All shrines botw: locations, rewards, and clear order

All shrines botw: what the full shrine set actually contains

Breath of the Wild ships with 120 shrines in the base game and adds another four through The Champions’ Ballad DLC, which gives a confirmed total of 124 shrine rooms scattered across Hyrule. Each completed shrine grants a Spirit Orb, and any goddess statue will trade four of those orbs for either a heart container or a stamina vessel. Hitting the practical cap of 30 hearts, or the cap of three full stamina wheels plus a fourth partial wheel, requires 120 Spirit Orbs, which lines up neatly with the base count once the four Ballad rewards are added in.

Tracking all shrines botw is more involved than ticking boxes on a Sheikah Slate map. The shrines split into a few functional families, and each family has its own design goals, common failure points, and reward structure. This guide walks through every family, the route most players use to clear them without burning through weapons, and the mechanics that tend to get missed on a first playthrough, including the shrine quest prerequisites and the DLC shrines that stay locked until specific story beats land.

Shrine types and how they differ mechanically

Shrines are not interchangeable rooms. The game divides them into functional families, and each one asks something different. Spotting the family early changes how you approach the room, which items you bring from your inventory, and how long a clean run should take.

The family label matters when you are planning a route. Combat shrines tend to chew through weapons and benefit from a hearty meal right before entry, while puzzle shrines rarely do. When you are tracking all shrines botw, sorting a route by family often beats strict geography, because puzzle shrines in a single region frequently chain into one another through their rune requirements.

Shrine distribution by region

The base game splits Hyrule into broad regions, and the shrine count per region is uneven. The exact counts below come from the in-game shrine icons on the Sheikah Slate map after the relevant towers are activated, and they match the community-maintained shrine maps. Regional counts are useful for fuel planning, because harsh-climate regions eat through elixirs and warm meals quickly.

Approaching the full shrine set from the south first, where the climate is mild, lowers early food and elixir consumption and lets you stockpile warm and cool meals for the harsher regions later. Akkala in particular eats travel time, so it tends to slot in last when routes are planned in a single sweep.

The four DLC shrines from The Champions’ Ballad

The Champions’ Ballad DLC adds four new shrines that only become available after a specific story milestone: freeing all four Divine Beasts, then returning to the Shrine of Resurrection to start the Ballad quest. Each shrine focuses on mastering one rune in isolation under conditions set by the relevant monk.

• Ex-Shrine: Bea tests Magnesis in an inverted room where metal objects float and the player is the grounded object. The trick is recognizing that polarity flips mid-puzzle.
• Ex-Shrine: Keeha Yooh focuses on Stasis and presents a giant rolling ball. Standard Stasis timing is not enough; the puzzle requires chaining two Stasis activations in sequence.
• Ex-Shrine: Dah Hesho uses Cryonis in a water-filled maze. The challenge is routing around rotating platforms that block the ice pillars after creation.
• Ex-Shrine: Tutsuwa Nima is the Bomb shrine, requiring precise timing of remote detonations against a series of cracked walls that appear only briefly.

The four DLC shrines use the same Spirit Orb structure as the base game but are usually tracked separately on maps because they stay locked behind the Divine Beast questline rather than open exploration. Players who finish the base game first and then load the DLC often treat these four as a closing ritual.

Practical route order for clearing all shrines botw

There is no single correct path through 124 shrines, but a region order that balances survival, travel time, and rune familiarity tends to be the most efficient. The route below is a common one used by completion-focused players.

