Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: 7 essential crafts you need to know

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, potential is limitless. Thanks to Link's Fuse ability, players can combine any item with a weapon or shield to create new objects with special abilities. I can't even begin to count how many combinations are in the game considering that almost any resource or object can be grafted on to a wide range of tools. The possibilities feel infinite.

With so many options, you might find yourself hit with a little bit of decision paralysis. You’ll always be rewarded for your creativity, but which combos are actually useful? Here's a little bit of a cheat sheet to get you started as you explore Hyrule. These seven crafts result in the most fundamental tools you’ll use throughout Tears of the Kingdom. They’ll solve basic problems, allowing you to easily mine for materials, explore dark caves and more. Start with these crafts and let your imagination spin off from there.

This is a simple, but important recipe. When you fuse a rock onto any weapon in your inventory, it’ll essentially turn into a hammer. And though you may be tempted to clobber enemies with it, resist that urge. Hammers are a fundamental tool that are used to break boulders around Hyrule. That’ll let Link find materials, mine for Zonite, and open entrances to caves with ease. You’ll always want to make sure you have one on hand at all times. If you want a more durable hammer that’ll last longer and break rocks quickly, strap a metal spike ball onto a weapon to create a much more powerful morning star.

One of the first crafts shown when Nintendo revealed Link's Fuse ability, homing arrows are among the most useful tools you can create in Tears of the Kingdom. By strapping a Keese Eye onto an arrow, you can fire a shot blindly and have it track an enemy — something that's very much needed for flying enemies. Perhaps you can guess what might happen if you use an Electric or Fire Keese Eye. And while you’re at it, try a Keese Wing with an arrow too, which will increase a shot's range.

All of Link's classic arrow types can be replicated in Tears of the Kingdom with some clever item use. The most important recipe you’ll want to know, though, is the one for bomb arrows. Bombs are a precious resource that can be found underground and in caves. When strapped to an arrow, they can be fired at enemies for massive damage (you can melt difficult bosses in a few shots with some well-placed hits). More importantly, bomb arrows can be used to blow up rocks more efficiently than a hammer. You’ll just want to use them wisely since they can be a little hard to come by.

If you only take one idea from this article, let it be this one. When Link straps a Zonai rocket to his shield and then holds that shield out, it’ll function like a jetpack. He’ll shoot up high into the air before it breaks. It's an unbelievably powerful combination, as it can allow Link to bypass entire puzzles, easily travel between sky islands, stealthily break into enemy camps, and much more. Say you’re exploring and it starts raining, preventing Link from climbing slippery surfaces. A jetpack will solve that dilemma by letting Link bypass climbing. You can really break exploration wide open with this, so make sure you familiarize yourself with how it works and how high it’ll take you.

When you first enter the underground area of Tears of the Kingdom, it's entirely pitch black. Link can light it up by finding lightroots, but he’ll need to light his path in other ways between using those devices. The easiest way to do that is by throwing a brightbloom seed, but here's a helpful tip: strap one to the tip of an arrow instead. That’ll let you light up areas much farther off, which will prevent Link from having to throw a new one every few yards. Fire off a few in all directions before you start exploring the depths to get a better sense of the terrain around you.

This one's just plain fun. Try strapping a Zonai flame emitter to a shield and raising it to an enemy. You’ll create a full-on flamethrower that sets enemies ablaze. Attaching other Zonai devices to shields can be just as useful too. Put a fan on your shield, for instance, and you’ll blow enemies away. With tons of different Zonai tools to choose from, including freeze rays and time bombs, you can get incredibly creative with Link's arsenal, allowing him to attack by defending. Try some for yourself and see what happens.

A lot of weapon combinations tend to result in just a more powerful — and much sillier-looking — version of what you’re holding. But there's one type of fusion you’ll want to keep in mind when forging new weapons. Stones like rubies and topaz can be incredibly useful, as they’ll give any weapon an elemental power. Throw a ruby on a sword for instance and it’ll launch a fireball with each swing. While that works with any weapon, you’ll mostly want to combine stones with magic scepters to create the proper rods Link gets in his older adventures. Try playing around with stones each time you get a new one to research its effect on a weapon.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out now on Nintendo Switch.