The Depths is the biggest addition to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Hyrule

Tears of the Kingdom's underground region vastly overshadows the Sky Islands

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild introduced us to a huge new incarnation of Hyrule, one which unified all of the regions and landmarks we’ve come to know in the Zelda series, and tasked players with traversing it via any means necessary. Climbing rain-slick cliffs and navigating around tough monsters was a key part of the game – something that Tears of the Kingdom mostly does away with.

You can’t traverse the same Hyrule in the same way twice, right? With vehicles you can build thanks to Zonai Devices, Tears of the Kingdom changes how you travel – including letting you drop down onto a mountain from a Sky Island, or ascending up from below. But that doesn’t mean Tears of the Kingdom forgets what made Breath of the Wild so good – and it replicates that with the Depths.

BOTW had you searching for paths to move forward across hostile terrain, and that’s what the Depths provides. The world of Hyrule has literally doubled in size thanks to a subterranean layer that stretches the full length and breadth of the land above. Those holes that spill gloom into the world of Hyrule are dotted around the landscape so you can enter the Depths from multiple points, and there are several chambers within the Depths – you can’t access them all from a single entrance.

You can enter the Depths from multiple points in the overworld

The Depths is dark, meaning that throwing Brightbloom Seeds for visibility is a borderline necessity, and the only way you brighten things up is by seeking Lightroots, which illuminate your surroundings, and act as fast travel points.

But gloom isn’t just a vibe – it’s a malevolent force. Get afflicted by gloom, and you won’t just lose health – your Heart Containers will be sealed off until you either return to the surface or a Lightroot. This means traversing the Depths with only a few hearts available is a big mistake – but it also contains some of the best rewards and secrets Link can find along his journey. If you want to reap those rewards, you’ll need to risk it all.

The Depths ends up being the biggest single addition in Tears of the Kingdom, vastly overshadowing the Sky Islands that have featured so heavily in marketing. Make no mistake, you can be traversing the sky and exploring various islands for hours on end if you choose to, but hours in the Depths will barely touch the sides of what there is to find. 

The Depths is vast and filled with some of the best rewards and secrets in the game

There’s even a bit of synergy between the two new elevations – you can find Old Maps up on Sky Islands which mark precious items that you can delve into the Depths to find. That’s all in addition to a robust main quest that makes the darkness of the Depths just as essential to Tears of the Kingdom as Hyrule itself.

Tears of the Kingdom has pulled the wool over our eyes with the Sky Island-themed marketing, as the Depths are a far larger chunk of the game – both in terms of size and importance. If you, like me, were initially worried that traipsing around the same Hyrule wouldn’t feel as revelatory a second time around, put those worries aside.

The Depths contains all the fresh danger you want, while everything above will feel entirely fresh while cruising through the skies on a Glider.