What Do Korok Seeds Do In Tears of the Kingdom?

Going into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of the most pressing questions I had regarding the game was if Koroks and Korok Seeds would make a return. It wasn’t because I was excited to engage with the Koroks again. Quite the opposite in fact. The Korok Seeds were one of the most infamous elements of the original game, with the game offering 900 seeds for you to collect, with the grand prize for collecting them all being a giant pile of poo. Korok seeds are back in Tears of the Kingdom, for better or worse, but do they serve the same function as before?

What Do Korok Seeds Do In Tears of the Kingdom?

You’ll most likely encounter your first Korok during the tutorial on the Great Sky Island, who will ask you to carry it on over to his distant friend. Once you’ve completed its task by utilizing the Ultrahand, it and its friend will each give you two Korok Seeds. While that may be a new method to acquire Korok Seeds, for the most part you’ll still collect them much in the same way you did for Breath of the Wild by solving small environmental puzzles in the overworld.

While you can’t use them right away, you will eventually need them when you come across Hestu, the returning maraca-loving Korok merchant. 

Most players will find him for the first time on their way to Lindor’s Brow Skyview Tower, which is to the northeast of Lookout Landing. There you’ll have to complete the sidequest “Hestu’s Concerns,” which will involve you killing a few evil trees nearby. Once you do so, you can then give Hestu some Korok Seeds, which will allow him to increase an inventory slot for your weapons, shields, or bows. You’ll only be allowed to increase two slots before he leaves and you’ll have to track him down again.

If you want further upgrades, he’ll say that he is “heading east.” In other words, you can best find him in the Korok Forest, though he can appear in Lookout Landing rarely. Personally, I have yet to encounter him there, but I have heard from other people playing the game that he can pop up there at times. Escapist editor Lachlan found Hestu in Lookout Landing, before he moved on to Korok Forest.

Ultimately, Korok Seeds serve the same function as they did in Breath of the Wild. While there are hundreds of Korok Seeds throughout the kingdom, you’ll only need a small percentage of Seeds to fully expand your inventory.

Keep in mind that each time you upgrade one of your inventories, you’ll need more seeds for the next upgrade.For example, I upgraded my bow stash twice, with the first upgrade costing one Korok Seed and the second upgrade needing two Korok Seeds. So make sure before you go to Hestu you have enough seeds to upgrade the categories you want, because it can get pretty expensive!

And that’s what Korok Seeds are for in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.