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The Tears of the Kingdom shield surf is a part of Link’s arsenal that you won’t use all the time, but when you do it sure is fun. The mechanic returns from Breath of the Wild, and Shield surfing can be a great movement option, especially in certain environments. It’s also a relatively easy activity to learn, so you’ll want to make sure to pick it up in TotK.
If you’re exploring the Tears of the Kingdom map and don’t have the time to build yourself any Tears of the Kingdom vehicles, then a timely Tears of the Kingdom shield surf might just be the way to go. It’s very much like skateboarding, find a slope then jump on your shield and glide down it. Along with the paraglider, shield surfing is one the game’s most useful abilities.
How to equip shield in Tears of the Kingdom
Before we jump into shield surfing, you’re going want to know how to equip the shield in Tears of the Kingdom. There are a few ways to do this. The quickest way to equip Link’s shield is by holding the ZL button on the Nintendo Switch controller or pressing the Left D-Pad button to bring up the quick shield selection. You can also head into the inventory by pressing the + button and then select the shield by pressing A. The below image shows what Link will look like in a combat stance with the shield raised.
How to shield surf in Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
To shield surf in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, press and hold the ZL button to raise your shield. With your shield raised, press X to jump, and while in the air, press the A button. Link will do a flip, placing the shield at his feet, and when you land, you’ll be shield surfing.
When you do shield surf, make sure you’re doing it from the top of a hill with a decent slope. You get most of your speed from gravity, so if you try to shield surf on a flat surface, you won’t be getting very far, so somewhere like the side of a hill is perfect. Aim to surf on smooth surfaces, too, as you can’t surf on certain rugged surfaces, such as rocky terrain. Short grass works great, while snowy and sand like in the Hebra Mountains and Gerudo Desert are ideal, and will allow you to surf even faster.
You should also use a shield you’re comfortable with losing. Just like in BotW, Shield surfing wears down shield durability quickly, so you don’t want to be wasting your best shield. Whenever you’re looking to shield surf, equip the shield you’re least likely to use, and save your better shields for combat.
While shield surfing, you can press the Y button to perform a spinning attack, hitting any enemies you happen to come across while surfing. It doesn’t deal much damage, but will knock them out of the way.
A new feature is that thanks to the new Fuse ability, you can even turn your shield into a nifty skateboard. Fusing a mine cart or any Zonai Devices with wheels such as a Zonai Cart to a shield can let you wheel around on your shield, letting you reach high speeds on hard surfaces than you would otherwise not be able to surf on.
With that, you should have everything you need to shield surf in Tears of the Kingdom. If shield surfing still isn’t your cup of tea, our Tears of the Kingdom Ultrahand ability guide will show you the basics of building yourself a vehicle. And if you want to know more about durability, we have a guide to Tears of the Kingdom weapons degradation to get you clued up.
