How to Upgrade Health and Stamina in Tears of the Kingdom
Restore the champion of Hyrule.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, our hero Link still has two main things to worry about: health and stamina. The more hearts he has, the more hard hits he can take without dying. Meanwhile, a larger stamina wheel means being able to climb, leap, swim, glide, and more without becoming exhausted. If you ever run out of stamina midway through a massive climb, you’ll quickly learn it’s not a fun experience.
After taking a nasty beating at the start of the game, Link will only have a basic stamina wheel and three hearts of health, but don’t worry: You can upgrade Link’s health and stamina. Our guide has everything you need to know. Tears of the Kingdom is a massive adventure, which means plenty of upgrade opportunities.
How to upgrade health and stamina
You’ll unlock the ability to upgrade Link’s health and stamina fairly early on in the game, right as you complete the “tutorial” area, Great Sky Island. Before you leave, Link will be required to complete four shrines, earning important abilities such as Ultrahand and Rewind along the way. After completing the last shrine, Nachoyah Shrine, you’ll have four Light of Blessing items.
Visit the Goddess Statue in the Temple of Time, and in exchange for the four Light of Blessing items, you’ll get a heart container, expanding Link’s health to four hearts, and enabling you to continue on through the rest of the game. This is a required upgrade, you can’t choose something else or skip it.
From this point on, you’ll be able to upgrade your health or stamina whenever you choose. You’ll need four Lights of Blessing, and then you can visit any Goddess Statue and offer the items in exchange for the upgrade of your choice.
Early on, I recommend visiting the Goddess Statue at Lookout Landing, which is the first village in the game that you’ll visit if you are following the main storyline.
Where to get Lights of Blessing
Lights of Blessing are always found in the same way, and this will be by far the most time-consuming part of upgrading Link’s health and stamina. Completing any Shrine in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will award you with one Light of Blessing.
There are over 120 Shrines in the game, which means over 120 Lights of Blessing to earn. It takes four Lights of Blessing for an upgrade, so you’ll be able to get 30 or so upgrades if you hunt down every last Shrine in the game.
All Shrines always look the same in the overworld, with a cylindrical cone shape of rock sticking out of the ground, with green energy swirling around the top of the Shrine.
“It's dangerous to go alone!” Check out more of Inverse’s Tears of the Kingdom coverage:
- THE INVERSE REVIEW: Tears of the Kingdom Is the Best Nintendo Switch Game Ever Made
- Tears of the Kingdom’s Best New Mechanic Could Change the Series Forever
- Why Zelda Speedrunners Plan to Take It Slow With Tears of the Kingdom
- Tears of the Kingdom Doubles Down on Breath of the Wild’s Best Inspiration
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