So, Does Tears of the Kingdom Fix the Weapon Breakage Issue?

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Not everyone liked Breath of the Wild's breakable weapons, and Tears of the Kingdom has not done away with the concept. But does the new "fuse" mechanic help alleviate the issue?
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[@ArloStuff]

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[@okamicheems5538]

When the comment is pinned

[@alek8409]

😱thank you arlo

[@zgiffish]

when the comment is from a day ago but the video came out today⁉️⁉️

[@agcrazystudios5199]

Hi Arlo! You’re the best KZbinr ever!

[@spiderplant]

I'm sorry i can't watch yet, I still haven't played the game!

[@headfangs]

I love that "fuse" gives you a reason to beat increasingly strong groups of bad guys. in BotW I'd often just avoid fighting because the rewards weren't great, but being able to use the horns and claws to make great weapons means I often go out of my way to beat them up.

[@wave1090]

Yeah, in BOTW i avoided them because fighting them usually meant breaking my good weapons and having to replace them with whatever mediocre stuff those monsters had.

[@RandyNgelale]

"I used the lynel horns to farm the lynel horns" - Thanos

[@willbates8464]

This this this. A real reason for defeating any mob really

[@Allen.Christian]

Exactly. It is the core reason I've engaged with the combat this time around when I generally didn't in BotW, and I'm someone who loves combat.

[@Radien]

In theory, Breath of the Wild gave you incentive to fight stronger enemies by having them drop stronger weapons, but this wasn't a reliable reward. Strong enemies usually came armed with crappier weapons than you could find lying around, and it was always 1 enemy = 1 weapon. Or sometimes zero. BotW's armor upgrade system gave incentive through permanent rewards, but it felt more like a laundry list for finding enemy types. That's less interesting.

[@earlyriser03]

“70 hours and I’ve nearly beat my first dungeon!” I felt that in my soul.

[@Irish_Enderman]

I'd beaten at least 2/3 by that point and I thought I was going slow lol Probably due to my experience in BotW that I was able to go so quickly

[@earlyriser03]

@@Irish_Enderman I played BOTW too and I was STILL regularly enticed by wanderlust. Nintendo did a fantastic job making Hyrule feel fresh…a second time!

[@Irish_Enderman]

@@earlyriser03 I completely agree, every location felt knew despite being the same map, but I was just really focused on completing the story

[@PoisonFlower765]

Gonna be honest, I'm 15 hours in and beat my first temple half the game ago lol.

[@KairuHakubi]

the annoying part is that, and then 130 hours later "okay, 200 hours in, and I feel like i'm not even half done! ... oh wait i've done four dungeons... when did that happen?"

[@patrickshaw411]

The durability mechanic never bothered me except for one thing. In BotW it was very easy to lose weapons and get only like a wooden stick. More often then not, taking out a monster camp was not worth the trouble, but every time I get a monster horn in TotK, it feels like progress!

[@gigas115]

I was playing a bit of Master Mode in BOTW leading up to the release of TOTK, and one of the worst parts of early MM is that many of the weapons that the monsters are carrying can’t even defeat one other enemy. Like, Black/Silver Bokoblins could take a full Dragonbone Boko Club (including throwing the club on the last hit) and still be good on health, and Blue/Black enemies are all over the place in MM, without much better weapons to compensate. A little later on, since I knew how to fight Lynels (bullet time headshot and mount takes no durability) I could fight one despite having like eight to ten hearts and no real armor upgrades, I got my hands on Lynel gear and that stuff can clear full camps without much issue. Basically, the high and low end weapons of botw were leagues apart, meanwhile totk lets each weapon shine its own way.

[@user1point0]

maybe the reason you don't get better weapons is cuz you avoid fighting the monsters that you can steal them from

[@gigas115]

@@user1point0 More of what I was pointing out is, because both damage /and/ durability get higher as the weapons get better, there's really not much reason to work with low-end weapons since the high-end weapons can be snowballed off the Lynels if you know where to find them. Outside of master mode, I guess it's not as big of an issue, but it still means that there's no reason to use the low-end weapons. This is because the high-damage weapons last so much longer since they take less hits to defeat other monsters, and just plain have more durability overall. Tears of the Kingdom fixes this in a way by making it so that even the low-end weapons can be plenty strong, despite having relatively low durability. On top of that, the Zora, Gerudo, Royal, Royal Guard, and Goron weapons each have close enough stats that it's not a problem to trade one out for another when they do break. The stand-out weapons are the champion weapons and the older-generation weapons, like the Biggoron's Sword. These weapons /are/ powerful, but only one can be in the inventory at a time, (unless you dupe them) so there's good reason to pick up other weapons, if only to fill up the rest of the player's inventory.

[@KairuHakubi]

@@gigas115 yeah early-game was the part that got so many people annoyed. and it's clear what they were going for, the early weapons are on this ancient uninhabited plateau, they're all rusty and crummy and break easily, so you feel like a castaway making do with flotsam on a desert island. That's great... but just like Trial of the Sword, they did not properly balance it for master mode. at all. in TotK the thing is, that situation lasts, for an in-story reason. the early crummy weapons you get, you'll still be finding those everywhere, and they don't get much better. the pristine ones you can find are still almost always beginner low-tier weapons even wayy late.

[@midgetydeath]

@@user1point0 Hey now, it's not stealing! It's finding!

[@origamiswami6272]

The biggest change I see with the Fuse system is that it moves your limit on cool weapons from the Weapons tab to the Materials tab. In BotW I can only have so many flame swords, and each one I have means I can have one less lightning sword. In TotK, I can have 999 fire-breath lizalfos horns and 999 electric lizalfos horns AT THE SAME TIME and create swords as needed.

[@radityapoerwanto7018]

Yeah, the moment i stop hoarding mats. Weapons breakage become fun. I actually cant wait to break my weapons so I got some spots for new fuse weapons.

[@Capris9x]

Ok but you still need a weapon in your weapons tab in order to fuse anything.

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

@@Capris9x Yeah, but in BotW I had to travel to specific places to get more Flame Blades. In TotK if I have enough fire-breath lazalfos horns I can stick one on a damned tree branch if I want. Yeah I'd still have to farm the horns, but as was said earlier, they don't take up a weapon slot so I can make one when I need it.

[@creamking3569]

Not that it even matters because the game is so fucking easy. I enjoyed the game but my only problem was the difficulty. I guess its designed with children in mind so can’t be too hard but the side stuff should have been more challenging. Lynels are so easy now since the royal guard claymore shreds them at low durability. Gleeoks were interesting until I figured I can just fuze a keece eyeball to a 5 shot bow. Moldugas are a piss take, hinox hardly try to cover their eyeball now, re deads can’t freeze you in place so their slowness just makes them a joke, like likes actually just let you kill them. Gloom hands < ancient guardians (just climb something or glide over them and they vanish), moblins will seperate bokoblins from the horde for you literally just delivering them to get stunlocked by you. The most dangerous enemy is probably a construct with a flame thrower but my boi sidon has the power of h20 and anime on his side. The game is impressive but has nothing on elden ring imho. Edit: oh and the frox is just a more self sabotaging stone talus that likes to inhale bombs.

[@Mr.Scott86]

​@@creamking3569 bro the game is not meant to be extremely difficult like elden ring, they are completely different types of games trying to do different things it's odd to compare them, instead compare totk to other zelda games

[@Will_Parker]

My only issue with TotK was that the champion abilities were SOOO much better in BotW and the combat felt slightly off because it was designed with the Sages in mind.

[@InvaderTan1]

Hard agree on this! I can't tell you how many times I spent the Gibdo Queen boss fight chasing after Riju to activate her thunder ability. It should be designed as a UI ability. It's annoying having to chase after and interact with the sages.

[@1996MartinsMatheus]

the AoE shock ability in botw killed some of the game for me. it trivialized all the fun out of the combat

[@natesamadhi33]

its so annoying trying to activate the sages while they run away, and i end up activating something else entirely

[@jacobweeks777]

What made the Champion abilities in BotW so good was that they were very intuitive and easy to use, since the buttons you press to activate them correspond to similar actions that you use during normal gameplay: Hold X (jump) to use Revali's gale, hold Y (attack) to use Urbosa's Fury, and hold ZL (defend) to use Daruk's Protection. TotK has you chase down the specific companion you want, and then press A, the generic interact button that is tied to many different actions in the game - including each of the Sages - which makes for a much more obtuse player experience.

[@UnwrittenSpade]

Right the only thing I HATE are the champions I always accidentally activate them especially tulin at the WORST time

[@Intelligencer44]

I can agree with the feeling of not being worried about your weapons, the only downside is that armour enhancing also consumes those materials, so careless use of your resources will be costly if you want to enhance some of the sets. Had to learn it the hard way.

[@busharp4707]

I just killed literally everything I ran into so I never ran into that problem, but I know I'm the weird one for killing everything

[@TheTwistedTreant526]

Just dupe it lmao

[@maxv9464]

​@@TheTwistedTreant526 no lmao

[@rimurutempest8833]

@@TheTwistedTreant526 doupe no more?

[@jorgeddls]

@@busharp4707 i killed everything aswell and still needed materials, like i killed every hinox ive encountered every blood moon and still struggled to get one armor to lvl 3

[@liltrashpanda174]

I think the rock octorok repair system and the un-fuse shop in Tarrytown also played a huge role in improving the weapon durability system, because now you _could_ keep a weapon from breaking forever if you really wanted to. And I think the amount of effort and resources required for that is pretty reasonable.

