How To Solve The Broken Mine Cart Rail Puzzle In Zelda: TOTK

One of the first puzzles seen in Zelda: TOTK asks players to find their way past a broken mine cart rail by using Link's ability to craft new objects.

As players make their way through the Great Sky Island at the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the last tutorial Shrine cannot be reached until they solve the broken mine cart rail puzzle along the way. Showing up toward the end of the introduction to the game, this puzzle teaches players how to make basic contraptions. This feature will remain important throughout Link's adventure, making it useful to learn early.

One of the new abilities Link has in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is called Ultrahand, which lets players manipulate objects and attach them together. Part of the lessons on the Great Sky Island Shrines teach players a couple of simple uses of this mechanic, but the mine cart rail puzzle tests the player's creativity with Ultrahand. In addition to a piece of Zonai technology with its own function, players might struggle to put all the pieces together.

The problem with this puzzle is that no cart sits on the mine rail and the right rail is broken, meaning players have to build a contraption that gets them across the gap. To start, players should use Ultrahand to grab an empty mine cart, a hook, and a Zonai fan artifact from around the area. Players will need to make an early fuse combination in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that helps solve the puzzle.

The hook must be attached to the center of the empty mine cart and facing to either the right or left so that players can see the hook when facing forward in the cart. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gives players a chance to detach and attach objects at will, so players won't have to worry about making any mistake that can't be fixed. Finally, players must put the fan on the back of the cart, rotating it so that the blades are facing outward.

From here, using Ultrahand gives players a chance to place their cart, hook, and fan combination onto the left rail using the hook. Although this may seem easy, players have to consider putting the contraption in a place where Link can climb into the cart. Once the new object for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been carefully placed and players are inside, simply hitting the fan with a melee weapon causes an airflow to push Link to the other island, solving the puzzle.

Learning how to solve the broken mine cart rail puzzle in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom puts players on a path to finish the last tutorial Shrine, and eventually travel down from the Great Sky Island to the greater land of Hyrule below.