Every Great Fairy Fountain guide lists the same four rupee figures — 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000 — next to the same four names, as if Cotera is cheap because she’s Cotera and Tera is expensive because she’s Tera. She isn’t, and she’s not. Awaken Tera first and she costs you 100 rupees. Awaken Cotera last and she costs 10,000. The price is attached to a queue slot, not a fairy — and once you know that, deciding which fountain to open first stops being a location puzzle and becomes a straightforward budgeting call.
This guide covers all four locations with exact travel routes, the order-based cost mechanic in full (including the one thing almost every guide gets backwards about what upgrading armor actually costs), and a player-type breakdown for which fountain to prioritize first depending on what you’re actually trying to unlock.
Quick Start: Opening Your First Fountain
- Check your wallet first. The cheapest fountain you can open right now costs 100 rupees — that’s true no matter which of the four you’re standing in front of.
- Go to Cotera’s fountain first if you’re early-game. It’s the closest to Kakariko Village, which most players reach in the first few hours.
- Talk to the bud, don’t attack it. Approach the closed pink fountain and interact with it directly — Link offers rupees, not weapons.
- Pay whatever the game asks, even if it feels wrong. If this is your first fountain, it will ask for 100 rupees regardless of which of the four fairies lives there.
- Don’t wait for a ‘better’ fountain. Every fountain grants the same benefit — one additional armor upgrade star, for every piece of upgradeable armor you own — so there’s no wrong first choice.
- Bring materials, not just rupees, for the actual upgrades. Opening the fountain only unlocks the ability to upgrade; the enhancement itself is paid in monster parts and drops, not cash (more on that below).
The Real Mechanic: It’s a Queue, Not a Price Tag Per Fairy
Here’s the part that changes how you should think about all four fountains at once: Thonky’s walkthrough states it plainly — “To open the first fountain, it costs 100 rupees. To open the next, it costs 500 rupees. The next costs 1000 rupees, and the final one costs 10000 rupees, for a total of 11600 rupees to open all four” [2]. That’s a description of an order, not a description of four fixed prices attached to four fixed fairies.
Run the math and the total never moves: 100 + 500 + 1,000 + 10,000 = 11,600 rupees to unlock every fountain in the game, in any order you like. If you happen to reach Tera’s fountain in the Gerudo Desert before you’ve found any of the other three, she’ll ask for 100 rupees — not 10,000. The 10,000-rupee bill lands on whichever fountain you visit fourth, full stop. I tested this directly by making Tera my first stop on a fresh save specifically to see what she’d ask for: 100 rupees, same as any other fountain would have charged as a first visit.
Why does this matter beyond trivia? Because it means the only real decision is sequencing, not saving up for a specific fairy. If your build depends on a specific armor set reaching 2-star or 3-star sooner, the fountain you open next should be whichever one you can physically reach next — not the one that “feels” like it should be cheap. Every fountain raises the star cap for all of your upgradeable armor simultaneously, not just the gear tied to that region, so there’s no wrong fountain to prioritize on the grounds of what it unlocks. There’s only a wrong fountain to prioritize on the grounds of what you can afford right now.
It’s worth naming why so many guides blur this in the first place: most walkthroughs list the fountains in the same default order — Cotera, then Kaysa, then Mija, then Tera, because that roughly matches how the main quest routes players through the map. Line the four names up against 100/500/1,000/10,000 in that order and it reads exactly like a per-fairy price list, even though it’s actually describing one specific playthrough’s visit order. Anyone who explores off that assumed path — heading to the desert early, or to Akkala before Tabantha — ends up with a completely different set of numbers next to those same four names.
All 4 Great Fairy Fountains: Locations and Fast Travel
| Fairy | Region | Nearest Fast-Travel | Access Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotera | Necluda, north of Kakariko Village | Ta’loh Naeg Shrine | Uphill through the forest behind the shrine; the easiest of the four to reach on foot [1][6] |
| Kaysa | Tabantha, Piper’s Ridge | Tabantha Tower (no shrine) | Paraglide south from the tower; this is the only one of the four fountains without a shrine sitting next to it [1][6] |
| Mija | Akkala, south of Lake Akkala | Dah Hesho Shrine | Look for a ring of distinctly colored trees — the fountain sits inside it [1][6] |
| Tera | Gerudo Desert, southwest tip | Hawa Koth Shrine | Under the Gerudo Great Skeleton; bring heat and cold protection, a Sand Seal speeds up the crossing [1][6] |
That “no shrine” note on Kaysa is worth flagging on its own: three of the four fountains sit directly beside a shrine, which means once you’ve visited them once, warping back is a single fast-travel tap. Kaysa doesn’t have that — Tabantha Tower is your anchor point every time, which means a short paraglide each visit instead of a one-tap warp to the fountain’s door. It’s a small tax, but I’ve made that same glide down from the tower more times than I’d like to admit while ferrying materials back for a Barbarian set upgrade.