1. Great Plateau tutorial set (4 shrines). Mandatory before leaving the plateau. This set teaches all four runes, the monk reward structure, and the basics of the Sheikah Slate map, including the difference between a shrine icon and a shrine quest marker.
2. Hateno, Dueling Peaks, and Necluda early loop (about 25 shrines). Mild climate, low enemy density, and a dense puzzle population make this the safest early route. Several blessing shrines give Spirit Orbs without combat, which helps players building their first stamina wheel.
3. Lanayru and Faron mid loop (about 25 shrines). These two regions contain most of the game’s cleverer Magnesis and Cryonis puzzles, including the Shai Yota and Qukah Nata shrine quests. The Faron region requires rain-aware armor for several shrine quests, and the Lanayru region gates several entrances behind thunderstorm weather.
4. Ridgeland, Tabantha, and Hebra (about 28 shrines). Requires warm meals, snow boots, and the snowquill set. Many of these shrines are tucked behind snowball puzzles, and several are reachable only by shrine quests involving NPC conversations in Rito Village and the Hebra trail.
5. Gerudo and Wasteland (about 11 shrines). Heat and lightning armor preparation is required. The desert shrines include a chain of electric puzzles that consume weapons quickly if approached without care, and the sand shroud can hide shrine entrances until a sand seal is used.
6. Akkala and Woodland (about 18 shrines). Often combined with the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, the Lomei labyrinth, and the Korok Forest maze. These are the longest travel times per shrine, so grouping them saves stamina and in-game hours.
7. Central Hyrule and the castle area (about 11 shrines). Best saved for after the four Divine Beasts because guardian patrols are calmer once the beasts are calmed. Several central shrines sit near the castle moat and reward players who are comfortable with mid-tier combat.
8. Champions’ Ballad DLC shrines (4). Reserve for after all four Divine Beasts are freed, since the quest gate sits behind that milestone and several Ballad shrine quests require mid-battle mobility.

This route is not the fastest mathematically possible, but it minimizes backtracking and lets you carry a balanced set of consumables instead of overstocking one climate type. Many community maps group the shrines slightly differently, but the broad idea of going from mild to harsh and from low elevation to high elevation is consistent across the most popular routes.

Shrine quests, NPC prerequisites, and hidden entries

Many shrines do not appear on the Sheikah Slate map until a related shrine quest is started. The shrine quest is a short side conversation, mini-puzzle, or item-hunt that reveals a hidden shrine entrance, a buried shrine, or a shrine that requires a specific offering at a pedestal. These hidden entries are a common reason that a shrine count can feel “stuck” on a completionist run.

• Eventide Island shrine requires surviving an enemy gauntlet and recovering the three missing orbs without using the Sheikah Slate runes, which are disabled for the duration. The challenge is inventory, since you can only carry what you walked onto the island with.
• Myahm Aganaga in Hateno requires a side conversation with a painter NPC near Hateno Village, then a return trip to a hidden cave with a flowing ball puzzle. The hidden entrance sits behind a wall that breaks only on a precise angle.
• Tho Kayu shrine in the Gerudo Highlands requires offering a warm doublet at a pedestal during snowfall. Without the doublet, the shrine does not appear and the pedestal is treated as decoration.
• Kah Yah shrine in the Wasteland is revealed only after a careful puzzle involving the southern oasis and a metal block partially buried in sand. The block becomes visible after a sand seal clears a section of dunes.
• Ya Naga shrine in the Gerudo region is opened by lighting all four torches along the cliff path, which doubles as a Korok puzzle and a shrine quest trigger. The torches only stay lit during calm weather.
• Kass’s accordion quests across Tabantha, Ridgeland, and Gerudo reveal shrines after a short song is heard near a marked tree or rock. Each Kass location adds one shrine to the map and is easy to miss if you walk past with the volume low.

When a shrine icon is missing on the Sheikah Slate map, the cause is almost always an unfinished or undiscovered shrine quest, not a map glitch. Reading the nearby NPC dialogue carefully and checking the shrine quest log in the Sheikah Slate is the fastest way to reveal the hidden entry without backtracking across the entire region.

Blessing shrines, treasure chests, and the chest completion bonus

Every shrine contains at least one chest in addition to the monk reward. Several shrine families, particularly blessing shrines, hide a chest behind a one-time-use mechanic. Collecting every chest is a separate completion category from the shrine count itself, and chest completion is tracked by the in-game map counter rather than the Spirit Orb count. A player who has cleared all 124 shrines can still be missing chests, because some chests only appear after a specific environmental condition or after a sub-puzzle is solved.

