Tears of the Kingdom is a huge game jam-packed full of secrets, side quests and adventures to be found. The main story takes dozens of hours to complete, but one of the best ways to experience Hyrule is through the additional activities outside the main marrative. But that can be intimidating, and hard to know where to begin. Today I want to help out with that and take a look at some of the best things to do outside the main story in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

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Fix Addison’s signs

Addison is a kind fellow, one very dedicated to his company, however he doesn’t appear to be very good at his job. Addison is trying to keep President Hudson’s sign up right, so he can advertise his services, but they keep falling over. These are mini puzzles for us to solve, with Link using his Ultrahand abilities to keep the signs from falling. Overall there are 81 Addison puzzles to solve, which means you’re going to have to invest plenty of time if you want to fix them all. Some are very simple, some are quite perplexing. Addison is fairly generous, as he’ll give you a reward each time, plus you’ll get an extra special prize when you solve all the puzzles.

Find all the Koroks

This is a returning activity from Breath of the Wild, but the Koroks seems to have got themselves into more trouble this time around. They are hidden on the map, but this time sometimes they have been separated from their friends, and you have to return them using Link’s abilities. There are 1000 Korok seeds in the game, and they can be found all over Hyrule, in fields, deserts, up in the sky, under rocks, in the rivers… they are all over Hyrule and you never know when you’re going to encounter one. Solving the Korok puzzles will give you Korok seeds, they can then be turned into Hestu, who will trade them for inventory space regarding weapons, bows and shields. Find all 1000, and you’ll be able to make Hestu dance whenever you want.

Farm crops in Hateno Village

Did you know you can plant your own crops in Hateno Village? It’s not part of the main quest in the game and it’s easily missed. For this you’ll have to complete a couple of quests to get started. Head to Hateno Village and go to the Hateno School and you’ll want to complete Teach Me a Lesson I and II.

Once you’ve done this then you’ll want to speak to Uma, just south of the school. Then you can plant various crops including Pumpkins, Carrots, Tomatoes, Wildberries, Wheat, Rice and Melons. Speak to Uma and she’ll help you, although you do have to wait a couple of in-game days for the crops to grow.

Reconnect The Stable Trotters

One of the most fulfilling activities outside the main quest is reuniting a group called The Stable Trotters. They are a band of wandering musicians, unfortunately they disbanded because each member seems to have got caught in a spot of bother.

There is another good reason to reunite the Stable Trotters, this is the way we can unlock the various Fairy Fountains around Hyrule to help us upgrade Link’s armor. In Breath of the Wild the Great Fairies were free to discover, however, this time they have to be unlocked through a questline, as the Great Fairies only wake up from their deep sleep when hearing the music from the Stable Trotters. To get this quest started to want to search out the Maestro and leader of the Stable Trotters at the Woodland Stable, southeast of the Great Hyrule Forest.

Help out the Monster-Control Crew

We have 3 Monster-Control Crews to help out in Hyrule, they are essentially Hylian Soliders patrolling the land helping fight back against Ganondorf’s forces. You can find the first crew headed up by Hoz and his soldiers by heading south of Lookout Landing. Overall, there are 6 locations where you have to clear out Monsters.

Hoz’s Crew is south of Lookout Landing, and you have to defeat the first set of Monsters to unlock the second. Next, head up to Fort Hateno near the Blatchery Plain in Nucluda. Toren’s Crew is found in Eldin, to the north of Death Mountain near the entrance to a cave near Lake Darman. After the first encounter Toren will move to Akkala and you’ll meet them at Upland Zorana Skyview Tower. Flaxel’s Crew can be found in the Faron region near a pirate ship docked in Menoat River near the Harfin Valley. Flaxel then moves to South Tabantha Snowfield in Hebra. Each time you help a crew you’ll get a silver rupee as a reward, then you can take on another one after a Blood Moon.

