The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – How To Increase Health and Stamina

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a tough game, even with all of the abilities and items at Link’s disposal. Starting off with just three hearts in total for Health, you may find a lot of the combat particularly challenging, especially against hard-hitting foes. This guide will outline how to raise your Health, as well as your Stamina.

Complete The Shrines

There are 152 Shrines in Zelda: TOTK, each of which, upon completion, grant you a single Light of Blessing. Once you have amassed four such Lights of Blessing, you can then trade them for either a Heart Container or a Stamina Vessel. A Heart Container raises Link’s maximum Health by one full heart, whereas the Stamina Vessel will only add 20% to the Stamina Wheel. If the wheel is complete, a new wheel will be created up to 20%.

Complete The Temples

Temples are much larger than Shrines, and far more complex and therefore their rewards are also correspondingly greater: rather than the measly one quarter of a potential Heart Container that comes from a Light of Blessing, Temples grant you a full Heart Container there and then.

Maximum Health and Stamina

Link can have a maximum of 30 Hearts, and a total of 3 Stamina Wheels, after beginning with just 3 Hearts and 1 Stamina Wheel. For the remaining 27 Hearts and 2 Stamina Wheels, you would need to clear 108 Shrines for Health (27 Heart Containers x 4 Lights of Blessing each), and another 40 Shrines (2 full Wheels x 5 segments per Wheel x 4 Lights of Blessing each) for Stamina. Temples would reduce your Shrine requirements for Health by 16, since they grant you full Heart Containers, rather than just Lights of Blessing that have to be exchanged first. As for Stamina, you have no recourse but to complete all 40 Shrines of your choosing. It is strongly recommended you acquire at least one additional Stamina Wheel in full, in order to use the Master Sword, but even more importantly, to glide for much longer durations.

Health Versus Stamina Prioritization

Stamina all the way. While you can always strategize effectively (armor, evasion, temporary buffs) in combat to make do with the Hearts you have, there is no making up for a small Stamina Wheel, especially when it comes to map traversal in the early game, before you have unlocked fast travel points.

Temporary Boosts

There are several recipes that can extend your Health well beyond its current maximum. These Heart Containers are colored gold to indicate their temporary nature, and are completely lost when you take damage. The ‘Hearty’ affix in a food item or recipe is the indicator for Health-boosting attributes. There are also recipes that will replenish both Heart Containers and Stamina Wheels.

And that was everything you needed to know about maximizing Health and Stamina in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.