Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom walkthrough for the main story, best dungeon order

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a fairly linear game, with the quest marker instructing you where to go next constantly, like a glowing yellow beacon in a fog, but a Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom walkthrough is still nice to have. There are some split paths in the game where you have to decide which region to tackle first, which is where this guide can come in handy.

The specific choices you make at each fork in the road have little major bearing on the game, as you will eventually visit every location anyway, but for those stumped on what to do first, we have your back.

If you’re still nervous before starting your journey, we have a beginner’s guide to provide some tips, along with the most useful echoes to keep your eye out for. While you complete the story, you’ll want to seek out collectables, like heart pieces, stamps, and fairy bottles, too.

Below, we give a brief overview of the full main story in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, noting narrative beats you may get tripped up by along the way, as well as the best order of dungeons and regions to take when you’re prompted with a choice of multiple options.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom walkthrough overview

Over the course of Echoes of Wisdom, you’ll start in the Suthorn Forest. You’ll then tackle the Gerudo Desert and the Jabul Waters (with a choice of which to hit first). You’ll go back to Hyrule Castle before another fork: Faron Wetlands, Eldin Volcano, or Hebra Mountains. Once you complete all three, your journey leads you to the Eternal Forest before culminating in the point of no return, Null’s Body.

That’s the birds-eye view. For a deeper rundown — including details on what these sections entail and what upgrades or unlocks you can expect to get from each — read on. We also offer our advice for which regions to tackle first at the two split paths in Echoes of Wisdom.

Starting out in Suthorn Forest

The beginning of your journey is brief, but sudden. Once you make it out of the beginning cavern and you report back to Hyrule Castle about link and these void rifts, another rift opens up, and you land yourself in jail. There are a few segments to this opening portion:

1. Break out of jail and get past the guards in Hyrule Castle Underground
2. Head toward the Suthorn Ruins
3. Venture through the Stilled Suthorn Ruins and the Suthorn Ruins, which serve as a bit of a tutorial for your various abilities with Tri

After you get that rift closed up, you’ll be able to head to Lueburry’s workshop, where you’ll discuss a gameplan with him and the official you rescued from the Ruins. Tri will point out that they can see a few huge rifts, pointing you in two directions…

Gerudo Desert or the Jabul Waters — which to do first?

After the opening segment, you’ll need to make a choice between helping the Gerudo people in the Gerudo Desert or helping the Zora in Jabul Waters. Don’t fret, as you will need to do both to complete the story, but which one should you do first?

The Gerudo segment of the game unlocks an extremely helpful echo that allows you to quickly travel over gaps and pits horizontally. You’ll also unlock the Bow of Might, allowing you to use a bow and arrow when in Swordfighter form. To complete the Gerudo portion, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Head to Gerudo Valley
2. Help the Gerudo close the rift for the Stilled Desert Temple Ruins
3. Get through the Cryptic Cavern
4. Close the rift in the Gerudo Sanctum dungeon

The Zora segment in the Jabul Waters will unlock another very helpful echo that allows you to travel up cliffs vertically with ease (no need for those beds anymore). You’ll also encounter an echo that will allow you to use bombs, so you can grab things behind cracked walls and blow up baddies. To complete the Jabul Waters portion, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Go to the Jabul Waters
2. Help the Zora close the Stilled Upper Zora River rift
3. Beat up Jabu-Jabu in a short boss fight
4. Close the rift in the Jabul Ruins dungeon

That said, we personally found the bow and arrow more helpful, so doing the Gerudo segment first helped us complete the Zora segment easier. However, it’s up to you as both of the dungeons will give you useful tools that will help you finish the other one.

Returning to Hyrule Castle

Once you close up those two giant rifts, you’ll be tasked with heading back to Hyrule Castle. It’s finally time to save the king and sort some stuff out. This part is extremely linear once you get there, as you’ll need to get through a stilled version of Hyrule Castle, which is effectively another dungeon.

After saving the king, Tri will notice three more gigantic rifts open up across the map in three key locations: the Faron Wetlands, Eldin Volcano, and the Hebra Mountains.

