Pick the wrong Great Plateau shrine order in Breath of the Wild and you’ll spend your first twenty minutes swimming after loot you could’ve pulled out with Magnesis. Pick the right one, and by the time the Old Man hands you the Paraglider, you’re carrying gear players two hours behind you still don’t have.
Breath of the Wild is still getting patched almost nine years after its Wii U launch. Version 1.9.0 landed on Switch and the Switch 2 Edition on February 17, 2026, as part of Nintendo’s 40th-anniversary Zelda updates [1]. None of it touches the Great Plateau. The Wii U release has been frozen at version 1.4.1 since December 2017 [2] — which means every shrine, every rune, and every route in this guide plays out identically whether you’re on the original Wii U cartridge, a Switch, or a Switch 2 Edition.
This guide covers the order that gets the most value out of the Great Plateau, the hearts-vs-stamina call you’ll face at the Temple of Time, and the route that actually matters for your first 10 hours once you glide off the cliff. We mapped Elden Ring’s opening hours the same way in our Elden Ring beginner’s guide — the principle holds here too: the first few decisions in an open world echo for dozens of hours afterward.
This hub covers that framework — the shrine order, the upgrade math, and the first-10-hours route. As we publish shrine-by-shrine walkthroughs and boss-specific guides under the Breath of the Wild category, they’ll link back here for the bigger picture.
Why the Great Plateau Feels Different From the Rest of Hyrule
The Plateau isn’t a normal opening area — it’s a walled-off region you can’t leave until the Paraglider drops, and that constraint is deliberate. Contemporary reviews singled it out for exactly this reason: IGN called it “rich in detail” for a tutorial space, and Eurogamer’s Oli Welsh described it as a “self-contained adventure that also serves as a tutorial,” one that “explodes preconceived notions of what a tutorial can be” [6]. Every rune you pick up here only matters inside these walls until you leave, which is precisely why the order you grab them in has a real, measurable effect on how smooth your first hour feels — there’s no later chance to double back for cheap, no-cost loot once you’ve moved on to the rest of the map.
Quick Start: Before You Leave the Great Plateau
Do these in order and you’ll clear the Plateau with more loot and less backtracking than if you just wander toward whichever shrine glows brightest on the map:
- Climb the Great Plateau Tower first — it reveals the local map and gives you sightlines to all four shrines before you commit to a route.
- Mark all four shrines with the Sheikah Slate’s map pins so you’re routing between them, not discovering them one at a time.
- Grab Spicy Peppers near the base of Mount Hylia before you start climbing — you’ll want them cooked into food before the cold slopes start draining your hearts [3].
- Clear a Bokoblin camp for a free weapon and some practice before you walk into a shrine with a Guardian Scout inside — the starting Tree Branch breaks after just a handful of hits.
- Do the Magnesis shrine (Oman Au) early enough that you can circle back for the metal chests it unlocks before you leave the Plateau for good.
- Cook the Old Man’s requested dish — Spicy Pepper, Raw Meat, Hyrule Bass — and hand it over for the Warm Doublet before your final climb [3].
- Bank your Spirit Orbs at the Temple of Time’s Goddess Statue, but read the hearts-vs-stamina section below before you spend them.
The 4 Great Plateau Shrines — and Why the Order Actually Matters
All four shrines can be completed in any order, and the game only nudges you toward the closest one. But “any order works” isn’t the same as “every order is equally good.” Each shrine’s rune does something specific to the Plateau itself, not just to the rest of Hyrule, and that’s where the order stops being cosmetic:
| Shrine | Rune | What It Unlocks on the Plateau | Do This First If… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oman Au | Magnesis | Underwater chests near the shrine entrance plus metal-plate puzzles elsewhere on the Plateau [3] | You want the extra loot before you glide away for good |
| Ja Baij | Remote Bombs | A combat option that doesn’t wear out the way melee weapons do, useful the moment night falls and Bokoblins get aggressive | You’re struggling with the starting weapons in camps |
| Owa Daim | Stasis | Physics-puzzle shortcuts on the mountain approach, plus a way to launch boulders instead of climbing around them | You’re heading up Mount Hylia next and want the terrain shortcut |
| Keh Namut | Cryonis | Ice pillars for crossing the water near the shrine itself — mostly useful for reaching Keh Namut, less so elsewhere on the Plateau | You’re already at the water’s edge and don’t want to backtrack |
The practical read: Magnesis first captures loot you’d otherwise have to detour back for, Bombs second gives you a combat tool before dusk, and Stasis and Cryonis can go in either order since their Plateau-specific value is narrower. Stasis is best understood as a physics override — freeze a boulder, hit it while it’s locked, and it launches with the stored momentum once time resumes, which is how you shortcut past some of the mountain’s rock walls instead of climbing around them. Cryonis is narrower by comparison: its main Plateau use is crossing the water in front of its own shrine, since you need the pillars just to reach Keh Namut in the first place. If you’ve already wandered off and grabbed Cryonis first, you haven’t broken anything — you’ve just closed the loot-efficiency window, not the run.
