Summary

  • The Skyview Towers in Tears of the Kingdom, while useful for surveying Hyrule, are also deadly due to their ability to generate powerful G-forces.
  • The height and acceleration of each tower varies, with some towers producing forces that can instantly kill Link.
  • Link's ability to survive these forces showcases his abnormally strong constitution, making him the only person capable of testing the Skyview Towers' functions without being killed in TOTK.

It appears that the Skyview Towers in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, despite their utility, are also thoroughly lethal to use. The successors to Breath of the Wild’s Sheikah Towers, the Skyview Towers allow Link to survey Hyrule from high in the air and sometimes require him to solve a puzzle to do so. However, it seems that safety was far from a concern during their construction.

There are a total of 15 Skyview Towers scattered around Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom, each unlocking a section of TOTK’s surface and sky maps when first used. Of course, this is easier said than done; many Towers prove to initially be difficult to use, due to problems like blocked doors and technological malfunctions that result in some of TOTK's more interesting puzzles. Nevertheless, once these problems are resolved, Link can repeatedly use the towers to launch himself skyward. This allows him to both glide long distances and even reach many lower floating Sky Islands. But beyond the Skyview Towers’ propensity for breakdowns, it seems that their striking designs hide a far worse design fault.

Zelda: TOTK’s Skyview Towers Create Lethal G-Forces

Link looking shocked as he uses a Skyview Tower for the first time in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

According to the calculations of Reddit dadbald, it seems that the Skyview Towers in TOTK are lethal to use. This is because the way they launch Link can actually create G-forces far too powerful for the body to handle, leading to serious injury or even death. The average human will lose consciousness around 5 Gs, although specialized training is able to increase that tolerance to around 9 Gs for at least brief periods. However, the speed and elevation produced by the Skyview Towers would in many cases create over 12 Gs of force acting upon Link, and in fact, never go below the 5G baseline tolerance for humans.

The Lookout Landing Skyview Tower, as seen in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Every Skyview Tower may seem to throw Link upwards with the same speed, but in reality, the heights that he can ultimately reach vary drastically depending on the tower in question. This means that the actual acceleration he experiences at each tower also varies accordingly. It seems that the Rospro tower is the ‘safest’ in this regard, providing 6.8 Gs of acceleration according to dadbald’s calculations. Meanwhile, the Typhlo Ruins tower creates an immense 24.1 Gs, which should be enough to kill him near-instantly. Although if Link lost consciousness midair, a fall from using any Skyview Tower would undoubtedly prove fatal anyway.

In order to survive these kinds of forces without issue, Link’s constitution must be abnormally strong. He never falters in using the Skyview Towers, not even when freshly injured by Ganondorf’s malice; something likely related to his legendary nature, unless all Hylians are similarly tough. As such, it is incredibly fortunate that Link is the first person to even test the Skyview Towers’ functions, as Purah inadvertently reveals. It seems possible that most other Hylians could be killed before they even left the top of the tower. Other Legend of Zelda races may have better tolerances, of course, but there is no way to know for certain either way.

The fact that Link can survive using Purah’s Skyview Towers is a testament to his resilience. Given the forces at work behind these towers, most people would undoubtedly be injured or worse by any attempt to survey the land. The Skyview Towers are essentially elaborate deathtraps; if the is not immediately crushed by the G-force, then they will most likely fall to the ground from a deadly height after being knocked unconscious. In any other circumstances, the Skyview Towers could therefore easily kill Link in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, accomplishing what even Ganondorf could not.

Source: dadbald/Reddit