After clearing Suthorn, take the path west out of Hyrule Field; it drops over sandy ledges into the desert, and the moment you arrive the A Rift in the Gerudo Desert main quest begins. The region’s problem is a huge rift in the middle of the desert that has swallowed Gerudo Sanctum, and a trio of worn-out Gerudo soldiers you meet among the palms are determined to get rid of it and take the sanctum back.
Entering the Desert and the Oasis
Past the soldiers, head across the open sand toward the Oasis. The desert’s first new monsters are worth killing for their echoes: an Aruroda, a one-eyed scorpion that tries to sting from behind, and a Sand Piranha, which swims through the sand near the cliffs. Keep going and you’ll reach the green edge of the Oasis, where you can activate its Waypoint.
The Oasis is a palm-ringed pond with a few things worth doing before you move on. The stall beside the pink tent is a Business Scrub’s branch of the Smoothie Shop; blending your first drink here starts the Recipes, Please! side quest, which asks for ten new recipes and pays out the Survey Scope accessory, and smoothies are your heal-on-demand safety net for the whole game. Tormali, an oasis guard standing nearby, has been searching the desert for tiles and gives you The Flying Tile side quest. The pink tent is the Tough Mango Plant Lab, home of the Mango Rush minigame (10 rupees a round): harvest 40 or more mangoes for 5 tough mangoes, then try the vibrant seeds for a bigger field and a prize like the golden fan. You’ll be back for a heart piece later.
The story picks up at the huge rift in the middle of the desert, southwest of the Oasis, where the walls of old ruins poke out of the sand. (The video roams the desert and even visits Gerudo Town first; the scene below plays whenever you approach these ruins.) Tri says she can open a way in beneath the sand, but a Gerudo guard in a doorway of the ruined wall won’t let anyone through without the chief’s authority. While you’re being turned away, a scream rings out nearby; follow it and fight off the rift monsters surrounding a red-helmeted Gerudo warrior. She’s Dohna, the captain investigating the rifts; she explains that the sanctum’s entrance lies beneath the sand, now flooded, and asks you to meet her at the palace in Gerudo Town, just northwest of here.
Gerudo Town
Gerudo Town is worth a lap before you head to the palace. A Gerudo in a courtyard challenges you to Gerudo Tag Training; catch her for 6 chilly cactus. The woman on the stairs who wants to study one of the elusive tumbleweeds starts the tumbleweed request: grab one in the desert with Bind, drag it back to her, and she gives you 2 unusual crystals. Another Gerudo swears a tornado “ghost” chased her through a sandstorm (Tornado Ghost?); summon a Tornando echo in front of her to show it was only a monster, and she pays you 10 containers of fresh milk. The shop sells the Gerudo Sandals for 400 rupees, which stop you sinking in quicksand. You probably won’t have that much yet (the footage passes on them here and buys them much later, after the Gerudo Sanctum), but come back for them once you can afford it.
The guards won’t let an outsider into Gerudo Palace on your own. Once Dohna brings you in, she introduces you to Chief Seera and her advisor Facette; Facette doesn’t trust a stranger and says now is not the time to be entertaining one. On the way out, a guard passes on a message from Dohna: head due east from town to the Oasis. She’s waiting by the pond there and tells you about three small rifts, in the Southern Oasis Ruins, the Ancestor’s Cave of Rest and the Southern Gerudo Desert. She trusts you, and if you get rid of a rift she’s sure the chief will trust you too.
Southern Oasis Ruins Rift
Head south from the Oasis to the Southern Oasis Ruins. Two exhausted Gerudo soldiers stand beside a small rift, worn out from the monsters that keep coming out of it, and as you arrive another wave of dark monsters rises out of the rift in clouds of purple smoke.
Defeat them all to protect the soldiers. Summon an attacker echo to fight beside you, or switch to Swordfighter Form. The soldiers thank you, but Tri can’t create a rift entrance here, so the rift stays put. The Southern Oasis Ruins Rift quest still completes.
