Tears of the Kingdom: Runakit Shrine solutions are more diverse than you may think 

Players of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have come up with a diverse range of solutions to conquering the “final rail” in Runakit Shrine. Some built elegant looking structures, while others overcame the puzzle with brute force. It seems that each player came up with their own preferred way to solve it.  

Please note that this article contains spoilers for Runakit Shrine. 

In Tears of the Kingdom, there are an abundance of shrines located around Hyrule which test the player’s puzzle solving skills. By making use of Link’s different abilities, such as using Ultrahand to connect objects together, players can overcome the obstacles that stand in their way and reach the goal. However, there is not just one way to solve these puzzles: thanks to the physics-based design of the game, players are able to come up with all kinds of different solutions for a single puzzle. It’s even possible to ignore the intended design of the puzzles and just use brute-force solutions. 

Runakit Shrine is located in Lindor’s Brow. Although players generally have complete freedom to tackle the game’s content in whatever order they wish, most would likely visit Runakit Shrine towards the beginning of the game. The theme of the shrine is “Built to Carry,” and the goal is to use rails placed between platforms to transport a huge sphere. The final section of this shrine involves getting the sphere over a gap with only a single rail, and it seems to have really brought out the creativity in players based on the diverse range of solutions that have been thought up. 

When taking on the single rail puzzle, you can only use planks and poles, meaning that you can’t use any hook items. The problem is to find a way to get the sphere across the gap under these conditions. One of the most common ways that players have solved it is to hang something on the rail that can carry the sphere across. They combine the planks to create a makeshift hook from which the sphere can be hung. While some make the structure as simple as possible, others have created huge gondolas. 

Though less common, there are some players who built a structure that carries the sphere while traveling on top of the rail. One player created an elaborate design that was perfectly symmetrical and slid down the rail with perfect balance. Another player used a riskier method that involved balancing the sphere with counterweights. Each of these unique methods possesses its own aesthetic beauty. 

There are also those players who solve rail-style puzzles by crossing the rail themselves. In Tears of the Kingdom, it is possible to move across rails directly, whether by shield surfing or simply walking. Although it requires a great deal of focus and precision, there are many instances of players getting past these puzzles with a more direct approach. Players tried this within Runakit Shrine too—some carrying the sphere with Ultrahand as they walked across the rail, and others using the planks to turn the rail into a bridge. It’s certainly one more valid approach to the puzzle. 

Of all the different methods used for conquering this rail, the most prominent one was the hanging approach. Whether an impromptu hook, or a fully-fledged gondola, it involves using the planks or poles to create something to hang on the rail and carry the sphere across. Some consideration needs to go into the way your structure is balanced, but overall, it appears to be a highly efficient method.  

There are truly countless different ways to solve this single-rail puzzle, and there is no way that we could cover all the approaches we have seen on Twitter and other social media sites. We even found a player who went backwards up the rails and attempted to solve it in the opposite order to what the developers likely intended. The only thing that is certain is that any solution that gets the job done is a correct one. 

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-05-29 12:04 JST)