Tears of the Kingdom gives Link so many more tools than he had in Breath of the Wild, but the paraglider remains an essential asset. That’s why it’s so strange that you don’t start the game with it. After all, Breath of the Wild‘s opening hours were practically a paraglider playground.
Well, it turns out that the paraglider is in Tears of the Kingdom. You’re just going to have to work a little harder to acquire it.
In Tears of the Kingdom, you acquire the paraglider from a character named Purah. To find Purah, you’ll need to first complete the opening tutorial area. This is the area located beneath the Great Sky Island. It’s relatively short, and it should lead you into the greater Hyrule Field area.
Once you’re able to explore the world a bit, look for a place called Lookout Landing on your map. Head there as soon as possible. While Lookout Landing is a useful little town (so to speak) with a number of activities to explore, you’re looking for a character named Purah. She’s the head of Lookout Landing, and she will give you a quest called “Crisis at Hyrule Castle.”
Head to Hyrule Castle and meet with a character named Captain Hoz. You’ll have to use your new Ultarhand ability to reach him, but it’s a pretty simple puzzle. You can explore the surrounding area if you want (there’s a Shrine nearby), but you don’t need to be here right now. Instead, go back to Lookout Landing after you’ve completed the Captain Hoz phase of this quest.
When you return to Lookout Landing, meet up with Pharah and report what you found. She’ll ask you to explore Lookout Landing a bit, which you should if you haven’t already. However, that’s still optional. Eventually, you’ll want to head to the nearby Skyview Tower. It’s on the Northwest side of the Lookout Landing area, in case you can’t find it.
Once there, Pharah will tell you about using similar towers to make your way across the world. She’ll also give you the paraglider, which you can use to escape the tower as a test of that new ability. Thankfully, you’ll also get to keep the paraglider when you’re done.
For the most part, the paraglider functions as it did in Breath of the Wild. You can indeed use it at similar towers, but it’s more often used to survive a deadly fall or quickly cover longer distances after falling from a great height. The paraglider still consumes stamina while in use, though, so be on the lookout for that.
Without getting too deep into spoilers, though, it’s fair to say that the paraglider is significantly more useful in Tears of the Kingdom. There are some special areas that you won’t be able to access until you have it, and Tears of the Kingdom is a much more “vertical” game than Breath of the Wild was. You’ll be using that Paraglider to bounce between key areas significantly more in Tears than you did in Breath of the Wild.
More importantly, Link’s new Ascend ability can be used with the paraglider to pull off some pretty crazy things. When properly used, the Ascend ability allows you to essentially create your own “jumping-off point.” That means that it’s easier than ever to get around without having to look for a cliff or similar falling point.
You can also change the paraglider’s design once you unlock the right pieces of fabric. It doesn’t change the functionality of the item in any way, but that kind of style has to count for something.