Unused Text

This is a sub-page of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: The Horned Statue text is identical to text found in BOTW. Verify that it is used there and note here after confirming.

Goddess Statue#

Hylia has this unused text:

You already overflow with life force and
stamina. Increasing your power any
further may destroy you.

This text was also unused in Breath of the Wild, and could be encountered if glitches were used to reach the maximum number of Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels, and then the player attempted to exchange four Spirit Orbs for another. In Tears of the Kingdom, this text is similarly only encounterable if you reach the maximum number of Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels via glitches.

Horned Statue#

The Horned Statue has unused text if first encountered without having obtained a Heart Container or Stamina Vessel yet. This is impossible because obtaining a Heart Container is required to open a door in the Temple of Time at the Great Sky Island, which is before the Horned Statue can be encountered.

What's this?

You haven't received even one more
Heart Container or Stamina Vessel?

Such a pity... I was eager to help you
with a minor transaction. But not if you
have nothing to trade.
Consult a Goddess Statue to improve
yourself, and then return here to pray.

Schema Stone#

Schema Stones have a different description if Autobuild is not yet obtained. This is impossible to see because having Autobuild is a requirement to receive Schema Stones from Steward Constructs and Josha at Lookout Landing.

A stone etched with what looks like a design
schematic. It could be useful...

Text from Breath of the Wild#

Some reference strings from Breath of the Wild were left over in reference.msbt, including "Guardian", "King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule", and the names of the Divine Beasts. Rito Stable is also present in the locations file, despite being replaced with the Lucky Clover Gazette.

Many NPCs also have text labeled TerrorGuardian, including new ones like Steward Constructs. While it seems like unused text related to Guardians, the text is actually used as a response to Gloom Spawn or Phantom Ganon. Some NPC reactions are based on "terror levels" "emitted" by different things; for example, most enemies have a terror level of 3. The trigger for the "TerrorGuardian" text is actually a response to a terror level of 5 (the maximum), something only emitted by Guardians in Breath of the Wild and Gloom Spawn/Phantom Ganon in Tears of the Kingdom. Presumably, it was seen as too much work to rename this when it functions exactly the same. (That said, due to the relative rarity of Phantom Ganons in the world, it can be rather difficult to get elicit one of these responses from an NPC anyways.)

Fallback Text#

Nintendo did an extensive clean-up of unused inventory text entries, replacing these with blank strings in the localization files. If the game were to attempt displaying these strings ingame, a fallback string would be shown instead. For most items and equipment, this would be "MsgNotFound", but for boss names it would be "Calamity Ganon", in English regardless of the active language. This was the name of the final boss from Breath of the Wild, and it doesn't make an ingame appearance in Tears of the Kingdom as Ganondorf and Phantom Ganon are used instead.

It's still possible to see this text by abusing glitches. The prologue Link's Master Sword and equipment, as well as Link's healed body in the ending, among other things, are stored internally as separate equipment that would show this "MsgNotFound" text, if not for the fact that the player can't display the menu to either examine or unequip these items. Boss battles spawned outside of their normal event setups will show the "Calamity Ganon" text.