Zelda boss explains why Breath of the Wild's Guardians and Sheikah tech disappeared

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes us back to the same Hyrule we were first introduced to in Breath of the Wild, albeit with a few tweaks – not least its airy sky islands and dark and sinister Depths.

But while those inclusions expanded the map, there were some omissions as well. Most obviously, just where did all of that Sheikah tech, that was so instrumental to Breath of the Wild’s story, go? And what happened to those spidery robot Guardians?

Well, according to Zelda director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the various towers, Guardians, Divine Beasts and other Sheikah creations simply disappeared, with the general consensus in Hyrule being that as their purpose had been realised, the tech knew it was its time to go.

“They disappeared after the Calamity was defeated (sealed),” Fujibayashi explained in an interview with the Telegraph. “All of the people of Hyrule also witnessed this, but there is no one who knows the mechanism or reason why they disappeared, and it is considered a mystery. It is believed that since the Calamity disappeared, they also disappeared as their role had been fulfilled.”