How to solve the Korok cork puzzles in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

While running around the surface of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll likely find two corks chained together plugging a stump. Just by looking at these, it’s clear that unplugging these corks will reward you with a Korok Seed. But actually unplugging them can prove a bit of a brainteaser. One of the corks is sealed in tightly enough that most attempts to unplug it will come up short. So if you haven’t figured it out on your own, you might wonder how exactly Tears of the Kingdom expects you to solve these Korok cork puzzles.

What to do to complete the Korok cork puzzles

For these puzzles, you need to find some way to pull at the dangling cork with enough force that the cork in the stump will come loose. The stump tends to slant at an angle, so you would have to apply this force in the direction where the stump leans. If the stump is located near a ledge, attach some sort of heavy object, such as a log, a boulder, or even a collection of smaller rocks, to the cork and let it dangle off the ledge.

On the other hand, if you find a stump near a body of water, move the dangling cork as far under the water as you can before letting go. This will cause it to spring up and force the cork out of the stump.

These undoubtedly serve as the intended solutions, but before learning about them, I first found out about a solution that can work no matter where the stump is located. First, grab any object with Ultrahand, move it in a big, wide circle in front of where the stump is angled, and attach it to the dangling cork. Then, Recall the object so that it attempts to move in the same circle in reverse, just with the cork attached. This should cause the plugged-in cork to pop out of the stump, skipping the developer’s intended solutions.

However you decide to tackle them, the Korok cork puzzles in Tears of the Kingdom should no longer leave you scratching your head after learning about these solutions. I know I feel relieved that I don’t have to leave these puzzles for later anymore while exploring.

Screenshot via PC Invasion