[@spyroschristoulakis6296]

I know! I have set down a Travel Medallion near some Octoroks and another one right in front of the Goron kid in Tarrey Town. I've been using this effortlessly all the time; it's amazing!

[@6950chenzo]

Was going to say this 100% helps

[@lordofthepatrick]

Can't repair the unique weapons though

[@kitsunefuyu5972]

@@lordofthepatrick No, but you _can_ buy them from Bargainer statues.

[@Mightylcanis]

@@lordofthepatrick You actually can, fuse them to a weapon or shield that rock octoroks WILL repair, and it will repair both the base weapon and the one that's fused on top of it! Weirdly, they will repair the Hylian Shield, so you can use that, or you can literally just go find some sticks or tree branches and use those (NOT in the hotter areas of Death Mountain, though). I recommend using a normal weapon/shield you want to repair anyway, just to kill two birds with one stone.

[@tyleus2510]

I love throwing weapons as they break and the fight gets more intense! It's really fun to just think on the fly and use everything at your disposal

[@AzureRook]

It’s astounding that repairing weapons w/ rock octorocks is a hidden feature, but it’s made Death Mountain easily the most frequented areas when it was my least favorite in BotW

[@rightwing707]

They could give royal ones in BotW as well if you fed them a rusty one.

[@AzureRook]

@@rightwing707 even that was something the player would only know if it happened by accident like on Eventide Island, I didn’t even think about keeping rusty weapons in TotK because of Royal weapons being decayed

[@jkfndhc]

I kinda love the octorocks though, early game you don’t know about it so it doesn’t effect your play through but later on when it gets more annoying you find out about it and can use them. Personally all my bows are about to break because I’m going to repair them all because I’d rather not fight a lynel and the gloom hands again

[@AzureRook]

@@jkfndhc unfortunately I don’t think you can repair the Demon King bow w/ rock octorocks

[@jkfndhc]

@@AzureRook oh…

[@213kidangel]

i also think it was a huge mistake to not be able to fuse swords in menu (without dropping the fuse item on the ground) - it really slows down the action excitement.

[@Giokai]

I think something like this on the other hand would have broken the gameplay especially for those who can't stand that even during the most important battles it's possible to eat at any moment or even teleport. Partially this problem has been solved with the Depths since only if you have specific food you can heal yourself. But imagine if during the fight you even have the possibility to choose the right material to prepare yourself. Imagine you're fighting a Stone Talus and you don't have a hammer weapon; it would be enough to fuse the Grublin horns in the inventory and in this way you would break the game entirely. You would constantly have the right solution to any problem.

[@213kidangel]

@@Giokai i see those as separate categories - i think enemies should require more specific tooling, i would make it so that power food doesn’t override elixirs (meaning you can eat high attack bananas while enjoying a speed elixir) although this would make it easier, i would somehow limit the time in the large main eat/weapons menu and force the player to use the speed menu where they can eat or fuse within the speed menu. it forces the player to play more and pause less while increasing the excitement and anticipation which should increase fun.

[@DunantheDefender]

I also liked how base weapons have some abilities, and then fusing with monster bits allows you to make lots of crazy new weapons. Like, fuse a Lynel part with a weapon that grants a huge bonus when wet or when you're on one heart and you can have MASSIVELY POWERFUL weapons.

[@kennyholmes5196]

Or when flurry rushing! Makes Link's ability to use "bullet time" quite a bit more valuable.

[@jebroiroij2176]

I like that because it gives you a reason to use literally anything other than royal weapons lol

[@DunantheDefender]

@@jebroiroij2176 yup. Also, I'm the sort who likes having a mix of weak and strong weapons around because the enemies are a lot more mixed. And I hate using powerful weapons on weak enemies.

[@Saben.C-Spoon]

SPOILERS FOR ARMOR SETS If you want to use the Knights weapons at full power, you can even use the magic armor you get from Kolton so that you bleed rupees instead of health and just stay one one heart infinitely

[@zophyissleepy]

And entire weapon classes have a reason to exist in this game. In BoTW, gerudo weapons, except maybe the gerudo bow, were absolutely terrible but now when you fuse a powerful thing to a gerudo scimitar, spear, or claymore, it doubles the item's power or zora weapons which were also super useless are now way better. Mipha's spear is probably one of the best weapons in the game for dps imo

[@diegodoesstuff86]

One thing I especially like now is when you get good monster parts you have a choice. You could attach it to your most powerful base weapon for an absolute killing machine that will break after a couple enemies, OR you could attach it to a weapon with much lower base damage, but has higher durability

[@evilparadigm]

I love farming bokoblin arms and fusing them for a full inventory of glass cannon weapons!

[@Patrick-ng1vg]

I think something that would help a lot with weapons would be dedicated tool slots for axe/hammer/fan for simple world use.

[@moomanchu608]

This

[@ryanscott1680]

I think this takes some of the fun outta it, especially with the heavy emphasis on zonai devices. And you can always just defuse a weapon and stick another thing onto it

[@jaysonmoore5166]

This is a great idea. I think the fan may be a bit too situational, especially considering all of the zonai devices. However, having a hammer, that's just for mining, and an axe, that's just for tree cutting, would make the system perfect. That's the only time in TotK where I'm bothered by weapon durability. Combat rewards use of durability with new parts, and new weapons. Mining and tree chopping doesn't. What's worse, is that we're seeing people use the Master Sword the same they did in BotW (before the trials). Just as an "infinite" harvesting tool. Why would the devs want to relegate a weapon that is so iconic to the role of what is essentially a letter opener? It makes no sense. I think what you're projecting here would definitely fix that

[@masteric123]

Yes

[@Yipper64]

that's quality of life stuff, but a good idea nontheless. I mean not even dedicated tool slots, just being able to "sort by type" in the menu would be similar enough, and work with the systems the game already has.

[@Aldrnari956]

I’m in the camp that likes the weapon durability system in BotW, but I always felt like the weapons were too fragile. Durability across the board needed to be doubled or tripled in some cases. Either that or a repair mechanic where other weapons could be scrapped to fix the weapons you want to keep. TotK does help with that problem since I can upgrade a garbage weapon into something decent mid fight. That said, I am still remiss that some of the coolest looking weapons break so fast.

[@GhostrareStardust]

Octorok repair weapons

[@jorgeddls]

I love the platinum lizalfos horn, it makes everything look amazing, everytime i find a durability++ stick i go straighth to kill one

[@logicalfundy]

@@GhostrareStardust Just the rock ones FYI

[@DirectorOfChaos9292]

Weapons like the Fierce Deity sword and Biggoron sword can be bought multiple times from a bargainer statue

[@remixtheidiot5771]

i am in the camp that likes the durability system in BotW as is. my only real complaint is that the exact durability value should be shown which TotK still did not add so... that's frustrating... out of curiosity i tried a mod that enhanced the durability values of weapons and I did not like it. i will most likely be called crazy here, but the weapons were too durable. it broke the combat loop of breaking 1 weapon per enemy (not enemy group) and stealing their weapon to repeat the process anew. TotK made all weapons more durable via fuse and just weapons having higher base durability by default and again, call me crazy, but they felt too durable for me lol. The game is perfectly balanced around it now in TotK, but I think I like BotW's combat system more. y'all cheating with your armies of mobile suit gundams, bring sneak strike chaining back!!! No it's not cheating by abusing an exploit, it's a FEATURE!!!

[@Viktoria_Selene]

Another difference that I noticed between both is that, while the breakage mechanic was meant for the player to try the other weapons, said weapons felt kinda samey, so i wasn't really that motivated to do so, but in totk, since there are so many options, and they are so varied, im always looking forward to try new ones

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

Yeah, I didn't really use the boomeranges in BotW. But the minute they let me attach a claymore or smokebomb (or a flashlight for the laughs) to one the thought became much more appealing.

[@robertsteinberger]

I feel like the fact you get so many more combat options also does a big part of solving this issue. In BOTW you pretty much had to fight all your enemies with those weapons you get. In TOTK you can also use Zonai parts to build the deadliest machines, and you have those sages running around helping you later on. Also arrows got a lot more interesting.

[@honey3762]

"People don't choose to be annonyed, they just are" That is an incredably mature way of putting it. I don't mind the system because scavanging for things is fun to me, but I totally get that it is super frustrating to find a great weapon just for it to break. I totaly get the critisim

[@primalfeline]

Nah, they’re just bad at the game.

[@marcuscostello5635]

I mean, he's wrong but whatever

[@mechanicalsilence1]

@@primalfeline this has absolutely nothing to do with skill

[@Dharengo]

It's only frustrating if you get attached. He doesn't get attached to his arrows or his bombs. He does it to himself.

[@TheDapperDragon]

See, I liked the system in BotW, but thought it needed some tweaking. Meanwhile, I think TotK has made it absolutely abysmal. Not only did they actually make the problem worse, because now, you're not only worrying of weapons, but parts, which could've been used for upgrades, but to fasilitate that, they took the laziest path possible in just retexturing the weapons with the dumbest lore excuse (why does the gloom only effect weapons, but not tools or bows? Does it understand the difference?), rather than giving us more cool or interesting weapons, AND removing weapon sets. Not to mention, now monsters all look absolutely stupid. They took the coolest part of monster lore, and ruined it because they're lazy.

