The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Great Fairy Fountains are an important part of gearing up to face the game’s many challenges. They let you upgrade your armor to both inflict more damage and gain special benefits for many armor sets. Finding the first Great Fairy Fountain is simple enough, with some pretty clear signposting in one of the villages you’ll come to earliest in Breath of the Wild‘s story, but finding and unlocking all of them will take a good deal more work.
Further reading
- The best recipes you can cook in BOTW
- How to get the best horses in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- The best Zelda games ranked from best to worst
Unlocking Great Fairy Fountains
Just finding the locations of the Great Fairy Fountains won’t be enough to use them. You’ll need to give each Great Fairy a certain amount of rupees to grant you her power, which increases with each fountain you find. You’ll need to pay 100 rupees to unlock the first fountain, 500 to unlock the second, 1,000 to unlock the third, and 10,000 to unlock the fourth and final fountain. You can unlock the fountains in any order as long as you have enough rupees.
Each Great Fairy Fountain you unlock will let you upgrade your armor one additional level, no matter which fountain you’re using. Many armor sets will give an additional bonus — like a boost to climbing speed or stealth — once you upgrade each piece in the set to level two, so it’s a good idea to find the Great Fairy Fountains and upgrade them that far as soon as you can.
Great Fairy Fountain locations
Great Fairy Cotera
The easiest Great Fairy to find in Breath of the Wild is Great Fairy Cotera. To find her fountain, you just need to head northeast of Kakariko Village. The fountain is in the woods past the Tal’noh Naeg Shrine, which sits on a hill just above the village. If you talk to Pikango, the old man working on a painting in the village, he’ll give you a quest to find the fountain and even lead you in its general direction.
Great Fairy Kayasa
You’ll find Great Fairy Kayasa in the Tabantha region, so it’s best to come prepared with warm clothes and warming food if you’re going to be exploring the area on foot. The easiest way to reach this fountain is to start from Tabantha Tower, which itself is just south of Rito Village. Starting from the tower, glide south-southeast and you should see the large green plant that Great Fairy Kayasa lives in from the air. The area where the fountain is found is named Piper Ridge on your map, and you’ll find it on the north side of the ridge.
Great Fairy Mija
Great Fairy Mija is in the Akkala region, just east of Akkala Tower and Akkala Lake. Starting from the tower, glide all the way across the lake to the east and land in the small forest on the other side. On the map, you’ll see a small pool of water surrounded by trees. That’s where you’ll find Great Fairy Mija.
Great Fairy Tera
Likely to be the last Great Fairy you meet, Great Fairy Tera is located in the Gerudo Desert. Her fountain is in the far southwest of the map, just beyond an area called Dragon’s Exile. You’ll find Great Fairy Tera’s fountain beneath a massive dragon skeleton. If you’re starting out from Gerudo Town, hop aboard a sand seal and head directly to the southwest and you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding this fountain.
