Tears of the Kingdom: How To Throw Items

One of the most important skills in Hyrule also isn’t clearly explained in-game — here’s how to throw items in Tears of the Kingdom. Throwing weapons is relatively easy, but throwing your random stuff? That’s a little trickier, and there are multiple ways to do it.

Why would you want to throw stuff? There are plenty of reasons, but one of the most important is learning how to throw bombs and brightbloom seeds. Instead of wasting arrows by fusing bombs or brightblooms, you can simply throw these items to smash rocks or create light while exploring the underground depths. You’ll run out of arrows extremely quickly if you’re fusing Brightbloom Seeds to arrows.

We still have players asking us how to throw items. It seems like one of the most basic commands in the game, but there’s a good reason players don’t know or forget — it really is a little tricky! Here’s a full rundown how throwing items from your inventory works.

More Tears of the Kingdom guides:

All Shrine Locations & Solutions | All Skyview Towers Locations & Solutions | Best Healing Item Location | Rupee Farming Methods | Arrow & Bomb Farming Methods | Zonaite Farming Methods | How To Get Cold Protection | How To Respec | How To Unlock Autobuild & Camera | How To Upgrade Armor | Great Fairy Locations | How To Upgrade Horses | Horse God Location | How To Unlock The Dream Home Plot | How To Easily Find Bubbul Gems | How To Unlock Gerudo Secret Club | Gleeok Boss Tips | Giant Horse Location | Hylian Shield Location | Glide Suit Locations | All Purah Pad Upgrades | All Misko’s Treasure Locations | All Divine Beast Mask Locations | Gloom-borne Illness Quest Guide

How To Throw Items

Throwing items is relatively simple. To throw, hold the [R] shoulder button on your Nintendo Switch. Holding [R] will ready Link to throw whatever you’re currently holding. Most of the time, that will be a weapon. You can throw items even without a weapon equipped.

• Quick Select Item Throw: Hold [R]. This readies your weapon to be thrown.
• Now press and hold [D-Pad UP] to open your item quick-select.
• Select the item you want and release [D-Pad UP] to select it.
• You’ll now be holding the item you selected. Release [R] to throw.

If you’re not carrying a weapon, you can still throw. For a brief window after attempting to throw, press [D-Pad UP] and select your item like normal. Prepping a weapon is not required to throw.

Throwing from the quick-select menu is quick and easy once you get the hang of it. I recommend memorizing how to throw from quick-select so you can rapidly grab Brighbloom Seeds while exploring the underground.

Why Throw Items?

There are many reasons why you’d want to throw items in Tears of the Kingdom. Some weapons, like the Lizal Sword are designed to be thrown — they’ll boomerang back to Link after being thrown! Other weapons deal more damage or fly further when throw, like Spears. But, some items are incredibly useful when thrown.

• Brightbloom Seeds generate light when thrown on the ground. This makes exploring the vast darkness of the Depths possible. Make sure to collect hundreds of these things before beginning exploration.
• Bomb Flowers can be thrown instead of fused with arrows. They have shorter range, but bombs are perfect for blasting through large clusters of breakable rock.
• Throw different types of Chu Chu Jelly for different elemental effects. Throwing Yellow Chu Chu jelly into wated will electrify enemies. Throwing Red Chu Chu jelly will set them on fire, etc!

There are dozens more ways you can utilize throwing items, but those are some of the most common — and seriously, throwing brightbloom seeds is so important for your survival in the Depths. Don’t waste arrows by fusing. Throw brightbloom and create a path of light through the darkness with a simple and quick mechanic.