The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom contains many new mechanics that set it apart from Breath of the Wild. Link no longer has the Sheikah Slate abilities from the previous game. Instead, he obtains a new set of eight Zonai abilities.
A few of them share similar functionality to their predecessors, while others are new game changers. This list will be ranking each one by their usefulness, creativity, and by their ability to surpass their Sheikah ability predecessors.
Updated by Chad Thesen on June 14, 2023: An additional entry has been added regarding the Sensor ability. As well as embedding some links for the reader's convenience.
9 Sensor
The Sensor is a quality-of-life Ability that will make sounds when you get closer to unmarked shrines. This can help you check them all off much faster by marking them while journeying to your intended destination. It is obtained through completing the Side Adventure named Hateno Village Research Lab. You will be able to obtain this Side Adventure by making your way to Lookout Landing after you have completed the Mystery In The Depths Main Quest. You will need to speak with the NPC named Robbie after you have fixed their hot air balloon. This Ability can be upgraded into Sensor+ by completing the follow-up Side Adventure, "Presenting: Sensor+" which you will be able to do later in the game.
8 Map
A map is an important aspect of any large open-world game. This feature doesn't rank low because the feature itself is problematic, but rather because it isn't really a Zonai ability at all. Something important to note is that you can only have one Zonai ability assigned to your L button at a time, and you're capable of pulling up the map in Tears of the Kingdom by simply hitting the minus button.
The Zonai ability version of the map doesn't change or add onto the standard map in any way, and making the map be two buttons is just a waste. The map would be much higher if it was actually something exclusive to the Zonai ability button, but as-is it's just a randomly tacked-on option.
7 Camera
The Switch already has a button that can take screenshots or save brief replays, but this ability can be useful for those that want to add a little extra flair to their pictures. There's a selfie option that will allow Link to pose.
That said, it doesn't affect the gameplay in any major way, as most of the other abilities do. This feature also existed within Breath of the Wild, thus making it one of the very few returning abilities. It's not a bad addition by any means, but it is one of the least exciting abilities at Link's disposal.
6 Amiibo
The only other ability that returns from Breath of the Wild is Amiibo compatibility. Amiibos can grant you many helpful supplies, brand-new armor, and fabrics that allow you to customize your glider. You can even summon Epona from an Amiibo.
These are, however, entirely optional rewards. A few can be helpful but are completely unnecessary to beat the game. There's also one downside to Amiibo compared to Breath of the Wild — you can no longer summon Wolf Link to help you fight enemies.
5 Ascend
Ascend allows Link to travel through overhead surfaces. This can be really helpful during exploration and is vital to complete puzzles. Some overworld bosses are even designed with this ability in mind, such as Stone Taluses that have Bokoblin structures built on top of them. You can easily teleport up top to attack the Bokoblin and Talus weak points.
The reason this ability only ranks in the middle is due to what it's meant to replace. Breath of the Wild had an ability known as Revali's Gale which allowed players to quickly rise into the air with a gust of wind. It made climbing large structures easy. Ascend does make reaching high places easy too, but only if there is an actual roof or overhead platform to travel up to. It's certainly not a downgrade since you can actually move through platforms this time around, but it doesn't quite defeat its predecessor in every way, like another ability on this list does.
4 Recall
Recall will rewind an object back to where it was a few seconds prior. Many puzzles revolve around this ability, and it's surprisingly useful for exploration. Falling rocks can be recalled back into the sky. This allows Link to ride a rock from the surface all the way up to floating islands.
This ability will continue to work even if you switch your active skill to another. This is extremely helpful for puzzles where you need to use two abilities at once. Most other skills are hard to use effectively at the same time.
3 Autobuild
Ultrahand offers a lot of creativity, but the objects you can build with it will eventually despawn. Autobuild can save the blueprint of your contraption and allow you to rebuild it again in the blink of an eye. This does, however, require quite a bit of resources.
You can also find multiple schematics that make traversing the world much easier. Two schematics you'll gain access to are the fanplane and monocycle. These allow you to travel around the air and ground quicker than you could otherwise.
2 Fuse
Nearly every item in Tears of the Kingdom can be fused together. Fusing a bolder to your weapon can allow you to break hard materials easily, putting a flamethrower on your shield can help you burn down enemies, and adding White Chuchi Jelly to your arrows can turn them into ice arrows that freeze enemies.
There's also a plethora of other options available to players. This mechanic adds so much extra depth to the combat system — for instance, combining weapons with objects will even repair some of their durability.
1 Ultrahand
Breath of the World's Magnesis got quite an upgrade in this installment. Ultrahand allows you to pick up and move any object. That alone makes it better than its predecessor, which was only able to move metal items, but that's not all Ultrahand can do. It can also glue objects together. This means players can now build their own rafts, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, bridges, and much more. You can even build a staircase to help you get up tall obstacles if your stamina isn't enough.
Ultrahand is as useful as the player's creativity makes it. It's an ability so essentially to the Tears of the Kingdom experiment that the developers made Autobuild simply to complement it. Fuse may have a bigger role in combat, but exploration and puzzles are an even greater aspect of the Zelda series.