How to get to Sky Islands in Tears of the Kingdom

To expand on the map that was introduced in Breath of the Wild, the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Sky Islands have lifted portions of the map into the air. These elevated land masses have Link diving through the wind and frequently exploring these raised elevations on this adventure. While you do start the game at the Great Sky Island, there’s plenty of others to explore.

With that in mind, here is everything you need to know about the Sky Islands in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where many of the main quests take you to.

How to reach Sky Islands in Tears of the Kingdom

Obviously, not having wings like Revali, Link needs to find a way to get into the air to reach Sky Islands in the Breath of the Wild sequel. Now that the game has released on Nintendo Switch, we know there are many ways to do this so far:

• Use Recall
• Build vehicles
• Fast travel
• Soar into the skies from a Skyview Tower

Use Recall

You can use the Tears of the Kingdom Recall ability to reverse the motion of fallen debris. Tiny chunks of the Sky Islands have fallen throughout Hyrule, and you can ride them back up into the skies. Be careful, though, as some of these fallen rocks don’t actually lead anywhere, and will just take you up to empty sky.

Build vehicles: rockets and hot air balloons

Using abilities is one of many ways to reach Sky Islands in Tears of the Kingdom, but Link can also get crafty to reach them. If you find the proper items lying around, use the Ultrahand and Fuse abilities to make yourself a hot air balloon to get to where you want to go, slowly floating you up into the sky.

You can craft vehicles by exchanging Zonai Charges for Zonai Devices, and then powering them with an energy cell. Check out our Tears of the Kingdom vehicles guide for some ideas of what you can build.

Fast travel

Once you’ve explored a few Sky Islands, you’ll soon have a collection of Shrines up in the sky that you can easily fast travel to. If you need to get somewhere quickly, this is probably the easiest way to do it, and only gets more useful the further through the game you get.

Plus, once you’ve got the Tears of the Kingdom Travel Medallion, you can drop a fast travel point anywhere you want, letting you return to the sky whenever you want.

Soar into the skies from a Skyview Tower

Activating a Tears of the Kingdom Skyview Tower allows you to take to skies. You’re going to need to have learned how to get the paraglider in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom for this, though it’s not too tricky.

What are on the Sky Islands in Tears of the Kingdom?

The Sky Islands are filled with shrines, unique items, weapons, and minibosses. Alongside that, you can find the Temple of Time in the Great Sky Island, though you’ll need to complete the Ukouh Shrine, In-Isa Shrine, and the Gutanbac Shrine before this. Check out our Tears of the Kingdom Shrines guide for all the game’s shrine locations. 

The Sky Islands will be filled with ingredients and items, like arrows, spicy peppers, golden apples as well as the odd korok puzzle. They also act as a great platform to dive off when travelling around Hyrule. If you’re exploring a new area, gliding off a Sky Island can get you pretty far into an unexplored area.

The gameplay in TotK has massively been overhauled since the first game, and the abilities found on Sky Island are integral to how this game evolves the franchise. If you’re just getting started, check out our guides to the Tears of the Kingdom Fuse ability and Tears of the Kingdom Ultrahand ability that you’ll get your hands on during the game’s tutorial section.