Summary

• Link is around 125 years old in Tears of the Kingdom, based on events in Breath of the Wild and the time between the two games.
• Link spent a century in the Shrine of Resurrection, which halted his physical aging.
• Although Link is surprisingly old, TOTK has many characters who are likely much older.

silent Hero of Hyrule keeps his personal details to himself, it's a question that some fans have been asking themselves for years with each Zelda game. But by using helpful context clues, it's possible to roughly estimate how old Link is in Tears of the Kingdom.

For context, Link's age in Breath of the Wild was determined to be at least 117 years old. Considering his youthful appearance, the number may seem like a stretch - but it's important to note that the protagonist technically spent an entire century in the Shrine of Resurrection prior to the events of BOTW. However, since his body evidently didn't age as normal while in stasis, it's ultimately up to players to decide for themselves if it contributes to Link's age in Tears of the Kingdom.

A Few Years Have ed Between BOTW & TOTK

Hyrule Started Rebuilding After The Second Great Calamity

The first step to finding out how old Link is in TOTK is determining how much time has ed between Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild. It's reasonable to assume that at least five years have gone by, based on how certain characters have evolved. Many of the children that Link met in BOTW appear to be more mature; Tulin is a great example, as he's one of the best companions in Tears of the Kingdom now that he's no longer just a fledgling. The same can be said for Sidon, who has overtaken his father as King of the Zora.

Link Is Around 125 Years Old In Tears Of The Kingdom

Over A Century Has ed Since Calamity Ganon Reappeared

Since he was approximately 117 in Breath of the Wild, the gap in between games places Link at around 122–125 years old in Tears of the Kingdom. Disregarding the time spent in the Shrine of Resurrection, the protagonist's proportions and physique suggest that he is still quite young, and so it's unlikely that he's any older than 25. But at the same time, it's clear that Link has also matured since players last saw him in BOTW. There's evidence to suggest that he may be in a relationship with Zelda in Tears of the Kingdom, and that he even potentially shares a house with her.

Of course, until Nintendo confirms an exact number, it's impossible to know for certain how old Link is in TOTK. At the end of the day, it doesn't make much of a difference, as Hyrule is a fantasy setting wherein reality is often suspended for the sake of storytelling - but the fictional elements of the franchise haven't stopped players from trying to make sense of things. By reading in between the lines, it's reasonable to assume that Link is around 122-125 years old in Tears of the Kingdom.

Tears Of The Kingdom Has Multiple Characters Over A Century Old

Zelda Included

Although Link's long hibernation in the Shrine of Resurrection makes him an outlier, there are plenty of characters in Tears of the Kingdom who are more than a century old. Princess Zelda herself is roughly the same age as Link; apparently the magic she utilized to keep Calamity Ganon at by throughout Breath of the Wild similarly halted her aging process, and in TOTK she is also roughly 125. Two other characters have similar caveats when it comes to their advanced age: Ganondorf and Purah.

It could be argued that Zelda is many thousands of years old in TOTK, considering she spent millennia as the Light Dragon, but the game's time travel paradox makes it difficult to fully subscribe to the idea.

Tears of the Kingdom's primary villain has an incalculable age, but Ganondorf is at least 10,000 years old, if not much older. Zelda gets sent back in time to the founding of Hyrule, before Ganondorf was sealed under Hyrule Castle and later manifested as Calamity Ganon. The only timeline reference for determining Ganondorf's age is the First Great Calamity, which took place roughly 10,000 years before BOTW. Since Ganondorf is an adult Gerudo in all the Dragon Tear Memories, he's likely many tens-of-thousands of years old.

Purah appears to be a fairly young woman in Tears of the Kingdom – physically around the same age as Link and Zelda – but she is actually much older due to an experiment which reversed her aging. In Breath of the Wild, she had the appearance of a six-year-old (a result of her anti-aging gone awry), but was 124. This means she's roughly 130 in Tears of the Kingdom, and she could very well live for over two centuries, unless her aging accelerates.

Mineru and Rauru are in a similar situation as Ganondorf, but each have a caveat. Mineru separated her spirit from her body in order to aid Link in the future once he'd recovered the Purah Pad and activated her Construct, and Rauru's spirit manifests occasionally to help Link despite not sharing Mineru's Sage of Time powers. Whether each were actually alive while waiting for Link is debatable, and it's unclear how long the Zonai lifespan is. Each of them could be older than Ganondorf, but it's difficult to say for certain.

There are also a number of characters in Tears of the Kingdom who are simply very old without any extenuating circumstances. Impa is Purah's younger sister, and is well over 100, having witnessed the Second Great Calamity. Robbie is likewise over a century old (he and Purah took Link to the Shrine of Resurrection). Zora appear to have lifespans of significant length – King Dorephan and Prince Sidon are Mipha's father and brother respectively, and Mipha was killed in the Second Great Calamity.

Finally, there are also a handful of characters that are immortal, or are approaching such a status. For the latter, the Deku Tree may qualify as something of a deity to the Koroks (who themselves seem more like sprites than mortals), so it's unclear how old the Deku Tree is or if it will eventually die. Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh are Immortal Dragons, however, and have seemingly been roaming Hyrule's skies for many thousands of years. Zelda would have continued to the same fate had her transformation not been reversed at the end of Tears of the Kingdom.

The Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time dies, but this is a result of Ganondorf's curse, so it's unclear if it could die of natural causes. Even this death results in a successor sprout, who lives for untold generations and appears as The Wind Waker's Deku Tree.

Link's age in TOTK feels like an anomaly – and it is compared to Link's age in other Zelda games – but this version of Hyrule actually has plenty of characters well advanced in their years. Link may be an impressive 125 years old or so, but he's confronting an evil that has been in a sort of stasis for well over 10,000 years. Time is often manipulated in the Zelda series, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom plays with it quite liberally when it comes to the plot and the age of many characters.