The Best Zonai Devices In The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

Reach the heights of your creativity with these unique devices in Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom introduces Zonai Devices, something wholly unique to this entry in the series.

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You can find these handy little tools in certain areas of the game, but more importantly, you can get them from Dispensers — a gacha-style machine you can deposit Zonai charges and construct parts into in exchange for travel versions of the devices. Are you creative but uncertain? Not sure what you need? Want to just always have a fan or a flame dispenser handy? Let's see what you can do with these Zonai Devices.

Updated June 12, 2023 by Samantha Rawson: As we work our way further into the game, more Zonai Devices and their unique uses have come about. Zonai Devices continue to be an important part of the game, adding unique experiences that you won't find in any other Zelda games.

One of the first things you'll learn is that all devices run on energy cells. You'll even be helpfully supplied one by a construct. It doesn't have much of a charge to start, and while you can upgrade it, that might take a while. In the meantime, stock up on batteries. These provide free energy to whatever device you're powering without tapping into your precious energy cells. Batteries are available in many of the Zonai dispensers, so you'll never have to worry about running out.

The Steering Stick is a pivotal part of all Zonai device vehicles. It allows you to control and direct even the most unwieldy of contraptions. When you have a Steering Stick, you'll turn on every Zonai Device attached to the vehicle (such as fans and wheels) when you take control of the Steering Stick.

You can also steer the Wings device with far more ease. Depending on the route you take, it may be awhile before you find your first Steering Stick, so you're familiar with the pain of having to stop and manually redirect your vehicle every time you run into a wall or rock. The Steering Stick will be a dream come true.

The Depths introduce a new challenge — navigating in the dark. The game offers plenty of ways to handle this, including food that makes you glow, glowing clothes, and seeds you can attach to an arrow or throw ahead to light your way. Or you can grab a Light. The Light acts as a spotlight, illuminating your path. It can be a bit limiting, as you have to hold it while you walk and put it down to fight. You can also attach a couple to a vehicle and create headlights, something you'll see a lot of from the Yiga Clan. It's a good option if you're low on arrows or seeds.

Zonai devices are great for ranged attacks. The cannon shoots a light beam, and is a great weapon for ranged attacks. While powerful, it can be tricky to aim, making it an unreliable weapon.

If you have a construct head or a homing cart, which both orient themselves to point at the enemies, you can use those to aim better and send the cannon at the enemy without having to go within attack range. It may not solve all of your problems, but it never hurts to send in a first wave to distract those pesky bokoblins.

While elemental arrows are missed in Tears of the Kingdom, there are enough new items to make up for that. Emitters come in four variants - ice, flame, shock, and light beam - and can be attached to your sword or weapon.

When you wield your shield or swing your weapon, you'll get a blast of whatever emitter you've attached. It's great for keeping enemies at bay when you need some extra space, and come with the added bonus of doing damage whenever they're activated.

Do you miss Rivali's Gale? Want a way to get higher faster? The Balloon has you covered. You can use the Balloon as a hot air balloon; heat the air under it with a torch or flame emitter, and it'll float right on up.

The flame emitter is more efficient than a torch, but also takes up energy cell life, so you'll want to make sure you have extra charges on hand, or you're not going too high up. Or be prepared to use a torch and take longer. Each method has its pros and cons.

Spinning devices that can be attached to flat boards and create vehicles. It come in two sizes; the big wheel is more efficient and gets through rough terrain with more ease, but the small wheel will get you almost anywhere, as long as the terrain is flat.

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Both types of wheel are available in abundance at the dispensers, so you won't have to worry about not being able to get what you need. And you'll probably want to collect a lot of them - unfortunately, the vehicles you make can't fast travel with you.

The fan produces wind, and can be used to propel a wheeled object. You can also attach it to a shield and use it to blow enemies away. While those are the main uses, there are plenty of unconventional uses.

One way to utilize it for more common use is to drop one on the ground, face up, and use the wind for a boost to get yourself up a bit higher. Or you can put a bunch of boards together and make a hovercraft that can clear any kind of ground. The only limit is your imagination.

As far as outlandish devices go, the rocket takes the cake. It produces a powerful thrust which burns out fast, but propels anything it's attached to in the direction it's pointing.

It's good for a quick boost to move a wheeled object along, or if you want to get wild, you can fuse it to a shield and use it to boost Link up. Be careful, though - you don't want to run out of battery and end up free-falling.

Carts are possibly one of the most ingenious devices. They're small, flat surfaces with wheels attached. You can attach fans or rockets to it to apply force and move it, or fuse it to a shield for shield surfing.

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If you're using a fan or rocket to push it along, you won't be able to steer it without a steering stick, but you'll still be able to bomb across Hyrule in style - at least until you run into a rock. Stop, reposition, repeat. While shield surfing, you'll get more control and a little further thanks to the wheels.

Discover the freedom to fly with Wings. This flat, bird-shaped device can be propelled through the air by a fan, rocket, or downward momentum, and very carefully steered by stepping between the wings — or with a steering stick.

If you find yourself too unsteady, however, you should go back to stand in the middle, where the footprints are, to even out.

You're deep into an adventure, fresh off another rough fight. You go to eat — and discover you're out of food. If you leave, you'll have to go back to the nearest shrine, which is who knows how far away? What do you do? Break out a portable pot.

This device is for one-time cooking use, and can truly save you when you're in the middle of a cave crawl or temple run. And it doesn't use fire, so it'll work in the rain! It's like having your own little stove in your inventory. Make sure to stock up on them before you head out into the unknown.

Hover Stones are fun. You can pop them out, position them where you want them with Ultrahand, then turn them on and raise them into the air, where they'll stay in place. They're basically stepping stones that you arrange and rearrange.

They're limited by energy cell life, Ultrahand's reach, and the fact that they can't be moved while you're standing on them, but being able to create your own stepping stone path is still highly convenient.

NEXT: The Best Weapons In The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, Ranked

Sam is a lifelong gamer (going all the way back to the NES era) and dedicated writer. They live in Missouri with their wife and four animals (two cats and two dogs), have an almost unhealthy obsession with JRPGs, and love finding new games to play - bonus if they're LGBTQIA-related.