Breath of the Wild Guide: How to Upgrade Sheikah Runes

The Sheikah Slate is your trusty mobile companion in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While it doesn’t carry a cellphone signal, it does have plenty of useful runes that will open up a large part of the world. That said, you can upgrade three of these runes to further improve their utility — namely the bombs, stasis, and sensor runes.

Here’s where and how to get them!

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Where & How to Upgrade Sheikah Runes in Breath of the Wild

Before you get started….

While I would love to tell you that upgrading the Sheikah Slate is as simple as walking through the door, it isn’t. Until you have completed the main quest up to the point where Impa sends you to Hateno Village to repair the Sheikah Slate, you won’t be able to upgrade your runes.

Simply head to Kakariko to begin this main quest. Afterward, head to Hateno Village to repair the Sheikah Slate. There will be a short little quest that requires you to bring a blue flame to the furnace of the laboratory. To make it easier on you, be sure to light all the torches on the way — or else you could risk losing the blue flame to rain.

Upgrading Your Runes

Once you have completed the main quest for this area, Purah will offer you the chance to upgrade your Sheikah Slate’s functions in exchange for ancient materials. These materials are: three ancient screws, three ancient shafts, and three ancient cores. Only one set of particular materials is required to upgrade each rune, so don’t worry about having all of them on hand.

Finding the items can be a chore since the most common place to find them are none other than Guardians. Thankfully, Shrine Guardians will also have these items as drops, so you won’t have to worry too much about how to take down the colossal beasts. Alternatively, you can also try to find some of these pieces by interacting with the ruins of destroyed Guardians.

Upon upgrading the runes, each will receive a bonus function. The upgrades are as follows:

• Sensor+: The Sheikah Sensor can now search for any item in your Hyrule Compendium. To select an item, open your Sheikah Slate, press R to navigate to the Hyrule Compendium, and then select any item that you have taken a picture of. The Sensor+ will now replace the Shrine Sensor, and will work in a similar fashion.
• Bomb+: The Bomb+ rune creates a stronger blast, and also recharges faster. This is a recommended upgrade since it will make navigating through shrines or taking out foes much easier.
• Stasis+: Out of the three, Stasis+ is perhaps the least useful, although it can be quite fun to use. What this upgrade does is allow Link to freeze enemies in time. By doing so, you get the chance to wail on opponents before they have a chance to react.

That’s it for now!

It should be noted that the Sheikah Slate upgrades are purely optional, and only serve to improve your in-game quality of life. While they are still quite useful, they will not be needed to complete the game. That said, I would recommend upgrading at least the Sensor and Bombs since they have much more practical use in the field than the Stasis rune upgrade.

Check out our other Breath of the Wild guides!

• Melee Weapons Guide
• Horse Taming Guide
• Special Mounts Guide
• Great Fairy Locations
• Sheikah Rune Upgrades
• Zora Armor Set Locations
• Obtaining the Master Sword
• Keo Ruug Shrine Guide