Sheikah Slate Guide — From BotW to TotK

The Sheikah Slate was Link's primary tool in Breath of the Wild — a mysterious blue tablet filled with ancient Sheikah technology that granted him four core abilities. In Tears of the Kingdom, the Slate is gone, replaced by the Purah Pad. Understanding what happened to it and why illuminates a key piece of TotK lore.

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What Was the Sheikah Slate?

The Sheikah Slate was an ancient Sheikah artifact that served as a multi-function device for the chosen hero. In BotW, it provided:

• Magnesis — magnetic manipulation of metal objects
• Stasis — freezing objects or enemies in time
• Cryonis — creating ice pillars from water
• Bombs — remote-detonated round and square explosives
• Camera — for the Hyrule Compendium
• Amiibo — for scanning figures
• Map and fast travel — marking shrines and towers

It was powered by Sheikah technology and tied to the Great Plateau's Temple of Time, where Link retrieved it at the start of BotW.

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What Happened to the Sheikah Slate in TotK?

Between BotW and TotK, Zelda gave the Sheikah Slate to Purah for study. Purah, the brilliant Sheikah scientist running Lookout Landing's research division, reverse-engineered the Slate's core functions and created the Purah Pad — a refined, more portable version of the same technology.

The Purah Pad retains:

• Map and fast travel (enhanced with Depths and Sky layers)
• Camera (now with expanded Compendium features)
• Sensor+ (upgraded from BotW's basic sensor)
• Travel Medallion (unlockable, similar to a BotW DLC item)

The four core combat abilities (Magnesis, Stasis, Cryonis, Bombs) were replaced by Zonai-powered abilities:

• Ultrahand replaces Magnesis
• Recall replaces Stasis
• Ascend is new
• Fuse is new

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Sheikah Technology in TotK

Even though the Slate is gone, Sheikah technology is everywhere in TotK:

Ancient Shrines

The 152 shrines in TotK are still Sheikah constructions — the orange glow, the interior architecture, and the monk statues inside are all Sheikah in origin. The shrines predate Ganondorf's attack and were built by the ancient Sheikah to prepare future heroes.

Sheikah Towers (Skyview Towers)

The Sheikah Towers from BotW were absorbed into the ground between games and replaced by Zonai-designed Skyview Towers. The old Sheikah towers are referenced in NPC dialogue and can be inferred from the landscape.

Purah's Research

Purah's headquarters at Lookout Landing is full of Sheikah-style equipment. Her research notes (found as readable documents throughout the lab) reference the Slate extensively and explain the technical decisions behind the Purah Pad's design.

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Lore: Why Did Sheikah Technology Disappear?

At the end of BotW's Calamity Ganon story, the massive Sheikah machines — Divine Beasts and Guardians — self-deactivated after Calamity Ganon was defeated. Over time, the Sheikah technology became inert. Purah's work represents the last flowering of that civilization's knowledge, preserved in the Pad she built.

TotK shifts focus to Zonai technology — older, more powerful, and the true origin of Hyrule's founding civilization. The Sheikah, it turns out, were inheritors of Zonai knowledge, not its source.

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Tips for Players Coming from BotW

• Don't expect Magnesis or Bombs — learn Ultrahand and Fuse early, they replace those functions
• The Purah Pad's map is superior to the Slate's — it layers sky, surface, and depths
• Sensor+ works the same way as in BotW's DLC — point it at a Compendium entry and it beeps near that creature or item
• Camera works identically — photograph everything for the Compendium and material sensor upgrades