Treasure Hunting Guide

How Much Treasure Do I Need?

There are 16 types of treasure in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword . You find them in a variety of ways and in a variety of places, but you use all of them for one purpose: to improve Link’s equipment.

This section of the guide is a reference for players who either want to know the requirements for upgrading something or want to know how to find treasures that they’re missing.

Note that the game divides treasures into two categories, small and rare. The first three rows of treasures on your item screen count as small, while the bottom row counts as rare.

While these categories roughly describe the rarity of the treasures involved, there are some small treasures that can actually be pretty difficult to obtain.

There’s only so much equipment to upgrade in Skyward Sword , so it stands to reason that you only need to acquire so much treasure. Here’s a list of the bare minimum number of all treasures you need to obtain to upgrade all of Link’s equipment.

Anything you acquire over this amount you can just sell off to Rupin to make some extra Rupees. Some treasures you can easily acquire more than enough of just by exploring the game, while others you need to go out of your way to get.

Total Amount of Treasure

Treasure	Total Number	Image
Hornet Larvae	4
Bird Feathers	5
Tumbleweeds	16
Lizard Tails	7
Eldin Ores	7
Ancient Flowers	7
Amber Relics	25
Dusk Relics	13
Jelly Blobs	8
Monster Claws	17
Monster Horns	8
Ornamental Skulls	12
Evil Crystals	4
Blue Bird Feathers	5
Golden Skulls	4
Goddess Plumes	3

How Do I Get Treasures I’m Missing?

If you’re trying to make a particular item and need to quickly amass some amount of a treasure, you probably want to go grind for it real quick. It’s smartest to wait until toward the end of the game to grind, since otherwise you might get what you want out of a random treasure chest or by summoning a Gossip Stone.

Bear in mind that at some points in the game, you simply can’t obtain certain treasures. You can’t get Tumbleweeds before you can go to Lanayru Desert, for instance. Here’s a quick list of the best ways to grind for certain treasures, if you want to get some fast.

Hornet Larvae

The only place in the game you can acquire Hornet Larvae is in the Deep Woods area of Faron Woods. If you’re grinding for them, the best place for it is the tree just outside Skyview Temple.

Shoot at the Deku Hornet hive up in the tree, use your Bug Net to catch or drive away the Deku Hornets, then go over where the hornet nest fell to claim the Hornet Larvae. You can reset the Deku Hornet nest by rapidly walking in and then back out of Skyview Temple, which lets you quickly get all the Hornet Larvae you need.

Bird Feathers

You get Bird Feathers by catching small pink birds and small yellow birds in your Bug Net. The birds gather in many different areas in Faron Woods. If you’re not at the very end of the game, the Sealed Grounds is one of the best places to catch birds.

You can walk in and out of the Sealed Temple to reset the birds that roost just in front of the entrance. If you are at the end of the game, a good place to hunt birds is around the “In the Woods” bird statue in Faron Woods.

Tumbleweeds

You get Tumbleweeds by catching the ones that blow around Lanayru Desert regions in your Bug Net. These Tumbleweeds have a chance of spawning and blowing across the screen every time you stop after moving for a short distance.

If you simply run without stopping, no Tumbleweeds spawn. The entrance area of Lanayru Desert itself is a good place to hunt for Tumbleweeds, since you’ve got lots of room to run around.

Lizard Tails

You can only get Lizard Tails by defeating Lizalfos. It is possible to grind for Lizard Tails, though usually you get all that you need in the course of exploring the game. If you do end up having to grind for Lizard Tails, an excellent place to hunt Lizalfos is the Shipyard at the Lanayru Sand Sea.

You can fight the pair of Lizalfos who appear on the platform near the entrance, leave, then come right back and fight them again.

Eldin Ores

Eldin Ore only appears in Eldin Volcano areas. If you dig around in that area’s dirt patches with any frequency, you should end up with far more than you need. If you need to get some Eldin Ore fast, it can be good to explore the area just in front of the entrance to the Fire Sanctuary.

You usually get a couple of Eldin Ores from one of the dirt patches just across from the Gossip Stone.

Ancient Flowers

You can only find Ancient Flowers growing in time-shifted areas of Lanayru Desert. You should get plenty throughout the course of the game, but if you need to get some fast, try a quick pass through the Lanayru Mine or the area just outside the Temple of Time.

