Do Fused Items add Durability in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom? Explained

Tears of the Kingdom introduces the ability to Fuse items and weapons together. Link can now glue weapons to other objects to increase their reach, strength, and of course, durability. However, the way the durability works has some nuances to it, so we are here to answer the question: Do fused items add durability in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?

How durability works for fused items in Tears of the Kingdom

Every equippable item in Tears of the Kingdom, whether it be a weapon, bow, or shield, has durability. Using the gear in question reduces its durability, and when it hits zero durability, it shatters into a million pieces.

The new Fuse ability introduces a whole other layer of strategy to item conservation. You can fuse melee weapons and shields to other items or even objects in the world, like rocks and crates.

So, how does the game calculate durability for fused items? Well, it depends on what you fuse together, as durability works differently for fusing two items together compared to fusing an item to an object found in the world.

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Using a fused item made out of two items reduces the durability of both, though the second item takes the brunt of it. For example, our Sturdy-Stick Stick—excuse the name—was created by fusing a Sturdy Wooden Stick to a regular Wooden Stick.

Attacking enemies with the Sturdy-Stick Stick reduces the Sturdy Wooden Stick’s durability the most. Once the Sturdy Wooden Stick’s durability runs out, which you will not get a notification for by the way, it breaks off and the Sturdy-Stick Stick becomes a regular Wooden Stick once again.

An easy way to grasp fused items’ durability is to understand that both items have their own individual durability counters, and both of them lose durability during use, with the second item losing the most. This means that even if you keep fusing different items into the same base item, it will inevitably break.

Note that you cannot repair an item’s durability by fusing it with another item. If you use a weapon to the point where it is about to break, fusing it with another item does not replenish its durability. All of these rules apply to melee weapons and shields.

However, things get a little more complicated when fusing items to objects found in Hyrule, such as rocks, crates, barrels, and more. As you learn early on, one example of object gear is fusing rocks and sticks to create hammers, which are great for busting through cracked boulders.

Fusing an item to an object repairs its durability. We tested this by using a sword until it was about to break, then fused it with a nearby rock, which made it stop blinking red in our inventory. We do not know why this works with objects but not other items.

This leads us to assume that fusing items to objects does indeed increase their max durability, and even refills it in the process. In the case of fusing two items together, that does also technically increase durability, but in a different way.