Ganon is the most recurring villain in The Legend of Zelda franchise, and he has returned once again to fight the hero in Tears of the Kingdom. His Ganondorf form specifically is a bit more rare, as it has only appeared in Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Hyrule Warriors 1 before this installment. Defeating Ganondorf is one of the very few main storyline objectives that must be completed to reach the end credits. He will be much easier to defeat after completing other objectives, but it is possible for skilled players to defeat him within the first hour of the game.
You can essentially choose when to track down the Gerudo king, but knowing when and where to look is key. Rushing in during the early game should only be done if you’re speed-running or don’t care much for the narrative. He is the final boss, and most players should save tracking him down after completing the five main dungeons.
Here is everything you’ll need to defeat the Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
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The single path to Ganondorf is within the massive chasm below Hyrule Castle. This chasm will radiate a lot of red fog which makes it easy to see even from super far away. In fact, the smoke effect will be bigger when you’re farther away from the castle. Note that there are no shrines, lightroots, or other fast travel locations beyond this point, so you should pack plenty of meals, weapons, and other supplies. Sundelion meals, Splash Fruit, and many arrows are highly recommended.
Hyrule Castle’s chasm.
Dive down the castle’s chasm to the very bottom, and then look for a cave in the south corner. There will be a few Shock Like enemies that will fire electric orbs at you. You’ll be stunned if you get hit. You can choose to fight these enemies, but it’s much easier to proceed down the Gloom filled corridor. Each kind of Like Like’s greatest weakness is their orb-like tongue. There’s a brief split path at the bottom of the pit it guards, but both will take you to the same place.
Shock Like enemy firing electricity at Link.
It’ll take you to another room that is filled with Horriblins. Be careful of their long melee weapons. Climb up the wall on the opposite side of the entrance to this room to find a hole that takes you to the next area. The final common enemies before an upcoming mini boss are three Electric Keese. These bat-like enemies will try to stun you via physical contact, but they have very little health. Try using your bow to fire an arrow at them. Next comes an extremely dangerous White Lynel.
White Lynel Tips
- Performing perfect dodges is the easiest way to get an opening against this foe.
- Sniping its head will allow you to climb on its back to attack a few times.
- The Lynel will pull out a bow if you stay at a distance for too long.
- It is possible to skip this fight by climbing or gliding over to an exit on the left side of the arena.
White Lynel’s chamber.
Continuing Deeper into the Depths
There is a falling floor in the hallway after the White Lynel. Follow the hole down to the bottom to come across another room where blocks fall. Climb onto one of the blocks, and then use the Recall ability via the Purah pad to ride it upwards. Alternatively, you could just try climbing up the walls, but that’ll take more time and stamina,
Link using Recall.
There are then two hallways. The first lacks monsters, but the second is full of Ice Likes. These function similarly to the Shock Likes, except their breath will freeze you. There are also a few Ice Keese which can be defeated quite easily with arrows. Sage of Wind Tulin’s ability can help you fly over the Gloom pits in this hallway. This is actually the final segment of this cave system that allows you to use sage abilities until the penultimate fight.
An Ice Like and Ice Keese enemies.
You can dive to the bottom of the staircase room to skip past a few Lizalfos. Your sage abilities will be removed once you reach the bottom since you are now too deep into the depths for their powers to reach you. A few Chu Chu will try to jump out at you before you enter a large chamber. This chamber contains the Gloom Hands that would otherwise normally chase Link around the surface.
Disabled Sage abilities.
Gloom Hands and Phantom Ganon Tips
- This is another mini boss that can be skipped by climbing up to a path on the opposite side of the room.
- Gloom Hands are super weak to explosions, so hit them with Bombflower Arrows. There are a few Bombflowers hidden behind some rocks on top the nearby exit, although you may need to defeat a White Monlin with a fire bow to be able to get them safely.
- Take out all the Gloom Hands around the same time since a few will respawn if others are still alive.
- Be careful of the Gloom status effect. Gloom damage makes it impossible to heal hearts under normal circumstances.
- Phantom Ganon will spawn after all the Gloom Hands are dead.
- Back flip or side jump to dodge most of Phantom Ganon’s attacks.
- Use this guide if you need a more in depth explanation on how to overcome this fierce foe.
Bombflowers hidden behind breakable rocks.
Final Corridor
You’re almost near the end, but there are still a few trials left. Gibdos in a hallway is the toughest section among these. You’ll need to either defeat them with elemental damage or attempt to break the rock wall behind them while they’re attacking you. There is a nearby rock on the left side that you can use the Fuse ability on to attach it to one of your weapons. The rest is mainly retracing your steps from the intro of the game. You now have the ability to destroy some stone that blocks off a mural to reveal some additional art that was not accessible during the intro sequence.
Additional mural art.
If you progressed Robbie’s plot line enough to obtain a travel medallion, it may be wise to place one here. It’ll allow you to teleport away, heal up, and then teleport. back. It’ll also give you a chance to cook some Sundelions to make Gloom heart restoring meals. There’s a lot of enemies with the Gloom status effect near the end of the game, so it’d be wise to make many meals from Sungelions.
Link standing on a Travel Medallion.
Jumping down the chasm where Ganondorf was sealed at the very start of the game will make climbing back up nearly impossible, but you can still teleport out for a short time. The torch Zelda dropped can be found at the bottom of this area. Keep following the Gloom filled hallway to reach the final chasm. This location is your last chance to teleport away. Diving down this chasm will lock you into a fight with a large army, and then Ganondorf himself.
The final jump.