The chest completion tracker is independent of the shrine tracker. A player can clear all 124 shrines and still have a chest counter below 124, because the chests are not always visible at first glance. Common chest traps include a chest sitting in a Magnesis-revealed alcove and a chest hidden inside a wall that requires a bomb detonation at the right depth rather than a flat surface detonation.

Common failure patterns when clearing all shrines botw

Most shrine failures are not because the puzzle is unfair. They happen because the player is missing a prerequisite, a tool, or a small visual cue. A short troubleshooting list helps when a room feels stuck and you are trying to clear all shrines botw without burning through inventory.

• If a Magnesis puzzle seems impossible, check whether the conductive block in the room is the wrong size, and look for a smaller conductive piece that can ride on top of the larger block to add weight or change height.
• If a Stasis platform will not reach the right height, the cause is usually insufficient momentum applied before activating Stasis. Use a two-handed weapon for the additional strike, and aim the hit perpendicular to the platform’s travel direction.
• If Cryonis pillars are not forming, the water depth is too shallow. Move to a deeper section of the room before creating the next pillar, and avoid trying to build pillars in transition zones between shallow and deep water.
• If a Bomb wall is not breaking, the cracked surface may be a one-hit decoration rather than a destructible object. The real cracked walls produce a different surface texture, a faint outline, and a slightly different sound when struck by a weapon.
• If a shrine quest NPC will not appear, the cause is often a time-of-day or weather condition. Several shrine quests only trigger during rain, at night, or in a thunderstorm, and a few only start in a specific direction relative to a campfire.
• If a Blessing shrine looks empty, the monk usually waits at the back of the room. The chest is sometimes hidden behind a small statue or a side curtain that breaks on contact, and the Spirit Orb is awarded only after the chest is opened.
• If a Cryonis pillar is being struck away by current, build the pillar in a sheltered section first and only extend once the pillar is anchored, because the current resets weaker pillars instantly.

When a shrine is truly stuck, leaving the room and re-entering resets the puzzle and gives a clean attempt. Several shrine quests also progress only after a real-time in-game hour has passed, so an apparently dead shrine quest can resolve after waiting near the trigger point rather than warping somewhere else and back.

What the Sheikah Slate map does and does not show

The Sheikah Slate map is the canonical source for shrine icons, but it is not always complete. A few behaviors are worth knowing before relying on the map for a full route, especially when you are trying to reach 124/124 without backtracking.

• Icons appear only after the player has loaded the nearby tower. Until a tower is activated, the surrounding shrines show up as small dots rather than the full shrine icon, and quest markers are not always rendered.
• Shrine quest icons are different from shrine icons. A shrine quest marker indicates the start of a quest, not the location of a shrine, and the actual shrine can sit hundreds of meters away from the marker.
• Completed shrines remain on the map as orange icons. The blue beacon is replaced by a Sheikah symbol once the Spirit Orb is claimed, and the icon is no longer interactable as a fast-travel target if fast travel is disabled in that run.
• The map does not distinguish between base game shrines and DLC shrines by icon. The Champions’ Ballad shrines are tracked under the same color set as the base shrines, and only the related quest log identifies them as DLC content.
• The chest counter is rendered on a separate map screen from the shrine counter, which means a player can have a full shrine count and a partial chest count at the same time without any conflict in the UI.

These map behaviors are consistent with the broader design used across the wider franchise, including the dungeon and shrine systems that reappear in later entries. For a deeper look at how those systems fit into the larger series history, the Legend of Zelda series overview on Wikipedia walks through how exploration, dungeon logic, and shrine-style progression evolved across the franchise.

How shrine completion feeds into end-game and DLC

Shrine completion is a soft requirement for the toughest end-game content. The Master Mode difficulty, the Trial of the Sword in The Champions’ Ballad, and the final memory hunt are all easier to approach with a full heart or stamina bar, and the Spirit Orb economy is the only permanent upgrade path. Many players finish the four Divine Beasts before clearing all shrines, then use the freed Divine Beast abilities to backtrack to high-difficulty shrines that were previously too dangerous to approach without those abilities.

