What actions wear down weapon durability in Breath of the Wild?

Question

It's clear that hitting enemies with a weapon wears them down. And I'm pretty sure that using weapons to destroy objects (like chopping down a tree or smashing ore) also wears them down.

But I'm not clear about things like:

• Using a weapon to hit a switch in a shrine
• Using a weapon to hit an object frozen with stasis
• Charging and releasing elemental attacks with a rod (fire, lightning, etc.) where the rod does not hit anything.
• Swinging a weapon that doesn't hit anything
• Cutting through things with no real mass (like grass)
• Hitting items that aren't reactive in any way (like a rock wall)

Basically, I'm trying to figure out when I need to go through the effort to avoid swapping weapons. It's a lot easier to use what I'm holding to whack a stasis-frozen boulder, but if it's wearing down a powerful weapon, it's probably a bad idea.

Answer 1

Things that DO decrease weapon durability:

• Hitting enemies with a weapon.
• Using a weapon to hit an object frozen with stasis.
• Doing a jump slash anywhere on land or enemies ("x" + "y").
• Using weapons to destroy objects (like chopping down a tree or smashing ore etc.)
• Using the Master Sword beam attack (right bumper).
• Hitting a switch in a shrine.
• Swinging a fire/lightning/meteor/ice rod or wind cleavers (even when it doesn't hit anything).

Things that DON'T decrease weapon durability:

• Cutting through things with no real mass (like grass or small bushes). This includes charged attacks.
• Swinging at a wall (notice it makes no impact noise. If you do hear an impact noise, then it's hurting your weapon).
• Doing a jump slash onto the water ("x" + "y").
• Swinging a weapon that doesn't hit anything, including using the kurok leaf to generate wind and charged attacks. (The exception is any that generate elemental powers, like fire/lightning/meteor/ice rods, wind cleavers, etc.)
• Hitting a lynel while riding on it's back.

Answer 2

Power attacks (holding down X) DON´T decrease durability if they don´t hit anything, but if you finish the attack into the ground then they DO wear down your weapon.