Southern Gerudo Desert Rift
Head to the rift south of Gerudo Town, where a squad of Gerudo warriors guarding it has run out of water and is too thirsty to move. Dohna says plain water won’t do and asks you to buy a Cactus Smoothie from the Smoothie Shop at the oasis, handing you 2 pieces of Chilly Cactus so the shop can make one.
Take the cacti to the Smoothie Shop at the oasis and have them blended into a Cactus Smoothie, then bring it back and give it to Dohna. If you already have a Cactus Smoothie in your bag (the video does), you can hand it over on the spot. The warriors drink up and feel refreshed, completing Southern Gerudo Desert Rift, though Tri still can’t find a way into this rift.
Ancestor’s Cave of Rest Rift
The last marker is the Ancestor’s Cave of Rest, a doorway flanked by two lit braziers next to a rift. Inside, a rift cuts across the chamber. A Gerudo warrior explains that the torches by the ancestral grave have gone out, and with the rift in the way she can’t get near the grave to relight them.
Bind the big boulder against the left wall and drag it aside to reveal a hidden door. The room beyond is full of burrowing Holmills. Defeat one when it pops out of its hole to learn the Holmill echo, which digs holes in soft earth. Then Bind the boulder in the room’s top-left corner and drag it away to uncover the opening beneath it, and climb down.
You’re now in a side-view sandstone passage of ladders and ledges, patrolled by small sand crabs. Work your way right. A chest on a ledge along the way holds a Golden Egg, which recovers hearts but works better mixed into a smoothie. At the far end, climb the ladder up.
You come up beside the ancestral tomb on the far side of the rift, with an unlit brazier on each side. Light both with Ignizol. The ancestor’s spirit thanks you, says they can rest peacefully now, and asks you to tell her descendant that all is well. Head back to the guard, who is grateful, but the rift stays: Tri can’t find anywhere to open an entrance here. Dohna then arrives with word that the chief wants a status update.
Mending the Great Rift
Warp back to Gerudo Town and enter Gerudo Palace for a second audience. Facette accuses you of coming back with nothing, but Dohna vouches for you, and her warriors file in to declare they stand at her side. Facette still orders you thrown in jail, until a warrior bursts in: the rift at the ruins in the eastern desert has grown and taken more warriors. Chief Seera leads everyone out (“Onward, warriors!”), and Tri thinks she can make an entrance. Warp to the Oasis, head east to the walled ruins where the Gerudo have gathered, and Tri opens the way into the rift with a beam of light.
Inside the Still World, Tri senses her friends in five different areas; the five-slot counter under your echo icons tracks how many you’ve freed. The area is a maze of floating rock islands and ruined walls over a purple void, and the Old Bed and Trampoline echoes do most of the work here, as stairs, bridges and springboards.
First: cross the islands from the entrance, dealing with the enemies along the way, until you reach a wall with a tall pillar beside it. Stack Old Beds next to the pillar, set a Trampoline on top, and bounce up to the upper ledge. From the carved stone ledge, lay a bridge of Old Beds across the void to a floating island holding a dark boulder; break it open to free the first friend.
Second: walk back over your bed bridge to the stone walkway and continue along it past a spiky plant, using the fallen pillar to reach a raised ledge. A dark mass sits on top; break it to free the second friend.
Third: from the patterned stone platform, stack Old Bed echoes into a staircase up onto the plateau with the dark tree stump. The trapped friend is perched on top of the stump, and lying beside it is a stilled Facette — strange, since Tri points out she was just outside. Place another Old Bed against the stump, hop up, and touch the friend to free it.
Fourth: carry on to the rocky ledge with the huge spiked rock. The next friend sits on top of a tall red stone pillar rising from the sandy shelf below, too far to jump to. Build a short pier of Old Beds off the edge of the ledge, stand on the end, summon a Keese echo and grab hold of it, then glide across and drop onto the pillar to free the friend.
