From explosive bombs tucked in trees to bait that summons an eagle for fast travel, The Legend of Zelda series has featured an assortment of useful fruit over the years. When consumed or sometimes just equipped, these fruity finds provide unique traversal, combat, and puzzle-solving abilities for players to skillfully employ on their adventures.
Tears of the Kingdom looks to continue that tradition by introducing the new Splash Fruit – a juice-filled consumable with the power to literally wash away certain obstacles in your path. In this expanded guide tailored to mastering all applications of this exotic item, you‘ll learn insider tricks for harvesting Splash Fruit and leveraging its wet bursting properties to overcome challenges and reveal hidden secrets across the kingdoms of Hyrule.
A Legacy of Useful Video Game Fruit: Bananas, Bombs, and Bait
Before diving into Splash Fruit specifics, it helps to review precedents for fruit items gaining significance in gameplay beyond just restoring health. We can trace the tradition back to the Donkey Kong arcade era…
Donkey Kong‘s Bananas – Kong‘s favored snack offered score bonuses and extra lives. Their collectible appeal later cemented bananas as DK‘s icon.
The Legend of Zelda‘s Bombs – Link could pick bomb flowers or trees to obtain round, hissing explosives, essential for puzzles and mining ore.
Ocarina of Time‘s Bait – Hyrule Field‘s odd glowing fruit, when caught, summons Kaepora Gaebora for sage travel guidance.
Fast forward to Breath of the Wild, which expanded fruit functionality even further on Switch…
Energizing Palm Fruit – Temporarily boosts Link‘s maximum stamina limit for demanding climbs.
Hearty Fruit – Fully restores and adds bonus hearts to Link‘s life meter.
So Splash Fruit joins a long line of legendary Zelda series fruit that provide creative abilities via a familiar natural package. Now let‘s jump into specifics on finding it!
Locating Splash Fruit Crops Around Skyview Tower
Based on prerelease footage and maps, Splash Fruit grows abundantly in Zorana – the vibrant upland region inhabited by Zora and situated above their namesake domain.
Specifically, Splash Fruit vines and shrubs thrive around the scenic Skyview Tower landmark overlooking Zora River Basin. This towering structure surrounded by forest and rapids should prove a familiar sight for players who tackled the Lanayru Province in past games.
When spied growing on green leafy vines, Splash Fruit can be plucked with any empty hand using the classic [A] harvest button. Link will obtian individual fruits that get automatically deposited into inventory.
Adventurers can pick ripe Splash Fruit straight from lush vines beside Skyview Tower
However, note that Splash Fruit vines take significant time to rebear fruit once stripped clean. So the most efficient strategy is to grab several Splash Fruits in your first harvesting visit to ensure ample reserves for the road ahead.
Now let‘s turn these foraged fruits into an effective item upgrade…
Equipping Splash Fruit Delivery Arrows
Simply acquiring Splash Fruit is only half the battle – you‘ll next need to prep and equip it onto a bow projectile to weaponize its juicy contents.
Here is a step-by-step guide to nocking your foraged fruit:
- Enter Inventory with +
- Select acquired Splash Fruit
- Choose Equip from the context menu
- Link will automatically load the fruit onto an arrow
- The projectile arrow shaft will skewering the fruit, ready for firing
Once Splash Fruit is pierced and loaded, fire away at any sludge deposits!
Attaching foraged Splash Fruit to arrow projectiles before launching them at blocks and barriers
Now that your fruit bombs are prepped, let‘s examine Splash Fruit‘s benefits in action!
Firing Splash Arrows to Wash Away Hazardous Sludge
The headline ability of Splash Fruit is its power to literally cleanse contaminated surfaces – specifically the foreboding dark sludge blocking various crevices and passages in Tears of the Kingdom.
This hazardous slime ominously oozes across stairs, vents, and doorways in Hyrule. But a well-aimed Splash Fruit arrow can blast away the gunk entirely!
Based on trailers, we know a locked staircase beside Skyview Tower offers an early canvas for testing Splash Fruit sludge removal. Simply nock, draw, and loose the fruit-tipped projectile at the center of the sludge mass until it bursts open.
Visually, the fruit splits with a juicy explosion, sending cleansing liquid cascading across the area. Repeat blasts may be needed to wash away every last drop of corruption and fully restore safe passage or secret access.
With Sludge cleared after each wet detonation, players can then collect any loot, traverse pathways, or progress quests previously blocked.
So liberal Splash Fruit application promises to be critical for exploration and puzzle solving in Tears of the Kingdom. Just be sure to restock supply between journeys!
Now what other innovative applications exist for Splash Fruit abilities?
Advanced Splash Fruit Combat, Utility, and Mobility Potential
Beyond cleansing sludge, Tears of the Kingdom‘s complex physics and elemental chemistry engines suggest additional utility waiting to be discovered with clever Splash Fruit arrow trick shots:
Wet Status Effects – Could Splash Fruit drench and briefly stagger enemies? What about extinguishing fiery foes? Experiment!
Alchemy Triggers – Conductive surfaces struck by electric arrows create explosions. Could wet fruit primes enable similar combos?
Fluid Transport – Map terrain shows rivers and lakes. Might proper fruit water balloon trajectories enable useful new mobility?
Crop Cultivation – If fruit vines regrow over time, perhaps strategic soaking certain plots accelerates plant growth, cooking, or other propagation effects?
My hypothesis is Splash Fruit applications likely extend far beyond washing away sludge blocks as players fully explore interlocking chemistry systems through combat, puzzles, and world navigation mastery.
But casual gamers need not sweat the advanced potential yet. Next we cover the basics of quickly nabbing Splash Fruit early from a secret grove.
Speedrunning Splash Fruit: Grab and Equip Route
For readers focused on efficient runs or fast unlocks for multiplayer, here is an optimized 2 minute sequence for acquiring your first Splash Fruit supply, ideal to enable early secret hunting:
This grabs enough to cleanse at least 3-5 sludge deposits before needing to revisit the vines. Now wash away that sludge!
Conclusion
We‘ve only scratched the surface of possible gameplay applications for Splash Fruit in Tears of the Kingdom. But with plentiful crops found growing near Skyview Tower, and this guide‘s expertise on effective equipping and sludge removal, you now hold the keys to unlocking many muddy mysteries across Hyrule using clever fruit artillery.
Soon fans will discover just how far Splash Fruit‘s juice stretches when Nintendo‘s latest open adventure lands on May 12. Will you use fruit explosives to forge your own splashy legacy? The juice-drenched journey begins soon!
