How to get an unbreakable Master Sword early (and anytime) in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

If you are a true, try-hard gamer who wants to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the purest way, you won’t be happy with this article. We’ll talk about a glitch for the noobs and open-world haters like me who think some cheating in single-player games can be the spice these games need to feel right.

The Master Sword without a little cheating is disappointing. You need a lot of effort, stamina farming, and gameplay progression to get to it, only to learn it’s not the strongest sword in the game and that it can break just like any other weapon in TOTK.

Related: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Master Sword damage stats, explained

But not the true—and glitched—Master Sword, called MsgNotFound. Its 30 power lasts forever because the sword is unbreakable, no matter what you hit or how many times you use it.

The downside is that this Master Sword cannot fuse any materials to it. But having infinite durability makes it worth it anyway.

I tested this glitch on May 19 after updating the game, so I can confirm this glitch still works on that day’s patch.

Note: There have been multiple reports that Nintendo solved the glitch below in the 1.1.2 game version, so if you have updated your game on or after March 26, you probably won’t be able to get the unbreakable Master Sword.

How to make the unbreakable Master Sword glitch in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

To get the Master Sword with infinite durability, you have to perform a save glitch—which is safe, I tested it—both inside the In-Isa Master Shrine and beneath Hyrule Castle, in the intro of the game. That’s why you can do it early. As long as you have reached the In-Isa shrine, which is natural game progression, you can already do this glitch and get the sword.

You will find the video showing the glitch below, followed by the step-by-step instructions. And yes, I cut the part when I fail to climb the rocks three times.

1. Have at least two weapons in your inventory. Any will do, even branches.
2. Reach the In-Isa shrine, either by gameplay progression or by teleporting to it. If you’re teleporting, open your Purah Pad with the “-” button, press “L” until you’re in the Map tab, and press “up” on the D-Pad to see the Sky map. Then, zoom out moving the right joystick backward, if necessary, until you see the Great Sky Islands map close to the center. Select the In-Isa shrine, which is the teleport point in the west. You must have progressed through the story until the point where you get the paraglider to unlock teleporting.
3. Enter the In-Isa shrine and walk forward until the game creates an auto-save state for that point.
4. Test if the auto-save point inside In-Isa shrine works by loading it.
5. Go back to the title screen and start a new game. Select “Start” when the game asks if you want to overwrite previous save data. It won’t really overwrite it.
6. Take a deep breath. For real, your original save is fine.
7. Progress through the intro until the point where you walk downstairs and can see the energy cone over the mummy. It’s the flight of stairs right after you kill the bats. Don’t move forward more or you will trigger the cinematic.
8. Walk back up the stairs until you see a circle marking on the stones on your right as seen on the image below. Stand next to it.
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9. Save your game.
10. Load the auto-save inside the In-Isa shrine.
11. Enter the shrine until you reach the stone wall. Fuse any weapon with the stone on the left and hit the wall with it, breaking it open.
12. You will need the two rocks on the right. Use your Ultrahand to move one on top of the other, attach them, and grab the rocks.
13. Walk past the broken gate with the rock and go right. Stop just before the room and over the water, where two walls are close to you.
14. Place the stacked rocks over the water making them touch the right wall. You want the joint on the wall to look like it’s crossing the center of the rocks.
15. Climb the rocks and position Link in a way that makes him stand as close as possible to the wall joint, facing it.
16. Open your inventory with “+”, go to the weapons tab, and equip any weapon.
17. Drop your equipped weapon. Keep the inventory open.
18. Equip any other weapon.
19. Quickly press “+” twice to open and close your inventory. Do this as fast as possible.
20. Drop your newly-equipped weapon again.
21. Keeping the menu open, press R until you find the system settings and load the Intro save, the one with Link next to the marking.
22. If the glitch worked, the weapon you first dropped will be by Link’s foot with “???” in its name. It may also be glitched inside a wall, so move around a little if you can’t find it at first. If it’s nowhere, redo steps 15 to 21 until it works. Make sure Link is very close to the wall and that you did step 19 as fast as possible.
23. Grab the weapon off the floor or the wall.
24. Open your inventory with “+”. You will see the Master Sword with the name “MsgNotFound.” That’s what we want.
25. Equip MsgNotFound if it’s not equipped yet.
26. Move Link next to the wall with the marking again, facing the camera.
27. Save the game.
28. Open your inventory.
29. Drop the Master Sword.
30. Equip your other weapon.
31. Just like in step 19, quickly press “+” twice, as fast as possible.
32. Drop your other weapon.
33. Like in step 21, keep your inventory open and press R to find the system settings. Load the In-Isa shrine auto-save.
34. Move into the shrine, break the rock wall again, and move very close to the spot where the rock was.
35. If the glitch worked, you will find the sword with “???” on the floor. Pick it up, and it will be the unbreakable Master Sword with the name “MsgNotFound.” If you don’t find it, repeat steps 28 to 32 again, making sure to do step 31 as quickly as possible and to position Link correctly.

Thanks to Planeta 8-Bits on YouTube, where I learned how to do this trick.