Fifth: head back to the plateau where the stilled Facette lies and drop through the square hole in the floor. It leads to a side-scrolling stone chamber full of yellow one-eyed blocks. Use Bind to drag the blocks into place as steps and climb up to the high left-hand ledge where the last friend is trapped. With all five free, Tri’s friends gather around her and share their power, and you get 2 Unusual Crystals from Tri before heading back to your world.
Mending the rift brings the swallowed warriors back to the ruins — along with the real Facette, who comes to in the sand. Cornered, the “Facette” who has been advising Seera insists Zelda is the monster, but Seera isn’t fooled, and the impostor dissolves into purple shadow as she tries to flee. Seera apologizes and gives you her blessing to restore the Sanctum: its entrance sits at the base of a quicksand flow in the southern desert, buried because the cave that drained the sand was plugged (another of the fake Facette’s ideas). Speak to the guard at that cave mouth; she confirms the plug is just inside, but the place is swarming with monsters. The cave is the Cryptic Cavern.
Cryptic Cavern
Head to the rift ruins, where a Gerudo guard stands at a doorway in the ruined wall. He tells you the plug stopping the quicksand is just inside, but monsters have kept him out. Step through into Cryptic Cavern. In the first room the north door is barred and an eye switch sits on a pillar across a pit; summon a Boomerang Boarblin Lv. 2 echo and let its boomerang hit the eye. It turns yellow and the door opens.
The next room is crossed by Wind Cannons blasting gusts over the pits; work your way through the jets to the room beyond. That room holds Gibdos; beat them with your echoes to learn the Gibdo echo. Continue into the room lined with Pathblades, spinning blades that charge along fixed lanes. Lay a row of beds across the pit to reach the ledge with another eye switch, then have the Boomerang Boarblin hit it. A chest appears in the north room; open it for a Small Key.
Head into the sand-pile room off the Wind Cannon room and defeat the Arurodas to open its barred door. Then go back to the Wind Cannon room and use the key on the locked door in its far corner. Stairs lead down into a side-view chamber of ladders, ledges and Wind Cannon gusts. Use beds and the cannons to cross the gusts and reach the chest on the low ledge for 20 rupees.
Further on, defeat a Pathblade to learn the Pathblade echo. Sand piles block the upper passages; summon a Wind Cannon on a ledge facing a pile and it blows the sand away, and stack beds to climb to the higher ledges. Near the end a Gibdo Lv. 2 waits among the Pathblades; kill it for the echo. Then Bind the giant plug in the right wall and pull. The sand drains away and the Gerudo Sanctum entrance appears in the rift. You still have to find a way to open the rift itself before you can go in.
Flying Tiles: if you haven’t learned the Flying Tile echo yet, it comes from a small cave room in the red-rock canyon, where patterned floor tiles fly at you. Break one to learn it, and you can stand on a summoned tile to fly a short way. Show the echo to Tormali at the Oasis to progress her quest, The Flying Tile.
Gerudo Sanctum: Entrance and Steam Pipes
With the plug pulled, the Sanctum’s entrance now stands clear of the sand; walk in through the doorway. The first hall’s back wall breaks away into the purple void of the rift, and Tri decides she can create an entrance there; she opens a golden opening in the void and the A Rift in the Gerudo Desert quest updates. As you turn back, a figure in a green tunic appears at the ladder at the back of the hall and vanishes up it (Tri: “Zelda, wasn’t that Link?”). Follow him up the ladder.
The next area is a side-view room of ladders and ledges, with pipes jetting steam across it; the steam hurts, so don’t walk into it. Climb up to the boulder resting on a ledge above the jets and push it off the edge: it drops into the left-hand pipe and plugs it, shutting off that jet. Then climb the ladder that the steam was covering and the tall ladder beyond.
You come out in a smaller area with a Waypoint in the left corner; activate it. There’s a locked door at the rear and open doors on either side.
Take the left door first. This room’s floor is dotted with patterned tiles, and they lift off and fly at Zelda while spinning top-like enemies roam the room. Dodge the volley and fight off the enemies; when the last tile shatters, a chest appears by the left wall holding 20 rupees.
