‘Find the Fifth Sage’ walkthrough, what to do at the Ring Ruins in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Fifth Stage is a task on the critical path of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

After helping out the different regions and seeking out Zelda in Hyrule Castle, the gang in will realize they’re missing an ally.

Purah will task you with finding her in the quest “Find the Fifth Sage”, though she won’t offer you much to go on.

This takes you to the Ring Ruins, described as “the ruins from the age of legends” — and confusingly, this overlaps with a location you might have stumbled upon previously — so here’s when you can start this quest.

What you need to know about the Ring Ruins and the Find the Fifth Sage quest

The Ring Ruins in Kakariko Village is the intended location of the Find the Fifth Sage quest.

First, know the Ring Ruins is technically inaccessible in until you progress far enough through the main story, for when you have completed all four Regional Phenomena locations and completed Crisis in Hyrule Castle in full.

When ready, you’ll need to talk to Tauro and Paya, who are standing and gawking at the ruins in the village.

If you have come across the Ring Ruins early and want to do something here, then we recommend doing the A Trip Through History quest, which ties into the ruins.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

As well as this, when you do start the ‘Find the Fifth Sage’ quest, you can find the sage before you finish “Regional Phenomena,” if you want. We stumbled into the sage while exploring sky islands, giving us a silly addition to the cutscene where the gang exclaimed, “You already found her!?” Despite the fact that you can find her before getting to the “Find the Fifth Sage” quest, you will need at least 10 hearts to do so.

Purah notes that it’d be a good idea to head to “the ruins from the age of legends,” which means the Ring Ruins in Kakariko Village. Note that if you want to, you can skip the whole segment in Kakariko Village and head straight for the sky island, but if you love lore and story, you won’t want to. The sky island is also significantly harder to navigate if you don’t do the “Secret of the Ring Ruins” quest.

[Ed. note: The rest of this guide contains spoilers for a late game quest in Tears of the Kingdom.]

Secret of the Ring Ruins walkthrough, where to find Tauro

You may have already started this quest, but if you haven’t, you’ll need to talk to Tauro and Paya, who are standing at the ruins in the village.

After chatting with them, climb up the scaffolding in front of them and Ascend into the ring ruin they’re talking about. Take a picture of the stone slab inside, Ascend out, and show them your photo. They’ll be shook, noting the new discovery made thanks to your excellent photo.

The survey group will scurry off to Popla Foothills Skyview Tower, where Calip will note that Tauro already ran off to the nearby ruins. You can find Tauro in here:

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Tauro talks about more ruins and codes and puzzles. Open the Zonai chest directly above him to get the Charged Shirt. Put it on and talk to Tauro again. He’ll note that there are probably more pieces of this fit around the dragon, but he doesn’t really know what’s going on.

The dragon that’s being referred to is this river, which is in the shape of a serpent.

Follow the river, taking out the Lizalfos along the way. Make a stop in here for the Charged Trousers. You’ll need to break open some rocks with a hammer or with bombs.

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

And make another stop in here for the Charged Headdress. You’ll need to burn away some vines with fire.

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Put the whole fit on and head into these ruins at the end of the river:

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Drop a Zonai charge in the altar with the outfit on and a cutscene will play, clearing the cloudy skies that covered the sky islands above. This completes the “Secret of the Ring Ruins” quest.

Use Popla Foothills Skyview Tower to glide over to the newly revealed sky islands for the next part.

Thunderhead Isles and Dragonhead Island

If you skipped over all of the above for some reason…

You can get to this thunderstorm-clouded sky island by using Recall on debris that falls from the sky nearby. We ran around the region below for a bit until we found a suitable rock and glided over.

Unfortunately, visibility on this island is terrible, so we can’t really tell you where to turn right or left, but we can tell you to head to the approximate coordinates (1386, -3370, 0467). There’s a hole right around here that will allow you to enter this sky island, dropping you on Joku-u Shrine.

If you did the quest line, you should be up on Thunderhead Isles via Popla Foothills Skyview Tower. From there, you only need to climb up the isles enough so you can glide to Dragonhead Island, which is actually under the Thunderhead Isles. In the center of Dragonhead, you’ll see a building to enter, allowing you to drop down on Joku-u Shrine.

In front of the shrine, there’s some vines, so burn them away with fire and head deeper into the island.

There’ll be a goddess statue on your left to turn in extra Blessings of Light if you have any. The door in front requires 10 hearts to open, so if you don’t have that, consider making a trade to the demon statue or farming out more shrines and coming back.

After you open the door, an ominous mask will be in front of you. Interact with it to begin the next part of the quest, “Guidance of Ages Past.”