How to get the Soldier’s Armor set in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Soldier’s Armor in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a great base set that’s accessible early on in the game. It can also be upgraded, making it a good long term choice. However, it’s not the easiest to find.

This armor set — made up of the Soldier’s Armor, Soldier’s Helm, and Soldier’s Greaves — can be found underneath Hyrule Castle. The caverns beneath the castle are quite a maze, though, so follow these steps to get the Soldier’s Armor.

You’ll need to break a lot of debris during this adventure, so it’s worth bringing along some arrows and bomb flowers, if you want to make quick work of this quest.

Soldier’s Armor chest piece location

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Head for the castle’s main gates, which are at the coordinates (-0254, 0621, 0043).

From here, climb over the wall and enter the main part of the castle. Follow the path around to the left until you reach an entrance flanked by two dead trees.

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Go into this opening and use Ultrahand to move the two metal gates. Head up the stairs on the left and then turn right in this corridor with a faded red carpet. In the room ahead there will be two Horriblin.

After defeating the Horriblin, take the entrance on the right hand side and climb the stairs to reach the Observation Room.

Use Ultrahand on the trap door and climb down to discover the Royal Hidden Passage. There is a chest here containing a diamond.

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Go down the stairs, fighting a Blue Lizalfos on the way. You can glide to the bottom, but on the first level it’s worth finding the room just off the stairs with a Black Bokoblin. There are two chests in this room containing a knight’s halberd and a soldier’s bow, plus if you break the boxes there’ll be a ton of powerful ingredients.

After that you won’t miss much if you glide, but if you choose to walk, mind out for the Keese and the Red Chuchu. At the bottom you’ll find a carved stone with some lore and a small tunnel leading to a breakable wall. Fuse a weapon with the rock here if you need to, and begin to break through.

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On the other side, defeat the mini stone taluses, then continue breaking through the Luminous Stone here. You’ll fall into another chamber with a Like Like.

You can defeat or ignore this Like Like, just progress to the bottom of this area. If you head north you’ll find another small area with the Bubbulfrog and some ore, but you actually want to pass the Like Like towards the south of this room to find another destroyable rubble area.

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Break through to find a flat platform and drop down to find yet more rubble below. Destroying this will open up a rounded archway in the wall you just dropped down from.

Through here are several Bokoblins as well as some weapons to pick up. When you’re done with them, go into the back cell where there is a large boulder in the ground. Lift this with Ultrahand to reveal an entrance you can drop into.

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Go to the end of this tunnel and use Ascend. Don’t go too high through the hole in the ceiling here or you’ll end up back in the room with the Like Like. You want to be in the cell room again, in the locked cell with a Bokoblin. Defeat it and destroy the wooden boxes here for a bunch of arrows if you want.

However, the real prize is that the Soldier’s Armor chest piece can be found in the chest here. This gives four defense, making it stronger than most of the early armor in the game, and it can also be upgraded at Great Fairy fountains.

Soldier’s Helm location

Return down the corridor, Ascend back into the jail room, and reenter the room through the gap in the rubble you created here. On the opposite side will be another destructible area past some bomb flowers — this one blue rather than brown. This material is much hardier, so use the bomb flowers to break through.

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Continue forward and do the same to the next area of blue rubble. Enter the water here and swim to the pillars sticking out. Look to the left (from the direction you first entered this cavern) to see an archway blocked by black rubble. Bomb arrows didn’t seem to do much here, so swim over and break this with a hammer-type weapon.

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In the next room, you’ll find an Ice Like to the left. Stepping on the ice platforms it creates will freeze Link and cause cold damage, so try to defeat it quickly to prevent the whole room being filled up. Once defeated, head into the room where it was and look to the left to find the chest with the Soldier’s Helm. Like the chest piece, this gives four defense points.

Soldier’s Greaves location

Head back out to the pool and go through the small opening to the left. (Although you may want to go to the main area of this room to collect more rock-Fused weapons, as you’ll need a lot of these and/or bomb flowers to continue.)

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Through the blue rubble directly ahead you’ll see some ore deposits, but you’ll actually want to follow the path as it turns sharply to the left and ascends in a spiral. Watch out for Keese, including an electric variant close to the first ore deposit on this route. At the top there will be more debris to destroy.

Through here will be a Moblin and some Bokoblin — the easiest way to beat them is to knock them into the water below. You can also drop down here to find a small space with glowing cave fish, tireless frogs (key for stamina recipes), and fairies. When you’re done, continue along the ledge above and break another blue debris wall.

Defeat the two stone taluses here and turn your attention to the debris. You’ll want to focus on the back part where it meets the wall, where there’s a stalactite pointing downwards. Don’t forget about jump attacks (X followed by Y).

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

There are some smaller prizes in this room — break the debris at the back right to find a chest with a soldier’s claymore — but once again the main thing you need to do is defeat a Like Like.

Open the chest to the left of it to receive the Soldier’s Greaves, the final part of the Soldier’s Armor. Once again, this piece provides four points of protection until upgraded.

Soldier’s Armor upgrade costs, effect, and set bonus

The Soldier Armor has no set bonus or effects, but it is one of the armor sets in the game with the highest defense. A few others rival it, including the Zonaite Armor and Wild Armor, but this one is easy to find early, so it’s worth upgrading if you need some heftier defense.

You’ll be able to upgrade the pieces of the Soldier’s Armor at a Great Fairy in exchange for the following:

• 1-star (7 defense): 5 Chuchu jellies, 3 Bokoblin guts, 10 rupees
• 2-star (12 defense): 5 Keese eyeballs, 3 Moblin guts, 50 rupees
• 3-star (18 defense): 3 Lizalfos tails, 3 Hinox guts, 30 flint, 200 rupees
• 4-star (28 defense): 5 Lynel hooves, 5 Lynel guts, 30 amber, 500 rupees

To upgrade the Soldier set fully, you’ll need 15 Chuchu jellies, 9 Bokoblin guts, 15 Keese eyeballs, 9 Moblin guts, 9 Lizalfos tails, 9 Hinox guts, 15 Lynel hooves, 15 Lynel guts, 90 flint, 90 amber, and 2,280 rupees.

Once you’ve found all three pieces of the Soldier’s Armor, consult our list of all armor sets and set bonuses to see what to find next, or check out our recommendations for the best armor.