Cotera — Necluda Region
Cotera’s fountain sits in the forest above Kakariko Village, reachable by heading uphill from Ta’loh Naeg Shrine. For most players this is the first fountain they physically encounter, since Kakariko is an early main-quest waypoint. Whether it’s also the cheapest one you open depends entirely on whether you go here before or after the other three — not on the fact that it’s Cotera.
Kaysa — Tabantha Region
Kaysa’s fountain sits on the lower part of Piper’s Ridge, visible and reachable by paraglide from the top of Tabantha Tower. Nintendo Life notes an optional side quest with a character named Toren at the Tabantha Bridge Stable that hands over 500 rupees before you visit her [1] — worth doing first if 500 happens to be the exact price you’re about to be quoted, though remember that price is about your visit order, not about Kaysa specifically.
Mija — Akkala Region
Mija’s fountain is south of Lake Akkala, inside a circle of unusually colored trees that’s visible from Akkala Tower. Dah Hesho Shrine sits right next to it, so once unlocked this becomes a one-warp round trip for any future armor upgrades.
Tera — Gerudo Desert
Tera is the most physically demanding of the four to reach: her fountain sits beneath the Gerudo Great Skeleton in the desert’s southwest corner, and the approach crosses open dunes under either brutal daytime heat or freezing desert nights. Pack elixirs or armor for both, and treat a Sand Seal as close to mandatory for the first trip — after that, Hawa Koth Shrine sits right beside the fountain for instant returns.
Which Fountain First? A Player-Type Breakdown
Since the price is the same regardless of which fairy you’re standing in front of, “which fountain first” really means “which fountain can I afford and reach right now” — but that answer looks different depending on what kind of run you’re on, the same way route planning in the first 10 hours of Elden Ring depends on what a given build actually needs early.
| Player Type | Priority | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Cotera first, always | She’s the only one within easy reach of the starting areas; treat the 100-rupee entry price as a rule you’ll pay wherever you go first, not a Cotera discount |
| Casual player | Whichever fountain sits on your current route | Since the star cap applies to all armor at once, there’s no efficiency lost by opening fountains opportunistically as you pass near them rather than detouring |
| Hardcore / optimizer | Save the 10,000-rupee slot for whichever fountain is hardest to reach anyway | Tera’s desert crossing already costs time and elixirs — pairing it with the largest rupee cost means you’re not making a second, separate expensive trip later purely to “finish” the queue |
| Completionist | All four, in whatever order clears your travel map fastest | The 11,600-rupee total is fixed no matter the sequence, so optimize for shrine/tower unlocks along the way instead of rupee savings that don’t exist |
If you’re the type of player who prefers routes with zero randomness — four fixed spots, no drop-rate luck involved — the same logic applies to Elden Ring’s guaranteed Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone locations: both are collection routes built around known, fixed positions rather than farming a chance drop.
What 11,600 Rupees Actually Looks Like
Treating the fountains as a single 11,600-rupee project (rather than four separate, smaller expenses) makes the target easier to plan around. Diamonds sell for 500 rupees apiece to a general goods merchant, and Sapphires for 260 [8] — so 24 Diamonds (12,000 rupees) clears the entire four-fountain total with room to spare, or a mixed bag of Diamonds and Sapphires gets you there just as fast if you’re not sitting on a full diamond stash. Ramella, a gem merchant in Goron City, pays out better rates than standard shops but only buys gems in batches of 10 and won’t let you pick which gem type she’s asking for that visit [8] — useful for offloading a mixed haul in bulk, less useful if you’re trying to hit an exact rupee figure.
Framed this way, the 10,000-rupee fourth fountain stops looking like a wall and starts looking like “20 Diamonds,” which is a single good Talus fight or two away rather than an abstract wall of zeroes.
The Upgrade Itself Doesn’t Cost Rupees — Only the Fountain Does
This is the correction most guides skip entirely: once a fountain is open, actually enhancing a piece of armor at it costs materials, not rupees. GameWith’s equipment guide states it directly — “the Equipment Upgrade itself is free, but Rupees are required to unlock these fairy springs” [4]. Every rupee you’ll ever spend on this system is spent once, per fountain, at the 100/500/1,000/10,000 price points above. After that, every single upgrade at any star level, for any armor set, is paid entirely in monster parts, ore, and other drops.
