‘Tulin of Rito Village’ quest, ‘Rising Island Chain’ walkthrough in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

As you journey through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you will have to help the Rito out with a snowstorm taking over the Hebra region.

This is one of four areas you need to visit as part of the Regional Phenomena quest — and doing so will help unlock another companion for your journey.

How to prepare for the Tulin of Rito Village quest

You will need at least one level of cold resistance during this part of the game, whether it’s the Archaic Warm Greaves you got in the beginning of the game (our beginner’s guide outlines the location, alongside other useful things to get first from the outset) or a spicy pepper concoction.

You may also want to bring a torch, red chuchu jelly, fire fruit, or other fire-producing tools.

Finding Tulin in Hebra

Once you arrive in Rito Village, Tulin, the young son of your Rito pal from Breath of the Wild, will fly off, insisting that he’s a big boy and he can help. (This is true!) You’ll need to track him down and bring him home before you can move on.

Right away, the quest marker will move further in Hebra, and you’ll be instructed to go to the Hebra Trailhead Lodge. Head there and talk to Harth, the dark-plumed bird, inside. Grab all the materials around the lodge too, like the wood, spicy peppers, and flint.

After talking to Harth and grabbing stuff, head up the mountain using the nearby ladder and keep climbing up the mountain trail. You’ll see some ice keese and bokoblins on the way. As you head up the mountain path, you’ll see a huge fire in the northwest, marking where the cave is.

Head inside to arrive at the thorny Hebra South Summit Cave.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Navigating the Hebra South Summit Cave

As you head in, you’ll notice that there are thorns everywhere, but you don’t need to clean any of them up to get through the cave. Using fire from a torch, fire fruit, etc., will burn the thorns allowing safe passage, but you can get through without, if you didn’t bring any of that.

Getting rid of the vines to the right of the Rito woman at the entrance will give you access to a small pond with some chillfin trout (useful for heat resistance) if you want it.

The cavern only has one path forward, so just keep getting through it, avoiding the thorns, as they’ll do some light damage to you if you run into them.

Once you get to a room with a wind current, you can break this ice platform by jumping on it repeatedly or using weapons on it.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

There are some ore deposits and brightcaps in the hole. Ascend back up once you grab the loot and take the wind current up to the next area.

Keep climbing up the cavern, following the luminous stone ore deposits and taking out the nasty Horriblin that appears in front of you. You’ll end up in a room that’s mostly water, with some barrels and an extinguished campfire.

There are a few ways to climb up this section:

• Climb up slowly and carefully, avoiding the thorns. There are enough breaks in the wall to do so without falling, though this will take a while.
• Extinguish the thorns on the wall (using fire) so you won’t have to climb around them, and then just climb straight up.
• Attach a rocket Zonai device to your shield and launch yourself up. (We did this, but it requires bringing a device in with you via capsule.)

Once you’re at the top, there’ll be a slightly lower cave in the north that you should head into to grab the cave’s Bubbulfrog. The entrance is covered in thorns, so you will need to use fire to burn the thorns away.

Leave the Bubbulfrog room and continue climbing up to the cave exit above.

At the cave exit, a Rito will tell you that Tulin flew off to the lone cedar tree at the top of the cliff. The quest marker will mark the cave still, so you’ll need to find the tree yourself. It’s right outside the exit, here:

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Climb up the cliff to meet up with Tulin at last.

Climbing to the Rising Island Chain with Tulin

Take down the aerocuda to get the bow back to Tulin and take out the rest of the enemies that appear. A short cutscene will play, tasking you and Tulin with climbing up to the sky. Whew.

Climbing these cliffs isn’t as daunting as it looks. You’ll need to use Tulin’s gusts to quickly cross large gaps, paired with Ascend to make it up certain platforms. If you have extra Zonai rockets on you, you can also launch yourself up large chunks at a time.

Once you get to the mountain peak, another Rito will note that he’s shocked to see you, but encourage you to keep going. Use Tulin’s gust to leap forward. You’ll be presented immediately with a new type of puzzle: stacking boxes so you can reach a platform to Ascend from.

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Once you stack these boxes, climb up to the top box, and use Ascend. Once again, keep using Tulin’s gusts to jump from small island to small island. Once you get to this curved part of the floating islands, climb and Ascend to the upper curve.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

From the upper curve, jump onto the middle pillar, climb up, and then jump to the square platform just past it.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Use Ascend on this square platform to head much higher into the sky to arrive at the actual Rising Island Chain.

