How to do the Tears of the Kingdom New Zealand trick to play early

If you’re wondering how to do the Tears of the Kingdom New Zealand trick, let’s show you how to play it early.

The New Zealand trick is dubbed thus as changing your time-zone to that of Aotearoa’s can sometimes allow you to play games early. We saw it work with Dead Island 2, though other titles including Star Wars Jedi: Survivor saw this exploit patched.

There is no official early access for Tears of the Kingdom, so you’re not going to be able to play the game early without seeking unconventional methods. Let’s figure out if the New Zealand trick will work with Tears of the Kingdom.

How to do the New Zealand trick work with Tears of the Kingdom

We do not recommend that you try the New Zealand trick. It’s possible that people who attempt it will have their consoles flagged and potentially banned from online play, as it’s an exploit that Nintendo will likely want to clamp down on.

However, if you are still willing to give it a go, here’s our thoughts on whether or not it’s going to work.

The conventional method of switching your time-zone to NZ time won’t work. Instead, you’re going to have to purchase the game through the New Zealand eShop too.

The folks over at WePC have outlined how to do this in their TotK New Zealand trick guide.

• Create a new Nintendo account and set your region to New Zealand
• Purchase the game using a credit/debit card from New Zealand

The game unlocks in New Zealand at midnight on May 12th, so if you’re willing to go through all of the above effort to play the game a few hours early – we salute you.

We can’t imagine many of us have a New Zealand payment card lying around, so unless you have a trusted friend on the other side of the world, we don’t think many people will really be taking advantage of this trick.

However, it seems that despite the back-flips required to play Tears of the Kingdom early with the New Zealand trick, some players have figured out other ways to do so. This has resulted in a slew of Tears of the Kingdom spoilers leaked onto the internet, so beware. Until it’s the Tears of the Kingdom release time – we’re going to suggest that you read all about the Tears of the Kingdom performance, and if there is a TotK free trial.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to use the New Zealand trick with Tears of the Kingdom?

We do not know for certain if it will be safe to try this exploit with Tears of the Kingdom – in which case we would recommend against trying it.

Does the New Zealand trick work with all games?

Not all games are vulnerable to the exploit, and it largely depends on the platform you’re attempting it from.