Tears of the Kingdom: How to Use Zonai Charge

Among the new mechanics introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, we have the magical machines from Breath of the Wild but taken in a different direction from different creators. And with this new set of magical technology comes different ways to use it to navigate the game, including but not limited to activating machines with limited battery. You may not even know how exactly you do that yet. Here’s a full breakdown of how to use Zonai Charge in Tears of the Kingdom.

Charging batteries in a Zelda game, explained

Zonai Charge is an item dropped from hostile Zonai Constructs fought across the map. At first it seems random and useless, but that’s because it doesn’t come into play until roughly after the In-isa shrine, when a construct you come across gives you an Energy Cell for utilizing Zonai Charges. In the same area, you start to come across green devices that seem inactive. Except they’re not old and unusable, they just need to activated using Zonai Charge.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Let’s say, for example, we have this extra Zonai Fan sitting on the ground that definitely isn’t there because I dropped it by accident. If we want to use Zonai Charge on it, we simply hit it with a weapon.

The fan activates and you’ll watch the battery visual of its energy left deplete slowly over the course of several seconds. Once it drains to nothing, you have to recharge before you can activate it again.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

When you open your inventory, you might notice there appears to be a battery displayed, and no, it’s not your Switch charge levels so don’t panic if it’s low. This is your current Energy Cell level. Select your Zonai Charges on hand. Use it and the battery fills back up to max. Now you could theoretically hit the fan for as long as you have charges in your inventory. Don’t, though, because you’re going to need those charges for later. There’s bound to be plenty more Zonai devices to motivate a steady stream of Charges in your inventory.

Related: How to make Fan Boats in Tears of the Kingdom