Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players discover baffling high-speed flying glitch

Japanese players of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have discovered a mysterious physics bug that allows you to fly at incredibly high speeds using nothing but a Zonai Stabilizer and a U-shaped block. The bug is triggered by skipping a cutscene. 

Three Japanese X/Twitter users, @saiotoko002, @tsuyokichi7, and @Bykinbreadman, have baffled the Zelda community with the discovery of a technique that allows you to soar into the sky at super high speeds. 

Assembly is simple – you attach a Zonai Stabilizer to the base of the U-shaped block (that can be found in Right-Leg Depot). Then, to “activate” the apparatus, you need to place the U-shaped block so that it’s facing downwards, and climb up its inner wall so that you’re almost holding onto the “ceiling” (as seen in the video above). As you do so, the U-shaped block will gently lift off into the air. From there, you need to adjust your position to get the whole thing going diagonally upwards diagonally. 

Once you’re sure the block is travelling upwards at an angle, open up your Adventure Log and start playing a Memory cutscene. Then, skip the cutscene immediately and return to the game. The U-shaped block should start soaring into the sky at an astonishing speed. If you manage not to fall off, you should be able to reach the upper limit of the Sky in a matter of moments. 

As this technique doesn’t use any source of power (i.e. a Zonai Fan or similar), it’s captured the attention of the community, with many players exploring the possibilities of this newly found glitch. As Link’s position on the block has a huge effect on its trajectory, there have also been cases of the block zooming off into the distance completely horizontally. 

Why does the combination of a Stabilizer and a U-shaped block move on its own, and why does skipping a cutscene turbocharge this movement? It is likely a mystery with no explanation, but the U-shaped block does come from Right-Leg Depot, where players had previously discovered elevator railings with rather miraculous properties, so there might be something about this location. 

Although more than half a year has passed since the release of Tears of the Kingdom, users continue to make breakthroughs with inventions and materials. Players have even utilized mysterious physics phenomena to develop things like perpetual motion devices and quantum linking. There may be even more fascinating discoveries lying ahead. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch. 

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-11-30 16:59 JST)