Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Abilities [Explained]

Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom features five helpful abilities in combat and outside of battle. These include the Ultrahand, Ascend, Recall, Fuse, and Autobuild abilities. But there are some additional abilities available in the game. Here are all Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom abilities explained.

Recall

Recall is one of the most resourceful Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom abilities. This ability lets you play around with time, rewinding it to your liking.

Recall doesn’t work on enemies or characters. But it does work wonders with objects. For instance, imagine if a particular block was falling from the ceiling. If you step onto it and use Recall, the block will go back, and so will you.

This ability can also be used in boss fights to give you more time to get a shot in, especially if the boss has a brief vulnerability period.

How To Acquire

Recall can be found in the Temple of Time. You’ll first need to unlock the Ultrahand, Fuse, and Ascend abilities. Then, head to the Temple of Time, and you will trigger a cutscene with Zelda. She will provide you with the Recall ability. What will follow will be a puzzle that requires you to use the ability to progress.

Ultrahand

Ultrahand is a convenient ability that works like a pick-and-place construction ability. It lets you pick up objects from one place and drop them somewhere else. Ultrahand allows you to rotate and flip things, perfect for clearing your way and constructing objects.

Specifically, the Ultrahand ability lets you grab and move objects around the room. It also enables you to rotate items and stick them to other things. It’s different from the Fuse ability in that it doesn’t fuse the items but glues them instead.

How To Acquire

Ultrahand is one of the first abilities you can acquire in Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. First, head to the Temple of Time on Great Sky Island. Here, Rauru will guide you to shrines in the vicinity.

Go to the Ukouh Shrine and step inside. Here, you will find the Ultrahand ability.

Fuse

Fuse is another construction ability that’s highly crucial for progressing in the game. As the name suggests, it allows you to fuse two items. To specify, you can combine your shield or weapon (both melee and arrows) with another weapon, shield, or even a specific material type.

This opens up multiple options for imbuing your weapons with all sorts of damage. The most common use of the Fuse ability is fusing your weapons with elemental damage.

There are many Fuse combos in Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. The best of these are the boss drops. Various bosses, such as the Black Hinox and Battle Talus, drop items you can use to strengthen your weapons. Other combos include fusing Zonai Devices with Zonaite weapons and combining boulders with your sword.

Another thing you should know about Fuse is that you can reverse it and separate the two fused objects. However, the object attached to the main object will be destroyed.

Check out our how to fuse tutorial for a complete Legend of Zelda fusion guide.

How To Acquire

You’ll need to enter the In-isa Shrine to acquire the Fuse ability. Head to the Southwestern part of the Great Sky Isles to locate this. Here, you need to enter the Shrine and acquire the ability.

Sage Abilities

Besides the regular abilities, there are also the Sage abilities. These abilities are courtesy of your Sage companions. While not entirely Link’s abilities, Link can still activate them and cause his Sage companions to act.

If you’re confused, each region provides a companion to guide and aid you in battle. These companions have abilities that you can use to your advantage.

However, Sage abilities require you to get close to the companion to use them. For the most part, this will be a bit tougher. But some boss fights like that with Moragia will rely on Sage abilities alone.

Sage of Fire

Sage of Fire is Yunobo’s signature ability. It allows Yunobo to roll into a ball and catapult toward the target. This ability deals fire damage and is excellent for striking down foes at a distance.

This ability is excellent for exploration if you want to knock down boulders and clear rocks and ore in your way. The Sage of Fire ability is always activated when riding any vehicle with Yunobo.

After completing the Death Mountain and Goron City quests, you can acquire this ability.

Sage of Wind

The Sage of Wind ability is Tulin’s signature move. When activating this ability, Tulin will send out a gust of wind that will damage enemies and knock them back. It’s perfect for clearing multiple enemies at once. But keep in mind that it doesn’t work for the larger enemies.

When exploring, you can use this ability to boost your movement speed when gliding through the air. This removes the hassle of having to fly over long distances.

You’ll need to finish the Rito quest line in Hebra for this ability.

