Zonai Devices fundamentally change Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom

The ancient tribe's technology features heavily in Tears of the Kingdom, and for good reason

Breath of the Wild asked you to explore the landscape of Hyrule through any means you saw fit, and gave you a limited set of tools that you can use flexibly. That means that even though the path seems obvious, you can veer off and find something entirely new.

Every direction you head in sees Link get stronger and become more capable of defeating Ganondorf. So it seems only natural that Tears of the Kingdom would expand those options for an entirely new experience.

Zonai devices are the primary way that Tears of the Kingdom sets itself apart from what came before. You’ve all seen clips of the unique vehicles you can build and ride in Tears of the Kingdom, and they’re all powered by Zonai devices.

What do all these things do? You'll have to figure that out yourself

Zonai devices and the Ultrahand ability fundamentally change how you will approach all obstacles. Instead of seeing a big journey and getting anxious about how to traverse it, you lay out a few tools. A Glider will soar through the air, a Steering Stick will help Link control it, while Fans at the back can make it more efficient while flying. A Cart with wheels will help the Glider pick up speed on the ground to take off, but you could just attach rockets to the sides in order to achieve instant liftoff, before soaring away majestically. You can even increase the distance you’ll achieve if you strap Battery devices on the wings.

But that is just the start. Yes, making interesting vehicles is a key component in Tears of the Kingdom, but the Ultrahand goes much further. It’s instrumental in dozens of puzzles, and the way those puzzles make you think is entirely freeform. The President’s sign puzzle is testament to this.

You’ll regularly find a fan of President Hudson – the carpenter from BOTW – trying to place signs around Hyrule to let people know how great he is. He’s useless about placing them though, and they’ll fall over if he ever lets go. Your job is to use any materials nearby to assemble some kind of stand that will ensure the sign stays up once he releases his grip.

Wood

The signs are all different shapes and sizes – some with notches on the back for you to slot a piece of wood into, others with a large flat base for you to weigh down with Boulders – and it’s down to you to figure them out.

The game never asks you to hold up the sign, and it never adds a quest to your Adventure Log, it’s just there, waiting for you to choose to interact with it. It’s the same philosophy that powered the 900 Korok seeds in the previous game, but here it applies to almost everything outside of the main quest.

With Zonai devices Tears of the Kingdom sets itself apart from Breath of the Wild and takes the “open-air” formula of the series a step further, and I can’t wait to see what kind of absurd contraptions people will make.