As you progress in Tears of the Kingdom you’ll want to upgrade your armor. Upgrading gives you better stats, plus you’ll be able to unlock hidden features. Today I’m going to walk through the quests to unlock upgrading armor through Great Fairy Fountains, I’ll go through all the locations, plus what you need to do, so you can upgrade your armor as fast as possible in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

To be able to upgrade your armor, you will need to unlock the Great Fairy Fountains. It’s slightly different from Breath of the Wild, it’s not just a matter of finding the location of the Great Fairies, you’ll need to wake them up before you can access their upgrades.

How to upgrade armor

To get access to the fairy fountains, you’ll need to visit each one with a musical troupe called The Stable Trotters. We start off with just two members, and slowly build back the band, and unlock each of the Great Fairy Fountains as we go. I’ll go through the precise steps for each Great Fairy in a moment, and feel free to skip ahead if you want to.

When you have unlocked the Great Fairy Fountains, you’ll speak to them, pay a small fee of Rupees, plus exchange materials to upgrade your armor pieces. You’ll be able to see the materials needed when speaking to the Great Fairies. For example, to upgrade my Hylian Trousers from 3 to 5, that cost me 5 Bokoblin Horns. It gets progressively more expensive the more you upgrade. If the armor isn’t highlighted when you speak to the Great Fairy, then you probably don’t have the materials, or you can’t upgrade that piece at the moment. Also you’ll find Shrines next to most of the Great Fairies, so get the fast travel points. After you speak to the first Great Fairy, their location will be marked on your map.

How to unlock all enhancement levels

To upgrade your armor pieces further, you’ll need to unlock more Great Fairies. There are 4 in total. Each time you speak to the Great Fairies, they will be able to upgrade your armor, ranging from a little bit, to the maximum. If they cannot upgrade your armor, it’s likely down to the lack of materials, so check the materials requirements and come back later to upgrade.

When you have a complete set of armor, there is a chance for the Great Fairies to unlock their “full potential”. You can do this by upgrading each piece twice. If the armor set is eligible, then you will get a new power. Not all armor sets have “the potential”, so it’s worth hunting down armor sets and searching out the upgrades with the Great Fairies.

Where to find all the Great Fairy Fountains

OK, we’ve been through how to upgrade armor, but you’ll want to find and unlock each of the Great Fairy Fountains to get started. Each one has mutiple steps as you’ll get getting the band back together, plus creating some great vehicles using Ultrahand to help out your new musical friends.

There are 4 Great Fairy Fountains in all corners of Hyrule, and they all are located near a stable. When you speak to the first fairy, then they will mark the other 3 on your map, which makes finding them nice and easy. As soon as you unlock the first one, you can start upgrading your armor, but ideally you want to unlock them all to upgrade your armor to their full potential.

First up, you want to start with the Woodlands Stable in Eldin Canyon at the coordinates (1046, 1145, 0022). This is west of Pico Pond and near Crenel Hills. The first two members of the musical troupe The Stable Trotters are there. They will mention The Lucky Clover Gazette, a newspaper, and they want them to hear their story, so you have to go and find them. The Lucky Clover Gazette is near Rito Village at the coordinates (-3251, 1772, 0118) and you’ll want to have a chat with Traysi. After a quick chat you’ll start the side adventure ‘Potential Princess Sightings!’, which takes you across all stables in Hyrule. Once you have spoken to them go back to Woodlands Stable.

Great Fairy Tera

Penn is speaking to the troupe, and you’ll want to speak to them. This will kick off the side adventure ‘Serenade to a Great Fairy’, where you need to fix their carriage. There are some spare parts next to the carriage, so attach the wheels with Ultrahand. You’ll then need to get a horse from the stable. If you haven’t got a horse yet, there are some around the stable you can catch by crouching and walking up to them slowly and taming them. If you have got a horse already, get it out of the stable, and you’ll need two Pony Points to get a harness. Everytime you access a stable you’ll get a Pony Point, just make sure you speak to the vendor at the stable entrance each time to collect your points. Over time you’ll build up rewards.

