How to aim the bow with gyro controls in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

It's a Nintendo specialty.

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There are a lot of recurring controls and mechanics between Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. One of those is the ability to aim the bow using your controller or the Nintendo Switch itself. While it can be a useful and immersive tool, some players have issues with it when they play these Zelda games for the first time.

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Here’s all the information you need to know about how to best aim your bow with or without gyro controls in Tears of the Kingdom.

Best ways to use gyro controls when aiming your bow in Tears of the Kingdom

Gyro controls on the Switch seem to heavily divide players, and there’s nothing else really like them in other systems. The gyro controls will likely work best when in handheld mode, but they work similarly when the Joy-Cons are separated from the screen. Just remember that the gyro controls are based on how you move the controllers from when you first start aiming, and you’ll pretty much know all you need to.

Related: How to fuse items with arrows in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

This applies to multiple situations where Link might have a zoomed-in view of the world. I found them most useful when looking through the Purah Pad’s viewfinder or the large telescope at the Looking Point where you first find Purah in Tears of the Kingdom. It’s just a way that helps you make smaller movements and increases immersion, but some players find it a bit annoying. For those people, you can disable the feature in your game’s settings.

How to disable motion controls in TotK

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In TOTK‘s settings, the gyro controls are called motion controls, but it’s a simple toggle to disable the feature. You can disable the feature by doing the following:

  • Press the “+” button on the right Joycon
  • Go into the options menu
  • Set the “Aim with motion controls” to disabled

This will ensure that you’ll only aim with the joystick, similar to how other games do it outside of Nintendo.

Author
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Christian Harrison
Christian is a freelance writer of five years who's been with Dot Esports for over 15 months covering Fortnite, general gaming, and news. Some of his favorite games include Yakuza 0, The Witcher III, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Inscryption.