How to clear the Thunderhead Isles in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

We'll have rounded up the last part of our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough with having explored the Faron Zonai Ruins and discovered Thunderhead Isles. So, there's no guessing as to where Link needs to go next, and that's up to the skies.

Thunderhead Isles has a thunderstorm raging across it, which is no surprise given the name, so make sure you've your Charged armor equipped and no metal items whatsoever. Use sticks and monster parts for weapons, as gems and blades will attract lightning. Now, without further ado, here's how to clear the Thunderhead Isles in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

How to clear the Thunderhead Isles in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

To get to Thunderhead Isles, travel back to Popla Foothills Skyview Tower. Send yourself up into the sky and then simply glide over to the beginning of the isles; the area above the altar.

From the very first platform at the Thunderhead Isles, Ascend up to the next one.

You can now glide and Ascend your way ahead until you reach the platform with the lightning rod.

Here, there’ll be a push block that can send things flying. Stand in front of the push block, and wait for the lightning rod to gather enough electricity from the ongoing storm; it’ll then send the push block flying, which will send Link flying to the next platform!

Make sure you’re facing straight ahead, though, or you might go flying off Thunderhead Isles entirely… And if you get bored of waiting, just fire some Electric Chu Chu Jelly or Riju’s ability at the lightning rod using a wooden bow to speed things up.

You can now continue to glide and Ascend ahead for a little while until you reach a platform with a pond in the middle that has some wooden planks and crates to the right.

We want to keep heading south east here, but we’ll need to build a ramp to reach the next platform first, as shown below.

Continue south, following the lanterns that light the way. You’ll soon come to two mine cart tracks, but there’s no mine cart. There’ll be two metal planks attached to the broken track, but we don’t want to use these.

We essentially want to remake that T-shaped structure using the nearby wooden planks as to avoid any lightning strikes while riding along the track.

Attach a fan or two to the back of the contraption, and hit it once you’re ready to ride away. At the next platform, you can Ascend up.

You then want to head left towards the platform with a very daunting Flux Construct on it. Take care of them (or glide past them like I did), and you’ll then discover another mine cart track!

Fortunately for us, the structure we made before out of wooden planks has already been made for us! Just pop it on the tracks, attach the nearby fans, and get going. That said, we don’t want to go to the end of the track.

Above the track is a large building that you’ll be able to see a shrine inside of. We actually want to jump wait till we’re around halfway, turn the fans off, and then Ascend up into the building with the shrine.

You can now grab the Joku-usin Shrine, and use it as a convenient fast travel spot for later if you feel like leaving the Thunderhead Isles for a while.

In this room, there are some stairs. Go up them, and you’ll notice a very conveniently placed pillar above us that we can Ascend up.

In front of us is a structure with a wheel and a lightning rod on it. We want to go there, so we’ll have to go inside the underneath of it and Ascend up. There’s three, horrible Like Likes in here, though.

These guys are actually quite easy to take out; they’re surrounded by metal blocks, so simply fire Riju’s ability, Electric Chu Chu Jelly, or Shock Fruit at the blocks to repeatedly shock the Like Likes.

All in all, you’ll be able to grab four chests from this room after killing them, so it’s a worthwhile endeavour! Once they’re done with, Ascend up out of this room.

There’s another lightning rod and metal push block at the top here. We need to repeat what we did earlier, but we want to glide towards the platform that is south; you’ll see some wooden planks and more mine cart tracks on it.

We now want to build a few contraptions. First, build a T-shaped contraption like the ones we have been using with two wooden planks, and place this on the broken rail. Then, build a second one with a fan to place on the distant, non-broken rail, as shown below.

Now, use any remaining wooden planks or tree logs to build a bridge from the first contraption to the second. Once Link is on the second contraption, you can move the bridge, whack the fan, and begin moving to the next platform.

Navigating the next area is a little tricky, and there are plenty of Soldier Constructs around that are more than happy to send Link flying. We want to go left, then right, and then downward towards another Soldier Construct. Kill him and walk ahead, then we can then Ascend up again to the next area, where there’ll be another Soldier Construct.

To our east is another metal push block and lightning rod. We need to go over there to send us flying up to the next area. Ascend up using the Ascend pillar here, and then glide over to the platform.

You know the drill here. Stand atop the metal push block and face forward while the lightning rod is charged; this will send you flying to the next platform, where you’ll be greeted with a chest! These Shock Emitter Zonai Devices will no doubt come in use.

Press ahead and jump off the ledge you come to. You’ll now successfully land at Dragonhead Island, and be able to grab the Joku-u Shrine as a convenient fast travel spot.

When you’re ready to leave this room, fire some Fire Fruit at the bramble blocking the entrance to destroy it.

Open the door ahead. Although, you won’t be able to open the door without ten full Heart Containers to spare; if you’re yet to have this many, go do some more shrines and travel back here later.

Through the door, examine the Zonai terminal, and a small cutscene will play out. This marks the end of the ‘Secret of the Ring Ruins’ quest, and kicks off the ‘Guidance from Ages Past’ quest.

This next quest will see us collecting various Zonai Relics to form a body for our fifth sage. The Zonai Relic we just collected is the first, and is clearly pointing somewhere out for us to travel to next…

We’ll now be heading down into The Depths, where we must explore four storehouses. Continue our story walkthrough of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with how to complete the Left-Leg Depot!

For more on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the meantime, have you tried fighting any Gleeoks across Hyrule? On top of that, be sure to upgrade your inventory and enhance your armor as we approach Tears of the Kingdom's endgame.