Rising Island Chain walkthrough

As you run toward the shrine directly in front of you, Tulin will stop you, pointing out the boats in the distance.

The tops of these boats work like trampolines, launching you a huge distance into the air, so you can glide around with ease. Use it to boost yourself to the Mayaumekis Shrine, which will serve as a nice teleport point to these islands in case you fall off or want to leave.

There’s an ice layer directly in front of the shrine, so break it open to get a chest with five arrows inside. Keep proceeding forward, using Tulin to help you glide across large distances. (We’re going to be saying that a lot in this part of the guide — bear with us, please.)

On the second platform, take out the construct and climb up the pillar on the northern point of that platform. Use Tulin’s gusts to jump to the following one and use the ship to launch yourself to the next segment.

There are several constructs on this chunk of island, so take them out as you make it up the stairs. Tulin will help fight too, using his arrows from afar. If you’re feeling particularly silly, you can use a Korok-frond attached to a weapon to push these constructs off the islands, but you won’t get any drops, since they’re falling to their deaths.

Jump down to the platform below with the icicles and boxes and use a ranged weapon to clear the sharp icicles off the ceiling. Stack the boxes and Ascend up.

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Defeat the construct at the top, and open the chest for three portable pots. Destroy the icicles in the middle of the pillar, jump down to the now-open platform, and Ascend up the pillar:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Fly with Tulin to the next set of islands with the archway and keep gliding from island to island, making sure to take out the construct around the way. Straight ahead and below, you can see a large blocky creature: a Flux Construct I. For now, jump onto the ice platform and use the ship under it to trampoline yourself forward.

If you want to, you can fight the Flux Construct. To beat it, you’ll need to Ultrahand the glowing brick out of it, making it fall apart. Hit the glowing cube when it’s down to deal massive damage. It’ll take on several forms, but as long as you keep Ultrahanding its glowing core brick, you should be able to take it down. The enemy will drop lots of Zonai charges, a Flux Construct I core, and a chest with an Old Map, which rewards you with the Miner’s Armor headgear.

Ascend back up to the regular route and break the ice platform to the north before you jump on the ship trampoline. Use the trampoline under the ice to get on top of the cracked rock platform and break the rocks using a weapon. Jump on the ship under the now-broken rocks and continue on the next platform.

Defeat the aerocuda and keep moving up, breaking the next ice platform to reveal another trampoline. Carefully jump from ship to ship, avoiding or defeating the aerocuda flying around.

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You’ll eventually reach a small shelter, with some chillfin trout, a cooking pot, flint, and other goodies inside. Use the pot to make food and cold resistance elixirs if you haven’t already.

After you jump onto the next platform, you’ll see some constructs and aerocuda fighting each other. You can wait for the constructs to defeat the aerocuda and then move in on the constructs. Once they’re down, head straight across the bridge, but move quickly, as the floor will give out.

Glide over to the next island to fight three more constructs. Break the rocks at the top using a weapon or using the Zonai bombs. Jump into the hole to get a large Zonai charge. Ascend back up and head up the stairs.

You’ll need to build a hot air balloon using the metal grates, a Zonai balloon, and a flame-emitter. Set it up like so, hit it, and then glide to the next island once you get high enough:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Ascend up the pillar, and jump from ship to ship until you get to the ice platform. Use the ship under the platform to hit the next level of islands. Tulin will note that it’s now very cold, so you need cold resistance food paired with at least one piece of cold resistant armor or else Link will take damage.

Proceed ahead to Kahatanaum Shrine — you don’t have to complete this now, as long as you activate it as a fast travel point before you continue.

The next portion of the island requires you to jump from ship to ship, as they fly by, stopping periodically at islands, and Ascending up. It can be tricky to get the timing right, so take your time and be patient. Note that once Link’s feet land on a trampoline ship, he regains all his stamina instantly. Make sure to also use Tulin’s wind if you think you might not make it to another ship. If you notice yourself falling to your death, teleport back to Kahatanaum Shrine.

Eventually, you’ll make it to a final platform with stairs leading up to another trampoline ship. Use that ship to leap up, and jump onto another passing ship, allowing you to enter the eye of the storm. Congratulations, you’ve finally made it to the Wind Temple.