Armor is upgraded at a Great Fairy fountain: wake a fairy with the Stable Trotters’ music, then pay rupees and hand over the materials to add up to four stars to each piece. Every star raises defense and sell price, and you need all four fairies awake to reach ★★★★.

How armor upgrades work

Each upgradable piece has four star levels. Defense climbs sharply with each one: a Hylian Hood goes 3, 5, 8, 12, 20, a Soldier’s Helm goes 4, 7, 12, 18, 28, and the Royal Guard pieces go from 4 to 24. Pieces that cannot be upgraded, such as the Archaic Tunic, show “Cannot enhance this item” when you pick them.

The cost has two parts. First comes rupees, charged per piece: 10 for the first star, 50 for the second, 200 for the third and 500 for the fourth, or 760 from a plain piece to maximum. A three-piece set therefore costs 2,280 rupees to finish, plus materials. The Ancient Hero’s Aspect fills three slots and charges three times as much: 30, 150, 600 and 1,500 rupees, 2,280 in total. Second come the materials. Each star needs a different list, and the lists get harder: the first star asks for common monster parts, and the fourth star often wants dragon parts, Lynel horns, gems or Star Fragments.

Upgrading also raises what the piece sells for. A Hylian Hood sells for 15 rupees at base, then 65, 165, 365 and 865 at ★ through ★★★★. Pieces with a higher base price rise in the same steps of 50, 100, 200 and 500 rupees.

The fairies work as a team. Each Great Fairy you awaken lets every awakened fairy enhance armor one star further, so with only one fairy awake you can reach ★ and she refuses the next star as beyond her strength. Wake all four and any piece can go to ★★★★. Upgrades are permanent, and any awake fairy can do any star level that is open.

Where to find every Great Fairy

The coordinates are map units: east first, then north, then altitude. Each fountain is a giant flower bud that stays shut until the Stable Trotters, the traveling band led by Mastro, play for the fairy. Wake Tera first: her Serenade to a Great Fairy is the quest that starts the series, the other serenades do not appear until she is awake, and she marks the remaining fountains on your map. After that the other three adventures can be done in any order.

Wake Cotera near Dueling Peaks Stable

Finish Honey, Bee Mine so the drummer Beetz rejoins the band (he wants three pieces of Courser Bee Honey), then talk to Mastro at Dueling Peaks Stable. Build a floating wagon with Ultrahand, fans and a steering stick, and ferry the troupe down the river past Little Twin Bridge to the bud.

Wake Tera at Woodland Stable

Talk to Penn at Woodland Stable and take on Serenade to a Great Fairy. Fit the two wheels from the nearby shed onto the troupe’s wagon with Ultrahand, switch a horse to the Towing Harness saddle at the stable, hitch the wagon to the horse and tow the band up the road to the giant flower.

Wake Kaysa near Outskirt Stable

Mastro’s flautist Pyper is missing. Complete The Flute Player’s Plan at Highland Stable in Faron (he needs 10 Sunset Fireflies to impress his crush), bring Pyper back and build a cart with big wheels and a steering stick, because sky debris blocks the road for horses. Drive the troupe over the rubble to Kaysa’s flower.

Wake Mija above Snowfield Stable

Find Eustus the horn player first (The Hornist’s Dramatic Escape, near Snowfield Stable; he is stuck in a hole and you build a device to lift him out), then fit a roof to the wagon, harness a horse with the Towing Harness and tow the troupe up the snowy slope. Wear cold-weather gear or carry Spicy Elixirs, and drive slowly, because rough rides upset the band. Mastro gives a Silver Rupee when the fairy wakes.

How to upgrade a piece

Pay the fairy and pick the piece

Walk onto the mushroom pad in front of an awake fairy, accept her offer to enhance your clothing and choose a piece in the armor menu. The Enhance screen shows the rupee cost and each required material with how many you carry, so you can see what is missing before you commit. Confirm, and the piece gains a star and its new defense value.

A few habits save time:

• Bring rupees and the materials in your pouch; the fairy takes them straight from your inventory and does not sell parts.
• Upgrade one star at a time. The list changes at every level, so the fairy asks for a fresh list each time you return for the same piece.
• Check the per-set table below before farming: a single star on a three-piece set often needs fifteen or more of one monster part.
• If a fairy says she is not strong enough, wake another fairy rather than farming more materials.
• Upgrade the pieces you wear most first.

The most common upgrade materials and where to farm them

Across all sets, a handful of materials appear in many lists. The table ranks them by how many sets need them and shows the total quantity across every piece. Star Fragments sit at the top because every Hero set and several mask and circlet pieces need them for the later stars.

Monster horns, fangs and guts come from the monster they are named for, and the stronger Blue, Black and Silver variants give the later-star versions (Blue Bokoblin Horn, Black Moblin Horn, Silver Lizalfos Horn and so on). Keep a stock of plain Bokoblin, Moblin and Lizalfos horns, because the first star of the early sets uses them.

Material needs for every armor set

The table lists the combined needs for every piece in each set (a three-piece set needs three times the single-piece amount). Defense is the range from an unupgraded piece to ★★★★. The last column gives the rupee total from a plain piece to ★★★★. Hand over the ★ column first, then return for the ★★ column, and so on.