Tears of the Kingdom: How to make a laser-shooting musical instrument

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players from all over the world have been using Ultrahand and Zonai Devices to create musical instruments and posting their sounds to social media. The instrument that was invented is played using lasers and can produce a wide range of melodies that sound similar to a music box.  

The main Zonai Device involved is the Stake. Stakes can be driven into spots like the ground or walls where you can’t attach objects using Ultrahand. Once implanted, Stakes will stay firmly in place, so they make a good foundation for building other things. On the other hand, they are now gaining attention for their applications as “instruments.” 

The above tweet, posted on June 10, shows a discovery made by Twitter user @maxotunes. When an attack such as the laser from a Beam Emitter Zonai Device hits a Stake, it will produce a pitch that differs depending on the state of the Stake. A shorter Stake will produce a higher pitched sound, while a longer Stake produces a lower pitch. Later that same day, another user was able to take the new discovery one step further. As you can see in the tweet below, attaching Stakes together can create an even wider range of pitches. 

This user combined Beam Emitters and a Big Wheel to construct a device that automatically plays a portion of a song from the game Undertale. He uses Stakes of varying length as well as Stakes that have been attached to one another to produce the different pitches that are required. The tempo of the melody can also be controlled by adjusting the distance between the Stakes. The device is designed so that the melody will loop continuously provided you have enough Energy. Although it looks very flashy with its Beam Emitters, it actually produces quite a delicate sound.   

Players from all over the world have begun making their own Beam Emitter and Stake “music boxes” and have shared the melodies that they produced. For example, one Reddit user recreated part of a song from the soundtrack to the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind.  

There are also players who recreated songs from past titles in The Legend of Zelda series. One Twitter user in Japan played “Lon Lon Ranch,” as seen below, while another played “Song of Storms” using a spinning contraption on one of the Sky Islands. By adjusting the tempo and range through the Stakes, it’s possible to create a wide variety of melodies.  

Though you might normally think of Ultrahand and Zonai Devices as tools to solve puzzles or create combat weapons, it turns out they can also be used to build musical instruments. It’s all made possible by the fact that Stakes produce different sounds depending on their length, which also makes you marvel at the elaborate detail that went into every aspect of Tears of the Kingdom. We may see even more diverse melodies from these somewhat dangerous, laser shooting “Zonai Device Instruments” in the future.  

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-06-15 16:29 JST)