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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is expansive, intimidatingly so. With all that it has to offer, there's no doubt that certain mechanics might go overlooked. Or maybe you're coming in, hot off of your time in Breath of the Wild. With a shared world and cross-referential narrative, you might have some questions about what's remained or what's changed.
Regardless of the motivations, these remain to be some of the most frequently asked questions when roaming around in LoZ:TotK. Instead of wandering aimlessly until you find an answer, why not give this guide a look?
Updated June 3, 2023, by Branden Lizardi: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been out for a while now. And it's been the smash hit we all expected it to be. But with more popularity, more questions have arisen. To make sure are informed, we've updated this Tears of the Kingdom FAQ with new questions, as well as a few tweaks to the answers in the existing TotK guide questions, now that the details have been made more clear.
How To Save
Tears of the Kingdom has a quick and easy manual save option. Press the + button and navigate to the settings menu using the shoulder buttons. From there, select "Save," and you will be prompted to confirm saving.
There is also an autosave function. How recent it is will vary based on in-game interactions, ranging from one to 15 minutes old.
How To Delete Your Save
While saving and loading files are available from the in-game menu, deleting saves is not. They need to be deleted via the Switch Console Settings. Navigate to Settings and go to the Data Management tab. At the bottom of that section will be Delete Save Data. Select that and select Tears of the Kingdom from the list.
You cannot delete an individual save file while keeping the rest. Your only option will be to delete the save data for specific (or all) users.
Do You Need To Have Played Breath Of The Wild?
No, You Don't
Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That does not mean, however, that it's required play for this game. While TotK utilizes the same setting, characters, and gameplay mechanics as BotW, it does not do so in a way that depends on the previous game. The plot is more-or-less completely separate, as well.
The tutorial section for Tears of the Kingdom is rather robust, meaning that even folks new to gaming entirely will have the guidance and knowledge they need to enjoy the game to its fullest.
When Is Tears Of The Kingdom Set?
There is not a definitive timeframe for Tears of the Kingdom. It takes place a few years after Breath of the Wild, evidenced by the recurring characters and familiar landscape. Based on our estimations, we suspect it takes place about three to five years after.
As for the greater Zelda timeline, it's commonly accepted that Breath of the Wild is at the very end of the overall timeline, taking place multiple generations after any other game. This would put Tears of the Kingdom as the latest game in the series chronologically. The time-centric narrative, existance of Rauru, and the Zonai all make this line unclear though, seemingly conflicting with the greater Zelda timeline. That said, the developers have expressed in the past that Zelda was never supposed to have one large interconnected history anyway, so this may sit outside of that in it's own timeline.
How Old Is Link In Breath Of The Wild / Tears Of The Kingdom
Like many of the numbers throughout the Zelda franchise, Link's age is another mystery. But we aren't in the complete dark; several implications exist that can help us pinpoint his age.
In Breath of the Wild, we estimate Link to be about 17-18 years old. This is because Zelda mentions her 17th birthday in a memory refering to the Spring of Wisdom and we believe Link to be about the same age. Throw in 100 years for when he was in a deep slumber, and we have about 117 years old.
Tears of the Kingdom appears to take place two to three years after Breath of the Wild, estimated previously. So our estimate is that Link is 'technically' 120 years old in Tears of the Kingdom.
How To Dye Your Armor
Fortunately, for Breath of the Wild fans, the place to dye armor has gone essentially unchanged. Visit the Kochi Dye Shop in Hateno Village.
One new feature of the shop in Tears of the Kingdom is the option to customize your paraglider. Doing so requires fabric to be collected from around the game world (or from things like Amiibo).
How To Start A Fire
Fires are helpful resources for Link throughout his adventure. They can cook simple foods, pass time, or keep him warm. There are a handful of different ways to make them. First, place a piece of wood on the ground. From there, do any of the following.
- Place flint nearby and strike it with a metal weapon.
- Strike it with a fire-enhances weapon, such as a Fire Fruit Arrow or a Ruby Sword.
- Throw a fire-infusion material, like Fire Fruit, directly onto the wood (when aiming to throw, open the material menu and go to the material).
What Are Zonai Charges Used For
Zonai Charges, the small glowing orbs commonly dropped from defeated constructs, are primarily used to recharge your Energy Cells. Think of them as the energy equivalent to how food restores health or stamina. This can help power your Zonai technology for longer.
