It's taken almost a year, but genius Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have finally figured out how to reclaim an unbreakable Master Sword that you're only supposed to have in the prologue

Almost a year after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's greatest weapon was hidden away in a patch, genius players have worked out a way to get it back, all thanks to the most complicated glitch I've ever seen.

The weapon in question is called 'MsgNotFound' – a bizarre name for a powerful sword, I know, but it's the title given to the Master Sword that Link wields in the prologue of Tears of the Kingdom. This Master Sword is special, because it's totally 'unbreakable,' being completely unaffected by the 10-minute cooldown the normal Master Sword has in order to stop you from spamming it.

Soon after launch, Tears of the Kingdom engineers discovered a way to access this version of the Master Sword outside of the prologue. However, in August 2023, the glitch needed to do so was patched out, and MsgNotFound was seemingly lost to the ether. Now, though, almost a year later, a new method has been discovered to reclaim it, and it genuinely blows my mind that anyone was ever able to work it out.

While the original MsgNotFound glitch could be completed in around five minutes, you can expect this new one to take over an hour of your time, as has been demonstrated by YouTube content creator El Duende 05. It requires the use of a massive list of other glitches, including glitching out weapons and shields with a definitely-not-intentional use of the Fuse mechanic, transferring gear over to the prologue by jamming it into the wall of the In-isa Shrine, and sending poor Link way above and below the map where he'll fall for minutes on end, no doubt wondering what cursed reality he's found himself in.

The whole process is pretty risky, as it involves starting a new save that will receive the gear you stuck into the wall of the In-isa Shrine so you can drop the weird Master Sword on the floor. With the rest of the glitch's shenanigans, this allows you to pick MsgNotFound up in your main file, as long as you don't let your autosaves from that file get overwritten. Basically, just proceed with caution if you're going into this with a file you really don't want to lose.

After that though, you can finally run around all of Hyrule with a Master Sword that'll never run out of juice – Ganondorf is sure to be quaking in his boots. If you plan on trying this yourself, just be sure to follow El Duende 05's instructions carefully to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

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