How to Increase Stamina Without Shrines in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The two resources in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that feel as though they're always running out are rupees and, arguably more importantly, stamina – the pesky green circle that allows you to run, climb, swim, tame horses, and paraglide. Getting more green stamina rings in TotK requires players to complete four shrines and trade the earned Light of Blessings for a marginal stamina upgrade. If you're not down to complete a ton of shrines in TotK or would rather save them for later, there are a few ways to boost your stamina through other means.

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Using Elixirs and Food to Boost Stamina

The easiest way to recover and boost stamina temporarily is through elixirs and recipes. While neither of these is permanent, they can be helpful for extended exploration and for taking on other stamina-heavy challenges, like taming giant horses.

To best make use of these, be sure to have a lot in your inventory before setting out on your next adventure. Elixirs and meals can be made better by using more ingredients, though you'll occasionally get a random boost. This boost is nearly guaranteed if you make something during or in the moments after a Blood Moon.

Then, while you're out and about, simply throw open the menu and use your elixir or meal of choice to recover stamina – you can eat a meal mid-climb or during any activity to refill your stamina meter. It can be a little cumbersome to have to constantly throw open the menu for more stamina, but it's a decent stopgap until you have the time or interest to complete more shrines.

There are two stamina elixirs in TotK: the Energizing Elixir and the Enduring Elixir. The Energizing Elixir refills your stamina bar but won't extend it into the yellow “bonus stamina” zone. It's helpful to have a few of these on hand if you expect to do a lot of gliding and climbing or need to tame powerful horses.

Energizing Elixir Recipe:

Restless Cricket or Energetic Rhino BeetleAny Monster Part

Restless Crickets can be found in tall grass (chop it down with a sword and be ready to mash A to grab them!) and periodically under rocks. Energetic Rhino Beetle are found on the trees on the Great Sky Island and around West Necluda. Learn more about both on their guide pages.

The Enduring Elixir is harder to make, but better to have since it actually extends your stamina bar beyond what you have unlocked.

Enduring Elixir Recipe:

Tireless Frog – Found in cave streams and rivers around Hyrule, speciallfically the Zora River and around Hyrule Field.Any Monster Part

See how to make all elixirs with our guide.

Okay, but what's the easiest to farm stamina item? By far the most abundant are the restless crickets and stamella shrooms.

For the restless crickets, put on a podcast or other comfy form of entertainment, get a sword, and travel to any grassy field. Proceed to cut the grass and be ready to smash A to collect the quick bugs before they fly away. Continue doing this until you're satisfied with your haul.

For stamella shrooms, use the handy map below of the area around Zora's Domain to find and collect a ton of the stamina-restoring mushrooms.

Meals made with certain ingredients can also restore stamina, but they'll also restore hearts. It's best to save these for a fight or somewhere you're taking damage, otherwise you're wasting half the resource. Either way, though, wasting the heart regeneration is worth it if you're in a spot where stamina is essential!

Note that these ingredients must be cooked in order to activate their restorative properties. Otherwise, you'll only get hearts.

Stamina Restoring Ingredients:

Staminoka Bass – Found in lakes and rivers of Hyrule Field and West Necluda.Stamella Shroom – These can be found near Fort Hateno and in Upland Zorana.Stambulb – One of the new greens in the game, Stambulb can be found on islands across the Hyrule Sky.

Stamina Extension Ingredients:

Endura Shroom – You'll find these rare mushrooms in the North Tabantha Sky Archipelago and North Necluda Sky Archipelago.Endura Carrot – These can be reliably found beneath the cherry blossom trees with the shrine and on the plateau east of the Horse God Bridge in Faron.

Helpful Armor

There is no armor that improves your stamina that we know of, but you can use armor for perpetual speed buffs and to reduce how much stamina is used for select activities.

Climbing Gear Set – The Climber's set improves climbing speed, but even better, reduces climbing jump stamina consumption after the set has been upgraded to level 2!Zora Set – Improve your swim speed! Fierce Deity Armor – You'll need to do some farming to upgrade it, but if you do you'll get the charge attack stamina bonus.Dark Armor – Improved movement speed at night.Snow Boots – Improve movement speed in deep snow. Sand Boots – Improved movement speed in sand. Opal Earrings – Improved swim speed.Vah Ruta Divine Helm – Improved swim speed.Ravio Hood – Increased sideways climbing speed.

You can make all these armor even more effective or at least provide more protection by upgrading them after finding and unlocking great fairy fountains.

A Few Quick and Easy Shrines

And, of course and already mentioned, you'll eventually want to do as many shrines as you can to boost that stamina bar permanently! Below are eight easy shrines (mostly shrines featuring Rauru's Blessing) throughout Hyrule to hopefully get you at least two more increases to stamina.

Rutafu-um Shrine – HerbaTenmaten Shrine – Hyrule RidgeJoniu Shrine – Upland Zorana Skyview Tower Yomizuk Shrine – Lanayru Great Springs under Lodrum HeadlandMayachideg Shrine – AkkalaJochi-ihiga Shrine – AkkalaIkatak Shrine – Tabantha Frontier Gisa CraterMaoikes Shrine – Lanayru Wetlands

Be sure to drop any easy shrines you've completed in the comments below to help others snag the ones that can be done quickly.

There's plenty more to boost, improve, and find in Tears of the Kingdom, though, and you can learn more about all of it quick with our guide written by Zelda experts. Below are a few recommended guides to check out next that can help you gear up for your next adventure in Hyrule.

Armor Set Details and LocationsAll Shrine Locations and SolutionsKorok Seed LocationsHow to Buff and Repair Weapons or Shields

Miranda Sanchez is the executive editor of guides at IGN and a member of Podcast Unlocked. She's a big fan of stationery and fountain pens. You can sometimes find her on Twitter.