The Legend Of Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom / Tropes O to Z

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom contains examples of the following tropes:

Tropes A-N | Tropes O-Z

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Tropes O-R

• Obvious Rule Patch:
  • The opening tutorial is set in a floating archipelago known as the Great Sky Island. For the rest of the game, you can leap off practically any sky islands as you want (since you can survive, even without a paraglider, wing suit, or flying contraption as long as you land in water), but since the tutorial is when you gain the vital Ultrahand and Recall abilities and learn how to use them, and has required story elements, you're not allowed to jump off at this point (you just get the standard Bottomless Pit animation). Similarly, you can't jump off the Wind Temple and land on the ground, mostly because it would otherwise be an absolute nightmare to backtrack to it again.
  • There's a recurring sidequest to help a builder named Addison put up signs advertising Hudson Construction using your Ultrahand ability. However, you can't just fuse objects to the sign to keep it upright, because that would make it too easy.
  • You cannot bring devices out of your inventory or use Autobuild in Shrines, for no in-universe given reason other than that would make cheesing them way too easy. (You can, however, fuse some devices into your shields before coming into the shrine to give yourself an advantage, and normal items are still fair game to bring out). Secondly, any fires you start with inventory items (such as making a campfire and tossing a acorn into it) will not cause updrafts to glide on. Thirdly, the Earthwake technique does not work in a shrine, presumably because it would make the Proving Grounds shrines too easy. Finally, all Sage's Vows acquired from the Main Quest are disabled entirely, again to prevent any easy solutions to the Shrines.
  • Flying devices, such as rockets, gliders and hot air balloons have a maximum time where they exist, eventually blinking and just disappearing. This happens irrespective of battery energy Link has. It's quite fast for rockets but clearly exists on the glider and hot air balloon because they're the only devices that can move without using battery; this way there's some limit to where Link can go and avoid making some particular sky islands too easy to reach (such as the King Gleeok islands or sky mazes) or just building planes to go everywhere and bypass all navigation challenges. ^note Technically speaking, almost all the other Zonai parts do this as well, but it's unlikely to come up during normal gameplay because they last for a full 30 minutes.
  • Gloom Spawn on the surface cause the sky to turn Blood-Moon red while they're active, not just as a terrifying effect, but as a way of maintaining their deliberately high threat level—if the sky didn't warp like that, then the player would logically be able to regenerate the Gloom-broken hearts they lost because one of the game's rules is that natural light of the surface automatically sets to regenerating hearts lost to Gloom. With the sky unnaturally red, the game allows this effect to be paused and the Gloom Spawn's Gloom damage to be cumulative, making the enemies scarier and deadlier.
  • Gloom itself is one of these. In the previous game, there was nothing stopping you from trivializing fights by preparing multiple kitchens' worth of food and eating it to heal any damage you took, and combining that with armor that provides ludicrously high defense. With Gloom not only damaging you but temporarily reducing your max HP, it allows the developers to introduce fights where you can't simply rely on healing yourself to win. Of course, the Sundelion is also introduced as a way to combat this as well, as it restores Gloom-broken hearts when cooked into a dish.
    • Likewise, making food that gives yourselves gold hearts was a be-all-end-all way to become basically immortal in Breath of the Wild, since it came with an automatic full heal and bonus HP. Not only does gloom weaken the full-heal part, being afflicted by any amount of gloom will remove every gold heart you have. This, plus a significant increase in the rarity of Hearty items in general effectively kills using gold hearts as a way to heal yourself to assured victory.
  • There are missions where you have to escort someone on a horse-drawn cart to a given destination; you must do this to unlock one of the Great Fairies. While the obvious solution would be to use Ultrahand to carry the cart, doing that makes the passengers queasy in record time and causes you to fail the mission.
  • Zonai flashlights cannot activate light sensors, preventing you from bypassing Light and Mirrors Puzzles. However, it's perfectly possible to use Zonai mirrors and Ultrahand to manipulate the beam's path instead.
  • Korok weapons replenish one-use items attached to them. This does not apply to Ancient Blades so there's no abusing their massive attack power.
  • The doors of the Construct Factory depots close behind Link and seal him into a linear forward route after taking the robot construct parts at the start of each, since there'd be no dungeon and no puzzle-solving if he could just walk them back out through the doors he just entered and manually deliver them that way.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Some time between the previous game's events and now, Ploymus Mountain's Lynel has been permanently driven out since the Zora built Mipha Court exactly where its territory was.
  • After the battle with the Demon King's Army, Link ends up having to go and face Ganondorf by himself while the Sages fight new copies of their respective dungeon's bosses. When Link reaches a certain phase of the fight against Ganondorf, the Sages arrive none the worse for wear, indicating that they each managed to defeat their respective bosses, even without Link's help.
• Off the Chart: When Ganondorf reaches full power during the final fight and begins his second phase, the health bar refills from all the damage done in the first phase... and then keeps going far beyond where every other health bar ends, doubling in size and nearly reaching the edge of the screen.
• Old Save Bonus:
  • If the player has save data from Breath of the Wild, some features will be carried over to Tears of the Kingdom, such as the horses that have been checked into the stables.
  • If the player completed The Champions' Ballad DLC in the previous game, the group photo of Link, Zelda and the posthumous champions stays in Link's house in Hateno Village.
• Ominous Floating Castle: A large mass of Gloom from the chasm beneath Hyrule Castle has caused it to rise up from the surface and several characters refer to it as now floating in the sky. Subverted in that it's actually on top of a really tall stone pillar.
• Ominous Fog: Thanks to the Upheaval, Korok Forest is enveloped in a black fog contrasting the normal white "lost fog" around the forest. Not only is there no way whatsoever to find a route through the black fog that won't swallow you up (you need to enter the forest from below by Ascending through a pillar in the Depths underneath the sanctuary), but once in the haven, the Deku Tree is ill and the normally cheerful, goofy Koroks are motionless and silent. The dark fog is caused by the gloom that has entered the Deku Tree which Link enters to purify.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Ganondorf awakening as the Demon King orders his hordes of monsters to obliterate Hyrule, and not even his own people the Gerudo were safe.
  Ganondorf: Rise... rise, my servants. Sweep over Hyrule. Eliminate this kingdom and her allies. LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!!!!
• Once More, with Clarity: Moving through Gloom's Approach at the end of the game, you can find the same murals Zelda took pictures of at the start. But this time, you can clear the debris away from the rest of them, which show Ganondorf's battle with the ancient Sages and Zelda receiving the Master Sword from Link in the future and becoming the Light Dragon so she can empower the sword to strike down Ganondorf.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Once again, the Master Sword has a requirement for being able to draw it out: this time you need 5 extra Stamina Vessels (for a total of 10), instead of the 13 Heart Containers Breath of the Wild asks for, in order to be able to hang onto it while the Dragon of Light ascends high into the sky.
• Only the Worthy May Pass:
  • The inner section of the Temple of Time on Great Sky Island is sealed by a door that can only be opened if Link has at least 4 hearts' worth of health, thereby requiring him to complete all four Shrines on the Great Sky Island to open it. Trying to open the door without doing so after the first attempt will kill him.
  • Another identical door atop Dragonhead Island requires ten hearts to open.
• Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Endemic to the Depths are insects called Deep Fireflies which have segmented, winged bodies coated in a soft glow, resembling rods.
• Our Dragons Are Different:
  • In addition to the Eastern-style dragons from Breath of the Wild, this game has the returning boss Gleeok, a hydra-like western dragon, a few of which are scattered across Hyrule as optional mini-bosses.
  • Important to the game's story is that swallowing a Secret Stone turns the person into an immortal dragon. However, the process is usually irreversible, and the person loses their mind and sense of self in the process. This happens to both Zelda and Ganondorf, but whether or not this applies to the three dragons in Breath of the Wild is not specified.
• Overnight Age-Up: Purah has aged up considerably, going from having the body of a six-year-old in Breath of the Wild to a form that more closely resembles how she appeared in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Exploring the former Hateno tech lab lets you find her diary, which explains that she improved on her anti-aging technology that left her in her child-like state in between games.
• Ouroboros: The logo of the game shows two dragons biting each other's tails in a circle. It represents Zelda turning herself into an immortal dragon in order to take The Slow Path back to the present, as well as Ganondorf doing the same during the Final Boss fight, during which Zelda's dragon form comes to assist Link.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: One item you can obtain is a wooden cutout with President Hudson painted onto it, showing him from the thighs up. Fusing it to a shield and holding it out while approaching certain NPCs sees them addressing the cutout as if Hudson were there in the flesh.
• Passing the Torch: Most of the regional leaders have passed their titles on to the prominent younger characters in their communities—Impa now explores and her granddaughter Paya is now chief of Kakariko Village, Kaneli retired as chief of Rito Village, leaving the position to Teba, and Dorephan steps off the throne after the completion of the "Sidon of Zora's Domain" quest, letting Sidon succeed as King of the Zora. The exceptions are Riju, who remains Gerudo chief as she was already a very young successor in the previous game, and Yunobo, who heads a mining company but doesn't take up chiefhood.
• Permanently Missable Content: Kilton runs a new service where any photos of monsters can be used to create statues. Photos that are in the Compendium but not the album don't count; while most bosses can be refought, one of them can only be fought four times (Master Kohga) while three can only be fought once (Moragia, Sludge Like, and the Seized Construct). If the player doesn't take a picture of them or deletes said picture from the album, they can no longer obtain that boss's statue.
• Perpetual Storm: Like Thundra Plateau, Thunderhead Isles is affected with an eternal lightning storm and therefore its neighboring island, Dragonhead Island, is also affected by the storm. Unlike Thundra Plateau, the storms don't go away after you dispel the clouds. Although it will be a lot less foggy and Dragonhead Island will no longer be taking the collateral weather.
• Player Headquarters: Lookout Landing is a small settlement located roughly in the center of Hyrule. Aside from a shop with some basic items and a Skyview Tower it also has the Emergency Shelter with a bed, cooking station, and a Hylia Statue.
• Player Nudge:
  • Though the game remains as open world as its predecessor, you have to actively seek out the Player Headquarters before you have access to the Skyview Towers and the Paraglider, and upon doing so several important NPCs will suggest visiting the Rito lands in Hebra first. Accepting the nudge and finishing the Rito questline nets you, in order: a Stable, the Geoglyph main quest, Hestu for inventory expansion (he's a bit out of the way from the main road, but he is on the path to the Skyview Tower for the area), the newspaper business with a Climbing Gear sidequest, 90% of the plot revealed to you, arguably the easiest of the main dungeon bosses, Tulin's gust ability for much easier travel, and access to cold-weather armor before you go into Gerudo Desert. None of these are strictly necessary to beat the game, but they make the experience much more convenient.
  • While the player is free to view the Dragon's Tear memories in any order, the map in the Forgotten Temple depicting their locations also have them on the walls in chronological order from left-to-right, starting with the one directly above the map if viewed in the north direction like the Purah Pad's map.
  • Progress far enough without solving the problems at Korok Forest will result in Koroks everywhere else directing you there until it's done.
• Pocket Dimension: Rather than being far underground like the previous game's, the Zonaite shrines appear to contain these, with each one instead being walked into by Link from a similar doorway in a rock that isn't connected to any wall.
• Power Crystal:
  • Several characters obtain "secret stones" as you proceed with the story that glow and provide their bearers with a boost in power. Rauru has a white one, Zelda has a yellow one (which was originally Rauru's), Riju has a gold one, Sidon has a blue one, Tulin has a green one, Yunobo has an orange one, and Mineru has a purple one. Sonia, the queen of Hyrule shown in flashbacks, also had one, which was yellow like Zelda's, and when Ganondorf steals the stone it changes color to red. As it turns out, most of these crystals previously belonged to the Sages who fought against Ganondorf during the Imprisoning War. Each Sage's successor wears it on their person: Rauru on his right hand, Riju as an earring; Sidon on his left hand gauntlet; Yunobo as a belt buckle; Tulin as an anklet; Mineru as a brooch, Ganondorf as a crown, and Zelda (and Sonia) as a necklace. This seems to be intrinsic to the powers the stone themselves amplify, as the Sages who wore them in ages past all wore them the exact same way, except for when Zelda inherited Rauru's stone, she wore it like Sonia, the stone enhancing their time powers. Likewise, when Ganondorf murdered Sonia and stole hers, he wore the stone differently as his power of darkness was not the same.
  • The majority of Hyrule's precious ore now functions as this for the new "Magic" weapons, said to be wielded by an ancient magician who first unlocked their power. Fusing a gemstone to a Magic Rod, Scepter, or Staff will confer its respective elemental power on it, but will provide a greater effect than just sticking the gem on some random stick. The gems can also be fixed onto other things or thrown, for a stronger burst of magic than their respective fruit. For reference:
    • Rubies have Fire powers, and provide heat in cold places.
    • Sapphires have Ice powers, and reduce heat in hot places.
    • Topazes have Lightning powers.
    • Opals have Water powers.
    • Star Fragments have Light powers (in case a flashlight is worth more than 500 Rupees to you).
  • Crystallized Charges are a material that can be used to extend Link's battery. They function as a pickup and form of currency.
• Pre-Explosion Glow: Beams of light emerge from each major boss before exploding.
• Pressure Plate: Some shrines feature buttons on a floor that need to be weighed down once to be activated.
• Prized Possession Giveaway: After Tulin proves his strength and maturity by helping Link conquer the Wind Temple, Teba bestows upon him his Great Eagle Bow, which he's used for several years. Teba tells him that he was waiting for Tulin to become a well-crafted Rito warrior in order to pass his bow to him, and by that point he's confident that Tulin will need it more than he does now.
• Product Delivery Ordeal: A reoccurring side-quest has Link reuniting a backpack-laden Korok with their friend some distance away, usually with there being some sort of obstacle between them. What keeps it from being an Escort Mission is that the Korok does not move and you have to either carry them or glue them to a contraption to get them to the destination. Many players use this as an opportunity to torture the Korok in ridiculously hilarious ways, however.
• Professor Guinea Pig: Leaving Purah aside, the Yiga member who reverse-engineered the Thunder Helm is dead in the present day, because as it turns out, testing the prototypes by personally getting hit by lightning over and over is hardly safe scientific procedure.
• Prolonged Video Game Sequel:
  • Korok Seeds return in this game, but there are now 1000 of them total instead of 900 (although it takes only 421 to fully upgrade his inventory this time, rather than 441). Also, finding them generally takes more effort on average than just lifting rocks this time, including escort missions (which grant 2 Korok Seeds as a reward).
  • Spirit Orbs have been replaced with Lights of Blessing (which are functionally the same). There were 120 Spirit Orbs total, allowing Link to get a maximum of 30 collective health and stamina upgrades, but in this game there are 152 Lights of Blessing, allowing 38 health and stamina upgrades. This, along with the Heart Containers obtained by defeating story bosses, allows Link to greatly exceed the maximum health and stamina amounts obtainable in the last game.
  • The number of different collectables has also been greatly increased from the previous games. Aside from the aforementioned Korok Seeds and Lights of Blessing, Link can also collect Poes to trade with Bargainer Statues, Bubbul Gems to trade with Koltin, Sage's Wills to increase the strength of the Sage Powers, Schema Stones and Yiga Schematics for Autobuild blueprints, Crystalized Charges to upgrade your batteries, Recipes to cook, and Old Maps that mark the locations of unique items.
  • The world map has been expanded with Sky Islands above, well over a hundred new caverns, and a massive underground region known as the Depths that mirrors the terrain of the overworld. In total, the playable area has been expanded to nearly three times what it was in the last game, which was already by far the largest map in the entire franchise.
  • In the last game, there were four story bosses that needed to be defeated before fighting Calamity Ganon. In this game, there are now six story bosses that have to be fought before facing Ganondorf, plus a Wolfpack Boss of monsters that must be fought to progress to the final battle, and two mini-bosses if you choose to fight two of the story bosses in their individual storylines. The final boss also has three phases rather than the two phases in Breath of the Wild.
• Psychometry: Sonia describes the Recall power as a variant of this, allowing the user to retrace and reverse an object's recent memory instead of reading it.
• Punny Name: Most of the Stable Trotters; their conductor is named Mastro, the fiddle player is named Violynne, their drummer is named Beetz, and their flute-player is called Pyper. Eustus, the horn-player, is the Odd Name Out here.

  • There's a chance of Eustus being named after the Eustachian tube, a part of the inner ear that is commonly associated with the shape of a horn.

• Putting the Band Back Together: There's a travelling band who like to perform at stables but are reduced to just their conductor and violinist due to their members leaving for different reasons. As a reoccurring side-quest, Link can help them in order to revive the Great Fairies who are fans of a specific member, so Link will have to find and help them with their own problems so they can rejoin. Once they fully regroup and revive the last Great Fairy, they decide to rebrand themselves as the Stable Heroes in honor of Link and begin performing at every stable in Hyrule.
• Ragnarök Proofing: The Zonai constructs and ruins on the Sky Islands and in the Depths have lasted since the founding of Hyrule, and Rauru mentions early on that the Shrines are host to his personal power. Keep in mind this all happened so long ago that during the war against Calamity Ganon, he had manifested from what power was able to leak out of the seal on Ganondorf, which took another ten thousand years to build up for Breath of the Wild. The Zonai ruins being intact is at least somewhat justified by the Constructs continuing to keep it maintained.
  • The Purah Pad also survives taking The Slow Path back from being displaced with Zelda, somehow without even needing a fresh battery, possibly due to Mineru's spirit inhabiting the pad.
• Rainbow Speak: Important objects, characters and elements in dialogues are highlighted in red.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Like with Breath of the Wild, armor Link is wearing will carry over into cutscenes, which can make some serious cutscenes looks ridiculous as a byproduct. Some of the worst offenders are the Glider set (a wing suit where Link wears a constantly glaring owl mask), the Miner's set (which has Link in what people describe as BDSM chains), and the Wind Fish set (which gives Link a giant bobble head reminiscent of the toy box style used for the Link's Awakening remake).
• Random Loot Exchanger: Dondons are large animals that will eat pieces of luminous stone left around them and, after a short span of time, leave behind a flint, amber, opal, topaz, sapphire, ruby, or diamond. While they are likelier to produce lower-value stones than rare ones, this serves as a potentially lucrative but not wholly reliable way to transform luminous stone into gems.
• Rare Candy: In addition to the Blessings of Light (this game's answer to Spirit Orbs from Breath of the Wild) you can find items known as Sage's Wills in the Sky Islands; four of these can be taken to a goddess statue to upgrade the Living Vows of the the Sages, turning them into Solemn Vows giving them boosted attack power.
• Recurring Boss:
  • Hinoxes (including Stalnoxes), Molduga and Stone Taluses all return from Breath of the Wild, with the latter having gained a new variant in the Battle Talus, where Bokoblins have built an encampment atop it to snipe Link from.
  • Gleeoks make their return with variants that fit the Fire, Ice, Lightning theme. They are most frequently found on the surface, though the King Gleeok (a variant with all three elements) can be found in the Sky Islands and Depths.
  • New to this game are Froxes (that come in additional Obsidian and Blue-White variants), cyclopean frog-like creatures that lurk in the Depths, often at the bottom of Chasms.
  • Also new, most commonly encountered in the sky, are Flux Constructs, entities made of shifting Zonai blocks that can be disassembled with Ultrahand and other Zonai abilities to be made vulnerable.
  • After you clear their respective temple, bosses from said temples can be found in multiple locations in the Depths; defeating them here for the first time grants 100 crystal charges to upgrade your energy well, they yield unique fusion material, and they respawn after a Blood Moon.
