Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom - How To Use The Purah Pad's Camera & Shrine Sensor

Wave after wave of stellar reviews for "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" have pushed the series to the mountaintop of cult classics once again, with a notable portion of that adoration fixating on gameplay. Link's handy (hehe) suite of new abilities has presented players with some of the most quirky yet accessible mechanics in all of "Zelda." But Producer Eiji Aonuma and company evidently felt no need to reinvent the wheel — Link can do that himself through Ultrahand — when approaching two returning abilities from "Breath of the Wild."

The camera and shrine sensor functions of the Purah Pad have not stood out as much in discourse about the game compared to new abilities like Ultrahand and Ascend: Two of the primary reasons developers have agreed "Tears of the Kingdom" is a miracle. Thankfully, these more understated abilities retain the same level of utility they had in "Breath of the Wild." Players interested in completing shrines and compendium quests will find these tools quite useful — provided they understand how to find them and how to use them. But don't worry! It's pretty easy to do so.

Fortunately, players can restore the camera and shrine sensor functionalities of the Purah Pad quite early. Within the first hour of leaving the tutorial Sky Islands, Link will find a newly-transformed Purah at Lookout Landing, the defacto HQ of Hyrule's restoration movement, located outside the now-floating Hyrule Castle. Following Purah's instructions eventually leads Link to Robbie, who gives the hero two quests needed to obtain the camera and, later, the shrine sensor. Completing these quests — both of which involve the underground — will prompt Robbie to move back to his lab in Hateno Village where players can then obtain the shrine sensor.

Using the camera is mostly a snap. Players can access it by clicking the left bumper as they would to access the rune abilities. The D-pad allows them to zoom in and out — and pressing A will take a picture. For recording compendium entries, the game displays an orange frame around the subject to indicate a compendium-worthy photo. If the player has already registered a given subject to the compendium, the game will ask if they want to replace the old photo.

The shrine sensor, meanwhile, activates entirely passively. If the player has neared a shrine, it will ping in the bottom right corner next to the map.

In short, the camera and shrine sensor abilities in "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" have remained nearly exactly the same as in the previous game.