Link’s Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Ultrahand machines know no bounds

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears to put few limits on the innovations created using Link’s Ultrahand ability. Find a few slabs of rock in Hyrule? Slap ‘em together, grab, some wheels, a steering mechanic, and glue on some arms and you’ve got… something!

Nintendo showcased its final Tears of the Kingdom trailer before the game’s May 12 launch, and the nearly four-minute trailer showed off plenty more detail on what Ultrahand and weapon fusion can do. Previous trailers had Link driving a car, a hot air balloon, a drone, and several different boats — all of them created using Ultrahand. You won’t find any of these just rusting away in Hyrule, but you will find the parts.

Until Tears of the Kingdom is released, we won’t know exactly what Ultrahand and weapon fusion’s limits are, but judging from the trailers, there seem to be few. Find the parts and you can build whatever your heart desires, including a block of stone with wheels. For now, we can analyze and learn from what we’ve seen in the trailer.

Horse-pulled cart

Image: Nintendo

Link can seemingly provide taxi services to the people of Hyrule, carting them around in a horse-drawn wagon. You can clearly see the connection points in how the cart’s put together — they’re growing green. It’s such a simple vehicle that we’ve seen in plenty of video games, but it has major implications for Tears of the Kingdom. There’s always been people in Hyrule, common folks who live in the villages. But the new trailer not only shows Link ferrying them around, but fighting alongside him, too.

Rocket ship

Image: Nintendo

Link’s holding onto a rocket ship or missile in this quick clip from the new Tears of the Kingdom trailer. It’s clearly powered by the green light, again, and thrusting Hyrule’s hero right into the sky as a Bokoblins looks on in amazement. It looks like a really handy tool for quickly reaching higher platforms, like the ones shown here.

Janky block tank

Image: Nintendo

Link, my guy… what is this? This vehicle is some sort of stone contraption with wheels and at least one flailing arm. Link controls from the top, entirely unprotected, as he comes face to face with several bokoblins, who’ve built their fort on top of one of the game’s impassive stone Talus monsters. Look, not every Ultrahand invention will be top notch, but you can’t deny that Link is a true innovator.

Shield sword

Image: Nintendo

Link’s impressive sword has an upgrade: It’s also part shield. It looks to be the Master Sword fused together with a shield to create a shield sword — hopefully a weapon that’s got some serious durability. It’s just one of the many weapon combinations possible with the new fusion ability. Some of the others we’ve seen in previous trailers include an arrow and a keese eyeball to make a homing arrow, a stick and a rock to make a hammer, and a shield and a puffshroom to make a smoke bomb.

Glider

Image: Nintendo

There aren’t obvious green connection points on this flat, eagle-like glider, but it seems likely it’s one of the vehicles Link can make in the game. It looks to be a ride-on glider that’s a more advanced version of Link’s fabric one, a lovely way to get around Hyrule’s sky islands or to descend to the ground.

Tractor-esque car

Image: Nintendo

From an early trailer, Link’s got a sick car with a variety of wheels — it looks somewhat like flat tractor. The car seems to be an interesting way to get around Hyrule’s flat areas without trouble, but maybe not something you’d want to take over rocks or up hills.

Rafts and boats

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo has shown several different boats and rafts that’ll help Link traverse the rivers and lakes of Hyrule. Most of them have used fans to power them, but the one above also has a sail that’ll surely be handy for windy areas.

Hot air balloon

Image: Nintendo

Again in an earlier trailer, we saw Link take to the skies in a hot air balloon and other flying devices. The one above uses the fan mechanical item to create a hot air balloon. Clever! It’s probably not the speediest way to get around, but you cannot deny the beauty of it all.

Hovercraft

Image: Nintendo

The design of Link’s hovercraft puts four powerful fans on the edge of a platform, with Link at the helm steering the vehicle among the clouds. Now this looks like it’ll be fun to navigate around Hyrule with, darting between sky islands.