Did it ever happen to you that all merchants are sold out of arrows and just won’t restock no matter what you do? You skipped dozens of days, waited for a handful of Blood Moons, reset the game so often that you losst count?

There is a reason for that.

First, arrow restocks have nothing to do with Blood Moons or playtime. Merchants / shops / travelling traders restock every in-game midnight, but only the ones that are not on the same map unit as Link - and the map units are HUGE, each one about the size of the entire Great Plateau.

If you, for example, want to make someone in Tarrey Town restock, and you warp to the South Akkala Stable to skip the night, then you were still too close and the merchant in Tarrey Town won’t have restocked. Both locations are on map unit I-3 (as shown below).

Second, arrows have an additional special condition that they won’t get restocked if the player owns more than 50 of a specific kind.

Let’s say you have 250 regular arrows, 5 Fire Arrows, 33 Shock Arrows and 55 Ice Arrows. You want to make Fyson in Tarrey Town restock as he has them all, and you formerly bought his entire supply so he has no wares.

You warp to Gerudo Town to be FAR away from the map unit in question, skip a night, and then return: the shops in Tarrey Town have restocked - the armor shop, Granté, the Goron kid selling gems, and yes, also Fyson. However, he only restocked Fire Arrows and Shock Arrows since you had less than 50 of them. The other arrows types are still not back on the table and it will remain that way until you have less than 50 of those as well.

A similar rule applies to the Hylian Shield sold by Granté: while he restocks armor every midnight, no matter whether you still own said armor, he will only restock a Hylian Shield once you broke / lost the one you currently own. You can not buy duplicates - only replacements. (Displaying the shield on a mount in your house does not count as broken/lost and won’t make him restock)

FAQ:

• “That can’t be right. I have 300 regular arrows and Fyson hasn’t restocked in ages, but Hateno still has arrows for sale. You said they don’t restock?!”

Yes, that’s correct: they do not restock after you bought their supply. But they will not throw away or hide the arrows that you did not yet buy, so any merchant that you didn’t buy out will continue to have arrows until you buy those as well - and THEN they won’t restock while you have more than 50 of them.

• “I bought every arrow Beedle sells and then talked to him again the day after and he still had arrows! Is he an exception?”

Nope. But what most people don’t realize is that each Beedle on the map counts as a separate merchant with individual shop stock, so it matters WHERE you bought the arrows. If you buy all arrows from “Woodland Stable Beedle” then this one will be sold out until you have less than 50, but all others on the map won’t hide their arrows from you. If you then talk to the Kara Kara Bazaar Beedle then HE will still have arrows, as he’s technically a different person. It helps to think of them as a set of identical twins … well, actually “sedecimuplets” as there are sixteen of them, but noone would know what that means.

If you have any questions or additions then feel free to comment ;)