Zelda Tears of the Kingdom contains 18 Memory Locations. Finding all Memories is required for 100% Completion. 6 Memories come automatically from mandatory main story quests (Numbers 01, 02, 11, 14, 16, 18). The remaining 12 come from an optional main questline as part of Impa and the Geoglyphs > The Dragon’s Tears. You have to collect 12 Tears of the Dragon to complete this questline, each one gives a Memory.
Simply put: complete all main quests in the game and you get all memories automatically. None of them are missable. Memories are replayable cutscenes of key story moments. They provide more backstory about what’s happening in the game.
All Memories
01. The Master Sword’s Power – Automatic from Main Quest: Trail of the Master Sword, at the end of the quest after talking to Deku Tree.
02. The Awakening – Automatic from Main Quest: Crisis at Hyrule Castle, after defeating the Phantoms.
03. Where Am I? – Automatic from optional Main Quest: Impa and the Geoglyphs, unlocks at the end of that quest.
04. An Unfamiliar World – From Dragon Tear #2 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
05. Mineru’s Counsel – From Dragon Tear #3 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
06. The Gerudo Assault – From Dragon Tear #4 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
07. A Show of Fealty – From Dragon Tear #5 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
08. Zelda and Sonia – From Dragon Tear #6 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
09. Sonia Is Caught by Treachery – From Dragon Tear #7 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
10. Birth of the Demon King – From Dragon Tear #8 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
11. The Demon King’s Army – Automatic from Main Quest: Crisis at Hyrule Castle, after defeating the Phantoms.
12. The Sages’ Vow – From Dragon Tear #9 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
13. A King’s Duty – From Dragon Tear #10 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
14. The Imprisoning War – Automatic from Main Quest: Guidance from Ages Past, at the very end of that quest.
15. A Master Sword in Time – From Dragon Tear #11 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
16. Critical Decisions – Automatic from Main Quest: Guidance from Ages Past, at the very end of that quest.
17. Tears of the Dragon – From Dragon Tear #17 as part of Main Quest: The Dragon’s Tears.
18. Zelda’s Wish – Automatic from Main Quest: Recovering the Hero’s Sword, at the very end of that quest.
That’s all of the Memories in Zelda TotK. For all other Collectibles refer to Zelda Tears of the Kingdom 100% Completion Wiki.
Memory 2 is not entirely accurate. I have it unlocked and I haven’t done any regional phenomena or defeated the phantoms. I just went to the castle to meet Hoz + glided to the upper castle to collect the royal guard armor. Don’t know SPECIFICALLY when it unlocked, but it’s definitely not after fighting the phantoms. Thanks for all your hard work! Just trying to contribute to accuracy. ?
The place you described is where you’d normally go in the main quest mentioned here and have the phantom fight. For me it just autopopped during the story at that point, but it seems you can also go there early before the story takes you there. Normally how it’s intended is that you go there as part of the main quest, since all other memories come from main quests too.