How to Increase Your Max Health in Tales of Kenzera: Zau

Like any good Metroidvania, Tales of Kenzera: Zau has a set of upgrades to your combat and traversal abilities as well as your overall survivability. And while you can beat the game with the base health value, knowing how to increase your max health in Tales of Kenzera makes the later parts of the game much more comfortable.

Where to Upgrade Your Maximum Health in Tales of Kenzera: Zau

You’ll want to take at least some time to explore and find where you can increase your health in Tales of Kenzera: Zau because by the late game, enemies hit hard and often, and both boss and mob fights take much longer. While you could try and beat the game with only base health and abilities for a first playthrough, I don’t recommend it.

Actually, upgrading your health takes place at Reflection points scattered around the game’s map. You’ll know a reflection is available in a zone for two reasons. First and foremost, when you open your map, the game will outright tell you if one exists.

Second, once you load into a new zone and the map populates, you’ll want to look for a large tree with an opening at its base: A hollow. These mystic baobab trees are your Reflection points, and there are six of them to find. You can get three of them before you fight the first boss. The fourth you find before you reach the second boss, and the fifth and sixth are in the final sets of zones.

Each time you visit a Reflection point, Zau, the main character, will sit in the hollow and meditate, speaking of his father to Kalunga, God of Death. For my money, the Reflections are the best part of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, not only because the writing is superb but because they’re some of the only quiet moments in a very hectic game.

When you upgrade your health at a Reflection, you’ll get an additional tick next to your main health bar. Each tick is approximately one-sixth of the starting bar, so should you collect all six reflections, you’ll have more than double your starting health to work with. Finding and sitting at all six Reflection points awards the Know Thyself achievement.

Note that all six Reflection points are off the critical path, so if one is on your map, expect to need to turn left instead of right, go down instead of up, and so on if you want to find the tree. Some are also protected by tricky platforming challenges, but thankfully, no baobab Reflection tree has actual enemies in its area, giving you the peace to actually reflect. You also don’t have to leave the tree hollow immediately once the dialog ends, letting you reflect on your own thoughts, should you choose to do so.

Check out our Tales of Kenzera: Zau guides hub for more content like this. If you want to know what we thought of the game as a whole, our Tales of Kenzera: Zau review is ready for reading.