Restore Lurelin Village

Lurelin is a beautiful beach village and it’s been taken over by Ganon’s Evil forces. You’ll likely bump into someone in Hyrule discussing it. Many residents of Lurelin Village had to relocate to avoid the monsters. The ideal way to start the quest is to speak to Rozel who is watching from a cliff near Sifimum Shrine. Lurelin is found in the southern part of East Necluda in the bottom right corner of the map and the Sifimum Shrine is close by.

The first step is to defeat all the monsters in Lurelin Village. It can be a tricky task given the sheer number of monsters, so it’s worth leveling up a bit before you go in. Make sure you go in stocked up with decent weapons and something to restore health.

When you have defeated all the monsters you can start the restoration project. Speak to Rozel and Bolson and they will explain all the materials you need. Once you have redeveloped the town, residents can start moving back in, plus you can help introduce a new sport to the seaside village. Speak to Fernison and the Gerudo in Akkala highlands (north of Tarrey Town) and you’ll kick off a new quest where you build racing karts with Zonai equipment. Then head back to Lurelin and you can start something called the Lurelin Water Rally. Once you’ve done this you’ve not only restored Lurelin to it’s former glory, but introduced a new sporting event too!

Become a news reporter

It’s highly likely you will have stumbled across Lucky Clover Gazette in an old stable while out adventuring across Hyrule during the main story. You’ll want to make friends with Penn, and then you’ll start working with him to solve various mysteries across the land. Speak to Traysi and you’ll start the Potential Princess Sightings quest, which is one of the best side quests in the game. You’ll have to visit 12 stables and solve mysteries. If you ever get lost then you can go back to see Traysi and she’ll let you know where Penn is. Penn gives you a reward for each mystery solved, plus completing the whole quest is the way to get the Froggy Armor, which helps you climb in the rain.

Collect Paraglider Fabrics

You can customise your paraglider in Tears of the Kingdom, and there are 50 obtainable fabrics to change up the look and feel of the paraglider. 2 arent available at the time of making this guide, which are probably linked to 2 unannounced amiibo. You can get 20 fabrics from quests, 22 fabrics from amiibo and 8 you can get by taking photos for Sayge.

Brighten up stables with photos

There are a number of stables across Hyrule, and each one has some empty photo frames on the wall. Investigate these empty frames and that will lead to the stable owner speaking to Link. The Stable Association would like to improve each of the stables by adding framed pictures, and it’s up to you to provide them. Link has to go out across Hyrule and take specific photos of areas around the land, and then return to show the stable owners. It’s a big quest, as there are 15 stables, which means taking lots of pictures, but at the end of the day you’re going to make the stable owners very happy, so it’s time well spent.

Collect all monster medals

There are 6 monster medals to collect in the game. You can start this quest once you speak to the Monster-Control Crew in the Emergency Shelter in Lookout Landing. You need to kill all Gleeoks, Flux Constructs, Hinox, Moldugas, Frox, and Stone Taluses in the game. This isn’t a short quest as you’ll have to kill 14 Gleeoks, 35 Flux Constructs, 69 Hinox, 4 Moldugas, 40 Frox and a whopping. 87 Stone Taluses.

Give all the Bubbul Gems to Koltin

Bubbul Frogs are a new addition you’ll find in caves around Hyrule. Defeat the Bubbul Frogs and you’ll get a Bubbul Gem. You can see on the map when you have found the Bubbul Gem because you’ll get a tick next to the cave on the map, so this helps you keep track of things.

Once you have some Bubbul Gems, you want to speak to Kilton. You can find him at Woodland Stable in Eldin. Kilton will be there with his brother Koltin. Once you speak to Koltin, he’ll start you off on a series of quests, where you have to find all the Bubbul Gems, and there are over 100 to find.

Discover the Bargainer Statues

The Depths were one of the most surprising features of the game, and hidden in the depths are bargainer statues. We see the first one poking it’s head up in Lookout Landing next to Josha when we first meet her. There are 7 bargainer statues to be found in the depths and discovering them unlocks the ability to buy more armor from them with Poes. You can get the Dark Link set, however, it’s much better to invest your poes into the Depths armor, which give you Gloom resistance.

Let me know what you think in the comments.