[@Teachermook]

Honestly i love how TotK handled the fuse mechanic, and not just because of weapon breakage being fixed. It means you are in control of the tools you use. And i love that. I love the idea of making a sword that acts as a big spiky balled weapon of desteuction, or arrows that can be fired at enemies to confuse them, or a shield that can also freeze your enemies. Its genius.

[@theoaremevano3227]

Yeah, the agency of fusing the weapons and making that decision yourself makes it a lot more engaging to interact with.

[@Cyrovolt]

I’m so happy they made shields useful in this game

[@ethanparr8955]

I love how on paper it's a pretty simple idea, you stick something to something else to make something new, but it also adds so so so many different unique creations

[@canyoudigit3000]

Also it makes monster parts way more useful other than upgrading clothing/armor and elixirs. Especially when lower level enemy parts loose function as you encounter tougher ones. Like I really enjoy finding low level spears or clubs that can have monster parts attached to make it way more useful

[@beez1717]

It's really neat that you can go for raw power or use a zonite weapon and get range with the laser, or an elemental effect, or a freaking cannon! It allows you to fight the way you prefer.

[@KeWDu]

The fuse mechanic alone has given me much more enjoyment with weapons than BOTW ever did, and I never had a problem with the weapon durability! I love the changes they’ve made to monster designs as well to accommodate more varied horn designs and whatnot. Although I will say I kind of overpowered myself right at the beginning of the game, after I went to Hyrule castle almost immediately (out of curiosity), got to the shrine, and then farmed the nearby black horriblins for their parts.

[@4ncientGu150]

I figured out early on you could fuse a flame emitter to a boomerang. But my favorite thing now, is silver lizal horns. The boomerangs just looks so awesome. And do so much damage.

[@neroisntdead3681]

All silvalfos horn fusions are badass. 100% does nothing extra it just looks so damn cool

[@4ncientGu150]

@@neroisntdead3681 Fuse onto gloom Spear for 100% drama.

[@RealityRogue]

Fuse the Silver Lizalfos horn to a Windcleaver (or whatever the totk name for it is) its pretty cool to cut the wind with a scythe. Charge attack for maximum anime edge

[@wunderwalze]

Those things honestly have to break because they’re too powerful but that’s what makes them so fun!

[@Atomicrow]

my ONLY complaint is that the aesthetics of some weapons get ruined by having to fuse stuff to them to be more powerful and durable i wanna use the fierce deity sword as it is in its iconic look but i know im leaving it weaker and less durable than it should be the master sword luckily avoids this with the runes on it and the fading ghost item effect, but every other uber powerful weapon just ends up looking kinda samey bc u always wanna fuse a silver lynel horn to it 90% of the time

[@leargamma4912]

For the amazing swords.... just fuse those construct boss turbines or a rock to it. Bam. Problem solved, and it still mostly looks like it should.

[@gribberoni]

this is the only gripe i can actually agree with. man, it's so sad when they just stick the item to the end of the weapon.

[@DumplingDoodle]

i actually despise the master sword thing. like, i'm using the master sword, i want my weapon to look like the master sword. if i wanted my weapon to look like a silver boko boss axe, i'd use one! just boost the power and keep the rune things as an indicator.

[@g_grunz]

Silver Lynel saber horns and blue lizalfos horns are hands down the best for aesthetics, especially one handed. Just turns everything into giant samurai swords

[@tountoes1677]

Excuse me? You don't like turning all your weapons into DEATH SCYTHES or WHITE CIRCLES OF DEATH?

[@Stairmaster_]

I think my only problem with the durability system now is just how annoying it can be to find a good base weapon. For example, I needed a Zora Spear to make Mipha's Trident (and I love Zora weapons because Water Warrior is absolutely broken), but after that broke it took a long time to find another Zora spear. It's already pretty costly to make Mipha's trident, so it would be nice if rare base weapons like the Zora spear were added to shops (and just really expensive).

[@gribberoni]

you gotta fight more like likes in the areas those weapons are associated with! zora items drop from like likes in lanayru, gerudo in the desert area, etc

[@zGoldenHawk]

​@gribberoni if I fight a like like in the depths in the corresponding area does it still drop stuff from that area

[@Joesbadatlife]

The shadow soldiers in the depths will have prestine versions of the regional weapons of the corresponding place of the overworld, and they respawn with the blood moon. Easy to farm several tridents that way

[@vivid8979]

All of the region specific weapons are tied up to that specific region as well as well as the depths... Like having a pair of each weapon is enough to last till the next bloodmoon.. Also being smart with the durability helps..

[@cinuxx]

Protip: you can drop the trident, fuse it to another weapon, feed it to an octorok to repair it, then separate it in Tarrey town for 20 rupees. Its a little bit off a hassle but its less work than finding the parts.

[@logandevitt7017]

I think breakage is good, but I feel like it’s led to a weird inventory for me where half of my weapons are just for breaking rocks and the other half are super strong that I never want to use. Also I hope you eventually get around to talking about the sages because man do they not feel good at all

[@LordDragox412]

"Super strong that I never want to use" meanwhile Arlo 13:35 just casually using his strongest weapon on the weakest enemy :P

[@thomasreese2816]

Always need at least 2 hammers Sages are nice, but Tulin is randomly blowing a breeze while you try to pick things up and when you want lightning, she's always running away from you

[@logandevitt7017]

@@thomasreese2816 I agree with both of those. Tulin loves to push stuff down mountains, and riju is always running away. As for the other 3, Yunobo has a hard time spawning in smaller areas and is just so massive, Mineru just wants me to ride so bad which has caused me to die multiple times, and Sidon’s power is so incredibly weak idk why I’d ever want it

[@BackflipBrickfilms]

It might help that you can use recall to see where all the materials went.

[@blackosprey2219]

Tulin's my one and only wingman. Everyone else stays in their pokeballs unless I need a bunch of cannon fodder distractions for swarms of AI enemies.

[@joeyalbert_]

The other great thing about Fuse is that it makes me go hunting more, so I can get powerful monster parts to attach to my weapon. In BOTW, I often ignored most enemies as I had no use for their loot (I did not bother with elixirs and still kinda don't). I like being able to go into combat when I crave a cool new weapon.

[@BuyMyBeard]

For most of my playthrough, I was mostly fusing weapons to other weapons. I didn’t realize yet the horns dropped by monsters and zonai constructs were the best fusion material. It was by the 6th dungeons that I started paying attention to the fused weapons I was finding in chests, and noticed how cool some of them were (like the zonai spears with construct horns and that ungodly reaper horn). It was at that point the game unlocked for me, and it was all extremely organic.

[@soccerthepkmnmaster]

Yeah, pairing weapon sounds nice at first, but having those break in the middle of a battle kinda sucks. While fusing horn will last until the weapon break entirely. It become really easy to farm high level horns when you start fusing high level horns to your weapon.

[@mysteryfoood3509]

Ouch

[@Yamartim]

My dude every material you get lists the fuse power on them and describes what happens when you fuse it how tf did you miss that lol

[@mysteryfoood3509]

@@Yamartim what did this person think they were supposed to do with all those monster horns that look like swords and axes lol. Baffling

[@jAujAl1]

@@mysteryfoood3509 The idea of a weapon attached to another weapon sounds way more fun and goofy than the comparatively mundane idea of upgrading your sword with a material. On top of that, it gives you a comical reach that you don't get with materials, which only replace the blade of the weapons you stick them to. As soon as the gameplay preview showed you could attach a spear to a long stick to make a ridiculously long spear, I was immediately on board with sticking weapons together. Also, unless you force yourself to use materials rather than weapons, it's not immediately apparent that materials last until the whole weapon breaks, initially I thought "yeah, stuff at the end of your weapon is going to break either way". On top of that at the start of the game weapon damage is about on par with material damage, and you're given a lot of weapons you don't know what to do except fusing them together, unlike materials you can hoard for later use. Add all of those factors together and you end up with some players accidentally learning that sticking weapons to weapons is what they're expected to do, and that there's no apparent advantage to using materials. You eventually learn otherwise as you collect much better materials, but on the meanwhile, it kinda makes sense.

[@kitsovereign4127]

I think TOTK makes some huge changes that make weapons feel way better - 1. Most of the coolness is now in the materials, and you probably already have extras and know how to get more. I dunno how to get more flameswords in BOTW, but I know how to get rubies in TOTK. 2. Some drops can't be stored in inventory. If you get a Talus Heart you have to "use" it in the first place to get the reward, which I think helps break the loss-averse mindset. 3. With the runes/powers reworked and the focus on Zonai devices, it feels like your best movement and damage options now all consume stuff, so weapons don't feel like a scary outlier.

[@SupercharizardEx]

I really like how the fusion system makes you want to hunt for better fusion materials from monsters like Lynels and Gleeoks. Oftentimes, I would just avoid Lynels in BOTW but in this game, they offer a much bigger incentive for defeating them. Honestly, the only mechanic that I have an extreme distaste for is "slippery surfaces" and "rain." There is nothing quite like climbing a mountain or an obstacle without slip-resistant armor or potions (not that they completely prevent you from slipping anyways) and then being forced to either find a way to sleep, retry your entire climb, or wait until the sudden rain or thunderstorm passes.

[@timotheninja]

​@SupercharizardEx the set bonus for the slip resistant armor makes you immune to slipping, but then you can't wear the climbing set.

[@wesnohathas1993]

A notable point here is how there's a lot of ways to do meaningful damage without even using weapons. There are Zonai devices you can use to launch a more automated offensive, you can use your abilities to set up collision damage with moving objects, or you can get through fights by just throwing explosive materials out of your pouch if you really want too.

