The Depths are pitch black, soaked in Gloom and actively hostile to your heart containers. A Brightbloom Seed is a birthday candle in a cavern the size of Hyrule. Lightroots are the fix, and Tears of the Kingdom hides a built-in cheat sheet for finding every single one.
Here’s what actually happens under the hood: there are 120 Lightroots, each one is pinned to a shrine on the surface, and the names give the whole system away. Let’s crack it open.
What Lightroots Do
Lightroots are the Depths version of shrines. You walk up to the dormant root, interact with it, and it blooms into a huge glowing bulb.
- Fast travel: every activated Lightroot becomes a warp point, so you never have to dive down a chasm to reach that area again.
- Map reveal: the area around it lights up and fills in on your Depths map.
- Gloom recovery: standing in a Lightroot’s light restores hearts that Gloom has damaged. It is the closest thing the Depths have to a bonfire.
- Navigation anchor: once lit, the glow is visible from a long way off, which turns it into a landmark for everything nearby.
There is no puzzle or fight attached to the activation itself. Getting there alive is the whole test.
The 120 Lightroots and the Shrine Link
Tears of the Kingdom has 152 shrines in total. The 120 on the surface each have a Lightroot sitting directly underneath them in the Depths. Sky island shrines do not get one.
The Tech: Names Are Spelled Backwards
Every Lightroot is named after the shrine above it, spelled in reverse. The devs left this in plain sight and a lot of players never notice.
| Surface shrine | Lightroot below | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Gatakis Shrine | Sikatag Lightroot | Rito Village, Hebra |
| En-oma Shrine | Amo-ne Lightroot | Lake Hylia |
| Sepapa Shrine | Apapes Lightroot | Island in the Hyrule Castle moat |
| Serutabomac Shrine | Camobatures Lightroot | Hyrule Castle area |
So the trick works both ways. Found a Lightroot under a spot where you have no shrine? There is a shrine right above it waiting to be discovered.
How to Find Every Lightroot
Science time. You can wander the dark and hope, or you can use the surface map as a cheat code.
- Pick a shrine on the surface map. Hover over it, then switch to the Depths layer. The cursor stays at the same coordinates.
- Drop a marker on the Depths map at that exact spot. That is where the Lightroot is.
- Dive into the nearest chasm and head toward the marker.
- Climb something tall and scan for a faint orange glow. Dormant Lightroots give off a weak light that is easier to spot from a height.
- Walk up and activate it. Done. Warp unlocked.
For the tech nerds: the Depths mirror the surface on the same coordinate grid, but inverted. Mountains up top tend to be valleys below, and rivers and lakes on the surface show up as walls you cannot climb in the Depths. If a route keeps dead-ending, look at what water sits above you.
Test Results: Faster Ways to Light Your Path
- Brightbloom Seeds: throw them ahead of you while walking. Cheap, and they reveal Gloom pools before you step in them.
- Light arrows and Fuse: fuse a Brightbloom Seed to an arrow and fire it far ahead to scout a path.
- Gaps in the light: Lightroot glow covers a fixed radius. Big dark patches on your Depths map between lit areas almost always hide an unlit root.
The Walled-Off Lightroots
Here is where the shrine trick hits a wall, literally. A few Lightroots sit in pockets of the Depths you cannot reach from the main cavern. Each has its own chasm on the surface, and that chasm is the only way in.
| Lightroot | Shrine above | How to get in |
|---|---|---|
| Sikatag | Gatakis (Rito Village) | Glide off the Rito Village cliffs southeast of the shrine and steer into a small cave in the rock face. It holds the Rito Village Chasm. The Lightroot is right behind you when you land. |
| Apapes | Sepapa | From the island in the Hyrule Castle moat, glide down to the river and find a small cave in the cliffside. Inside is the Hyrule Castle Moat East Chasm. The Lightroot is north of where you land. |
| Camobatures | Serutabomac | Activate Serutabomac Shrine first, then drop into the Hyrule Castle Chasm just below it. The Lightroot is almost directly beneath you. |
| Amo-ne | En-oma (Lake Hylia) | Dive into the Lake Hylia Chasm and work northeast through the Gloom pools at the bottom. |
The devs clearly wanted you to suffer a little. If you can see a Lightroot’s glow but no path reaches it, stop burning seeds. Go back up and search the surface near the matching shrine for a cave or chasm.
Pro Tips for the Depths
- Light roots near chasms first: each one becomes a safe landing zone, which makes every future dive less of a gamble.
- Use Lightroots as heal stations: Gloom damage normally sticks until you return to the surface or eat something with Sundelion in it. A lit root is a free reset.
- Pair it with Autobuild: vehicles make crossing the flat Depths plains far quicker. Our Autobuild guide covers how to save your favourite builds.
- Use a map: the TOTK interactive map lets you plan surface shrine runs before you go below.
- Patched? Nothing here is a bug. The shrine alignment and reversed names are intentional and still work on version 1.4.3 and the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
Lightroot FAQ
How many Lightroots are in Tears of the Kingdom?
There are 120 Lightroots, one under each of the 120 surface shrines. Sky shrines have no Lightroot.
Are Lightroots directly under shrines?
Yes. Each Lightroot sits at the same map coordinates as its shrine, and its name is the shrine’s name spelled backwards.
Why can’t I reach a Lightroot I can see?
Some, like Sikatag, Apapes, Camobatures and Amo-ne, sit in sealed pockets. You must enter through a specific chasm on the surface near the matching shrine.
Do Lightroots heal Gloom damage?
Yes. Standing in the light of an activated Lightroot restores hearts damaged by Gloom.
The Tech: treat your surface shrine map as a Depths map and the 120 Lightroots stop being a grind and start being a checklist. Once the Depths are lit, they are a lot more fun to explore, and pulling up the Ultrahand guide or the Recall guide will help with the Depths puzzles you run into on the way.
