Unleash the Power of Vehicle Despawn Distance in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

A player of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom stumbled upon a useful trick that significantly increases the distance at which vehicles despawn, thanks to some strategic experimentation. The discovery was quickly shared online, coinciding with another fan's revelation of a valuable trick for taking on the game's final boss. The game's ability to design personalized structures and vehicles has been a highly touted feature, building on the open-ended design of Breath of the Wild. However, implementing this feature on the Switch's hardware posed a challenge for Nintendo, resulting in limitations to the Ultrahand ability, such as a component cap that causes structures with over 21 parts to crumble when players attempt to add on.

The game has a limitation where structures despawn as soon as the player moves away from them. However, a recent discovery by YouTuber Kleric shows that the despawn radius varies greatly between items. This can be advantageous to players since custom-built structures inherit this boundary from their "stickiest" component. Dragon parts in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have a despawn radius of 2,000 meters, which is much higher than the average despawn radius of 200 meters. By attaching a dragon horn, fang, or scale to their contraptions, players can significantly increase the despawn distance of any structure or vehicle. Brightbloom seeds are another option since they have a despawn distance of approximately 610 meters and are more abundant than dragon parts.

According to Kleric's research, it appears that no other items from Tears of the Kingdom have a significant impact on the despawn distance of vehicles and buildings besides mirrors, which despawn at slightly over 200 meters. Additionally, it has been noted that this method of extending the disappearance radius works not only with manually built contraptions using Ultrahand but also with those built using Autobuild.

However, it's important to note that this trick does not prevent Tears of the Kingdom King Gleeok mechs and other aircraft from disappearing mid-flight. This is due to a separate limitation imposed by Nintendo, where certain components such as Zonai Wings have a usage timer of only 60 seconds, even though they can glide without a power source. While these restrictions may be in place for performance reasons, it's possible that the usage timer was implemented to prevent players from remaining airborne indefinitely.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.