[@SupercharizardEx]

​@@timotheninja I haven't gotten the set bonus from the armor upgrades so I had no idea that it gave you complete immunity from slipping which is pretty cool. I have only ever tried using the regular armor set and potions which can help you a little bit, but not nearly as much as having complete slip immunity would.

[@timotheninja]

@@SupercharizardEx yeah until you get the immunity it doesn't help a ton.

[@ohhryann]

I always really enjoyed the weapon durability system. Provided a nice challenge. But definitely enjoying this upgraded fuse mechanic even more.

[@levicart389]

Something i thought you'd mention is the fact that the world scales when you improve, so you start to consistently get high damage Horns late game and you reach a point where you never have a weapon lower then 30dmg. I personally think this 100% fixes the durability problem.

[@Enja_Near]

Fusing solves half the problem. Rock Oktoroks solve the other half.

[@philosophicaljay3449]

"I personally think this 100% fixes the durability problem." Yes, because I play Zelda games to manage my inventory and sort through menus after every fight. /s

[@Saben.C-Spoon]

​@@philosophicaljay3449 not like you didn't have to do that with items back in the day, especially dungeons. Sorting through inventories is nothing new to Zelda

[@philosophicaljay3449]

@@Saben.C-Spoon Very few dungeons had you go into your inventory and menu through things nearly as often. Ocarina of Time with the Water Temple and Majora's Mask with the Stone Tower Temple are some of the exceptions when it comes to 3D games, but usually you needed your sword, shield, the dungeon item, and then 2 more items for most of the dungeon, with menuing being much rarer. In TotK, it is consistent when using arrows, and after almost every fight when using melee weapons. It isn't comparable at all, and any attempt to equivocate the amount of menuing required is absolutely dishonest.

[@jonsmith5058]

@@philosophicaljay3449 What utter nonsense, the menu'ing was notorious in all Zeldas, even the 2D ones. Links Awakening had your sword and shield on the menu able to be mapped to the only 2 mappable buttons meaning you basically had a sword mapped always and would constantly be switching to another. In the 3d ones you needed to menu very often as you'd only have 3 items available at once and it game like OOT and MM you'd often go in to remind yourself of a song until you memorized it. Breath of the Wild has alot more RPG elements, with things being upgraded and food etc which obviously necessitates more items, the menu however is very clean and I dont know why you are needing to 'sort' through the menus after each fight? Like just pick up the items and move on? There is a sort feature in the menus which is great, to sort by most used, normal and highest damage its pretty damn easy to use. This is a great improvement over classic Zelda games, I love the RPG elements, I still want more classic style dungeons etc, but the menu'ing is such a nonsense complaint especially if I compare to say TP or SS where you are interrupted constantly by popups telling you what type of rupee you picked up or games like WW when I have to mess around playing a song, pointing a wind direction, watching a cutscene then putting my controller down for 3 minutes as the boat mindlessly sails to the island I want to go to to collect a flipping chart to sell to Tingle to pull a chest from the ocean..... even if enemies attack you, like the sharks, unless you actively steer to them they never hit you. Just ignore and continue and they just go away.

[@jillian6121]

I think having weapon durability drives a lot of different factors. For one you have to be careful what you apply to your weapons, you will probably want to seek out more monsters for more things to apply to your weapons, and it makes you want to get more korok seeds/upgrade your house for more storage. It’s a great mechanic.

[@zockingtroller7788]

It also gives incentive to use other methods for combat, like you know, the system that allows us to make moving war machines.

[@ibymalik4139]

Rock octoroks can repair weapons and add modifiers to them

[@aldagosto1413]

Playing inventory management in an adventure game is fun?

[@LineOfThy]

@@aldagosto1413 it's not an adventure game and yes, it is fun

[@davidson6738]

@@aldagosto1413yes 🗿

[@matthewnewman3594]

I actually think I like this system MORE than I would a traditional crafting system. You still have that pleasure of "I made this," and it gives reason to the scavenging that I think make BOTW and TOTK such fun games to loose yourself in, but it is so simple and fluid. No recipes to memorize, no specific ingredients I need to hunt down to make the weapon I want. Just need a base, and put on what ever topper/ fusion material you want. It also allows for way more experimentation, and this sense of discovery that does not require a guide. When I found out just how spring shields worked, I was filled with joy. Reading that Lizalfos tails extend range, than seeing that that means you now have a whip, I audible-y squeed. If you needed to specifically combined three pieces of iron and a spring, it would be clear there was a special purpose. here, you never know what might happen. Like, I cant play Minecraft without a guide. I did not play it when I was young, so there is just a lot to juggle, and a lot of things are just expected to be known. Like, imagen trying to make a sword for the first time (in Minecraft) having know prior info about how to do so. Here, you have access to every weapon and every weapon type in the game, you just need to realize that the mushroom in your hand, THAT, that can make a very funny stick.

[@yohanesbobbysanjaya3541]

I love how in this game player can make their weapon from stick and stones all the way to giant mecha robots with laser and nukes

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

One thing I think is cool is enemies do it too. I once found a Lizalfos with a Silent Shroom on a boomerang. Not the best torch, but it provided some light. Things kind of do what you'd expect them to do, and that's cool.

[@robin-whg]

For me, the biggest problem was that I always had to have a weapon to smash rocks and a weapon to chop wood. So that's 2 slots that are constantly blocked and if those things broke you had a bad time. You either waste away your good weapons or have nothing to smash rocks and use bombs, but the items fly everywhere.

[@firenze6478]

I got excited when yunobo broke through rocks only to find out he also destroys most of the ore too…

[@goranisacson2502]

There IS a way to get a cheap, non-weapon demanding way to break rocks that is endlessly reusable and doesn't destroy the ore as Yunobo does (does he though, I think I missed that?). It's slow work, but it's also free and endless, so I kinda like it still- have you infiltrated the Yiga headquarters with the full Yiga outfit yet?

[@jadekaiser7840]

@@goranisacson2502 Robo-goatfox waifu also breaks rocks using basic attacks without any attachments.

[@goranisacson2502]

@@jadekaiser7840 ... Also true, though personally I find it less cumbersome to de-equip weapon and smack rocks four times than to chase down the right helper, get on, beat up rocks, gather minerals and then get off until one finds the next rock. If only because she might have other tools equipped at the time I want to preserve, so I guess I default to barehanded rockbreaking as path of least resistance.

[@summerycast7936]

A toenail or bulky horn is enough to turn any stick into an axe or hammer. And if there are boulders to break down, or trees to chop down, there are usually rocks around that you can fuse to fit that role. Although when you can't find them and are not willing to use monster parts, it becomes pain.

[@Applemangh]

It definitely helps weapon progression up with monster progression. If you attach a bokoblin horn of whatever rank you're fighting to a common stick, you end up with a weapon well suited to fighting those bokoblins, and they ALWAYS drop horns. It makes it so every enemy drops a worthwhile "weapon" every time.

[@maskofthedragon]

A problem with the fused weapons is I had no idea what you would end up needing for armor upgrades

[@VariaBug]

Just use the most common ones, repair with rock octorocks in Eldin, and defuse at Tarrey Town.

[@Wing0fSilver]

I mean you start using bokoblin horns and eventually you have a hundred of them. By the time you'd reasonably need to upgrade armor using higher level monster parts, those monsters will be common. Obviously save mini boss parts but regular boko or lizal or moblin parts are pretty free to use

[@KashiwaDaisuke]

@@Wing0fSilverYeah, but the base bokoblin/lizalfos/etc. drops become weak pretty quickly, and you have to start using black bokoblin horns, construct III horns, etc. unless you want combat to take forever

[@ihatehandles69420]

​@@VariaBug cmon man whats the the point of killing lynels if I can't make a badass sword from them

[@wesnohathas1993]

See I just go in operating under the assumption that I'm going to at least need around 20 or 30 of everything, and only after my inventory exceeds that do I start using those items for cooking or fusion. And if it's a *really* abundant material I'll consider attaching it to arrows. Although there are exceptions like literally every ore including flint that you need an absolutely ludicrous amount of and are basically off-limits for ever being used.

[@cornercrouchmode17]

I think my issue with the breakable weapon thing is that i would prefer a system that allows me to upgrade the weapons similarly to the way we can upgrade clothes. You get a little bit of that with the fuse stuff, but theres still not necessarily a sence of payoff for invested effort.

[@astro_ap]

I really like how the Fuse mechanic isn’t completely linear. It’s not just “grab your strongest sword and stick your strongest fuse item onto it”, there are strategies that the player might want to use. You might have a bunch of Silver Lynel horns, but you don’t want to use those to break rocks. You can attach hammer-like objects to your weapons to break rocks and ore deposits. If you need to kill ice enemies, attach a fire fuse item to the end of your weapon. Need a bunch of wood? Stick a Boss Bokoblin horn on the end of your weapon to make an axe. There are so many different possibilities for the weapons you can make and it really makes you think about what you’re fusing to your weapons, which makes it a lot more fun, at least for me.

[@N10NRD]

I'm at a point in the game where they've introduced unique weapons that I do not imagine are found anywhere else. This re-introduces the exact behaviour that most people have with the weapon system, which is to never use their strongest/coolest weapons. Because of this, they end up using the less durable basic weapons more often, thus feeding this frustration further. I've read online that there may be a way to rebuild or buy those unique weapons again, but until I find that, I'm left with these antiques taking up inventory space. I just want to put them up for display!

