The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom expands Hyrule in a massive way. Not only is the Sky filled with new floating islands to explore, but there is also even a completely new area underground, ripe for exploration.
The Depths are truly gigantic in scale, and navigating through them is going to be an undertaking and a half. Here are a few tips to keep you hale and hearty as you venture deep under Hyrule soil.
Updated by Hamza Haq on May 31, 2023: The Depths in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom present a unique navigational challenge that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before in Breath of the Wild. Darkness hides a land brimming with treasure, quests, and monsters and it's all ripe for the taking. Planning and strategy can go a long way in making your journey underground easier so we have updated our guide to include additional tips to help players conquer the Depths with ease.
14 Use Brightbloom Seeds
One of the earliest available, and among the most useful, tools for navigating the Depths is the Brightbloom Seeds. These seeds act like permanent torches to light up the darkness.
Players can throw the seed by hand or attach it to an arrow and shoot the fused arrow. Either way, the seed will light up at the point of impact, creating a large dome of light. Despite their diminutive size, the light dome is surprisingly large. Without these seeds, it's almost impossible to see anything in the darkness, so remember to stock up on a few before heading underground.
13 Light Up The Lightroots
As you explore the Depths, you'll see larger-than-life roots that are emitting light in the eternal darkness underneath. These are Lightroots, and they function as the fast-travel spots down below in lieu of Shrines.
Activating a Lightroot is as easy as stepping up to it and pressing A. Not only does this action bring light to the surroundings, but it also clears away the fog of war from Link's map.
12 Build Zonai Vehicles
Another method to navigate the Gloom is to build Zonai vehicles to traverse the gloomy terrain. You'll find Zonai devices lying around in plenty of locations, especially near puzzles that require the help of player-made Zonai constructs to solve.
Instead of leaving these devices behind to gather dust, use your Fuse them together in a semblance of a vehicle and ride over the Gloom without worry. It can be as simple as slapping together two wheels and a steer to fly over the Gloom. Of course, wheels make for the best land-bound Zonai vehicles.
11 Be Mindful Of Lost Hearts
While adventuring down in the Depths, you'll inevitably end up taking some damage from the Gloom that infests every corner of the underground region. Taking gloom damage is unlike regular damage because Gloom does damage to your Maximum health.
Any hearts lost to Gloom remain permanently gone until you take steps to recover them. To recover broken hearts, you can either head over to a Lightroot, eat certain types of food, or fast-travel to the surface. Just remember to eat health-recovery foods afterward because recovering broken hearts doesn't inherently restore hearts.
10 Climb Trees To Avoid Gloom
Trees are your best friend in the Depths, as nine times out of ten, they're free of gloom. If you don't have a Stalhorse or a Zonai vehicle handy, and you're forced to traverse on foot, climbing on a tree and jumping from one to the next is sometimes the safest way out of a gloom-infested area.
Often, you'll come across an area filled with gloom and a Lightroot just past it. Instead of circling around to find a safer path, climb on top of a tree and jump off to activate the paraglider. If you have Tulin's ability unlocked, this can be even more useful.
9 Bring A Boulder-Fused Weapon
Weapons fused with boulders are perfect companions for adventurers venturing through the Depths. The underground is filled to the brim with rocks to break and walls to crush. Having a boulder weapon on hand makes the task of crushing rocks to get to the ores a breeze.
Finding weapons with weak attack power but high durability is ideal, as these weapons' fusions last much longer than regular ones. Bonus points if you manage to find a durability-up weapon.
8 Look Out For Ruins
When exploring the Depths, you'll come across ruins of abandoned mines quite often. Ruins are hubs of activity and missions in the Depths, and finding one usually means you've discovered a treasure trove of Zonai, ores, and sometimes even armor.
If you're looking for something to do down on the massive underground map, looking for Ruins to investigate is an excellent use of your time. Even if you don't find anything of note in a particular ruin, there will always be mine carts and Zonai devices you can use as fusion material.
7 Farm Zonite Walls
The Depths are littered with Zonite Walls that serve as large caches of Zonite that you can farm any time you come across one. Look for tall stone formations and large caves, as they're often hosts for these deposits.
See an indent in the cliffside far into the distance? Chances are, that's a Zonite deposit just waiting to be crushed with a boulder-fused Claymore. Chasing after these might take you off the beaten path, but that's the charm of Tears of the Kingdom, after all.
6 Gather Poe
Poes are small, glowing wisps of blue light that float around in groups, typically in the Depths. You can find them quite easily once you start exploring. When you come across a group of Poe, collect them by pressing A on each Poe individually until you've gathered them all.
Collected Poes will appear in your inventory under the Key Items category. You can exchange Poe for rewards by heading over to Lookout Landing and finding the Bargainer Statue, and talking to it. After a short introduction, the statue will become a shop selling items in exchange for Poe.
5 Find All Bargainer Statues
While you'll encounter the first Bargainer Statue quite easily when you first head into Lookout Landing, what might not be immediately obvious is that this is not the only statue out there.
In fact, there are six more Bargainer Statues spread throughout the Depths. Keep a lookout for these statues, as not only does this unlock new shop items, but you'll also get an extra heart container or stamina vessel out of it.
4 Tame A Stalhorse
Stalhorses make a return in Tears of the Kingdom, only this time, these horses are much more useful to Link. The Skeleton Horses aren't damaged by the Gloom that pervades throughout the Depths allowing you to ride them over Gloom-ridden areas without having to navigate around them.
There are plenty of Stalhorses in the Depths, and you'll come across many as you're adventuring through. The earliest possible location to find them is to jump down the chasm just south of Lookout Landing and head northwest. You'll find three of these horses grazing nearby.
3 Pick Up Shadow Soldier Weapons
In the Depths, you'll often come across small pillars of stacked rocks with a shadowy figure holding a weapon standing on top of it. These are Shadow Soldiers, and the weapons they're holding are clean weapons, meaning these weapons are untainted by Gloom and its decaying effects.
Clean weapons have higher stats than decayed weapons and serve as much better fusion base materials than their counterparts. Even if you're not attracted to their high damage potential, clean weapons are perfect candidates to serve as mining tools by being fused to boulders or stones.
2 Stock Up On Gloom Resistance Food
Gloom resistance is a status effect that prevents Link from taking any damage when he steps on Gloom-infested ground or is hit by a gloom-ridden monster. Creating Gloom-resistant food uses one key ingredient—Dark Clumps—which can be exchanged from the Bargainer Statue in Lookout Landing in exchange for Poe.
Raw Meat and Dark Clumps make up the basic ingredients for these types of foods, but you can add different types of mushrooms to extend the time the resistance effect is active.
1 Hunt For The Miner Armor Set
Exploration in the Depths is heavily dependent on having a source of light at hand. The Miner's Armor Set was built to solve that problem. Every piece of the armor set—the legs, the armor, and the helmet—glows in the darkness, giving the player an inexhaustible source of light.
Finding the Miner's Set is a hassle, but it's worth it because of the armor's utility alone. You'll have to spend a bit of time underground, navigating through a few mines and solving a couple of puzzles before you manage to get your hands on it.