Wellspring Island walkthrough in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Wellspring Island follows on from completing the Ancient Zora Waterworks as part of the Sidon of the Zora quest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Before heading up, prepare any necessary health-replenishing foods you think you may need. We also recommend bringing a good number of splash fruit and keese eyes for the journey ahead. If you realize you need more during this part of the game, don’t fret — there will be a checkpoint that you can teleport directly to.

Wellspring Island focuses on a handful of repeated gimmicks: floating in water bubbles and using these to clean up mud, swimming up waterfalls, and using a hydrant to clean up even more mud.

The gravity on the island is weird and you’ll jump higher and fall slower, which can take some getting used to.

Wellspring Island walkthrough (first half)

Right off the bat, you’ll see tons of water bubbles shooting out of the ground and floating up to the sky. You can use Ultrahand to pick up and move these bubbles to wash away mud puddles.

A chest with a Soldier II blade is covered in mud next to a nearby bubble maker.

Meet up with Sidon ahead, who will scamper off. Take the bubble that shoots diagonally next to where you talk to him to head deeper into the island. Continue on, riding the bubbles and jumping from one to another.

When the ball inside the bubble begins to blink, that means the bubble is going to pop soon, so you can use that as a pretty good signal to jump off at that point.

After the series of bubbles, you’ll take on two constructs. Beat them and head forward to be greeted with a ton of sludge and a Zonai hydrant shooting water out. Use the Ultrahand to grab the hydrant and clean off the sludge. Once you do so, you’ll see an opening with a chest inside:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

This chest has a treasure map that you’ll need to head to the Depths to find, but we’ll keep focusing on the island for now.

Note that the hydrant can be turned on and off by hitting it, and it does drain your battery while it’s running.

Take the hydrant up the only path forward, cleaning off the mud as you leap up.

Make sure to check nearby crevices — you’ll find some health-restoring items like silent shrooms and hearty radish that will help aid you.

Mash off some mud that’s clogging up a waterfall directly ahead. Before you jump into the waterfall, make sure to use the hydrant to clean off sludge at the top of this platform (marked below), as there’s a chest with a portable hydrant inside:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

You can Ultrahand the hydrant up to clean the sludge or you can use a splash fruit.

Glide down towards the waterfalls and make sure you have the Zora armor on. Link will shoot up them high into the air when he makes contact, so you’ll need to use the boost from one waterfall to make it to the next. Make sure to ride the waterfalls to the north so you can grab the chest with three hover stones inside:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Keep climbing towards the shrine that you’ll see in the distance, which serves as a good half-way point of Wellspring Island.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Igoshon Shrine uses the water bubbles that you’re already familiar with. For a full walkthrough, you can check out our Igoshon Shrine guide.

Wellspring Island walkthrough (second half)

After you complete the shrine, head up the stairs. Use Ultrahand on a bird to place it on the ramp, facing forward. Once you stand on it, hit the orange glowing switch on the left with an arrow to launch the bird forward.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Continue on the path to another construct, though this one will have a flame-emitter club. Once it’s defeated, jump on to the waterfall in the southeast to head higher up. Head to the western-most platform to get another old map from a chest. Keep riding the waterfalls up, similarly how you did in the first half of the island.

After you head up, there’ll be three constructs defending a chest. Take them all out and open the chest to get a Soldier III blade.

Climb up the walls of the ruins to see more water bubbles. Use Recall on a bubble and jump on to it in order for it to carry you to the far island.

Use Ultrahand on the nearby rectangular pieces to create a ramp to the small floating platform above the water to claim a Captain II reaper weapon from the chest like so:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Stitch together more of the rectangles with Ultrahand to create a ramp for the water bubbles, so that they move diagonally to the next platform. Ride it up.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Use either a splash fruit or the Hydrant capsule item (you picked one up from an earlier chest) to rinse the mud off the chest for an opal.

With Ultrahand, attach a fan on each wing of a bird and attach a wheeled cart to the bottom of the bird like so:

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Hit the fans to turn them on, letting the bird launch you to Sidon. Take on one more construct and head up the waterfall to get to the last part of this quest: the Water Temple.