Notice how the ascend ability is still lit up when Link’s under the water? (pic: Reddit)



The new gameplay footage for Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom has birthed a new wave of fan theories, including one for underwater exploration.



Considering diehard The Legend Of Zelda fans have been carefully analysing every trailer and screenshot for Tears Of The Kingdom since its announcement, it’s not surprising to learn they’ve been scouring the newly shared 10 minutes of gameplay for further information.



While the new video did reveal a decent amount about how Link will be exploring the new sky islands above Hyrule, and a handful of new abilities, fans are looking past what series producer Eiji Aonuma highlighted to see if there are any other secrets hidden within.



One such fan theory argues that, unlike its predecessor Breath Of The Wild , Tears Of The Kingdom could allow Link to properly swim underwater, opening up even more of Hyrule for exploration.



Their evidence for this comes from Link’s new ascend ability. In the footage, Aonuma demonstrates how this lets Link pass through ceilings above him.



So, what does this have to do with swimming underwater? Well, when Link dives into a river, you can briefly see the ascend symbol light up whilst Link is underwater; it then turns grey once he surfaces, meaning he can’t use it there.



This suggests that the ability can be triggered while underwater, which would only make sense if Link is able to actually dive further down into the water. That way, he can use the ascend ability to quickly resurface.




Possible evidence for underwater exploration ? by u/Xiaonann in tearsofthekingdom




The theory has been shared on Reddit by user Xiaonann and several other fans believe it holds water, as it were.



‘We know ascend works wherever there’s a ceiling, whether it was a cave or a manmade one,’ says OkDepartment6077 . ‘Ascend already uses a ‘swimming’ animation. So it being enabled for underwater diving makes perfect sense, with the surface of the water being a ‘ceiling’.



Others have countered by pointing out that there’s no option for Link to dive deeper in the gameplay demonstration, arguing that the glowing ascend icon could just be a visual bug.



‘I think the simpler and more likely explanation is that in the brief switch between player states (‘in air’ into ‘in water’) it lit up and then went away again when the game registered that it was just another no-rune/ascend state,’ argues IntrinsicGamer .



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This is hardly the only theory floating around either. A tweet by one Dylnamic suggests there are more abilities than what was shown, using the pin collection that comes with Tears Of The Kingdom’s collector’s edition as evidence.



From the story side of things, ShadowJoyConBoy on Reddit posits that the game takes place after a significant time skip, which explains Link’s longer hair in the gameplay footage.



No doubt there will be more theories as fans continue to pour over the footage, ahead of the game’s release on May 12.




Here’s something noteworthy. Of the four Runes shown so far, Recall is the only one represented by a kanji, and also the only one that has a gold glow instead of green wisps. We know other kanji Runes exist due to the CE pins. Could Link acquire those as the game progresses? pic.twitter.com/B5inClwxIs — Dylnamic (@Dylnamic) March 29, 2023




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