One The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has recently discovered a trick that prevents Zonai Wings from disappearing, essentially side-stepping one of the game's most annoying flying limitations. They promptly took online to detail their technique, having done so shortly after another player shared a Tears of the Kingdom trick that massively increases vehicle despawn distance.
While the new Zelda game's building mechanics received widespread praise, some fans still feel like Tears of the Kingdom's Zonai devices are a double-edged sword, not least because they make traversal a bit too easy. It would appear that Nintendo was aware of that risk and even tried balancing custom vehicles by making certain flying components in the game disappear after just 60 seconds. For clarity, all Zonai objects have such built-in timers, but the majority of them can stick around for at least half an hour, whereas most players will typically abandon their contraptions much sooner than that.
And while Zonai Wings are among the select few components subject to the game's strictest usage limit, it turns out that it's possible to cancel their disappearing animation mid-flight, essentially empowering them with unlimited durability. The method, recently demonstrated by Reddit user wokecahontas, requires alternating between a Zonai Wing-based aircraft's power states every few seconds. This alone wouldn't be enough to keep a simple flying machine like Tears of the Kingdom's pre-built Fanplane airborne, but if the contraption generates enough vertical lift and horizontal thrust, the technique prevents it from falling apart for up to half an hour.
Following some experimentation, wokecahontas found that exactly four vertical fans and a single horizontal one are enough to execute this idea when paired with a Zonai Wing equipped with a Zonai Steering Stick. Repeatedly relinquishing and seizing control of such an aircraft such hence be enough to fly between any two points on the map, so long as the trip doesn't start with worn-out fans. For context, Zonai Fans in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom disappear after exactly 30 minutes.
All things considered, this newfound technique isn't particularly convenient to execute, but its discovery still adds to the list of resource-efficient traversal options that tenacious Tears of the Kingdom players have at their disposal. Those looking for a somewhat smoother flying experience free of Zonai Wings might instead look toward the infinite-energy helicopter design that another Tears of the Kingdom player pioneered earlier this week.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on Nintendo Switch.