The Blue Cube Door and the Small Key
Take the right door from the Waypoint room. A conveyor belt runs along the bottom of the room below a fenced ledge, and the exit doorway at the top right is blocked by two blue cubes. Deal with the spinning top enemies and the Keese first, and grab the rupee riding the conveyor.
On the left side of the room stands a post with a handle. Bind the handle and walk down onto the conveyor, pulling it out as far as it goes; that drags the two blue cubes apart and opens the doorway. Then summon an Old Bed on the conveyor beside the fence, hop onto it, climb over the fence onto the ledge, and walk through the gap between the cubes.
Past a dark passage, the next room looks empty, but the rear wall has handles. Bind them and pull backward: a large block slides out of the wall, opening the way into a hidden room. Inside, a chest surrounded by jars holds the Small Key.
Use the small key on the rear door of the Waypoint room. The room beyond holds four Snake Statues; learn the echo off one, then continue through the rear door into a sand-floored room that locks behind you while several Mothulas swoop in. A Boomerang Boarblin handles them well. Kill them, learn the Mothula echo, and take the door on the left wall (the sand-buried door at the back comes later).
The next room is split by a dividing wall: your side has pots and plants hiding Refreshing Grapes and Electro Apples, while a chest sits out of reach on the other side, so leave it for now. Exit through the bottom doorway to a moving floor sliding back and forth over a huge gap.
The far platform is cluttered with wooden crates that block the way to the ladder hatch. Ride the moving floor over, then summon a Boulder, lift it and throw it to smash the crates. Step off and take the ladder down.
Keep descending the ladders to a platform where Caromadillos roll at you; a Peahat chews through them. Head down the slope (more Caromadillos roll down it) and climb the ladder on the right to a sand block sitting above a walled-in chest. Summon a Holmill on the sand to dig through, drop into the nook, and open the chest for a Golden Egg. Work your way back down the slope and up the left-hand ladder to the next area.
The Tribute Tablets
You arrive at a room with a mysterious stone tablet in the middle and a Waypoint in the bottom-left corner; activate it. Reading the tablet tells you to “Seek two distinct tributes” and that the clues are recorded somewhere on this floor. The sealed door behind it is flanked by two red tiles, which is where the tributes go.
Head right and Bind-pull the handled wall block on the right-hand wall to open a gap. The next room is buried in sand mounds; blow them away with a Wind Cannon, fight off the Peahats and other monsters that turn up, and Bind the chest poking out of one mound to drag it free for 10 Rock Salt. The tablet in the room’s upper-right gives the first clue: “It stands quietly in the sanctum. It is blue in color, with large tusks and a long nose.” That’s the Elephant Statue. (In the footage this room is only explored much later, on the way back to the tribute room.)
Now take the left door of the tablet room. Inside, a Poe drifts among dark green blocks and Peahats, setting the floor alight with purple flames and slipping through walls when chased. Summon Peahats to wear it down. Kill it, learn the echo, and the chest that appears holds the Dungeon Map.
The Outer Walls
Leaving the map room drops you onto the dungeon’s outer edge in the Still World, where you catch another glimpse of the Link lookalike running across a sand ledge. Clear the enemies on the ledge, then stack two Old Beds under the square opening in the dungeon wall and climb in for a small room full of loose rupees.
Back outside, follow the floating sand islands onward, fighting enemies as you go. On the island with the palm tree, a chest sits on a separate ledge; Bind it and drag it over to you, then open it for 20 rupees. Lay an Old Bed against the raised cracked platform to climb up and continue.
The path ends at a tall blue tower with a ladder on its upper half. Bind the tower’s lower section and pull to twist it around until the bottom half of the ladder lines up. Climb it for a chest with 50 rupees.
Hop left onto the stone walkway and follow it, dealing with the enemies there quickly as whirlwinds drift past. Continue to the island where cacti ring a sunken sand pit, lay Old Beds across the pit to get over it, and climb the stone steps beyond. They lead to a Waypoint in the tiled courtyard on the Sanctum’s roof.