Get the harness on the horse by speaking to the stable vendor, and then attach it using Ultrahand to the fixed carriage. Speak to The Stable Trotters, they will get on and then take them to the Great Fairy. This will unlock the first Great Fairy Tera, and she’ll upgrade some armor.

Great Fairy Mija

You can find Great Fairy Mija at Snowfields Stable in the Tabantha Tundra at the coordinates (-1630, 2587, 0234), east of Hebra Mountains. When you arrive you’ll see the Stable Trotters, and they are looking for Eustus, their horn player. After you have spoken to them you’ll get “Serenade to Mija” side adventure. Once you have this, select it in your inventory to give you the marker on your map.

Follow the marker and you’ll find Eustus down a hole at the coordinates (-3658, 0760, 0117). Talk to him and you’ll get the quest “The Hornist’s Dramatic Escape” quest. For this you’ll need attach items to his cart to get him out of the hole, and you can do this with the available items down there with him. Feel free to get creative and get him out of the hole, or copy the flying machine I created on screen. Once you get him out of the hole, he’ll return to the Stable Trotters at Snowfields Stable. Make your way back there, then you want to speak to the troupe again, and create a roof for the wagon. Stick a few pieces of wood together using Ultrahand and then attach that to the top of the cart for a roof. Then you’ll want to make your way to the Great Fairy’s location, being careful for the Bokoblins on horseback. That will complete “Serenade to Mija” quest and you’ll be able to upgrade more armor.

Great Fairy Cotera

You’ll find the next one at Dueling Peaks Stable southeast of West Necluda at the coordinates (1757, -1957, 0010), south of Kariko Village. Have a chat with the Stable Trotters again and they are looking for their drummer. This starts the quest “Serenade to Cotera”.

Mark this in your adventure log again, and make your way to him. Beetz is stranded in the southeast of Kakariko Village at the coordinates (2166, -1382, 0108). Beetz asked for some honey also kicking off the quest “Honey, Bee Mine”, and if you did the previous step you can use the prize from then. If you don’t have any honey on you then you’ll find some beehives in local forests close by west of Pierre Plateau. Knock them out of the trees with ice arrows to be on the safe side. Then return to Beetz and give him the honey. He’ll then go back to Dueling Peaks Stable and you’ll want to do the same. That will complete the quest “Honey, Bee Mine”.

Once you get there have a chat with the band, and then make your way to the river. Create a raft and attach their wagon to it, laying around the banks of the river are fans, wood and a steering wheel, everything you need to create an effective boat to get them to the Great Fairy. Then cross the river and you’ll find Great Fairy Cotera, and that will complete the “Serenade to Cotera” quest.

Great Fairy Kaysa

You can find the Great Fairy Kaysa at the Outskirt Stable southwest of Hyrule Field at the coordinates (1404, -1266, 0032). Have a chat with the Stable Trotters again, and now they are looking for their flute player, Pyper. This will start the “Serenade to Kaysa” quest.

Mark it in your adventure log and make your way to the marker, this one is a little further south. You can find Pyper at Highland Stable at the coordinates (0519, -3423, 0047). You’ll find Pyper in a tree, and he’s looking for 10 fireflies to impress a girl. This starts the quest “The Flute Player’s Plan”. To find fireflies make your way north, at night, to Pagos Woods at the coordinates (0673, -3068, 0008). Then crouch and walk slowly towards the firelfies to catch them. It does take a little time and you have to be very patient here, but stick at it and you’ll get them in no time.

When you have 10 go back to speak to Pyper at Highland Stable, and he’ll show them to the girl, this finishes the quest “The Flute Player’s Plan”, and then he goes back to the troupe at Outskirt Stable. Do the same and then fix up their wagon, but using Ultrahand and attaching it to the vehicle nearby. Then dive that to the Great Fairy and that’s it, “Serenade to Kaysa” quest is complete.

The Stable Trotters with thank you, plus you’ll get access to the upgrades from the final Great Fairy.

That’s it for upgrading gear. Don’t forget the fast travel points next to the Great Fairies, the shrines, so when you have enough materials come back and get fully upgraded.

Let me know in the comments what you think of upgrading armor in Tears of the Kingdom.