[@goranisacson2502]

You can put them on display after a certain quest, and it is no longer limited to only three as in BotW... buuut it will cost you a pretty Rupee to do so. I half suspect the unique weapons were put there solely so that you WOULD engage with the display system... anyways yes, you also get the ability to get back the weapons you've lost. Once, at least. Not spoiling how in case you want to find out yourself.

[@jacobgreengas7121]

Just wait

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

You can get…any? I think it’s any, unique weapon again and it’s mostly not too expensive.

[@highlightermarca-texto3281]

All I want is a 1 damage bare handed punch so that even if you run out of weapons you can always do some damage and the fight isn't completely over. Also some way to fuse weapons in the inventory so you don't have to open your inventory, drop what you want to use, then select fuse and fuse it. Just hovering over a material in your inventory should have a "fuse" option.

[@FabioCapela]

A bit of a spoiler, but you can get a barehand attack technique from your not-so-friendly ninjas, which you can keep using over and over without consuming any resource.

[@withoutthejuice7193]

I went from having only 30 hours in Breath and not ever finishing it or even really enjoying it. To exactly 200 hours in Tears and finished it with every shrine. Really not sure what it is about this one that made me like it so much more than the first, but I’m not complaining. I think I found my favorite game of all time.

[@krlost4405]

I thought that I was the only one not finishing BOTW... I mean, even that I consider it a good game, I find it tedious to finish everything but TOTK feels like a real journey.

[@elijah07t50]

Fax

[@MrBarrajabaja]

Same, I finished the 4 dungeons in BOTW, got the minimum required shrines to get the master sword and just stopped playing. With TOTK I finished all the main quests, more shrines than required and a few secondary stuff and I loved it.

[@maglock1857]

I was SHOCKED to find out that I clocked more hours into TOTK than most of the jrpgs I own! Holy cow, what an incredible game!

[@withoutthejuice7193]

@@maglock1857 seriously when I saw I had more time in it than DQ XI I was surprised

[@cirkleobserver3217]

What I really like is that as you build up a stockpile of good monster parts, you get the ability to turn pretty much anything into a decent weapon. I no longer find myself hoarding like a dozen relatively irreplaceable weapons, because I can make whatever I need for the situation I’m in.

[@tstrashychannel7115]

i also love that they added to the option that stone octerocs can fully repair a weapon so if there is a weapon thats really hard to get you can just repair it like for examplle the hylien shield

[@xmavrekx8663]

I thought there was a cabin in hebra where you could get the Hylian Shield again if you broke it?

[@nerdwisdomyo9563]

The fuse ability is one of the smartest pieces of game design ive ever seen. its just perfect and so much fun

[@wet0wl]

Ikr. To me it flows so much better with the gameplay than a crafting mechanic would have.

[@zacziggarot]

​@@wet0wl really? Cuz I feel like I would have much preferred a crafting bit in there instead of the janky fusion mechanic we got. Would be nice if you could make weapons from the pause screen or make a weapon that's stronger than two pieces. This is one of our abilities on the ability wheel, but it doesn't really belong there and just feels janky every time I use it, like it should have just fit in there under the ultra hand ability especially seeing as ultra hand ALREADY combines items

[@wet0wl]

@@zacziggarot They need to add limits to it otherwise it just becomes ridiculous. If you could use ultrahand weapons you’d have a 100 damage mega stick at the start of the game. I honestly don’t get how you find it janky, it’s amazing.

[@be2081]

Too bad the weapons clip through the ground and the animations are all the same

[@stevencraeynest7729]

@@zacziggarot I agree with it beeing weird that fuse and ultrahand are 2 seperate abilities

[@cosmicredpanda2420]

I think the fuse system does go a long way, but I think they also overlooked some minor little quality of life features that seemed obvious that they didn’t include. Such as a gauge or some other way to tell you how much durability a weapon has left, and not just the notice when it’s about to bust

[@treddox5880]

This. I really thought it was a no brainer to add a little durability bar like MineCraft has. But they just didn’t. Also, you still can’t pet the dogs. Sooo 9/10.

[@graysonsolis]

Any extra layer of information adds to the complexity of a game. I think that it is unnecessary to add a durability bar because it would further cement the loss-averse mindset in the player, or at the very least influence your play. TotK isn't really much about stats and hardcore optimization; if it were it would be more discrete about its hidden exp and scaling systems imo

[@jacoblawton6350]

​@@graysonsolisso many players would carry around half dead weapons just in case they meet a boss and feel like they 'need' it for that. It is like with rocket launcher ammo in FPS games, I always end the game with it maxed because I am like, 'what if I need it later'

[@Shnarfbird]

maybe not that but at least more informative stages than 'pristine', 'has been used at least once', and 'almost broken'

[@LineOfThy]

That has a reason for existing, otherwise you would just stop using the weapon the moment that gauge got a bit low. The indicator is actually genius, because it informs you of what to expect next without constantly feeding a loss aversion mindset

[@lilSchmoob]

Very insightful commentary, Arlo! Appreciate your stuff dude!

[@segnoggin]

I like how in Terrey Town you can de fuse items and get the materials back. If I have a really good weapon I can always just go to Terrey town to de fuse when its hp was low. Its been a cool way to save weapons

[@jamx02]

What they did with degrading weapons with gloom and giving each type of weapon different perks so it doesn't nullify the value of a certain tier (e.g. knight's gear having double damage on last heart, soldier's gear being able to charge fast, etc) was genius. It almost feels like all base weapons are the same and you make them however you want, and the only thing you don't get to pick is what perk you get. Also the idea behind pristine weapons being rare but rewarding once you get them is very smart.

[@SknowingWolf]

I did actually really like the different use case perks. I don't think they were really relevant enough for the most part, but definitely a great addition.

[@aquageist]

The pristine weapon mechanic is cool, but they should have explained it somewhere. To get a pristine weapon, you have to break an *unfused* decayed one. Before I learned how it worked, I had only ever broken a couple traveler swords unfused and was really confused about why nothing else was ever on the ghosts.

[@SknowingWolf]

@@aquageist I didn't know that either until you just explained that lol. Had no idea. Definitely would have been nice to know a couple dozen hours prior lol.

[@banbrado28]

@@aquageist I've got a couple hundred hours in the game and i was wondering why i only ever found pristine soldiers spears. Thanks.

[@FabioCapela]

Pristine weapons are *not* rare. There are literally hundreds of them which respawn in the same places every blood moon - places you can mark on your map if you want - and you can even save scum to get the exact weapon you want (out of the ones that can randomly spawn there) with the exact bonus you want every time. This goes even for the rarest ones; for example, you can potentially get up to about three dozen Royal Guard weapons per blood moon if you know where to look for them and are willing to reload your game a lot. Pristine weapons are just annoying to get due to being spread across the whole underground with very few places where you find many weapons in close proximity, and even more annoying if you want to choose which weapon you will be getting.

[@Mihomiti]

My only criticism is if they would surface the durability numbers. I know roughly what they are(most fuses increase durability by 25), but I want to be able to see what my weapons are at when I look at their status. It'd help me plan more.

[@graysonsolis]

I think most of the fun of the weapon mechanic is the spontaneity it invokes, specifically by hiding that durability bar

[@LineOfThy]

It would actually just make you not use weapons more

[@Mihomiti]

@@LineOfThy Ridiculous. I've been playing the game for 130 hours, I have a fairly instinctive understanding of what the durability of my weapons are at this point. I just want to see a meter or a countdown so I don't have to half-memorize how many times I've hit things with a weapon, especially if it's a rare attachment I want to pop back off to reuse.

[@LineOfThy]

@@Mihomiti You think you know it, and you probably do, but you don't realize the psychological effect.

[@ryko3698]

Fuse has been really fun I will say. So many interesting combinations and the fact that you can take what used to be a boko club (the worst weapon in the game) and give it a bunch of extra damage and durability really keeps things interesting.

[@Leavce]

14:04 glad arlo pointed this out bc the strongest bases weapons you can obtain do have some side effects to them (knight’s weapons you have to be at 1HP in order to double your damage output, royal guard weapons you have to nearly break the weapon in order to gain the damage bonus meaning you can only use it in certain situations such as lynel killing, more specifically when you mount them)

[@perriwinkleiii5361]

At the rate I was exploring and looting, I never ran out of strong monster pieces to fuse or decent weapons to fuse them to. Maybe it's the feedback loop that had me hooked, but I was excited to fight enemies, and that lessened my fear of losing weapons because I know that whatever I'm killing will compensate me for the durability I used to beat it. The only times I've worried about a particular weapon breaking is when I had a novelty weapon like one of the Champions' or past Links'. And even then, it was hugely fun going into the final boss encounter where durability doesn't matter anymore and I could smash up my weapons in the name of heroism.

[@JRubin3]

The only thing I really want is the ability to craft arrows. Not specialty type but the basic. With how often you use them, the multiple types you can make, and just being bad at aiming, I just blow through 100 in the span of 20 minutes. More if I spend extended time in the depths.

[@Max-_-Power.7]

Totally agree I don't want to have to craft an arrow every time I fire.

[@gguyllago]

One aspect of fuse I hear no one talks about Is how much it helps with enemy variety: now that every tier of monster drops a horn with different power and attributes, it forces the designers to create a unique horn for each tier of a certain monster, giving them unique silhouettes,making them visually more distinct, instead of feeling like re-colored versions of each other. Unlike with the botw design, now you can pretty easily understand what level of monster you're dealing with, even from afar and in dimly lit environments

[@TheDapperDragon]

Probably because that's the worst part of it. Duct taping these ridiculous things to monsters heads absolutely ruins every single monster.

