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    Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – When Does It Take Place?

    Timeline looking.

    With the release of Tears of the Kingdom, you might be curious about when it takes place in the overall Zelda timeline. When taking on a brand new game in a series as long and old as this one, it’s important to make sure you won’t be missing anything you need to know prior.

    TOTK is the sequel to Breath of the Wild, which was released on the Nintendo Switch at its launch. Do you need to play BOTW before Tears though? We’ve got that answered right here. Here’s everything you need to know about when Tears of the Kingdom takes place.

    When Does It Take Place? – Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

    Tears of the Kingdom is (seemingly) set a few years after the events of Breath of the Wild. This is never outright confirmed, but we can make quite a few inferences with the context clues around the world. First off, lots of the land around Hyrule has seen change. This is evident from talking to hoards of NPCs or even simply visiting regions and villages that were in Breath of the Wild.

    Without diving into spoilers, certain apparel and interactions with characters will also help push the fact that TOTK takes place a few years after the events of BOTW. This time period was essential to help the game grasp its own identity while still staying in the same world.

    Tears of the Kingdom Zelda

    Aunoma and the Zelda team confirmed around the launch of BOTW that the game takes place at the end of the timeline, hundreds of years after all the other games in the series. If you’re familiar with this series, you know that there are three different branching timelines that the games take place across. This means that while we are not sure where exactly Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are placed, we do know that they are at the end somewhere.

    Is TOTK a Prequel?

    No, Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel to Breath of the Wild. It is not a prequel in any way, whether with the timeline as a whole or just to BOTW. As of now, this is the latest the overall series timeline has ventured.

    Interested in how to shield surf in TOTK? Check out our guide right here!

    Noah Hunter
    Noah Hunter
    Noah is Final Weapon’s Editor-in-Chief. He co-founded the website in June 2019 and has been writing for it ever since. In total, he has over five years of writing experience across many publications, including IGN Entertainment. His favorite series include Xeno and Final Fantasy.

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