The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has sold 35.76 million copies since 3 March 2017, and on 30 April 2027 the live-action Zelda film puts Hyrule in cinemas. Every one of those players met the runes in the first hour: Link wakes, takes a glowing tablet off a pedestal, walks into a shrine and gets a bomb installed on it. So, are those real runes?
No. The runes in Breath of the Wild are tools on a tablet, not letters. A rune here is something you do: blow up a rock, lift a metal door, freeze a boulder, raise ice from a lake.
What makes Breath of the Wild worth its own answer is the word itself. In the Japanese original, these tools are not runes at all. They are items, on a tablet called the Sheikah Stone, and other languages call them modules and tools. Breath of the Wild's runes became runes in translation.
What is a rune in Breath of the Wild?
A rune in Breath of the Wild is an ability stored on the Sheikah Slate, the tablet Link takes from the Shrine of Resurrection. You install four runes at four shrines on the Great Plateau, then use them for the rest of the game, as often as you like. Nothing is written on them.
Here is the full set and where each one comes from:
| Rune | Where you get it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Remote Bomb | Ja Baij Shrine | Makes a round or square bomb you set off from the slate |
| Magnesis | Oman Au Shrine | Lifts and moves metal objects |
| Stasis | Owa Daim Shrine | Stops an object in time; hit it and it flies when time resumes |
| Cryonis | Keh Namut Shrine | Raises a pillar of ice from water, up to three at once |
| Camera | Hateno Ancient Tech Lab | Takes pictures for the Hyrule Compendium |
| Sheikah Sensor | Hateno Ancient Tech Lab | Detects shrines, and later anything you have photographed |
| Master Cycle Zero | The Champions' Ballad add-on | Summons a motorbike that runs on fuel |
The four Great Plateau runes are the core. In each shrine you hold the slate up to a pedestal and the rune is installed, the way a phone installs an app. Later, Purah at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab restores the Camera, Album and Hyrule Compendium, which were locked in Sheikah text, and upgrades three runes for ancient parts: Remote Bomb+ for 3 Ancient Shafts, Stasis+ for 3 Ancient Cores, Sheikah Sensor+ for 3 Ancient Screws.
Why are they called runes?
They are called runes because the English localisation called them that. Zelda Wiki's translation tables give the Japanese term as アイテム, aitemu: item. French and European Spanish say module, Italian says strumento, a tool. The original game never asked you to think of them as signs.
The other versions line up like this:
| Version | Word used | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | アイテム (aitemu) | Item |
| French | Module | Module |
| Spanish (Europe) | Módulo | Module |
| Italian | Strumento | Tool |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 道具 (dàojù) | Tool |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Runa | Rune |
| English | Rune | Rune |
Read down the right-hand column and the design intent is plain. Nintendo built tools. The French team saw them as modules, a word from engineering. Only English, and the Brazilian version, reached for an old Germanic word for a carved sign.
It was a good choice for English. By 2017 "rune" already meant a small object with stored power in dozens of games, a road we traced in Why do so many games call their gear runes? and in the League of Legends and Dota 2 guide. "Item" would have sounded like a potion. "Rune" sounds like something older than the kingdom, which is what the Sheikah Slate is.
The Sheikah Slate is a tablet, and its runes are apps
The Sheikah Slate was designed as a real tablet first. Breath of the Wild began as a Wii U game, and producer Eiji Aonuma said the team pictured the slate as the Wii U GamePad, its screen in your hands. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi said its features were meant to be used by touching the GamePad screen.
So the runes are what a tablet has: apps. They open from a menu, recharge after use, and sit beside a camera, a map and a sensor, not only beside the weapons. Aonuma described the slate as a move towards technology in place of magic for the series, and the runes are the clearest case of it. A Remote Bomb is not cast. It is deployed.
Fujibayashi explained the other design choice on the Nintendo Power Podcast. Older Zelda games handed out tools one dungeon at a time. An open world meant players could go anywhere, so the team gave them every core tool at the start and did not dictate how to use them. That is why all four runes come in the first hour, on one plateau.
None of this is a criticism. It is the reason the runes work so well. But it settles the question: a feature you install, upgrade with Ancient Screws and summon from a menu is software. A real rune is a letter, and a letter has nothing to install.
Can you read the writing in Breath of the Wild?
Yes, and that writing is not the runes. The Sheikah script on shrine walls, terminals and the slate is a cipher for English: 26 letters, 10 digits and 4 punctuation marks, 40 glyphs in all, with the spaces left out. The game never calls it runes, and it is not the Elder Futhark.
Zelda Wiki has the neatest example. Inside Keh Namut Shrine, where you install Cryonis, the gate carries a line of Sheikah glyphs. Decode them letter by letter and they read SLIDEUP. The Camera, Album and Compendium are locked behind Sheikah text too, until Purah restores them.
So Breath of the Wild has two things a newcomer might call runes:
- The runes on the slate, which do things and say nothing.
- The Sheikah script on the walls, which says things in English and does nothing.
This is the same split we found in Fable and Minecraft, whose mystical scripts turn out to be English letters in costume. A real rune does both jobs at once: it is a letter you can read, and in Norse tradition it was also a sign with power.
Breath of the Wild runes vs. the Elder Futhark
| Feature | Breath of the Wild (2017) | Elder Futhark |
|---|---|---|
| What one sign is | A tool on a tablet | A letter with a sound, a name and a meaning |
| How many | 4 core runes, plus Camera, Sensor and Master Cycle Zero | 24 |
| Original word | アイテム, "item" | Proto-Germanic rūnō, "a secret" |
| How you get it | Installed at a shrine pedestal | Learned, then cut by hand |
| How it improves | Ancient parts at the Hateno lab | It does not; letters combine instead |
| Can it be read? | No, a rune is an action | Yes, once you learn the letters |
| In use | Since 3 March 2017 | Roughly 150 to 800 CE |
The sequel makes the same point. In Tears of the Kingdom (2023) the four ability runes are gone, replaced by Ancient Powers in Link's right arm, while the Purah Pad keeps the Camera and the Compendium. You can swap out a tool. Nobody swapped out the letter F.
The real runes, briefly
The Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet: 24 letters used by Germanic peoples from roughly 150 to 800 CE. Each letter has a sound, a name and a meaning. Fehu is f and means cattle and wealth, Uruz is u and the wild ox, Isa is i and means ice. The letters are cut from straight strokes, easy to carve in wood.
Isa is the closest any real rune comes to a Breath of the Wild rune: one means ice, the other makes it. But the real name was chosen because it begins with the sound the letter writes. Cryonis writes nothing.
The word itself first meant a secret. It goes back to a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form, rūnō, a secret or a secret conversation, as we explain in the Bloodborne guide. In Norse tradition, Odin wins the runes by hanging nine nights on Yggdrasil, pierced by his own spear. From there they served as charms and protections, were combined into bindrunes and sigils to hold a focused intent, and were read for guidance in a practice that continues today.
Why Hyrule has no room for real runes
Hyrule is Nintendo's own world. Its gods are the goddess Hylia and the three golden goddesses, Din, Nayru and Farore. There is no Odin, no Asgard and no Edda. Art director Takizawa named Japan's Jōmon period as an inspiration for Sheikah technology and its architecture.
Given that, the real futhark would have been the wrong choice. Its letters would drag Scandinavia into a kingdom that has never heard of it, and anyone who knew them could read them. The Sheikah needed something that looks ancient and works like a machine. An English cipher on the walls and a set of apps on the slate did both jobs.
The English word "rune" is the only Germanic thing here, and it arrived in translation.
Want runes you can actually read?
Breath of the Wild gives you four tools that do things and a script that spells English. The Elder Futhark gives you 24 letters that say things, and each of them has carried a meaning for close to two thousand years.
The easiest way in is to draw one. You can cast a free rune reading in your browser right now, using the genuine Elder Futhark and their traditional meanings, with a quick single draw for a fast question or a fuller spread for something weightier. If you would rather build the habit slowly, pull a rune of the day each morning and learn the futhark one sign at a time, or read how online rune readings work first. The rest of the series is on the runes in games hub, including Tunic, whose script writes English sounds, and Valheim, the game that uses the real futhark.
Link's slate needs a pedestal to learn a new rune. The real ones need only a few evenings. , free on iOS, Android, and the web, in English and Russian.
Frequently asked questions
Are the runes in Zelda: Breath of the Wild real runes?
No. The runes in Breath of the Wild are abilities stored on the Sheikah Slate, a glowing tablet: Remote Bomb, Magnesis, Stasis and Cryonis, plus tools such as the Camera. None of them is a letter, none carries a sound, and nothing in the game is written with them. They are closer to apps on a phone than to the Elder Futhark.
What are the four runes in Breath of the Wild?
Remote Bomb, Magnesis, Stasis and Cryonis. Remote Bomb makes a round or square bomb you set off from the slate, Magnesis lifts and moves metal objects, Stasis stops an object in time, and Cryonis raises a pillar of ice from water. Each one is installed at one of the four shrines on the Great Plateau at the start of the game.
