Tears of the Kingdom News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Given how many award shows have happened in various media over the last six weeks, you might feel things are “finally done.” But you would be wrong! There’s another significant award show for the gaming year that was, which won’t arrive until March! We’re speaking about the Game Developers Choice Awards, or the GDC Awards for short. This is when the industry itself comes together to recognize and honor the best games of the previous year and give awards for their outstanding achievements. As revealed by ComicBook.com, the nominations have gone live, and the titles with the most nominations are Baldur’s Gate 3 and Tears of the Kingdom.

The nominations for the 24th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) have been announced, and two of the biggest games this year are up for the most awards. There are some smaller contenders in the mix. 

One crafty The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player created a scary-looking machine that bites enemies. Since the game's launch, some Tears of the Kingdom players have built torture machines using monster parts and Zonai devices spread over the world of Hyrule. For instance, one designed a device for tormenting little Korok creatures, while another made a remote-controlled killer drone to dispatch groups of enemies.

Today, the organizers of the Game Developers Conference have announced the nominations for the GDC Awards 2024. To the surprise of nobody, Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 and Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have dominated them, achieving seven nominations each.

The nominees for the 24th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) have been revealed.

The organizers of the Game Developers Conference today revealed the nominees for the 24th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be held at the conference on March 20.

A crafty Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has shown off an impressive custom battle machine that can swat Link’s enemies away like flies. Tears of the Kingdom was one of the biggest releases of 2023, smashing sales records mere months after its May launch on the Nintendo Switch and earning widespread praise for its expansion of the free-roaming formula introduced in 2017’s Breath of the Wild. One of Tears of the Kingdom’s biggest additions is a surprisingly versatile crafting mechanic, which players can use to create all manner of vehicles and contraptions to help Link bring peace to the realm of Hyrule once again.

One player of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom showed off a creative way to make a floating platform, and posted a video of how they pulled it off. With a Zonai Wing and clever use of Link's Recall ability, the Tears of the Kingdom player crossed a chasm without a problem and surprised some social media viewers.

At first glance, Sundelions are a seemingly run-of-the-mill resource in — but as it turns out, they're far more valuable than they appear, and Link should make a conscious effort not to waste them. Of course, being an open-world game just like its predecessor, players are free to tackle the game however they please, and that applies to how items are used. However, for those who want to walk the path of least resistance and beat as effortlessly as possible, Sundelions — and the recipes they're used for — should not be squandered.

One Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has found a simple way for players to farm rupees by using a common Zonai device found all through Hyrule. Zonai devices in Tears of the Kingdom help players build almost any vehicle or structure to help Link navigate through Nintendo’s open world.

Poes are one of the most abundant collectibles in , and they can be especially useful if players only know what to do with them. Poes can be found scattered throughout the Depths, the underground area of 's map. The Depths can be a harsh, unwelcoming place, requiring ample preparation, clever use of light sources, and an affinity for building vehicles with Zonai devices for exploration, but finding Poes is the easiest part. They're depicted as glowing, blue, teardrop-shaped wisps, so they stand out in the dark underground, even glowing enough to be seen in the pitch-black distance.

A Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has created a unique Podracer inspired by the ones in Star Wars. Since the game was released, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom fans have created a wide range of impressive vehicles, and this Podracer blends the worlds of Zelda and Star Wars.

Famitsu has published a report compiling data for all software and hardware sales in Japan for the entirety of 2023, and unsurprisingly, Nintendo once again dominated proceedings last year on both fronts.

Something that always stuns me are the ways dedicated players find ways to push the limits of the games they play. Whether it’s Animal Crossing designers who know the perfect way to line up buildings to fake certain perspectives, or a Tears of the Kingdom player who created an ultra-fast flying machine by holding the fan up in a particular way, I’ve always appreciated the commitment and creativity that goes into pushing a game to its limit. I was doing the rounds on Reddit when I saw something that truly astounded me: Reddit user Scalhoun03 created a completely wind-powered airship in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

A Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has spent six months and 1,855 hours collecting 999,999 Poe beneath Hyrule, all because they were curious.

There were many things that Tears of the Kingdom “did right” upon its release. Regarding its story, one of its best acts was bringing Zelda to the past and having her interact with Hyrule’s first king and queen. As players would find out, the first king of Hyrule, Rauru, would have a huge role in the story, including saving Link from Ganondorf’s curse and helping him understand his new abilities. Polygon translated an interview with the game’s director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and the game’s producer, Eiji Aonuma, where the two commented on what it was like to make Rauru and the “two sides” of his character via the time periods gamers met him in. Fujibayashi started with:

Before players meet Rauru in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, they see his arm. At the very beginning of the game, Link doesn’t really know what’s going on, but he wakes up with a mysterious appendage that’s not his — and that allows him to harness incredible powers. It’s not much later that Link meets a spirit version of Rauru, the first king of Hyrule and a character who belongs to a race of creatures called the Zonai. In lending Link his arm, Rauru gave the hero the means to go out into the wide world of Hyrule and realize the carefully laid plans of Princess Zelda.

