Ways to shave off time in Selmie’s shield surfing advanced course in Tears of the Kingdom

After finishing the main Rito questline and saving Selmie from the East Biron Snowshelf Cave in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, she will allow you to take on her special shield surfing minigame amidst the Hebra mountains. This time trial challenge, which features both a beginner and an advanced course, stands out as the only minigame ported directly from Breath of the Wild. Although the minigame plays out almost identically as before, it does add a few bells and whistles players can take advantage of to shave a few seconds off their final time. This guide will explore a few of the strategies that will help in the shield surfing advanced course in Tears of the Kingdom.

Strategies for optimizing the advanced course

Zonai Devices

Selmie specifically permits you to reach the goal using whatever means you prefer, meaning that you don’t even have to shield surf if you don’t want to. The game nudges you in this direction by placing a few Zonai devices near the starting line, which include a Wing, a Sled, a Rocket, and a Steering Stick. If you have Autobuild by this point, you can build your preferred vehicle and then recreate it with that ability once the race starts to save time.

Attaching a Rocket to your vehicle will give it a massive initial burst of speed, and adding a Fan or two will help with giving it some extra propulsion. However, I had little luck connecting the Rocket to a Sled, as it would usually go airborne before knocking me off upon landing. Attaching it to a Wing instead will turn out better since you can keep flying with it after the Rocket runs out of juice. The Wing is ultimately better than the Sled since it can easily take massive shortcuts while airborne, but note that it only remains active for about a minute before it disappears.

The Cave Shortcut

If you want to stick to shield surfing, however, you can take a pretty significant shortcut by going through the East Biron Snowshelf Cave where you saved Selmie. It’s located off the main mountain path, though, so mark the entrance on your map with a pin to have an easier time finding it.

Screenshot via PC Invasion

Upon starting the race, once you come to the portion of the track where you see the first of Selmie’s students, turn left and head off the edge to transition smoothly to an alternate path. Check out this video for a visual demonstration.

From there, stick to the right side until you come across the entrance to the East Biron Snowshelf Cave. Enter it and navigate carefully so you don’t bump into the walls. Don’t worry about the terrain; although it looks rough, it’s smooth enough that your low-friction shields will cross it without much issue. If you make it out of the cave without stopping, you will have successfully cut a significant number of seconds off your race time assuming you maintain your speed consistently through to the end.

These strategies for the shield surfing advanced course in Tears of the Kingdom don’t have to remain mutually exclusive. You can, for example, get a head start using a Rocket-boosted Wing before jumping off to take the cave shortcut. Your path to a solid race time is entirely up to you.