Hi everyone, my editor told me to stop playing The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, and start writing a new article for LevelUp. So I’ll spend the rest of this article writing about The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom!

Let me clarify: no, this isn’t a review for an excellent adventure game (see the sidebar for that). Instead, this is an in-depth look into one specific mechanic that made the previous Zelda title, Breath Of The Wild (BOTW), such an amazing adventure game, and how the new Tears Of The Kingdom (TOTK) improves on it: weapon durability.

That’s right! I’m going to spend the rest of this article discussing why this ostensibly controversial gameplay mechanic is actually really good game design, and hopefully in the process my keyboard won’t explode from over-typing.

Weapon attachments

OK, in case you’re not familiar: the various swords, bows, and shields you find in BOTW and TOTK have limited lifespans.

They start off pristine, but as you use them to whack Moblins or shoot arrows, they’ll lose durability until they inevitably shatter.

Weapon durability isn’t a new concept in video games (I mean, look at Minecraft’s tools), but it’s very uncommon in the Zelda series, so some (or many) players found this “feature” frustrating. Just ask my editor!

While I don’t feel the same way, it’s important to analyse why some gamers do. And I think it’s this: in many RPGs (role-playing games) and action games, the main way players interact with the game world is through combat.

As a result, weapons (swords, spells, guns, etc) become players’ main (sometimes only) tools of interaction, so the most interesting choices players make are “what’s the best and most efficient way for me to explode my enemies?”.

The brilliance of BOTW’s combat design is that it makes breakable weapons a resource management puzzle.

RPGs (or anything with levelling) further teach players the importance of getting stronger with better weapons, while loot-based games (think Diablo or Borderlands) further reinforce the value of weapons by giving them out as rewards for playing the game.

As gamers, we’re often used to a comfortable yet repetitive feedback loop where we get weapons, fight enemies, get stronger weapons, fight stronger enemies, etc.

So, of course, players might get attached to their weapons. How else are you going to interact with the monsters in Diablo? By asking them to cuddle?

Break of the wild

Now, imagine what’d happen if BOTW actually removed weapon durability – you’d get a vastly different gameplay experience.

First, choosing which weapon to use becomes a lot less interesting – you’ll always pick the strongest one and sell the weaker “trash loot”.

Second, you’ll likely find a build that suits your playstyle, optimise it, and then stick with that dominant strategy. Why change tactics or improvise if hitting things with your biggest stick always works?

I genuinely don’t think this is how the developers intended anyone to play BOTW; Zelda games are really about exploration and discovery, and this means the devs have to encourage constant experimentation.

The brilliance of BOTW’s combat design is that it makes breakable weapons a resource management puzzle.

You’re not supposed to grow attached to your super-rare Flameblade; you’re supposed to use it to one-shot ice enemies or survive in icy environments.

You’re not supposed to defeat that Hinox with a safe and predictable strategy; you’re supposed to make do with whatever tools you have on hand and make clever use of whatever environment you’re in.

In that sense, breaking weapons is just a mechanism that discourages repetitive gameplay.

The devs saw that players complained about weapon durability in BOTW, then doubled down, saying “not only will we show you how disposable weapons can be used to encourage improvisation, we’ll show you they can encourage invention”.

Sure, that “discouragement” can be seen as a “punishment”, because gamers do sometimes get used to comfortable yet repetitive feedback loops – but the devs were smart to also add a lot of systems to encourage constant experimentation.

For one, Hyrule is actually absurdly abundant, with a large quantity and variety of weapons.

Even if I get sad when my Guardian Sword shatters, I’ll always find a Boomerang or an Iron Sledgehammer or whatever if I try looking for 30 seconds.

I rarely get the weapon I want, but it’s always a weapon of some sort, and this discard-and-draw approach often leads me to improvise interesting battle strategies. (For instance, use a Korok Leaf to insta-kill Bokoblins by blowing them into water!)

For another, BOTW has so many other ways to interact with its beautiful world outside of direct combat.

Too many monsters in your way? Try climbing the hill around them instead. Want to beat them without combat? Equip the Stealth Armour, then go sneaky-stabby at night. Accidentally stumbled across a Lynel? Flee! It’s a bloody Lynel, fleeing like a coward is a valid option!

Seriously, BOTW is absolutely amazing in the number of ways you can approach its challenges; I’ve never seen any game that allows this level of dynamic, open-ended problem-solving in such a living world.

Fusion power

That is, until I played TOTK, because holy wow! There’s a lot I love about the sequel, but the new Fuse mechanic is easily one of the most genius bits of game design.

OK, so: in BOTW’s sequel, you can “fuse” random junk to your (still breakable) weapons to strengthen or modify them. Fuse a rock to your sword, and you get a “rock hammer” that can smash obstacles.

While this seems like just another fun gimmick, what’s happening is actually a reinforcement of the ideas of improvisation and experimentation.

If I thought BOTW was absurdly abundant with weapons and tools, then TOTK takes it to a new level by letting me make things up. Monster eyeball + arrows = homing arrows? Yes. Rocket + shield = jetpack? Yes! Flamethrower + Zora spear = fire spear that gets stronger when I’m wet? Inexplicably, yes!

The weapons and fusion materials continue to be breakable and/or “consumable”, but at the same time they’re provided in such abundance and variety that I’m never at a loss for inventing new, interesting monster-slaying and problem-solving tools.

It’s really quite amazing – the devs saw that players complained about weapon durability in BOTW, then doubled down, saying “not only will we show you how disposable weapons can be used to encourage improvisation, we’ll show you they can encourage invention”.

End game

It’s kind of odd to say, but I really appreciate how BOTW and TOTK kept breaking my stuff, because it made me learn to improvise instead of optimise, and that led me to make far more interesting decisions.

For game developers, there are many fascinating lessons to be learnt.

Gameplay systems have to be added with deliberate thought, as even the smallest mechanism can encourage or discourage vastly different gameplay behaviours.

And if the design choices you make genuinely support the gameplay experience you intended, even if they go against what players expect, you need to be darn confident about them.

After all, TOTK didn’t discard weapon durability from BOTW – the sequel just made it better.

Still, I can understand players who instead find the breakable weapon mechanic to be more frustrating than fun.

I mean, can you imagine if everything had limited durability? I’d be examining BOTW and TOTK’s amazing systems, and then suddenly my keyboard breaks before I can give the article a proper conclusio ...