You expand your pouches in Breath of the Wild by trading Korok seeds to Hestu. Maxing all three costs 441 seeds. There are 900 in Hyrule, which means well over half of them exist for no practical reason at all.
Find Hestu First
Hestu turns up on the road between Kakariko Village and the Dueling Peaks Stable early on, and he has lost his maracas. Return them and he starts trading.
He relocates as you upgrade, moving through a couple of positions before settling permanently in Korok Forest.
What It Costs
The three pouches upgrade different numbers of times:
- Weapons: 11 upgrades.
- Bows: 8 upgrades.
- Shields: 16 upgrades.
441 seeds covers all of them. The price per slot climbs as you go, so the early upgrades are cheap and the last few in each pouch are not.
The 900 Seed Joke
Collect all 900 and Hestu gives you Hestu’s Gift, which is purely ornamental and does nothing whatsoever. It is a deliberate punchline at the expense of completionists, and it is worth knowing before you spend a hundred hours on it.
The practical reading: 441 is the real target, and everything past that is for its own sake.
The Cost Climbs, and Spending Is Final
The price per slot rises as each pouch fills, so the first few upgrades in any category are cheap and the last few are not. Weapon slots in particular get expensive toward the top of the track.
There is also no way back. Seeds you spend are gone, and there is no equivalent of the Horned Statue that lets you trade a heart for a stamina vessel. Once a slot is bought it stays bought, so the order you upgrade in is the only decision you actually get to make here.
Hestu will not trade at all until you have returned his maracas, which is the short quest that introduces him. Players who find him and get nothing have usually skipped that step.
Which Pouch First
Weapons, without much argument. Weapons break constantly in this game and running dry mid-fight is the most common way an encounter goes wrong. Our guide on how to repair weapons covers the one narrow exception to breakage, which is not a substitute for carrying more.
Shields have the most upgrades available but the least urgency, unless you shield surf often. Our guide on shield surfing covers that.
Bows matter more than people expect, because bow variety is what makes Lynels manageable. Our guide on how to beat Lynels covers the headshot loop that depends on having a decent bow to hand.
Finding Seeds
The puzzles repeat in a small number of recognisable shapes: a rock sitting oddly with a seed beneath it, a stone circle missing one rock, balloons to pop, a flower trail to follow, matching a pattern in the landscape.
Once you recognise the shapes you find them constantly without looking, which is the intended experience. Hunting them deliberately with a map is how the 900 becomes a chore.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Korok seeds do you need? 441 to max all three pouches.
How many exist in total? 900.
What do you get for all 900? Hestu’s Gift, an ornamental item with no function.
Which pouch should you upgrade first? Weapons, because breakage is the most common problem.