As 2023 comes to a close, many will debate the true “Game of the Year.” We know what The Game Awards thought about the subject, but others aren’t as clear cut. For many others, The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is the best game from this year. Whether it is or not is up to you, but the game’s depth is not to be ignored. It had a vast expanse to explore alongside two new realms above and below you to check out. Plus, the game’s story had plenty to offer, with many secrets and hints buried within.

Fuse materials in can create some of the best items in the game when paired with different weapons. Stronger resources allow Link to mold tools with very high damage bonuses for different combat situations. Bosses and other tough enemies are best fought with the Fuse materials that have the most potential throughout your adventures in Hyrule.

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players didn’t just play through another story set in Hyrule. The sequel to Breath of the Wild took the previous game’s sandbox elements several steps further, allowing players to use a new set of powers to construct machines, weapons, and tools using items in the world. By introducing this, Tears of the Kingdom encouraged players to be truly creative and push the limits of building in the game.

The Legend of Zelda and its protagonist, Link, reached new heights this year — literally. The hero soared through the skies and plunged into the deepest depths of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game’s developers took their risks, too: This time around, players wouldn’t just explore but also construct devices with Link’s new set of powers.

The Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator was recently improved with some new features that improve the experience in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and several other titles.

Zora's Domain is covered in sludge and Prince Sidon needs my help.

Not only is the Split Pad Pro cheap right now, but Amazon says orders will still arrive before Christmas.

The producer of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has revealed he doesn't quite understand why fans want to revisit the series' older, more "restricted" games when the new ones give you so much more freedom. 

It’s not very often that a new mainline Zelda title is a direct follow-up to a previous instalment, with Majora’s Mask having been the last one (not counting the handheld titles) to do so until Tears of the Kingdom launched earlier this year. And whenever the next Zelda title arrives, it is going to be an entirely new thing once again, as per series producer Eiji Aonuma.

When Tears of the Kingdom launched in May 2023, its huge map and well-rounded story helped it rapidly become one of the best Zelda games. It felt as if the game shipped as a complete package from the get-go rather than there being any further content, and it was quickly confirmed that Tears of the Kingdom would not receive any DLC in the future, unlike its predecessorBreath of the Wild. However, the possibility of building upon the world Tears of the Kingdom lays out in a future game is always in the back of players' minds — until now. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom might be the perfect sequel in every definition of the word, but even Nintendo seems to agree that it has exhausted all possibilities for this particular iteration of Link’s journey.

If you want to break rocks or defeat powerful enemies, you must use a Bomb Flower in . While there are a limited number of Bomb Flowers available to gather, there is a way to farm them from specific locations. Bomb Flowers are particularly handy as they explode on impact and are best used against tough bosses and areas blocked by breakable rocks.

The Legend Of Zelda’s next outing probably won’t be a direct follow-up to Tears of the Kingdom, according to Nintendo.

The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has said the next game in the series probably won't be a direct sequel to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi seems ready to move on to a new storyline with the next Zelda title.

Lego Fortnite is big on authenticity. During my recent preview session, the game's developers repeatedly noted how they recreated 10,000 authentic Lego bricks in digital form, using those bricks to then create creatures and characters that are - again - authentic to the guidelines for actual Lego sets. It's effectively impossible for me to judge how well Lego Fortnite can fulfill its ambitions as the 30-minute demo I got ahead of the game's official release offered nowhere near enough time to really poke at its systems, but I came away thrilled by its potential.

The Master Sword is the most iconic weapon in the series, and gives it even more utility, gaining extra benefits with the help of Fuse. Link's newfound ability to attach items to his armaments has resulted in some creative and awe-inspiring combinations, ranging from death-dealing weapons of destruction to ones that are plain silly. With hundreds of different materials to choose from, though, players may be unsure of which items to attach to the Master Sword for the best results.

Nintendo's Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma have spoken more about the monsters they created for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, including the all new Horriblins and the return of Gleeoks.

Almost eight months after release, we've seen just about everything that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players can come up with when it comes to mind-boggling creations with the game's Zonai tech. We've seen planes, cars that can drive up walls, submarines, and weapons of mass destruction created en masse, but we should never underestimate the creativity and dedication to creating genuine works of art.