  • Played with regarding Phantom Ganon. He appears all across Hyrule as the Gloom Spawns, and two main quests require you to fight him; once in the Deku Tree Chasm and once in the Hyrule Castle Sanctum. However, the latter encounter is unique; this fight uses a different strategy (ditching the Gloom Spawns entirely in favor of a Doppelgänger Attack) and has its own music that are both completely absent from his other fights. It also affects Phantom Ganon's appearances as Zelda (defeating him in the Sanctum removes "Zelda" from the Blood Moon cutscene) and rewards Link with a Heart Container. Moreover, while Phantom Ganon can be refought via the Gloom Spawns, he can never be refought with the same strategy or music he used in the Sanctum.
  • Master Kohga is fought four times in large mines in the Depths, although the fight mechanics differ in each instance.
• Recurring Element:
  • As in Breath of the Wild, the map is structured with shrines and towers, and monsters in dungeons plague the four core regions of the map.
  • The game begins, like before, in a self-contained tutorial map above the Hyrule surface, and the shrines there grant the "tool kit" of powers to interact with most of the game. The tutorial area also introduces hostile climate effects with a snowy area and features a unique low-level cold-defense armor piece that can be obtained there, all mirroring the previous game.
  • Once again, a Rito NPC starts a quest at each stable, though he's an investigative reporter and the quests aren't Shrine Quest riddles.
  • Link gets to become a homeowner again, this time with fewer hoops to jump through and a more configurable modular house from the Hudson company on a plot overlooking Tarrey Town.
  • Echoing Tarrey Town, Link gradually brings together a small town community comprised of all of Hyrule's peoples, with evolving music reflecting this, yet again—here, it's the First Town hub Lookout Landing, with more NPCs coming in as the stages of the main quest are completed.
  • The climactic final area is once again Hyrule Castle on the middle of the map, though it is made much harder to access in the early game due to the castle rising above the ground and the actual final boss fight takes place in the chasm below it instead. Also once again, the player is encouraged to visit the climactic Hyrule Castle zone well before the endgame, with rewards including this game's version of Link's blue Champion gear.
  • As in Skyward Sword, Zelda travels far in the past and is revealed to have traveled forward by waiting through linear time to the present in a way the player would have noticed, but not recognized as being her whereabouts until the story plays out further— in Skyward Sword, through a sealing crystal visible early in the Sacred Ground Ruins, and here, through the form of the Light Dragon, introduced before Link lands on Hyrule. Also, following multiple games prior such as Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, Zelda has a secret identity and is revealed to be an entity that has been present in the story for some time—again, the Light Dragon in this case.
  • As in Ocarina of Time, the resident Great Deku Tree is infected by a monster in its depths, and Link must fight the boss within to purify the tree. This time, the boss is much more dangerous but the Deku Tree survives the ordeal purified and alive.
  • A Gohma boss appears in this game, with Gohmas being staple bosses in the series, and it's a Gohma's second appearance tied to a volcano zone in the series, following The Wind Waker. Like the first 3D Gohma and several other Zelda bosses, the Marbled Gohma starts out dormant on the boss chamber's ceiling and action must be taken by the player to wake it up and start the fight.
  • The concept of a diegetic model-viewer gallery formed by taking photos for a craftsman to sculpt the subjects loosely returns from The Wind Waker and its Nintendo Gallery. Here, the feature only includes monsters, the sculptures are life-size rather than figurines, they match the specific poses of the monsters in your photos, are placed and manipulated in a diorama area on the open map, and can only be built in finite supply before some have to be destroyed to make room. In The Wind Waker, the model-viewer gallery was also the game's encyclopedia, so that gallery was a completion goal which offered an interactive menu to look at each subject with names and information. In Tears of the Kingdom, the encyclopedia is the Hyrule Compendium, so the monster sculptures are a fun side feature rather than a completion goal.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Upon awakening, Ganondorf's mummified corpse moves to look straight at the camera and his eye sockets explode with red fire and Hellish Pupils. In the game proper, unlockable memories show Ganondorf with glowing red irises even before mummification.
• Red Herring: The Sahasra Slope Skyview Tower has its door jammed with a Rito outside trying to get it open. He mentions being hungry and how he used to search the nearby cave for mushrooms. This would naturally lead one to think you need to find him some mushrooms from the cave so he will open the tower. You would be incorrect. You’re actually supposed to use Ascend in the cave underneath the tower to bypass the door entirely. Although an astute player might notice that the mentioned cave is highlighted in red in the dialogue but not the mushrooms, signifying that the puzzle doesn’t have anything to do with mushrooms.
• Redundant Researcher: After the Zonai ruins started falling from the sky and popping up all over Hyrule, there's been a massive effort to study and research them, with Link coming across dozens of archeologists of the Zonai Research Team all around the country. But the thing is, from your point of view most of their research is completely obsolete; between Link's exclusive ability to activate Zonai devices and the far past flashbacks the story grant him, most often you'll find them theorizing about stuff you already know for certain. They do help somewhat thanks to their translations of the Zonai language (pretty much the one thing Link lacks) but that will often be followed by Link plowing through the ancient mysteries that they're trying to reach in mere minutes.
• Regional Redecoration: The events of the prologue, now referred by the inhabitants of Hyrule as "The Upheaval" have caused large changes to the environment, with large chunks of rock falling from the sky and large abysses to the Depths opening up. On a smaller note, almost all traces of Sheikah architecture and technology from Breath of the Wild have vanished. From the Towers to the Shrines, the destroyed Guardians, and the Divine Beasts. Even the Shrine of Resurrection, where Link began his previous adventure, has lost the healing machine, now replaced with a regular pond (that does heal Link if he steps in it).
  Website description: The sky isn't the only thing that's changed in Hyrule. Familiar locations have been dramatically transformed, with new towns, dank caves, and mysterious gaping chasms springing up across the world—all waiting to be explored.
• Remember the New Guy?: The Zonai are a species-wide example. While they were expanded upon in the Creating a Champion art book released between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the only hint of their existence in any previous Zelda game was in a place named the Zonai Ruins in Breath of the Wild. Like Hylia before them, their massive influence on Hyrule's early days came out of left field and caused more than a few snags in the already loopy Zelda timeline(s). That being said, "Hyrule's early days" may just be this variant of Hyrule's earliest days rather than the actual progenitor kingdom.
• Replay Mode: Like in Breath of the Wild, you can replay the Memories gathered over the course of the adventure, only these aren't Link's memories but Zelda's. They're stored in Purah's Pad, and can be accessed via the Minus menu.
• Retcon: Breath of the Wild had implications that Calamity Ganon was what was left of Ganon of the past trying to reincarnate again. Tears of the Kingdom implies it is nothing more than another unconscious creation of Ganondorf as he was waiting to wake up.
• The Reveal:
  • Some notable mysteries left by the previous game have been resolved here— primarily, the utterly enigmatic Zonai who were the conspicuous namesake of the Faron ruins are now addressed immediately at the start of the game, and are fully revealed as an extinct race of advanced people who were instrumental to (this version of) Hyrule's history and founding. Additionally, the game addresses the ancient hero from the Sheikah tapestry, whose rather un-Link-like visual depiction caused a lot of questions and speculation. How he looked in reality is fully revealed through the Ancient Hero's Aspect armor, earned after completing all shrines— it turns out, he was a Zonai, or a Zonai/Hylian hybrid with heavy Zonai traits.
  • The search for Zelda forms one of the story's main threads, and by uncovering all of the memories through the Dragon's Tears, it is finally revealed that Zelda has been hiding in plain sight the entire time: she's become the Light Dragon that could be seen at the beginning of the game and all throughout it.
  • The nature of the Eighth Heroine, and why she was expunged from Gerudo history, is finally explained in this game. The Seven Heroines were seven Gerudo women with various powers who were called upon to protect their homeland; however, they were disorganized and not especially effective until a traveler from abroad gave them advice on how to work together as a team. Together the seven were able to save their homeland; however, because the traveler was a man, he was forbidden from entering Gerudo Town despite having helped save it. Out of shame that their own laws had caused them to show disrespect to someone who helped them, the Gerudo of the time kept the nature of the individual a secret, first by referring to him as an eighth Heroine and then by hiding away all texts that mentioned him, until eventually the true nature of the Eighth Heroine was lost to history.
  • In the introduction, Zelda notices that the remaining images telling the story of the Imprisoning War is covered by rubble. When Link returns to the same room before facing Ganondorf, they are revealed to show Zelda obtaining the damaged Master Sword and transforming into the Light Dragon to restore it.
  • In a much more mundane example, the full unobscured layout of Thyphlo Ruins is now visible due to the inexplicable dome of unnatural pitch darkness around it being just as inexplicably absent.
• Revisiting the Roots: Even compared to Breath of the Wild, Tears has a bunch of returning elements from previous games:
  • The biggest one is the necessity of the Sage powers in order to clear their dungeons, a step away from Breath of the Wild giving you every exploration tool you needed right at the start of the game.
  • The random caves of varying complexity are a callback to the holes in Ocarina of Time, and to a lesser extent the caves in A Link to the Past.
  • The Depths are a Dark World of sorts, modeled after the regular Hyrule with the elevation inverted, with many important places in Hyrule having subterranean equivalents in roughly the same places. There's even an element of asymmetric access between the two, with select entry-points into the Depths and the Depths having some areas that can only be visited from Hyrule (like Misery Mire in A Link to the Past), though Ascend isn't exactly a "Magic Mirror" equivalent since only a few ceiling parts are low enough for it to work.
  • There are now Fairy Fountains that don't have Great Fairies in them, like the two in Ocarina of Time, and some of these are located in caves like the ones in A Link to the Past.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking crates and pots will reward Link with some items such as arrows or basic food.
• Rock Beats Laser: Building giant war machines to fight monsters versus just using bows or basic melee weapons is Awesome, but Impractical due to their short battery life, the preparation and parts required, destructibility, the fact parts can despawn after a while, and because most of the possible attacks are hard to aim, drain the battery very quickly, and usually don't do as much damage-per-second as a normal Flurry Rush.
• Rocket Jump: Fusing any kind of bomb to your shield and trying to shield surf will detonate the bomb, propelling Link upward a significant distance. Even better is that Link takes no damage and the shield hardly loses any durability, making this technique very practical for gaining height.
• Rock of Limitless Water: Some of the sky islands have waterfalls pouring endlessly from them. And more problematically, the one above Zora's Domain is spewing infinite amounts of mud, completely screwing up the place.
• Runic Magic: The Master Sword, like all other weapons, can have materials fused to it; however, the fused material is hidden after a second or two of the blade being out, and instead there are Zonai runes on the blade to indicate that it is fused.
• Running Gag: Link has a tendency to walk up to NPCs who are concentrating on something and startling them by talking.

Tropes S-Z

• Samus Is a Girl: Inverted. If you complete the Eighth Heroine archaeology side-quests, you'll discover that the mysterious eighth "heroine" who assisted the seven legendary Gerudo heroines long ago was actually a man. Although he rallied the seven heroines against a terrible monster and saved the Gerudo people, he was still forbidden entry into Gerudo Town due to their strict traditions, which sullied their alliance and brought shame to the Gerudo, although even his mere existence, never mind his gender, was eventually lost to history.
• Save Scumming:
  • Didn't get what you wanted when you scanned an amiibo? Reload your save from before you scanned it and try again.
  • In one sidequest, there is a particular Goron who wants to eat "Ripened Flint", which is supposedly a delicacy for Gorons. The problem: It's not distinguishable from normal flint, so you have to give him huge amounts of it - 50 or even 100 units at once - and whether one of the flints is actually the Ripened Flint is up to chance. However, so as not to waste so much of your inventory, you can just save before and reload. Eventually you'll beat the quest this way.
• Scary Stitches: The Armor of the Depths set, which imitates the Bargainer deities and makes Link resemble a dark wizard or priest mixed with a grim reaper, has a ragged appearance with asymmetrical fabric and prominent lighter stitching or lacing on the hood to make it look creepier.
• Scenery Porn: As the sequel to one of the only pieces of media to get its own page dedicated to how incredibly beautiful it is, it's no surprise that the amazing views are just as prevalent here, if not moreso.
  • Just like Breath of the Wild, the game opens with Link getting a truly gorgeous view of the world that awaits him, this time as he skydives down to the Great Sky Island.
  • The views from the Sky Islands are always stunning, allowing you to see massive chunks of the game's world from a bird's eye view.
  • The Sky Islands themselves have an atmosphere of wonder with their distinctly autumnal yellow and grey color palette that contrasts with the greens and blues of the surface.
  • The Depths are a dark version of this, presenting a massive surrealist dark forest with jagged stone walls and bizarrely beautiful flora. The Bargainer colossus statues also make for an awesome presence, particularly the northernmost colossus which is completely freestanding and scrapes the "sky" of the Depths with its height.
• Schizo Tech: While Breath of the Wild also had this with the Sheikah technology, the sequel takes it up to eleven with the even more ancient, yet even more advanced, Zonai technology. Despite being well over ten-thousand years old, the Zonai invented automobiles, aircrafts, turbines, sentient automatons, flamethrowers, batteries, and even rockets.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: As is usual for when 10,000 Years is in effect. We learn Hyrule's royal family from Rauru to Zelda has ruled for over 10,000 years. Which is 2x as much as Real Life written history. It also brings questions about the Sages of the past having direct descendants in the future, for instance Zelda being Rauru's direct descendent - after so long wouldn't all Hylians be in some way related to Rauru?
• Schmuck Bait:
  • Several locations in the Depths have prominent treasure chests emanating Gloom. Approaching the chest will start a fight with waves of Gloom-infected monsters or a boss you have previously defeated. One of the colosseums even throws several Lynels at you. Actually touching the chest before all the monsters are defeated inflicts Gloom damage too.
  • Every now and then you may find bananas lying on the roadside for no reason, inviting you to pick them up. Why wouldn't you? They have great attack buffs. It's another Yiga ninja trap, and they will mock you for being fooled by such a simple ruse.
• Scratch Damage: Any damage that Link can't outright No-Sell will deal at least a quarter heart of damage to him, while Gloom damage will always cause at least one full heart of Maximum HP Reduction.
• Sdrawkcab Name: The names of the Lightroots down in the Depths are the names of the Shrines directly above on the surface, but backwards.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel: Thousands of years ago, Rauru, the first king of Hyrule, defeated Ganondorf by siphoning away his magic strength and sealing him underground. However, he could only do so by continuous physical contact, trapping him with Ganondorf for eons, even as his physical body withered to just an arm. Rauru knew that he could not hold Ganondorf forever, only long enough for the hero Link to appear and defeat him when Ganondorf inevitably broke free.
• Secret Shop:
  • There's a shop in Gerudo Town that sells exclusively male clothing. It's not quite sure as to why (they have a strict "no questions" policy, maybe it's a fetish thing), but needless to say the door is normally locked and getting in requires some work.
  • There are several bargaining statues in the Depths that trade wandering Poe spirits for unique items and armors. Each statue you find expands their inventory, and they also sell copies of amiibo weapons and armor you have already found. They claim their job is to ferry those wandering souls to the afterlife, and they've been having trouble doing it recently, but the whole thing is rather creepy.
  • Kilton's brother Koltin appears in several locations at nighttime and will trade Bubbul gems for one thing at a time. He has all of Kilton's monster hats and some monster parts, and he gives useful hints on how to use monster parts. Eventually he'll run out of stock, but if you keep collecting you can fulfill his wish to eat all of Hyrule's Bubbul gems.
• Sequel Escalation:
  • In the first game, you could only fight Master Kohga once. This game makes him a Recurring Boss which can be fought up to four times, with each boss fight also differing drastically from one another.
  • In the last game, the Master Sword was badly damaged during the Great Calamity and requires a full century to get it back to normal strength. In this game, it's outright destroyed during its first encounter with Ganondorf, and takes well over ten-thousand years of healing to repair itself.
  • In the last game, a substance known as Malice was found in certain regions which damaged you if you touched it. In this game, it's been replaced by Gloom, which not only damages, but causes Maximum HP Reduction, and it is far more widespread than Malice ever was. Even worse, certain monsters can be Gloom-infected, augmenting their attacks with the same ability. Ganondorf himself has Gloom attacks so powerful they permanently^note They return after the fight but can not be recovered by light based foods like normal gloom damage take your hearts away.
• Sequel Non-Entity: The entire Ancient Sheikah civilization and their technology. The game makes oblique references and mythology gags to them, such as the Purah Pad being inspired by the Sheikah Slate, and Purah and Robbie's work still has the Ancient Sheikah style (and Cherry is still around, perhaps the only creation that was explicitly ancient Sheikah in the previous game still present in this one, and even so the fact that it's ancient Sheikah isn't acknowledged). Still, there is very little mention not only of the Slate, but Guardians, Shrines, Towers and, most prominently, the Divine Beasts, which were actually deemed sacred in the previous game. No variant of Guardian is still extant as an enemy, and beyond a tapestry depicting an army of them they only appear at all in the form of one decayed inactive Stalker body on the roof of the Hateno Tech Lab. A late game sidequest at the school features the only direct references to the Divine Beasts (as the quest is about proving to the kids the Calamity happened), with Impa describing them and one student mentioning that he heard the Divine Beasts had become active again some years ago when he was too young to remember.
• Sequence Breaking:
  • You're intended to find the Fifth Sage, Mineru after completing all four of the Regional Phenomena quests and investigating Hyrule Castle. However, the only thing that's standing in between you and this, practically speaking, is a door requiring ten hearts and a perpetual thunderstorm which reduces visibility to mere feet in the islands where you find the start point for Mineru's quest. You can easily get to this part of the game without triggering the 'required' path in any form.
  • Many missions are given by Purah; who will exhibit amazement and frustration if you reveal you accomplished them already. As seen here.
    • One specific exception is you cannot Ascend (from the Evil God Statue below) into Purah's house before you meet her for the first time. The programmers literally make it impossible; despite the Ascension being possible after you meet her.
  • It's also very likely for a player who is diligent about exploring the world to complete many of the shrine quests and side quests before they are actually given to Link. The game won't mark them as completed until the quest is actually assigned, but it will instantly reflect them as complete if the player later comes across the trigger.
  • Mixing up the order of Geoglyphs in Tears of the Kingdom is very easy to do, slightly easier than mixing up the order in Breath of the Wild. The game provides locations of each Geoglyph (unlike in Breath of the Wild), and the order in which they should be consulted, and none of them are surprises hidden from the list (also unlike in Breath of the Wild); however, neither the map nor the list are on the Purah Pad, located in a room behind the Forgotten Temple instead.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook:
  • At various spots throughout Hyrule, Link can find a group of Soldier Constructs and a group of monsters close to each other, but separated by a barricade. Getting rid of said barricade from a distance will lead to the Constructs and monsters spotting and immediately fighting each other. Meanwhile Link can sit back, watch the show, and leisurely mop up the weakened survivors afterwards.
  • A stealthy Link can use Muddle Buds to get some entertaining and productive theater in mooks attacking each other for as long as the effect is applied. Done right, a large outpost can be emptied mainly by its inhabitants so long as Link isn't noticed.
• Ship Tease: Although there's no story sequence that points to it, returning to Link's old house in Hateno reveals that it's recognized as Zelda's home now. However, Link can still sleep there for free, indicating it's still his home, as well. The telling paired amounts of utilities dotted around the house, coupled with Zelda's secret study in the well behind the house indicating someone else is living there all points towards a cohabitation that has them a sniff away from Official Couple.
• Shock and Awe: Riju has inherited power over lightning similar to Urbosa's Fury. In gameplay, this translates to her putting out electricity and Link calling it down by firing an arrow where he wants her to strike.
• Shout-Out:
  • Like its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom draws influence from Studio Ghibli films: Ganondorf's Gloom attacks and their affect on Link's arm in the prologue closely resemble the curse gods' kegare and its affect on Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke, the floating islands of the Zonai resembling the kingdom of Laputa from Castle in the Sky, and the dark fungus-encrusted Depths resembling the Toxic Jungle/Sea of Decay from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
  • When inspecting the empty frame at Tabantha Bridge Stable the second time, the owner says "This wall is where I would display my painting of the Ancient Columns bathed in the light of the sunrise...if only I had one!", calling to mind the "This where I would put my trophy... if I had one!" meme from The Fairly Oddparents.
  • The Jochi-iu Shrine revolves on the task of carefully removing metallic blocks that form a tower to obtain the sphere at the top without making it fall, which is exactly Jenga.
  • After your final battle with Master Kogha,they call you a "twerp" and even make their departure by way of A Twinkle in the Sky for good measure.
• Shown Their Work:
  • In the Hebra Depths are a set of magma falls that happen to be right below where the secret hot springs are. While this may come out of left field for some, hot springs are brought about by magmatic hot spots heating up water sources that happen to be above them.
  • Close examination of the Glowing Cave Fish will show that it doesn't have visible eyes. Not surprising, since there are recorded cases of real life cave-dwelling fauna having atrophied eyes if they have any at all due to the low-light conditions in caves.
• Sidequest: A few variants exist in the game:
  • Sidequests, activities that can be completed in maybe half an hour or less and are localized to a small area.
  • Side Adventures, more involved affairs that can span the entire game world, in some cases requiring you to complete multiple side quests.
  • Shrine Quests, which are puzzles that must be solved to unlock shrines.
• The Siege: As part of the Riju of Gerudo Town arc, you have to help fortify Gerudo Town against a Gibdo invasion, positioning troops and barricades while using Riju's lightning powers to destroy the hives the Gibdo are emerging from.
• Significant Anagram: The names of shrines (and by extension their backward-named Lightroot counterparts) are anagrams of locations throughout Kyoto, home of Nintendo's offices.
• Single Line of Descent: Zelda is recognized as being the descendant of Rauru and Sonia by her time and light manipulation powers, but the time gap between them is an undefined span of well over 10,000 years. Realistically, a large portion of Hyrule's modern day population should be descended from them. The same would apply to all the other Sages and their descendants.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man:
  • In one particularly Ship Tease-y tear memory, Zelda gushes to Sonia and Rauru about Link—putting particular emphasis on his "good heart" and heroicism. They seem to pick up on Zelda's less-than-strictly-professional affections and tease her lightly for the extremely flattering picture she paints of her knight.
  • Koyin (the girl in Hateno who runs the cheese shop) will develop a small infatuation with Link after he retrieves her grandfather's letter in a bottle that had fallen in the small pond behind her house, frequently expressing her disappointment whenever he leaves her shop.
  • Zumi, a stablehand at New Serenne Stable, will also develop a crush on Link after he fixes her wagon for her and catches her a horse. If spoken to after completing her sidequests, she'll give out tips about horses... but only one tip at a time, to keep him coming back to talk to her. She'll also name her new horse "Zunk"—a rather silly-sounding portmantau of her name and Link's combined, which doubles as a bit of a meta-joke on the Portmanteau Couple Name trope.
• Sinister Scythe: Silver Lizalfos Horns are black-and-red sickles that create a very menacing scythe when fused to a weapon, especially a two-handed sword.
• Situational Sword:
  • Zora weapons aren't particularly impressive at first glance, but they double in power when Link is wet. They can be very powerful during rainy weather or near bodies of water, but anywhere else you'll need to get creative to make Link wet, and he'll dry off very quickly in hot regions. Sidon's Sage power makes it easier to get wet even in hot weather, but "being wet" only counts after launching the water projectile. Alternately, you can fuse an Opal or a King's Scale to the weapon to put it in permanent 'wet' mode; early in the game, the doubled base power can be worth more than any fusion material designed for an attack boost.
  • New armor sets and meal effects grant Link an attack boost when he's in a very hot area, a very cold one, or during a thunder storm. These effects not also providing resistance to those conditions limits their usefulness somewhat.
  • A new potion type causes a Sticky effect on Link, reducing the frequency of slipping while climbing in rain or damp caves by certain amounts depending on the effectiveness level. While extremely useful in a few areas that are perpetually wet or covered in ice, it's otherwise a fairly random situation and is superseded by a two-star Froggy Armor set which has a permanent slip-proof effect whilst the potions only decrease the chance of slipping.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Boss Bokoblins wear necklaces made of human skulls, while the Stalnoxes have several Stalkoblin skulls impaled on their horn (which are still "alive" and wriggling).
• The Sky Is an Ocean: The ancient civilizations originally traversed the sky islands above Hyrule in flying boats resembling viking longships. To get to the Wind Temple, Link has to bounce off the sails of a huge fleet of these ships circling around a massive cyclone. Associations of sky islands are even referred to as archipelagos.
• Sky Surfing: The Zonai item Wing is a bird shaped board that's the most basic method of traversing the sky. Once ridden off a cliff, it will glide slowly through the air, steered by walking Link towards where one wants to turn to tilt it in that direction.
• Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: As with the prequel, Tears of the Kingdom is free-roam. While there are some features that are locked behind Main Story quests, not all of them are necessary to explore the world and can be tackled whenever the player wants. The intended Main Quest order, for the curious, is as follows: the Great Sky Island, finding Lookout Landing, the four Regional Quests, Hyrule Castle, the Fifth Sage, finding the Master Sword/the remaining Dragon's Tears, and finally defeating Ganondorf.
• The Slow Path: Zelda is transported more than 10,000 years back into Hyrule's past by way of Rauru's Secret Stone. She gets back to the present day by swallowing the stone to undergo draconification, turning her into an immortal, but mindless Light Dragon, although she is turned back into a Hyrulean after Ganondorf is defeated.
• Smoke Out: New to this game is an item called a Puffshroom. When struck or thrown, it releases a cloud of smoke that can blind and disorient enemies, giving ample time to either retreat or close in for Sneakstrikes.
• Soft Water: Link can dive from any height into any body of water and negate all potential fall damage. This is taken to an extreme when Link and Zelda plummet at breakneck speed from the lower stratosphere after the final battle, but manage to survive without a scratch by splashing down in a small pond.
• So Last Season: The Master Sword, which was effective against Calamity Ganon, ends up being no match for Ganondorf and the Gloom, breaking in one hit. Once Zelda receives the sword in the past, she undergoes a plan that would not only restore the weapon, but infuse it with sacred power to fully withstand Ganondorf's might.
• Special Attack: Each of the allies Link makes when investigating the Regional Phenomena have a special ability that Link can call upon, both during the journey into the Temples and afterwards via their Avatars when they are named a Sage.
  • Tulin can create a lateral gust of wind that can extend Link's gliding distance, knock over small enemies or disperse piles of sand.
  • Sidon can envelop Link in a protective bubble of water that can negate damage once, or be used to attack enemies with a watery Sword Beam.
  • Riju can conjure lightning at any point Link fires an arrow at.
  • Yunobo can turn himself into a Goron cannonball to attack enemies at range, creating a fiery explosion on impact.
• Spike Balls of Doom: A few shrines feature spiky metal spheres that damage Link upon contact. Some monster outposts also feature these as traps, although Link can easy turn these against them with his Recall or Ultrahand ability. He can also create maces by Fusing these to his weapons.
• Spikes of Doom:
  • A few shrines feature spikes that damage Link when walked on. They also appear in the Water Temple.
  • The Yiga clan like to decorate their vehicles with spiked metal plates that damage Link if he touches the pointy end.
• Spoiler Opening: If you're very observant to the tapestry at the beginning, you'll notice that Ganondorf steals something from the woman depicted with the Zonai figure at the start who appears to be writhing in pain during this scene, which is a very early hint to Ganondorf stealing Sonia's Secret Stone after murdering her.
• Springs, Springs Everywhere: Link can carry coiled springboards with him. These can be deployed to launch things in the air. They also appear on certain Sky Islands, allowing easy traversal from one to the next.
• Springy Spores: Most mushrooms Fused with weapons and shields grant the Bounce quality, having huge knockback against enemies.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • The plan to completely defeat Ganondorf involves Rauru sealing Ganondorf under Hyrule Castle for over 10,000 years until Link and Zelda come across his tomb. This results in Zelda being launched into the past, which starts the series of events that result in Ganondorf's sealing, his eventual return, and Link defeating him for good.
  • Zelda and the Master Sword also play into one. Without knowing what he's done, Link sends the destroyed Master Sword back in time after entering the Zonai Temple of Time, whereupon, it (unbeknownst to the player) immediately reappears due to it being lodged in the head of the Light Dragon who emerges in the clouds. The sword went through a period of long linear time to return to Link's present and heal. The dragon itself is also an example—Zelda was sent back as far as the Master Sword, and she transforms herself into the Light Dragon to wait the eons it takes to heal the Master Sword and return it to Link in his present.
• Steampunk: Technology in Hyrule has reached this aesthetic thanks to successful efforts reverse-engineering Sheikah tech. Notably the towers mapping the area are like giant fireworks silos that can also launch Link literally sky high. His initial activation of them involves hooking up his Purah Pad with an extremely long cable so he can transmit land survey data from the air back to base. The Purah Pad itself has a more mechanical look with a metal camera lens and frame on top of the Magitek and has a more sophisticated colour palette with its brass frame and red hues compared to the mystical glowing orange and blue emanating from a stone slate.
• Story And Gameplay Integration:
  • It's revealed either late in the main story or potentially fairly early on in the Dragon's Tear memories that the Zelda that's been spotted around Hyrule is actually a disguised Phantom Ganon. After defeating it at Hyrule Castle, "Zelda" no longer appears in the Blood Moon cutscene and it no longer has any narration.
  • In the first game, Link started off at 3 hearts and gained his strength from completing shrines and trading Spirit Orbs for heart/stamina containers. For continuity sake in this game, Link starts off in the opening scene with full hearts and stamina until Ganondorf corrupts him, knocking him down to only 3 Hearts and 1 Stamina Wheel again. Though they fulfill the exact same gameplay function as Spirit Orbs, the Lights of Blessing story-wise are purging Ganondorf's Gloom rather than building on Link's strength.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: Going to Hyrule Castle to rescue Zelda. The previous mandatory quests has you constantly running into Zelda acting extremely suspiciously, and you may very well have seen the vision where Ganondorf created a fake Zelda in the past, or outright received the Master Sword from the real, now dragonized Zelda. You still need to let yourself be led into half a dozen ambushes.
• Stylistic Suck: Addison's support beams for his signs are not professional, to put it mildly.
• Sudden Soundtrack Stop: After Link has helped out the four regions, as soon he arrives at Lookout Landing, the soundtrack stops entirely as the residents are staring at Hyrule Castle upon seeing Zelda over there.
• Superboss: Gleeok makes their triumphant return in 3D for the first time, and boy do they do not disappoint. Attempting to take them on early game is basically a death sentence. There are Gleeoks based on all three basic elements, and as soon as the battle starts, the environment will be altered to reflect their element, requiring the needed armor in order to not be taking constant damage throughout the battle. And then there's King Gleeok, which lacks the Geo Effects of its predecessors but deals significantly more damage with each of its attacks. Even with maxed out 20/20/20 armor, King Gleeok can still take off 6 to 7 hearts with a single hit. And then there's the one you encounter in the Depths, which has the Gloom's effect of cutting off your max hearts with each attack. Have fun fighting that one.
• Superpowerful Genetics: The first King and Queen of Hyrule, Rauru and Sonia, respectively had the innate powers of light and time. Zelda has the same powers, which is noted by Sonia as proof of their blood relation.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: With the lack of any Sheikah technology and Guardian and Ancient weaponry, the Construct and Zonaite weapons act as their replacements, being gear that is also strong and weatherproof (as they won't burn up near lava, nor will they conduct electricity). The Zonaite Bow for instance, can also be charged to fire an arrow that flies further and straighter than other bows, similarly to the Ancient Bow. You can also replicate the range with any bow by Fusing a wing item to an arrow.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: A man named Hagie has instated himself as the toll officer for the railcar in Tarrey Town. After completing the side-quest with preparing Hudson's daughter Mattison for her pilgrimage to Gerudo Town, talking to Hagie again will have him return any toll you've paid, say he's reflected on his greedy actions, and vows to find honest work and spend more time with his own daughter. He adds that it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact Hudson caught him charging people for the free transportation system he built and got angry at Hagie for scamming people.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: Exploring the Dragon's Tears will reveal that Zelda turned herself into a mindless dragon in order to bring the rejuvenated Master Sword to Link, in a dire and heart-wrenching but absolutely necessary personal sacrifice. In the finale, the spirits of Rauru and Sonia supercharge Link's Recall ability and reverse the process, turning Zelda back to her original form.
• Sweet Sheep: The Zonai resemble goats more than any other animal, and acted as Benevolent Precursors to Hyrule.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Link's new Fuse ability lets him combine weapons with objects or other weapons to create new ones, such as a Tree Branch and Boulder for a hammer, a spear with a pitchfork to double his attack radius, or even a Blue Bokoblin Horn with a Wooden Stick for a Blue Boko Reaper.
• Tank Goodness: Yes, you can build one. Unsurprisingly, it's one of the better combat builds in the game.
• Take Your Time: The main Quests of confronting Ganondorf and finding Zelda can be put to backburner while doing numerous side quests. The latter is somewhat justified in that Link and numerous Hyrulians keep seeing Zelda all over the kingdom, in both main story quests and side quests, thus those side quests are actually Link attempting to follow the sightings to find Zelda, except "Zelda" is actually Phantom Ganon disguised as her to sow chaos and discord around the Kingdoms and manipulate the sage's descendant into preventing them from awakening their powers. Furthermore, Zelda's actual location is technically revealed in the Geoglyph side-quest, running concurrent to the main plot, and her current situation means that there's nothing Link can do to 'rescue' her anyway, leaving him free to focus on side-activities in preparation for fighting Ganondorf. Meanwhile, Ganondorf remains in the Depths to ostensibly recover his full strength after being weakened from over 10,000 years of being sealed by Rauru, giving Link the time he needs to better prepare to face him. Except, if Link rushes to face him as quickly as possible, he reveals that he'd already recuperated enough to regain his full power once Link made it back down to Hyrule, and the real reason he didn't face him sooner was that he was utterly disinterested in fighting a loose rabble of unworthy opponents that he'd easily destroy until they managed to fight their way to him as a 'test' of how strong they were, allowing Link all the time he needed to prepare out of sheer arrogance.
• A Taste of Power: Link begins the game with two rows of 15 heart containers and three full rings of stamina, as well as wielding the fully powered Blade of Evil's Bane. It doesn't last past the game's prologue and the most you can mince in gameplay are the extremely fragile Keese.
• Ten-Second Flashlight: Attaching a Zonai Light to a shield allows it to light up dark areas, but doing so not only drains your energy cells, but also wrecks the shield's durability.
• Tennis Boss: In grand series tradition, Ganon's gloom attacks during the final battle can be hit back at him with the Master Sword, doing a reasonable bit of damage, although it isn't necessary to defeat him.
• Temporal Duplication: Due to Zelda accidentally using the Secret Stone at the beginning to travel 10,000 years into the past, this results in there being two Secret Stones belonging to Rauru since Zelda's was actually his and Rauru still has his own one, up until it gets sent to the future via The Slow Path and is ultimately used to transform Zelda into the Light Dragon.
• "Test Your Strength" Game: At Hyrule Field, a Goron is holding a test of strength game by offering participants prizes on using nearby materials to strike a bell as hard as they can, rewarding you based on the "mega-ding scale". Depending on how much strong the method used to make the bell ring, Link will either receive rupees or a gemstone.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The Master Sword in the logo is completely broken, with the rest of the sword filled in with green runes, representing both its destruction at the hands of Ganondorf at the beginning of the game and the influence of the Zonai within the game's plot. Behind the lettering is a Zonai-themed ouroboros, representing the Stable Time Loop Zelda ends up undergoing.
• Theme Song Reveal: The main theme caps off on a quiet snippet of "Zelda's Lullaby" played on the erhu. In gameplay for the previous game, this instrument had a notable presence in the soundtrack for the theme of the three Spirit Dragons. The revelation that Zelda becomes one in this game is all there in the instrumentation of the main theme!
• Terminal Transformation: There is an ancient technique called draconification, which transforms a user into an immortal dragon by swallowing a secret stone. However, this eternal life comes at the price of losing the mind and identity, rendering the user as a mindless, animalistic beast. There is no known way to reverse the draconification process, and is thus heavily discouraged even as a final resort. Zelda, who has been time-displaced into the past with the broken Master Sword, willingly chose this path to return to her present-time with a fully restored Master Sword for Link to defeat Ganondorf. Ganondorf, on the other hand, choses draconification as a last-ditch effort to kill Link and destroy Hyrule, not caring if he has to sacrifice his body and mind to do it. At the end of the game, Link ultimately finds a way to reverse the draconification process on Zelda while Ganondorf ultimately dies as a mindless Demon Dragon, his secret stone being destroyed by the Master Sword.
• Time Abyss:
  • Ganondorf is implied to be unimaginably old at this point. Ten thousand years passed between the first war against Calamity Ganon and his reappearance, and since the binding on him was growing weaker over time until it failed completely, it's likely that it took even longer for enough power to build for Calamity Ganon to leak out the first time.
  • Thanks to a Stable Time Loop, Zelda and the Master Sword become this over the course of the game, as both are sent back untold millennia to Hyrule's very beginning, and end up taking The Slow Path back to the present day.
  • Technically speaking, both Rauru, Mineru, and the other Sages are also this old, due to begin born back before the kingdom of Hyrule was even a thing. Of course, none of them have physically survived to the present day, only remaining as spirits to help Link and their descendants on their quest to defeat Ganondorf.
• Time Rewind Mechanic: The Recall ability, which allows Link to rewind the movement of an object. Applications include rewinding fallen debris from the Sky Islands, rewinding thrown projectiles back at enemies, or undoing a mistake with a physics puzzle.
• Time Skip: A decent amount of time has passed between this and the preceding title, and closer inspection of the land of Hyrule and its inhabitants reveals it to be quite a substantial one. While some elements are more nebulous than others (Tulin being an early adolescent from a seemingly hatchling age, Riju's minor maturation), the big one is in that Hudson and Rhondson, who were newly-married at the end of Breath of the Wild, here are shown to have a daughter, Mattison, already of emergent childhood and about to be taken to Gerudo Town for the rest of her raising. This puts the gap anywhere from a likelihood of five to six years. The time skip seems to line up fairly closely with the time passed in the real world between games.
• Toggling Setpiece Puzzle: In the Tenbez Shrine, there are switches that toggle the gravity of the surroundings. These take the form of small pillars shaped like dragons facing each other, between which lies a stone component that brights orange when gravity is at its normal value, and green when Link hits it and makes gravity reduce its intensity (other visual cues include light-blue particles appearing in the atmosphere and the stone component hovering). Fittingly, all gravity-controlling switches present will show the current state of the surroundings, even though only one of them is hit at a time. Changing the gravity back and forth will be important to solve puzzles, since doing so will alter the weight of objects as needed.
• Too Awesome to Use: Largely averted. Several unique weapons (as well as previously exclusive amiibo weapons) can be found throughout Hyrule, and while they all break (with the exception of the Master Sword), once you've found them, you can re-acquire them from any Bargainer Statue in the Depths using Poes.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Five Sages each require Link's help to take down the bosses in their temples. By the end of the game, Ganondorf sics them on the Sages again all at once to keep them occupied so he can duel Link one-on-one. The Sages come charging in to help you face Ganondorf mere minutes later, having beaten their bosses alone and looking none the worse for wear.
