Ever since Hyrule went vertical in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players have treated every Zonai device like a box of cosmic LEGO. But every once in a while, someone pokes at the physics engine and finds a rule that flips conventional wisdom on its head. That’s exactly what happened when an eagle-eyed fan, 24GamingYT, started messing around with rockets and a humble cart.

In Hyrule’s sprawling, physics-bending playground, half the fun is treating Zonai devices like a mad scientist’s toy box. One sharp-eyed player known as 24GamingYT dug into a rocket quirk that would make even Purah raise an eyebrow: attach a Zonai rocket to a cart at an angle, and Link will actually fly higher than when the rocket points straight down. It sounds like a glitch, but it is all part of the game’s brilliantly slippery physics.

The Discovery That Made Players Say ‘Wait, What?’

During a pair of controlled experiments, 24GamingYT set up a horizontal Zonai cart and strapped a single rocket to it in a perfectly vertical position. The launch was no joke—the cart climbed to about 811 meters before the rocket vanished. That is already a respectable way to get a bird’s-eye view of Hyrule. But when they repeated the test with the same cart and a single rocket tilted at an angle, the assembly jumped roughly 40 meters higher. Same rocket, same cart, different pose, better result. In a game where every meter of altitude can mean the difference between reaching a sky island and plummeting into a lake, that 40-meter bump is nothing to sneeze at.

Adding More Rockets Was a Classic Rookie Move

After the angled launch, 24GamingYT tried the natural next step: more rockets. If one angled rocket gives extra lift, then a cluster should send Link into orbit, right? Not even close. The extra rockets barely changed the height, and they burned out almost immediately. The reason, as community member lucygracenelson explained, comes down to an internal speed limit. Rockets are hard-capped on how fast they can push an object. Piling on more rockets is like pedaling a bike downhill—once you hit the maximum speed the pedals can spin, cranking harder does absolutely nothing. You just look silly.

The Physics Behind the Angle

Here is where the trick gets clever. The speed limit of a Zonai rocket is not determined by raw thrust alone; it is tied to the direction the rocket is pointing. A rocket pointed straight down registers its full vertical speed reading, so it slams into its cap almost immediately. An angled rocket, on the other hand, splits its thrust between pushing upward and pushing sideways. That division lowers the rocket’s internal vertical speed reading, which leaves more room for acceleration before the cap kicks in. It is the difference between sprinting into a wall and easing through an open door.

Of course, there is a trade-off. Angle the rocket too hard and too much thrust leaks into horizontal movement, so the cart drifts instead of climbing. That is why some players assumed vertical was always best for pure altitude. But the truth is more nuanced: a slight tilt gives just enough of a reading reduction to squeeze out extra height without sacrificing too much upward push.

Fan divlogue decided to chase the sweet spot. Their tests showed that smaller angle combinations—just a few degrees off vertical—could genuinely increase ascent altitude. The goal was to get the acceleration benefit of an angled rocket while keeping the sideways waste to a minimum. It was a classic “have your cake and eat it too” moment, and the results backed it up. Slight angles outperformed both completely vertical rockets and aggressively slanted ones.

Practical Takeaways for Builders

• A single angled rocket can beat a vertical rocket by roughly 40 meters on a cart.

• More rockets won’t meaningfully increase height due to the rocket speed cap.

• The best angle is smaller rather than extreme; too much slant wastes thrust sideways.

• Test on flat ground first to avoid wonky collisions and get a clean baseline.

In 2026, the Zonai engineering community is still alive and kicking, sharing discoveries that keep Hyrule feeling fresh even years after launch. This simple rocket trick is a reminder that the game’s magic lives in the details—sometimes the fastest way up is a little sideways. So the next time you need a quick lift to a sky island, don’t just strap a rocket on and hope for the best. Give it a slight tilt, cross your fingers, and enjoy the extra altitude like a true Hyrule engineer. 🚀

Expert commentary is drawn from PC Gamer, and it’s a useful lens for appreciating why the Zonai rocket “slight tilt” trick matters: even tiny changes in how a game interprets velocity and direction can produce outsized results in player-built contraptions. In Tears of the Kingdom, that means a modest angle can skirt an internal speed cap long enough to squeeze out extra altitude—more practical for reaching sky islands than simply stacking rockets that burn out fast once the limit is hit.