Zelda engineer shows off Tears of the Kingdom’s amazingly accurate physics using tension-based contraption

Since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, Legend of Zelda fans have created a bunch of amazing things using its fuse mechanics.

Though its modding scene is already producing plenty of interesting add-ons, arguably the most impressive aspect of the numerous builds that players have managed to put together so far is that the majority can be assembled using powers and objects that are already in the game.

While some technically-skilled tinkerers are currently racing their best vehicle builds around Hyrule or constructing animatronics, one has decided to put together something that simply shows off how realistic the Tears of the Kingdom's physics are.

Have you created anything that tests the limits of Tears of the Kingdom’s physics?

Inspired by a post from fellow engineer PaperSpock discussing whether it would be possible to build a tensegrity structure in the game, user IAMA_llAMA_AMA has done just that and shared a clip of their creation on the Hyrule Engineering subreddit.

“The two builds are not fused at all, and rely on the tension created from the hooks pulling against each other to hold the upper structure up,” they explained in a comment on the post, adding: “This build is really ugly and I would love to see a more aesthetically pleasing version of this.”

Despite its rather crude appearance, the other Zelda players that have seen the build to this point seem very impressed by it, especially given it doesn’t use strings as its tension-creating devices, as is typical of real-world tensegrity structures.

Unfortunately, IAMA_llAMA_AMA was unable to test out standing atop the structure to see how it would react, as one of the players in the thread suggested, having accidentally de-spawned it by reloading a save.

“Tears of the Kingdom doesn't always get the physics right, but it's really nice when [it does] and you can make stuff like this work,” user Penguin_Joy mused.

This prompted user Imperial_Squid to point out: “Honestly, getting tensegrity right at all is really impressive since the top layer is interacting with another object in more than one way, [it] really shows how deep the physics system probably is under the hood.”

Regardless of what you’re getting up to in Tears of the Kingdom while you wait for its eventual DLC to arrive, make sure to follow us for a bunch of helpful guides that can aid your adventures in Hyrule by showing you how to find the secret Gerudo shop, grab a Hylian shield or unlock Skyview Towers.