Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 1.2.1 update makes changes to players’ favorite material – elevator railings 

Nintendo released update Ver.1.2.1 for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on August 23. The update mainly implements various bug fixes, including some that are not mentioned in the patch notes. Of particular note are the changes to the elevator railings that many liked to use in constructing all manner of inventions due to the unique properties that they possessed.  

Update Ver.1.2.1 is focused on fixing bugs and other issues in the game. The patch notes detail the rectification of various issues, including a problem where the screen would start to flicker intensely when large amounts of stamps were placed on the map. It also fixes an issue which prevented players from obtaining the contents of treasure chests attached to Flux Constructs when the treasure chests vanished as a result of the Flux Construct’s attacks. Downloading this update will also fix an event with Koltin which would not trigger for some players even after they had collected all of the Bubbul Gems. 

The final note simply states, “Several other issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience.” One of these issues that was not mentioned in detail appears to be related to the elevator railings, as many players have reported that the railings no longer possess some of their unique qualities. For those unfamiliar with the beloved objects, they are elevator railings that can be found in the Construct Factory and Right-leg Depot. Using Zonai Devices or other methods allows you to break apart the elevators in these areas and detach the railings. Unlike regular objects, these railings were essentially indestructible, incredibly light, and possessed mysterious physical behavior. These unusual properties made the railings a favorite among players who like to invent new contraptions and experiment in the game. 

However, players are reporting that some of these properties no longer exist in Ver.1.2.1. YouTuber and X/Twitter user Yukino, who has been performing tests that push the limits of what can be achieved in the world of Hyrule ever since Breath of the Wild, has tested the behavior of the elevator railings in Ver.1.2.1 and posted their findings.  

According to Yukino, it is still possible to break the elevators in the Construct Factory and Right-leg Depot and detach the railings. When the elevator railings are spawned through Autobuild, however, they can no longer exist as individual objects. Normally, when you remove parts from a structure that has been built with Autobuild, they immediately disappear, but this was not the case for the mysterious elevator railings. The railings could exist independently even after they were removed from your build. This meant that once you had registered railings to an Autobuild Schematic, you could freely remove them and use them to your heart’s content. But this is no longer the case in the new update, and it is now necessary to go through the extra effort of combining the railings with regular items if you wish to use them as individual objects. 

Yukino also demonstrated that the railings can now be destroyed by a Lynel’s roar. Prior to the update, the railings were impervious to Lynel roars or any other attacks that have the effect of wiping out Autobuild constructions. As a result, this made it possible to elicit unintended behavior from a number of enemies who attempted to destroy the railings to no avail. For example, Lynels would just roar over and over without attacking Link at all. The railings no longer possess this property in Ver.1.2.1, so they can’t be used as a means to render enemies defenseless while you toy with them. 

On the other hand, Yukino noted that the elevator railings are still ultra-lightweight. Since the railings are significantly lighter than other objects and their mysterious physical properties make them very floaty, they have been frequently used in a variety of different vehicle designs. So although building things with the railings is now more time consuming following the update due to their inability to exist as individual objects, they still retain the benefits they had as materials used in vehicle construction. 

In previous versions of the game, Yukino had also performed experiments during the final boss fight using Autobuild Schematics to produce a huge number of elevator railings (Related article). Spawning a vast number of railings brought about all kinds of strange behavior, like causing the boss to be sucked into the ground or being trapped in a mysterious space Yukino named the “punishment ward” after loading save data during the experiment. Just like with the enemy behavior that we discussed previously, several of the mysterious properties possessed by the elevator railings carried the risk of producing certain bugs or problems in the game. There’s a good chance that this is the reason Nintendo decided to fix these properties in update Ver.1.2.1. 

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-08-23 17:45 JST)