Tears of the Kingdom Fuse Mechanic Inspires Monstrous Fan Creations
Nothing is sacred.
We finally got a solution to weapon durability in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but at what cost? Developers supposedly fixed Breath of the Wild’s most controversial system with one of Link’s new powers called Fuse. Instead of attacking enemies with simple sticks and rocks, you can fuse them together into more powerful weapons.
Zelda Producer Eiji Aonuma demonstrated the Fuse ability in the latest Tears of the Kingdom gameplay reveal, where he combined a stick and a rock to create a “makeshift hammer.” As seen in the footage, the makeshift hammer withstood many more attacks than the stick he used before it. So fusing items can improve a weapon’s strength and durability. Fuse also doubles as a way to concoct creative solutions for traveling across Hyrule from its rivers to its skies. You can use it to craft boats, hovercrafts, and other vehicles for traversing the open world.
The possibilities are endless, but also not confirmed. Therefore, fans have plenty of creative freedom to joke around and hypothesize about the combinations they could try in the game. Some also interpreted this to mean that you can fuse items to create some of the most cursed-looking equipment ever seen in a video game.
As seen in the Breath of the Wild subreddit and other gaming-related subreddits, fans have been fusing various objects with photo-editing tools or drawing them straight from their imaginations. One Redditor committed to posting a new weapon or otherwise fused object every day until Tears of the Kingdom’s May 12 launch. They started off with a fish-embellished boomerang and most recently showed off a drawn image of Link riding a “gnarly skate shield.” Another user had a more lewd imagination, posting a piece of racy fanart featuring Link posing near a tree trunk between two circular fans.
On Twitter, Zelda fans have already started making memes about silly Master Sword variations and makeshift arrows. SetiSpahhetti, an illustrator and animator, posted an amusing fusion of a megaphone with a goose, one of the series’ staple enemies. Meanwhile, anime-savvy gamers joked about Fullmetal Alchemist references that fans have yet to recover from.
Aonuma only presented a brief snippet of possible fusions in Tears of the Kingdom alongside other powers like Rewind and Ascend. It seemed like any fusible item would prompt the player to press the Y button when possible, but it’s unclear if every item will have a helpful effect when fused with another. Aonuma fused a mushroom with a shield, for goddesses’ sake.
That’s something that fans will have to experiment with when the game officially releases. Then it’ll be time for another round of cursed fusion weapons and vehicles to hit social media.
“It's dangerous to go alone!” Check out more of Inverse’s Tears of the Kingdom coverage:
- THE INVERSE REVIEW: Tears of the Kingdom Is the Best Nintendo Switch Game Ever Made
- Tears of the Kingdom’s Best New Mechanic Could Change the Series Forever
- Why Zelda Speedrunners Plan to Take It Slow With Tears of the Kingdom
- Tears of the Kingdom Doubles Down on Breath of the Wild’s Best Inspiration
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