The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s “arm stuck to object” glitch is gaining popularity among fans

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-08-31 17:42 (JST)
Translated by. Nick Mosier

It looks like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has a strange glitch that’s becoming popular with a part of the game’s community. The surreal visual of Link’s arm being stuck to an object is gathering attention online and causing all sorts of funny scenarios.

The origin of it all is a tweet from Pirikanten. The tweet shows Link gliding through the sky with just a Cucco mounted on his right arm. The visual itself is funny, but what should be noted is that Link is in a state of not holding anything while having a Cucco attached to his arm. He also still has the gliding properties from the Cucco. This phenomenon is actually a new kind of glitch.

After Pirikanten’s tweet, other players started tweeting videos of Link’s arm stuck to various objects. One example is Twitter user ZAKUYA who stuck a Cucco to Link’s arm and skipped around which grabbed attention online as a parody of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Twitter user Zerudaneko didn’t just attach a Cucco, but also stuck Link’s arm through a barrel and used it to push NPC characters around. Twitter user Yukinosan stuck an explosive barrel to Link and thrust it into a fire to blow themself up. Yukinosan also submitted other unique videos like Link strutting around Hyrule with a giant rock for an arm and even attaching a monster to Link’s arm.

The interesting thing about this glitch is that you force an object to combine with Link and it retains its properties. And besides the visual aspect, it can also be used to carry things that are normally difficult to carry to all sorts of places.

So how do you recreate it? The basics of it are explained in this tweet by Pirikanten. For more information, we reached out to Yukinosan who is researching more about the glitch. It sounds like there are multiple ways to do it, but Yukinosan is recreating it with the following method. The steps are divided into two parts.

1. Weapon Holding Glitch (Sword Smuggling)

i. Prepare an object that can be held such as bombs
ii. Equip a one-handed weapon and shield then draw the weapon with Y
iii. Press B and unequip the shield during the motion of the weapon being put away
iv. Pick up the object and throw it and Link will be in a state of holding the weapon

2. Arm Stuck to Object Glitch

i. Unequip the weapon (or equip a two-handed weapon), equip a shield
ii. Stand in front of the object you want to attach to and crouch facing south
iii. Press the L button (bombs) + down on the D-pad + the A button
  * For the Sword Smuggling glitch, if you’ve thrown a remote bomb, detonate it (be in the state where the L button pulls out a bomb)
  * It’s not a problem if you don’t do a long press on the D-pad down input.
iv. Pick up the item with one hand, equip a one-handed weapon and immediately unequip the shield
* If you aren’t holding the object in one hand or aren’t stuck to the object, repeat section 2 from step “i”

This glitch is divided into the Sword Smuggling glitch and the Arm Stuck to Object glitch which makes it a little easier to find the problem if it isn’t going well. It’s also easy to remove an attached object without issue. Yukinosan has also uploaded a video going through the steps which could be a helpful reference.

It’s a simple glitch that attaches objects to a character, but it’s giving birth to new ways to play and has a lot of depth. But above all else, it’s funny to look at. It is still a bug though so use with caution.