[@gguyllago]

@@TheDapperDragon I agree that some of them do feel a tad stupid at times(mainly the boss bokoblin ones imo), but to say it "ruins the design" is a stretch. It undoubtedly gives variety to the designs, it helps communicate the idea that you're meant to use enemy horns for fusing, it generally evolves well from one tier to the next, and most of them pull off the near impossible task of looking awesome as both a horn and a wepon once fused. Also it helps expand combat by giving many enemies attacks where they use their horns to fight. The horns might seem wierd at first, but once you get used to them the botw designs start to feel lacking

[@TheDapperDragon]

@@gguyllago Silver Lynels literally just have a sword blade sticking out of one side of their head.

[@snuggie12]

I had so many black moblin horns or silver bokoblin horns towards the beginning and if you want to stop your stuff from breaking just go get a bunch of puffshrooms and sneak strike everyone. Super simple. The only issues I had were some of the underground areas with absurdly long amounts of breaking rocks (especially the one with black rocks.) Sometimes they didn't supply enough rocks (though did have enough rusty claymores.)

[@TheGrossDemon]

I also appriciate the fact that you can buy your rarest swords back as well. They arent even that expensive.

[@s07195]

With the Poes, yeah?

[@Pheicou]

Anyone out there also hate how long you have to scroll through your items in the dpad menu to see what you have, and you end up just using the “most used” items?

[@opfadod1651]

There were two things I heard were in the game that also help with weapons breaking that weren't covered here. I heard that you can repair weapons with the octorocks on death mountain but I haven't tested that yet. And also if your weapon does break and it was corroded with gloom, the soldiers spirits in the underground should have a pristine version of it

[@heretichazel]

He did mention repairing with octoroks, and the untarnished weapons in the depths have nothing to do with weapons you had that broke, they're just there

[@Melorific]

I think one of the best and understated parts of the new fuse system is adding new properties to the weapon "bases". Stuff like knight weapons doing extra damage when you're on a single heart, or the eightfold blade increasing sneakstrike damage. It makes individual weapons more unique, and can grant them different purposes in your arsenal. It fixes one of my chief complaints that all weapons felt the same but stronger. Though my favourite one is the forest dweller weapons which let you reuse expendable items attached to them. I LOVE that what I want to fuse to a forest dweller spear is different than what I want to fuse to any other weapon in the game and I wish the game had more weapons that encouraged thinking about fusions like this.

[@Wing0fSilver]

I think the biggest thing is that at the beginning of BOTW you get a Boko club that deals 4 damage and breaks in 8 hits. 32 total damage. In TOTK you get a wooden stick that fuses to a Bokoblin horn that does 8 damage and breaks after 37 hits. 296 total damage. So at the beginning of the game when durability was the issue, you have weapons that are nearly 5 times as durable and deal twice the damage.

[@its_saber1525]

But another issue I have is still running out of weapons in some fights. Especially early game

[@vizor4067]

​@@its_saber1525 never understood this issue Even in botw, I have NEVER ran out of weapons

[@jeffboy4231]

@@vizor4067 people just be playing badly

[@metayoshi1712]

thunder disarming fixes that issue unless playing master mode breath of the wild, where some golden enemies become immune to electric damage after effects.

[@jamesmccloud1002]

​@@vizor4067My guess is shield bashing. Everything I watched a video where someone complained about the durability mechanic they'd be hitting an enemy's shield until their guard broke. (Sometimes it'd be 5 hits which is a lot of durability to be wasting)

[@meno2294]

What I like in tears of the kingdom they actually give you a reason why Weapons break so easily

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

It's because Ganondorf is playing 5D chess and decayed them all. (Though he neglected to decay the shields and bows for some reason.)

[@meno2294]

@@amanofnoreputation2164 They both break though right bows and shields still have the decay on them

[@bossrosslp]

I got a Biggoron sword from a chest at the bottom of a chasm drop. I used it, it helped me fight a king gleeok. It broke, and I felt... Satisfied. It did its job. Went happily back to using other weapons. The thing about BOTW and TOTK, is that they condition you throughout the long runtime, to adapt and be *okay* with losing the weapons you have. Your master sword being the one constant, feels nice. It powers down, but comes back. And the other weapons help augment your journey. You are never too far away from having the tools you need to defeat anything in your path, even when your main melee weapons lack against the current swath of enemies. Your sheer ability to flexibly commit to combat, through the champions/sage abilities, your pad/hand abilities, your time slowing bow, the zonai items and environmental exploits, on top of almost always having the tools to flee dangerous situations; it feels incredibly freeing to realize how non-anxiety inducing the weapon breaking mechanic is in this game, as opposed to other resource management games. To me, it was just fine in BOTW, but absolutely nailed in TOTK.

[@Wrulfy]

One thing I really like of TotK is that they got rid of test of strength shrines in favor of the tactical shrines where they put on temporary naked and let you figure how to clear the fight. The test of stenght were just a weapon muncher, specially with some of the coolest armors locked behind them

[@johnh8546]

Fair but I looked at the test of strength shrines as weapon caches. Every blood moon meant I could just go pick up a Guardian Battle Axe ++ easily. Throw on the Guardian Armor set and get a 3 times attack up food or elixir and they go down super fast with a Guardian weapon.

[@ILikeWafflz]

My favorite thing to do with fuse is whack a couple monsters and then make an impromptu weapon mid-battle with one of the parts. I found it a lot more fun than clunkily scrolling through a menu to select an item (speaking of which, it would have been nice if you could drop something straight from the menu instead of having to hold it, exit, _then_ drop it, or drop it through the quick menu that can take 45 seconds to scroll through) then try not to drop it next to something on the ground while also avoiding attacks as you're carrying said item.

[@Tubuxis]

Here's the issue I have with the weapons system. I've seen people argue "just use your powerful weapons dude, you'll find more!" Yeah sure, that's all well and good, until you get to the Silver enemies that are a chore to fight even with powerful weapons. At that point I'd rather avoid combat all together and just save my current weapons for a boss or mandatory combat. When you have some good, powerful weapons, combat becomes redundant because the rewards you get just aren't worth the hassle of whittling down a spongy healthbar and having to use your food up.

[@leargamma4912]

That is a personal issue

[@gribberoni]

Have you tried fusing Silver enemy horns to the Royal weapons that pretty much all Silver enemies carry? Those weapons can kill like five Silver enemies on their own

[@FabioCapela]

@@gribberoni Which means weapon breakage is essentially just annoying the player for annoyance's sake without adding anything of value.

[@Tubuxis]

@@leargamma4912 didn't say it wasn't

[@LineOfThy]

Or, get gud

[@BobfatherGaming]

The fusion mechanic fixes some issues but it increases the analysis paralysis by a lot. Now I have to worry about having both strong weapons and strong weapon components. I find myself looking at the quick menu more than ever because I can't remember all of the hidden durability stats of this or that. Then when I finally forget about all that for a bit, I find myself looking at a juicy core pounder v3 with only decayed or low durability weapons to fuse it to.

[@jakejito2123]

Sort by “fuse attack power” Simple 👍

[@TheFawse]

Never really had an issue with that. With the exception of special weapons like the non-decayed ones in the Depths or the Champion weapons, the difference between typical weapon drops is just a couple of points, plus whatever abilities that set comes with. The vast majority of your weapon’s attack comes from the fuse material, and if you really want to you can defuse your best ones before they break and reuse them Plus, it’s very easy to farm whichever base weapons you want. I like the Gerudo set because big number, so once I run out I just go to the desert and kill some Like Likes to get some more

[@otakubullfrog1665]

When it comes to the concept of disposable weapons in general, I do like how it basically forces you to use various types of weapons. You might break the only sword you have and end up finishing the fight with a spear or a giant stick that's on fire and they each feel different. If every weapon lasted forever, most player would probably just pick one type and only switch when they got a more powerful version.

[@Eggmancan]

I love the new weapon system. The only problem I have with it is the constant need for hammer weapons. Just give us one dedicated hammer/axe so I don't have to carry 2-3 unfused weapons "just in case" I need to turn them into a hammer or whatever.

[@jorgeblanco1929]

I was bugged by this too, but at least they let you destroy fused materials. Whenever I ran out of hammers and needed a quick solution to keep going I just switched a weapon’s fused material for a rock or a horriblin horn if there were no rocks around. It is still annoying to have to waste materials.

[@wesnohathas1993]

Rock shields break ore in one hit. Really nice alternative to hammers that can save a melee weapon slot.

[@LineOfThy]

@@jorgeblanco1929 you can unfuse them in tarry town

[@winterlogical]

My workaround for this was two-fold. 1) I started fusing hammer materials to the Master Sword and using it as my primary ore harvesting weapon. When you fuse a talus heart to it, for example, it lasts wayyyy longer, breaks ore in one hit, and overall it's super convenient. I know it's funny to use the blade of evil's bane for mining specifically, but hey, it's worked for me. 2) Spend 20 minutes in the Depths with bomb flowers as your sensor target, and only focus on collecting them. It's a bit tedious but they are so plentiful, you'll easily have 100+ bomb flowers in your inventory by the end. You're really never going to run out of explosives by doing this, and this minimizes the need to worry about hammer weapons as much. That's my take, anyway! :)

[@captaintogawa9736]

What I like about Fuse is that if you have the Monster horns, you can easily create the same weapon or at least a weapon of similar strength and attributes. Basically the number of weapons you have access to at any time is determined by how many enemies you've defeated

[@marcusmyers4822]

Just picked up TotK today so haven’t even started it yet, but think if they made unique weapons that function similarly to the master sword and instead of breaking, just get a timer, that would make a lot of people happier. That or have some kind of ability that lets you pick one weapon and make it into an unbreakable recharge weapon.

[@zakuraiyadesu]

Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!

[@Aether_Athea]

Love this video, I agree that the breaking system is much more tolerable and even necessary in this game. I almost always have a full inventory of decent-great weapons, and find several when my inventory is already full considering the strength of the monster parts, if they lasted forever, it would make fighting toooo easy if you have significantly strong items fused to your weapons

[@asc3nded397]

I always loved the durability system in BOTW but fuse improves it so much in TOTK. Not only does it mean that you can turn any crappy weapon into something good and useful but it also does a great job at making combat so much more engaging and worthwhile. In TOTK, everything from fighting keese to lizalfos feels so much more worthwhile when they drop such useful fusing ingredients.

[@nategwright]

Something I love is that the weapons you fuse actually look super cool. Toward the end of BotW I got really into flashy combat, and with that came making cool looking weapon/armor aesthetics, so I was worried that with the fuse mechanics it was just gonna be really clunky looking weapons like rocks and wood planks stuck on swords, but the monster horns let you make amazing looking battleaxes, warhammers, pikes, fantasy swords, etc. I’m super happy with the new system.

[@Snowmanly7]

Excellent points. Thank you for your explanations.

[@naotohex]

I think its a bit conflicting because materials for upgrading armor is at an all time high, but you also HAVE to use materials to do damage. There also seems to be a lot less weapons, so its less like "Oh no im gonna break this weapon soon" and more like "Oh no im going to lose the material on this weapon!". You can defuse material but that gets annoying to do. I think what the game wants you to do is use monster drops for your weapons most of the time so you kill 5-6 monsters and get back materials.

[@TheDapperDragon]

Just like everything else Aonuma touches, that's because it's designed not to be fun, but to inflate playtime.

[@theinternetsightseer2935]

​@@TheDapperDragonaka you don't understand the game's systems or designs.

[@LineOfThy]

@@TheDapperDragon Alternatively, you just aren't having a fun time

[@nereithr]

@@theinternetsightseer2935 It's more likely that *you* don't understand the game's systems or design. The game is filled with design choices that serve nothing other than padding out playtime at the expense of literally everything else. Let's just pick Dragons for example. You need a full set of Dragon parts to upgrade the Fierce Deity set to the 4 star level (obviously in addition to a bunch of other components). Let's also just forgive the fact that the dragons are not a fun/unique encounter but just a resource dispenser. In BotW the resource dispenser at least fulfilled its role without being massively annoying, as you could reset them with a campfire and farm at your leisure. In TotK, dragons are no longer reset by *anything* and also have a forced 10 hour(in-game)/10 minute(IRL) cooldown after you shoot off a part. This means that if you want to upgrade the set, you are spending at least 5-15 minutes randomly warping around a map looking for each dragon (whose routes now also go through the depths) and then on top of that 35 minutes sitting on top of each dragon with an egg timer twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the cooldown to pass so you can shoot off another part. In total that is at least 2 hours of playtime dedicated to doing literally nothing but sitting on top of a 3d model waiting for an arbitrary timer. Considering most players are probably wearing Fierce Deity set, as it is the only Attack Up armour that doesn't look ugly as shit, at least 2 hours of each TotK playthrough was spent doing literally nothing but waiting for a timer. Phenomenal game design.

[@InspiredCaterpie]

​@Nereithr ah yes, because EVERY player cares about upgrading all of their armor to the highest level

[@thekbot1155]

For me the much more dnjoyable aspect was the unique abilities the different types of weapons now have. Like Breaking Point, or my personal favorite, Quick Charge. They augment different types of playstyles entirely. Now you can really go crazy as an assassin Link with your eightfold blades and its really enjoyable. Im kind of sad some weapons didnt make it in like that Sheikah greatsword, because i would've liked to see what passives they mightve had.

[@mcgreggers99]

I did the glitch to have the original unbreakable Master sword from the opening sequence of the game. It's only a 30 damage, but it's really nice having something I KNOW won't break.

[@raymccabe7254]

Thank you Arlo, for teaching me that those Stone Talus Hearts actually do something… I feel so stupid in this game when it comes to the new powers 😂

[@saycap]

Fun talus facts: You can ascend through them. You can rewind the rocks they throw. You can stand under them and they can’t hit you. Fighting them is like bullying a toddler

[@clarkside4493]

No wonder I'm having so much trouble. I fused eyes and wings onto my arrows, but I haven't taken the time to make my melee weapons better with monster parts. I'll be sure to do that from now on.

[@Thirteen13551355]

To give you a +1 damage boost? Do you think that's worth it?

[@hatboi124]

​@@Thirteen13551355 He probably did it mostly for the homing and extra distance.

[@clarkside4493]

@@Thirteen13551355 It's gonna break anyway, but I didn't know that you could use that rock leftover from a Stone Talis for a weapon fusion. I'll try that for sure.

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

@@Thirteen13551355 They probably mean parts that aren't eyes and wings. But I did put some wings on a boomerang just to see.

[@KingRidley]

There's an entire sorting tab dedicated just to fuse strength, and it includes your monster parts, I don't understand how you missed that option

[@michaelnelson2976]

This is a very good take you have and I appreciate your insight Arlo! As is the tradition: Butternut squash??

[@dshadows2966]

My thoughts on weapons breaking is a long and arduous read: I remember spending a lot of time in Breath of the Wild abusing the 'bomb' ability a lot, here I'm using every ability far more often and the combat can get a bit wild at times when you learn how to launch yourself about the area or deal with specific enemies in unique ways. Lizalfos in TOTK are actually fairly dangerous, more than most enemies and sometimes even more than a Lynel or The Gloomies. The sage abilities were more personal and tied to Link in BOTW, but the time limits on some of them was annoying and you had to time using them for great effect and after defeating Ganon those sage abilities moved on. Now you have sages that are actually doing something in a Zelda game other than waiting for Link to gather them up for a grand finale assist in TOTK, you can use all the abilities as often as the recharge rate lets you. Recall, Ascend, Ultrahand and Fuse all changed how I do combat. How is Recall useful in combat? Enemy throws a bomb or a rock at me, immediately Recall it back into their face being an immediate thought. There are other interesting uses in combat too that require some set up, unfortunately you can't recall the enemies themselves. There's also using Recall and Ascend together. Your about to lose an item to a cliff? Recall it back to you while it's still visible as recall has an incredible range! Ultrahand to build monstrous machines or weapons to deal with bigger bosses, like an automatic sprinkler robot for some enemies in particular. (If you know what a Gibdo is by now... then an automatic sprinkler robot is a fairly cost effect way of literally watering them down.) At a small cost, and once you find the function to do so, you create a lawnmower that chews through the toughest enemies with a sideways spinning wheel almost anywhere you want without the need for those parts... also good for Hylian Wheat farming on the go. Fuse... Gerudo weapons are particularly notable for a particular reason. There's also fusing stuff to your shields to do a whole variety of things, like fusing a wing to your shield to get some extra jump height. At the cost of breaking the item attached, you can even remove the attached item from a particular weapon and put a different better fuse item onto it once said item is available. You can also separate the weapons without losing the aforementioned attached item in exchange for some rupees in a particular place and in some cases you might have picked up a weapon from an enemy that you want a particular material from. Ascend... some people might not realize how useful a pause in combat to get a look around can be. It is fairly useful to getting a grasp of the situation, as much as getting on top of a particular enemy by ascending through their body or getting to a particular sniping position or a position to where you can jump and 'slow mode' snipe an enemy. You can even cancel it after being a groundhog for a bit and can go back to whence you came if you don't like your surroundings. You can even build an archery platforms for that bow only run you've been wanting to do and use this to get onto it. All of these combined make the game pop. They basically gave you the keys to doing whatever you want, that is if you can think to do it and thinking outside the box in this game is encouraged and will lead to some interesting times. The imagination can go nuts coming up with more and more ways to use the tool set you are given until you are comfortable with what you have, what you can do and where you want to go and even how to get there. Also, once I found out about what the word 'pristine' meant well... there's a reason to search for those particular 'pedestals' and have a number of them marked if corroded weapons aren't doing it for you anymore. (Plays Dark World theme from Link To The Past and starts wander off.) As to the point about all of this being on BREAKABLE WEAPONS... After a certain point, weapons breaking becomes far less of an actual problem as the game goes on and more of a thing that happens when you're focused on actually using them for a given purpose. As your tool kit and mind will eventually come to think of other ways to handle things faster, up to the point you can work around not having to even use weapons at all to solve a given situation, weapons breaking isn't all that bad a thing since you have so many ways to do things more efficiently. Weapons breaking is only an early game problem to which becomes far less of a problem as you go on, since there's is a metric ton of things to pick up from your enemies or the environment that can be of use and weapons makes up a majority of them. Examples of how to deal with a situation quickly: Throw 'ice jelly' at enemy group and 'wind burst' them with a 'Leaf' fused item towards the nearest source of water/lava/pit/cliff, combat immediately solved. Something like five enemies down in ten seconds with two actions, but this doesn't work on all enemies and you might not be able to get the materials in some situations from doing this. So if you want further efficiency, lure all the enemies together and throw a single bomb for basically the same effect, at the possible chance of getting caught in the blast yourself. You can use lightning to your advantage by simply throwing down some metal item to lure enemies into wielding or standing on them so that they are struck by lightning, no protective equipment required and the weapon isn't even damaged by the lightning strike and will be available for use again after it flies out of the enemies hands. Breakable weapons are not an issue when you have so many options to play with if you're inventive enough. The one major issue with the game, that everyone seems to have, is tapping the sages. It's actually a minor gripe to me personally as well, but I think that chaos makes things somewhat engaging as you run around like your chasing a flock of Cuccos on caffeine. This has to be the 'Game of the Year' for quite a few people.

[@MegaTitan64]

I largely agree with what you've said. That said, I still wish that there was an easy, reliable way to repair weapons, even if it was expensive.

[@benjaminmajeski140]

The only thing I don’t like is when I encounter a mini boss fuse item and I don’t have a good weapon to fuse it with, then I get a bit miffed becuase I’m wasting such a good item such as a flux core or stone talus heart on a tree branch, otherwise the system is quite good.

[@dpackerman4203]

It’s really stupid how you can’t keep those in your inventory like what the heck?

[@j.l.8799]

I usually stick those to shields that I know I am not going to use and when I want to stick them to a sword I separate them by going to tarrey town. That strategy has been really useful for me!

[@benjaminmajeski140]

@@j.l.8799 actually really smart! The only downside is that you loose a sheild that you can sheild surf on.

[@GoblinTinkerer]

I feel like once you play TotK you figure out pretty quickly that there's an easy way to break apart fused weapons and preserve the monster part early and inexpensively. And you can even fully restore weapon durability, too, granted in a slightly more obscure way.

[@banishedbary5239]

11:30 you can use ultra hand on the flux construct and if you grab the main part and pull it away it’ll fall apart and let you get some hits in

[@Ramjambler]

It honestly just feels like an additional step. In BotW my weapons broke and I picked up a new weapon. Now I have to pick up a new crappy weapon (essentially useless) and have to stop and fuse something to it.

[@Silvershire]

I used the duplication glitch to create a few hundred molduga jaws that I could fuse to my weapons in a pinch. It made me less way hesitant to “waste” my good weapons, because I always had reliable backups.

[@Space_Bones]

I found out what the “Strong Fusion” bonus meant and tried to find the strongest weapon with that property to fuse to a Silver Lynel Saber. I did get it in the post-game, it cost a lot of valuable material, and it’s the first weapon I’ve been too scared to break. If it gets low I’m giving it to an Octorok lmao

[@chadstilson8804]

I'm of the same opinion. I have also found that the you can make the Base weapon lasts for a very long time. The fused one will break, so you just fuse something else and just keep right on a-truckin! Great system.

[@Mewtheed]

That's not all they also added a way to actually repair weapons in the game thanks to the Octorocks of Death Mountain. It's a bit obtuse and requires some work, But the benefit is now if you have an extra rare weapon, you won't be so scared of using it anymore.

[@graysonsolis]

It's such a Nintendo solution lol, I love it

[@Shnarfbird]

Oh? I thought that was just with the ones with 'rusty' in their name

[@alexstewart9592]

​@@Shnarfbird That was in BOTW where they would convert rusty gear into fixed normal gear. In TOTK they repair durability of most weapons (and add or improve the bonus modifier), but it should be noted that they don't like wooden weapons, Champion's weapons or formerly Amiibo-exclusive weapons (the latter two can be replaced via other means, and the former is targeted on magic rods, staves and scepters, as a measure to prevent getting modifiers on ANY of them).

[@Shnarfbird]

@@alexstewart9592 I see, but aren't the champion weapons and amiibo weapons only what you would want to use this for?

[@erikhendrickson59]

Having a real-time weapon quick-cycle, that didn't require opening the menu at all, would really help the durability problem feel less monotonous. In my opinion it's not so much the fact that the weapons break per se, but the fact that it results in *_constant_* menuing, when I'm just trying to play the game and be immersed. When you have to menu *_MULTIPLE TIMES_* to change weapons during even non-boss fights, then it's just too much (IMO).

[@Mr69hammertime]

Gotta love how he answers the question while remaining vague enough for those of us who haven't picked up totk yet

[@nathanblackburn1193]

Something to note is that Rock Octoroks will repair any weapon they suck up with the exception of the champion/gloom weapons but there's a workaround for them, if you fuse a champion/gloom weapon to a different weapon/shield then feed that to a Rock Octorok both will be repaired though you then have to unfuse them at Tarrey Town

[@Mechadeuce]

13:14 I mean... The fully upgraded Master Sword lasts a really long time AND is super strong in BotW

[@dpackerman4203]

But it costs extra real life money

[@Mechadeuce]

@@dpackerman4203 True, but TotK also costs extra real life money, $70 for TotK vs. $60 + $20 for BotW+DLC. Even Nintendo isn't immune to modern gaming tax...

[@stagelights_]

for me the fuse mechanic makes things a bit worse because i tend to get a bit precious with my materials because "what if i need them for an armor upgrade or a quest" and it makes me anxiety about me wasting my materials on weapons

[@frostcrm]

You can take your almost broken items to the Gordon kid in Tarrytown, pay 20 rupees to save your materials, the weapon will will be almost broken, but you can take them to one of the rock octoroks near death mountain, if they suck a weapon in that isn't a champions weapon they repair and add an effect to it

[@XLukasX53]

Then you'll go get more

[@gideonjones5712]

See I kinda had that mentality for a while while playing, but then I did the lynel colossium and was eventually forced to just start fusing weapons and parts on the fly from drops because I was just running out of stuff to fight with, and it was so damn fun. I have since learned to just go with it, because you can always just get that special powerful part again eventually

[@1996MartinsMatheus]

there is a npc on tarrey town that separates the tip material (usually what matters) from the weapon. just fuse any weapon with good fuse attacks until they glow red and separates them for 20 rupies. Theu weapon (handle) will still be glowing red but the tip material you got back is intact.

[@leargamma4912]

That is a you problem

[@Rat-kb2rc]

Totk broke 3 of my strongest weapons to kill a hinox, but just reloaded a save because I didn’t feel like it was worth it because the hinox horn gave me 12 fuse damage when I could just kill a blue moblin for 13 fuse damage

[@Rat-kb2rc]

Another problem I have is if something is easier to get and better than other items like a black moblin horn compared to a luminous stone talus heart, I will always just put the better and easier item to get on my weapons, in this case the black moblin horn, which takes a way a little bit of the creativity

[@eziowayne]

Please take your time on the TotK review! It’s a game that’s truly lodged itself deep in my heart and I really enjoy hearing your praises as well as criticisms on games. I obviously can’t wait, but don’t let that rush you!

[@ArdilaVene]

My problem is with the legendary items. For the Goddess Sword quest you have to search all three dragon around the map, throw a Scale in their respective fountain (courage, wisdom or power). And then go back to the Big hylia Zonnan temple so the statue can give you Skyward Sword's blade... And then the sword have a McDonald's plastic Knife durability, legendary items should last a lot more.

[@ethanchenoweth9720]

Wasn’t it a dragon claw? Other than that though I agree. The legendary weapons should be more like the master sword, either lower damage but never break, or need to recharge. You can buy them from bargainer statues but it’s usually expensive at takes some Poe grinding. Not a terrible system over all.

[@Faceplay2]

Yep me me. It makes it pointless to do all the work to find them.

[@ArdilaVene]

@@ethanchenoweth9720 true it was the Dragon Claw

[@fightingphoenix6352]

I've been waiting for this kind of video from you! I think doubling down on durability and improving it at least "kind of" was the right decision. The game even has icons to let you know, there are only really three weapons. With variation, but only three, because it is just integral that you should be churning through resources instead of getting attached to anything. And of course I knew you'd be happy with something that lets you use the materials you collect.

[@graysonsolis]

I do kinda wish there was maybe one more weapon type, like a katana or flail of some kind. I suppose the materials such as lizalfos tails and boomerangs add some variety, but I feel a bit spoiled from elden ring lol

[@alexstewart9592]

​@@graysonsolis Using a Lizalfos Tail as a fusion material basically turns weapons into flails. And while it isn't by much, the way Link swings weapons DOES actually change with the material you use - with "one-handed" weapons he uses horisontal swings for most sharp materials and diagonal ones with blunt materials (e.g. rocks), althoug there are a couple of materials (like spiked iron balls) that use blunt-style swings (and are effective on rocks) but are also sharp and thus effective against wooden objects (but they don't cut grass). As a final note, while you probably already knew this, gem fusions also create another invisible weapon class of magic weapons - one-handed weapons are functionally identical to the tier 1 magic rods from BOTW, while spear and claymore bases give you slightly different versions and all three swing types have a dedicated "magic" weapon (staff, rod or sceptre) that acts like the tier 2 BOTW rods with gems.

[@Akibaferret]

The one thing that tips the scale for me to being ok with it in Totk is the goron npc in tarry town that lets you at least salvage the monster parts of your almost broken weapons, I put one of my travel medallions in front of him and if one of my weapons with a harder to get by monster part is about to break its time for a visit, well worth the 20 rupees

[@DBTGAMER]

I would say that fuse sort of fixed the weapon breaking problem. The Mucktorok Boss fight somehow managed to break all my weapons. I had to leave the water temple and come back later when I had more inventory slots and better weapons. Also I kept running out of arrows.