Players aiming for a 100 percent map should be aware of three additional markers that are not shrines but live close to them and affect the same routes.

• Korok seed puzzles, which are tracked separately and total 900 across the map. Some are tucked behind the same shrine quests that reveal the hidden shrines, so a single backtrip often lands two completion markers at once.
• Shrine quest NPCs who grant side rewards and can be missed if the player only fast-travels between shrine icons. Several grant unique armor pieces or rare cooking ingredients that are not available anywhere else.
• Divine Beast terminals, which become easier to clear after the relevant shrine chain has been completed, because the player usually has the right armor and weapon loadout for the corresponding region by that point.

Shrines are not the only completion category in the game, but they are the most reliable measure of mechanical skill, because each room tests a specific tool or combat technique in isolation. A clean 124/124 run is also one of the better prep steps for Master Mode, since the heart and stamina investment carries over and the muscle memory of the puzzle rooms transfers directly.

Inventory and loadout recommendations for a full clear

Several shrine families consume more resources than others, and a balanced inventory saves time on a long route. The table below is a starting point, not a strict rule, because personal play style and available amiibo drops will shift the numbers a little.

The exact loadout depends on play style, but the core rule is to never enter a long shrine run with a single weapon. Even a single combat shrine can degrade three or four weapons if the player is sloppy, and a backup weapon set prevents the most common resource panic that ends an otherwise clean run.

Tips for first-time players attempting all shrines botw

A first-time run through all shrines botw is usually slower than a repeat run, partly because the Sheikah Slate map fills in only after towers are activated and partly because the rune set is still unfamiliar. The biggest time sink on a first run is backtracking, and the most common cause of backtracking is missing a shrine quest trigger before leaving a region.

One practical approach is to leave a region only after a quick pass through every settlement and stable in that region, because most shrine quest NPCs are clustered around those locations. The Hateno tech lab, Rito Village, Gerudo Town, and Zora’s Domain each anchor a cluster of shrine quests that are easy to find on foot but very tedious to revisit later by warp.

Another first-run pitfall is the Korok Forest. The master sword quest puts the player in the forest before the surrounding Woodland shrines are unlocked, and the forest is also the entry point for the Lomei labyrinth chain. A player who clears the forest once and then treats the surrounding shrines as a separate loop avoids a long second walk through the fog.

Common mistakes when planning a full shrine route

Route planning mistakes tend to repeat across community maps, and a short list of the most common ones is worth keeping in mind when you are laying out your own plan.

• Treating the DLC shrines as part of the base route. They are not. Trying to enter the DLC shrines before the four Divine Beasts are freed leaves the quest giver silent, and the shrines do not appear on the Sheikah Slate map at all until the Ballad quest is started.
• Saving the castle for last but doing it before finishing the Divine Beasts. The castle is the calmest mid-game with the beasts freed, and the central shrines are easiest to clear while the guardians are distracted.
• Ignoring shrine quests during the early plateau. The plateau set teaches runes, but several shrine quests in the surrounding regions need the rune to be familiar before the puzzle is solvable. The two tasks are linked.
• Underestimating the Akkala travel time. The Akkala region is the most expensive in stamina per shrine, and it benefits from a separate loop combined with the Ancient Tech Lab and the Lomei labyrinth.
• Forgetting the chest counter. A clean shrine count does not mean a clean chest count, and the chest counter is what shows up on the 100 percent map screen.

Performance and pacing notes for a long shrine run

A full 124-shrine run typically takes 30 to 50 in-game hours when shrine quests are included, and the pacing matters because the puzzle variety drops if you marathon a single family. Many players find that switching regions every two to three in-game days keeps the puzzles fresh and lowers the burnout rate, because each region has its own visual palette and weather system.

Combat shrines benefit from a short warm-up before the run, since a missed flurry rush at the start of a combat chain can cost three or four weapons before the real fight. Puzzle shrines benefit from a slow walk through the room on entry, since most puzzle rooms hide a sub-object in plain sight that is easy to miss on a fast run-through. The two pacing styles are different, and most completionist runs blend them by region rather than by family.

