The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis shaping up to surpass its predecessor,Breath of the Wildin nearly every way. Recently, Nintendo released aThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomgameplay trailer, which heavily featured Link’s new Ultrahand ability. Fuse and Ultrahand, abilities that allow Link to combine items and build vehicles, were the trailer’s focal points and appear to be the foundation forTears of the Kingdom’s gameplay. With seemingly limitless applications, Link’s Ultrahand ability could be used to take past fan-favorite elements of Hyrule to the next level, particularly tasks like the construction of Tarrey Town.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomarrives in just over a month, yet Nintendo has revealed very little about its story, timeline, and characters. The same could be said for its gameplay until last week’s trailer, making Link’s Ultrahand abilities the primary source of fans' excitement and theorizing. While the trailer demonstrated the fuse ability’s application to combat, it also revealed the opportunity for players to utilize Ultrahand in their own unique way, ensuring that no two people will have the exact same experience exploring Hyrule. Ultrahand will likely do more than just make vehicles and could be utilized to build entire structures and solve complex puzzles.
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Breath of the Wild’s Tarrey Town Introduced Building
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildfeatured many villages, shops, and miniature towns. However, one stands out as the only location that players directly have a hand in creating: Tarrey Town.The building of Tarrey Townoccurs as part of a quest line, which starts when players purchase a home for Link, and meet one of the construction crew members, Hudson, who is about to embark on a massive project. Hudson invites Link to track him down at the new building site, a raised island in the middle of Lake Akkala.
The manysub-quests that lead to the creation of Tarrey Towntask Link with gathering supplies from across all of Hyrule. Link must seek aid from a Goron, Gerudo, Rito, and Zora to gather materials and properly utilize them in the building of structures. These individuals end up moving to the town to start anew, opening various shops. Once the town is complete, players are rewarded with one of the most touching moments inBreath of the Wild, as they participate in the Wedding of Hudson and Rhondson, the Gerudo that Link recruited to help build Tarrey Town.
The Ultrahand Ability Sets the Stage for a Next-Level Building Quest
Link’s Ultrahand abilitieswill undoubtedly be utilized inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s main quest line. However, it also provides an opportunity for Link to get more directly involved with the settlements of Hyrule. One way could be a new iteration of the Tarrey Town side quest, in which Link forgoes the collection of materials for a construction crew, and instead uses Ultrahand to build the structures of a new town himself. Perhaps Link could even build a sister location to Tarrey Town on one ofTears of the Kingdom’s sky islands.
While Nintendo demonstrated the free-form creation ofvehicles inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s latest gameplay trailer, the game could feature the construction of much larger structures. Link can combine logs to make a raft, so it’s possible those same logs could be melded vertically into the walls of a building. Much likeBreath of the Wild’s cooking recipes, fans will likely need to experiment with different materials and discover these combinations on their own. Fans hoping for large-scale application of Ultrahand will be able to discover the abilities' uses for themselves very soon.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomreleases July 12, 2025, for Nintendo Switch.