• Tourism-Derailing Event:
  • Lurelin Village is a sunny beach town on Hyrule's southeastern coast well known for being a relaxing tourist draw. Back in Breath of the Wild it was notably the only major town that didn't have any quests related to the main story. Not long after the start of the Upheaval, unfortunately, pirates attacked Lurelin, leveling most of the buildings and scattering its inhabitants across the land. The refugees you encounter often say they'd like to recommend visiting Lurelin for its beach town attractions, but they admit it's just not safe to do so anymore. Link is tasked with defeating the pirates and helping to rebuild the houses and shops to bring Lurelin Village back to its former glory. Bolson the builder even has Link help him add a new boat race dock in order to make the town's tourism industry even more lucrative than before.
  • Inverted with Kakariko Village. As was the case across the rest of Hyrule, the Upheaval resulted in ancient Zonai ruins crashing to the surface — giant stone rings in Kakariko's case. The chief, Paya, decides to start a tourism drive by opening up the village to non-Sheikah (previously, the only outsiders allowed in were Link and several travelling merchants) in order to reinvigorate the place. It helps that the Ring Ruins didn't crush any people or houses (except for Cado's) when they fell and are surprisingly stable in their current locations. They only needed to take precautions with a single floating ring that Princess Zelda ordered cordoned off — though in that case it was really because "Zelda" (actually a disguised Phantom Ganon) wanted to keep the heroes from discovering a clue in the ring that would help them against Ganondorf.
• Trail of Bread Crumbs: In one sidequest, Link has to investigate where a pack of goats ran off after being given cooked pinecones, with a trail of them left behind leading to their hiding spot.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: One of the side-quests is helping Hudson and Rhondson's daughter prepare for her pilgrimage to Gerudo Town. However, she won't arrive there until after you complete the Gerudo Town story quests, which is probably for the best considering the state it's in beforehand.
• Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: Precious stones like diamonds and rubies are significantly larger than Link's fist.
• Trick Arrow: The Fuse ability can be used to imbue arrows with different properties, such as elemental arrows using corresponding element materials or homing arrows using a monster eyeball.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: After Link defeats Master Kohga in their last duel, he tries to eliminate Link with his own missile weapon. It ends with his contraption hitting himself and sending him rocketing out of the Depths with an Audible Gleam.
• Underground City: Because you can never have enough ancient civilizations, the game reveals that millenia ago, Gorons used to live in the Depths under Death Mountain, in the beautiful city of Gorondia. Today the city is all but abandoned and instead serves as the Fire Temple.
• Underground Level:
  • Caves are encountered all over Hyrule. Some of them are very short, while others are much longer and more extensive. They usually consist of intricate systems of tunnels and side chambers, sometimes with multiple exists, and navigation often requires a great deal of vertical movement and clearing out blockages of rocks. Some of them are also partly or wholly flooded. They're inhabited by subterranean enemies, chiefly flocks of batlike Keese, sessile Like-Likes that cling to the walls, and apelike Horriblins that swing along the ceilings. A lot of the plants and animals found here, such as lightseeds, mushrooms, and blind cave fish, are naturally bioluminescent.
  • The Depths are a much more extensive underworld that runs beneath all of Hyrule, which is accessed by diving through boreholes reaching to the surface. While surface caves are shallow enough to receive light, the Depths are naturally pitch-black and must be artificially lit up to progress. They're also home to a lot of dangerous monsters. However, this is also the only source of important historic artifacts and of the valuable Zonaite mineral.
• Underground Monkey: Every enemy that's not some form of Bokoblin or Lynel has elemental variants; Lightning Keese, Ice Lizalfos, Fire Likes, etc. This is made literal in the Depths, where all enemies deal Gloom damage, causing Link to lose maximum hearts.
• The Underworld: The Depths are a vast and lightless underground realm where Poes wander, restless spirits that got lost on the way to the afterlife. Also present are mysterious cairns where ghostly Hyrulean soldiers stand at attention, offering weapons un-decayed by Gloom for Link to use in the fight against Ganondorf. These can include pristine versions of weapons Link has previously broken, as if the Depths are where destroyed weapons go to rest.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: There's actually quite a few people investigating the Zonai ruins and machines, but only Link can activate most of them thanks to his funky new right arm. It's played for laughs, too: Kohga is irate that his nemesis can access Zonai tech and assemble contraptions in seconds by waving his hand around and using magic glue, yet never makes the connection that Link's new arm is the catalyst and is seen several times trying to do it with his ordinary Hylian arm without success.
• Unobtainium: Most of the Zonai technology is powered by energy and other refined materials processed from a rare mineral known as Zonaite, which Link can find deposits of in certain caverns.
• The Un-Smile: Parodied. The Gorons running the minecart minigame attempt to smile to put Link at ease. But the smiles look more like angry scowls. Meanwhile, one of the Gorons gets the smile "wrong"... by actually giving what looks, by human standards, to be a friendly smile. The other Gorons seem to think that one is scaring away customers.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: NPCs won't react to Link ascending through ceilings (though the people near where he emerges will be startled and recoil) or using magic to fuse items onto his weapons. They also ignore him using Ultrahand or Autobuild to manipulate and combine objects, though they'll flinch if said items get too close.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: The Seized Construct was the Construct originally meant to house Mineru's soul so she could aid Link in the present, but it has since been taken over by Gloom and made to fight for the Demon King. It's technically more advanced than the new Construct you assemble and control: it has more limbs, it can fire more of the weapons attached to those limbs at one time, and it can fly and hover more easily. Nevertheless, your Construct can take it down despite literally being fresh off the factory floor.
• Vague Hit Points: Unlike Breath of the Wild, there's no way to view the exact HP of enemies, meaning you will have to guess based on the power of the weapons.
• Variable Mix: The battle theme against Mucktorok changes depending on whether it's in its fish form or not.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The appropriately named "Gloom's Approach", in the deepest part of the Depths beneath Hyrule Castle, where the Gloom that's plaguing Hyrule originated from and where Ganondorf is recovering his strength. It consists of a gauntlet of the some of the game's toughest enemies, including both a Silver Lynel and a Gloom Spawn, before taking you back through the same tunnels Link and Zelda were exploring at the start of the game.
• Victory Fakeout: Whenever Link enters a Zonai shrine and it displays "Rauru's Blessing" all he has to do is walk up to the alter and receive a blessing. Except for one shrine named "Unlit Blessing," which moves away the platform and rotates it 90 degrees, forcing you to figure out a torch puzzle.
• Video Game Caring Potential:
  • Addison is stationed at various locations desperately trying to keep Hudson's Construction Company sign from falling. A player may feel compelled to stop whatever they were doing to make a quick detour to help him out if they spot him along their way.
  • In Gerudo Town you can help the students at the Voe and You class to overcome their romantic insecurities. There's no reward for doing so; it's just a nice thing to do.
  • Unlike in the previous game, where all seed-bearing Koroks were playing hide-and-seek for no apparent reason, in this game some Koroks are explicitly asking Link to help them, specifically by bringing them to another location where a friend is waiting. This encourages players to be emotionally invested in the Korok Seed collection process. However...
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • The ability to use Ultrahand to carry backpack laden Koroks has allowed players to chuck them off cliffs and sky islands, crucify them, launch them skyward with rockets and turn them into hood ornaments for vehicles, among other things. And there's no punishment whatsoever, as the only thing that happens is the Korok eventually respawning at its original spot if it gets too far away from there or the destination it wants to go.
  • Upon obtaining the Purah Pad, you can check the Album and find that the three photos Zelda took with it earlier are still saved in it. Unlike the photos saved on the Sheikah Slate which cannot be deleted, there's nothing stopping you from deleting Zelda's photos of the underground ruins which she was excited to document.
  • Wearing the Yiga mask around Sheikah or Gerudo will usually result in disgusted reactions, with Dorian's being the most tragic since his defection from the Yiga resulted in his wife's murder. Wearing the Yiga mask around Gerudo Town will even land you in jail, although they'll realize that it's just Link and will let him free if he just changes his outfit.
  • You can get materials from the Light Dragon, at which point it appears you already know it's Zelda herself. To make matters worse, the Champion's Tunic, which is a tunic Zelda herself made for Link, can only be upgraded using its materials, so you're foraging Zelda's dragon form. Kind of dampened by the fact that the Light Dragon doesn't react at all to whatever you do, so there's no reactions to capitalize on.
• Video Game Perversity Potential: It took all of a day before people started crafting together perverted constructs, such as a wooden man with a large cannon barrel for a penis that erupts fire before the two testicle bombs dangling underneath completely explode, in addition to using Ascend to give several statues in the Depths a surprise colonoscopy.
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • Yes, you can attach Bomb Flowers to your shields and weapons. While it doesn't apply for weapons since you'll be caught in the blast too, for shields, it's actually a viable tactic, especially if you engage the shield surf animation - hitting the ground with the shield underneath you causes the bomb to blow and send you skyward, while blasting enemies away. Perfect for a quick escape, or if you want an on-demand Area of Effect attack right on your location. The bonus is that your shield doesn't suffer much durability loss, so feel free to blast away!
  • Similarly, you can Fuse food items to your gear. Ordinarily it'd achieve nothing and just waste food... but attaching mushrooms to your gear gives the "Bouncy" modifier, where enemies struck by them get bounced away as if they were struck with a spring or blown back with a strong wind. This can be quite useful to keep dangerous enemies at bay, or just mess with them and humiliate them.
  • Wooden equipment will also accept fiery items being Fused to them, and won't burn, even if they logically should, unless an external flame source sets them alight. The same applies for metal equipment having electric items attached, where again, they won't shock you unless an external source of electricity strikes you.
  • Let an Octorok inhale a shield. It will spit it back out with improved durability! Though it only works once on each Octorok, meaning you'll have to kill the creature then wait for a Blood Moon to try again.
• Wacky Waterbed: Link can go to the inn in Zora's Domain and sleep on a Blissful Waterbed for a fee^note 50 rupees. Once he pays the fee, there's a sound effect of Link bouncing and giggling on the waterbed, which the player does not see, though it is implied that the innkeeper, being across from the beds, sees Link bouncing. Given the equipment Link uses in his adventure, the Blissful Waterbeds are apparently indestructible, which is why the innkeeper says nothing about Link's behavior on the Blissful Waterbed.
