Zelda Tears of the Kingdom: How to fix and activate the Popla Foothills Skyview Tower

Replacing the Shiekah Towers from the previous game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom tasks players with activating Skyview Towers across Hyrule; while some of them are rather straightforward, others require solving a small puzzle in order to activate. Such is the case with the Popla Foothills Skyview Tower - which is broken when you first encounter it.

When you first roll up to the Popla Foothills Skyview Tower, you'll discover that the panel controls to activate it are on the fritz, and with Link having no technical know-how, he can’t fix it. Thankfully, help is closer than you might think…

Unlocking the towers is vital to understanding Hyrule in TOTK - so if you want more help with it, be sure to check out our pages on the Skyview Towers for Upland Zorana, Popla Foothills, and Gerudo Highlands. 

How to unlock the Popla Foothills Tower with the help of Elmerson

As it turns out, there was already somebody on their way to fix the tower prior to your arrival - Elmerson! He's a friendly Tower Technician - but he's hit a spot of bother, which is why the tower it trapped closed. Together, you can get it running in a snap.

Near the tower’s entrance is a Well that, when dropped into, leads to a set of ruins attached to a cave. There's cries for help echoing down here - and you'll find a Hylian figure caught in a trap that was triggered by rummaging through a chest. They’ll need your help to escape, and they mention that you’ll likely need to take the same entrance that they took in order to rescue them.

Peak behind the bars and you’ll notice the entrance in question - and you can even set a waymarker to give you a better idea of where the entrance is actually located on your map. Alternatively, you can look at this screenshot, which shows the position of the entrance:

From the wrong side of those closed bars, ascend through the ceiling and make your way towards the other side of the cave entrance. As you'll notice, there's both a second Popla Foothills Well and a cave entrance in this area. Explore the Well if you like, but it is not related to the other well - or this quest.

Once you find yourself on the opposite side of the bars enclosing poor Elmerson, activate the pressure plate and he’ll be freed. As he heads off he’ll gift you the 50 rupees that he discovered in the chest that got him in that mess in the first place, and he’ll remark that he really ought to get back to that tower.

At this point, you can simply Ascend once again to find Elmerson waiting outside the Popla Foothills Skyview Tower, having fixed the issues with its terminal. This is just one of several towers in the game that requires a little puzzle solving to activate, including the Sahasra Slope skyview tower. 

You’re now free to activate the tower and scan the surrounding area! As for Elmerson, he’s looking to cool his head for a moment before he has to face the music for running so behind schedule at the construction company.