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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild completely revamps how combat works in the series. Instead of having a set sword and shield, Link now has to scavenge the overworld. Breath of the Wild forces you to be creative with equipment, making sure weapons, shields, and bows routinely break with use. For any Zelda fan, this is a massive change of pace.
Weapon durability does work well in the context of Breath of the Wild, and you should never be out of weapons, but what you may not be aware of is that there are actually some weapons that you can repair. If you get your hands on any Rusty equipment, keep it until you come across Rock Octoroks. If you break any of the Champions' special weapons, don't worry — there's a fix for those too.
Updated July 14, 2023, by Sean Murray: It's important to keep your arsenal in tip-top shape in Breath of the Wild, so we've refreshed this guide with improved formatting and more breakout tips to make it easier to know how to repair weapons.
Rusty Rocktorok Repairs
Found all around Death Mountain and in the Gerudo Highlands, Rock Octoroks inhale with a strong breath of air before spitting out an attack at Link. Your first instinct should be to throw Bombs into their mouth, but it’s actually possible to use Rock Octoroks to repair Rusty equipment.
You can find Rusty Shields, Rusty Swords, Rusty Halberds, and Rusty Claymores all around Hyrule. If you drop a Rusty Shield in front of a Rock Octorok or throw a Rusty weapon into its mouth while it's sucking in air, the Rock Octorok will spit out a brand-new weapon or shield.
Most likely, the Rock Octorok will give you the Traveler's version of the weapon or shield you threw at it, but it can also give you Soldier, Knight and Royal weaponry and shields if you're lucky.
Repairing The Champions' Weapons
Throughout the game's main story, you will receive the signature weapons that the Champions used 100 years ago after completing their respective Divine Beast. Just like other weapons, these will break after a certain amount of uses. However, they can be repaired at each Champion's hometown by a certain NPC.
The Ceremonial Trident, made to mimic Mipha's original Lightscale Trident and used in the Ceremonial Song Shrine Quest, can also be repaired.
|
Weapon |
Repair Location |
NPC |
Cost To Repair |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Lightscale Trident |
The Hammerhead, Zora's Domain |
Dento |
|
|
Ceremonial Trident |
The Hammerhead, Zora's Domain |
Dento |
|
|
Boulder Breaker |
Goron City |
Goron Blacksmith Rohan |
|
|
Great Eagle Bow |
Rito Village |
Craftsman Harth |
|
|
Scimitar of the Seven |
Royal Palace, Gerudo Town |
Gerudo Captain Buliara |
|
Replacing The Hylian Shield
The Hylian Shield is the single best shield in Breath of the Wild. With a defense rating of 90 and the highest durability of any shield or weapon in the game, the Hylian Shield is guaranteed to take hours’ worth of damage before it finally breaks.
While you can’t repair the Hylian Shield, you can buy another one in Tarrey Town. Grante runs a shop in Tarrey Town where you can repurchase any “unique” items you’ve either lost or broken. Once the Hylian Shield has been obtained in Hyrule Castle, you can purchase a replacement for 3,000 Rupees.
You will need to have begun the From the Ground Up side quest for this shop to be available.
What To Do With Badly Damaged Weapons
When your weapon is on the verge of breaking, the game will tell you that your weapon is "badly damaged." At this point, there's not much you can do with the weapon if it's a standard one. The next time you use it to hit an enemy, it will break, and you'll have to choose a new one from your inventory.
Badly damaged weapons aren't completely useless, though. Instead of just attacking normally with the weapon, you can throw the weapon at an enemy for critical damage. It will still break upon impact, but you'll do an extra bit of damage, which is always helpful, and it allows you to make the most of the weapon before it's gone forever.
Throwing swords accurately can be a little finicky when compared to spears that were designed to be thrown, but it's going to break anyway, so it's worth a try.
Unfortunately, there's nothing extra that can be done with badly damaged shields or bows. You'll just have to use them normally until they break.
Recharging The Master Sword
The Master Sword is the only weapon in Breath of the Wild that will never break, but that doesn’t mean you can perpetually use it like in earlier Zelda games. The Master Sword has a base durability of 40 hits, requiring a ten-minute recharge upon running out of energy.
Once the Master Sword runs out of energy, you won't be able to use it again until it has fully recharged. While ten minutes isn’t too long, it’s long enough to prevent you from relying solely on the Master Sword.
When it's fully recharged, you will be able to select it from your inventory once more — you don't need to do anything to repair it yourself.
It’s also worth noting that a fully upgraded Master Sword has a durability of around 200 hits. Completing the Trial of the Sword is easier said than done, but completely the Final Trial will not only maximize the sword's power, but its durability as well.