Link’s arsenal has evolved in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Gone are the runes from Breath of the Wild, to be replaced by abilities for his special new hand. These abilities allow Link to manipulate the world and objects in different ways or even traverse certain areas. One of those abilities in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is Ascend, which as the name suggests allows you to go up through surfaces and objects.
Ascend is highly useful as it can allow players to pass through floors to reach upper levels. To unlock the Ascend ability in Zelda TotK however, there is some work involved as it isn’t available from the start.
How to unlock Ascend in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
To unlock the Ascend ability, you will have to complete one of the earlier main missions of the Tears of the Kingdom named The Closed Door. This mission walks you through a tutorial shrine known as Gutanbac Shrine.
The Gutanbac shrine is situated on the eastern side of the Great Sky Islands. This shrine requires you to open chests present in some locked door which can be only accessed using the Ascend ability. So, it will bless you with the Ascend ability as you enter the shrine.
So the Ascend ability is automatically unlocked as part of the story, just depends on you which order you proceed through these early shrines.
How to use Ascend in Zelda TotK
Using the Ascend ability, Link can phase pass through the ceiling above him and come out on the upper floor on the other side. The Ascend ability will not work if there is no building on the other side of the roof. The roof or ceiling should be flat. But this ability is not limited to breaking through only buildings and rooms, you can also use it to move to the top of mountains.
To use Ascend ability, you simply have to stand under the flat roof or surface which you want to pass through. Then equip the ability by pressing ‘L’. It will zoom the camera in and face upwards. A green light will appear on the ceiling you want to pass through.
After that, you can ascend through the roof by pressing A. Upon doing this, you will surprisingly find Link in between the flat object through which you can observe the other side which you want to get in. Then press A again to step into the new side.
The marker will turn red if the roof is too high and you will not be able to do the ascend in that situation. Ascend is a very wonderful ability that has massive applications in the game depending on the creativity of the players. You can use it from moving between the sky island and getting to the top of the towers to open chests and solve puzzles that were not possible before.