Clear the rooftop enemies. Just left of the Waypoint, a patch of the floor is actually sand: once you have the Holmill echo, have a Holmill burrow there and Zelda drops into a sealed jar room below, where the chest holds 50 rupees. To get back out, have a Holmill dig through the sand patch in the jar room’s floor.
At the roof’s southern end, use a Wind Cannon to blow away the sand mounds and uncover a chest containing a Monster Stone. Then cross to the right side of the roof and climb down the blue wall sections to reach the sand ledges on the far side.
The Bow of Might
Re-enter the dungeon through the left door. In the sandy room beyond, clear out the spinning enemies, then hop onto the short stone pillars and lay a line of Old Bed echoes across the sand up to the raised walkway along the right. At the top, blue cubes block a doorway: Bind the pole on the room’s left side and pull it to drag the cubes apart, then go through.
The next room is full of red cat statues, mummy enemies and spinners. Learn the Cat Statue echo off the statue right beside you as you enter, then clear the room with your echoes (a Wind Cannon will also blow away the sand piles). When it’s quiet, Bind the cat statue standing in front of the door in the top-left corner, drag it aside and go through.
Activate the Waypoint in the room lined with green pots and take the far door. In the big sand room with the pits, Link appears in front of the gated door, carrying a bow. This time he’s on your side: a horde of spinning enemies attacks, and he fights alongside you, firing arrows while your echoes and Swordfighter Form handle the rest. Mind the pits.
Once the room is clear, Link walks up to the gate and a dark rift swallows him. A wave of purple shadow archers and other monsters pours in; the jars and sand piles hold hearts if you need them. Fight back with echoes (a Boarblin works well) and Swordfighter Form until they’re all gone. Link’s bow is left lying on the sand: pick up the Bow of Might, which lets Zelda fire arrows with X in Swordfighter Form. Tri suspects this is like what happened with Facette at the castle, and that fixing the rift might help the real Link. Use a Wind Cannon to blow the sand piles aside and head for the next door.
The Elephant Statue
The next room is a side-view chamber of ledges and ladders, with spiders crawling across the floor. Blast them away with a Wind Cannon or fight them off, then switch to Swordfighter Form and break the purple goo wall beside the right-hand ladder. Stack Old Beds into steps to reach the ladder and climb up; on the upper ledge, cut through a second goo wall on the left with your sword to move on.
The next room has a Waypoint just inside; activate it. Ahead, moving floors run over a dark pit, guarded by flame-spitting devices. Standing on solid ground at the belt’s edge, Bind the flame device and pull to rotate it away from your lane, then ride across.
The next belt runs north past more flame devices. Turn what you can from solid ground; for the rest you have to ride the floor and Bind them mid-ride, dragging each one around before you reach it. Past the flames, learn the Elephant Statue echo off the blue statues, one of the sanctum’s tribute statues.
Grab the Small Key from the chest on the left, behind the lattice among the elephant statues. Then head back the way you came: ride the southbound belt (Bind its end flames away fast), drop back down into the side-view room, and return through the sand pit room to the pot room.
The Hawk Statue
With the Small Key in hand, head down through the sand room to the jar-filled rooms beyond. The last jar room looks like a dead end, but the middle of the rear wall is a lighter block with a different pattern. Bind it and pull to drag it out of the wall and open the secret passage.
Zelda smashing jars in the Gerudo Sanctum jar room that looks like a dead end.
Zelda Binds the differently patterned block in the middle of the jar room’s rear wall.
The pulled-out wall block reveals the secret passage out of the Gerudo Sanctum jar room.
The passage leads into a fire room: dark pits, unlit braziers on pillars, a steam vent, and flame-spouting devices whose jets shoot across the pits. Bind each flame device and pull to swing it around until its jet hits a brazier, and drag Old Beds into place as a bridge to reach the ones beside the steam vent. Light every brazier to open the nook in the back wall.
A flame jet lights the first brazier in the Gerudo Sanctum fire room as Zelda watches from the stairs.
