Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s duplication glitches break the game (in your favor)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has multiple glitches affecting players duplicate items, materials, weapons, swords and shields – at least until Nintendo inevitably fixes the bug. Exploiting that glitch allows players to earn infinite rupees, effectively destroying the game’s economy and undermining much of the fun of playing Tears of the Kingdom as the makers intended.
But if you are desperate for materials or money Tears of the Kingdom, the duplication glitches are simple and seemingly relatively safe to perform. All you need is a bow, arrows – or a paraglider – and some patience, and hope Nintendo won’t penalize you for exploiting them at some point.
How to duplicate materials in Tears of the Kingdom
1. You need a bow, melee weapon and shield.
2. Tap the ZR button to switch Link to his bow, but don’t aim or cam an arrow.
3. Press up on the D-pad to fuse the material you want to duplicate onto an arrow.
4. Press the plus button to pause, go to the “Bows and Arrows” tab and drop your equipped bow.
5. While the pause menu is still open, equip another bow.
6. Press the plus button twice (very quickly) to exit and reopen the pause menu.
7. You should see the melted material on the bow and arrow you used.
8. Drop the currently equipped bow and exit the pause menu.
9. Both bows (each with fused material) must be on the ground.
This glitch can be useful for duplicating rare or expensive materials, such as diamonds, which can be sold for 500 rupees each.
The same duplication glitch is explained in the video below, which also describes how to duplicate weapons, shields, and bows. (This is a slightly more complicated process, as every time you want to duplicate something, it requires saving and reloading the game.)
How to duplicate weapons and shields in Tears of the Kingdom
1. Open the pause menu with the plus button.
2. Equip the weapon, shield, or bow you want to duplicate.
3. Open the System menu and create a manual save.
4. From the inventory screen, drop the item you want to duplicate.
5. Select another item of the same type and equip it (if duplicating a melee weapon, select another melee weapon).
6. Press the plus button twice (very quickly) to exit and reopen the pause menu.
7. Drop the equipped weapon.
8. Go to the System menu and reload the manual save.
9. The duplicated weapon must be on the ground.
As with the bow and arrow duplicating materials error, the hardest thing to pinpoint is the timing of closing and reopening the pause menu. Players looking to duplicate melee weapons, shields, and bows may want to practice their timing using the duplicating materials bug before trying the method that exploits game saves.
How to do the new “quick” copy bug in Tears of the Kingdom
Over the weekend of May 20/21, a new duplication glitch went undiscovered – useful if the above has been patched or if you’re having trouble getting it to work. In fact, this glitch works on any inventory item (but not weapons or other gear).
Thanks to USBdongle6727 on reddit for the method, which you can check out with the video above. That said, while this double glitch is technically faster and easier, it has its own limitations, which we’ll outline below.
First, there is a limit to the number of items that can be dropped in one location. If more than 20(ish) of anything are on the ground too close together, items will start to despawn. This means there is a limit to how much duplication you can do at once and you need to be a little careful.
Also, you have to be careful with the items you drop, as if they could break if released from a certain height, or their legs could run away, as they would become uncollectable when you land. The obvious contender for duplication, diamonds, has neither problem, which is a relief.
- This glitch takes advantage of how the game handles your inventory, so you’ll need to prepare a bit. First, you need at least one (but preferably several) items with fewer than four in your inventory. This is just an item to activate the exploit – you will get it back, but it will not be duplicated. The key is being able to empty an inventory slot.
- Next, you need the item you want to duplicate in the last slot of your inventory. The fastest way to move an item to the last slot is to drop it all from them, and then pick them up – the last item you picked up (that wasn’t already in your inventory) goes to the last slot.
- Climb onto a nearby ledge (or roof or tree) and jump off. Deploy your paraglider.
- Hit + to open your inventory.
- Select an item (or items) to clear an inventory and delay It. This item will not be duplicated, but you will get it back.
- Select the item in your last inventory slot – the item you want to duplicate. You can hold as many as you want.
- Hit + to leave your inventory and then immediately – as fast as you can – hit + again. In the final slot, you should still see the same number of items in your inventory as you started with.
- Repeat this process a few times as you float down, but no more than three or four – see our note on despawning items above.
- When you land, pick up your duplicated items and repeat the above process.
You’ll have to get a little creative to keep the item you want to duplicate in the last slot of your inventory, but this is a quick way to duplicate each item in the game.
If any of the above get patched – or if you prefer a more legit way to make money The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — read Polygon’s guide on what items and materials to sell to make rupees.
Update (May 21): We’ve added a new duplication method as a section at the end of this page.