Before you head off to these locations, now is a great time to fully explore the map more. Between the Water Block Echo you got from the Zora and the Flying Tile Echo you got from the Gerudo, you have the tools to pretty much wander the whole map. You should take some time to explore and do some side quests. Power yourself up a little bit by finding heart pieces and Might Crystals to upgrade your weapons. Enemies will start hitting a bit harder, so you’ll want to be able to take them on with no issues. Finally, you can now start to get outfits from amiibo scans.

Faron Wetlands, Eldin Volcano, or Hebra Mountains — which to do first?

Again, you’ll be at a crossroads, but the order in which you do the dungeons doesn’t really matter. You will get different tools from different dungeons, though.

The Eldin Volcano is expectedly home to the Goron people and fire-based monsters. You will get full access to bombs in this segment of the game (not just bomb-like echoes), which are usable in your Swordfighter form. The Eldin Volcano portion goes as follows:

1. Climb up the Eldin mountain to get to the Goron people
2. Help the Gorons by completing the Stilled Goron City segment
3. Find the two elders to figure out how to get to the top of the mountain
4. Enter the Eldin Temple to get rid of the rifts

The Faron Wetlands is home to the Deku Scrubs and electric-based monsters (and their echoes, of course). The dungeon here focuses on spider-like enemies that help you scale up walls both in the 2D-platforming sections and the 3D overworld parts. The Faron Wetlands portion is as follows:

1. Head to the Faron Wetlands
2. Help Blossu un-rift his house via the Stilled Blossu’s House area
3. Escape from the Deku Scrub Lockup prison
4. Enter the Faron Temple to cleanse the rifts from the area

The Hebra Mountains is the home of yeti-like creatures and ice-based monsters. This area did feel notably a bit harder than the others and didn’t offer us much to add to our arsenal of skills (but that’s just our opinion). The Hebra Mountain segment follows this path:

1. Head up the Hebra Mountains in the north
2. Help Condé by closing the Stilled Hebra Mountain Cave rift
3. Follow Condé up the mountain to find his brother
4. Complete Lanayru Temple to close the rifts over the region

Based on this, we would recommend going to the Eldin Volcano first, as having bombs on hand is just a nice perk to have. From there, you can head to the Faron Wetlands next and then the Hebra Mountains once you’ve powered yourself up a bit.

[Ed. note: We discuss spoilers to the ending portion of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom below. Make sure you’re actually at this point of the game before scrolling below the comically long image or risk being spoiled.]

Going to the Eternal Forest

After the above part, you’ll be sent back to Hyrule Castle and you’ll be on the last portion of the game. Head to the Eternal Forest, which is the only part of the map you may have not been to. It’s directly north of Hyrule Castle, and though your minimap will be obscured while you’re inside, it’s not as deep of a labyrinth as it is in other Legend of Zelda games.

After solving a short puzzle and watching a few cutscenes, you’ll end up in the Stilled Ancient Ruins, a somewhat linear platforming area, where you’ll just need to make it from the south of the map to the northern portion. Using tools like Water Block and Flying Tile Echoes should make quick work of any problems you have, though there’s nothing wrong with needing to summon a couple beds if need be. By this point of the game, you should be able to summon quite a number of items.

Once you make it north, you’ll be tasked with a short battle against the Null version of Zelda, and then you’ll free Link from his crystal prison.

You now have the option to actually continue on to the final part of the game. Tri will warn you that if you continue, you cannot turn back, so it’s best to get your affairs in order before you go. Backtrack any Pieces of Heart you may want, complete any side quests that you left hanging, and of course, make a bunch of health-restoring smoothies.

The point of no return: Null’s Body

Together with Link, you’ll venture through the last dungeon of the game, Null’s Body. The dungeon portion is actually quite short — but the boss fight is lengthy. After that, that’s it. You’ll unlock a few collection perks after beating the game, but that’s really it!

Time to now mop up anything you’ve missed — including remaining echoes, heart pieces, fairy bottles, and incomplete side quests.