Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom: How To Use Wing Zonai Devices

Of all the fancy Zonai tech you'll find lying around the world in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Zonai Wings are perhaps the most immediately enticing.

However, these bird-shaped flying devices can be tricky to get to grips with for beginners, so let's take a look at how best to use them alongside a few Zonai Wing tips and tricks we've discovered as we've messed around with them during our adventures.

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom: How To Use Wing Zonai Devices

You'll be introduced to the game's wings in the tutorial section on Great Sky Island and you'll quickly learn that they allow you to soar through the air for a bit without the need for a paraglider.

However, in order to get the most out of these devices there are a few other things you'll want to know.

Remember, There's A Time Limit When You Use A Wing

It's easy to miss if you haven't had much success using a Zonai Wing, but the wing will disappear after one minute, so that's your maximum flight time, regardless of your piloting skill.

Use Runways/Launch Areas

Head up to the Sky Islands and you'll find runways scattered around that you can place your wing on so that it can glide gracefully off and into the air.

These runway areas always have a few wings and fans and other bits of Zonai gear lying around too, so they're a great place to experiment and get a feel for how the wing controls, as well as guaranteeing you a clean lift-off, which can be a trickier proposition when launching from other areas.

Fans And Rockets Give You A Speed Boost

Yes, fans are probably the most obvious of additions to a wing in order to give it a little more oomph as it travels, but you can also attach rockets to really speed things up, albeit temporarily.

It's hard to control a wing when it's thrusting along on rocket power, so it's a good idea to only use these at launch or when up high and free from surrounding obstacles. Unless, of course, your intention is to smash into something with maximum force.

Use Recall To Get Airborne In Trickier Terrain

You won't always have a nice runway to glide off, let's face it, and sometimes you'll need to get your wing up into the air with very little room, especially down in the Depths.

To get yourself up into the air in these circumstances, use Recall. To do this grab your wing with Ultrahand and move it from the ground up into the air on the flight path you'd like it to take.

Make sure to move it nice and slowly and then hold it in position at its max height for a little bit then return it to the ground. Now jump aboard and use Recall to have the wing retrace its steps, allowing you to get airborne and switch on any fans or other gadgets you've got to get moving.

Your Position On A Wing Controls Its Movement

A fairly obvious one, this, but worth pointing out nonetheless. Stand to the left or right whilst airborne and you're gonna tilt in that direction, whilst moving to the back or front will see the wing either rise or fall. You'll want to spend the majority of your time in the circular 'pad' in the middle.

Attach A Steering Stick For Finer Control

You'll eventually find Zonai Steering Sticks all over the world, as well as at Zonai Device Dispensers. Once you've got one in your inventory, simply attach it to the centre of the wing and you'll find you have much more immediate and responsive control during flight.

Extend Your Battery Time By Using Zonai Charges

Make sure to keep your battery charged up to extend your flight time to the max of one minute by using up your Zonai charges. Your default battery won't keep you in the air for long before it runs out and you begin to lose altitude, so make sure to dive into your inventory to keep topping it up.

Transition Directly From Paraglider To Wing

This is a neat - but quite tricky - way to extend the time you've got in the air by mixing your stamina and a wing's battery and natural glide time.

Once you're in the air and paragliding, head into your inventory and drop a wing. The wing will appear beneath you and you can then close your paraglider and drop down onto the wing to keep on moving through the air. Nice.

This move definitely takes time, and we can see some folk are having problems with it, so further to doing the above, remember to leave your left stick untouched whilst performing this move so that your paraglider is moving nice and slowly, as slowly as it can, with no contrails visible. Once you drop the wing, watch its movement and time your landing onto it. Yes, it may seem impossible, but you will get your timing down after a while and should be able to land on the wing confidently after some practice.

Use Autobuild To Put Wing Devices Together Quickly

It can be a pain to attach a bunch of stuff all the time, so make sure you're using Autobuild. You get a three-fanned wing build blueprint fairly early in the game, so drop the required items and get your quick build on.

Fuse Wings To Shields For More Air Time When Surfing

Of course, you can fuse a wing to shields and weapons for other effects and our favourite so far is attaching a wing to a shield to gain some extended air time whilst shield surfing.

Ready your wing shield once fused then jump and hit the 'A' button when you're in the air to find this combo gives you a longer window of time than normal shields.

For more help on your journey across Hyrule, check out our full Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough for more hints, tips, tricks, and maps.