How to Complete Sinakawak Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

Want to go ballooning? The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Sinakawak Shrine has you messing around with hot air balloons, in an effort to crack the shrine’s conundrum and escape with your prize. But it’s not as easy as you might think, so if you want to know how to complete Sinakawak Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom, here’s the answer.

Here’s How to Use Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)’s Balloons to Solve Sinakawak Shrine

If you’ve not found the shrine yet, I’ve screenshotted the map below, along with the coordinates. But the real key to solving Sinakawak Shrine is understanding how the game’s Zonai Balloons work. 

Zonai Balloons will rise if you apply heat to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s a flaming torch or a candle, nor does the heat source need to be directly under the balloon. As long as the heat is close enough the balloon will start to rise. How far it rises depends on how much weight it’s carrying and how long the heat source stays active. 

These Are the Steps to Solving Sinakawak Shrine’s First Room

In the first room grab a balloon, any balloon, and use Ultrahand to attach it to the middle of a piece of wood. 

Move the wood with the balloon attached close to the wall. Now, grab a candle. 

Jump on the wood and attach the candle. You don’t have to be dead on, just close enough that it starts to make the balloon swell and rise.

Ride the balloon up to the upper level and if you miss jumping on it, use recall to bring it back, then jump on it.

Hop off onto the upper level and, if you can, Ultrahand grab the balloon before it floats off. 

Move the balloon so that it floats up and bumps the switch above the door (detaching the wood helps). If you didn’t grab your balloon, do this with a new balloon and candle.

Here’s How to Solve Sinakawak Shrine’s Second, Trickier Room

Your objective in this room is to get a metal ball up to the top level and use it to open the blocked door on the left. There are several potential solutions but this is the one that worked for me. 

Climb down the ladder into the area with the small metal ball. Attach the small metal ball to a balloon.

Move the balloon so that, if it rises, it will stop beneath the upper walkways, close to the upper ledge. Add a candle and let it float up. 

Get a piece of wood and, as before, attach and launch a balloon to take you up there. 

Now, use Ultrahand to grab the first balloon and its ball, yank the ball off, and put it in the small hole in the left. There’s also a chest locked behind a door that you can open by dropping the large ball into the large hole.

Now, walk to the altar, claim your Light of Blessing, and leave.

And that’s how you complete Sinakawak Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom. If you’re having difficulty with Link’s latest adventure, why not check out our other Tears of the Kingdom guides.