Zelda Tears of the Kingdom duplication glitch: how to get infinite items
Update May 26: Unfortunately the glitch mentioned below, along with all other item duplication glitches, has been removed from the game following an update today. We'll keep an eye out for more glitches, but for the moment it seems like you'll have to stick with the diamonds you dig up yourself. The original story is below.
No matter how well-made a game is, players will still find a way to exploit it. It took a little while for people to find a weakness in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but now there is not just one, but two ways to duplicate items. If you want extra diamonds to make quick rupees, or don’t want to grind for a rare upgrade material, then this glitch will get you all you need.
We’ll explain the newer and easier of the two methods to duplicate items in Tears of the Kingdom.
For more Zelda guides and tips, like how to find and activate all Skyview Towers, or an explanation of all Zonai Devices, make sure to read our full Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough.
How to duplicate items – Zelda TOTK
Before you start, you need to ensure that the item you want to duplicate is in the last slot of your inventory. The easiest way to do this is to drop them all on the ground and pick them back up again. Bear in mind that there is a limit of 21 items that can be on the ground at once, if you try to drop more than that, the excess items will be deleted and you’ll lose them forever – so be careful.
Next, you need to perform a shield jump. Do this by holding out your shield with ZL, jump with X, and press A while in mid-air.
While mid-shield jump, pause the game. Now hold any item in your inventory that you only have one of – the goal here is to clear a slot in your inventory – and as many as you like of the item you want to duplicate. For our example, we’re holding one armored carp and four diamonds.
Unpause the game and Link will automatically drop the items as he is shield jumping. Pick up the items and you’ll see that the item you put last in your inventory has been duplicated. Before we had just nine diamonds in our inventory, now we have thirteen.
It's also possible to do this while paragliding, using many of the above steps. The benefit of this is that you can perform the trick multiple times before you hit the ground, meaning you can rapidly duplicate items like diamonds a dozen times in under a minute. The only requirement is that you unlock the paraglider first.
Simply find yourself a small ledge, like the one right next to the Hateno village Ancient Tech Lab. Jump off the ledge, press X to open up your paraglider, then quickly open the menu with the plus button. Like above, select an item you've only got one of, hold it in your arms, then hold the item you want to dupe.
Quickly unpause and pause again, where you can repeat the process as many times as you like before you hit the ground. Using this method, we were able to obtain 20 diamonds in just 55 seconds.