The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom suffers in the same way many open-world games do; the loot you get from treasure chests is seldom gratifying or worth the time and effort you put in to get it.
We all know that feeling well, the one where you've done something incredibly smart or wandered off the beaten path only to stumble upon a treasure chest. It's glorious for five seconds until you see the reward you've been given, slapping you in the face with your 100th piece of Amber or your 38th Zonai Spear. It's part and parcel of open-world games, but it sure stings.
10 Eightfold Blade
The perennial disappointment that is the Eightfold Blade drops from treasure chests the moment you don't want them – which, incidentally, is almost all the time. It's one of the weaker swords, and it never lasts long nor does any meaningful damage to your foes, even when fused with something stronger.
It is as short and unbelievably mediocre as it is plentiful. This fact alone is incredibly disappointing when you consider all the other amazing things you could get from a chest.
9 Soldier's Claymore
Of course, not every chest has to be some absolutely incredible drop that will change everything for you, but why does everything seemingly have to be another Soldier's Claymore? Out of all the types of weapons, the Soldier's-style equipment seems to be the most common among enemies.
This alone is enough to frustrate you since you will have so many Soldier's Claymores or other weapons of that ilk simply by killing enemies or finding them in the world, so why are they also stuffed into treasure chests? You should be drowning in more interesting loot, like a fancy new Elixir or a piece of armour.
8 Shield Of The Mind's Eye
Shields are certainly important in Tears of the Kingdom, but do they really need to be in so many chests? You barely go through shields fast enough to warrant having so many available, especially when you consider you can find any old shield out in the world.
Cramming it into a treasure chest is about the most disappointing thing when you realise you went through the trouble of finding it, this feels like a slap in the face. As is the nature of open-world games, sadly, but surely there are ways to make the chest drops more interesting.
7 Magic Rod And Magic Scepter
While the Magic Rod and Scepter weapons are inherently interesting and different, they seem almost pointless when you can fuse a Ruby or other ore to a weapon to give it basically the same elemental properties you get with a magic rod. Maybe it's an aesthetic thing, but this is easily one of the more underwhelming things to find in a chest.
Yes, there is a specific Rauru's Blessing Shrine that makes you jump through hoops, only to be rewarded with a single chest containing one Magic Scepter. The disappointment felt is borderline indescribable.
6 Amber
Amber, one of the most pointless ores in the whole game, is in seemingly endless supply. You may have found several in chests already, but they won't stop there. You've got so many more coming your way, and they're so useless they don't even sell for much.
When there's a world filled with fabulous weapon combos, strange Elixirs, new armour, and so many other things, to open a chest and find that your reward is a single piece of Amber – which, by the way, you can farm from ore deposits and beating a Talus – you have to question what the point of it was. The only plus side is you can use them for armour upgrades.
5 Zonaite Spear
You may disagree, but it seems pretty absurd that you get so many of the same weapons in chests that you can also get from other sources. It is genuinely wonderful when you open a chest to find a Diamond, but when you see you just grabbed yourself another Zonaite Spear after picking one up moments ago from killing a Construct with the same spear, it hits diminishing returns.
At the very least, they could make the chest rewards a more powerful version of the bog-standard weapons you positively drown in after fighting enemies. That would lessen the disappointing blow, but only marginally.
4 Soldier's Bow
The Soldier's Bow is yet another weapon in Tears of the Kingdom that will not leave you alone. Everywhere you look, you'll see an enemy using a bow of some kind. The Soldier's Bow doesn't do anything different, other than turn you into a rod for any lightning coming down in a storm.
It does everything the other bows do, but worse. For some reason, they are plentiful and you will have so many you won't know what to do with. Like all weapons in Tears of the Kingdom, bows come and go. There is something egregious about getting so many of the same type when you can kill a Bokoblin or Lizal for theirs; why waste a good treasure chest on it?
3 Soldier's Shield
There are what feels like hundreds of chests in Tears of the Kingdom with this shield inside. The Soldier's swords, bows, and shields are seemingly everywhere you look. Enemies have them, or they're lying on the floor somewhere, or they're in almost every Like Like chest, and it's rather ridiculous.
This is something of an exaggeration, but the point remains that no one needs as many Soldier's Shields as this game throws at you. Every chance the game has, you better believe you'll find a Soldier's Shield in a chest after just picking on up moments ago. The real question is: Why?'
2 Opal
Opals, much like Amber, are considerably underwhelming rewards to get from a chest. Sure, you can use them for armour upgrades and the like, but when you start needing them, you can farm them whenever and wherever you like.
Getting them as a reward from a chest feels like a sneaky way to trick you into thinking you just got something worthwhile. You could sell it for a quick Rupee, but the hoarder in all of us will hold onto it despite the incredibly likely chance we're about to get ten more from the next few chests.
1 Knight's Halberd
The worst offender by far out of all these is the Knight's Halberd or any other low-to-mid-tier weapon that is almost entirely completely useless fodder. It would be more interesting to mix in higher-tier weapons with the bog-standard chests, simply because the fact remains that all weapons will break.
If you find a powerful weapon early on, it won't last. This is the beauty and annoyance of TOTK and BOTW; weapons never last as long as you want, and it is ultimately meaningless when and where you get weapons with more power. It's even more meaningless in Tears of the Kingdom since you can make powerful weapons simply by fusing monster parts or whatever else you want into your gear.