Tears of the Kingdom Weapon Durability: How It Works and How to Repair

Weapons in Tears of the Kingdom break. This page explains how durability works, lists the most durable weapon of each type, and covers the three ways to make a weapon last: fusing a material, feeding it to a Rock Octorok, and saving the material with Pelison. Every weapon’s number is on the full weapon list.

How does durability work?

Each weapon, bow and shield can be used a set number of times before it breaks. Game8 lists the warnings: an on-screen message appears when a weapon is badly damaged, and it flashes red in the inventory. The Master Sword is the one exception: using it only drains its energy, and it can be used again after it recharges (Game8); GameWith gives the recharge time as 10 minutes.

Some weapons trade durability for power on purpose. In the game’s words, the Royal Guard’s weapons yield “massive destructive power just before it breaks”, and Game8 notes they are all built with less durability than other weapons of the same power. The Gloom weapons have the highest attack of their types, but the game warns that “its gloom will gradually wear down the body of its wielder”.

Which weapons are the most durable?

The ten most durable of each type. The durability column is the number of uses before it breaks.

One-handed

Two-handed

Spears

Bows

Shields

The Hylian Shield, at 800, lasts longer than the other 32 shields put together (594). More on the shields page.

How do you repair a weapon?

Let a Rock Octorok eat it. Drop or hold out a badly damaged weapon near one; when it inhales it sucks the weapon in and spits it back. Two sources describe the result the same way:

• Game8: it “will fully restore its durability”, the weapon “will also receive a random weapon modifier”, and “each Rock Octorok can only restore one weapon”.
• Zelda Dungeon: it repairs “any non-legendary item which is badly damaged to new”, improves only the first weapon it sucks in during an encounter, and adds a bonus such as Attack Up or Durability Up; feeding a weapon that already has a white bonus to another Rock Octorok can upgrade it to a yellow one.

Game8 points to Death Mountain in Eldin, where Rock Octoroks are common. Legendary weapons cannot be repaired directly; Zelda Dungeon’s workaround is to fuse one onto another weapon, let the Rock Octorok repair that, and have Pelison break them apart again.

Does Fuse add durability?

Yes, and it is the everyday fix. Game8 describes fusing a material to a weapon close to breaking as a way to add both durability and attack. Zelda Dungeon gives the amounts: fusing a monster material generally adds 25 durability, but only 10 for Royal Guard and Gloom weapons and for cheap gear — the Rusty weapons, Soup Ladle, Torch, Tree Branch, Wooden Stick weapons, Boat Oar, Farming Hoe, Farmer’s Pitchfork and Fishing Harpoon. The Fuse guide lists the materials that add the most attack.

Sources

• Durability numbers: samurai-gamers, GameWith and Game8, with Zelda Dungeon for disagreements — details on the full weapon list.
• Mechanics: Game8’s “How to Increase Weapon Durability”, Zelda Dungeon’s Rock Octorok and Fuse pages, GameWith’s weapon list (Master Sword recharge).
• Quotes and names: the game’s own text (TotkText, game version 1.2.1).

For more damage without wearing weapons out faster, Mighty food raises attack for a while; the strongest weapons page compares the top weapons of each type.