No matter how long you spend exploring Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom, it seems there is always something new to find or a new trick to discover. This time, one player has found an interesting way to get back to the sky islands from ground level, and you don’t even need a rocket or fan. It just takes a spear, a plank of wood, and impeccable timing.
Over on the Tears of the Kingdom subreddit, a player is showing off their new way of catapulting Link into the clouds. In a short video, user deep40000 shows their Link taking a stick/spear with a plank of wood fused to it and throwing it at another plank. Before the weapon can land, they use Link’s recall power to freeze it in midair. Then, they quickly switch to the ultrahand ability and move the frozen weapon over to that plank of wood and attach it. Once again, they use the recall power on the attached weapon as they stand on the plank and the momentum flips it, launching Link back to the sky islands.
Don’t worry if my play-by-play seemed a little confusing, you could always check out the player’s video for a clearer picture of how exactly to pull this feat off. The comments also offer tips and tricks on how to make this work. It appears this is not just a fluke, as several other players have noted how it has worked for them. That being said, timing is key, as one player found out when the plank of wood took off into the sky without Link.
As for why this trick works, the initial poster did offer some technical explanations on how a plank of wood can make you fly. It seems that Link “clips” through the plank of wood, which gives him momentum from the launch and the built-in “anti-clip” feature of the game, which prevents players from going through random walls. Because of this, you can get “lag stopped” a lot when attempting to launch yourself.
So, if you find yourself in desperate need of launching yourself upwards and there is no Skyview Tower in sight, just grab a plank of wood and a spear and you are good to go. Funnily enough, if you try this with a sword you will launch horizontally instead of vertically. Something to remember if you ever need to zoom out of an area at a rapid pace.