Sage of Lightning

Riju provides you with the Sage of Lightning ability. It is one of the more powerful Sage abilities. This ability generates an electrically charged field around Link, creating a powerful lightning strike if Link uses his arrows from inside the area.

Sage of Lightning can also be used to destroy rocks and multiple ores. However, due to its long cooldown, its exploration use is limited.

You can acquire this ability after you complete the Gerudo Town quest line.

Sage of Water

Sidon’s ability can be acquired right after you complete the Zora’s Domain quest. This ability allows you to create a water bubble around Link that can absorb precisely one hit from any enemy.

It’s a remarkable ability to use as a last resort not to get hit. However, outside of that, it’s pretty limited. For one thing, it can only withstand a single hit before breaking. And for another, any melee weapon attack will instantly break the bubble.

Hence, you’re better off using your arrows for this one. Outside of battle, it can clear away sludge and gunk. Additionally, it’s a good choice for cooling down in specific high-temperature environments.

Sage of Spirit

Lastly, there is the Sage of Spirit ability granted to you by Mineru, the Sage of Spirit. This ability is by far the strongest. It lets you ride Mineru like a mech suit, and you can attach various Zonai Devices to her to increase her resourcefulness.

Since the exact abilities depend on the Zonai Devices you apply, we won’t spoil them here. Additionally, acquiring the Sage of Spiirt ability isn’t an easy task. You’ll need to complete the Fifth Sage quest, which requires you to fight the Seized Construct boss.

Ascend

Ascend is a unique ability that lets you float through ceilings. This makes climbing higher buildings, tall towers, and big mountains a breeze. Of course, Ascend won’t work the same for every hill or building.

Some areas will only allow you to Ascend a certain distance before repositioning. Otherwise, the ability is quite helpful when covering great vertical distances.

How To Acquire

Head to the Southeastern side of the Great Sky Isles and enter the Gutanbac Shrine. The ability is right there that lets you Ascend through the ceiling to complete the Shrine.

Autobuild

Autobuild is an ability that can be seen as an upgrade to the Ultrahand ability. It goes hand in hand with the Ultrahand ability and lets you quickly rebuild any structure as long as you have the materials.

In this way, you don’t have to build the structure manually all over again. Simply use Autobuild to reconstruct it from memory. If you don’t have the necessary resources to rebuild a structure, you will instead use up Zonaite.

How To Acquire

Autobuild can be acquired in the Central Hyrule Depths, specifically in the Great Central Mine. You will see some researchers. Talk to them, and you will eventually acquire the Autobuild ability. A short tutorial will follow along with your first encounter with Master Kohga.

Camera

The Camera ability, as the name suggests, lets you take pictures of items and monuments in your surroundings. This ability is not helpful in battle but is necessary if you want to take pictures and complete the Hyrule Compendium.

How To Acquire

For this, you’ll need to go to Look-Out Landing. Then, go to the first floor of Pura’s building, where you’ll find Josha and Robbie. They will assign you a quest requiring you to acquire the Camera, take a few pictures, and bring them back to Josha.

Amiibo

Amiibo is a non-combat ability that can only be used after acquiring the Legend of Zelda Amiibos. If you’re unfamiliar with them, Amiibos are interactive cards or figurines that you can tap on your Nintendo Switch to unlock new features.

For Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, there are 25 Amiibo figures you can use this ability on. Simply tap them on the Nintendo Switch to receive new and exciting armor, material, and weapons. Some of these include the Fierce Deity Armor and Soldier’s Bow.

How To Acquire

Of course, this ability has to be unlocked in-game too. In Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the Amiibo ability is unlocked immediately after you acquire the Ultrahand ability.

Moreover, the ability is activated by default, and you can scan any Amiibo figures. But alas, you’ll still need to buy a Legend of Zelda Amiibo figure to use this ability. You can get more information about Amiibo figures on Zelda’s official page.

Final Thoughts

Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has a roster of 5 game abilities that you gradually unlock as you progress. These include the Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, Recall, and Autobuild abilities.

Moreover, 5 Sage abilities can be activated by your Sage companions. Additionally, there are two non-combat abilities: the Camera and Amiibo abilities.

If you want to find out how to get the paraglider, check out our Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom paraglider guide.