Basically, any area of Lanayru Desert that’s loaded with Timeshift Stones can produce lots of Ancient Flowers if you just run around activating them.

Amber Relics

Even with as many Amber Relics as you need to upgrade equipment in this game, you should never ever lack for them. If you pick up even half of the ones you stumble across while exploring the game’s dungeons, you should have more than enough to make whatever you want.

If for some reason you do need Amber Relics fast, the first few rooms of Skyview Temple and the Faron Woods contain plenty of them.

Dusk Relics

Dusk Relics can be a bit tricky, because you can only get them from random treasure drops and in the Silent Realm. You can’t typically get into a Silent Realm whenever you want, unless you wait until the Thunder Dragon’s Lightning Round is open.

Then you can take the Thunder Dragon’s Silent Realm challenges, which let you enter any Silent Realm maps. Even if you fail these challenges, you get to keep any treasures you pick up in them.

Jelly Blobs

Jelly Blobs drop when you defeat monsters that the game considers “squishy.” In practice, this means Chuchus, Deku Babas, and Arachas. You may need to hunt for these early in the game, though eventually you end up carrying around tons of them you don’t need anymore.

When you need to hunt for Jelly Blobs, it’s usually quickest to just run into the waterfall cave in Skyloft and hunt the Green Chuchus that live inside.

Monster Claws

All types of Keese drop Monster Claws, though you still have a tendency to run short of them. When you need to get a few extra, the waterfall cave in Skyloft is a good place to fight lots of Keese and not much else.

Once monsters stop appearing in Skyloft, you can go on Keese hunts in Eldin Volcano. The Fire Keese tend to spawn in packs and aren’t especially dangerous to you later on in the game.

Monster Horns

You can only obtain Monster Horns from Bokoblin leaders. Sometimes they drop Monster Horns when you defeat them. A more reliable way to obtain Monster Horns from them, though, is to steal them by using the whip.

A good place to hunt is the Bokoblin village just to the left of the Earth Temple’s entrance in Eldin Volcano. There’s a Blue Bokoblin leader there you can steal from or just repeatedly defeat.

To steal a Monster Horn, just flick the whip at the Bokoblin leader and then yank quickly back. This pulls the Monster Horn from the leader’s belt or hand and into your possession.

Ornamental Skulls

All types of Bokoblins can drop Ornamental Skulls. You typically only have to go hunt for them early in the game, since later on you’ve defeated so many Bokoblins it’s inevitable that you end up with a stack of the skulls.

When you need to hunt Bokoblins, Eldin Volcano’s sandy slopes and villages are excellent places to search for them. You can also try hunting in Faron Woods, though there the Bokoblins tend to spawn in smaller groups.

Evil Crystals

In a certain sense, it’s not really possible to grind for Evil Crystals. In theory, any enemy that’s Cursed or can inflict curses can drop an Evil Crystal. In practice, you tend to get them only from Dark Lizalfos and Cursed Bokoblins.

These aren’t enemies you can casually go out and hunt. If you didn’t get all the Evil Crystals you need while passing through the Ancient Cistern, you’re probably best off buying the rest from the Moonlight Merchant.

Blue Bird Feathers

You have lots of chances to get Blue Bird Feathers in the game, but it’s surprisingly difficult to just go out and grind for them. To get a Blue Bird Feather, you have to catch one of the rare small blue birds that sometimes spawn with small bird groups.

You usually have better luck traveling from one spawn point to another than trying to reset one spawn point repeatedly. The Sealed Grounds is an especially good place to hunt, as are Skyview Spring and the “In the Woods” bird statue in Faron Woods.

Golden Skulls

Golden Skulls aren’t actually very rare. You get them by fighting Bokoblins later in the game, with rarer types of Bokoblins like Technoblins dropping them a bit more frequently.

Due to the sheer volume of Bokoblins you fight in this game, chances are you can easily amass a good-sized pile of Golden Skulls just from battling your way through dungeons. If you need to hunt for Golden Skulls, just wait until late in the game and hit up Eldin Volcano.

Goddess Plumes

There are a few ways you can try to grind for Goddess Plumes. They appear sometimes in the Silent Realm, so you can wait until late in the game and grind for them at the Thunder Dragon’s Lightning Round.

You can also try farming the one that appears in Lanayru Mining Facility in the room where you get the Gust Bellows. Running in and out of the dungeon, that Goddess Plume is going to have a good chance of being in that particular pile of sand when you blow it away.