There is a lot to do in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In between completing missions on your quest to assist Princess Zelda and save the kingdom, you'll run into interesting locations, fascinating shrines, colorful characters, and even the occasional horse god or two.
You'll also participate in a wide variety of minigame activities scattered across Hyrule. Whether it's a skill-based challenge or a game of luck and chance, the minigames available in Tears of the Kingdom are sure to keep you occupied in between intense battles and expansive temples. Here are our picks for the best minigames around.
7 Flight Range
Located near Rito Village, the Flight Range should be familiar to anyone who's played Tears of the Kingdom's predecessor, Breath of the Wild. In that game, the Flight Range serves as a practice area for shooting arrows in midair, but its sequel changes things up a bit.
In Tears of the Kingdom, the Flight Range is focused on practicing the act of gliding itself. You'll use the constant updraft to try and find the best route and pass through as many rings as possible, attempting to reach a certain number before the time limit runs out. Finding the best routes to glide, drop and rise in this windy playground is a ton of fun.
6 Sky Island Diving Challenges
While the Rito's Flight Range is a lot of fun, gliding isn't the only aerial activity you'll be participating in. Since the game is full of sky islands, you'll also spend plenty of time diving, sometimes at high speeds. That's where the various diving challenges come in.
If you notice one of Tears of the Kingdom's large, vertical collections of rotating sky islands, chances are you're looking at one of the game's diving challenges. Simply make your way to the bottom of the area and speak to the construct there to take the challenge and potentially earn some very useful rewards.
5 Mine Cart Land
Mine carts have been seen around Hyrule since the days of the Calamity, transporting your across the game's rails at a convenient speed. Tears of the Kingdom adds plenty of utility to these wheeled wonders, from shield fusions that'll give you a makeshift skateboard to fast-paced, fan-powered trips around Death Mountain.
The latter method will come in extra handy when participating in the cart challenges, presented by three Goron brothers near Goron Village in a fun-filled area known as "Mine Cart Land." You'll zip around a series of tracks, hitting targets with arrows as you go as the challenges become more grand and difficult.
4 The Treasure Chest Shop
If you happened to make your way to Lurelin Village in Breath of the Wild, you may have come across the Treasure Chest Shop there. This unique store would allow you to spend a small amount of rupees to gain a chance to open one of three chests. Pick the right one, and you might just walk away with a large amount of rupees, sometimes far more than what you paid to participate.
The Treasure Chest Shop returns in Tears of the Kingdom, although it's changed a bit. At no cost, you'll open one of the chests, and the type of rupee you find will determine which of the shopkeeper's prizes you'll walk away with. It's a nice twist on an already fun idea.
3 Racing Minigames
With Tears of the Kingdom's focus on creating wild vehicles, it would have been an absolute crime if the game didn't include some form of racing minigame. Thankfully, there are multiple options to choose from if you'd like to test your creations out.
In Tarrey Town, there's an area where Zonai parts are being researched, and one of the researchers is interested in your Zonai construction's performance in her courses. Similarly, you'll be able to participate in a boat race in Lurelin Village once things die down a bit there. Both activities are a blast, encouraging you to experiment with different builds in order to get the best time.
2 Hide And Seek
Tears of the Kingdom is surprisingly full of children, from young toddlers to teenagers. As expected, they spend much of their time running and playing, and you can occasionally join in on the fun.
In Gerudo Village, you'll come across a young girl standing near an odd-looking orb. Ask her if you can have it, and she'll agree, on one condition: you'll have to participate in a game of hide-and-seek first! She'll hide a small plush version of the game's sand-seals, and you'll need to search the area for it before time runs out. It's nice to see kids being kids, even in the face of impending doom.
1 Sky Island Basketball (And More)
Many of the minigames in Tears of the Kingdom's are handcrafted by for your enjoyment, but a lot of the game's most enjoyable moments are created by clever use of its items and mechanics. There are toys everywhere for Link to fiddle around with, finding fun things to do with them.
For instance, you may have located a floating orb in the sky near the Sky Mine with a huge button inside. You'll need to send a large block into the orb's entrance hole using the launcher on a nearby island. Finding the perfect angle to shoot the block into the hole is fun enough, but it's just as fun to use items like rockets and floating cubes to solve the puzzle in your own way. That's just one example of the do-it-yourself nature that makes Tears of the Kingdom's gameplay so special.