Zelda Binds a flame-spouting device across the pit to swing its jet toward a brazier.
Zelda drags an Old Bed into place to extend her bridge beside the steam vent in the fire room.
All the fire-room braziers burning after Zelda turns the flame devices onto them.
In the nook, between two lit braziers, a tablet reads: “It rests its wings atop a tower. It bears sharp eyes and a strong beak.” That’s the Hawk Statue, and it lives outside, in the Stilled Gerudo Sanctum. (If you explored the outside thoroughly earlier, you may already have it, as the video does.)
The nook behind the lit braziers holding the hawk clue tablet in Gerudo Sanctum.
Hawk clue tablet text: it rests its wings atop a tower, with sharp eyes and a strong beak.
Head out into the purple Stilled Gerudo Sanctum and work your way along the narrow ledges and walkways, fighting the enemies that block them. When you reach a ledge of blue cacti blocked by sand mounds, place a Wind Cannon to blow the sand away.
Zelda fights along a narrow walkway in the purple Stilled Gerudo Sanctum on the way to the tower.
A Wind Cannon echo blows the sand mounds off the cactus ledge below the Stilled Sanctum tower.
Beyond the cacti stands a tall blue tower whose ladder faces away from you. Bind the tower and pull until it rotates the ladder around to your side, then climb it. At the very top sits the Hawk Statue, tribute number two.
Zelda Binds the tall blue tower and pulls to rotate its base in the Stilled Gerudo Sanctum.
The tower’s ladder now faces the ledge, ready to climb, among blue cacti.
Zelda reaches the round tower top where the Hawk Statue stands.
“You learned the hawk-statue echo!” as Zelda holds it up atop the tower.
Big Key and Boss Door
Return to the mysterious tablet room and place the Elephant Statue echo on one red tile and the Hawk Statue on the other. The great door opens.
Elephant Statue echo on the right red tile beside the sealed tribute door; left tile still empty.
Hawk Statue on the left tile and Elephant Statue on the right; the great tribute door is open.
In the next room, a giant stone plug is set in the right-hand wall above a grate. Bind it and pull left; it slides out, sand pours from the hole, and a short scene shows the sand draining out of a round chamber deeper in the dungeon. Head on to that chamber.
The giant stone plug set in the wall above a grate in the room beyond the tribute door.
Zelda Binds the giant wall plug and pulls it out to the left.
Sand pours out of the hole where the plug was as the dungeon drains.
Cutscene of sand draining away from the round dais room deeper in Gerudo Sanctum.
You’re facing a chest locked on a dais inside two concentric stone rings. Turn the wheel in the bottom-left corner to rotate the rings, and Bind the inner ring to turn it too, until each ring’s gap lines up with the line on the floor. When both line up the rings glow and the walls drop away; open the chest for the Big Key.
Zelda turns the wheel in the bottom-left corner to rotate the dais rings around the chest.
Zelda Binds the inner ring of the dais to turn it so its gap lines up.
Both ring gaps lined up with the floor path; the rings glow and the Big Key chest is open to reach.
Zelda holds up the Big Key: “You got the big key! Now you can open the big door!”
The door in the top-right corner takes you straight to the ornate boss door. Activate the Waypoint beside it, top off your hearts, and unlock it.
Zelda activates the Waypoint statue beside the Gerudo Sanctum boss door.
Zelda heads for the top-right door of the dais room toward the boss door.
Zelda at the ornate boss door with the Open prompt, Big Key in hand.
Boss: Mogryph
A goggled, burrowing desert beast. In phase one it tunnels under the flat sand floor and pops up around the edges of the arena; set down a Wind Cannon echo aimed at it to blast it out of the sand, then rush in and hit it while it’s exposed (Swordfighter Form speeds this up). For phase two the floor sinks away, leaving raised sand blocks to stand on, and Mogryph sprouts wings and flies around whipping up sand tornadoes. Keep to the blocks, dodge the tornadoes, and use Wind Cannons again to knock it out of the air, then finish it with Swordfighter Form. Beating it gives Zelda the ability to create echoes at a distance and drops a Heart Container.
Mogryph pokes out of the sand in the Gerudo Sanctum boss arena as Zelda sets down a Wind Cannon echo.
A Wind Cannon gust blasts Mogryph out of the sand, leaving it exposed for Zelda to attack.
In the second phase the arena floor drops to raised sand blocks and Mogryph takes to the air on wings.
Winged Mogryph whips up a sand tornado while Zelda dodges on the raised sand blocks of the arena.
Zelda in Swordfighter Form slashes the downed Mogryph after a Wind Cannon knocks it out of the air.
Zelda holds up the Heart Container won from Mogryph, with the “You got a Heart Container!” text box.
Desert Collectibles, Step by Step
The desert has a handful of extras worth grabbing, including Pieces of Heart and at least one Stamp Stand (among the red rock spires). Three of the heart pieces sit out in the world and can be picked up during the story; the other two are prizes from side activities covered further down. Here are the three free-standing ones in the order you’ll naturally pass them.
The Gerudo Desert title card over open dunes and cacti as Zelda first arrives in the desert.
Stamp Guy at a Gerudo Desert stamp stand between red rock spires, telling Zelda “This is a stamp stand!”
Piece of Heart 1: the sandstorm block
Where: In the Gerudo Desert sandstorm past the Boarblin camp with the log towers. It sits on a raised sandstone block below and in front of a higher sandstone ledge. How: Climb onto the high ledge, place an Old Bed sticking out over its edge, walk to the end of the bed and drop onto the block with the piece.
Zelda on a high sandstone ledge in the Gerudo sandstorm, the Piece of Heart on a block below
Zelda walks out on an Old Bed placed off the ledge, above the Piece of Heart block
Zelda holds up the Piece of Heart on the sandstone block in the Gerudo sandstorm
Piece of Heart 2: the passage under Gerudo Town
From Gerudo Town’s east edge, walk out past the domed pools and palms onto the rocky ground beyond the town and look for a small square hatch in the ground. Climb down into a side-view passage with one-eyed moving platforms. Ride the platforms and use Bind to drag them where you need them, then Bind the stacked boulders blocking the way and pull them aside. The Piece of Heart waits at the end of the passage.
The square hatch in the rocky ground beyond Gerudo Town’s eastern pools that leads down to the heart passage.
In the side-view passage under the hatch, Zelda uses Bind to drag a one-eyed moving platform into place.
Zelda rides a platform and Binds the stacked boulders blocking the passage to pull them out of the way.
Zelda holds up the Piece of Heart at the end of the underground passage east of Gerudo Town.
Piece of Heart 3: buried in the dunes
In the field of sand dunes just outside Gerudo Town (on the way toward the big rift), the ground is dotted with sand mounds and Aruroda scorpions. The piece is buried under one of the mounds. Set down Wind Cannon echoes to blow the mounds away (they also keep the Aruroda busy) until the Piece of Heart is uncovered, then grab it.
Zelda places a Wind Cannon echo among the sand mounds in the dunes outside Gerudo Town.
With the mound blown away, a Piece of Heart lies exposed on the sand while Wind Cannons fend off Aruroda.
Zelda holds up the dune Piece of Heart, completing a heart: “You got four Pieces of Heart!”
Piece of Heart 4: the Lanmola
The Wild Sandstorms side quest starts in the Gerudo Palace, where two Gerudo soldiers have volunteered to exterminate the Lanmola, the giant sand centipede behind the desert’s sandstorms (“Whoever takes it down will be quite the hero”). Head out into the sandstorm and wait for it to burst out of the sand, then let a strong melee echo do the work; Darknut echoes chewed through it here. There’s only one Lanmola, and it drops a Piece of Heart in a ring of rupees. Report back to the palace and Facette rewards you with the Gold Sash, which stops you being windblown. (The sand worm you fight in the sandstorm during the story only drops rupees; in this playthrough the quest was done in late cleanup.)