Alternatively, they can also be used as part of the Device Dispenser to collect more device orbs. This will be the more common use for charges, since there are so many dispensers, offering from over 20 different devices. Given the diverse selection of machines you can build, you'll need more devices more often than you need more charge.
How To Use A Device Dispenser
These stations allow you to trade Zonai parts for orbs containing various Zonai technology. This can range from firebreathers to portable cooking pots.
To use them, open the inventory menu and hold Zonai parts like Zonai Charges and Construct Horns. Then drop them into the bowl in front of the dispenser. A scene will play, and device orbs will be dispensed.
The more items you submit at once, the more devices you will receive. Consider depositing a full armful of five items every time.
What Do Amiibo Do?
Amiibo operate almost identically to how they do in Breath of the Wild. When the ability is enabled, you can designate a spot on the ground nearby. Scanning an Amiibo will then drop various items at that spot.
Special Amiibo, like the ones made for Tears of the Kingdom, may have special items that can only be unlocked through this method. There is a special paraglider fabric for Majora's Mask Amiibo, for example. All non-Zelda Amiibo will drop random materials and weapons.
For a full breakdown of each Amiibo and what they offer, consult our complete Amiibo Guide for Tears of the Kingdom.
How Should You Find And Use Golden Apples?
In your adventures, you may encounter Golden Apples among the regular apples. They can be randomly found in trees that grow regular apples. In our experience, they seem to most commonly apepar in Sky realm areas.
The apples don't do much differently from normal apples. You can eat them, cook them, feed them to your horse, and fuse them to weapons. The only difference we've seen, however, is that the resulting cooked dish you use them in will have more resortative hearts than had you used a normal apple.
How To Throw Weapons
Link can throw any weapon he can equip. To do this, hold down the R button (sometimes called the Right Button or Right Shoulder Button). When holding, Link will ready himself and a crosshair will appear. Release the button to throw the weapon. Any thrown weapon will deal double the normal damage.
Certain weapon will fly further when thrown, such as Throwing Spears.
How To Unfuse Weapons Without Destroying Anything
Perhaps you fused a rare material to your sword, and have some regrets. Unfusing it from the pause menu will break the item. But don't worry. If you want to unfuse the two pieces and keep both, you can.
Head to Terry Town (north-east region of the map, the town on a platau surrounded by water). In the north east corner of Terry Town is a young Goron who will offer to separate fused weapons, keeping both parts in tact, for a 20 rupee fee.
Is Zelda Breath Of The Wild Or Tears Of The Kingdom Two Player?
No, they are not.
That's it. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are purely single player games. There is no split screen multiplayer, online co-op, or anything similar.
How To Get To Hateno Village?
Hateno Village is located on the south-eastern side of the map, not far from the shore. The easiest way to get there is to follow the road that direction until you reach Kakariko Village, and then continue going, following signs for Hateno Village.
Coordinates: 3400, -2130, 0120
The Easiest Road To Hateno Village From The Lookout In Central Hyrule |  |
If you reach the Dueling Peaks Stable, you missed your turn.
Alternatively, you can use sky-travel via the towers (which will also help clear out the map) or construct various air vehicles to skip over the terrain and save time.
How Frequent Is The Blood Moon?
The Blood Moon is a mechanic first introduced in Breath of the Wild. Every so often, the moon will appear and all monsters you've slain will ressurect. This is the same for Tears of the Kingdom.
Technically speaking, a blood moon will appear every seven days. This does not include if you rest, pause, or skip time, however. seven days of gameplay, which equates to aproximately two and a half hours.
It can happen sooner than that, though. The game-development reason for the Blood Moon is to clean out memory from all of monster you defeat and material you harvest. By killing a lot of monsters and collecting a lot of foraging items, you can instigate a new blood moon to appear sooner than scheduled.
Is Zelda Dead In Tears Of The Kingdom?
Don't Worry, No Spoilers Here
There is a lot of uncertainty about Zelda throughout the events of Tears of the Kingdom. In the introducotry sequence, we see her disappear in a flash of light as she falls deep underground. As you play, you'll encounter multiple scenarios where Zelda seems to be appearing randomly, showing evil or otherwise unhelpful behavior. All the while, she remains missing.
Without revealing any of the plot, the answer is: No. Zelda is not dead, but she is missing. If you're interested in learning more about what happened to her or where she went, follow the Dragon's Tears questline.