BotW Hyrule Compendium: All 385 Entries, Picture Prices, Reward

The Hyrule Compendium is the encyclopedia on the Sheikah Slate in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Anything you photograph with the Camera, whether a creature, monster, material, piece of equipment or treasure, is added to it automatically, and the Sheikah Sensor + can then track it down. This page covers how to unlock it, how many entries there are, how buying pictures works, and the hardest entries to fill.

How do you unlock the Hyrule Compendium?

The Camera, Hyrule Compendium and album are the three functions the Sheikah Slate already had 100 years ago, and all three are broken when Link wakes up. The main quest Locked Mementos sends you to Hateno Ancient Tech Lab: once you light the lab’s furnace with the blue flame, Purah uses the Guidance Stone to repair the Slate and all three come back together. The full steps are on the Sheikah Slate runes page.

Point the Camera at something and its name appears on screen. Press the shutter and the picture goes into your album, while any new kind of subject is registered in the Compendium. If you picked up a material before photographing it, just drop it from your inventory and take the picture.

How many entries are there in each category?

The Compendium has five categories. The base game (no DLC, Normal Mode) has 385 entries, numbered straight through by category:

Equipment does not include armor: photographing clothes or helmets registers nothing.

How many entries do the DLC and Master Mode add?

The extra entries are slotted into the existing numbering, so with DLC installed the later numbers shift up. You meet the four Champions’ Ballad entries during that quest line, see the Champions’ Ballad guide; for the Master Mode monsters see Master Mode.

Can you buy Compendium pictures, and how much do they cost?

Yes, from Symin at Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, but two things come first:

1. In Purah’s quest Slated for Upgrades, hand over 3 ancient screws to upgrade the Sheikah Sensor to the Sheikah Sensor +.
2. Take Symin’s side quest Sunshroom Sensing: photograph the sunshroom behind the lab, then use the sensor to find 3 sunshrooms in Retsam Forest to the north and give them to him.

After that, talk to Symin again and he will pull old pictures from the Guidance Stone and sell them to you. Pictures are sold by category:

Pick a category, then how many you want, or buy every picture in that category at once. The game describes the Elite Enemy Picture as “a picture of a powerful monster that at one time stood in your way”; the foes you only meet in boss fights are in this group.

Which entries are hardest to get?

Lord of the Mountain (Creature #4) only appears on top of Satori Mountain when a green beam of light rises there. When it shows up, the summit fills with Blupees and other animals, so you can photograph a Blupee (#29) at the same time. See Lord of the Mountain for how it spawns.

The three dragons, Dinraal, Naydra and Farosh, are in the Monsters category. After Seek Out Impa they appear between night and morning, each once a day. The best places to wait are on the dragon parts page.

The Blights, Calamity Ganon and Dark Beast Ganon only appear in their boss fights. You can open the Camera mid-fight; if you miss them, you do not need a rematch, since an Elite Enemy Picture costs 500 rupees after the ending. Other one-time enemies and weapons that vanish later are listed on BotW Missables.

Master Mode entries: the Sky Octorok and golden monsters only exist in Master Mode, so a Normal Mode save cannot photograph them.

Equipment: many weapons only turn up in the hands of certain monsters or in chests. Once you have one, drop it from your inventory and photograph it.

How does the Sheikah Sensor + use the Compendium?

The Sheikah Sensor + can detect anything registered in the Hyrule Compendium. Open the map, choose the Sheikah Sensor, pick a picture from the Hyrule Compendium and set it as the target; the sensor then tracks that thing instead of shrines. It is most useful for farming materials: photograph something once and the sensor can find more of it.

What is the reward for completing the Compendium?

Return to Symin once the Compendium is full. He says the lab budget has no room for a proper reward, then hands over something he found sandwiched in a book: the Classified Envelope. Its description reads “Inside the envelope is a picture of a beautiful young woman of the Sheikah tribe.” It is only a keepsake and cannot be used.

Which quests ask for pictures?

Several side quests and shrine quests ask you to show someone a picture. They look at the pictures in your album, so do not delete them right after taking them:

The full walkthrough for Guardian Slideshow is on the Shoqa Tatone Shrine page. For the rest, see the side quest list and shrine quests. The rules in Tears of the Kingdom are a little different, see the TotK Hyrule Compendium.