There are hundreds of different types of weapons, armor, shield, bows, plants, food items, and materials in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. And, one subset of those materials are ores such as Amber, Opal, Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz, and Diamonds.
These ores all have a variety of different uses such as being used in armor or weapon upgrades, being fused onto weapons to bring out their elemental attributes, or just simply being sold for money. Diamonds, in particular, are the hardest of the ores and sell for the most. So, gathering Diamonds is an easy way to make a lot of Rupees very quickly. With that in mind, let's go over all the ways players can quickly find Diamonds in Tears of the Kingdom.
The Significance of Diamonds
First off, let's go over exactly what Diamonds are in Tears of the Kingdom and why they're worth hunting down. The primary reason for farming Diamonds is they're a quick way to make a lot of Rupees, full stop.
They're by far the most expensive ore Link can sell among all the Opal, Rubies, Topaz, and Sapphires he'll find. Diamonds sell for 500 Rupees a piece, which is an absurd amount. But, they're not only used for selling, as Diamonds are also mandatory for crafting Champion weapons like the Lightscale Trident, Boulder Breaker, the Great Eagle Bow, and Scimitar of the Seven.
Lastly, they can also be fused with weapons (or shields) to add a lot of offensive or defensive power, but this is the least beneficial way to use them considering Diamonds don't have any elemental attribute and there are much better materials to use in making weapons of a similar strength that don't sell for nearly as much as a Diamond does (or break as quickly).
The Most General Methods To Find Them
Now, there are actually quite a few ways to gather and find Diamonds in Tears of the Kingdom, but some methods are a lot easier or more reliable than others. Anyone familiar with hunting down ores in Breath of the Wild should know that a lot of the old tricks still work in the sequel, and the most general methods will also be the most familiar:
Rare & Regular Ore Deposits
Ore Deposits and Rare Ore Deposits are where players will be finding the vast majority of their Diamonds over the course of their playthrough. Both Ore Deposits are commonly found in certain areas of the map such as the immediate area of Death Mountain, the larger Eldin Mountain area, the Hebra Mountain range, the Gerudo Highlands, and deep within all the sprawling caves and underground passages of Hyrule.
Players can visually tell the difference between all four 'types' of Ore Deposits (Regular, Rare, Zonaite, and Luminous) by slight differences in the actual structure of the deposit texture. Regular Ore Deposits are a solid black obsidian-like shape and texture, Rare Ore Deposits have the same look but with bits of goldish ore sticking out at the ends, Zonaite Deposits have little holes spread across them with the Zonaite teal-colored glow coming from the holes, and Luminous Deposits glow bright lightning blue.
Purah Pad Sensor+
This next method is by far the easiest overall for finding Diamonds in Ore Deposits, but it does require that players unlock the Sensor+ feature of the Purah Pad (and by extension the Camera and Autobuild features) by completing the following Main and Side Quests in order:
- To The Kingdom of Hyrule
- Camera Work in the Depths
- Complete any one of the four 'Regional Phenomena' Quests Purah assigns
- A Mystery In The Depths
- Hateno Village Research Lab
After meeting Robbie at the Research Lab, follow the Side Quest to get the standard Sensor, then show Robbie 5 pictures of different monsters to unlock Sensor+. After this, immediately go and take pictures of both Regular and Rare Ore Deposits to add them to the Hyrule Compendium.
After they're added, players can set either of these Deposits as the target for the Sensor+ and they can now follow it at all times to lead them directly to said Deposits which may hold the Diamonds they're looking for.
Less 'Common' Diamond-Farming Methods
While hunting down Ore Deposits and using the Sensor+ Function are the most common and reliable ways players have been gathering Diamonds in Tears of the Kingdom, it's not the only way. In fact, some players swear that a few of these methods actually work better than hunting down Ore Deposits. So, here are a few of the other methods players can use to mine Diamonds.
