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Sidon of the Zora is one of four sub-quests that make up the Regional Phenomena main story mission in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Players can complete these sub-quests in any order they like, though, given that this is one of the easier of the four and can be started without the need for any temperature-resistant armor, many players opt to tackle Sidon of the Zora first.
Sidon of the Zora is a fairly involved sub-quest and will likely take most The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players a good few hours to complete. It requires a lot of exploration and two separate boss fights and also boasts its own dungeon. With the help of a walkthrough, though, players can speed up the process quite a bit, while also making sure that they don't miss out on any chests or precious rewards in the process.
Zora's Domain Location
In order to get started with the Sidon of the Zora quest, players will need to make their way over to Zora's Domain, the coordinates for which are 3300, 0423, 0112. If players have already visited the Mogawak Shrine, they can simply fast-travel there, as the shrine is located within the confines of Zora's Domain itself. If not, players should head on over to the Upland Zorana Skyview Tower and then make their way east.
How to Complete The Sludge-Covered Statue
Upon their arrival at Zora's Domain, players should head up the stairs and speak with the group of Zora near the large statue. To progress, they'll need to clean the sludge off the statue, which means attaching a Splash Fruit to an arrow and then firing it directly at the statue. The surrounding area has plenty of Splash Fruits growing, so if players don't have any, they should head out into the mountainous area surrounding the domain and do a bit of foraging. Chuchu Jelly arrows can also work, but not the elemental kind.
After the statue has been cleaned, Yona will explain that Sidon can be found up at Mipha Court. She'll also mention something about the Zora Armor, but for now, players should focus their attention on Sidon. Anyone who has already been there can fast-travel to the Ihen-a Shrine to find him right away. Most players probably won't have though, which means a bit of a trek is in order. Rather than starting out from Zora's Domain though, they'll want to fast-travel back to the Upland Zorana Skyview Tower and go from there.
The Broken Slate
Sidon will explain that he's needed at Mipha Court but will recommend speaking with a historian named Jiahto, who can be found at Toto Lake, which is to the north of Zora's Domain. The fastest way to get there is by heading up the nearby steps and then gliding from the top of the hill. Before they jump though, players should hop into the water beneath the statue and grab an Ancient Arowana, as this rare fish will come in useful a little later on.
Once at Toto Lake, players should speak with a Zora named Dunma, who'll explain that Jiahto is in a nearby cave. Players should speak with him, then leave the cave and look to their left, where they'll see the missing mural piece covered in sludge. After cleaning the sludge off with a Splash Fruit arrow, players will be able to pick it up using Link's Ultrahand ability and return it to its rightful place on the cave wall. Jiahto will then read it, before suggesting that King Dorephan is the best person to help decipher the riddle.
How To Find King Dorephan
At this point, players should return to Zora's Domain and make their way up to the throne room. Some kids are playing here, but if players get too close to them, they'll stop what they're doing and become silent. To get around this, players should sneak around the back of the throne room to remain undetected and then select the listen option while in range. The kids will then talk about how King Dorephan got injured and is currently hiding in a secret location behind a nearby waterfall.
Restoring the Zora Armor
Before leaving Zora's Domain in search of King Dorephan, players should head down one level to the infirmary and look for Yuno in one of the pools. She'll explain that she wants to repair the Zora Armor but requires an Ancient Arowana in order to do so. Assuming they grabbed one from the statue at Mipha's Court earlier, players can hand it over now to get their hands on the first piece of the Zora Armor. With this equipped, they'll be able to swim up waterfalls by pressing the A button.
Clues to the Sky
Now that they have the Zora Armor, players can finally find King Dorephan. To do so, they'll need to swim through (not up) the giant waterfall behind Zora's Domain to reach a secret area known as the Pristine Sanctum, then swim up the waterfall at the back of the area by pressing the A button while wearing the Zora Armor. This will lead them straight to the King, who, after a short conversation, will hand over five of his scales, which serve as the "Mark of the King" that was mentioned in the slate's riddle.
After collecting the scales, players should head back outside and up to Mipha Courth and then turn their attention to the skies. They'll need to locate the floating island that looks like a giant fish, which is pretty easy to spot thanks to the giant waterfall that's coming out of it. They'll then want to use Link's Paraglider to glide over the waterfall, and, with the Zora Armor equipped, swim up it to reach the Floating Scales Island.
Once on Floating Scales Island, players should make their way to the central area and face southwest. Doing so should lead to the floating rocks in front of them lining up in the shape of a water droplet. If not, players should head for the spot with coordinates 4074, 0529, 0604 and look again. Once they've located this water droplet, they should attach a King's Scale to an arrow by pressing up on the D-Pad with the bow drawn and then fire the arrow through the center of the droplet. After the resulting cut-scene, they should then head back to Mipha Court and speak to Sidon, which will trigger a boss fight.
