The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s starter island won’t let you leave until you’ve completed enough shrines. One of the shrines you have to tackle is the Gutanbac Shrine, which also grants you the Ascend ability. But what do you have to do? Here’s the answer to how to complete the Gutanbac Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom.
What Ability Do You Get from the Gutanbac Shrine?
Like at the other tutorial shrines, you get a special ability for just entering the shrine. You then have to use that ability to reach the end and, in part, purge Link’s demonic infection. In the case of the Gutanbac Shrine, that ability is Ascend.
How Do You Get to the Gutanabac Shrine?
If you haven’t yet found the shrine, I’ve put a screenshot of the shrine’s location below. But be warned, actually getting there isn’t as easy as you might think. It’s located in a very snowy area, which means Link can die from getting too cold. He can die just wandering around, and he can die if you try to swim through cold water.
What do you do? You have to find other ways of crossing the cold water, (You’ll need your Ultrahand ability to help.) and you can cook up recipes to keep Link warm. Link will get warm standing next to a fire, but that’s only a short-term solution.
So, you need to cook up some cold-resistant food, which we have a separate guide for. Once you’ve done that, the journey is relatively easy. At one point you’ll encounter an ice wall that you can’t climb, but if you look carefully there’s a regular, ice-free section that you can clamber up.
Here’s How to Use Your Ascend Ability to Beat the Shrine
Depending on the situation, the Ascend ability lets you travel up through flat ceilings, surfaces above you, or specially marked blocks. In shrines, blocks may have a ripple pattern on them. To ascend, activate the ability and look at the area above that you want to travel through. If it displays green, you can hit the A button to travel through the block. You’ll need to hit A again to emerge from the block.
To progress through the shrine, you need to keep making your way upwards through the blocks, (Watch out for those rippled / marked bases.) until you reach an area with an enemy. The enemy is a regular construct so you should be able to kill them easily.
If you look around you’ll see a flat, long slab with ropes attached to it. Attack the ropes to cut them, bringing the slab down. There are also a couple of crates that hide a secret chest. Smash these crates and ascend through the blocks behind them to reach the chest.
Now, ascend through the slab you knocked down and keep going. You’ll encounter a moving platform with a green base. Use Ascend to reach the top of this platform. Then activate Ascend again but wait till the rippled block is right above you. Then ascend through it.
You’re now on the top level of the shrine and can claim your reward. So if you wanted to know how you complete the Gutanbac Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom, that’s your full answer. I’m off to have nightmares about getting stuck inside a big block of stone.