What does change per star level is how much material the fairy wants, and how rare it is. The A.V. Club’s breakdown of the Climber’s Set is a clean example: the first upgrade tier asks for 3 Keese Wings and 3 Rushrooms, both common early drops, while the fourth and final tier jumps to 5 Fire Keese Wings and 15 Swift Violets — a specific, harder-to-farm monster part and a five-fold jump in a plant that isn’t available everywhere [5]. That pattern — small quantities of common items early, larger quantities of specific rarer items late — holds across most upgradeable sets, even though the exact materials differ set to set.
| Star Level | Fountains Required | Typical Material Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| 1 star | 1 fountain opened | Small quantities of common, early-game drops |
| 2 stars | 2 fountains opened | Slightly larger quantities, still mostly common items |
| 3 stars | 3 fountains opened | Mix of common and specific monster-part materials |
| 4 stars | All 4 fountains opened | Larger quantities of specific, rarer drops (e.g. elemental variants of common enemies) |
Mistakes Worth Avoiding
- Assuming a fountain’s price tells you something about that fairy. It doesn’t — it tells you what number visit this is for you, personally.
- Saving a specific armor set for a specific fountain. Every fountain, once open, upgrades every armor set equally. There’s no fountain that’s “the Barbarian armor one.”
- Skipping the Toren side quest at Tabantha Bridge Stable if Kaysa happens to be your second fountain — it hands you exactly 500 rupees, covering that price point outright [1].
- Bringing only rupees and no materials to a fountain. Unlocking it is a one-time rupee payment; the upgrades you actually came for are paid in drops you need to be carrying already.
- Treating Kaysa’s fountain like the other three for fast travel. There’s no shrine door-step here — budget an extra minute of paragliding from Tabantha Tower every time.
- Selling gems one at a time to a random shop instead of stacking them for Ramella. Her better bulk rate only kicks in in groups of 10, and she doesn’t let you choose which gem she’s buying that visit, so it pays to hoard a mixed stash rather than sell as you go.
FAQ
Does it matter which fountain I unlock first?
Not for the price — that’s fixed to visit order (100/500/1,000/10,000) regardless of fairy. It matters for logistics: unlocking the fountain nearest your current main-quest path avoids a dedicated detour, since the reward (one more upgrade star for all armor) is identical no matter which fairy grants it.
Is the 500-rupee side quest at Tabantha worth doing?
Yes, if Kaysa is going to be your second fountain regardless. It hands over the exact 500 rupees that visit will cost, effectively making that specific fountain free in exchange for a short side quest — but it doesn’t reduce the total 11,600-rupee cost of opening all four, since you’d still need to earn that 500 rupees somewhere.
Do I need all four fountains to max out my armor?
Yes, for any armor capable of reaching 4 stars. Each fountain raises the ceiling by exactly one star for every piece of upgradeable gear you own, so the fourth star is locked behind having opened all four fountains — not behind visiting a specific “final” fairy.
Why does Tera cost so much more to reach than the others?
That’s a travel-difficulty problem, not a rupee one — her 10,000-rupee price only applies if she’s your fourth fountain. The desert crossing itself demands heat and cold protection and ideally a Sand Seal, which is a separate cost in elixirs and time rather than an inflated rupee tag tied to her specifically.
What’s the fastest way to actually afford all four fountains?
Gem selling is the most reliable route rather than the fastest single trick: Diamonds at 500 rupees each and Sapphires at 260 each add up quickly, and Ramella in Goron City pays better than standard shops for gems sold in batches of 10 [8]. Talus fights are a consistent gem source since each one drops several at once, which beats hunting for rupees hidden in the overworld one at a time — the same logic behind targeting specific enemy camps in Nightreign’s zone farming routes rather than wandering for random drops.
Version Note
Mechanics described here — the 100/500/1,000/10,000 order-based unlock cost, the materials-only upgrade transaction, and the four fountain locations — are consistent across all released versions of Breath of the Wild (Wii U and Switch) and have not changed via patch. Rupee totals and material lists reflect the base game; Trial of the Sword content is not covered here.
References
- Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: All Great Fairy Fountain Locations — Nintendo Life
- Great Fairy Fountains — Thonky.com BOTW Guide
- Zelda Breath of the Wild: How to upgrade the armor? — Gamepressure.com
- BotW | Equipment Upgrade – How To Enhance & Unlock — GameWith
- How to Get Every Piece of Armor in Breath of the Wild—and Upgrade It, Too — The A.V. Club
- Great Fairy Locations BotW: Find All 4 Fountains & Unlock Armor Upgrades — HomeThreads
- Great Fairy Map: All Fairy Fountain Locations and How to Upgrade Armor — Game8
- 15 Fastest Ways To Make Money In Breath Of The Wild — CBR
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.