How to Use Device Dispensers in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

It can be tricky to figure out how to use Device Dispensers in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game doesn’t do a great job of explaining how to use these machines. However, doing so isn’t hard once you understand this mechanic.

How to Hold Inventory Items in Your Hands

Open the inventory menu and go to the tab you want (in this case, “Materials”). At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a prompt for the X button that says “Hold”. You don’t need to hold down the X button, the X button is to hold materials in Link’s hands.

First, press the X button. Then press the A button while hovering over the item you want to hold to place it in Link’s hands. You can do this up to five times to hold that many items. We recommend using Soldier Construct Horns at Device Dispensers, as they’re pretty much useless for everything else.

Alternatively, you can select an item with the A button and then select “Hold” from the pop-up menu that appears.

Placing Items in a Device Dispenser

Once you’re holding all the items you want to use, press the B button to get out of the inventory menu. Now, walk up to the bowl in front of the Device Dispenser and press the A button to put your materials into the bowl. Afterward, a short cutscene plays that shows the Device Dispenser giving you a few items—depending on how many items you gave it.

To some degree, as the game states, this is similar to how to cook in Tears of the Kingdom. Though, we wish the developers were a bit more clear on that. No doubt, there’s someone somewhere trying to use a dispenser by throwing materials onto a campfire. What a waste…