Summary
- One player of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom discovered a powerful launch technique to send Link into the air.
- The game's newly introduced building mechanics make travel across the large rendition of Hyrule easier, surpassing the verticality of its predecessor.
- YouTuber Paradox Gaming achieved the largest Recall launch ever captured on video so far.
Following months of experimentation, one Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player managed to devise an incredibly efficient method for launching Link into the air that propels the protagonist with such force that he technically breaks the sound barrier. He later took online to document his technique, having done so shortly after another Tears of the Kingdom player impressed the fandom with a mech that walks on water.
Between Tears of the Kingdom's Sky Islands and The Depths, the world of the latest Zelda game manages to improve on the already impressive verticality from its predecessor. Nevertheless, traveling across this unprecedentedly large rendition of Hyrule is actually easier than it was in Breath of the Wild, largely thanks to the newly introduced building mechanics.
And while many players use Tears of the Kingdom's Ultrahand ability to construct vehicles that help them move around more quickly, one tenacious fan has now demonstrated that the most effective and efficient method of covering large distances requires an entirely different sort of contraption. Instead of driving or flying around, YouTuber Paradox Gaming figured out a way to launch Link in the air with such momentum that he hit the game's height limit from The Depths in about 20 seconds, mandatory loading time included. The technique comes down to using the Recall ability on a fairly simple spinning contraption in a way that pretty much allows Link to instantly overcome gravity.
The author of this impressive achievement labeled the feat as the currently largest Recall launch ever captured on video. Elaborating on that notion, the YouTuber used the game's coordinate system to calculate that his recently shared launch spanned 4317 meters, or over 14,000 feet. He recorded the feat in the game's HUD-less Pro mode, which prevented him from calculating Link's top speed during the flight based on the mini-map coordinates' rate of change. However, Paradox Gaming estimates that Link had at the very least reached Mach 1.59 speed during the clip, citing his past Tears of the Kingdom launch attempts with the mini-map turned on.
Assuming that figure is accurate, the YouTuber managed to propel Link at over 1.5 times the speed of sound. The achievement was over two months in the making, as the player revealed he has been experimenting with this technique since the game's mid-May release. He wasn't the only one doing so, as illustrated by one previously shared Tears of the Kingdom trick for easily reaching Sky Islands that employs a similar launch method.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on Switch.