Which Order Fits You? A Player-Type Breakdown
The “correct” order changes depending on what you’re optimizing for. A completionist and a speedrunner-minded player should not be taking the same route through the Plateau, and most guides give one answer for everyone instead of asking what you’re actually trying to get out of your first hour:
| Player Type | Shrine Order | Orb-Spend Priority |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Oman Au → Ja Baij → Owa Daim → Keh Namut (as above) | Split 2 hearts : 1 stamina — a cushion against mistakes without sacrificing all mobility |
| Casual player | Whichever shrine the Old Man points at closest, in sequence — don’t bother routing manually | All hearts until 6–7, then reassess — fewer decisions, harder to die to a bad hit |
| Hardcore / optimizer | Oman Au first for the loot, then whichever order minimizes travel distance on your specific spawn | All stamina to a full second wheel — climbing and gliding efficiency compounds over 100+ hours |
| Completionist | Any order, but budget extra time to search for the Plateau’s hidden Korok and the two Magnesis-only chests before leaving | Even split, since you’ll eventually max whichever attribute you didn’t prioritize through late-game farming |
If you’re not sure which of these you are yet, default to the new-player row. You can respec heart and stamina upgrades later at a statue in Hateno Village, so nothing here is permanent [4].
The Old Man, the Warm Doublet, and the Paraglider
The Old Man withholds the Paraglider until you’ve cleared all four shrines, framing it as needing “treasures” from each one. He’ll appear after each completion to comment, then vanish — standard Zelda misdirection, since he’s Hyrule’s last king in disguise, but that’s a story beat, not a mechanic you need to plan around.
What you do need to plan around is temperature. Mount Hylia’s upper slopes apply cold damage on a timer, and without protection you’ll lose hearts every few seconds regardless of how many you have banked. The fix is the Warm Doublet: cook Spicy Pepper, Raw Meat, and Hyrule Bass together into a single dish, then bring it to the Old Man at his cabin [3]. He trades it for the Doublet, a piece of armor that provides passive cold resistance for the rest of the game — no more spicy-food buffs required for cold zones. If you skip this and climb in whatever you’re wearing, you can survive short stretches by eating spicy food on a timer, but the Doublet removes the timer entirely, which matters more once you’re managing inventory slots for weapons instead of cold-resist food.
All three ingredients are on the Plateau itself, so there’s no reason to climb Mount Hylia twice. Raw Meat drops from the Bokoblins in either of the Plateau’s two camps — the same fight you’re already having for a starting weapon. Hyrule Bass turns up in the ponds and slow water near the Temple of Time, catchable just by swimming up to it. Spicy Peppers grow in clusters at the base of Mount Hylia, which is also why the Quick Start checklist above puts “grab peppers” before “start climbing” — you only need to pass through that spot once. Cook all three together at any open flame or cooking pot, then walk the finished dish back to the Old Man’s cabin.
The first time through, it’s easy to lose a starting weapon to a snapped blade inside one of these shrines before realizing camp-dropped weapons last noticeably longer than what you spawn with — worth clearing a camp before you commit to a shrine with a Guardian Scout inside, not after.
