10 Hardest Shrines Stumping Players In Tears of the Kingdom

We’ve got guides and locations for all 152 Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom, and it was a long haul for our experts to get here. We noticed along the way that some shrines are getting a lot more attention than others: These may be “early game” shrines, being somewhat near to Lookout Landing and Hyrule Castle, but they are either annoying, puzzling, or just not meant for novice players. Below are the most searched-for Shrines that have people stumped: And how to beat them.

Mayachin Shrine: The Baseball One

(A Fixed Device) Mayachin Shrine is probably the most hated shrine in TOTK. Mayachin Shrine is located in Central Hyrule so you might come across it on your way to the nearby Hyrule Field Skyview Tower. Inside you’ll find a rolling ball, an unmarked switch, and a Zonai device you’ve probably never seen before — a stake that can be placed anywhere. It’s hard to know you even need to make a baseball bat here, harder to get the timing, but really hard to figure out the bonus puzzle for a chest. 

Orochium Shrine: The One Where You Need to Get Hit By Lasers

(Courage to Fall) Most Shrines teach you things, but Orochium Shrine throws all that out. Have you been avoiding lasers? In this shrine, you need to run right into them to fall through the floor to a secret chamber (the subtitle of the shrine is “Courage to Fall;” get it?). To make things worse, the end of the shrine seems like an easy glide down to the exit – just don’t forget the sphere you need to bring with you, like everyone we know did. 

Tenmaten Shrine: The One That’s Right Below You… Somewhere

There are several shrines below the ground in caves, but Tenmaten Shrine one is technically in a well. Whether you used our interactive map to get there or had your Shrine Sensor beeping like mad, the well entrance is an unexpected twist: And oh yeah, there are two wells, and one leads to a grate where you can just peek at the shrine on the other side. Grrr.

Tadarok Shrine: The One With the Metal, Wood, and Ice Cubes

(Fire and Water) Tadarok Shrine is your unofficial stint as a materials scientist: Not only do you have to rescue cubes from destruction, but you need to eventually stack them in a really clever way to get to the shrine exit. Furthermore, a lot of players are stumped by Ascension puzzles, and this is pretty near the starting area, and actually in the starting area of the previous game, on the Great Plateau. It’s also in a cave that is a bit confusing to reach!

Makasura Shrine: This One Is Flipping Tough

(An Upright Device) If you wander east towards West Necluda you will likely come across Makasura shrine in Kakariko Village. Inside you’ll find a Zonai device that wants to stay upright when you activate it. Attach it to a platform and that tendency to go upright serves as a catapult. But it’s really not apparent that that’s what’s going on in this Shrine, so people get hung up here – and especially on how to get the chest with the Fairy Tonic inside. 

Ishodag Shrine: You Won’t Be a Fan

(A Windy Device)  Ishodag Shrine’s puzzles aren’t that tough once you’ve attached fans to all manner of things over dozens of hours of gameplay, but if you stumble across it on your first trip to Rito Village as part of the main storyline, then you might not be ready for the… creativity of its puzzles. Attaching a fan to a platform to reveal a chest on the underside is especially tricky. 

Jiukoum Shrine: The One With a Gap in the Tracks

(Built for Rails) Jukoum Shrine is a total stumper for many: You are left to construct a device that travels on a series of rails with fan power. The final rail set has a gap in it like some monstrous Tony Hawk level and to clear it you need to build the perfect M-shaped device.

Mayaumekis Shrine – The One With A Switch You Don’t Know About

(Downward Force) You do a LOT of bouncing and floating in Mayaumekis Shrine in the Hebra Sky, and since these concepts are drilled into you mostly in events following the discovery of this shrine, it can be super confusing to realize how much you can get done by bouncing and floating. And you have to hit a switch through some bars, which just has some players totally reeling. 

Kyokugon Shrine: The One You Can’t Find on The Great Plateau

(Alignment of the Circles) If you were to walk due south from Lookout Landing just to check in on The Great Plateau, and you have some inkling that there’s a shrine nearby (or you have your have your shrine detector equipped and its going crazy), you would naturally begin by looking for a cave near the Forest of Spirits. But that would be futile, since, while Kyokugan Shrine is in a cave, it’s in one at the base of The Great Plateau, not up top. And its covered in boulders. And the Shrine has a really confusing puzzle with four spheres and a ton of holes to put them in. Hint: Look up!

The Proving Grounds Shrines – The Ones Where You Are Naked

Depending on which direction you go at the start of TOTK, you might come across Sifumin Shrine (Proving Grounds: Flow), Mayachideg Shrine (Proving Grounds: The Hunt), Eutoum Shrine (Proving Grounds: Infiltration) with oh, five, maybe six hearts. That’s bad, since everything BUT your health and stamina is stripped away at the start of these shrines. Sure, all the speedrunners love this challenge, but it’s probably best for most players to come back with 8 or so hearts so you don’t get one-shotted by an electric arrow from behind, forcing you to start completely over. But, if you must prove yourself, as the challenge suggests, we’ve got guides to cheese the enemies. 

Shrines aren’t the only place people get stuck. Here are the most popular guides our experts have created for Tears of the Kingdom, beginning with a most exciting TOP SECRET SECTION: