Breath of the Wild Memory Locations: All 13 Pictures Mapped

Breath of the Wild has 18 memories, and the game only ever asks you to go looking for 13 of them. Those 13 — twelve photographed in Princess Zelda's album plus one final picture Impa keeps on her wall — are the Captured Memories main quest, and finishing it changes what happens after you beat the game: a post-credits scene that only unlocks if the quest is complete.

The catch is that the quest hands you twelve century-old photographs and a continent. No markers, no compass pins — just "find where these were taken." Some of the pictures are landmarks you can name at a glance. Others are anonymous patches of field and forest.

This is the full checklist: every location, the exact spot for each of the vague ones, the NPC who will identify all twelve pictures for you, and what the quest actually pays out.

How Captured Memories starts

The quest is gated behind repairing the Sheikah Slate. Complete the main quest Locked Mementos by bringing the Slate to the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, then return to Impa in Kakariko Village and show her the repairs. She recognizes the pictures in the album as ones Princess Zelda took 100 years ago, and suggests that standing where each was taken may bring Link's lost memories back. She also asks you to come back after finding at least one, because she has something to hand over — more on that in a second.

Three structural facts worth knowing before you start walking:

• There are 12 pictures in the album, and the quest log counts down from "Memories remaining: 12" as you clear them.
• Memories can be recovered in any order. The numbering below is their story order, not a required route.
• Recovered memories are rewatchable any time from the Sheikah Slate's Adventure Log.

One memory in, Impa hands over the Champion's Tunic

Return to Impa after recovering any single memory and she gives you the Champion's Tunic, the blue garment made for Link when he became a Champion, which she kept safe at Zelda's request.

It arrives absurdly early if you go get it:

The See Enemy HP effect alone is worth the trip: every damage-math decision — which weapon to spend, whether to commit to a Lynel — gets easier when the health bar has a number on it. The armor guide covers where it sits in a full loadout. The practical version: fast travel to the Sacred Ground Ruins memory just south of Hyrule Castle, watch the cutscene, and walk back into Impa's house wearing the reward.

The 12 album pictures, mapped

Here are all twelve picture memories, numbered by their slot in the Adventure Log. The gaps in the numbering are real — memories #2, #4, #6, #10, and #18 are not in the album, and the last section explains where they come from.

Most of these are named map locations you can search for directly on the Sheikah Slate. The memory triggers when you reach the exact vantage point of the photograph.

The vague ones, pinned to exact spots

Four of the twelve are the ones worth pinning down in advance, because the photo shows scenery rather than a landmark.

• #3 Resolve and Grief is not "Hyrule Field" in general — it is inside the grove of trees near Lake Kolomo, northeast of the Great Plateau. Pikango's hint points at the forest on the lake's west side.
• #8 A Premonition hides in Eldin Canyon, west of Goronbi Lake, the lava lake in the western half of that canyon.
• #12 Father and Daughter is the only one inside a dungeon-grade location: the bridge connecting Princess Zelda's Room and her Study in Hyrule Castle. You can grab it on the same run as the castle loot — the Calamity Ganon guide walks that route, and this memory is directly on it.
• #16 Despair sits in a small stretch of woods northeast of the Bottomless Swamp, in Hyrule Field. The memory itself plays out in the rain.

Pikango identifies every picture for you

You do not have to solve any of the pictures yourself. After completing the main quest Find the Fairy Fountain (the Kakariko errand that unlocks Cotera's fountain), the traveling painter Pikango starts appearing at stables and towns across Hyrule, and he will identify the location in a picture if you show him one. He covers all twelve.

Since Pikango is spread across twelve different stops, the efficient pattern is to talk to him whenever you happen to pass a stable, not to chase him deliberately — the table above plus the location list already gives you everything he would say.

