If there are two key properties weapons in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom possess, it’s their attack power and their durability. Attack power is pretty self-explanatory, the more attack power a weapon has, the more damage it’ll deal, and while you can find base weapons with variable attack power, using the Fuse ability to empower your weapons with various materials you can find is perhaps the best way to get more powerful weapons. Even a humble stick fused with a decent material will become a fairly potent spear or sword. The other common weapon property, its durability, is a persistent liability that will ensure you’re always in need of stronger weapons. Almost every weapon you pick up will break with usage, and with distressing regularity, and this will ensure you’re constantly in need of new base weapons and fusion materials. This page will cover some convenient sources of early-game weapons and fusion materials in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

How to Fuse Weapons and Materials in Tears of the Kingdom¶

You’ll gain the Fuse ability early in the game, during the tutorial section on Great Sky Island after clearing the In-isa Shrine. This ability allows you to fuse materials found throughout the game onto an equipped weapon - just equip the desired weapon and press then press either to fuse a highlighted material to your equipped weapon or to fuse said material to your equipped shield. You can also fuse materials to arrows, just take aim with your bow by holding and press the button to bring up a list of fusion materials. Fusing materials to weapons generally increases the weapon’s attack power - you can see each the attack power boost each item gives by looking at said item in your inventory.

Where to Find Powerful Fusion Materials in Tears of the Kingdom¶

Most common junk will add at least +1 attack power when fused, so if you want to go hit an enemy with an apple fused to a stick, you’ll derive some small benefit out of it, but other, more suitable materials can be found, including horns, fangs, talons and tails. In addition to attack power, some items - like gems - may bestow elemental properties to your weapons. For the purposes of this page, however, we’re going to focus on materials you can start farming early in the game, ideally with a mix of potency and ease-of-farming. Most of the time these materials are going to come from enemies, so you’ll need to fight to get weapons and materials… which you’ll use to fuse more/better weapons and materials. The general idea is to cheese encounters whenever possible and use lower-quality weapons to avoid putting wear and tear on your better weapons, saving those for more powerful enemies, quests, shrines, and other areas where retreat may not be possible and your martial prowess will be more severely tested.

Where to Find Blue Bokoblin Horns¶

A step up from common Bokoblins, Blue Bokoblins can be found distressingly close to Lookout Landing. They hit much harder than Bokoblins and can be quite dangerous to characters fresh off Great Sky Island. That said, they’re relatively fragile - even with weak weapons you’ll still probably trounce one in two to three combos, and they tend to drop Blue Bokoblin Horns when defeated, which grants a respectable +7 attack power. This will take a 4 attack power stick and turn it into a worthy enough weapon. Easy enough to defeat in single combat, groups can also be somewhat easily dispatched if you soften them up with arrows or, better yet, detonate an explosive barrel near them. They also drop Spiked Boko Bows, which have a base attack power of 12 - a fine early game upgrade in itself.

Where to Find Lizalfos Horns¶

More or less on-par with Blue Bokoblins in terms of strength, these lizardfolk can be found in the wetlands surrounding Central Hyrule - several lurk on platforms in the Lanayru Wetlands, to the east of Central Hyrule. Lizalfos Horns grant +8 attack power, while Lizalfos Tails gran +6 attack power.

Where to Find Soldier Construct II Horns¶

You’ll first encounter Soldier Constructs on Great Sky Island, but for the sake of linear game progression, these are the weakest automata the Zonai had defending their legacy. Stronger variants can be found - especially on other sky islands, and they yield superior materials when bested. The Soldier Construct II will drop Soldier Construct II Horns, which give +8 attack power when fused onto weapons.

Where to Find Black Bokoblin Horns¶

Far more dangerous than even Blue Bokoblins, Black Bokoblins are guaranteed to one-shot new players, and are sturdy enough to withstand considerable punishment. For those reasons, we normally wouldn’t advise tackling one early, especially if you can’t find a loner. That said, there’s some incentive to pick off a Black Bokoblin, if you can - Black Bokoblin Horns yield +17 attack power when fused, making for a mighty fusion material, indeed. They can generally be found further afield than Blue Bokoblins.

Where to Find Bokoblin Arms¶

Fusion materials are all well and good, but what about weapons? Specifically, weapons you can use to thrash some of the aforementioned enemies to claim their fusion materials without worrying about squandering in the process? For that, we turn to Bokoblin Arms, which are dropped by skeletal Bokoblins that can be found terrorizing Hyrule at night. These creatures dig themselves up from the ground and attack relentlessly, despite the fact that they’re actually quite fragile - a single hit from most weapons is enough to send them rattling apart, but you’ll need to also destroy their skull once the body is dispersed to keep them from re-forming. Still, two hits isn’t bad, and you’ll obtain Bokoblin Horns from the fight, which are… well, something.

What we’re really after, however, are Bokoblin Arms, the writhing arms of skeletal Bokoblin that remain animated even after their host is destroyed. While incredibly fragile, these weapons boast a base attack power of 20 - use them against Blue Bokoblins and Lizalfos to dispatch them more easily and gain their superior weapons and materials, and when these Bokoblin Arms break after a few hits… well, you’ll have traded up, so no worries. Skeletal Bokoblins can also drop Spiked Boko Bows.

Best Early Game Weapon and Fuse Material Farming Spot in Tears of the Kingdom¶

Now that we’ve established what we’re looking for in terms of fusion materials and enemies, wouldn’t it be grand if there was a place where we could get all of those things in one go? As it turns out, we’re in luck! East and slightly south of Lookout Landing you’ll find the Lanayru Wetlands, upon which are some platforms where Lizalfos, Blue Bokoblins and Soldier Construct II enemies dwell. You can also find Skeletal Bokoblin roaming the shores at night, making this the perfect area to look for disposable weapons to use to farm fusion materials.

If that’s not good enough, you can find [Jonasu Shrine] nearby, along the southern shore of Mercay Island, the largest and one of the northern-most islands in these wetlands. Activate it and you’ll have an ideal fast travel point for farming these ruins. Even better, if you head northeast from this shrine you’ll find a small bay, where the current will usually sweep items that fall into the water. Blue Bokoblins and Soldier Constructs will both be defeated if knocked into the water, and shooting these enemies in the head will quite frequently knock them back and into the water, making it fairly economical to dispatch them from afar. Just be sure to follow the current back to this bay to pick up any weapons and materials they dropped after falling into the water.

Finally - because this area needed more going on - there’s a cave overlooking the bay where water-bound loot will wash up. Inside this cave are some Blue Bokoblins and a Black Bokoblins. Normally a fight we wouldn’t want to pick, but they’ve foolishly decided to store explosive kegs in their cave. One fire arrow (fuse a Fire Fruit to an arrow - there’s even a Fire Fruit bush nearby) will detonate the barrels in the cave, killing the Blue Bokoblins and severely wounding the Black Bokoblin. You’ll still have to put the Black Bokoblin down yourself, but he’s much more manageable when he’s wounded and isolated.

Just return to the Lanayru Wetlands every time a [Blood Moon] signals that your enemies have respawned and you can make another run - you should end up with around a dozen decent early game fusion materials (Blue Bokoblin Horns, Lizalfos Horns, Soldier Construct Horn IIs, etc), a smattering of weapons to fuse them onto and possibly a Black Bokoblin Horn. Not a bad haul for a few minutes spent running through one area.