How to Beat Sludge Like
Though it may seem intimidating at first, the Sludge Like boss fight is actually pretty simple. To beat the Sludge Like, players will first need to hit it with a blast of water, which can be done by speaking with Sidon to activate the water shield, targeting the Sludge Like, and then performing a regular melee attack. With the sludge washed away, they'll then need to wait until the boss reveals the glowing purple sphere in its mouth, hit it with any regular attack, and then deal as much damage as possible to the sphere before the Sludge Like recovers.
The key to this battle is speed, as if players are good with their timing, they should be able to hit the Sludge Like with a burst of water before it even has a chance to let off an attack. If it does though, players can either dodge its projectiles by hopping left or right while locked on, block them with their shield, or hide behind Sidon. Once the boss has been defeated, a chest containing a Royal Claymore will appear and Sydon will agree to accompany Link to the mysterious pillar of light.
The Ancient Zora Waterworks
Whenever they're ready to continue with the Sidon of the Zora main quest, players should proceed to the pillar of light in the East Reservoir Lake area and speak with Sidon. After going in for a closer look, he'll create a whirlpool, allowing Link to dive down beneath the water to the Ancient Zora Waterworks. In the first area here, players simply need to unblock the pipe to their right, which can be done either with a bomb or a weapon fused with a boulder.
This will cause the water levels to rise and grant access to a new area with a glowing green light in the center. As they make their way down toward the water, players will see a blocked pipe over to their left and should unblock it to raise the water levels. There's another pipe with a ladder leading up to it to the right of the entrance, and players should unblock this one too. If players check the water in front of the pipe afterward, they'll find a floating chest and will be able to pull this out of the water using Link's Ultrahand ability to get themselves a Zora Shield.
Next, players should use the platforms to their right to make their way to the far side of the chamber. When they reach the far wall, they'll need to jump and glide across to the other side of a large pipe and then look for two smaller pipes coming out of the wall to their right. They'll need to head into either one of these pipes, and, after cleaning out all of the enemies, look for the spot with water dripping from the ceiling. Using Ascend here will take them to another blockage, which they can destroy by fusing the nearby boulder to one of their unfused weapons.
Players will need to use Ascend again to get back to the main chamber, where they'll find that the water level is now high enough to investigate the glowing green light. Before they do so, however, they may wish to swim into the large pipe that they jumped past a little earlier, as inside, they'll find a chest containing some Opal. They can then examine the green light, which will result in a giant waterfall coming down from the sky, and swimming up this waterfall will take players to Wellspring Island.
Wellspring Island
This next section is all about ascending, which players can do with the help of the floating water orbs. Eventually, after passing through an area with a few Soldier Constructs, players will come to an area with a bunch of waterfalls and will need to glide into the nearest one and then press the A button to swim up it. After swimming up the highest waterfall, players will be able to reach a new island, where they'll find the Igoshon Shrine and a bunch of gliders.
To reach the next area, players should use Link's Ultrahand ability to place one of the gliders onto the nearby incline and then hit the switch with a melee attack. They'll then have a few seconds to hop onto the glider before it's launched over to a nearby island. After taking out another Soldier Construct, players must then swim up a few more waterfalls, being sure to stop off and open the chest containing the Old Map as they do.
Eventually, players will come to an area with a few more Soldier Constructs, but they can skip right past them if they wish. Their target here is the floating water orb at the highest point of the island, which they should cast Recall on and then ride over to the island in the distance. Here, they'll find a chest containing a Captain II Repear on a platform above a pool of water. There are a few different ways to get to it, but the easiest is to build a makeshift elevator by lifting a platform high into the air with Ultrahand, lowering it back down, then climbing on top of it and reversing its momentum with Recall.
After opening the chest, players will need to build themselves a ramp and use it to redivert the nearby water orb so that it shoots up into the air. This will enable them to ride it up and glide to the island in the distance, where they'll find some parts and a sludge-covered chest containing some more Opal. To progress from here, they should attach a few fans to the glider and then ride it up the ramp, which will lead to them being reunited with Sidon. They can defeat the Soldier Construct here if they like, or simply run past it and swim up the giant waterfall at the far end of the island.
The Water Temple
Swimming up this waterfall will lead players to the Water Temple, which is one of several dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. To complete it, they'll need to turn on four faucets and then complete a fairly challenging boss fight, the details of which can be found in the guide linked below. After doing so, the Sidon of the Zora sub-quest will be completed and players will be able to proceed to the next step of the Regional Phenomena mission.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch.