One of the most talked about mechanics in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom centers around weapon durability. Pretty much every weapon, bow and shield in the game will wear down as you use it, and they will eventually break. However, it’s kind of hidden how the game does the whole durability thing, so this page will go over how it works.
Durability is still a mechanic in Tears of the Kingdom.
What Causes Durability to Decrease in Tears of the Kingdom?¶
Every weapon, bow and shield in the game has a Base Durability, which is already predetermined. Not every single action in the game will cause your durability to decrease. You will know a piece of equipment has max durability, as when you go into your inventory screen, there will be a little light that shimmers towards the upper right corner of the item’s box. Naturally, swinging a weapon and making contact with an enemy will cause the durability to decrease. However, there are many actions that do not decrease it, such as the following:
- Swinging a weapon and not making contact with anything
- Hitting grass, even with a bladed weapon
- Blunt object hitting a tree
- Performing a Charge Attack that hits nothing
- Turning Zonai objects on and off
There is one exception to the above rules, which pertain to weapons that have gems fused to them. Even if you swing something like a stick with Ruby attached and don’t hit anything, for example, you will be losing durability for that weapon. Also, if you perform a jumping attack with any weapon, you will also lose durability, since you are hitting the ground (even if there’s no enemy nearby). The weapon with the lowest durability is the 
Tree Branch (4), while the one with the highest durability is the 
Lightscale Trident (70).
(1 of 2) You will receive a warning whenever a weapon/shield is about to break.
You will receive a warning whenever a weapon/shield is about to break. (left), The Base, and Total, Durability depends on the item in question. (right)
How Does Fuse Affect Durability in Tears of the Kingdom?¶
So, you have a basic understanding of durability and how it can go down whenever you use it. Tears of the Kingdom added a new ability called 
Fuse, which allows you to attach items to weapons. Doing this can add effects to weapons, but the bigger thing it can do is increase their durability. For the most part, fusing an item to a weapon will add an additional 25 to that weapon’s durability, on top of its Base Durability. However, there are a few weapons that won’t get this bonus, which are as follows:
| Weapon Type | Added Durability |
|---|---|
| Stal Bone Arms | 3 |
| Gerudo Weapons (with Strong Fusion perk) | 5 |
| Torch | 10 |
| Tree Branch | 10 |
| Rusty weapons | 10 |
| Gloom weapons | 10 |
| Royal Guard weapons | 10 |
| Tools (Soup Ladel/Mops/Hoes) | 10 |
With that out of the way, whenever you add an item onto a weapon via Fuse, it will add to that weapon’s Total Durability. This is basically the Base Durability, plus the 25 points (or the above numbers, for those special weapons). So, as an example, the Tree Branch has 4 Base Durability and you attach a 
Bokoblin Horn to it. So, now that Tree Branch will have a Total Durability of 29, meaning it will take 29 hits for the branch to break, instead of just four. As another example, if you fused a Tree Branch with another Tree Branch, then you will still have the same total durability, but the weapon you stuck onto the base weapon will still have its base durability.
That means the second branch will break after four hits, and the base branch will have a reduce total durability of 25 now. Note that the base weapon will revert to its base durability, if nothing is fused to it, so if you used the branch four times with nothing attached to it, the thing will break. If you attached another weapon that has a base durability of 22 (
Gnarled Long Stick, as an example) to the same branch used above, then the fused item will break after 22 hits, leaving the base weapon with only three durability left (triggering the badly damaged warning).
Fusing not only makes the weapon stronger, but will also increase its durability.
Now, if you tried fusing anything to that branch with only three durability left, you won’t get anything out of it, as its Total Durability potential is already all used up. That means three more hits and the branch will break, even if you added a new item to it.
Tips and Tricks for Durability in Tears of the Kingdom¶
You should never really fuse a weapon onto another weapon, as the secondary weapon can break and cut into the total durability of the base weapon. This is especially true once you start gaining access to the stronger weapons. Even fusing something as simple a Bokoblin Horn will increase the durability of the base weapon, and the item you fuse will not break until the weapon breaks. This allows you to go to the Break-a-Part Shop in Tarrey Town, to recover the fused item, should you be using a powerful one. Also, don’t forget that you can feed most weapons to Rock Octoroks to repair them fully, plus get special bonuses added to them.
Sign up
No Comments