidon, who is at Mipha’s Court at the top of Polymous Mountain.
To reach the top of Polymous Mountain, you need to retrieve your Zora Tunic from Yona. She’ll require an Ancient Arowana to do so. You can collect Ancient Arowana from just about any body of water in the sky, including the Great Sky Island.
Once you’re back in possession of the Zora Tunic, you can use it to climb the waterfalls up to Polymous Mountain.
Sidon of Zora’s Domain
Once you reach Mipha’s court, Prince Sidon is predictably delighted to see you alive and well after hearing of your disappearance. He knows nothing of your search for Zelda and is too preoccupied with keeping his people safe to help. However, he directs you to the wise Jiahto for aid.
From meeting Sidon, the process of unlocking the water temple is long and may prove challenging. So here’s a basic guide through the steps to solve the riddle of the ‘watery bridge.’
1. Find Jiahto at Toto Lake and fix the broken slate
Jiahto is at a cave beside Toto Lake puzzling over a broken piece of ancient text. You can find the missing piece under some sludge outside the cave.
Once you’ve repaired the slate, Jiahto will reveal the riddle written on it:
“Stand upon the land of the sky fish, and behold its lofty view.
Among the floating rocks you see, a droplet waits for you.
Through this droplet shoot an arrow with the mark of the king.
Do this task, and you shall reveal a most wonderous thing.
See the watery bridge’s resting spot with your own two eyes…
that which connects the Zora to the people of the skies.”
2. Obtain the Mark of the King
You will need to find King Dorphean. You will get a clue to his location if you eavesdrop on the children inside the royal chamber.
Dorphean is hiding in a place called the ‘Prinstince Sanctum.’ This is a cave under the waterfall above Mikau Lake.
King Dorphean has been injured and is recovering but is happy to speak with you. He knows that the ‘mark of the king’ is none other than his own scales and provides you with five. If you waste them, you can return to him for more.
3. Find the Land of the Sky Fish
If you haven’t reached the Upland Zorana Skyview Tower and obtained a map of the area yet, you’ll want to for this. You can get a hint from Yona, but the sky fish refers to a sky island that looks like a fish from above. It’s called Floating Scales Island. This is obvious once you have the map.
To reach the island, you need the Zora Tunic again to climb the waterfall leading up to it. This is above Tal Tal Peak.
4. Shoot an Arrow through the Teardrop
On Floating Scales Island, you’ll see debris hanging in the air. If you stand near the center and look back towards East Reservoir Lake, some of them join together to form the shape of a green teardrop. Shoot an arrow with one of Dorphean’s scales attached to trigger a cutscene.
5. Fight the Sludge Like
Return to Sidon at Mipha’s Court, where Yona has joined him. You’re beset by a Sludge Like, at which point you join forces with Sidon and get to use his power. He creates a water shield around you which can be dispelled as a water-based attack when you swing a weapon. This is necessary to expose the Like Like under the sludge and beat it to a pulp.
At this point, Sidon will leave the care of Zora’s Domain to Yona so he can help you get rid of the sludge. With his help, you can uncover the path to the Ancient Zora Waterworks.
6. Activate the Watery Bridge in the Ancient Zora Waterworks
You’ll have to work up through the Zora Waterworks to the Zonai activation panel at the top of the central podium. This requires unblocking water pipes to raise the water level until you can finally climb onto the center platform.
Don’t make the same mistake I did in not realizing that the water level will rise all the way to the top and instead struggling to get the rest of the way up using slippery parkour. Activating the Zonai terminal will cause the watery bridge, a waterfall leading from Wellspring Island far up in the sky, to at long last appear.
This opens up the way for you to access the road that leads to the Water Temple, acclimatizing you to the low gravity of the area and the unique bubble mechanic. Sidon doesn’t rejoin you until you’ve started the Water Temple.
After finishing up the dungeon, the sludge will disappear from the land leaving behind the happy and healthy Zora’s Domain.
Goron City’s Addictive New Fad
The phenomenon affecting Goron City is unique compared to the other three. While you may at first assume the issue is the dormancy of the volcano, it isn’t.
Goron City has been overrun with a new, highly addictive form of rock roast, the Gorons’ favorite stony dish.
The mining company YunoboCo has discovered a new delicious rock called ‘marbled rock roast,’ which has taken the Goron youth by storm. However, not everything seems right with this innovative delicacy.
Young Gorons are so obsessed with the food that they can’t muster the energy to do anything but eat it. They’ve abandoned their work duties, talk about it constantly, and con or rough up travelers for rupees so they can buy more.
Judging from how their eyes glow bright red, it looks like a classic case of brainwashing.
And at the center of it all? Yunobo, owner of YunoboCo, and our timid but courageous friend from Breath of the Wild. Where he was once a sweet young Goron, he’s now a power-hungry, mean-spirited boss. He’s terrorizing his workers and pushing for the spread of these marbled rock roasts when everyone who still has their head on straight can see that it’s ruining Goron City.
Freeing Yunobo
The first step towards fixing Goron City is to figure out what’s wrong with Yunobo. Head to YunoboCo HQ, north of Goron City, and talk to his young assistants. They want your help finding out what’s wrong with their boss! They say he’s been acting like this ever since that strange blonde lady gave him that mask he wears.
Well, doesn’t that sound suspicious? He’s meeting with her in a cave right now, harvesting rock roast. When you see them, he’s clearly talking to Zelda. You need some sort of flame guard equipment or elixir to enter the cave without burning up; you can buy the Flamebreaker Armor in YunoboCo HQ if you don’t have any fireproof lizards to hand.
Unfortunately, Zelda convinces Yunobo to attack you to protect the marbled rock roast. This mini-boss is a classic form of Zelda boss. You need Yunobo to crash into the wall and stun himself, so you can hit him. After three hits, the mask will crumble, and Yunobo will return to his kindhearted self!
Up to Death Mountain!
With Yunobo back, you can get down to business. Unfortunately, Zelda collapses the cave around you, trapping you inside. This is your introduction to Yunobo’s ability to roll into rocks with his cast iron defense and break even the toughest barriers. Use his power to escape and follow the Princess up Death Mountain.
You must ride minecarts up there, building powered vehicles with the Zonai devices in the area. While using a vehicle, Yunobo becomes a portable cannon to blast away obstacles. Reaching the top, Zelda walks into the center and out pops the three-headed stone monster, Moragia. Once again, using zonai devices you need to take to the sky and launch Yunobo at the heads to defeat it.
Once it’s defeated, Yunobo assumes the Princess fell inside the volcano and jumps in after her.
Under the Volcano
Follow Yunobo into the volcano, all the way into the depths. Remember that you will still need flame guard protection, although you’ll only need one layer. Thanks to the lava everywhere, the depths underneath Death Mountain are brighter than most other places, and you can head straight for the Mustis Lightroot as you’re gliding in.
Nearby is the start of a trail of statues leading to Lost Gorondia. The Goron Statues face the next one, and you can follow them through to the Fire Temple, where you’ll start the final phase of the quest line. Defeating the dungeon boss will cause the marbled rock roast to magically disappear (don’t ask), and the young, brainwashed Gorons will wake up from their stupors.
Dust Clouds over Gerudo Desert
If you dislike exploring the depths, the sandstorm over the Gerudo Desert won’t be much more fun. Gerudo Town is suffering under the constant buffeting of a freak sandstorm falling over their desert. It obscures the view of the land and is full of a returning enemy: gibdos. And some of them fly.
To even reach Gerudo Town, you’ll have to brave the sandstorm, which is hard to see in, and when you get there, the town is abandoned. All the Gerudos have fled to the underground tunnels for safety.
Reaching Gerudo Town
Actually getting to Gerudo Town is an ordeal. A mapless ordeal. When you enter the sandstorm, not only are you set upon by monsters, but your map stops working, reduced to static. And you can’t just blindly ride a sandseal straight from the Kara Kara Bazaar to the town because a giant rift has opened up across the path.
However, there is a strategy for getting across the desert and not losing your way. In the sandstorm are giant sandy updraughts. They aren’t dangerous, even if they look it. These will carry you up above the sandstorm so you can temporarily see where you’re going.
So dodge around the enemies for now and aim for these updraughts. In this way, you can pick your way across the desert toward Gerudo Town; the shrine at the top of the town acts as a great landmark.
Finding Riju and Defending the Bazaar
The evacuated Gerudo Town is free to explore once you get there, as long as you don’t go underground. To find Riju, you need to enter the palace and read through her notes. She’s at the Northern Ruins, practicing with the lightning powers she recently awakened to.
Head there to meet up with Riju and practice using her ability. Riju will let loose a bolt of lighting wherever you shoot with your bow. However, your training session is cut short when a hoard of gibdos attacks Kara Kara Bazaar. This prompts a large-scale fight against them.
