Nintendo dropped a few hints about the Zonai Tribe in Breath of the Wild, but have they done the same thing again in Tears of the Kingdom. Today I want to have a look at future Zelda game, where that story may go, and how it might involve some mysterious characters we met recently called Bargainer Statues. Today I want to take a closer look at these Bargainer Statues, their role on Tears of the Kingdom, plus a look ahead to how they could influence future stories in the Zelda series.

Bargainer Statues are interesting NPCs or vendors found in Tears of the Kingdom. We meet one early on in the game, as one has it’s head poking out of the ground in Lookout Landing. You can exchange Poes, which you find in the Depths, for items sold by the Bargainer Statues. These items range from Dark Clumps, which are useful for making Gloom Resistant food and elixirs, to armor sets that help you navigate the Depths.

Bargainer Statues in Tears of the Kingdom

There are seven Bargainer Statues overall, mostly found in the Depths. Most times you meet Bargainer Statues their bodies are buried, but one or two Bargainer Statues are fully out of the ground, and you realise just how big they are. When you first chat with them, they talk about Poes describing them as “spirits that ought to return to the afterlife. They are pitiful beings who have lost their way home and wander this land.” and they want to return “all Poes to the afterlife without prejudice.” The word pitiful beings stands out in that sentence to me. While they maybe full of gifts or items to purchase, there’s a sinister undertone here.

The first Bargainer Statue is in Lookout Landing, and you can pay this one to mark the location of all the others on the map. Personally, I would save your Poes for the bigger prize of the Depths Armor. The whole set is going to cost you 650 Poes, and Poes aren’t an abundent resource, so I would save them where you can. I have a full guide on how to find all the Bargainer Statues as part of the journey to get the Depths Armor. You need to visit 6 Bargainer Statues for the Depths Armor, and its worth it given this is one of the most valuable armor sets in the game.

Looking to the future

Before I continue, this is a spoiler warning for the next part, I’m going to talk about the end of Tears of the Kingdom, so if you haven’t got there yet, then come back to this video later when you’ve finished. OK, still with me? Let’s continue.

The end of Tears of the Kingdom is appears final for Ganondorf, Link battled him as reformed Ganondorf, The Demon King and then as the huge Dragon flying high above the sky in Hyrule. Link sank his sword into the skull of the Dragon, it exploded, and presumably left Ganondorf dead and gone. Previously we’ve seen Ganondorf banished to another realm, or sealed away. Yes, he could always be resurrected, but for now I am going to assume he’s dead.

If Ganondorf is dead, then he may need some help getting to the underworld. The Bargainer Statues are caretakers of the dead, and apparently have access to the underworld, so these statues could be valuable allys to Link if he wants to take the fight to Ganondorf once again. We see spirit versions of Champions in Breath of the Wild, and Ancient Sages in Tears of the Kingdom. A potential plot for a third installment in the these open-world Zelda games could be Link and Zelda teaming up with the ghosts of the past champions and sages, and battling against Ganondorf in a new underworld realm.

There are a few parallels between The Bargainer Statues in Tears of the Kingdom, and The Zonai in Breath of the Wild. The Zonai were hinted at in Breath of the Wild through the Barbarian armor, plus a few ruins here and there. The Zelda community picked through only a small amount of detail, breadcrumbs left by Nintendo, and we didn’t have confirmation the Zonai were actually going to be in Tears of the Kingdom, until we saw that gameplay demo and a Zonai Charge dropped from a Contruct battle.

Bargainer Statues are similar. They exist in the game, but they are never really explained, they are an interesting side story in a vast open-world game. The Bargainer Statues are huge, they also seem like they could be very powerful beings being the conduit between the living and the dead. They appear to be locked in place, or trapped at the moment, reaching out and talking to Link. It’s not clear if other people can interact with the Bargainer Statues… You would have thought if others could speak to them, then Robbie or Josha would ahve spoken to them or at least mentioned them. Nintendo could be leaving little breadcrumbs for the next installment of the Zelda series, and perhaps the Bargainer Statues could play a big role.

It’s hard to think about the next installment of The Legend of Zelda at the moment. Tears of the Kingdom only released a few months ago, and if the timelines of the last 2 games are anything to go by we shouldn’t expect the next Zelda game before 2029. Mainline Zelda games appear to have a 6 year dev cycle, especially in this new open-world format, so we have plenty of time to think about and discuss future stories that could take place in Hyrule. If we are going to get a 3rd installment in the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom set of games, then following Ganondorf into the underworld with the spirits of champions and ancient sages certainly sounds like a good adventure, and perhaps The Bargainers could step into the limelight, like the Zonai did before them.

Let me know what you think of the Bargainer Statues, and do you think they hold clues to the future in the Zelda series.