Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom is a game about freedom, exploration, adventure, and creativity. Everything feeds back into these concepts, and it’s a damn good time messing around with them. Of course, if you want the freedom to explore during your creative adventures, you are going to have to crump some gribblies.
Combat is a major part of Tears Of The Kingdom, and it’s also one of its most satisfying. There are so many ways you can interact with the world, that writing a comprehensive guide on everything you can do would fill several gargantuan tomes with shockingly dry content. This guide, therefore, is going to cover some of the interesting things you can do in Tears Of The Kingdom.
More Legend Of Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom content:
Cooking Guide | Secret Mount Guide | Surviving Cold Weather | Elixir Guide | Heat Resistance | Flame Guard
Block, Parry, Dodge, Flurry!
If you want to survive in Tears Of The Kingdom, you are going to have to learn to defend yourself. Swinging your sword wildly won’t work against every enemy, and when there is a horde of enemies, death can come quickly. Heck, even in the early hours of the game, many enemies can take you down in a single strike.
Staying alive requires you to Block (ZL), Parry (A), and Dodge (B). All three of these techniques are important, although the big two are certainly blocking and dodging. Blocking allows you to take a hit on your shield. Providing the enemy doesn’t have some sort of elemental effect, you will take no damage. This is the easiest form of defence.
Dodging takes a bit of practice as a mistimed dodge can lead to you taking a club to the dome. You can dodge to the side or directly back. In either case, your goal is to avoid whatever attack is coming your way. If you time it perfectly, you enter slow motion and can perform a devastating Flurry Rush.
Parrying is less useful as you don’t get to Flurry Rush, and if you fail, you still get clobbered. There are some benefits, however. Firstly, the enemy is staggered slightly, giving you an opening to attack. Secondly, ranged attacks are reflected – very handy in certain circumstances. If you have a weapon fused to your shield you can even deal damage when parrying.
Sneaky Sneaky
Going in guns blazing is a lot of fun, but sometimes being a little bit sneaky can serve you better. Stealth is incredibly simple in Tears Of The Kingdom. Simply put, if an enemy can’t physically see you, you are fine. If you are crouched and moving slowly, most enemies can’t hear you either.
This lets you sneak around encampments, scout locations, and approach enemies without being forced into a combat scenario. If you get close enough to the enemy’s back, however, you can launch a devastating Sneak Strike which deals bonus damage. Because this damage is multiplicative, you want to use your strongest weapons when going after strong opponents.
Unfortunately, enemies are very loud when they die. This will alert anyone nearby so don’t expect to chain-kill entire camps (unless they are very spread out).
Use Elemental And Environmental Effects
Tears Of The Kingdom is the ultimate sandbox. Everything is a tool that can be used to your advantage – you just need to understand your options. Firstly, elemental effects are amazingly powerful. Fire will ignite your opponents and deal damage over time. Not only that, they will set any wooden surfaces on fire, cause nearby bombs to explode, ignite nearby foliage, and any wooden weapons will also start to degrade rapidly. Heck, if there is enough fire, there will be an updraft letting you take to the skies with your Paraglider.
Electricity tends to stun but is far more effective if you hit a target that is wet or in water. Similarly, Ice acts in a similar way. You can slow and freeze enemies with this element, but you’ll have even more success if they are a bit moist prior to the deep freeze.
Environmental effects could be anything from a lightning storm to a loose boulder, to an explosive barrel. Speaking of lightning storms, consider throwing a metal weapon towards an unarmed enemy. This will attract the next lightning strike, causing them to take a staggering amount of damage.
Get creative and use everything at your disposal to make the most of combat.
Get Creative With Fusion
Fusion is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everything you see can be turned into an attachment for your weapons and shields – and it’s a beautiful thing. The best part is how malleable this system is once you start experimenting. Want a super long sword? Attack a halberd to the end of your claymore. Want a super long spear? Add a claymore to your halberd. Fancy breaking rocks? Attach a rock to a stick. Cutting down trees? Sharp rock and a stick. A shield that keeps enemies away from you? Glue a Zonai Fan to it.
How about using explosives? Well, you can use those red Bomb Barrels to attach them to your spears and boomerangs. Now you have an incredibly effective way to throw bombs at your enemies for massive damage. Why not attach a bomb to your shield? The next enemy who attacks you will trigger the bomb causing a massive explosion. Best part? You take no damage since your shield was up!
Let’s throw some more out there: flamethrower on the end of a sword? Go for it. Two halberds fused together to make the ultimate stick? Why not? Keese Eyes attached to arrows? Enjoy homing arrows. The list goes on, and on, and you absolutely should glue things together and hit things with your creations on the regular. Heck, in most cases you will even increase your weapon’s shelf life. What’s not to like?
Ultrahand Is Your Friend
Ultrahand in combat can be a bit finicky to use, but it’s something you should dabble with whenever you can. Outside of combat, you can do some funky stuff. How about building a small wagon, filling it with explosives, attaching a rocket engine to the back, and launching it into a camp of enemies?
If you think we have an obsession with explosives, you would be right. Using Ultrahand to pick up bombs and move them near open flames is always a good time. Building and picking up large boxes and trapping enemies in a prison is entertaining. Using a large plank of wood as a shield to defend against arrows is also great.
Don’t Forget About Ascend!
This one will be short, but Ascend is so easy to forget, and it shouldn’t. Ascend is a bit awkward to use in combat due to the aggressive camera shifting, however, it’s surprisingly good when used at the right time. Many locations have enemies on platforms – heck, some platforms turn out to be enemies (looking at your Battle Talus!).
Ascend can help you quickly…well…ascend. You can warp through the floor of a watchtower, or platform to close the gap and kill snipers. Once you use it, you will be looking for new places to try it. It’s very powerful in the right circumstance.
Jump On A Horse
Cars, boats, and gliders are great and all, but let’s not forget about horses. They may seem a bit dated compared to the tech you are dealing with now, but they are very powerful in combat. Horseback combat can take some getting used to, however, it’s worth the effort.
Note: We recommend using a horse you have an established relationship with to prevent difficulties during combat.
Your melee damage is increased when on horseback, and you are much harder to hit. Everything from basic enemies to larger foes like Moblins and Bokoblin Bosses is susceptible to being harried to death by a skilled rider. You are always outnumbered in Tears Of The Kingdom, and a good horse and a bit of practice can turn the tide in your favour. It also looks really cool.
Charge Attacks
Each weapon type has a different form of attack. Swords are quick and slash horizontally, two-handed weapons like clubs swing horizontally, spears perform quick jabs, etc. They all come with a unique Charge Attack too, and these are worth using. One-handed weapons can do an AOE spin, whilst spears can unleash a devastating flurry of rapid stabs.
Using the right weapon, and the right Charge Attack, can greatly increase your efficacy in combat. We recommend using your Charge Attack to ambush sleeping enemies. Two-handed weapons are especially good at this as they perform a continuous spin attack that slowly drains Stamina. The more Stamina you have, the more spins you do, and by extension, the more damage you inflict.
Always Keep Moving
Our final tip is to keep moving. Staying still is a death sentence, and enemies tend to come in groups. The last thing you want to happen is to be surrounded by foes and have no way to easily escape. There is no rule stating you have to play fair or stand and fight. Run away, fall back, and retreat to advantageous positions to get a leg up on your enemies.
You may be the greatest swordsman to have ever lived, but that’s overrated. Being alive to tell the tale is much better.
That’s all we have for Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom for now. Be sure to check out our other content for more tips, tricks, guides, and lists.
