Link starts off in his room at the Knights Academy. From here, feel free to open the cabinet and find five rupees. It is recommended to try to look for rupees throughout this intro level (Skyloft), as you will be buying a sword and potions later, which will cost about 70 rupees total.
Explore the academy as much as you want, and then head outside, to the floating island city of Skyloft. You will notice a man soon who explains some basic movements to you, including dashing, and using your stamina meter.
Climb the crates, jump across to the guy, and save the cat (optional) by dashing into the wall behind the guy, shimmying over to the next ledge, and climbing up the house. If you do go save the cat, he will explain how pushing boxes works, which is important later.
Grab onto the ledge and go around the building to save the cat
After you’ve done that, run up the road to the next area, the Goddess Statue.
There you meet Zelda, see a couple cut scenes, and then you have to look for your Loftbird.
Head down south to the Plaza, and you meet three of your peers, who are kind of mean people, to put it nicely. You get the idea that maybe they stole your bird and locked it up somewhere.
To find out where they put your Loftwing, explore the island some more until you come upon the Sparring Hall.
This building contains a sword training guy, which you can ignore if you want to just wing it. Grab the training sword from the treasure chest in the back room, and he will give you some parting words.
Cross these stones to get to the cave
Now you need to head to the waterfall area, over in the east. You will need to find the huge pond, and then cross the stones pictured to the right.
Use your sword to cut through the wood sticks blocking your way, and proceed into the cave.
Cut your way through to the cave
The cave is pretty simple, and remember to slash the bushes with your sword to look for rupees (you will need about 70 total). There is a hidden crawlspace near the end of the cave, on the right, behind some bushes. You can crawl in there and grab 40 rupees.
Exit the cave and Zelda will appear. Walk around the ledge and discover your Loftwing locked up. Use your sword and slash the ropes away (you have to swing your sword at the right angle, or you will hit the iron shackles instead). After you free the bird, you get another cut scene and then you can fly your Loftwing around for a little while, learning the controls. After you try out all your controls, you will be back just in time to start the RACE!
Gain altitude by flapping the Wii Remote, and then dive to gain speed
After another cut scene, the race will begin. Run off the wooden ledge and press down on the control pad to call your Loftwing. This race is pretty easy. The trick is to gain altitude (wave your Wii remote up and down to gain altitude) and then dive towards the yellow bird. Gaining altitude allows you to stay away from the other racers, who will knock you around. When you are near the bird, press A to grab the statue (you have to do it twice).
After you win, there is a huge cut scene where Zelda gives you a sailcloth, you quickly use it, and then you guys go on a date in the clouds. But the date doesn’t go quite as planned, and Zelda ends up getting sucked into a storm, and going to the surface world. You must now go find her.
You wake up in your bed, and Zelda’s father is quite worried about his daughter’s disappearance. You hear a ghostly whisper from the door, so you decide to follow it. You follow it up the stairs, and then outside. You go up towards the Goddess Statue, but then around the right side of the island, to a secret path. You run down a few ledges, past a crazy cat thing, and then you have to dash up on the left side and grab the ledge.
Jump up this ledge after fighting the crazy cat
Bring yourself around the ledge, hanging, and then drop down to the other side. Go up a hill, fight some bats and slimes, and then jump a dangerous-looking jump to another floating island segment. Climb up and then jump over to the vines on the wall. Eventually you make it to the Goddess Statue, and a secret door opens.
You learn all about your new sword that you grab, the surface world, and destiny, and then you are back at your house, with new clothes. Now you’ve got a quest. Go to the surface world.
But first, you should grab a shield (50 rupees) and a health potion (20 rupees). Everything is sold at the Bazaar (check your map with +). The potion is definitely optional (although the potion merchant gives you a free bottle just for talking to her). The shield is probably optional for now (you don’t need it to complete the next few areas), but it is still recommended. Don’t worry about saving money by not buying one of these, you will probably fill up your wallet in the next areas anyway.
Fly towards the green light to go to the surface!
Now that you’re stocked up, you should head down to the surface world to begin your adventure! Just jump off any wooden platform in the city, and then press the down arrow to call your Loftwing. Remember to not randomly jump off the edges of islands, you have to jump off a wooden platform to use your Loftwing.
Now, you must fly towards the green beam of light (check your map, too, it should be on there). Once you get near the beam, dive directly down, and you will land on the surface of the world, in Faron Woods.
Check out the next walkthrough: Faron Woods Walkthrough