The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom features a lot more magic than the wildly popular franchise’s previous iterations, thanks to Link’s brand new, advanced technical companion—the Purah Pad. So, if science-defying gameplay and abilities excite your taste buds, the new Zelda game and its collection of abilities will bring pure joy to your platter.
Besides being able to scan Amiibo objects and access the map, Link can unlock five special abilities intended to help him in the highly adventurous quest to locate Princess Zelda and defeat Hyrule’s newest enemies. With these new powers in hand, Link can fuse objects or stick them together to invent new stuff, fly through roofs, and even rewind time.
That’s not it, however. Link is also entitled to a sixth, not-so-obvious power, but unlocking it requires him to take some extra preparation. Our guide will help you add all of Link’s abilities to your arsenal as you journey through the vast Hyrule map in search of insights.
All of Link’s abilities in Tears of the Kingdom and how to unlock them
To save Hyrule from extinction and help Link locate Zelda, you must strive to unlock his ability wheel made up of eight abilities as early as possible. Getting the first six abilities is easy; all you need to do is complete some stimulating puzzles spread across multiple Shrines in Hyrule’s Great Sky Island region. Before we get into the details, here’s a list of all of Link’s abilities that you can pursue in Tears of the Kingdom:
- Amiibo
- Map
- Recall
- Fuse
- Ultrahand
- Ascend
- Camera
- Autobuild
Amiibo
Link’s ability to scan amiibos for exciting rewards (with certain restrictions) can be unlocked once he lands in Hyrule. The amiibo support is disabled by default, so after you land, open up the System Menu and navigate to Options > Amiibo setting to enable the feature.
Map
The Map ability is pretty simple; you can pull out a detailed map of the Hyrule Kingdom and its neighboring areas. It’s a useful tool built-in to make exploration and traversal easier for you.
Recall
To unlock Link’s first ability, Recall, you’ll need to complete the puzzle presented in the Nachoyah Shrine, located in the southern region of Hyrule’s Great Sky Islands.
Like a portable time machine, Recall grants Link the ability to reverse time on moving objects and rewind actions. It affects only the object it is applied to; the rest of the timeline remains the same. Hence, you can use Recall to reverse unintended actions on objects like falling boulders without any dangerous consequences.
Fuse
You can unlock Fuse by visiting the In-isa Shrine, located in the southwestern region of Hyrule’s Great Sky Islands, and completing the offered puzzle.
As the name suggests, Fuse gives you the ability to combine two items to create a new object. In most cases, you’ll find yourself using this power to craft potent weapons, and the possibilities are limitless. You can fuse just about any item with another, and you can even grant your weapons some magical powers. Interestingly, you can also un-fuse weapons from your inventory, but if you want to preserve your fused weapon, you’ll need to spare some money.
Ultrahand
Visit the Ukouh Shrine to unlock the Ultrahand ability, a powerful tool for Link in Tears of the Kingdom. The Ukouh Shrine is located in the northern region of Hyrule’s Great Sky Islands.
Ultrahand lets you adhere (not fuse) two objects together to create structures or vehicles and is an essential exploration tool for Link. Using this, you can not only grab and glue objects, but also perform several functions on them, including lifting, dropping, rotating, and moving. Like the Fuse ability, Ultrahand allows you to nurture your creativity as you build powerful objects, decode puzzles, and conquer every nook and cranny of Hyrule’s features using it.
Ascend
In Tears of the Kingdom, Link can literally defy gravity and levitate through a cave’s roof to reach the top of a mountain without having to exhaust his stamina—you’ll need to unlock his Ascend ability for this.
Visit the Gutanbac Shrine in the Great Sky Island’s snowy section and complete the challenge to add Ascend to Link’s arsenal.
Related: How many Shrines are in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?
Camera
To get hold of the Camera app in Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll have to complete a side quest. But before that, make sure to complete the tutorial section and collect all of Link’s main abilities as described above.
Head over to Hyrule’s Lookout Landing to meet Purah and Josha. Interact with them to receive the Paraglider and then follow Josha as she hurries off to meet Robbie. Wait for some time until you see the exclamation mark on Josha indicating a side quest.
Talk to Josha to receive the side quest—Camera Work In The Depths—and activate it. Completing this quest will get you the Camera app, which you can run on Link’s Purah Pad to capture and store pictures. The Camera app is essential for completing certain quests in Tears of the Kingdom.
Autobuild
The final ability that you can unlock is the Autobuild, which lets Link bypass Ultrahand’s manual labor by using his creative experience and blueprints or by spending Zonaite—a rare resource.
After unlocking the Camera app, follow the same questline involving Josha and Robbie to unlock the “A Mystery in the Depths” quest, which will eventually get you the Autobuild ability. You’ll need to locate and enter the Great Abandoned Central Mine, a temple-like structure. Locate the Researcher and the Steward Construct to get the Autobuild ability.
Note that you’ll need to complete a few challenges inside the Central Mine, including winning a boss battle against Master Kohga, to complete the quest.
How to use Link’s abilities in Tears of the Kingdom
After you unlock an ability, it will appear in the ability wheel. You can pop it out by pressing the L Key; use the right stick of your Nintendo Switch to select the ability you want to wield. Note that pulling out the ability wheel will pause the game, which I found to be helpful in a bunch of scenarios. It gives you enough time to chalk out a plan.
Once you unlock all of Link’s abilities in Tears of the Kingdom, you can face Hyrule’s mysteries and dangers without batting an eyelid, explore every corner of the world, rescue Zelda, and save Hyrule once again.
