Ancient Shrine

Shrine redirects here. For other uses, see Shrine (Disambiguation)

Ancient Shrines are dungeon-like puzzles in Breath of the Wild.^{[1][note 1]}

Overview

After the Sheikah helped to seal away Calamity Ganon, they built the Ancient Shrines to serve as training grounds for the hero as he prepared for the revival of Calamity Ganon.^[3] There are initially 120 Ancient Shrines scattered throughout Hyrule Kingdom. Many of the Ancient Shrines were uncovered during King Rhoam's excavations for Ancient Technology, but they only began to glow after Link activated the Great Plateau Tower following his Slumber of Restoration.^[4][5] In order to enter an Ancient Shrine, Link must unlock the entrance by pressing his Sheikah Slate to the Sheikah Slate Terminal at a Shrine's entrance. Shrines that have not yet been unlocked glow an orange light, and glow orange and blue once their entrance has been opened, but not yet completed. Upon completion, Ancient Shrines only glow blue.

During the beginning of the fifth Recovered Memory, Zelda's Resentment, Princess Zelda attempts to use the Sheikah Slate to try to access the one of the shrines, but to no avail and seeks to find a loophole before Link arrives, much to her displeasure.

Once an Ancient Shrine has been opened with a Sheikah Slate Terminal, its Travel Gate will activate.^[6] This will allow Link to Warp to the Ancient Shrine from his Map.

Link is lowered into each Ancient Shrine by an Elevator Platform, and each Shrine contains a series of traps and obstacles to be overcome as part of a trial. At the end of every Shrine is a Monk, who are the creators of the trials inside.^[7] They rest upon Monk's Pedestals. The Monks will present Link a Spirit Orb for successfully reaching them.^[8][9] The first four Ancient Shrines also contain Guidance Stones that will distill Runes, which add functionalities to the Sheikah Slate and bestow Link with new abilities. Each Shrine contains various amounts of Treasure Chests alongside the Spirit Orbs bestowed by the Monks. A Treasure Chest icon will appear next to the Shrine's name on the Map once all Chests have been collected.

After completing all 120 Ancient Shrines, Link is instructed to head to the Goddess Statue in the Forgotten Temple, where he will find Treasure Chests containing the Wild Set.^[10][11]

After completing all four Divine Beasts and beginning The Champions' Ballad DLC Pack, Link can access 16 new Ancient Shrines across Hyrule Kingdom. This expansion raises the total number of Shrines to 136. These Shrines have a tall pillar on their top to differentiate them from regular Shrines and their Map icon is likewise slightly edited to match. Four of them are found on the Great Plateau, while the four Regions coinciding with the Champions contain three Shrines each. Link must complete a Trial to access each of these Shrines. Link is rewarded with Spirit Orbs as usual at the end of the four Great Plateau Shrines, but is instead given emblems related to the Region's respective Divine Beast for the rest of the Shrines.^{[12][13][14][15]}

List of Shrines

Akkala

Akkala Highlands

Akkala Sea

Deep Akkala

Central Hyrule

Great Plateau

Hyrule Field

Hyrule Ridge

Eldin

Eldin Canyon

Great Hyrule Forest

Faron

Faron Grasslands

Lake Hylia

Gerudo

Gerudo Desert

Gerudo Highlands

Hebra

Hebra Mountains

Tabantha Tundra

Tabantha Frontier

Lanayru

Lanayru Great Spring

Lanayru Sea

Lanayru Wetlands

Mount Lanayru

Necluda

East Necluda

Necluda Sea

West Necluda

Trivia

• The design of the Ancient Shrines was inspired by art from the Japanese Jōmon period.^[16]

Nomenclature

See here for the names of each particular Ancient Shrine in Breath of the Wild.

Gallery

• 
  Link entering an Ancient Shrine
• 
  Link in combat with a Guardian Scout II inside the Ta'loh Naeg Shrine
• 
  An Ancient Shrine rising from the ground
• 
  The exterior of an Ancient Shrine as seen in The Champion's Ballad DLC Pack
• 
  Concept art of the lift entrance of Shrines

Notes

References