BotW Trial of the Sword Rewards, Floors and Tips

Trial of the Sword is a resource-management challenge, not a normal equipment check. The important decisions happen before entry and after every cleared room: arrive healthy, preserve strong drops, search the arena, and spend trial-only supplies instead of trying to save them for the overworld.

Are the Trial of the Sword rewards worth it?

The reward is worthwhile if the Master Sword is one of your regular weapons. Each first clear raises its normal attack, and the Final Trials keep the fully awakened state active wherever the sword can be used. The upgrade is less urgent if you only want to finish the main story and rarely use the sword.

The three upgrades are the permanent rewards. Weapons, meals, armor, and materials collected inside disappear when you return to Hyrule, and replaying a completed section does not grant another upgrade.

For the sword’s location and base mechanics, start with the BotW Master Sword guide. The BotW DLC guide covers the other content included with the Expansion Pass.

How do you unlock Trial of the Sword?

You need the Expansion Pass content active and the Master Sword already in your inventory. Return to its pedestal in Korok Forest and place it back to enter. The sword must have energy, and the normal route to obtaining it already requires 13 permanent Heart Containers.

There is no second heart check at the trial entrance. Your current hearts, stamina, and active temporary effects carry in, but your inventory does not. If you still need the sword’s normal heart requirement, use the BotW shrine map guide to plan more shrine clears.

How are the Beginning, Middle, and Final Trials structured?

The sections must be cleared in order, but they do not have to be completed in one sitting. Each completed section returns Link to Korok Forest and remains cleared. Inside an individual section, however, there is no manual save or floor checkpoint, so death restarts that current section.

This is why two totals appear in guides. Nintendo’s 45-room figure counts rooms where enemies must be cleared. The 54-floor total also counts six rest rooms and the three Master Sword reward chambers at the end of the sections.

At the start of every section, the game removes carried weapons, shields, bows, arrows, armor, materials, and meals. Runes remain available, but Champion abilities do not. Anything collected inside is temporary and is removed when the section ends.

What are the safest Trial of the Sword tips?

The safest approach is to treat health, weapons, and arrows as a shared budget for the whole current section. Scout before fighting, isolate enemies, use reusable runes and environmental hazards first, then search the cleared room. Rest rooms are your chance to cook, collect fairies, and reorganize supplies.

Remote bombs are especially useful against weak targets and for triggering explosive barrels without spending arrows. Height and water can also end fights cheaply. If a direct fight is unavoidable, focus on one enemy rather than spreading damage across a group and consuming several weapons at once.

What mistakes cause most Trial of the Sword failures?

Most failures come from expecting normal overworld safety nets. The trial removes your prepared inventory, disables Champion abilities, and offers no checkpoint inside the current section. A cautious clear followed by a complete resource sweep is usually safer than rushing to the exit with damaged health and missed supplies.

After finishing a section, you can stop and continue later without repeating the cleared section. After completing all of them, you may replay any available section for the challenge, but there is no additional permanent reward. If you are deciding where this challenge belongs in a first playthrough, see which Zelda game to play first.