Two Gerudo soldiers in Gerudo Palace volunteer to exterminate the Lanmola, starting the Wild Sandstorms quest.
A Darknut echo slashes the purple Lanmola centipede as it bursts from the sand in the Gerudo Desert sandstorm.
The defeated Lanmola leaves a Piece of Heart inside a ring of rupees on the Gerudo Desert sand.
Zelda holds up the Piece of Heart dropped by the Lanmola in the Gerudo Desert.
Back in Gerudo Palace, Zelda holds up the Gold Sash, Facette’s reward for defeating the Lanmola.
Piece of Heart 5: Mango Rush
At the Oasis, the Tough Mango Plant Lab researcher eventually offers ultimate seeds for Mango Rush (10 rupees). These seeds grow thorns, and the target is 60 or more of the 70 mangos. The first clear (65/70 here) earns a Dancing Outfit, traditional Gerudo dance wear that widens your spin. Play the ultimate seeds again and harvest all 70: the researcher hands over a Piece of Heart as a “special bonus gift,” plus the tough mangos you picked. Keep spinning through the rows rather than chasing singles off-route (see Minigames for the full course breakdown).
The Tough Mango Plant Lab researcher at the Oasis offers Mango Rush with her ultimate seeds.
Zelda holds up the Dancing Outfit, the reward for her first Ultimate-seed Mango Rush clear.
Zelda spins through the thorny Ultimate-seed Mango Rush field, at 54 of 70 mangoes.
FINISHED! banner with the Mango Rush counter at a perfect 70 of 70 mangoes.
Zelda holds up the Piece of Heart, the bonus gift for a perfect Mango Rush in the Tough Mango Plant Lab.
The Gerudo Stamp Stands
Gerudo Desert has four of the Stamp Guy’s stands; the fifth stamp on this first card comes from the stand at the ranch gate in Hyrule Field. First, among the red rock spires out in the dunes. The Stamp Guy pops up here, hands you a stamp card and explains the rally. Second, on a red-rock canyon plateau; stack bed echoes to climb up to it. Third, on the cracked red-rock ledges just outside Gerudo Town, again reached by climbing with beds. Fourth, at the end of a walled sand corridor beside the big rift, right by a Might Crystal. Stamp the ranch-gate stand to fill the card and the Stamp Guy gives you 10 containers of fresh milk.
The Stamp Guy pops up at the first Gerudo Desert stamp stand among the red rock spires.
A stamp stand on a red-rock canyon plateau in the Gerudo Desert, reached by stacking bed echoes.
A stamp stand on the cracked red-rock ledges just outside Gerudo Town.
A stamp stand at the end of a walled sand corridor beside the big Gerudo Desert rift.
Might Crystals and echoes
Beating Mogryph pays out 5 Might Crystals along with its Heart Container (they’re still called “unusual crystals” at this point; the counter jumps from 20 to 25). Sealing the Gerudo rift also adds some, and the smaller Stilled Northern Gerudo Desert rift gives 2 more when you come back to close it later. The rest sit in chests on ledges and in caves around the dunes. While you’re out in the desert, make sure you’ve scanned Tornando (the sand cave with the Wind Cannons), Flying Tile (the dark tiled room where the tiles fly at you), Holmill (Ancestor’s Cave of Rest), and the Sanctum’s snake, hawk and elephant statues. The statues are only learnable inside the Gerudo Sanctum (the hawk is on a tower top in its Still World half), and its tribute doors need them, so don’t leave without them.
Zelda learns the Tornando echo in a sandy Gerudo Desert cave room.
After Mogryph falls, the crystal counter reaches 25 beside its Heart Container in the Gerudo Sanctum arena.
With the desert mended, Tri points you to the next rift, “far to the east in a place with lots of water.” Head east across Hyrule Field to Jabul Waters to settle the Zora feud.
In Gerudo Town, Tri says the next rift is far to the east in a place with lots of water.
The Jabul Waters title appears over the Zora docks as Zelda arrives.