Hearts or Stamina? The First Upgrade Decision
Every four Spirit Orbs buys one upgrade: either a full Heart Container or 20% of a Stamina Wheel (five vessels per full wheel) [4]. You cannot max both in a single playthrough — the base game caps you at 120 Spirit Orbs, and fully maxing hearts (30, including four from Divine Beasts) and stamina (three full wheels) together would need 132 [4]. That tradeoff starts at your first Goddess Statue visit, so it’s worth seeing the math before you commit:
| Spirit Orbs Banked | Upgrades Available | All-Hearts Path | All-Stamina Path |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | 4 hearts total | 1.2 Stamina Wheels |
| 8 | 2 | 5 hearts total | 1.4 Stamina Wheels |
| 13 | 3 (1 orb banked toward the 4th) | 6 hearts total | 1.6 Stamina Wheels |
Hearts are the safer default for a first playthrough — more room to absorb a bad hit while you’re still learning enemy patterns, and you’ll need 13 hearts before the Master Sword pilgrimage becomes available [4] anyway. Stamina pays off differently: it’s not defense, it’s access — taller climbs, longer glides, more of the map reachable without a Cold or Heat resistance detour. Neither choice locks you out of the other permanently, since Hateno’s respec statue exists specifically to let you rebalance once you know what your playstyle actually needs [4].
Leaving the Plateau: Your Actual First 10 Hours
Getting the Paraglider is the tutorial’s finish line, not the game’s. What you do in the hours right after determines how rough or smooth the next stretch feels:
| Objective | Why It Matters | What It Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Glide to Kakariko Village | First hub with named NPCs and a main-quest thread instead of Plateau isolation | Impa’s questline, map markers toward the wider main story |
| Push through to Hateno Village and the Ancient Tech Lab | Purah upgrades your Sheikah Slate runes here — longer Stasis duration, wider Magnesis range, bigger Cryonis pillars | Materially better versions of the exact runes you just learned on the Plateau |
| Start handing Korok Seeds to Hestu | Weapon durability is brutal early — you’ll break Plateau-tier weapons constantly with only 3–4 inventory slots | Extra weapon, bow, and shield slots, one Korok Seed at a time |
| Pick a first Divine Beast — Vah Ruta is the standard recommendation | Closest and easiest of the four, and it grants Mipha’s Grace, a once-per-24-in-game-hours auto-revive [5] | A safety net for every harder fight that follows |
Impa at Kakariko is also the quest-giver who routes you to the Camera rune and Hyrule Compendium — she sends you to Purah at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, where restoring power to the lab’s furnace unlocks both [7]. Easy to overlook since neither is a combat tool, but the Compendium doubles as a searchable record of every creature, material, and monster you’ve photographed, which matters once your item list stops fitting in your head. It’s a quiet upgrade compared to a new rune, but it’s part of the same first-10-hours foundation as everything else on this list.
The Vah Ruta → Vah Medoh → Vah Rudania → Vah Naboris order isn’t arbitrary either. Ruta comes first because it’s both the closest to Kakariko and the easiest fight, and Mipha’s Grace gives you a revive you’ll lean on for every beast after it. Medoh comes second specifically because Revali’s Gale — a vertical burst of air you can trigger on a cooldown — turns the Death Mountain climb to Rudania from a genuine slog into a non-issue [5]. By the time you reach Naboris, the toughest of the four, you’re carrying Daruk’s Protection and Mipha’s Grace together, both treated as close to essential against its Thunderblight Ganon fight [5]. Doing these out of order isn’t fatal — nothing in this game is — but it does mean fighting the hardest content with the fewest tools.
Weapon-slot farming here is Zelda’s version of a guaranteed-resource grind. Elden Ring players will recognize the same logic from the other direction in our Every Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone in Elden Ring guide, which maps every guaranteed drop instead of leaving weapon progression to chance. If you like this kind of methodical, exploration-first pacing generally, our Nine Sols complete guide breaks down its parry system and boss strategy with the same route-first approach.
Three things most new players do too late:
- Skip Purah’s rune upgrades for hours. Players who bypass the Ancient Tech Lab keep fighting with Plateau-range Stasis and Magnesis long after the upgrade is sitting there for free.
- Sit on Korok Seeds instead of cashing them in early. Hestu’s slot upgrades compound — the earlier you unlock extra weapon slots, the less often you’re forced to drop a good weapon just because your Plateau-era inventory is full.
