The 10 best Ancient Shrine level designs in Breath of the Wild

Between the base game and The Champions’ Ballad DLC, there are a grand total of 136 Ancient Shrines dotting Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule. These sanctums hidden below the earth are the resting places of Sheikah Monks who will reward you with a Spirit Orb should you manage to complete their trials, which may include puzzles, platforming sequences, battles against mechanical foes, and sometimes a combination of all those. With well over 100 Shrines that players can tackle, choosing the very best is no easy task, but these 10 are the most memorable for their creative level designs and tricky challenges.

For this list, we’re focusing on the Shrines whose challenges are built within them. That means we’re not counting Thyphlo Ruins, Eventide Island, the Korok Trials, or any others where all of the hard work is done in the overworld.

10. Kaam Ya’tak Shrine — Trial of Power

Many Shrines in Breath of the Wild consist of just a single puzzle, but Trial of Power found in the southwest corner of Hyrule Field is a bit longer experience. By piecing together several different obstacles all in one chamber, it operates like a proper mini-dungeon.

To get to the eponymous Kaam Ya’tak at the end, Link must contend with deadly traps, multiple Guardian Scouts, and puzzles that see him use enormous boulders to open otherwise immovable stone doorways. The Shrine tests the player’s understanding of the game mechanics just as much as it tests Link’s strength.

9. Mah Eliyah Shrine — Secret Staircase

It’s a long way up to reach Mah Eliyah, and the Sheikah Monk doesn’t provide you with too many tools to make the climb. One way or another, players need to be as crafty as ever to get from the Shrine’s floor to that lofty platform where Mah Eliyah waits.

While it’s possible to do this quickly through means such as perfectly placed Octo Balloons or a miracle Stasis launch, the real fun is building the “secret staircase” with the metal boxes and Cryonis blocks. Figuring out just how to make a path along that short waterfall while keeping those metal boxes from sliding down their rails is one of the most satisfying puzzle solutions in the game.

8. Rinu Honika Shrine — Block the Blaze

No amount of Fireproof Elixirs or Flamebreaker Armor will keep you safe from the jets of flame that line the path you must tread in this Shrine from The Champions’ Ballad. Caution is the most important virtue of all in Block the Blaze, as one wrong move means Link gets roasted.

In addition to getting roasted, he’ll also likely get thrown right into a pool of lava, just to add insult to injury. Two metal blocks quickly become your best friends here, which are your primary means of creating a buffer between yourself and the roaring fires. Good luck getting past that wall of flame jets any other way.

7. Takama Shiri Shrine — Dual Purpose

Breath of the Wild already featured numerous puzzles from the get-go that revolved around connecting electrical currents, but then came The Champions’ Ballad DLC to throw a huge curveball at that concept. Living up to its name, Dual Purpose asks that you traverse the very same metal conductors that you manipulate to make the electricity flow freely — not avoid out of fear of being shocked and fried to a crisp, but actually walk over with your own two feet. Each new set of giant metal slabs is two puzzles in one: arranging them so that the current can pass through, while also getting Link across them without zapping him to kingdom come.

6. Voo Lota Shrine — The Winding Route

There is no better fake-out in Breath of the Wild than what you’ll find in this Shrine at Warbler’s Nest on the Tabantha Frontier. After climbing all the way up that obnoxiously tall ladder at the entrance and finally activating that lone switch at the top, the floor suddenly falls out from underneath your feet and drops you into an enormous chamber filled with lava.

From there, The Winding Route is a nifty platforming challenge where Link must ride the jet streams between the platforms that rise from the molten floor. Knowing when to deploy your Paraglider and when to simply free fall is what keeps you from flying straight into a wall of spikes or plummeting into the lava. Do it right, and you’ll safely reach Voo Lota.

5. Shee Venath Shrine/Shee Vaneer Shrine — Twin Memories

Technically we’re bending the rules to have two Shrines here, but the Twin Memories Shrines on the Dueling Peaks are intrinsically linked by a fantastic puzzle solution. Most players were probably baffled at what to do with the giant floor constellation when they found the first of this pair, only realizing the solution once they happened upon the second Shrine and saw the same kind of floor constellation, albeit with a different layout. Arranging the constellation that was initially set up in the opposite Shrine was a genius bit of puzzle design from the Zelda developers, and it provided one of the most practical uses for the Switch’s screenshot function yet!

4. Kiah Toza Shrine — Master the Orb

The Kiah Toza Shrine is basically a giant Rube Goldberg Machine that makes getting an orb to its pedestal as hilariously complicated as possible. Compounding the matter, said machine is broken in more than one section, so the orb can’t even get far before falling away into the abyss.

Players must become one with the puzzle as they send Link right into the oversized contraption to help the orb along, using just about every trick that the Sheikah Slate offers to complete the sequence. Magnesis, Stasis, Cryonis — everything is put to good use here. Of all the Sheikah Monks, Kiah Toza easily must have had the most fun designing their trial.

3. Etsu Korima Shrine — Path of Light

If you grew bored at any point with the same aesthetic that makes up the interior for just about every Shrine, Etsu Korima’s offering from the Divine Beast Tamer’s Trial brings a very welcome new palette to the mix. Path of Light is among the most visually stunning environments in Breath of the Wild, both eerie and beautiful in how darkness consumes the hallways and chambers.

Only a handful of features such as laser beams, flame jets, and lanterns break up the gloom, but some of these same features can spell an instant Game Over for Link. As part of the Divine Beast Tamer’s Trial, Link must complete Path of Light with merely a quarter of a Heart in the first go around, meaning that any amount of damage he takes, no matter how minor, is deadly.

2. Shora Hah Shrine — Blue Flame

There’s an argument to be made that the Shora Hah Shrine in the Eldin Canyon has greater puzzle variety than some of the Divine Beast dungeons. Although there’s a recurring visual and gameplay theme of the titular Blue Flame, Shora Hah’s trial is anything but one-note.

This Shrine throws a bevy of unique challenges at you as Link advances the Blue Flame from torch to torch: long-ranged archery, controlling metal constructs with Magnesis, fending off Guardian Scouts, evading water spouts, riding along jet streams, and even a very unexpected spiked boulder that comes out of nowhere. Rolling so many different gameplay elements into one space provides that traditional dungeon-venturing experience that longtime Legend of Zelda fans have always loved.

1. Sharo Lun Shrine — Blind Spots

Huge stone blocks dangle from a rail system that runs throughout the Sharo Lun Shrine like a gondola lift, only this gondola lift is just about the most dangerous and most harrowing that one can imagine. The road to the end of this Shrine is lined with flame jets, pesky Guardian Scouts, and spiked walls, each hazard threatening to knock Link off the block should he not be able to quickly shimmy over to the safe side of his transport. That’s all before a waterfall or two must be scaled through Cryonis blocks alone.

Blind Spots is one of the very best sequences of platforming to appear in a Legend of Zelda game, testing players’ reaction times, environmental awareness, and ability to operate under pressure. Take a bow, Sharo Lun — you built a real dandy of a Shrine.