All Korok Seed Puzzle Types in Tears of the Kingdom
As you travel below, above, and through Hyrule, you probably have encountered Koroks needing help or hidden throughout the landscape. Much like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Koroks can be found in the nooks and crannies—or even by solving a simple puzzle—in Tears of the Kingdom.
While the number of ways people are torturing these poor Koroks is trending, helping them get from Point A to Point B and unearthing them from a billow of flying leaves is worth it. In this article, I’ll be training you on how you can spot a Korok a mile away.
Table of Contents
Solve A Puzzle, Get A Korok Seed
Collecting a Korok Seed requires you to solve a puzzle. Thankfully, the puzzles aren’t as tricky as those in Shrines. These can be as simple as carrying a Korok with an oversized backpack to a specific location or lifting a small, out-of-place rock. That said, Koroks utilize a lot of ways to hide throughout Hyrule, many of which you’ll be familiar with if you’ve played Breath of the Wild.
Here’s a list of every puzzle type I’ve encountered so far when Korok hunting:
Lifting A Suspicious Rock
If you ever find a sus rock, lift it. There’s a good chance it’ll reveal a Korok.
Pinwheels
Whenever you see small pinwheels crafted of leaves and sticks, approach it to reveal a target or a series of targets; you can tell through the ‘pop’ sound when they appear. The trial might require you to follow a light with a time limit or shoot balloons. Either way, once you complete it, a Korok will reveal itself and giu with a Korok Seed for your efforts.
Tree Stumps
It’s normal to see tree stumps, especially in Central Hyrule. But if you come across a very short tree stump on your travels, try standing on it. This will trigger a timed race and a floating circle will appear in a distance, which is the goal you’ll need to reach. If you reach the goal in time, you’ll get a Korok Seed.
Chains With Corks(?)
Some stumps seemingly have corks with chains tied to them. Use Ultrahand to attach the chain to something—be it a wooden board or a boulder—and pull to obtain a Korok Seed.
Stone Placements
You’ll see different stones placed around Hyrule in a pattern where one stone isn’t where it’s supposed to be. If you place the stone at a correct angle to complete the pattern, a Korok will appear.
Reuniting Friends
This new puzzle type is exclusive to Tears to the Kingdom. You’ll find a Korok who needs some help getting to their friend. How you deliver them to their destination is entirely up to you. Sometimes the trek can be long, so it’s best to utilize your abilities like Ultrahand to cut the trip short. If you manage to reunite the Korok with their friend, you’ll be able to earn two Korok Seeds.
Dandelions
Be on the lookout for Dandelions, as they’re one of the easiest ways to get a Korok Seed. All you have to do is chase the Dandelion around until a Korok appears. There are times when the Dandelions spawn at an area out of your vision, though, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.
Statue Offering
While you’re exploring Hyrule, you might come across statues that are holding empty bowls. If you place an Apple in the bowl, a Korok will pop up to give you a Korok Seed.
Bring Your Korok Seeds to Hestu
Again, just like in Breath of the Wild, you’ll need to bring your Korok Seeds to Hestu if you want to use them. You’ll first find him in Central Hyrule towards the closest Sky Tower in the region. He’ll ask you to defeat the trees ahead of him when you talk to him. Once that’s done, you can start trading your Korok Seeds for additional inventory slots.
After the initial meeting, you can find Hestu set up in Lookout Landing, where Purah and the other survivors after the Upheaval can be found. Note that each time you expand your inventory—whether it be your Bow, Shield, or Weapon slots—you’ll need more Korok Seeds to expand it again. Luckily for you, there are a lot of Korok Seeds waiting to be found. You don’t have to collect them all either; just collect them whenever you see them.
You have to glide to the target without touching the ground. That means that even if you step on the ground surrounding the stump that counts as the ground. Therefore you have to glide off to the target below without touching ANY surface on the way down. Hope that helped!
One more from BOTW that’s also in TOTK is the small yellow flower you have to touch which vanishes and appears slightly further away, you have to touch it several times until you reach the end of the trail and the korok appears
There’s one where you have to use ultrahand to lift a boulder into a small thin tripod-shaped tree/stick nearby.
There’s a few you forgot to mention which are also in BOTW. These include diving into the centre of a lily pad circle in the water, burning a pile of leaves to reveal a rock which will show the korok when lifted, smashing a small suspicious pot usually found in a tree hole or hanging off something by a rope, and following the glittery trail and examining it.
Will update if I find additional ones not mentioned here.
You have to jump and glide to the glowing target. If you time it right and don’t touch the rock while jumping off the small rock on the ground will stay lit.
The stump with the glowing target—I got it to work by gliding off the stump before the target appeared. It then lasted long enough for me to get there.
There are several variations of the stump, and they’re all distinct enough that I would recommend separating them:
-Stand on it and a timed circle will appear in the direction the leaf is pointing. Reach the circle before it disappears.
-(In the Sky) Stand on it and an orb of light will shoot out and start falling to the Surface. Dive after it and interact before it reaches the ground.
-Stand on it and a small target will appear nearby. Jump and use the paraglider to reach it without touching the ground.
-A stump will be placed on a wall or the side of a sky island. Climb to it and position Link so that his whole body is on the stump.
-A stump will be placed on the underside of a cliff, overhang, or sky island. Use Ascend to go through the stump.
You need to glide to the target without touching the ground 🙂
You have to jump and glide from the stump to the target with touching the ground
I found a stump atop a column that leads to a glowing target on the ground on a fallen column and soon as I step off it disappears and I have shot all my arrows at it
I came here looking for an upside down one, one of the wood stumps in the ceiling. But I figured it out, you simply ascend through them! Happy kurok hunting!