Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: All Dungeons RANKED!
After the Divine Beasts took a very new approach to Zelda dungeons, Tears of The Kingdom was more of a return to form with elemental temples and unique boss fights. While I unironically loved the Divine Beasts, they were not something that could be repeated without getting old, and returning to form like this was a great idea for this game. With five different temples and Hyrule Castle, there are some pretty great dungeons in this game! Now without further ado, RPG Ranked presents... Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: All Dungeons RANKED!
6. Water Temple
This is most likely a controversial pick, but I found this to be the weakest of all the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom. While the dungeon's open-ended nature and low gravity gimmick make this dungeon a very different Zelda Water Temple, I still found it to be weak like most of the other Water Temples in the series. I wasn't really loving the water bubbles, and most of the puzzles outside of the spinning "bullet time" puzzle were quite forgettable. On top of having middle-of-the-road puzzles, there are also only four locks in this dungeon! In addition, while I love Sidon, the whole trek up to the Water Temple and the conflict to be had was just easily the least compelling of the disturbances, in my opinion. The clues were just a little too vague for me, and while Sidon's charm and that whirlpool were nice touches, they didn't remedy the fact I didn't have too much fun with this quest. Nonetheless, I still thoroughly enjoyed this flawed adventure to the Water Temple. The puzzles and quest were decent enough, and the Mucktorok was my least favorite story boss in the game. Overall, while I found this temple to be quite mediocre compared to the others, it was still a fun and watery adventure.
5. Hyrule Castle
The bosses of this dungeon are quite incredible, and are some of the best in the entire Zelda franchise. There are so many awesome fights against Ganon here, and if you decide to challenge yourself by not getting the help of the sages, you can fight an epic nine-phase boss fight! Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for multi-phase boss fights, so this is definitely something I'll come back to if I replay this game in the future. However, outside of the boss fights, this castle is very empty. Breath of the Wild did an amazing job of making Hyrule Castle an interesting dungeon, but in this game? This may just be the worst Hyrule Castle in the series. While I was interested in diving to the Depths below the castle, I was underwhelmed by four drab looking rooms that were present, and this dungeon just doesn't have the gravitas or originality present in this game's predecessor. Overall, while I love the bosses of this dungeon, there is still a serviceable gap between this dungeon and the next dungeon on this list.
4. Fire Temple
While Yunobo was easily my least favorite character of the Sages, this is definitely not my least favorite of the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom. The surrounding quest may have just been the most interesting of the bunch, with a plot about possessed meat corrupting a corporation, as well as fighting two mini-bosses related to the plot. The volcano mini-boss was one of my favorite fights in the game, even if it was much too short and easy for me to fully appreciate it. Gohma was a fantastic fight as well, and was a great callback to the legacy of the Zelda franchise. The expansive puzzles, railways, and freedom in this dungeon were all incredibly fun, if a bit destructive to this temple's overarching design. I love how you can solve puzzles more freely here than most of the other temples, but this is also a bit of a weakness to this dungeon's design. This dungeon is much more cheesable than dungeons like the Wind and the Lightning temples, making it fall a little bit on this list. But overall, I mostly love the freedom of this dungeon, as well as the surrounding story of the dungeon, but they just are not as interesting as the next three dungeons on this list.
3. Lightning Temple
This is the standout temple for the majority of the Internet, with fans across all platforms raving about how this was the most Zelda-like of any of these dungeons. This might be my most questionable placement on this list, but this dungeon didn't sell me as much as it did for so many other people, and certainly not as much as the next two temples on this list. With all that aside, let's get into what I loved about this temple. The surrounding Gibdo quest and the preamble to this dungeon was an absolutely intense and awesome sequence, harkening back to the epic Divine Beast entry sequences that I still miss from Breath of the Wild. The theme and the light puzzles were unique, and the linearity of this dungeon's light puzzles served as a fantastic foil to the open-ended nature of the rest of the dungeons on this list. In reality, I had nothing wrong with this dungeon, but one simple reason held this dungeon back for me: I'd rather bounce around on pirate ships and fly into a tornado than solve light puzzles that I've already seen before before in previous Zelda titles. The same applies for building an epic robot and channeling my inner Power Rangers in a boxing ring mech fight. Overall, while this was a great callback to Zelda dungeons of old that I really enjoyed, I just loved the innovations of the next two dungeons on this list, even if they are objectively worse dungeons than this one.
2. Spirit Temple & Construct Factory
If the Fire Temple was giving you freedom, this gives... free freedom? I don't even know where I was going with that. But being the awesome secret dungeon that I discovered on accident without any of the Thunderhead Isles quests, this was so cool. Maybe if you discover it with the quest it is not as impactful, but I mean, this is still an awesome dungeon without the quest. In this dungeon, you get to build an awesome robot and let your creativity soar. After all that freedom of building the robot, you get a delightful romp to the Spirit Temple to get Mineru's Secret Stone! If the dungeon also had puzzles upon entering, even after the Construct Factory? This could be one of my favorite dungeons in the Zelda series. But as much as I wish we got an actual Spirit Temple, I still loved the boxing match boss battle and it was one of my favorite fights in the game! Overall, with amazing open-ended puzzles, an awesome quest and trek to the temple, and a great fight? I love these two back-to-back banger dungeons.
1. Wind Temple
I love Tulin and his sage ability. I love the bouncy pirate ships and ascending through sky islands. I love the puzzles, atmosphere, and the awesome looking tornado. I love Colgera more than any other boss in the game, and it is one of my new favorite boss fights in the series. Simply put, I love pretty much everything about this temple, and I don't have much else to say. Overall, this is easily my favorite temple in Tears of the Kingdom.