Feeding Dondons In Bronas Forest
Dondons are a new creature in Tears of the Kingdom that Zelda apparently discovered and created a sanctuary for in the interim between Breath of the Wild and TotK. Their sanctuary is in Bronas Forest directly north of the Lakeside Stable at the fringes of the East Necluda region. Once players find the Dondons, there's just one more step they need to follow to have these creatures work on spawning Diamonds for them, and that's to feed each of them a Luminous Stone.
It turns out these glowing-horn buffalo-type creatures actually eat Luminous Stones and 'convert' them into ores when they come back out of their bodies. The chance of them 'spawning' Diamonds from this process is rare, but they'll still spawn other ore in the meantime, which still sell for a hefty bundle of Rupees. And, this process is one that players can always have in rotation in the background while using other Diamond-hunting methods at the same time.
Basically, players just need to drop a Luminous Stone in front of each Dondons and make sure to wait until they fully finish chewing it. After that, come back to check on them every once in a while (the exact time it takes is still unknown, but it's a pretty sizeable amount of time) and eventually there will be ores on the ground near where they were fed.
Specific Chests & Shrine Rewards
This next method is one that will become more and more reliable as Zelda fanatics document the entirety of Tears of the Kingdom, and that's hunting down specific Chests or Chests in Shrines that have Diamonds in them.
Right now, there are only a couple of Chests that players know Diamonds are in, such as one Chest in the Hidden Royal Passage underneath Hyrule Castle or in the Abandoned Hebra Mine in the Depths. So, while it's not worth dedicating all of the player's time to this method since the full list of Chests holding Diamonds is still in the works, it's worth keeping in mind that Diamonds can even be in Chests at all.
Using Satori To Find More Caves
On its own, Cave-Spleunking isn't a method worth mentioning for Diamond hunting. Caves are a bit hard to actively spot unless players stumble across their entrance, and it's not like Link can set a 'Cave' as the target for his Sensor+.
But, if players use Satori to mark all the nearby Caves in the area, pin all those Cave locations, and then go spelunking, then this method becomes a lot more reliable. Most TotK players aren't even aware that this is what Satori does, but yes, when players offer fruit at any of the Cherry Blossom Trees and that glowing horse (Satori) appears, those are the pillars of light that it's marking. And, once Link stumbles upon Koltin and finds out that the guy is trying to 'become a Satori' by eating the Bubbul Gems found in Caves, it suddenly makes a lot more sense that Satori knows where all the Caves are.
Farming Stone Taluses
And finally, for the last in-game method of hunting down Diamonds, let's talk about Stone Taluses. The Stone Talus (of all types and varieties) is one of the 'field boss' type Monsters players can encounter across Hyrule alongside others like the Hinox, Frox, Gleeok, Moldugas, and technically even Lynels. But, unlike all those other creatures, Taluses are defined more as 'sentient objects' than living creatures.
These stone giants, when killed by breaking the Ore Deposit somewhere on their body, will drop a couple of ores randomly, and this can include Diamond. And, the more 'rare' the Talus, the higher the chance for those Diamonds to drop. So, whenever players encounter a Talus, mark the location with a Stamp (or just use the interactive map online), and rotate fighting these Taluses each time a Blood Moon causes them to respawn. If players are lucky and have an efficient route for farming a lot of Taluses in a small span of time, this is actually the best way to farm Daimonds overall.
Duplication Glitch
And, for the last trick in total, let's talk about duplicating items. Currently, at the time of writing this (May 2023) the duplication glitch is still in Tears of the Kingdom. But, it's very likely that it will get patched out in the next couple of weeks at most.
So, for players who don't mind exploiting glitches, Diamonds can absolutely be duplicated using this glitch, which essentially means players have an easy way of getting pretty much infinite amounts of Rupees. And the worst part is, it's so incredibly easy to do. All it takes is a Shield Hop or a bit of Paragliding followed by a specific button press combo, and players can quickly go from 1 Diamond to 2, then 4, then 8, and then it'll jump up by 5 each time until players have enough Diamonds to completely break the economy of Hyrule.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch.