Earlier this week, Nintendo announced a full title (Tears of the Kingdom) and release date (May 12th, 2023) for their next Zelda game (previously known as Breath of the Wild 2). I’m really looking forward to the game, but I figured it was about time to finally get that last shrine in Breath of the Wild.
I generally don’t like using guides unless I’m really, really stuck on something. But after 5.5 years of playing BOTW without finding that last shrine, I felt like that qualified as “really stuck.” 😂 So I found a map that showed all of the shrines, and I scoured it for several minutes until I found the one I was missing. It was in the Gerudo area, between the highlands and the desert. So I headed there, but I initially didn’t see anything.
But after exploring the area a bit, I found a big hole and dropped down into it. (It’s the valley that leads to the Yiga Clan hideout, but that’s not where I needed to go.) Exploring the area from down below led me to an altar that had never been used!
Note: Because the shrine wasn’t exposed, only the altar, my Sheikah sensor did not beep to indicate it was nearby.
I had actually been afraid the last shrine would be something very difficult or time-consuming, like defeating every Talus or Hinox in the game. So I was relieved to see it was just something I overlooked…even if it was hard to believe I’ve missed it for over five years!
Anyway, the sign said to offer a shining blue stone. A sapphire didn’t work, but my next choice (a luminous stone) did the trick. The 120th shrine rose up out of the sand, and I entered the Sho Dantu Shrine. The hint was “Two Bombs,” and I joyfully solves the puzzles to complete my last shrine. 💣💣
The monk gave me a spirit orb, but he also had a side quest for me! It was easy, though: I just had to go to the Forgotten Temple for my reward.
**SPOILER ALERT** If you don’t want to know the reward for completing all shrines, you probably want to stop reading this entry now.
Okay, still here?
So I got to the Forgotten Temple to claim my reward. There were three treasure chests inside, which gave me a cap of the wild, a tunic of the wild, and trousers of the wild. Basically it’s Link’s traditional outfit!
While I was there, I also exchanged my final four spirit orbs for another heart container.
With eight months to go until Tears of the Kingdom, I may not be posting any more BOTW blog entries. (It’s still possible, but maybe not likely.) So I figured I should post my game stats for (perhaps) one last time.
- Completion percentage: 59.88%
- Shrines: 120/120
- Shrine quests: 42/42
- Side quests: 76/77
- Korok seeds: 418/900
- Hyrule Compendium: 363/385
- Rupees: 39,806
Also, I no longer plan to purchase the DLC. But I will certainly be back next May with my Tears of the Kingdom progress! Hopefully the game won’t get delayed any more. 😛 But here’s the TotK trailer if you’re interested:
Thank you SO much for this. I’m just like you, was refusing to use guides over the years, but with Tears of the Kingdom having released a week ago, I promised myself I wouldn’t let myself play it until I found all 120 shrines.
I was absolutely furious about the Shrine Quest that’s hidden behind two benign side-quests in Kakariko, but this Shrine in your blog article almost makes me even more mad! You can’t Shiekah Sensor this plate, and it has no proper Shrine Quest in your Adventure Log. This is truly an undetectable Shrine in the middle of nowhere, in a place you have no reason to check since you’ve already passed through here during a story mission.
Thank you so much for the validation. I don’t feel bad about having looked this one up at all. Totally unfair. But now after 5 years I can say I found all 120 Shrines, and 118 of them without a guide. 😉