Best early Fuse combinations in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Fuse, one of the new abilities in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, will change the way you see combat. Fuse allows you to combine materials to a weapon, improving its durability and attack power.

It should be noted that a majority of the melee weapons found around Hyrule will be decayed. While their hilts and bases are still useable, their blades are rusted and decayed, making the weapons weaker than some of the finds you would have had in the previous game.

To remedy this, you pretty much need to fuse monster drops on to all your melee weapons consistently throughout the game. You’ll notice that monster drops now eerily look like weapon blades; a Black Bokoblin horn looks like a two-pronged trident, a Lizalfos horn looks like a dagger, and a Boss Bokoblin horn looks like an axe blade. Suspicious, but convenient!

Read on to find out some Fuse combinations that will help you as you start out in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Best early Fuse combinations

Monster material one-handed sword

This may sound basic, but we recommend using a one-handed sword paired with a shield until you learn how to perfect dodge and parry. Both polearms and two-handed swords will leave you wide open for attack, and in the early game, it only takes a few hits to deplete your meager amount of hearts.

Fuse some monster material, like a Bokoblin horn, onto your one-handed sword bases to start yourself off.

Note that the icons on the screen can a tiny bit misleading; the teal dagger-like blade is a one-handed weapon, the orange sword is a two-handed weapon, and the blue polearm is a two-handed polearm.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Don’t confuse your two-handed claymores for a one-handed sword, as when you go to block with your shield, you’ll realize you’re defenseless.

Rocket shield

Rockets are Zonai devices that will typically be used to speed up your Ultrahand creations or propel them into the air, but they can also be attached to your shield to shoot you into the sky.

After Fusing a rocket to your shield, hold your shield out with ZL and you’ll go flying up. Note that the rocket will disappear after launching you up a small distance, so it’s not like this method can get you to a sky island.

Bomb Flower Arrows

Bomb flower arrows — made by Fusing bomb flowers to arrows — are your bomb replacement in Tears of the Kingdom, and they pack a huge punch. If you ever see a huge horde of enemies, a well placed bomb flower arrow will deal a ton of damage to all of them and temporarily stun them. Bomb flowers can be found in caves, but are predominantly found in the Depths.

Chuchu jelly arrows

No bomb flowers? No problem! Fuse Chuchu jelly to arrows as a replacement. The red, yellow, and white varieties all deal massive explosive elemental damage for fire, electricity, and ice, respectively.

Fire will deal damage-over-time if the enemy remains ignited, electricity will shock and stun the enemy, and ice will freeze them. Not all enemies can retain these status effects, but it’s always worth testing the waters.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Eyeball arrows

If you struggle to aim and hit specific targets, enemy eyeballs are the best attachments for your arrows. They give your arrows a homing effect, allowing them to hit flying targets easily, zoom in on a Hinok eyeball, and even take down a certain Water Temple boss as it flounders and flips around quickly.

Any enemy eyeball can be Fused to an arrow, whether it’s a Keese eye or Octorok eye. Elemental Keese eyeballs add their respective elemental property, like the Chuchu jelly we talk about above.

Wing arrows

Wings will allow your arrows to fly straighter and farther, so you won’t have to take the arrow’s natural gravity drop into account when shooting. These are great for sniping enemies from a very far distance.

Notably, Aerocuda wings specifically fly further “even in a slight wind” (as per the game’s item description), making it great for taking down, say, a certain Wind Temple boss.