Summary
The Legend of Zeldaseries is no stranger to enigmatic characters that players will encounter as they guide Link on his journey, butThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis home to one of the series' most mysterious. As players travel around Hyrule inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, they will likely come across NPCs who talk about the treasure of the legendary Misko, a great bandit who’s said to have hidden rare fashion items all around the land. However, players never get to meet Misko themselves, leaving their true identity and nature up to player speculation.
Originally introduced inThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,Misko plays a role in both it andTears of the Kingdomas the character responsible for a series of quests where players hunt for their hidden treasure. At a glance, it might appear that Misko is simply a fun way of sending the player on treasure-hunting quests where they can gain unique armor pieces as a reward. Given theZeldaseries' history of hiding deeper lore about characters within seemingly mundane activities and some of the items Misko seems to have possessed, it’s clear there is more to this character than the games have revealed.
Tears of the Kingdom’s Misko May Be More Than Meets the Eye
InTears of the Kingdom, players can hear about Misko and the tales of their iconic fashion sense from travelers around Hyrule. These travelers also help the player by pointing to locations where Misko is rumored to have buried treasure, typically being found deep within Hyrule’s caves. Exploring these locations and discovering Misko’s treasure can reward players with useful pieces of gear like theBarbarian Armor chest piece, the Climbing Gear chest piece, and the Rubber Armor chest piece.
While these pieces of gear being part ofMisko’s treasuremake this character seem like a simple adventure-minded fashionista, there are a few other armor sets whose whereabouts Misko has left hints to which are more intriguing than the basic pieces of gear players can find. Among these additional armor sets are the Awakening Armor set, the Tingle Armor set, and the Fierce Deity armor set. All of these pieces of gear are references to other games in theZeldafranchise, which could imply that Misko has some kind of meta-awareness of the franchise as a whole.
Misko Could Be Related to Another Infamous Zelda Character
The implications of Misko having obtained pieces of gear that allude toThe Legend of Zelda: Link’s AwakeningandThe Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Maskcould point to them being another character previously established by the franchise as an enigmatic being with near god-like powers. TheHappy Mask Salesmanis a similarly mysterious character who appears inOcarina of TimeandMajora’s Maskas a traveling purveyor of masks. From his appearance inMajora’s Mask, it’s clear the Happy Mask Salesman has otherworldly powers that could allow him to exist outside of the confines ofZelda’s in-game universe.
It’s possible that Misko is the Happy Mask Salesman, as both are known as mysterious travelers who seem to have unusual foresight. One of the biggest clues to support this theory is the fact thatMisko has access to the Fierce Deity Sword, which was only obtainable via the Fierce Deity Mask given to players inMajora’s Maskif they collected all optional masks in the game. For someone to have access to this sword and associated armor set, they would have to have access to all of those same masks, which is something that Misko could accomplish if they were the Happy Mask Salesman.
