New Features and Differences - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Guide - IGN (2024)

Much has changed since the events of Breath of the Wild, and while The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom still takes place in the same world, there will be many differences in how you explore the world a second time. This page contains all list of features and major differences (and a few returning features) that may contain minor spoilers.

Some time has passed since the events of Breath of the Wild. After the events of the great Calamity, the Kingdom of Hyrule is finally beginning to rebuild itself, with construction beginning across the land, though the castle itself still remains a ruin. It is from these ruins that a dark new substance has begun to seep forth from, known as Gloom. Tears of the Kingdom starts with Zelda and Link investigating a vast underground chamber that holds the source of the Gloom, but encounter something far worse -- the mummified remains of an ancient foe, surrounded by green light. However, the terrible monster awakens, and in the ensuing chaos, Zelda vanishes, and Link's right arm becomes corrupted - as does the Master Sword, which is broken from the corrupting force of the Gloom.

This ancient foe, known as Ganondorf, uses his power to raise Hyrule Castle high into the sky, and wages a new war on Hyrule by summoning legions of monsters to attack in an event known as the Upheaval. As dark chasms appear across the land, strange new floating islands begin to appear all over Hyrule, which seem to relate to the lost Zonai people whose ruins could be found in remote places across the land. Many of these ruins continue to fall from the sky and impact the land in new ways.

Though both Link and Zelda appear to survive the encounter, they are separated once again. Link's corrupted arm is harnessed with new abilities, and must use them and a new pad device to track down Zelda. It will be up to Link to save the kingdom once more, with the help of new and familiar faces alike.

Link's New Abilities

While Link no longer has the power of the Sheikah Slate at his disposal, he will still gain access to similar abilities that come from a new technology fused with his new arm.

• Recall - Reverse the trajectory of objects, allowing Link to throw weapons back at enemies, or ride falling rocks back into the sky to reach Sky Islands. Recall does not reverse time, just an object's movement. The L button can be used to stop the movement of an object when being recalled.

• Fuse - Weapons, shields, and arrows can be fused with everyday materials, such as rocks, food, and monster parts to improve attributes like strength, reach, and durability. Certain items can be added to Link's equipment to add effects, like smoke bombs that trigger when his shield is hit.
  

• Ultrahand - Ever wanted to become an engineer and make silly little contraptions? Now you can! Ultrahand allows Link to fuse material like logs, fans, wheels, and cloth to create makeshift vehicles. These vehicles can be used to traverse the world in new and exciting ways.

• Ascend - Have you ever wanted to walk through objects like Kitty Pride from X-Men? Ascend will allow Link to jump through objects above him, like roofs, caves, and even cages. Some areas, like caves, may take a bit longer to ascend through as Link swims through the space he is trying to get to

One of the major new developments in Tears of the Kingdom is the appearance of a variety of floating islands all over the map of Hyrule. These range from scattered tiny platforms, to giant landmasses full of enemies and different environments.

Link's adventure will actually start on one of these Sky Islands, and you won't be able to return to the surface until you learn some important abilities - similar to Breath of the Wild's Great Plateau tutorial area.

Once you're allowed to freely explore, Link can dive off islands and return to ground at intense speed, or slow his fall by spreading out, using the paraglider, or utilize certain flying vehicles.

To return to the skies above and continue exploring these islands, Link will have to ascend to the sky himself, and there are special Skyview Towers found across Hyrule that allow you to take to the air, as well as using new vehicles or by flying upwards using the recall ability on rocks that have fallen from the islands.

When on the Sky Islands, there are also multiple ways to traverse these platforms both big and small, with the addition of new traversal techniques like spheres of water to swim through, or low gravity fields that extend your jump.

Aside from the new floating islands in the sky, the surface of Hyrule has undergone more changes than yo might think. While much of its landmass matches closely with how things looked during Breath of the Wild, the Upheval has thrown many things into disarray, destroying old pathways and creating new ones, and the people of Hyrule have adapated by moving or creating new settlements.

Towns like Hateno Village have now evolved from how they looked in the previous game, and new settlements appear to have sprouted up in various places, with sets of building materials located nearby.

While the Sheikah Towers and Shrines may have disappeared, new Skyview Towers have been erected in different locations to help map the changes to the world, and new shrines belong to the Zonai have also sprouted up both on the surface and on the sky islands - which can be completed to increase your health and stamina like the previous game.

There are also strange new geoglyphs that dot the landscape and can be seen when traversing the skies above, and will hold their own form of secrets when Link investigates them.

Traversing the skies isn't the only new area opened up in Tears of the Kingdom, as there is a new network of caves and wells running through Hyrule. The depth and length of the caves can range from short passageways to sprawling twisting pathways full of secrets, but the Ascend ability can be used within them to get back to ground level when spelunking.