Gibdos are resistant to physical attacks but weak to magical ones. Riju’s lightning will make quick work of the gibdos, but a magic rod or an elemental arrow will also do the trick if needed. You want to make good use of Riju’s ability in this fight to destroy the tower they’re spawning from whenever it glows pink.
Winning the fight is a great victory but isn’t the end.
The Seige on Gerudo Town
Three gibdo nests sprout up at the gates around Gerudo Town and are set to attack any minute. You, Riju, and her army need to prepare for the siege. This begins a really cool part of the game where you need to position Riju’s resources strategically around Gerudo Town in anticipation of the attack.
You have three armed troupes to place at whichever gate you choose and a metal barricade too. There is no right way to do this. Think about it and place them wherever feels right for your strategy in the upcoming fight.
The fight isn’t hard, but it may take a try or two to get accustomed to how it works. The nests can only be taken out while they’re spitting out gibdos, so you have to wait for both the nest to be vulnerable and for Riju’s power to charge up.
You lose the fight if Riju is defeated, so if in doubt, protect her. She’s most vulnerable to the flying gibdos, and the ones that quickly crawl along the floor can go under the radar if you aren’t careful.
If you’re having trouble with it, here is my personal strategy that I found worked well:
Preparing for the Seige:
- Spears — West Gate
- Swords — East Gate
- Cannoneer — West Gate
- Barricade — West Gate
I put my strongest defense on the West Gate as it’s further away from the other two and harder to defend. This means the barricade, the spear troops, and the cannoneer. The spear troops are an electric force and pair well with the metal barricade. The cannoneer can then back them up.
I place the sword troops at the East Gate and leave the North Gate undefended as I am its defense. The East Gate is next to the North Gate, so I head over there as soon as I’ve taken out the gibdo nest to the north.
You then turn around to deal with the West Gate before cleaning up the stragglers in the town center.
Revealing the Lightning Temple
Once Gerudo Town is safe, Riju hears a voice beckoning her. She references a mural in the tunnels beneath Gerudo Town to find it. From this moment on, as a defender of the Gerudo and friend to the chief, Link is granted special permission to enter Gerudo Town. Nice!
Find Riju by the mural and receive the riddle to unlock the Lightning Temple:
“Standing back to back with the throne, witness red pillars across a vast sea.
Unite the pillars in light to reveal the lightning stone and open the way.”
This puzzle requires you to reflect a beam of light across a triangle of pillars in the desert. Starting from Riju’s throne in the palace, you can find the first pillar and follow the trail from there.
First Pillar: Clear the rubble under the mirror to free the light beam. Follow it to the second pillar.
Second Pillar: Find the turning crank on a nearby rock tower. Turn the crank until the pillar is high enough to reflect the light to the third pillar.
Third Pillar: Fix the crank on top of the pillar to raise it and complete the triangle.
Aligning the light beam will cause a lightning rod to emerge from the sand. Meet Riju over there and use her power to activate it. This will at least reveal the Lightning Temple.
Completing this dungeon will cause the sandstorm to cease, and the desert will again be free of the gibdos.
FAQs
Question: How do I get into Rito Village TotK?
Answer: While the bridge is broken, the easiest way into Rito Village is to throw a Hylian Pine Cone on the campfire near the cliff. The resulting updraught will carry you across the gap.
Question: How do I get into Gerudo Town TotK?
Answer: You have to pass through the sandstorm to reach Gerudo Town. Across the sandstorm are large pillars of sand. These updraughts will carry you above the dust cloud on your paraglider. Using this, navigate your way into Gerudo Town and later to the Northern Ruins.
The gibdos you encounter in the storm are slow, so you can avoid them or hit them with elemental attacks if you want their valuable spoils.
Question: Where is the Pristine Sanctum TotK?
Answer: The Pristine Sanctum is located behind the waterfall above Mikau Lake. Be sure not to wear your Zora Armor as you try to enter the sanctum, or you may automatically ascend the waterfall instead of going through it.
Tears of the Kingdom Regional Phenomena Guide: Making an Environmental Change
As a sequel, Tears of the Kingdom needed a way to make a Hyrule we’ve already explored new and exciting to jump back into. The regional phenomena were a great way to do this. By changing the environment, these familiar places feel new and different. Then, once you’ve dealt with them, the change is tangible and makes you feel like a significant force in the game’s world.
Throw in a slew of new mechanics to play around with and new puzzles to apply them too, and you have a complete package. If you’ve been struggling to reach any of the temples, I hope this guide helped you out of a rough patch and set you back on track. Forge through these strange happenings and have fun on your adventure!