The Legend of Zelda has gotten another (and unofficial) Divine Beast: Godzilla.

As 2023 nears its end, many of you will be looking back on a year in gaming that has been unlike any other when it comes to the quality of games we've been blessed with. From Baldur's Gate 3 to Alan Wake 2, there have been more fantastic games, big and small, to get stuck into this year, Tears of the Kingdom among them. If you're still not done celebrating the arrival of what might well be the best Zelda game to date, in 2024, you'll have the chance to own your very own Travelling Koroks.

Ganondorf's attractive Tears Of The Kingdom makeover shocked some players, but it was entirely intentional.

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom players have built many, many odd contraptions using the Ultrahand ability that delight and surprise - but another fanmade vehicle has caught our eye for its apparent disdain for horses and its similarities to an iconic Star Wars scene.

Wild Greens are an elusive item in while trying to complete a tricky side quest Link may come across while exploring Hyrule. Needed to heal a sick NPC, this plant is never described to give you an idea of what you want. The lack of detail for this mission prevents you from figuring out exactly which type of plant Link must harvest out of the many growing in the world.

Koichi Miura, who worked as a landscape artist for Tears of the Kingdom, has left Nintendo. In his Tweet, he explains that the company is a haven for geniuses, but hell for an average person.

Amazon is offering price cuts on a wide range of Zelda books, including the official Tears of the Kingdom guide and the popular Hyrule Historia.

Hogwarts Legacy has become one of the biggest games of 2023 and it's thanks in part to the recently released Nintendo Switch version.

A new The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mod has been released, which adds a FreeCam to the game, and improves both performance and visual fidelity.

Tears of the Kingdom has been receiving attention again thanks to the several The Game Awards nominations it has scored. Game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently discussed The Legend of Zelda with Nintendo Dream (translated by Nintendo Everything).

Baldur’s Gate 3 absolutely swept through this year’s Golden Joystick Awards with a record-breaking seven wins in categories such as Best Storytelling, Best Studio, and the Ultimate Game of the Year. But Larian Studios’ CEO wasn’t expecting quite so much trophy love, despite the game’s mammoth success.

While exploring Hyrule in , you will eventually come across a species of cyclops bosses called a Hinox. These ogre-like bosses are often found sleeping and only awaken once Link gets too close. However, much like, Hinoxes are quite powerful foes that aren't easy to beat. You will come across regular Hinoxes, Blue Hinoxes, skeletal Stalnoxes, and the powerful Black Hinoxes throughout Hyrule.

A university engineering professor is using The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to help teach his students the basics of building. 

A Zelda fan - and university professor - is using Tears of the Kingdom to teach undergraduate engineering students in the US. 

Earlier today, Geoff Keighley revealed the list of nominees for the 2023 Game Awards airing on December 7. And as always, the list of games are dominated by juggernauts that released closer to the start of the year and as recent as last month. 

Alan Wake 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, andSuper Mario Bros. Wonder are up for The Game Awards’ top prize of Game of the Year, Geoff Keighley announced Monday.

The actor who played Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity, and Tears of the Kingdom is 100% down to reprise the role for the recently announced live-action Zelda movie.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was one of 2023's most anticipated games, so it's no surprise that it won Nintendo Game of the Year at The Golden Joysticks 2023 powered by Intel.  

The creator of Sonic the Hedgehog is questioning what games like The Legend of Zelda or Armored Core 6 have over Sonic Frontiers in a recent interview. 

It’s time again for financial reports, and Nintendo’s is particularly interesting, as it reveals that its first-party IPs are doing exceedingly well, including Tears of the Kingdom.

The Switch continues to inch closer to becoming Nintendo's best-selling hardware ever, as it has now surpassed 132 million units sold. It did so thanks to great software sales for new first-party games released this year like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4. 

Along with updating its hardware numbers for the quarter ending September 30th, Nintendo also revealed its top ten best-selling titles for the same period. The usual suspects are present, but most noteworthy is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which has sold 19.5 million units since launching in May. Its last sales milestone was 18.5 million units sold as of June 30th.

For the second fiscal quarter ended September 30, Nintendo reported that its cumulative sales of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, has hit 19.5 million copies sold.

Nintendo Switch has reached 132.46 million units to date, as Nintendo revealed today during its half-year financial report.

Earlier in the year, successor may have seemed like a potential game of the year, but 2023 has seen many exciting, refined, and innovative games released since then that make the latest title feel lackluster. Compared to ’s marriage of the renowned JRPG series with silky smooth combat, or modernizing the beloved video game series, did far less for. Essentially bolting a clunky item fusion system onto an existing game map, simply cannot stand alongside the true gaming greats of 2023.

The Switch might be getting a successor in 2024, but that doesn't mean the 125 million of us who own one have been left to tread water until Nintendo decides to officially confirm what's next. There's plenty still to come for the Switch, and I'm not just talking about games. The console's run of amiibos isn't over yet either, and just last week we got two brand new ones via the long-awaited release of Zelda and Ganondorf's Tears of the Kingdom figures.

When was the last time you took part in a fan poll? If it’s been a while, you must start seeking them out because they can sometimes lead to articles like this! Famitsu, the famous Japanese gaming magazine, decided to host a survey with fans about The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. They asked about characters, locations, the items they could use and cook, etc. In the end, about 1300 people participated in the survey, according to Nintendo Life, and some of the poll questions had some fun results. For example, would you like to guess who was voted the “Favorite Character” in the game?

When it was announced that an OLED Switch was going to come out alongside the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, many people were excited.

Thank your own personal deity—possibly Lorkhan—it's Friday! Just as I'd hoped it might, lightning has struck twice—the amazing discount on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has caught on with other retailers. So if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, do take advantage of that price chop plus their free shipping.

Occasionally, I’ll try a “weird controller” challenge: I mean, playing things with a DDR mat is just a fun idea. But have you ever considered beating Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom bosses with an ocarina?

While Halloween isn't massively celebrated here in Oz, we sure do take a heightened interest in those spooky sales. (Because, hell, I'll break out the festive spirit if there's up to 85% off in my future.) That's all I really have time to say, intro wise, as I suspect today's deals on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Resident Evil 4 will be blink and you'll miss 'em affairs. Happy hunting!

Yes, we may be giddy about Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder right now, but they're going to have their work cut out if either of them wants to be named Game of the Year. Tears of the Kingdom might still have that particular award wrapped up, and an amiibo restock at Walmart today may have reminded a few people of that after a very big video game weekend. Pre-orders for Zelda and Ganondorf's figures are available again for the first time in a while.

Many players have celebratedThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the space it made to find queer expression in Hyrule. Its story provided just enough possibility space for players to explore in ways that did not conform to its developers’ intent. But stepping into Hyrule Field again in Tears of the Kingdom, I felt much more constrained.

A Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom fan has crafted a skeleton plane for whizzing around the skies of Hyrule, and it's sure to cause sleepless nights for the citizens below.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's Vincent Valentine is being voiced by famous voice actor Matthew Christopher Miller, better known as Matt Mercer.

Among the various Temples featured in , one perfectly encapsulates why ‘s lack of DLC is so unfortunate. ’s Temples partially return to the classic dungeon format, which was notably absent in, although the Shrines of both games are effectively miniature dungeons in their own right. Each Temple utilizes a new mechanic to match its theme, but they can reveal more about the game than simply introducing gameplay features.

In the video game space and certain other media brands, there is an “expectation” and belief that when something does really well, there will be “add-on content” to give the title, or they’ll find a way to grow it via a spinoff or expansion of some kind. In video games, that means you give a game DLC more times than not. When The Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom released and was an instant hit, many felt that the game would receive DLC of some kind, if for no other reason than its predecessor got some meaningful DLC a year or so after its release.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's director has finally shed light on a mystery linked to Breath of the Wild, but it isn't what fans wanted to hear. 

One of the biggest mysteries in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been (sort of) solved, as director Hidemaro Fujibayashi has offered an explanation as to why there’s no Sheikah technology in the Nintendo Switch title, despite the prevalence of it in its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom brought players back to the open world of Hyrule for a second time, though not everything was the same as it was the first time around. For starters, all of the Sheikah technology that littered Hyrule in Breath of the Wild was mysteriously missing, leaving fans curious as to where it actually went. The Sheikah Slate and shrines vanishing wouldn’t be too alarming, but it’s pretty difficult to imagine Link and friends accidentally misplacing something as massive as a Divine Beast.

One of the mysteries of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been answered, as Nintendo has finally explained why the Guardians have vanished from Hyrule. The answer probably won’t be that satisfying to longtime fans, but at least the developers have acknowledged why they were cut from the game.

It’s been a few months since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released, and since then, players have poured hundreds of hours into crafting clever contraptions and exploring every crevice of Hyrule. Despite this, there may still be aspects of the intricate world that most players have yet to discover.

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s version of Hyrule almost felt peaceful without Breath Of The Wild’s aggressive Guardians hunting around. But one fan seems to have disagreed, as they’ve built their very own terror machine in-game. 

A Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has made a surprising discovery; cows are weirdly OP.