Upgrading armor in Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom isn’t as straightforward as finding a blacksmith and throwing some coins at him to do the job. You need to find and unlock special Great Fairies for this purpose.
There are four Great Fairy Fountains to uncover, and one fairy can only upgrade your armor once, meaning you need to unlock all four to reach the highest level/star rating. Without further adieu, let’s dive into how you can unlock the Great Fairy Fountains and upgrade your armor in Zelda TotK.
Prerequisites for Upgrading Armor
You can meet the Great Fairies while exploring Hyrule, but they’ll continue to hide in their buds until you serenade them with their favorite music. So before we go troubling the Great Fairy, you must do these steps to trigger the quest that leads you to unlock them.
- Unlock the Lookout Landing tower and talk to Penn, the bird outside the building. He’ll ask for some with the newspaper he’s working for.
- Next, head to the Lucky Clover Gazette, northwest of the Lookout Landing near Rito Village. Talk to Penn here again, and he’ll introduce you to Traysi, who’ll set you on a long questline to track down clues of Zelda’s disappearance and the Great Fairies.
You need two more things to do before we hunt down the fairies:
- You need to tame a horse that can pull a cart.
- Gather enough Pony Points to acquire the Towing Harness that you can get from the Pony Point rewards.
Unlocking Great Fairy Tera – First Armor Upgrade
After completing all the previous steps, head to the Woodland Stables, where Penn is seen standing next to a traveling band. Talk to him, and you’ll learn about the Great Fairies and how they like music. We must take them to the one nearby, who shut herself up in her flower bud, to serenade her and unlock her in the process.
There is a broken wagon next to the musician that you must assemble using the Ultrahand ability. Thankfully, all the parts are close by. Next, pull out your horse from the stable, equip the Towing Harness, and connect the horse to the assembled wagon.
Talk to the musicians, get on the horse, and park the wagon near them. They will jump into the buggy. Head directly uphill northwest to the Fairy (the giant green bud puffing pink smoke you see in the picture). Try to ride gently; otherwise, the passengers might fall and reset the quest.
Once you reach the bud with the musicians, a cutscene will trigger where they lure the Great Fairy Tera out of her hiding with their melody.
Now, you can upgrade your armor using specific materials. You can only upgrade it once since every time you unlock a Fairy, you will unlock an additional upgrade level. So this first Fairy allows only one upgrade; the next Fairy will allow two, and so on.
Luckily, she will also inform you of the other three Great Fairies and mark their locations on the map. Likewise, you need to do some small tasks to unlock them.
Unlocking Great Fairy Kaysa – Second Armor Upgrade
For the next Great Fairy, you have to go southwest towards the Outskirt Stable. Here, you’ll meet up with the musical troupe again, and this time, they’ll ask you to find their other Flute-playing band member, Pyper, since the next Great Fairy likes the sound of flute.
Pyper is found far away to the southeast at the Highland Stable. As you approach the stables, you’ll hear flute music coming from a nearby tree to the left. Climb the tree, and you’ll locate Pyper up top.
The stubborn artist won’t leave with us until we collect 10 Sunset Fireflies for him. You can buy them from traveling merchants or visit campsites/towns at night to see them buzzing around, ready to be grabbed.
Give the fireflies to the kid, and he’ll ask you to fetch a girl, Haite so that he could flirt with her or something. Wait until night, look for the girl inside the stable, and bring her to the flutist. Let him do his thing, and afterward, he’ll join the music troupe.
With the band assembled, you travel back to Outskirt Stable and talk to their leader. Their cart will be in shambles again, so it’s time to get it repaired. This cart is slightly different, more advanced, and doesn’t work with a horse.
Put on the wheels facing the proper direction on the slab, attach their cart on top, place the steering module in front, and talk to the musicians to ride the wagon. You’ll be offroading up a small mountain in this contraption, so be very careful.
The Great Fairy bud is right behind the stable on top of the mountain, as seen in the picture.
Take the musicians there, trigger the concert cutscene, and you’ll unlock Great Fairy Kaysa. She can enhance your armor to star level 2.
Unlocking Great Fairy Mija – Third Armor Upgrade
For the next fairy, you need to travel to the cold Snowfield Stable to the north, so bring some cold-resistant food or cold-weather gear. Talk to the music troupe here, and they’ll ask you to find a horn player to sway Great Fairy Mija.
Follow the road heading southwest from the stable. Next to the bend in the road between Nero Hill and Piper Ridge, you will meet the horn player stuck inside a giant crater (location marked on the map above).
Make your way into the hole and talk to Eustus, the horn player. He’ll need help getting out, so you must build a contraption. Craft anything that safely flies up vertically and lands safely outside of the crater. Once out, he’ll reward you with Courser Bee Honey x3 (Save the honey, you’ll be needing it later) and leave to join the music group.
Return to the Snowfield Stable and create a wagon for them to visit the Great Fairy. Make sure to put a roof over the wagon to counter the icy winds. Pull the wagon with your horse’s Towing Harness and take them to the mountain slightly northeast of the stables.
Reach the pink-smoke-puffing bud, let the musical cutscene play, and unlock the Great Fairy Mija. Now, you can upgrade your armor to star level 3. The materials required to level up armor will get steeper from this point.
Unlocking Great Fairy Cotera – Fourth Armor Upgrade
To unlock the fourth and final Great Fairy, head south to reach Dueling Peaks Stable. Similarly, the band will be at this location, but this time, they are missing the next fairy’s favorite instrument player, a drummer.
Take the road north from the stable. Right where the marker is on the map above, there is a small cave leading to the drummer.
Thankfully, the drummer, Beetz, is not that high-maintenance and only requires some honey. Luckily, we have some saved from the previous band member. Give him the honey, and he’ll be off to join the music crew.
Return to Dueling Peaks Stable, and Mastro will ask you to build a boat to reach the fairy bud in the middle of the nearby water body. Build a boat with logs, fans, a battery, a steering wheel, and the wagon (all of which can be found at the location) to ferry the musicians across.
Once you reach the other side, a cutscene will play, unlocking the Great Fairy Cotera. This giant fairy will upgrade your armor to the highest star level 4.
Now you know how to upgrade your armor in Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom. It is a bit of a grind to unlock the feature fully, and the material cost does get expensive over the upgrades. Initially, prioritize upgrading your favorite armor, or you’ll be frustrated with farming materials and zipping between the Great Fairies.