Fighting the Demon King Army
The amount of opponents and allies you have during this section depends on how many dungeons you’ve completed. In the best case scenario you will have to fight through waves of Bokoblins, Lizalfos, Gibdos, and Moblins. Take you time during these battles since getting hit by these enemies will often inflict you with Gloom. Be especially wary of the Boss Bokoblin’s sword swings and the flying Moth Gibdo’s breath. Tulin, Riju, Yunobo, Sidon, and Mineru will join you during this phase if you completed their main quests.
There are five dungeons in Zelda TotK. Each one has a corresponding boss that must be defeated at least once before gaining access to Ganondorf. If you didn’t beat their temples, then you must face them after the waves of common enemies. Additionally, there is also an enhanced Phantom Ganon fight during the Find Zelda storyline. It will also attack you here if you haven’t beaten it yet. If you helped all five sages overcome their foes already, then you will have a much easier time dealing with the demon king’s army.
Mucktorok the Water Temple boss.
Dungeon Boss Tips
- Colgera of the Wind Temple can be defeated by breaking the ice on its body with an arrow or by diving through the ice from above. Be careful of its tornado attacks.
- You’ll need to use the Ascend ability to go through Marbled Gohma’s main body segment. There is no ceiling like there is in the Fire Temple for it to cling onto for its second phase to kick in, so just keep hitting its eyeball.
- Water is your best friend during the Mucktorok fight. This Water Temple boss should be the easiest fight if you brought Splash Fruit and arrows to create water arrows. Zonai Hydrants and other forms of water also work well.
- Similarly, Queen Gibdo of the Lightning Temple should be fought via lightning arrows. This boss can be tricky due to it summoning hordes of regular Gibdos and Moth Gibdos to aid it.
- Seized Construct will have to be fought on foot compared to how it is normally fought in the Spirit Temple. Your goal is to hit it into the sides of the arena to do damage. This boss can be the most time consuming due to it being designed for mech combat in mind. Seized Construct has a second phase where it’ll start flying and shooting explosions down at you. Use arrows or Zonai Cannons to fight back. It will land on the ground eventually, so hope isn’t lost if you run out of ranged weapons.
- Phantom Ganon can be fought the same way you fought him before, but be careful of his multiple clones this time around. This variation of the Phantom Ganon fight is actually the hardest version due to the lack of intended allies.
Colgera the Wind Temple boss.
Ganondorf Final Boss Fight
Finally, it’s time to face the demon king himself. There are three phases in this menacing boss fight. The first two are relatively similar, while the third will be a radically different experience. Dying during either of the first two phases will result in needing to start the battle from the start of phase 1. Dying during phase 3 will not force you to repeat the first two phases, and instead it’ll just place you at the start of its self contained phase. This makes phase 2 the hardest part of the final boss fight for most players. Winning this stand-off against the king of darkness will complete the Destroy Ganondorf main quest, as well as take you to the end credit sequence.
There is an extremely short section where you control Link after the last phase of the boss fight, but it’s quite simple to complete and has prompts telling you what to do. Simply sit back and enjoy the ending once you’ve saved all of Hyrule from this dastardly menace.
Ganondorf Phase 1: The Menace Unleashed Tips
- Ganondorf comes equipped with one of each type of weapon; a sword, a spear, a club, and a bow. He will rotate between the first three during the fight, but is only likely to use his bow if you try running to the other side of the arena. Ganondorf only lacks a shield. Take note of the pattern of his melee attacks.
- Perfect dodges will create openings for you to use flurry rush attacks.
- Ganondorf also has the ability to dodge, although he will for fury rush like Link can.
- The Master Sword will always be in its strongest state during this fight.
- Jump into the air and pull out your glider when wind appears in the arena. This signifies that Ganondorf is charging a powerful attack that’ll cover the whole arena’s ground. This also gives you an opportunity to snipe Ganondorf in bullet time.
- Eat meals made from Sundelion to restore cracked hearts.
Demon King Ganondorf’s first form.
Ganondorf Phase 2: Glowing Embers of Demise Tips
- This phase is very similar to the first one, but now Ganondorf is has far more HP and is stronger. In fact, his health bar is so large that it stretches to the end of the screen. This massive health bar is the largest any boss has in the game.
- Ganondorf will also summon clones during this phase. You can ignore the clones if you completed all dungeons, since your sage allies will join you during this fight. They will each take on one of the clones.
- Ganondorf gains a few new attacks in this phase which are capable of destroying your hearts completely. Even Sundelion meals can’t restore them in this state. They will only return to you once you get a Game Over or complete the last phase of this battle.
- Don’t be afraid to use all your resources. Once you complete the game you’ll be reloaded with everything you had before fighting Ganondorf’s monster army. Even precious Zonai devices will return to you.
Ganondorf’s second form resembles Demise.
Ganondorf Phase 3: Draconified Demon King Tips
- Standing on the Demon Dragon’s back will drain your health slowly.
- The Demon Dragon can only be hurt by striking eyes on its back. These eyes are marked by black indented areas where you don’t lose health.
- Princess Zelda as the Light Dragon will save you whenever you fall too low. She will also usually fly you out of harm’s way.
- The Demon Dragon only has a small handful of attacks. Just be wary of its demonic breath, and jump off if it starts to move.
- The final thing you must do is dive down and destroy the Tear Stone on the Demon Dragon’s head. The only attack that can possibly hit you on your way down is its breath attack, but these tend to be easy to dodge. Take in the spectacular Blood Moon scenery as you deal the final blow.
The Demon Dragon.
Oliver
This site was awesome! I’m at fighting Ganondorf’s stage 1. I started at the Horriblin cave all the way to Ganondorf himself when I started to fight him when he had his spear. But by then, I only had 3 hearts left that weren’t corrupted! Plus, I forgot to cook some sundelion meals and I also forgot to get at least 5 portable pots. I have not beaten him yet, but I will this month of December 2023!