Link has a new looking Sheikah Slate inside The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomand it comes with a new set of skills that you can use to craft weapons, drive bricks into the air, and even build vehicles.
Below we list the capabilities we can confirm of the different trailers, along with what they do.
Recall (rewind time)
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
As Nintendo showed in a March 28, 2023 gameplay demonstration, Link uses the Recall ability on a rock that fell from a sky island, causing it to shoot into the air like an elevator. Link can stand on the rock as it goes back into the air and use it as a vantage point to jump from and glide to a sky island.
It seems that we rewind time a bit, causing the rock to retrace its steps. We’re not sure what Recall’s limits are. Can we recall enemies? Trees we just knocked down? While there are plenty of possibilities, it’s hard to say what’s possible without knowing what else we can remember.
Fuse (combine weapons)
Image: Nintendo
The Fuse ability allows you to combine weapons, shields, and arrows with inanimate objects to create a specialized weapon. These weapons seem to have been studied and some of them have unique abilities.
From the gameplay demonstration, we saw the following:
- A stick and a stone that formed a hammer-like tool
- A long stick and a pitchfork to make a long pitchfork
- A stick and a block to make a great stick-like weapon
- An arrow and white chuchu jelly to make an ice arrow
- An arrow and a Keese eyeball to make a target arrow
- A shield and a puffshroom to create a shield that doubles as a smoke bomb
- A shield and a rock to make a… rock shield? (We haven’t seen this one in action.)
That said, there are probably hundreds of combinations in the game to try, and fusing new weapons together will be an important part of the game.
Ultrahand (building structures)
Image: Nintendo
The Ultrahand ability differs from the Fuse ability: instead of combining things together, you sort of glue them together. By sticking objects together in specific ways, you can create vehicles, be it a boat, car or plane. Using Ultrahand will definitely help you travel through Hyrule.
Ascend (soar through ceilings)
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
With Ascend, you no longer have to climb every mountain you see, waiting for your precious stamina. Instead, you can aim for the ceiling of a cave and swim right through it to reach the top of the mountain. While you probably won’t be able to do this for every mountain, it’s still a useful tool that will save you time and stamina.
More information on skills is definitely coming, so we’ll be updating this guide as we learn more about it The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.