Your main upgrades in a metroidvania like Tales of Kenzera: Zau will always be your new abilities. These transform the way you move and fight, but there are other ways you can make Zau a more powerful shaman. Trinkets are introduced right away, but aren’t given away as freely as you might think. Each one requires you to overcome a small trial that tests your platforming abilities off the main path. Technically, you can miss every single one aside from the one you begin the game with. Even though there are a few fast travel points, backtracking isn’t a particularly fun experience. Here are all the Trinket locations in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, plus which ones you should equip.
All Trinket locations
You can see which zones have Trinkets on the map, and for the most part, you will be able to grab them as you navigate through them for the first time. Here are each of the Trinket locations roughly in the order you should naturally be able to get them.
Battering Stance
This is the Trinket you begin the game with and is equipped by default.
Lifted Spirit
The first Trinket is found in this side path trial in The Buluu Caverns.
Retaliating Spirit
Further ahead, take a slight turn off the main path in The Great Cliffs to complete this platforming challenge for this Trinket.
Eluding Soul
Much later, in The Drowning Swamps, you can grab this next passive buff.
Prospering Mind
Right after snagging the last Trinket, enter The Wildwood to hunt down this valuable buff.
Heroic Stance
In Nature’s Crown, this detour is behind a door to the left of the first Workbench.
Stone Soul
Another gap between Trinkets, the Stone Soul is found in the Ember’s Spring.
Augmented Spirit
The very next zone, The Searing Sands, holds your next Trinket.
The Final Stance
Not far into the lava-filled Enduring Rite, the optional path is right above the first Workbench.
Vigorous Spirit
Back in Ikakaramba, go down into the mines and take a left before going down to the split path.
Indomitable Soul
On your way up Mount Itshoka, break off the main route to complete this challenge.
Best Trinkets
For most of the game, you can only use one Trinket at a time, so picking which to use is important. Here are our top picks.
Retaliating Spirit
The best early Trinket you can get is Retaliating Spirit, which gives you extra Spirit whenever you take damage. Ideally, you won’t be taking any damage in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, but learning the patterns and overcoming the more challenging bosses and gauntlets will inevitably lead to you taking quite a few hits. Both your healing and special attacks require Spirit to use, so getting some back when you get hit could be just enough to either give you a much-needed heal or fill up your bar for a super to clear the screen.
Prospering Mind
There are two skill trees in Tales of Kenzera: Zau related to your Sun and Moon masks. There aren’t a ton of skills to unlock even between the two, but it will take the entire game to fill it out. You can speed up this process by grabbing and keeping the Prospering Mind Trinket on as soon as you get it to earn more Ulogi (XP) for every enemy you beat. You can’t exactly grind in this game, so this is the closest you can come to maximizing your XP gains.
Augmented Spirit
Once you get Augmented Spirit, you can easily swap it in for Retaliating Spirit. Instead of getting more Spirit for getting hit, this Trinket gives you more Spirit for hitting enemies. By the time you get this Trinket, the waves of enemies you face will be much larger in number, so building up and unleashing your strongest abilities as fast as possible can’t be undervalued.
Vigorous Spirit
Even with your base HP, you can burn both your Spirit bars on healing and still not get back to full HP. Once you start expanding your bar, you will be forced to dump tons of Spirit into healing just to survive and not be able to use your powerful attacks nearly as often without major risk. Vigerious Spirit gives every heal restore way more HP so you can have a better balance of using your Spirit for defense and offense.
