The new mechanics introduced with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can do a lot more than meets the eye. With the new Fuse ability, Link can attach items to the tips of his arrows, to his weapons, and to his shields, which oftentimes gives them new properties. Fusing a boulder to a stick, for example, lets players smash breakable walls, while a Bomb Flower on the tip of an Arrow can stun Like Likes with ease.
One returning mechanic from Breath of the Wild is the shield surf. In Breath of the Wild, a combination of inputs saw Link flip his equipped shield onto the ground and ride it like a sled. Tears of the Kingdom's new Fuse ability actually makes it possible to turn a shield into a fully-functional skateboard, which works amazingly on rail puzzles. All players need is a minecart and somewhere to test it out.
Find a Minecart & Fuse It To A Shield
To make a skateboard in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, first Link has to find a shield and a minecart. On weapons and shields, the Fuse ability only works with items actually present the world, not in Link's inventory. Luckily, a number of minecarts can be found all across the Great Sky Island. They are typically easier to find on the west side of the zone.
Link also has to have a shield, many of which can drop from the constructs around the island that wield them. Shields won't always drop from these enemies, but they are the best source for them early on. On the Great Sky Island, Link will be hard-pressed to find much aside from low-level Old Wooden Shields and the like.
Once acquired, equip the shield and walk up to the minecart. With the Fuse ability active, point at the minecart and press LT to Fuse it to Link's equipped shield.
Initiate a Shield Surf On a Rail or Slope
By Fusing the minecart to Link's shield, it becomes a fair bit more durable, but that's far from the best part of this combination. Because the minecart has wheels on it, when Link does a shield surf, he will go faster, be more controllable, and even be able to grind on rails with practically no effort on the player's part.
To shield surf in Tears of the Kingdom, players simply need to press the left trigger (guard), X (jump), and A at the exact same time. When Link does this directly onto a rail, he will automatically adjust to near-perfectly balance on it – he will even speed up a little bit, making it easy to go back up sloped rails without a Zonai Fan device. But doing a shield surf onto flat ground with this skateboard equipped will propel Link forward as well, and it's especially fast going downhill.
To top it all off, the shield's durability appears to be less impacted when riding it, perhaps because the minecart actually has wheels.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch