There is a lot to do in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. As you complete your mission to help Princess Zelda and save the kingdom, you’ll encounter interesting locations, enchanting shrines, colorful characters, and the occasional horse god or two.
You’ll also take part in a variety of mini-game activities scattered throughout Hyrule. Whether it’s a skill-based challenge or a game of luck and chance, the mini-games available in Tears of the Kingdom will enthrall you between fierce battles and expansive temples. Here are our picks for the best minigames.
7 flight range
Located near Rito Village, Flight Range will be familiar to anyone who played Breath of the Wild, the predecessor to Tears of the Kingdom. In that game, Flight Range serves as a practice field for shooting arrows in the air, but the sequel changes things up a bit.
At Tears of the Kingdom, the flight range focuses on practicing the gliding itself. You use constant updrafts to find the best route and try to get through as many rings as possible to reach a certain number before the time limit runs out. Finding the best path to glide, drop and climb in this windy playground is a lot of fun.
6 Sky Island Diving Challenge
Rito’s flying range is really fun, but gliding isn’t the only aerial activity you’ll be engaging in. Because the game is full of sky islands, sometimes you spend a lot of time diving at high speed. This is where the various diving challenges come in.
If you’ve spotted one of Tears of the Kingdom’s collection of large, vertically rotating sky islands, chances are you’re looking at one of the game’s diving challenges. Go to the bottom of the area and talk to the structure there to take on the challenge and get some potentially very useful rewards.
5 minecart land
Minecarts can be seen around Hyrule from the Disaster Age and travel across the game’s rails at a convenient pace. Tears of the Kingdom adds a lot of usefulness to the wheeled wonder, from shield fusion that gives you a makeshift skateboard, to fast-paced, fan-driven trips around Death Mountain.
The latter method is particularly useful when taking part in a cart challenge offered by the three Goron brothers near Goron Village in a fun-filled area known as “Mine Cart Land”. You’ll hit targets with arrows as you move quickly through a series of tracks as the challenges get progressively grander and more difficult.
4 treasure chest shop
If you stumbled upon Lurelin Village in Breath of the Wild, you might have found a treasure chest shop there. In this unique shop, you can get a chance to open one of three chests by spending a small amount of rupees. If you choose the right one, you might walk away with a lot more rupees than you paid to participate.
The Treasure Chest Shop returns in Tears of the Kingdom, albeit slightly altered. You can open one of the chests for free, and the type of rupees you find will determine which of the shopkeeper’s prizes you take with you. It’s a nice twist on an already fun idea.
three racing mini game
With Tears of the Kingdom’s focus on wild vehicle crafting, it would have been an absolute crime if the game didn’t include some form of racing mini-game. Thankfully, there are several options to choose from if you want to test your creations.
There is an area in the town of Tarrey where Zonai parts are being researched and one of the researchers is interested in how your Zonai construct performs in her process. Likewise, when things calm down a bit in Lurelin Village, you can take part in boat races. Both activities are exciting, so experiment with different builds to get the best time.
2 hide and seek
Kingdom Tears is surprisingly full of children, from toddlers to teenagers. As expected, they spend most of their time running and playing, and sometimes you can join in the fun.
In Gerudo Village, you come across a young girl standing near a strangely shaped orb. She asks if she can have it and she will agree to one condition. First you have to join the game of hide and seek! She will hide a small plush version of the game’s sand seal, and you must search the area before time runs out. It’s nice to see kids being kids despite the impending doom.
One Sky Island Basketball (and more)
Many of Tears of the Kingdom’s mini-games are handcrafted for your enjoyment, but the game’s most enjoyable moments are created through clever use of items and mechanics. Toys are everywhere for Link to play with, and he finds fun things to do with them.
For example, in the sky near the Sky Mine, you may have found a floating orb with a giant button inside. You will need to use the launcher on the nearby island to send a large block into the orb’s entrance hole. Finding the perfect angle to shoot a block into a hole is fun enough, but it’s just as fun to solve puzzles in your own way using items like rockets and floating cubes. This is just one example of the DIY nature that makes Tears of the Kingdom’s gameplay so special.