If you’ve spent any time trekking through the frozen, unforgiving landscape of the North Tabantha Snowfield, you’ve probably stumbled upon a glowing green structure sitting just north of the Snowfield Stable. That’s the Orochium Shrine. It’s better known by its subtitle: Courage to Fall.
Most people see that name and think it’s just flavor text. It’s not. In fact, if you try to solve this shrine using "Zelda logic"—you know, avoiding the red lasers like they’re instant death—you are going to be stuck in there for a very long time. Honestly, this is one of the cleverest bits of level design in Tears of the Kingdom because it weaponizes your own gamer instincts against you.
Finding the Orochium Shrine
First things first, you need to actually get there. The coordinates are roughly -1636, 2641, 0239. It’s out in the Hebra Mountains, so if you don't have two pieces of Cold Resistance gear or a spicy pepper stir-fry handy, Link is going to be shivering his way to an early grave before you even touch the door.
It’s sitting right near the road. You can’t miss it. Once you step inside, the atmosphere changes immediately. No more blizzards. Just that humming Zonai energy and a puzzle that has left more than a few players screaming at their Switch.
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Why Courage to Fall is a Massive Troll
When you walk into the main chamber, you see a giant pair of double doors. Naturally, you use Ultrahand to pull them open. What's behind them? A hallway filled with red lasers.
Now, if you’ve played basically any video game since the 90s, you know that red lasers equal bad. In Breath of the Wild, they meant a Guardian was about to erase your existence. Here, if you touch them, a trapdoor opens and you fall. Most players immediately back away, thinking they've failed. They go left, they fight some Soldier Constructs, they use Ascend to get into the rafters, and they try to find a "secret" way around.
That’s exactly what Nintendo wants you to do.
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The real secret to the Courage to Fall shrine is that you have to hit those lasers. Not the ones at the very start—those just drop you into a pit of nothingness—but the ones deeper in the shrine, specifically the ones guarding the Small Key.
The Path to the Small Key
To get the key, you have to navigate to the back of the central structure. You’ll find a set of lasers moving back and forth over a floor that looks suspiciously solid.
- Walk right into those lasers.
- The floor will drop.
- You’ll land in a hidden basement corridor.
It feels wrong. Every fiber of your being is telling you that you just died, but instead, you find yourself in a long hallway. If you dodge the lasers down here and reach the end, you’ll find a chest. Inside is the Small Key. This is the only way to reach the ball (the orb) needed to finish the shrine.
Moving the Orb: The Glider Trick
Once you’ve used Ascend to get back out of the basement and used your key to unlock the green door, you’ll find the orb. Now you have to get it all the way back to the start.
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You’ll see some elevators. Take the orb up. At the top, there’s a mechanism that opens a side room containing a Zonai Wing with two fans already attached. This is where people get "stuck" again. They try to carry the orb by hand or use Ultrahand to move it across the room.
Basically, you just need to glue the orb to the top of the Wing.
There are rails leading back toward the entrance. Place the Wing on the rails, hop on, and smack the fans. You’ll go for a nice, smooth ride right back to the beginning of the shrine. Pop the orb in the hole near the entrance, and the final gate opens.
A Few Real-World Tips for the Trial
If you’re struggling with the combat part, keep in mind there are about five Soldier Constructs in here. They aren't particularly tough, but they can gang up on you. Using a spear is usually the safest bet so you can keep them at a distance while they try to poke you with their Zonai blades.
- Check the rafters: There’s a second chest in this shrine containing 5 arrows. It’s located behind a Construct on the upper level before you reach the laser trap area.
- Don't overthink the Wing: If you accidentally drop the Wing off the rails, it will respawn. Don't panic.
- Ascend is your best friend: If you ever feel like you’re in a "dead end" in this shrine, look up. There is almost always a ceiling you can pop through.
The Courage to Fall is really a lesson in unlearning. It teaches you that in Hyrule, sometimes the most dangerous-looking path is the only one that actually leads forward.
What to do next
After you’ve grabbed your Light of Blessing from the Orochium Shrine, you’re perfectly positioned to head further north into the North Lomei Labyrinth. It’s a massive jump in difficulty compared to this shrine, so make sure you’ve upgraded your battery or have plenty of stamina recovery food before you try to tackle the sky portion of that maze.