Across Hyrule, the Shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom offer some of the game’s most inventive puzzle-solving moments. They test mastery of Link’s core abilities, physics intuition, and even survival instincts. Yet a closer look reveals a glaring gap: not one Shrine in the base game uses the powers of the five Sages. This detail feels less like an accident and more like a setup for content that never arrived.
Shrines often come in recognizable families. Some revolve around Ultrahand construction, others around Fuse weapon puzzles, and some around Recall or Ascend navigation. There are also Proving Grounds that strip Link of equipment to test combat resourcefulness. In almost every case, the Shrine highlights a core mechanic in a controlled environment. That is why the omission of Sage abilities stands out so much. Link is actively prevented from summoning the Sage avatars inside Shrines, even when those abilities could help. That design choice leaves an entire category of puzzle grammar untouched.
The Missing Puzzle Family
If Nintendo had ever produced DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, a series of Sage-focused Shrines would have been the natural follow-up. The five Sages—Tulin, Sidon, Yunobo, Riju, and Mineru—all command distinct powers with both combat and exploration uses. Their temple lead-ups already prove that these abilities can anchor environmental puzzles.
For example, Sidon’s water shield can block heat, which could be used to walk through walls of flame or protect a movable object from burning. Tulin’s horizontal gust could push a heavy orb across a gap or guide a floating platform through a wind channel. Yunobo’s rolling charge could smash cracked barriers or hit distant targets, while Riju’s lightning strikes could activate electric switches from a distance. Mineru’s Construct, meanwhile, could serve as a second body to hold down pressure plates or reach high ledges.
Sage Powers as Puzzle Tools
A table of potential Shrine concepts shows how naturally these powers translate into puzzle design:
| Sage | Ability | Potential Shrine Puzzle |
|---|---|---|
| Tulin | Gust of wind | Push orbs across pits or redirect floating platforms |
| Sidon | Protective water sphere | Navigate fire corridors or shield objects from heat |
| Yunobo | Rolling fire charge | Break rock walls or ignite distant targets |
| Riju | Lightning strike | Power electrical circuits from afar |
| Mineru | Zonai Construct | Extra weight, extended reach, or two-point pressure puzzles |
These ideas are not just speculative list-filler. The absence of such puzzles is conspicuous precisely because Tears of the Kingdom otherwise exhausts its mechanics so thoroughly. Ultrahand, Fuse, Recall, and Ascend receive dozens of dedicated challenges. The Sages, despite being introduced as central allies, get almost no puzzle spotlight outside their temples. If DLC had followed the same structure as Breath of the Wild's Champions’ Ballad, which added new Shrines, Sage-based trials could have functioned as a capstone to each character’s arc.
The Reality in 2026
As of 2026, Nintendo has not released major DLC for Tears of the Kingdom. In fact, series producer Eiji Aonuma stated in late 2023 that there were no plans for additional content, noting the team had already explored the world thoroughly. That makes these missing Sage Shrines feel even more like a fascinating “what if.” Players who revisit TotK can still see the design seam: a full category of puzzle logic that was never activated.
New Shrines would also have brought practical benefits. They would add warp points to the map, grant more Light of Blessing for Spirit Orbs, and potentially solve one of the game’s minor annoyances: the inability to max out both hearts and stamina at the same time. The base game’s Shrine and temple rewards leave players a few upgrades short of a complete set. A DLC batch of new Shrines could have quietly closed that gap.
Ultimately, the Sage abilities remain one of Tears of the Kingdom’s greatest untapped puzzle resources. Whether Nintendo revisits this version of Hyrule with a surprise update or carries the concept into the next Zelda game, the blueprint is already there. A Shrine built around Sidon’s water barrier, Tulin’s wind, or Mineru’s Construct could feel fresh, challenging, and distinctly different from the base game’s offerings. The fact that no such Shrine exists is not proof of bad design—it may simply be a door left unopened.