• Walking Shirtless Scene:
  • Link's new green outfit obtained on the Sky Island after the prologue leaves the right side of his upper body bare, exposing his fused arm.
  • Ganondorf's official art depicts him as having a Samurai-like appearance that partially exposes his chest, in a variant of the "Desert Voe" outfit from Breath of the Wild.
  • Near the end of the game, After you've defeated Ganondorf for good, there is a scene where Rauru and Sonia appear to rewind Zelda's dragon appearance and Link subsequently tries to catch her while falling from the skies. In this entire scene, Link is shirtless, for no apparent reason except maybe to make sure his Zonai arm is clearly visible regardless of the worn armor.
• The War Sequence: At multiple points in the game, Link has to fight large waves of enemies in scripted sequences alongside NPC characters, such as helping the Gerudo guards fight the Gibdo hordes attack Gerudo Town, assisting Monster Control Crew teams take down monster strongholds, and fighting against Ganondorf's army alongside the New Champions in the chasm beneath Hyrule Castle.
• Weakened by the Light:
  • The negative effects of Gloom can be remedied by light from the Surface or active Lightroots. Link can cook ingredients with light attributes to cure Gloom corruption of his hearts while exploring the Depths.
  • Stal enemies can be instantly defeated by the flash from a Dazzlefruit.
  • Gibdos are made vulnerable by strong light as well, particularly that reflected by mirror shields, like in several earlier games.
• Weaponized Car: The first battle with Kohga in the Depths involves him summoning a makeshift vehicle with a big wall of spikes attached to the front, and trying to run you down with it. You have to shoot him with a well timed arrow to momentarily stun him and get some hits in, which gets harder to do as he progressively upgrades his cockpit to protect him more. And if you’re lucky, you can knock him off his vehicle, hijack it, and try to run him down with it.
• Wham Episode: After viewing all of the memories hidden via the geoglyphs in "The Dragon's Tears" main quest, The Light Dragon appears and begins to cry, with its tears landing in the middle of the Rist Peninsula. Viewing that memory reveals that Zelda turned herself into the Light Dragon to restore the Master Sword.
• Wham Shot:
  • In the opening sequence, as Ganondorf's corpse awakens and his gloom envelops Link and the Master Sword, the Master Sword shatters. While the sword has been seen in a weakened state in previous games, it's usually due to the ravages of time taking their toll; it's never been outright destroyed. And to happen at the hands of Ganondorf, when it's supposed to be a divine weapon created specifically to combat powers like his, shows how powerful this incarnation of the Demon King is.
  • In the final battle, Ganondorf seems to have his health depleted... only to begin using the stone in his headpiece. His health bar then refills, and then proceeds to get longer than a boss's health bar has ever been in order to back up the fact that the first round was his warm-up.
  • Also one for the player in terms of gameplay in the final battle, if the player goes for a slash on Ganondorf when he's open... only for him to perform the exact same slow motion perfect dodge you've been spamming on other enemies.
• When Trees Attack: Getting too close to some trees will reveal them to be ambulatory Evermeans that begin attacking. They're still trees, though, and thus take massive damage from axes and leave logs behind when defeated.^note Said logs have a much higher attack bonus than regular logs when used as fusion materials, however.
• Where It All Began: To reach Ganondorf, Link has to return to the caverns beneath Hyrule Castle where he and Zelda first discovered him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Absolutely all of the Shrines and Sheikah towers are completely gone without any explanation why. The Shrine of Resurrection is also gutted down to the cave walls and a hot spring, and houses a Yiga base.
• Whip Sword: Fusing any weapon with a Lizalfos tail will turn it into a whip, greatly extending its range.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
  • Upon being released from his seal, Ganondorf lashes out at Link and Zelda with a tendril of concentrated Gloom, which proves powerful enough to ravange Link's arm, poisoning him with the miasma to the point his health drops down to three hearts, and breaks the Master Sword before Ganondorf even realises who's facing him. Rather than pressing his advantage against the duo however, seeing how poorly Link performs against him even in a weakened state disinterests Ganondorf in continuing the 'fight', opting instead to collapse the cavern around them in the process of raising Hyrule Castle and causing The Upheaval as he retreats to the depths to recover his full strength. This would have been enough to kill them both if not for Rauru's remnant will in his arm saving Link and the Secret Stone Zelda picked up transporting her away, and Ganondorf afterwards indicates he fully expected the Gloom corruption in Link to have been severe enough to kill him without further effort. However, even after learning of Link's survival and attempts to oppose him, Ganondorf remains so convinced that he's an unworthy challenge to him that he refuses to pro-actively face him, allowing Link to cut down his various servants and gather both strength and allies to properly face him for a rematch.
  • Discussed among the four Sages after Ganondorf shows them a vision of death and destruction... and then just disappears rather than immediately kill them. They soon come to the conclusion that Ganondorf is bluffing and he hasn't full recovered yet, giving them hope that there's still time to destroy the Demon King before he destroys Hyrule. However, even if Link rushes straight to fight him, Ganondorf has already had ample time to recover his full strength with some effort for the Final Boss battle, meaning his refusal to fight his enemies stems from his arrogant certainty that they'll never be able to push him no matter how long they take to prepare.
• Wreaking Havok: Even more so than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The ability to build anything with parts available really shows off the games physics engine. Some examples. The interaction between parts truly does get rather insane.
• Wind Is Green: The Sage of Wind's secret stone and its associated energy are green.
• Wolfpack Boss:
  • A reoccurring side-quest is helping Captain Hoz and his men defeat groups of monsters, which are represented by a single health bar, similar to the actual bosses.
  • Before you can fight Ganondorf, you have to face off against the Demon King's Army, a huge mob of Gloom-corrupted mooks which arrive in progressively strong waves and share one collective health bar.
• The Worf Effect: To show just how dangerous this incarnation of Ganondorf is, Link's first encounter with him is a Curb-Stomp Battle that not only has Link being reset to the beginning of Breath of the Wild in terms of power, but Ganondorf also breaks the fully powered Master Sword with ease.
• World in the Sky: After the Upheaval, several floating landmasses appeared in the sky, called Sky Islands. Link starts on one of these islands after Ganondorf's awakening in the prologue.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • The Master Sword ends up all but destroyed by Gloom, leaving only the hilt and a badly corroded piece of the blade intact. The damaged Master Sword subsequently forms an integral part of the Tears of the Kingdom logo, with the lower end replaced by glowing Zonai markings in the shape of the missing half.
  • In fact, this trope applies to all weapons in Hyrule, as Ganondorf's attack has caused them all to decay on a global scale, giving more incentive for the player to use the Fuse ability to strengthen them. Although you can still be able to find normal, non-decayed weapons under certain circumstances.
• You Are Not Alone: Unlike the previous game, Link can fight alongside the various races of Hyrule, as well as NPCs like Tulin, Sidon, and Riju, and even receives Sage spirit avatars to follow him and assist him in combat as a token of their bond. It's also something Sidon himself struggles with: between his dead sister, his growing responsabilities as prince and the fact that he has a girlfriend now, he's grown averse to letting others take responsibility when he could do it; when Link meets up with him again, he's stressed out currently trying to singlehandedly keep the Zora Domain's last spring clean from mud, even though he'd be more useful leaving it to the others and taking the lead in actually fixing the problem. It takes a while (and quite a bit of moral support) for him to realize trying to shoulder that by himself instead of trusting his friends was a bad mindset.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Defied by Rauru, who reassures Zelda that her appearance in the distant past can and will give them the edge they need to end Ganondorf's threat and preserve Hyrule for the future. Turns out to be played straight in that Zelda's travel to the past is part of a Stable Time Loop, and all she accomplishes is to grant Rauru the opportunity to seal Ganondorf away until Link is able to gain the power to end him permanently, and to alert the Sages of what will come so they can prepare their tribes accordingly. The events of the game and its previous entry only take place because of her actions during the formation of Hyrule - had she failed to appear, Ganondorf would have utterly destroyed the world during the first war.
• You Have Researched Breathing: It's possible to wear the Hylian Hood with the hood down, in the same way Zelda was wearing it in the introductory sequence. Rather than just being able to lower the hood yourself, though, you first have to complete the Hateno Village election questline, then speak to Cece while wearing one, at which point she'll offer to lower it for you.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already:
  • If you somehow make it to the altar behind the Temple of Time without going through the exit door, the orb of light that would ordinarily spawn there that triggers access to Hyrule below will not spawn. You are thereby forced to traverse the Temple of Time proper with the four heart containers needed to open the back door so the orb can appear.
  • Reaching any of the four main dungeons early before engaging with the associated story quests far enough^note which usually is only possible through careful platforming and abuse of all the Zonai devices you have to your disposal, as usually you get the means to reach the dungeon within the story quest bars you from entering their puzzle. On activating the Zonai door in the middle of each dungeon, you are greeted with a big red X.
  • In the Lightning Temple, the boss lair is situated at the top of the building, so you can get there as easily as using Ascend — but Riju doesn't share your mobility and has to get up there by conventional means. Until you power the elevator so that Riju can join you in the boss arena, the boss will not spawn.
  • If you approach King Dorephan in his hiding place before you require his scales he will be knocked out from his injuries and Muzu will prevent Link from waking him up before you get the intel about needing his help.
  • The last of the temples, the Spirit Temple, can be reached early, but there's nothing you can do there until you resurrect Mineru. In turn, resurrecting Mineru is made difficult by Dragonhead Island being protected by a massive, sight-reducing thunderstorm until you've cleared the previous four temples and progressed the Fifth Sage questline. It's downplayed though, as reaching Dragonhead Island early is possible if you can find a way around the storm, at which point all you need is 10 Heart Containers to open the door.
  • Due to much of the game's story taking place during the current day Hyrule compared to the previous game, it's possible to have Link learn about certain facts and plot points long before he should relative to other plotlines. This ends up raising a question of why Link never thinks to relay these facts and such to characters who are still in the dark when it comes to other plotlines in question.

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