- Attempt Vah Rudania before Vah Medoh. Revali’s Gale, granted by Vah Medoh, turns the Death Mountain climb to Rudania from a slog into a non-issue [5]. Doing it in the “wrong” order just means climbing the hard way.
Common Mistakes on the Great Plateau Itself
- Fighting a Guardian Scout with the starting Tree Branch. It breaks after only a handful of hits. Clear a nearby Bokoblin camp first and pick up whatever they drop — even a mediocre spear outlasts your starting gear.
- Leaving the Magnesis-only chests near Oman Au unopened. They’re solid early sell material, and you’re standing right next to the shrine that unlocks them — there’s no reason to skip them and no reason to backtrack for them later [3].
- Climbing Mount Hylia without cold protection. Whether that’s the Warm Doublet or a stack of spicy food, going up without either means losing hearts on a timer you can’t see, which is a bad way to burn your first few upgrades.
- Spending Spirit Orbs the moment you get four. There’s no penalty for walking away from the Goddess Statue without spending — if you’re still weighing hearts against stamina, holding orbs costs nothing and lets you commit once you actually know your playstyle instead of guessing under pressure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I follow the game’s suggested shrine order, or plan my own?
Plan your own if you can — the game’s “suggested” shrine is just whichever one is geographically closest at the moment, not a designed sequence. Following Magnesis-then-Bombs-then-either-of-the-last-two captures more loot with less backtracking than blindly following proximity.
Is the Wii U version actually missing anything compared to Switch?
No. The Wii U release stopped receiving patches after version 1.4.1 in December 2017, while Switch and Switch 2 Edition are up to 1.9.0 as of February 2026 [1][2]. The gap between those versions is language support and general stability fixes — nothing that changes the Great Plateau, the shrines, or the rune mechanics covered here.
Hearts or stamina — which is actually better for a first playthrough?
Hearts, if you’re weighing it purely on survivability while you’re still learning enemy attack patterns. Stamina’s payoff is about reach — taller climbs and longer glides — which matters more once you already know how to avoid getting hit in the first place. That’s why the player-type table above splits new players toward hearts and optimizers toward stamina rather than giving one universal answer.
Do I have to fight my first Divine Beast right after the Plateau?
No, and treating it as mandatory is the wrong mental model for this game. Breath of the Wild doesn’t gate you into a fixed order — the Vah Ruta recommendation exists because it’s the easiest and closest, not because anything forces it. You can spend your first 10 hours entirely on shrines and exploration and lose nothing by delaying the Divine Beasts.
I already left the Plateau without the Warm Doublet or the Magnesis chests — did I miss them permanently?
No. Nothing on the Great Plateau is a one-time-only opportunity. You can glide back at any point in the game, the Old Man’s cabin and the chests are still there, and the only cost is the travel time to return.
How many Spirit Orbs do I need before I can get the Master Sword?
You need 13 hearts, not 13 orbs directly — since every 4 orbs buys one full heart on top of your starting 3, that works out to roughly 40 Spirit Orbs spent entirely on hearts, or fewer if you’ve also picked up heart containers from Divine Beasts [4]. It’s a mid-to-late-game milestone, not something you’re chasing during your first 10 hours, so don’t let it drive your early hearts-vs-stamina decision.
For a complete step-by-step walkthrough, see all 4 Great Fairy Fountain locations and the real rupee cost mechanic.
For a complete step-by-step walkthrough, see the exact salmon meuniere recipe for Recital at Warbler’s Nest.
For a complete step-by-step walkthrough, see Divine Beast Vah Naboris walkthrough.
Sources
- “Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom And Breath Of The Wild Updates Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes” — Nintendo Life
- “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: all the updates” — Perfectly Nintendo
- “Breath of the Wild Walkthrough: The Great Plateau” — Zelda Central
- “Heart Containers & Stamina Vessels” — GameWith
- “BOTW: Best Order For Beating The Divine Beasts” — ScreenRant
- “Great Plateau” (critical reception, citing IGN and Eurogamer) — Wikipedia
- “Locked Mementos: Hateno Ancient Tech Lab” — GamerGuides
Verified against game version 1.9.0 (Switch / Switch 2 Edition, February 2026) and version 1.4.1 (Wii U, final release). Mechanics and shrine layouts are unchanged across all three versions.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.