Aside from mysterious new structures, it appears that the monsters of Hyrule have made a resurgence, and have set up bigger camps and strongholds across Hyrule where they might not have had a presence previously. This includes new fortified bases, the addition of Gibdos to, Stone Talus minibosses that have had platforms installed on them, and mining operations set up by monsters. New minibosses have also appeared around Hyrule like the Gleeok - a large three-headed hydra monster that can be found guarding certain locations or flying in the air.

Materials are becoming a much bigger part of gameplay, as everyday objects can be fused together to make weapons and vehicles. Different-sized wooden planks can be seen alongside materials like a sail when passing through stables. Certain environments will also be traversable by using these materials to build vehicles like boats to pass a river or lake.

The skies above seem to have their own new rules, including new enemies like giant statues made out of cubes, and new flora and fauna unique to the sky.

The Depths

While the skies of Hyrule have changed greatly, the same might hold true for what lies under the surface of the land. Link can now delve deep under Hyrule through newly opened chasms full of Gloom to explore pitch-black regions, requiring you to light your way or become lost in pervasive darkness. The Gloom present in these areas will slowly sap your maximum health, with only limited ways to restore it.

This foreboding new region holds secrets, mysteries, and unique enemies and flora not found anywhere else, but interactive lightroots can help you plot a course through the murky depths.

Link's fuse ability will take simple items like rocks, trees, and branches, and fuse them with existing weapons, arrows, and shields, to increase damage and durability.

• Adding a boulder to a stick turns it into a stronger hammer.

• Fusing a branch with a farmer's pitchfork makes it much longer, giving it incredible reach.

Food, flora, material dropped from monsters, and even Zonai technology can be fused with Link's equipment to give different effects like a shield that breathes fire, or homing attack arrows.

• Fusing your arrows with Keese Eyes will turn them into homing arrows
  

In addition to returning armor like the modified Champion's Tunic, Flamebreaker Armor, and Snowquill Set, Link will be able to find and equip several new sets of clothing and armor not found in the previous game. No longer mainly found in Shrines, many armor sets can now be found deep within caves, or even lost in the Depths themselves.

These new armor sets make use of the new settings in Tears of the Kingdom, including advanced gliding capabilities, better recharging of Zonai Devices, and the ability to see in dark places.

While players in Breath of the Wild were able to rig up crude propulsion machines using mine carts and Magnesis (as well as the Master Cycle DLC), Tears of the Kingdom seems to promise a new slew of vehicles to construct and pilot across its open world.

Using the Ultrahand ability, Link can make use of forgotten technology called Zonai Devices to fuse materials like logs and boards together with fans, wheels, batteries, and more to make a self-propelled vehicles that can cross lakes, drive across terrain, and even take to the sky to cross between floating islands.

Fans used to move vehicles run on batter power that start when struck with a weapon and stop when struck again. A vehicle with multiple fans can be stopped by striking any device that powers the vehicle. Battery is stored on a new Energy Cell Link carries with him, and can quickly recharge when not in use.

With Ultrahand able to glue almost any material together, including hot air balloons, flying machine fans and rockets, and even steering sticks. Vehicle are fully customizable and work in tandem with the physics engine of the game.

There are very few limitations to what you can create and how you can use these vehicles. The final trailer released in April showed Link going head to head with a Stone Talus using his own stone mech, constructed of giant stone slabs on top of a wheeled platform with waving arms and a movement lever on top!

HUD

There are multiple changes to the HUD in Tears of the Kingdom that tie into gameplay features. There are still series staples like heart containers and a mini-map, but some subtle changes exist.

The mini-map now displays latitude and longitude, along with altitude, since Link spends a lot of time in the sky. In the March Direct gameplay trailer, Link gets thrown off a Sky Island and rapidly falls back to Hyrule, you can see his Altitude quickly fall on his mini-map. Depending on how lengthy/deep caves go, the altitude might even go into the negative. This is all displayed at the bottom of the mini-map circle.

The D-pad no longer displays an option for the Shiekah Slate since Link doesn't have it. Instead, up on the D-pad has been delegated to easily access materials for fusing. It's shown with an apple icon. There is also no Shiekah Slate sensor near the mini-map. During certain sections, there were also icons for caves in the Sky Islands with checkmarks -- presumably for when they have been fully explored.

Temperature, time, noise, and weather are still indicated beside the mini-map exactly the same as they were in Breath of the Wild.

To use Link's Hand abilities like Fuse and Ascend, press the L button, which opens a radial menu to quickly select a new ability.

If you'd like to see more Tears of the Kingdom, check out the game's new enemies, or what various rewards the Legend of Zelda Amiibo give you in game.