Tears of the Kingdom: this new “material” elevates aircraft building to a new level 

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players have discovered a new “material” that is incredibly light and boasts high air resistance. The strange properties of the material make it a perfect component for flying vehicles, as it allows you to generate great levels of propulsion. 

On the r/HyruleEngineering subreddit, where Tears of the Kingdom players are constantly sharing all kinds of new inventions, there is a “new material” that has suddenly been drawing great interest: the railings from an elevator found in a certain location. The peculiar properties of the railings were uncovered by Reddit user TheBigL1. They made the discovery while attempting to dismantle the railings of an elevator in Right-leg Depot, a dungeon in The Depths. An impact from a stake caused one of the railings to float up into the air and then gently fall down to the ground. 

According to TheBigL1, the railings possess weird air resistance. The precise reason for this is unknown, but attaching the railings to other objects seems to cause them to fall slightly more slowly than usual. The BigL1 speculates that this occurs because the railings are both incredibly light and also have extremely high air resistance. Another point of interest is that if you build something from an Autobuild schematic that includes the railings, they won’t disappear if you detach them. So if you register the rails to your Autobuild history while you are in Right-leg Depot, you will be able to reproduce them whenever you want. 

Users of r/HyruleEngineering immediately took this ground-breaking new material and started creating a wide variety of new contraptions. For example, some discovered that, for whatever reason, stacking rails together further increases their buoyancy. One player designed an elevator that uses a stack of rails and the force from a Fan Zonai Device to ascend into the sky at a rapid pace. Using this device, it is possible to travel from The Depths to the upper limit of The Sky in around only 50 seconds. 

Another player used the properties of the rails to invent a jet aircraft. Rails are used to form the body and wings of the jet, including a stack of rails that are placed on the nose. As mentioned above, the stack of rails is more easily affected by wind, and a Fan Zonai Device is used to provide a huge amount of propulsion. This jet is able to travel much faster than even the air bike or other aerial vehicles. 

One of the unique aspects of the jet’s design is that the Fan, which acts as its engine, is not directly attached to the vehicle. By enclosing it in a combination of rails, it can be kept in place without actually attaching it with Ultrahand. According to one user, this is because unattached fans are capable of providing uncapped thrust. On the other hand, vehicles that have fans attached to them can only reach a set maximum speed. It’s believed that this difference is why the jet can travel at much higher speeds than existing vehicles like the air bike. 

The jet makes use of a Rocket Zonai Device to takeoff, so after landing, you will need to go to the effort of attaching a new Rocket before you can go on another flight. It may be best to choose between the highly maneuverable air bike and the high-speed jet depending on your preferences and the resources that you have on hand. 

Those on r/HyruleEngineering have also used the mysterious railings for a variety of other inventions, investigating possibilities like using them in ground vehicles or for a fast rotating propeller. 

Players have also come up with different ways to break apart the elevator that serves as the source of these railings. Some methods that have been used to remove the railings include attaching Stabilizers or multiple Rockets. As an aside, one user noted that the conditions which dictate whether an object can be broken off and carried away like the railings is that they must be unique objects attached to walls or the ground that can be grabbed with Ultrahand.  

The elevator railings from Right-leg Depot might not be the only revolutionary “material” hidden away in Hyrule, so if you find something that can be grabbed with Ultrahand, it might be worth finding out if you can take it apart. 

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-07-06 09:11 JST)