If you are streaming or recording a long run, region switches are also the natural break points for cuts, because the shrine counter ticks cleanly at the end of each region and the inventory resets to a regional loadout. That structure makes the run easier to edit into chapters without losing the completion thread.

How shrine design compares to the rest of the franchise

Shrines in Breath of the Wild are often described as short dungeons with a single trick, and that description is accurate enough to be useful. Compared to the larger dungeons in earlier Zelda games, the shrine format trades long navigation for a single tool-based puzzle, which is part of why the total count feels high and the individual rooms feel quick.

The design choice of one room, one tool, one reward has a knock-on effect on the broader game. Exploration is rewarded because shrines are often tucked off the main path, and combat is split between shrine rooms and the open world. The result is a progression system that scales with how much of the map the player has revealed, which is a different curve from the linear dungeon progression of earlier entries.

That system is also why shrine completion feels satisfying even when the individual puzzles are short. The reward is a clean upgrade path, and the variety is high enough that no two shrines feel exactly the same, even within a single family. For players who came in from earlier Zelda games, the system can feel unusual at first, but it tends to win people over after the first 20 or 30 shrines.

Frequently asked questions

How many shrines are there in total in Breath of the Wild?

The base game contains 120 shrines, and The Champions’ Ballad DLC adds four more, for a total of 124 shrines. Each one awards a Spirit Orb on completion, and four Spirit Orbs can be exchanged for a heart container or a stamina vessel at any goddess statue.

Do all shrines botw need to be cleared to finish the main story?

No. The main story can be completed without clearing every shrine, and the final boss does not require a specific number of Spirit Orbs. Many players clear only the shrines near the main quest path and finish the game with a relatively low completion count.

What is the fastest way to clear all shrines botw?

There is no single fastest route, but a region-grouped approach that goes from south to north, mild to harsh, and low to high elevation tends to be efficient. A common target for a focused player is two to four in-game hours per region, with the total route landing around 30 to 50 in-game hours depending on shrine quest complexity.

Do some shrines only appear after talking to a specific NPC?

Yes. Many shrines are hidden behind shrine quests that begin with a specific NPC conversation, a weather event, or a particular time of day. The Sheikah Slate map does not reveal these shrines until the related quest is started, so exploring on foot and reading the quest log is important.

Can shrines be replayed after completion?

Yes. The puzzle room remains accessible, and the monk can be spoken to again. However, the Spirit Orb is only awarded the first time the shrine is cleared, so replaying a completed shrine is mostly useful for training specific techniques or capturing screenshots.

What is the difference between a blessing shrine and a puzzle shrine?

A blessing shrine has no puzzle. The player simply walks to the monk, claims the Spirit Orb, and leaves. Puzzle shrines contain a single puzzle that uses one or more runes. Combat shrines contain a guardian scout fight instead of a puzzle, with the same Spirit Orb reward.

Do the DLC shrines require the main story to be finished?

No, but they do require the four Divine Beasts to be freed first. The Champions’ Ballad questline is gated behind a specific story milestone, after which the four Ex-Shrines become available across Hyrule.

Are shrine rewards ever missable?

Once a shrine is completed, the Spirit Orb and the chest are permanent. There is no in-game mechanic that removes a shrine reward after the room is cleared, even if the player continues in Master Mode or starts a new file.

Is chest completion separate from shrine completion?

Yes. The in-game map tracks shrine completion and chest completion as two separate counters, and both are required for a 100 percent map. Several chests are hidden in side rooms and require careful exploration, even on a clear run.

What is the best armor set for shrine-heavy exploration?

The snowquill set is the most consistently useful armor for shrine runs, because it provides cold resistance and can be upgraded to add attack or movement speed bonuses. Combined with the climbing gear for vertical shrines and the rubber set for lightning shrine regions, the three sets cover most shrine-related environmental needs.