The final picture: Ash Swamp and Zelda's Awakening

Clear all twelve album locations and report back to Impa. She reveals what Zelda instructed her to hold back: a thirteenth picture, hanging on the wall of her house the entire game. It shows a field littered with deactivated Guardians, and Impa notes the place is only half a day's travel from Kakariko Village.

The location is Ash Swamp, near Fort Hateno — southeast of Kakariko, along the road you likely walked to Hateno Village in your first hours. Standing at the photo's vantage point unlocks memory #17, Zelda's Awakening: Link falling in defense of Zelda as the Guardians close in, and Zelda's sealing power finally answering.

Recover it and Zelda speaks to Link directly: he has recovered all of his memories of her and the Champions from 100 years ago, she is waiting inside Hyrule Castle, and it is time to defeat Ganon. Captured Memories is complete.

What finishing the quest unlocks

Completing Captured Memories unlocks a post-credits scene after defeating Calamity Ganon. Beat the game without finishing the quest and the credits simply end; beat it with all 13 picture memories recovered and there is more after them.

Two things make this worth planning around rather than shrugging off:

• Breath of the Wild has no post-game — the post-victory save drops you back before the final battle. The Calamity Ganon guide covers that in detail. The post-credits scene is the one piece of content that exists on the far side of the fight, and this quest is its key.
• The quest's completion check is its own 13 locations. The five memories below arrive through other quests, so you do not need to hunt anything beyond the pictures.

The five memories the album does not track

The Adventure Log holds 18 memories, and five of them have nothing to do with the photo hunt:

One memory arrives during each of the four Divine Beast quests — you cannot miss them if you play the main story — and the eighteenth plays when you claim the blade in Korok Forest, which the Master Sword guide covers along with the 13-heart requirement to draw it.

So a full 18/18 Adventure Log means: all four Divine Beasts, the Master Sword, and the Captured Memories quest. If you are doing the Beasts anyway — and the pre-fight laser damage covered in the Calamity Ganon guide is a strong reason to — the only deliberate effort is the 13 pictures.

The Champions' Ballad adds five EX memories

The Champions' Ballad DLC pack adds five EX Recovered Memories that take place before all of the others. The first four unlock as you complete each Champion's own main quest — EX Champion Revali's Song, EX Champion Mipha's Song, EX Champion Daruk's Song, and EX Champion Urbosa's Song — where Kass sings a song honoring that Champion and the song sparks the memory. The fifth, The Champions' Ballad itself, plays after the completed version of Kass's unfinished song and shows the five Champions' formal appointment ceremony.

They are DLC bonus material, not part of the Captured Memories quest, and the full trial-by-trial breakdown lives in the Champions' Ballad guide.

New to the game and not sure this is worth the detour yet? The beginner guide covers the opening hours that get you to Kakariko in the first place, and the rest of our Hyrule breakdowns live on the Breath of the Wild coverage hub.

Quick Action Checklist

• Repair the Sheikah Slate at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab (Locked Mementos), then show Impa in Kakariko Village to start Captured Memories.
• Recover one memory — Sacred Ground Ruins sits just south of Hyrule Castle — and return to Impa for the Champion's Tunic: 5 base defense, 32 fully upgraded, and exact enemy HP numbers on every health bar.
• Work through the twelve album locations in any order using the table above; each memory triggers at the photo's exact vantage point.
• For the vague photos: Lake Kolomo's tree grove (#3), west of Goronbi Lake (#8), the bridge between Zelda's Room and Study in Hyrule Castle (#12), and the woods northeast of the Bottomless Swamp (#16).
• Complete Find the Fairy Fountain to put Pikango in circulation if you would rather be told the locations in-game.
• After all twelve, return to Impa for the final picture, then head to Ash Swamp near Fort Hateno for Zelda's Awakening.
• Finish the quest before walking into the Sanctum — it unlocks the post-credits scene after you defeat Calamity Ganon.
• Do not hunt for memories #2, #4, #6, #10, or #18 in the field. Four arrive automatically during the Divine Beast quests and the last comes with the Master Sword.