Where do you get each rune in Breath of the Wild?
At the four shrines on the Great Plateau. Ja Baij Shrine gives Remote Bomb, Oman Au Shrine gives Magnesis, Owa Daim Shrine gives Stasis and Keh Namut Shrine gives Cryonis. You hold the Sheikah Slate up to a pedestal inside each shrine and the rune is installed. The Camera, Album and Hyrule Compendium come later, from Purah in Hateno.
What are runes called in the Japanese version of Breath of the Wild?
Not runes. Zelda Wiki's translation tables give the Japanese term as アイテム, aitemu, which means item. The tablet itself is the シーカーストーン, the Sheikah Stone. The French and European Spanish versions say module, the Italian says strumento, a tool, and Simplified Chinese says 道具, a tool. English and Brazilian Portuguese are the ones that chose the word rune.
Why are they called runes in Breath of the Wild?
Because the English localisation chose a word that sounds ancient and powerful for tools on an ancient tablet. The Japanese original only calls them items. In English, rune already meant a small carved sign with hidden power in many games, so it suited Sheikah technology. The word has nothing to do with writing in Breath of the Wild: no rune spells anything.
Can you read the Sheikah writing in Breath of the Wild?
Yes. The Sheikah script on shrines, terminals and the slate is a cipher for English: 26 letters, 10 digits and 4 punctuation marks, 40 glyphs in all, according to Zelda Wiki. Spaces are left out. The gate in Keh Namut Shrine, the Cryonis shrine, reads SLIDEUP once decoded. The game calls this script writing, never runes, and it is not the Elder Futhark.
Is the Sheikah script based on the Elder Futhark?
No. The Sheikah script is an invented set of glyphs, mostly circles, dots and short bars, mapped one to one onto the English alphabet. The Elder Futhark is a real 24-letter Germanic alphabet built from straight strokes and used from roughly 150 to 800 CE. The two share no letter shapes and no sound values, and only one of them is historical.
How do you upgrade runes in Breath of the Wild?
At the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, where Purah upgrades three of them for ancient parts. Remote Bomb+ needs 3 Ancient Shafts, Stasis+ needs 3 Ancient Cores and Sheikah Sensor+ needs 3 Ancient Screws. Stasis+ then works on some enemies, and Sensor+ tracks anything you have photographed. Magnesis and Cryonis have no upgrade.
Is the Master Cycle Zero a rune?
It sits with the runes on the Sheikah Slate, but even Zelda Wiki calls its status unclear. The Master Cycle Zero is the motorbike you earn by finishing The Champions' Ballad, the second paid add-on, released in December 2017. Once earned, you summon it from the slate the way you summon a Remote Bomb, and it runs on fuel.
Are there runes in Tears of the Kingdom?
Not the four ability runes. Tears of the Kingdom, the 2023 sequel, replaces Remote Bomb, Magnesis, Stasis and Cryonis with Ancient Powers used through Link's right arm. The Sheikah Slate becomes the Purah Pad, which keeps the Camera, Album, Hyrule Compendium and Sensor. So the runes did not survive the sequel, which shows how much they were tools and not signs.
Is Breath of the Wild based on Norse mythology?
No. Hyrule has its own gods, the goddess Hylia and the three golden goddesses Din, Nayru and Farore, and no Odin, Thor or Yggdrasil anywhere. The Sheikah technology was inspired by Japan's Jōmon period, according to art director Takizawa. The landscape is wild and northern in places, but the gods, the mythology and the writing are all Nintendo's own.
What does the word rune really mean?
A secret, at first. The word goes back to a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form, runo, meaning a secret or a secret conversation, and Gothic runa meant secret, mystery or counsel. Later it named the letters of the futhark. In Breath of the Wild it means neither a secret nor a letter: it is the English name for a tool on a tablet.
When does the live-action Zelda film come out?
On 30 April 2027, worldwide. Nintendo and Sony Pictures first set March 2027, moved it to 7 May 2027, and in May 2026 Shigeru Miyamoto announced it would open a week earlier. Wes Ball directs, and filming took place in New Zealand. Nothing shown so far says whether the Sheikah Slate and its runes will appear in the film.
Where can I try a real rune reading online?
You can cast a free rune reading in your browser with the Way of the Runes rune-reading tool. It uses the genuine 24 Elder Futhark runes and their traditional meanings, with quick single draws for a fast question and fuller spreads for something weightier, and a full description for every rune. It works on any device, in English and Russian.
Which rune are you?
Seven questions, about a minute, and you get one of the 24 Elder Futhark runes. The scoring is shown as you answer. Free, no signup.