'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' Woodland Tower: Location, guide and tips for how to climb it

In a game about exploration, having a map to get your bearings is crucial. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild makes you map out the world yourself by climbing several towers that are dotted across the massive landscape. Climb a tower and the map of that area gets filled in. Pretty simple.

Unfortunately, not every tower is just yours for the taking. Enemies frequently guard their bases and they can be tough to scale if you don't have upgraded stamina. One such tower is the Woodland Tower, which sits to the northeast of Hyrule Castle and offers the easiest fast travel access to the Lost Woods. 

How to climb Woodland Tower in Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Assuming you're already there (why would you be reading this otherwise?), you're probably seeing a bunch of wooden platforms suspended over a poisonous lake. Moblins, bokoblins, octoroks and a wizzrobe are swarming the place. It's not a friendly locale by any means. Thankfully, there are a couple of ways to do this.

I did it the cheesy way, which is to climb to a high point on Death Mountain to the east and just paraglide my way to the tower. If you've already at least established some fast travel points related to the Vah Rudania dungeon, you can do this in no time at all. 

You can also do it in the way the game perhaps intended. Circle around and approach from the northeastern side of the lake surrounding the tower. Use your cryonis rune to hop out to one of the accessible wooden platforms while watching out for sniping octoroks in the water. Your goal is to climb to the uppermost wooden structure that sits next to the tower on the north side.

This is really self-explanatory once you get to this point. There is one vertical wall for you to climb on the ground level and another to climb after that. There are a couple of enemies up here, but nothing that's insurmountable. Make sure you don't find yourself next to an exploding barrel, as they'll take advantage of that. Yes, the enemies hang out next to those barrels themselves.

Once you climb that second wooden wall, you're golden. Jump over to the tower and you'll be able to climb using the platforms to rest and restore your stamina.

More Zelda: Breath of the Wild tips, tricks and guides

Find out all there is to know about Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including what to expect from the Wii U version, how to preserve your items, how to beat bosses like the Stone Talus, Lynel, the Guardians  and the Hinox, the best recipes for Link and how to take on the game's shrines. You'll also want to find out where all the great fairies and available stables are in the game, how to use amiibo with your version of Zelda and how to increase your health, stamina and weapon slots.