The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out now, and it’s chock-full of secrets, hidden treasures, little detours, and Easter eggs. Its main story path is by far the easiest to follow, allowing you to collect all the essential powers, items, and story points you need before finally beating the game. However, Tears of the Kingdom’s best quality of life features sit somewhere between the main story and the secret, can be missed completely. We are talking about the power of Autobuild.
For those who want to avoid major spoilers, here’s the short version. Autobuild is basically a feature that allows you to instantly build a previously created design in Ultrahand using parts in the area or materials you have on hand. It’s a genius time saver and well worth getting, but it sits at the end of a series of important but unnecessary quests.
As a spoiler-free tip: Once “A Mystery in The Depths” is available, follow the quest chain starting with it and you will eventually receive it from Josha at Lookout Landing. We also have a detailed guide on how to get Autobuild functionality sooner than this if you need it.
Warning: Spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom follow below the video. Read on at your own risk!
Autobuild is basically a reward for discovery. The Great Abandoned Central Mine in the Deep, you can stumble upon it yourself, or you can follow a series of mystical statues that point the way beyond the depths. Once there, talk to the Zonai attendant and help his NPC to rebuild the car. You’ll then face a battle against Breath of the Wild’s nemesis before you can permanently secure your Autobuild.
It’s hard to stress enough how useful Autobuild is, especially once you start unlocking “schema”. Schemas are basically auto-build blueprints that allow you to auto-build new devices optimized for a specific purpose, such as very good gliders or karts. Resources are needed every time, but it’s especially useful when traversing the deep sea, as you can loot various Zonai waystations for parts.
Autobuilds are technically a key feature of Link’s new weapon, but it’s very easy to inadvertently delay finding them until very late in the game, or skip them altogether. We recommend getting the autobuild early in favor of the Mystery in the Depth quest as it will make your journey through Hyrule much easier.
Once you have Autobuild, there’s a lot more to do. It’s all cataloged in our complete guide to Tears of the Kingdom.
Rebekah Valentine is IGN’s Senior Reporter. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
