Players replace Tears of the Kingdom’s patched-out item-dupe glitches

It has been only a week since Nintendo removed a number of popular The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom item-duplication glitches with the release of the game's 1.1.2 update patch. But intrepid players have already found alternate methods for creating infinite items to build and fight to their heart's content.

The most straightforward (if slow) new method for item duplication, as described by Kibbles Gaming, involves fusing an item to a weapon, preparing to throw that weapon, and then watching previously viewed cutscenes via the "memories" section of the Adventure Log. Each memory you view apparently advances the game's logic by a single frame, letting you easily pinpoint the four-frame timing window where you can throw a weapon while also retaining a copy in your inventory. While this method is consistent and simple to perform (even early in the game), it can take quite a while to fill up your inventory this way.

A more efficient item duplication method requires you to purchase Link's House near Tarry Town in the east, then place a shock emitter item near the weapon display. With good timing, you can place a weapon on that display during the same frame that the shock emitter knocks it out of your hands, thus creating two copies of the weapon (and any fused item) instantly.

While this method lets you create functionally infinite item copies quickly, it requires a lot more in-game set-up and some relatively precise timing. Other players have found that quickly removing pieces of rubber armor can help with the "shock" timing, at least.

We expect Nintendo will patch out these newly discovered item-dupe methods relatively quickly, but we don't imagine that will stop intrepid players from finding further exploits. After all, while Nintendo released a few Breath of the Wild patches in the months after its 2017 release, players have since found plenty of exploitable glitches in that game, including one that's strikingly similar to the latest Tears of the Kingdom item duplication exploit. One of those Breath of the Wild glitches—which even lets players duplicate rare korok seeds—was discovered as recently as early 2022, showing that there isn't really a time limit on how long Zelda players will spend figuring out how to break these games.

Rather than engaging in this cat-and-mouse glitch-fixing fight, we still think that Nintendo should lean in and make item duplication an official part of the game. A fully supported item duplication code or separate "creative mode" would give many players the infinite, grind-free Zelda sandbox they so obviously want and deserve without ruining the carefully constructed challenges Nintendo worked so hard on.

Listing image by BLAINES / YouTube