Save shrines

Besides providing a means to save, shrines often serve as a place to get some practice with the bow - white-tailed lizard can always be found on or near each one.

The save shrines (their models being named "Sky Towers") are found throughout the entirety of the Forbidden Lands. Each of these small structures contains a stone tablet (shaped roughly like a PS2 memory card) which Wander may pray to in order to save his progress. One white-tailed lizard can always be found on or near each shrine. The shrine can also be climbed to provide a nice view of the lands and to point Wander in the right direction.

A Save shrine as seen in the guide/artbook

Even though the game can be saved after defeating colossi, these shrines serve as a good stopping place for players who simply wish to explore the world for lizards and fruit trees without fighting.

There are 24 save shrines scattered across the lands (25 counting the Shrine of Worship). Each shrine is marked on the world map (as a green symbol) after Wander prayed there. Saving the game at a shrine reveals the name of the region on the save screen. The shrines and their names are listed here from top to bottom and left to right on the game's world map.

To save at one of these shrines, stand in front of it and press . Wander will kneel down and begin to pray, and it will be followed by the save menu. After one saves, Wander will stand back up, ready to continue his quest. In the PS4 remake, Wander simply kneels and stands up again, with no save prompt displayed. Whenever one loads the game file, it will show Wander resting in front of the shrine. It only takes one nudge of the analogue stick to wake him up.

Saving the game at all shrines will unlock the "Tower of Prayer" trophy in the PS3 version (renamed "Seeking Salvation" in the PS4 remake).

Coordinates	Shrine Name	Shrine Name (Preview)	Shrine Name (Remake)	Number on Map
C1	Umbral Glade	Northwestern Valley	Northwestern Basin	1
E1	Dried Marsh	Misty Marsh	Rugged Ascent	3
G1	Desert Fortress	Northern Temple	Desert Fortress	5
D2	Stone Arch Gorge	Stone Arch Gorge	Stone Arch Gorge	2
F2	Northern Span	Northern Pier	Northbridge Pier	4
G2	Misty Falls	Turtle Falls	Misty Fall	6
E3	Ravine Entrance	Ravine Entrance	Ravine Entrance	7
E3	Round Stone Hill	Round Stone Hill	Lair to the West	10
G3	Half-moon Canyon	Northeastern Plain	Half-moon Canyon	8
B4	Lair to the West	Nest to the West	Western Highlands	11
B4	Lair on the Mesa	Nest on the Plateau	Lair atop the Gorge	14
C4	Western Plain	Western Plain	Highlands Lagoon	9
E4	Stone Bridge Cliff	Stone Bridge Cliff	Stone Bridge Cliff	12
F4	Shrine of Worship	Shrine of Worship	Shrine of Worship	N/A
G4	Cliff Path	Cliff Path	Grassy Path	13
B5	Western Cape	Western Cape	Western Cape	15
C5	Arch Bridge Plain	Arch Bridge Plain	Arch Bridge to Badlands	16
D5	Blasted Lands	Hill Facing a Ruin	Hill Overlooking Ruins	17
E5	Autumn Forest	Autumn Forest	Forest of Giants	18
G6	Valley Plain	Valley Plain	Mossy Overlook	19
H6	Eastern Bluff	Southeastern Cliff	Eastern Bluff	20
D7	Southwestern Cape	Southwestern Cape	Southwestern Cape	21
F7	Southern Plain	Plain at the Ends	Southern Lowlands	22
G7	Green Cape	Green Cape	Green Cape	23
F8	The Broken Seal*	Closed Gates	The Broken Seal	24
* This Shrine is only accessible after defeating 15 colossi.

Trivia

• If one leaves the start menu idle for some time, it will cut to the shrine which the player last saved at. (If one last saved after defeating a colossus, one will be at the save shrine outside the Shrine of Worship.) While Wander is resting, the camera will follow Agro as she explores the land freely until the music comes to an end. Every time the player watches, Agro will always choose a random course to take, so it isn't prerecorded. While if the game was completed at least once, the camera will instead follow a kite as it flies around the area surrounding the save shrine Wander last saved at.
• A gray turret-like structure seen in an early screenshot of the Western Cape (B5) was (according to the lead designer of the old Shadow of the Colossus website after being questioned by Nomad Colossus) an earlier version of the Save Shrine. No clear evidence of it being a Save Shrine exists in the PS3 sheets or anywhere else besides the website designer's statement and the structure being located right on top of where the Western Cape shrine is now in the final version of the game.
• A song used in the gallery menu from the game's PAL version and available in the Roar of the Earth soundtrack titled "Memories" may have been used while saving in a shrine, as its name inside the files is "save_point".
• It was stated in the Artbook, that the save stones were "initially intended to be placed on their own". It also states that "Stones are piled up for the number of times you save (there is an upper limit)". Both are these can be seen in the save stone concept art (see gallery).
• The quadrant G4 used to feature another save shrine next to the entrance to the 4th colossus' arena. Evidence of its existence are in the E3 Demo's sheets showing its coordinates on the region, and it also appears in early super low models of the area, as seen first in the OPM Demo.
  • This shrine was likely replaced by the Lair on the Mesa shrine, as it didn't exist yet in the E3 Demo.
  • The slow (super low) LOD model of it can be seen in the OPM demo version of the game, but it disappears at close distances, as it is only supposed to be visible from far away.
• The World of Fumito Ueda artbook shows a unused animation for the save stone, in which its "legs" (the two small pieces at the bottom) move inside the stone, and then the stone submerges below the ground. What purpose this may have served is unknown.

Gallery

The structure speculated to have been an earlier model for the save shrine in "B5".

Wander with three types of save stones: Normal, Forest and Desert (unused).

The save stones and its unused animation, from the World of Fumito Ueda artbook.

Concept art of a save stone from the Artbook.