Map Markers Guide — Navigation & Custom Pins

TotK's Purah Pad map supports custom pins and the Travel Medallion system — tools that dramatically improve navigation when used well. This guide covers every map marker type, how to use them efficiently, and practical marking strategies for exploration, shrine hunting, and farming routes.

---

Map Pin Types

Standard Pins: Place anywhere on the map surface — visible as a small icon. Up to several pins active simultaneously.

Travel Medallion Pins: Up to 3 (expandable) deployable fast travel points. Place the medallion physically at your current location → the map icon appears as a fast travel destination.

Stamp Stamps (via Sensor+): Not traditional pins, but the Sensor+ highlights nearby targets matching your registered photo. Functionally acts as a proximity pin.

---

Placing Map Pins

How to pin:

1. Open the map (Minus button)
2. Move cursor to desired location
3. Press A → select pin color/icon

Pin options:

• Multiple color options (differentiate between target types)
• Basic symbol options (flag, chest, enemy, etc.)

Practical naming convention (mental, since pins can't be labeled):

• Red pin = high-priority target (shrine, boss, objective)
• Blue pin = resource or farming location
• Yellow pin = to investigate (interesting terrain feature spotted)
• Green pin = completed / done (mark then remove after)

---

Travel Medallion — Deployable Fast Travel

What it is: A reusable item that places a fast travel point exactly where Link is standing.

How to get: Found in a chest at Akkala Ancient Tech Lab (post Robbie questline completion).

Upgrades:

• Base: 1 Travel Medallion slot
• Upgraded (Robbie's quests): up to 3 simultaneous medallion placements

Best use cases:

| Situation | Where to Place Medallion | |-----------|------------------------| | Active farming loop | At the farm location (avoids walking back each reset) | | Mid-dungeon save point | At dungeon entrance (fast return if you die) | | Sky island base camp | On a major sky island before hoverbike sessions | | Depths exploration | At your entry chasm (fast exit to surface) |

Critical rule: Remove the medallion before changing activities. Leaving it at an old location wastes a fast travel slot.

---

Navigation Without Fast Travel

Between shrines: The fastest overland navigation is hoverbike → shrine-to-shrine. Shrines are the densest fast travel network. Pin your actual destination → navigate to the nearest shrine → fast travel → continue on foot/hoverbike.

Depths navigation: Use Lightroots as navigation anchors. Each Lightroot is a fast travel point. Pin the Lightroot directly above your destination (since Depths and surface are mirrored) → fast travel to the nearest Lightroot → navigate from there.

---

Shrine Hunting Markers

For systematic shrine completion:

1. Open map → identify uncompleted shrine icons (gray instead of lit)
2. Pin each uncompleted shrine in a cluster
3. Work through the cluster, removing pins as each shrine completes
4. Move to next cluster when current cluster is clear

Cluster approach: Hyrule's shrines are distributed in regional clusters. Eldin has 12–15, Akkala has 5–8, etc. Completing clusters rather than random individual shrines is faster due to travel efficiency.

Eye Sensor+ for shrine hunting:

1. Photograph a completed shrine entrance
2. Set Sensor+ to that photo
3. The sensor pings when a shrine is nearby (useful in terrain where shrines are hard to spot)

---

Resource Farming Markers

Pin your best farming locations by resource type:

| Resource | Marker Strategy | |---------|----------------| | Ore deposits | Blue pin at each major cluster → mine all on a loop | | Enemy camp for drops | Red pin at top-value camps → clear on Blood Moon cycle | | Cooking ingredients | Green pin at bulk ingredient spawn locations | | Hinox locations | Yellow pin at each sleeping Hinox → necklace weapons |

Route planning: Once you have 3–4 farm pins placed, create a mental (or physical) route between them. Travel Medallion at the central point of the route reduces backtracking.

---

Sky Island Mapping

Sky islands are harder to navigate than the surface because they're 3-dimensional and the map shows them flat:

Marking sky islands:

• Pin the surface map position of each sky island
• Add a mental note of which chasms lead to which Depths sections below them
• Pin sky islands with unique resources (Steward Construct clusters, rare Zonai dispensers)

Height estimation: The map doesn't show altitude. When pinning a sky island, note nearby tall surface terrain (mountains) as height reference for hoverbike approach angle.

---

Quick Tips

• Travel Medallion at your active farm — whenever you're doing a Blood Moon farm loop, drop the Travel Medallion at the camp entrance before clearing. After the Blood Moon resets, fast travel directly back to the camp entrance instead of flying there.
• Pin shrines you spot but can't reach — when you see a shrine from a distance (from a sky island or mountain) that you can't immediately access, pin it. Without a pin, it's easy to lose track of which shrine you saw and from where.
• 3 Travel Medallions = 3 active contexts — with the full upgrade, keep one medallion at your current farm, one at a Depths Lightroot cluster you're working through, and one at your active quest area. Switching between three active zones becomes instant.
• Remove pins after completion — unpinned maps are easier to read. After completing a shrine, remove its pin. After clearing a camp, remove it. Clean map = clear mental model of what's left to do.
• Surface map = Depths map — when navigating the Depths, the surface map overlay shows your Depths position accurately. Pin Depths targets on the surface map using surface coordinates — the Depths position is the same X/Y.

---

See also: Purah Pad Guide | Fast Travel Guide | Sky Islands Guide