It’s tough figuring out how often ore deposits respawn in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Unlike enemies and standing weapons, which respawn when the Blood Moon occurs every seven in-game days, the chance for an ore deposit to respawn is based on RNG. However, we’ll break down how the system works below.
When do ore deposits respawn in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?
Ore deposits don’t have a specific respawn time in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Instead, there’s a random chance every minute for them to be reset.
Internally, the Tears of the Kingdom map is divided into a grid. Once a minute, every square but the one you’re in has a chance of resetting. Since the game just released, there are some unknown factors about how this system works. In Breath of the Wild, the possibility of a grid square resetting each minute was 1%. However, many players (myself included) notice that ore deposits seem to be respawning much quicker this time around. The developers likely increased the chances that ore would respawn due to the new Fusion system.
Fortunately, there is a way to check for the presence of ore in an area quickly. Whenever you can, snap a picture of a rare ore deposit to add it to your compendium. Then, complete Robbie’s sidequests in Lookout Landing until he says he’ll be returning to Hateno Village Lab. After that, you can meet him there to obtain the Sensor+.
With the Sensor+, you can set anything from your Hyrule Compendium as a target. Once you set rare ore deposits as what you’re looking for, you can quickly return to areas you know contained ore deposits previously. Your sensor has a pretty wide range, so if it doesn’t start going off when you’re close to where the deposits should be, it’s time to move on to the next bunch.
So far, we haven’t found a method to manipulate the RNG in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. So, you’ll have to keep checking back at known deposit sites until they grow back.
