Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Completing The Isolated Plateau and visiting The Temple of Time

How to complete and wrap up one of the first early game main quests.

Guide by Matthew Reynolds Former Guides Editor

Updated on May 17, 2021

In Zelda: Breath of the Wild The Isolated Plateau is one of the first major quests you need to complete, and arguably the most important, as doing so will give you free access to the rest of world behind the Great Plateau.

If you're after help for parts of the game, consult our Zelda: Breath of the Wild walkthrough and guide.

How to complete The Isolated Plateau

To complete this quest, you must locate and solve the puzzles inside the following four Shrines of The Great Plateau:

When you have found all the runes from the four Shrines, the Old Man will appear outside the last completed Shrine and tell you to meet him in the middle of where all four of these Shrines meet.

Stamping where the lines meet and you get the Temple of Time.

Open your map, and trace a line in your mind from the four distance Shrines, and they'll connect over the Temple of Time, just off center of the Great Plateau.

Thanks to a new update, it's now possible to play Zelda Breath of the Wild in VR. Want help with the main game? Our Zelda: Breath of the Wild walkthrough can help complete Divine Beasts Vah Ruta, Vah Rudiana, Vah Medoh and Vah Naboris and more. There's also how to get the Master Sword, Hylian Shield and all Zelda Captured Memories and Great Fairy Fountain locations, while our Shrines locations and Shrine maps hub explains where to find and solve every puzzle room, including dragon locations and Labyrinth solutions. We also have a DLC 1 guide and DLC 2 guide, including all Tingle, Majora's Mask, Phantom, Midna outfit locations.

What to do at the Temple of Time

The easiest way to the Temple of Time is to fast travel to the Shrine of Resurrection, and retrace the steps you made at the start of the game, down the path and to the large ruined structure on the right.

Inside is a giant statue that you can pray at, provided you've completed the four Shrines and have obtained four Shrine Orbs. The statue will give you the option of upgrading either your Heart Container or your Stamina Vessel in exchange for the Orbs.

This is your choice depending on what you value more, but a safe bet is always health, so you can take more damage during combat and exploration.

From there, the Old Man will call you to the roof. If you head to the north side (front) of the structure, you can climb up to a room at the top. The ledges on the way will allow you to rest and recover stamina, so don't worry about getting tired and falling down - though it's best to ensure you have full health in case that happens.

Inside the room is the Old Man, who reveals his identity as part of a cutscene. Once it's over, you'll get access to the Paraglider, and the current quest is complete, starting the quests Seek out Impa and Destroy Ganon. The latter one will have to wait for now (or at least, that's both our and the game's recommendation) and so as the Old Man suggests, let's Seek Out Impa.

Before you do that, now's a great to time try out our latest bit of kit - the Paraglider - by simply press X while in the air. Use it right now by leaping from the Temple of Time and gliding down below, and when you're ready, leaping off the edge of the Great Plateau to explore the wider world. We recommend getting on with the main quest Seek Out Impa and how to get to Kakariko Village.