Engineering Marvels Unveiled in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

A player with a keen eye made a surprising discovery in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. They found evidence that one of Link's companions has the ability to impact the integrity of custom-built vehicles, which could potentially affect various playstyles. This new find adds to the recent innovation of the Tears of the Kingdom air brake system that was recently revealed online. However, be warned of mid-game gameplay spoilers ahead. In this sequel, players are rewarded with actual champions from dungeon-like temples instead of just champion abilities like in Breath of the Wild. These champions, including Yunobo, have unique abilities and can accompany Link on his adventures throughout Hyrule. Yunobo's ability is to curl into a ball and smash through enemies and destructible objects. Once unlocked, Yunobo can act as a makeshift cannon on any vehicle Link pilots.

A recent video posted by Reddit user RandomWordsRhino challenges the assumption that companion avatars in Tears of the Kingdom are weightless apparitions that players can simply run through. The video shows the player's minimalist hoverbike becoming imbalanced whenever Yunobo is mounted at the front, suggesting that the avatar does have some weight. Interestingly, firing Yunobo in the air immediately straightens the aircraft, indicating that the added weight comes from either Yunobo himself or the Stone Smasher on his back. While both Yunobo and his weapon are rendered with the same translucent filter, the Tears of the Kingdom engine spawns the weapon as a separate entity, as evidenced by the Purah Pad's camera recognizing it as a Hyrule Compendium entry if the player takes a picture of Yunobo.

Players who frequently use lightweight vehicles should consider disabling Yunobo to increase their mobility. To do this, they need to interact with the Solemn vow of Yunobo in the Key Items section of their inventory. However, if players have already found enough Sage's Wills to make Yunobo too useful to permanently drop, they can easily re-enable him whenever they exit their vehicles. Another issue with the companion mechanic is that some Tears of the Kingdom players have suggested a UI change that would make companion abilities accessible at all times, replacing the current press-A system that can often be frustrating.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on Nintendo Switch.