How to check the Ability Controls in the first place:

Press (+) to open the menu, then (R) until you’re in the “System” settings. The Ability Controls are between “Options” and “DLC”. If you have not yet unlocked a specific ability, it will be displayed as “???” with a greyed-out background.

Most of these unlock automatically while you’re playing the game anyway. Some things however semi-regularily give people a bit of trouble to unlock and the game itself doesn’t exactly make it clear how / where to unlock the abilities.

The Scope and Pins:

  • After clearing your first shrine on the Great Plateau, the Old Man will tell you to warp to the Great Plateau Tower and look around. If you actually get up there again and talk to him, you’ll unlock the list entry.

  • A second method is to talk to him on top of Mount Hylia if you skipped talking to him on the Great Plateau Tower. Picking the right dialogue choices here will also unlock the list entry, provided you didn’t already unlock it earlier.

Both of these methods become unavailable after you obtained the Paraglider, since the Old Man won’t appear again for the remainder of the playthrough. However, if you continue playing the game, then there are two more methods to unlock that ability later:

  • If you activate the second Sheikah Tower after leaving the Great Plateau, you’ll get the Shrine Sensor. After you activated the third tower, you’ll get the “Scope and Pins” pop-up automatically.

  • If you unlock the Camera Rune first, then you will already have the Sheikah Sensor when you activate your second tower. In that case, you get the Scope and Pins now instead of after the third tower.

^Method 1: On top of the Great Plateau Tower^

^Method 2: On top of Mount Hylia^

Shield Surf:

Have a shield equipped, then press (ZL) (guard), then jump and then immediatly press (A) while you’re in the air. Doing this at least once unlocks the ability, no matter whether you actually surf or not. The only prequisite is obtaining and equipping a shield first, otherwise it won’t work.

You can also unlock the entry by talking to NPC’s that are related to shield surfing, like the two minigame dudes east of Woodland Stable, the Sand Seal Renting Service ladies in Gerudo Town, or Selmie on top of Mount Hebra.

Charged Attacks:

This is the first one that can be tricky, because “just” successfully performing a charged atttack does not unlock this ability description.

In order to unlock the list entry, you have to go to the tutorial shrine in Kakariko Village (Ta’Loh Naeg’s Teaching) and defeat the White Guardian Scout inside in exactly the way the monk tells you. One of these atttacks is a charged attack, and this will unlock the list entry.

Completing this shrine will also unlock Side Hop, Backflip and Perfect Guard, although for those 3 abilities you are also able to unlock them earlier by just doing them outside of the shrine against regular enemies.

^The shrine in question^

Jump Slash:

Talk to the carrot farmer Steen. He’s the guy training with a stick near Impa’s house in Kakariko Village at night. One of his dialogue options will unlock the list entry.

Why so many people miss it / can’t figure it out:

He is the literally only NPC in the game able to unlock this ability entry. Just successfully performing a jump slash is not enough to unlock the list entry no matter how often you do it. Talking to him during the day won’t work, because he is only training at night. And you have to talk to him twice, because the first time you speak to him he’ll just tell you about “the legendary swordsman” and give you a carrot, then end the conversation.

So in order to unlock this entry, you have to find a single obscure (and otherwise completely unimportant) NPC in the giant game world, then talk to him twice during a specific time and about a specific topic, because his other dialogue options also won’t unlock the list entry.

^This is the spot where Koko cooks during the day^

Backflip:

Target an enemy with (ZL), then move away from it and jump just when the foe attacks. You don’t even need to have a weapon equipped. Successfully performing this at least once unlocks the list entries for both this and Side Hop, no matter what foe you were fighting.

Side Hop:

Same setup as Backflip, only that you have to move to the side instead of away from the foe. You don’t even need to have a weapon equipped. Successfully performing this at least once unlocks the list entries for both this and Backflip, no matter what foe you were fighting.

Perfect Guard:

Have a shield equipped. Target an enemy, then parry an incoming attack with (A) at just the right moment. Successfully performing this at least once unlocks the list entry, no matter what foe you were fighting.

Use amiibo:

You do not need to own an actual amiibo for this. The only thing you need to do is to enable amiibo usage in the option’s menu and then use the amiibo rune once. To activate the rune, press (+) to open the menu, then (R) until you’re in the “System” settings. Select “Options”, then “use amiibo”.

You have to obtain at least one of the base game runes first in order to activate the amiibo rune, so if you just started a new playthrough you’ll have to wait with this until after you’ve entered your first shrine. It doesn’t matter whether you actually scan an amiibo or just use the rune - the ability will unlock either way, and afterwards you may disable the rune again if you don’t intend to keep it.

^What the rune looks like^

FAQ:

Do you NEED to unlock those?

No. You can USE these abilities whenever you want to, and it doesn’t matter in the slightest whether they actually appear in that “log”. Unlocking the descriptions also doesn’t affect the only “completion percentage” in the game (which tracks only map completion anway) and as far as I’m aware, this list also doesn’t count for speedruns. You can safely ignore that list completely without a penalty.

Then why bother?

Some poeple just want to complete the list. That’s all ;) If you don’t want to / don’t care, then you do not have any disadvantages whatsoever by not completing the list.