Here's how you can increase weapon durability in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

With the release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the ‘weapon durability in video games’ discourse has raised its head on Twitter once again.

Whether you’re a fan of the controversial mechanic or hate it with the passion of a burning Fire Fruit, we can all agree that a weapon breaking during an intense combat moment is far from ideal. However, Tears of the Kingdom gives you a few ways to (slightly) increase weapon durability.

How to increase weapon durability

By combining items using the brand-new Fuze mechanic in Tears of the Kingdom, you can make your weapons last for longer.

To begin with, you should avoid using decayed items as the base. This is hard to avoid at the beginning of the game, but as you progress it’ll become easier to find sturdier weapons.

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In stark contrast to Breath of the Wild, wooden weapons have a higher amount of durability compared to metal-based weapons. Ganon’s gloom has spread throughout Hyrule, affecting metal weapons with decreased durability. But, for the most part, wooden weapons aren’t very powerful.

If you want a nice balance between power and durability, make sure to pick up some Zonai weapons, which are unaffected by gloom, in the Sky Islands.

Diamonds are very valuable when it comes to weapon durability. For example, you could fuse a Zonite sword with a Diamond for increased durability.

What is weapon durability?

In case you’re Korok-core and you’ve been hiding under a rock, let’s define what weapon durability in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is.

All weapons (yes, even the Master Sword) in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have a hidden counter that tracks how many times you’ve successfully landed a hit on an enemy or interactive object (trees, prey, etc). Once the number of times you’ve used your weapon exceeds this number, your weapon will break, exploding into nothing.

The fanbase has been torn on this mechanic. The short lifespan of some of the best weapons made people feel anxious about using them, and frustrated when they broke. Others loved the incentive to find new weapons and the tension it added to battles.

Can you check your weapon durability?

There's no way to see precisely how many more hits your weapon will last. However, you can see if they are close to breaking by entering your inventory. If your weapon is flashing red, that means it’s close to breaking.

This is important to keep an eye on because any materials you’ve fused with the weapon will also break. Pelison in Tarrey Town can help you save rarer materials like useful Diamonds. 

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You'll also get a notification pop-up when you unsheathe a weapon that's close to breaking.

Can you reset a weapon's durability?

No. There is no way to reset a weapon's durability in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. Un-fuzing items in Tarrey Town will not reset the degradation level of your items, nor will it replace them with a new one.

The only way to replace a weapon is to find a new one.

For more Zelda Tears of the Kingdom guides, keep reading GGRecon.