These Zelda Tears of the Kingdom tips, tricks and secrets have been had earned through weeks of play, and will do a lot to help any new player get to grips with all the enemies, locations and systems in TOTK that they suddenly have to play with. There's nothing here that'll spoil the game for you if you're a newcomer, only provide little tips and tidbits to help you get started! With that in mind, here's the top 10 tips and tricks to help players with The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
The best Zelda Tears of the Kingdom tips, tricks and secrets
Here are the best tips and tricks for Zelda Tears of the Kingdom that we think new players should know before starting the game!
- Fuse all your weapons to increase durability
- Stick logs and planks together with Ultrahand to reach new areas
- Weapons often have secondary abilities you can make use of
- Stamina is just as important as health
- Use Recall on enemy projectiles to send attacks back
- Ultrahand can be used to find secrets
- Find Skyview towers early to activate fast travel points and reach new areas
- Cook and experiment with everything you find to learn recipes
- Use Purah Pad pins and stamps to remember where to go back to
- Don't run out of arrows!
Those should all be self-explanatory, but if you want to know more about why and a little extra detail, just click on the tip itself, or scroll down to see more!
1. Fuse all your weapons to increase durability
The issue of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom weapon durability is a big one, with weapons breaking after you use them too many times. In fact, most weapons in Tears of the Kingdom are even more fragile than they were in Breath of the Wild, and the solution is obvious - Fusion!
Fusing your weapons with anything that isn't a single use object (such as a Puffshroom) gives them extra durability, so even if you can't find anything really good to Fuse with your weapon, you might as well add a Rock to it, to give it a little extra durability. There's no downside - so literally every single weapon you have should be Fused with something else! Plus, if you're a little more experimental, you might find strange, helpful combinations that serve you better in the long run.
2. Stick logs and planks together with Ultrahand to reach new areas
You don't have to be limited by stamina as much now - when you see a ledge you can't get up or a ravine that needs crossing, the best solution we found was to cut down some trees and use Ultrahand, one of the main Zelda Tears of the Kingdom abilities, to simply stick them together (this also works with planks and wooden boards if you can find them). This makes a giant ramp that you can climb or run along, move wherever you want, and make either longer or shorter by simply adding more logs or taking them away. In many places this simple process can make traversal so much less difficult, and with how common trees are, you can do it in most places across the map.
3. Weapons often have secondary abilities you can make use of
Weapons don't just do damage, most of them are designed to do something in the world too! Bladed weapons like swords are useful to cut down trees and through vines, blunt hammers can shatter boulders when you don't have any bombs to spare, and magic weapons with ice and fire powers can warm you up or cool you down to better suit the weather! It means that if you're stuck, it's a good idea to quickly check through your weapons to see if any of them can help you, or if you can fuse them into something that can.
4. Stamina is just as important as health
It's easy to think that more hearts is better when choosing what to level up at the Goddess Statues, but stamina is really important in Tears of the Kingdom. It determines how high you can climb, how far you can run, it's essential in one major quest surrounding the Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Master Sword, but most importantly, it allows you to use your glider for longer periods of time - and with so much of this game taking place in the sky, that's essential. There's certain areas you simply won't be able to get to without higher stamina, so you want to aim for at least two full circles before you're twenty hours in - or make a lot of stamina recovery potions.
5. Use Recall on enemy projectiles to send attacks back
This is a fun one - when an enemy attacks you with a thrown object, you can use Recall to rewind it back along its path. Not only will it never reach you if you time it right, but it'll fly back and hit the enemy instead! Thrown bombs, cannon blasts and rocks rolled at you can all be affected this way, though arrows are too small to be Recalled (believe us, we tried).
6. Ultrahand can be used to find secrets
Not only is Ultrahand used for building special structures and a range of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom vehicles, but it also has another helpful function - it can help you find secrets! When you trigger it, anything you can move nearby glows and gets clearly marked out, including items that are underwater, half-buried in walls, or up in trees. If you're in an area where you think there's treasure, turn on Ultrahand and look around - you might spot something!
7. Find Skyview towers early to activate fast travel points and reach new areas
The Skyview towers set up across Hyrule don't just reveal the map and act as fast travel points, they also launch Link up into the sky so he can access the nearby floating islands - so there's literally whole sections of the game you won't be able to reach until you trigger them. Not only that, but they're an incredibly quick way to get around, as you can launch yourself up and glide down to nearby landmarks of your choosing. Where we droppin', Link?
8. Cook and experiment with everything you find to learn recipes
There's literally hundreds of potion and meal recipes for players to uncover, but most of them you have to find out yourself, mixing together things in pots and seeing what you get. You'll want to make a habit of this - going into a boss fight without at least three meals ready can be deadly, plus you can get all manner of buffs that aid exploration and combat alike. Try to think outside the box, and remember that your discovered recipes are saved, so you can look up how to make them again!
9. Use Purah Pad pins and stamps to remember where to go back to
With so much to discover in Tears of the Kingdom, it's easy to lose track, so you'll definitely want to use your Purah Pad. Mark pins in those things you see from a distance to help you reach them, but for things you want to come back to later (such as a boss you're not ready for), use the map to add little stamps, a very useful way to keep track of where you want to be!
10. Don't run out of arrows!
Arrows are much more important in Tears of the Kingdom, especially later on. Once you have a Zelda Tears of the Kingdom bow, you'll want to be a little stingy with arrows, and always have at least 25 on you before going into an unknown boss fight, new dungeon or similar. Arrows don't just do damage, there's some enemies that are almost impossible to hit without them, or puzzles that need arrows to solve them. Pick up all the ones you can find, smash boxes to see if they have any, and if Bokoblin archers are shooting at you, pick up all the arrows that miss afterwards!
© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission
