nintendoThe Amiibo system has always been very sophisticated in its usefulness. The numbers are nice and cutely presented – but how useful they really are is always going to vary wildly. In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, however, they might be the most useful ever.
Most of the time, this series of figures on my amiibo shelf is mainly as a decoration in my office. In general, for most games, it’s not worth letting them down. Or, when it is, it’s a one-time click to unlock some thingamajig or something, and back on the shelf. It looks nice and collects dust.
I feel like Breath of the Wild has always been one of the fairer implementations of the characters. Every time you click on an amiibo, you’ll get a relatively random collection of resources like those found around Hyrule, plus a chest that holds fairly standard weapons or something a little more special. With amiibo, you can unlock things like the shield version of Wind Waker or the classic Green Tunics of Links from the past. It feels fair – but honestly never felt like it did you much favors.
In Tears of the Kingdom, however, it feels like the paradigm has shifted. Amiibo are now powerful cheats. And, let’s be honest, it’s a great way to relieve the stress of the early days of a new adventure.
The way the amiibo functionality works hasn’t actually changed from BOTW.The difference is more about how the amiibo benefits are reflected and interact with the overall balance and design of the game – this is have.
As such, each amiibo still has a drop table attached to it, listing a list of items that scanning it would result in spawning in the world. In fact, we’ve listed the most important items each amiibo can spawn on the TOTK amiibo unlock page. The drop tables are also pretty much unchanged from BOTW – but they do have different hit rates in-game.
Specifically, Tears of Kingdoms makes a slight change to BOTW in the way weapon spawns are arranged. In previous games, powerful weapons were scattered around to find, but not often. Amiibo generally spawn mid-range weapons, with some notable exceptions. High-end weapons have more or less disappeared from Hyrule in TOTK.
The logic is that you should use the Fuse mechanic instead, enhancing them by picking up low- and mid-tier weapons by mixing them with other items in one of the game’s core systems. It’s not that you rarely find powerful weapons, it’s that you rarely find powerful fusion materials that can be used to craft powerful weapons. Additionally, the viciousness of Upheaval and Invasion “rots” many weapons, meaning they are weaker and more susceptible to weapon degradation. Uncorrupted weapons often have to be found by spelunking in the depths, which can be dangerous, especially early in the game.
This is what makes amiibo so great. Amiibo can drop useful single-use items, such as clothing, though they drop weapons more frequently. While whether or not they rot seems like a toss-up, they’re almost always mediocre, decent–better than what’s come naturally in recent games.
The equation has changed instead of scanning amiibo and simply deciding whether a weapon is worth picking up. Right now I’m working on weapons and deciding if they’re good for fusion – since you can carry an almost unlimited amount of fusion material, you can drop something powerful and fuse something unstoppable almost anywhere. If you really want to scan amiibo during a boss fight…well, it’s not advisable, but you can.
Combine that with the fact that amiibo content now feels more democratized, and that much of what was previously exclusive to amiibo is also available as rewards for some of the most brutal challenges in the depths, and the system as a whole feels…just, better. If you choose to scan Amiibo as a shortcut and cheat tool, it has more impact – and it’s only fairer that these classic outfits are available to everyone. This is the use of these little people I can really get behind.
Buy The Legend of Zelda Kingdom Tears
TOTK is now available on Nintendo Switch! Check out the link below to secure your copy today.
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