The Hylian Shield has been a staple of the Legend of Zelda series since its appearance in Ocarina of Time. Now the shield is making a return in Tears of the Kingdom, and we're pretty sure many of you budding heroes of Hyrule will want to get your hands on this aesthetically pleasing and rather excellent shield.
And, just like in Breath of the Wild, the Hylian Shield is completely optional, tucked away in a corner of Hyrule which you might completely miss if you don't know where to start looking. Luckily, we're here to tell you where to find the Hylian Shield. Read on...
Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom: How To Get The Hylian Shield
When can I get the Hylian Shield?
You can go get the Hylian shield pretty much as soon as you get the Paraglider. You'll be given this when you unlock Lookout Landing Skyview Tower.
You can get in with some clever boat building with Ultrahand, of course, but the Paraglider makes it that much easier.
Where to find the Hylian Shield
The Hylian Shield can be found in the docks underneath Hyrule Castle. That might seem pretty dangerous, but you don't need to fight anything at all — there are enemies of course, but you can avoid them. This makes getting the shield pretty easy to find if you have the building skills, the gliding stamina, or the guts to get past a certain monster.
For the easiest route to the docks, you'll want to head to the north side of Hyrule Castle, somewhere around the Irch Plain. Then, from the Purah Pad map, you want to find an opening in the water on the northwest side of the castle, marked below in green:
From there, you have two options. You can either drop down to one of the two docks on the moat and build a raft using the wood planks and sails given to you (or you can use Fans, Wings, or other Zonai devices if you have them to hand). The other way is to simply glide from a high enough point and head towards the open cave mouth in the middle of the moat.
Once you're inside the Docks, just follow the path around, and head up the ramp. Some Gloom Hands are likely to spawn here. You can either run past them, glide above them, or climb up the pillar and wait until they despawn. If you're feeling brave, however, you can fight them — just make sure you have some ice fruit or bombs on you. We've got some tips on how to defeat Gloom Hands if you need them
At the end of the ramp, you'll find a big unlit torch overlooking the inside of the docks. All you need to do is light the torch. You can do this by using Fire Fruit, Red Chuchu Jelly, or just lighting your own torch (or wooden weapon) from one of the smaller torches in the docks.
Once you've lit the torch, a chest will rise from the ground which contains the legendary shield.
What does the Hylian Shield do?
The Hylian Shield is one of the best shields in the game, giving you a huge +90 defense boost.
You can also Fuse stuff to it if you really want, but why spoil perfection? Plus you can pair it with the Legendary Sword and the Tunic of Time set to look the part.
Can the Hylian Shield break?
Yep. Just like in Breath of the Wild, the Hylian Shield isn't immune to the dangers of Hyrule, and it can indeed break after some wear and tear. It's one of the sturdiest shields in the game, though, so it'll take a while.
Can you still shield surf on it? Of course. Can you fuse bomb flowers to it? Yep. But it will break, eventually.
Can you rebuy the Hylian Shield?
In Breath of the Wild, if your Hylian Shield broke, you could get another one after fully building Tarrey Town. In tears of the Kingdom, you can rebuy this shield once you've completed The Mayoral Election Side Adventure at Hateno Village.
Once you've completed that quest, Cece opens her shop and if you talk to her, she will resell some armour sets that you've found while exploring the world, including the Hylian Shield. But only if you've broken or lost it. The shield costs 3,000 Rupees.
Now you look like a real hero with that rather dashing shield. That's not the only classic throwback you can find in the world of Hyrule, though. For more tips and tricks, check out our full Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough.
Comments 6
"don't need to fight anything at all..." --- what about the gloom monster on the way between the stairs and the unlit torch? Was that not there during your playthrough?
Hey I’m not sure if it was already figured out by now, but there is a way to buy the Hylian Shield after you find it. You have to finish “The Mayoral Election” string of side adventures in Haneto Village. After finishing them and talking to Cece you can visit her shop which sells some rare outfit pieces. And if you found the Hylian Shield by then, you can rebuy it there when it breaks for 3000 Rupees. I hope this helps anyone stumped on it!
@Debo626 You can skip that monster by gliding over the water then climbing up the wall. That will bypass that mini boss.
@cincodeparkers Thanks for that suggestion, but I tried that myself and it did not work. There's another way to get to that area that actually is free of any enemy encounters, and it involves accessing the docks area from the Hyrule Castle side, following a cobblestone path to the pit beneath the castle, dropping down and finding the opening that would have connected the docks area to the library in the castle, and walking down the stairs. You'll find yourself at the area where the torch needs to be lit to access the chest, and no need to interact with the gloom hands. With that path available, I'm confused at to why Nintendo Life would advise going via the docks when there's a gloom hands there, and further confused as to why they'd report in their article that there are no enemies down there when there clearly are. @alanahagues Was the gloom hand enemy there when you went via the docks to obtain the Hylian Shield?
@Debo626 I think I did, actually. I should make that clearer in the guide - thanks for the heads up.
You can get them to despawn if you climb onto one of the pillars and wait. The wait time varies but they should disappear after a while.
@Debo626 I just went in there with a savage lynel bow with 5 shot burst and bomb flowered the hands twice then put on my lightscale trident fused with a white lynel horn or something like that and had sidon's water ability and took down phantom gannon in like 6 hits. He didn't take more than 3 hearts from me in fierce deity armor 😁
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