TotK Light Dragon's Scale: How Many to Keep and a Cheaper Healing Fuse

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the Light Dragon drops a scale for any hit that misses its horns, its mouth and its claws. That makes the scale the part you collect most and often the one you did not want. You only ever need three, and its other job, healing you through a fused weapon, is done just as well by a cheaper piece lying on the dragon’s back.

Why only three scales?

Both blue Champion’s tunics use the scale for their first star and never again:

• Champion’s Leathers, first star: 3 Silent Princesses and 2 Light Dragon’s Scales (defense 5 to 8).
• Tunic of Memories, first star: 3 Silent Princesses and 1 Light Dragon’s Scale (defense 4 to 7).

The Leathers come first for almost everyone. They sit in a chest in Hyrule Castle’s throne room and you can fetch them early, while the Tunic of Memories only goes on sale after you have found all seven Bargainer Statues. So the first two scales go to the Leathers, and the third is only worth keeping once you own the Tunic too. The later stars follow the same two-and-one split with the Talon, the Shard of Light Dragon’s Fang and the Horn; where each tunic is and which to wear is on the Champion’s Leathers and Tunic of Memories page.

Getting a scale is the easy part

You do not need to aim. Land on the Light Dragon’s back and swing at the body under your feet, or shoot anywhere along its length from a glide. Unlike Dinraal, Naydra and Farosh, it does not burn, freeze or shock you, so there is no armor to change into first.

Finding it is the slow bit, since it circles the whole map. While the main quest Recovering the Hero’s Sword is active, the map shows where the dragon is; pulling the Master Sword from its head ends the quest and the marker with it. If you still want parts, collect them before you take the sword. The route, the high and low loops and the Skyview Towers to launch from are on the dragon locations page.

One thing changes how you spend your hits. After any part drops, the dragon gives nothing more for ten minutes of real time, and the timer does not care which part it was. A scale costs exactly the same wait as a Light Dragon’s Horn, which sells for twice as much. Once you have your three scales, aim for the horns.

Want a healing weapon? Fuse the Spike shard instead

Every Light Dragon part gives a fused weapon the same healing: a quarter of a heart each time it hits an enemy or an object. The part only changes the attack bonus, and the scale’s is small at 12. A scale from Dinraal, Naydra or Farosh adds 16 and carries fire, ice or shock, but no Light Dragon healing.

The Shard of Light Dragon’s Spike matches the scale exactly: 12 attack, the same healing. It sells for only 30 rupees, and it lies under the spikes on the dragon’s back, where you can pick it up every time you land, with no ten-minute wait. Fuse one of those and the scale stays free for armor or for selling. More on fusing in the fuse guide.

Spare scales: sell them

At 150 rupees, a scale is worth the same as any dragon’s scale and half a horn. Selling is the best use for anything past your third.

In a cooking pot, any dragon scale guarantees an incredible success and adds one minute to a timed effect, the smallest boost of the four Light Dragon parts. If an incredible success is all you are after, a Golden Apple does it for a sale value of 8 rupees. The other ways to force one are on how to cook.

It is also a White dye material at the Kochi Dye Shop, but a dye job takes five of one color, 750 rupees of scales, when Fresh Milk or Hylian Rice give the same White. See the dye shop.

See also

• Light Dragon’s Talon, the second-star part
• Shard of Light Dragon’s Fang, the third-star part
• Dragon locations and dragon parts
• All materials