You’ll want to complete some or all of the Shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom not only because they are the primary way you can increase your heart and stamina values, but also because each of them is a unique puzzle that will tease your brain in different ways. They’re also all solvable in ways that seem entirely unintended, and there are a lot of them. We’ll cover how many Shrines there are in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) in Hyrule — and the Sky Islands — this time.
The Total Number of Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)
In total, there are 152 Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom. The surface of Hyrule contains 120 of them, and the last 32 are scattered about the Sky Islands high overhead. The majority of them contain physics puzzles of varying difficulties. However, if you need to fight a boss to unlock the shrine or move a large green crystal to open it, the Shrine will simply reward you for making it inside.
Most green crystal puzzles, whether on the surface or in the Sky Islands, require you to devise different ways to transport the crystals across a gap or some other obstacle to the Shrine location. They might also be guarded by, or attached to, a boss. Sometimes both.
How Many Health and Stamina Upgrades Are in TotK?
With 152 Shrines, you have 38 total upgrades to your Heart or Stamina values. Link can have a maximum of 40 Hearts, he starts with three hearts, and you earn seven hearts for “free” by completing the five Sage Temples, an event in Hyrule Castle, and the Call from the Depths quest (if you select a Heart for a reward), meaning you only need to invest 120 Shrines’ worth of upgrades for a full Heart gauge. You may need to use the Horned Statue at the Emergency Shelter in Lookout Landing to do some swapping of stamina to reach 40 hearts though.
Horned Statue
That leaves you with eight upgrades for your Stamina Wheel, meaning you’ll be missing almost half of a bar from the third wheel. If you want a full Stamina Wheel and don’t mind missing two hearts, you can do that as well.
To summarize, there are 152 Shrines in total in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, 120 on the surface and 32 in the sky, and you can’t max out both hearts and stamina in TotK.
