Now that the game is out, here’s everything you need to know about The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom final boss fight, including our guide on how to defeat both Demon King Ganondorf and the Demon Dragon. This should give you a good idea about who it is and what you’ll need to do to defeat it with a setup similar to the Breath of the Wild final boss fight.
If you’re trying to stay spoiler free on The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom then a post about the final boss is probably not the best place to be. The details below cover some of the story build up to the fight, which is intended for players that have made it to Ganondorf and need the tips in the guide to defeat it.
AdvertisementFor everyone that’s sticking around, we’ll try to keep things top line still in terms of the story and what comes after the final boss fight. We’ll start by covering who the ultimate villain is and then we’ll follow it up with hints and tips on how to defeat it. This latter section has been built out into a full guide now that we’ve defeated it ourselves.
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Who is The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom final boss fight?
Realistically, there are only really two main options for The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom final boss fight. We’ve seen in the trailers that the focus appears to be on the reincarnated “human” form of Ganon, who was in beast or demon form in Breath of the Wild.
The original form of Ganon is Ganondorf, who was a highly powerful Gerudo wizard with megalomaniac tendencies before he became the demon beast that we saw in BotW. We’ll get onto the details of that transformation a little further down the page, but zombie Ganondorf was always the prime contender to be the final boss in Tears of the Kingdom.
AdvertisementThe trailers showed Zelda and Link exploring underground and triggering the resurrection that brings back the madman from the dead, which takes place right at the start of TotK. It doesn’t take him long to get a grasp of his old dark magic and he uses it to strip Link of the Master Sword and send Zelda falling down a chasm.
It’s dark days from that moment onward in the game and he goes on to transform himself before the end of the game, and you can see the final boss fight in full with the video below. Usually, when Ganondorf is in the mix, we get him first and then he uses the Tri-Force to change into the more demonic Ganon.
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It was a similar story in The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, but we already fought Ganon in Breath of the Wild, so it’s slightly different in Tears of the Kingdom. Here we get undead Ganondorf to start with, who is what’s left of the Demon King from the Imprisoning War.
This took place at the very start of Hyrule during the time of the first king and queen, Rauru (one of the last remaining Zonai, who descended from heaven) and a Hylian called Sonia. When all looks lost, Rauru sacrifices himself to imprison Ganondorf and there he remains under Hyrule Castle until Link and Zelda stumble upon him.
AdvertisementWalking Dead Ganondorf uses the traces of his might to attack them when they get close, which sees the Master Sword getting damaged and Zelda going back in time to the build up of the Imprisoning War. After everything, Demon King Ganondorf uses his restored might to return to Gerudo form, complete with battle armor to close out the final boss fight.
The other option that we considered before the release was that we could see a return for another big bad of the series, Demise. It was the final boss for The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, which is meant to be the very first game in the series timeline. It turns out not to be him, but it was a lot of fun speculating about the potential in the build-up to the launch of TotK.
The idea was that the malevolent spirit of Demise lived on after his, well… demise in Skyward Sword. The curse it put on Hyrule in the process is what has been corrupting Ganon and Ganondorf over the various iterations of the cycle.
The fact that Skyward Sword was re-released in between BotW and TotK felt like a good indication that this is Nintendo reminding us of where it all started. With Ganon defeated in Breath of the Wild, we have the husk of Ganondorf left, but his true end-game could well have been him accepting his fate and bringing back Demise to do what he cannot.
AdvertisementThat doesn’t turn out to be the case, but with all of the excitement it’s definitely a contender to return to the series at some point in the future. If it goes on to be a trilogy then Demise would make an amazing final boss fight to close it all out.
How to get to the final boss, Demon King Ganondorf
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom final boss fight is incredibly tough, especially if you don’t have any hints or tips to build on. To start with you have to make it down into the depths of the Hyrule Castle chasm to be able to trigger the Demon King Ganondorf boss fight. You can see a nice route to follow to get to the finale in the video below:
A big part of this route is through Gloom, which is the Totk equivalent of Malice from Breath of the Wild. This is also a big factor in the final fight, so you definitely want to have some Gloom resistance and remedies in your inventory before you set out.
If you take your Poes to the statue next to Josha in Lookout Landing then you can exchange them for Dark Clump. Cook this in meals to get a Gloom resistant buff. You should also cook Sundelion in meals to get a cure for Gloom affected hearts and both of these will help in getting to Ganondorf and defeating the final boss.
AdvertisementThere is a point of no return along the way, though, where you won’t be able to fast travel out and back with a Medalion (which you get from Robbie with the Purah Pad+ updates). As soon as you start the fight with Ganondorf’s Army then you’re locked in, so do any final preparations before you make the jump.
How to defeat Demon King Ganondorf
Skills with dodge timing and flurry rush are a big part of how to defeat the Demon King in TotK. He’s got a few different weapons, which he switches between, so it can take a bit of time to get to grips with these.
He starts out with a dark sword and the perfect dodge is backwards for his cross swipe and to the side for his downward swipe. Look at where he’s holding the sword as he approaches to help with this. If he’s holding it by his side it means you need to dodge backwards and if he’s holding it above his head then you dodge to the side.
You can see this in action in the guide video below. His next weapon of choice is a spear and this is the easiest of the three to perfect dodge. It’s always a side hop, so circle to the side as he’s coming in and press X to jump to the side when he lunges.
The final weapon in his arsenal is a large spiked club, which he used to do a jumping smash move, so this is another side hop perfect dodge. He also sends in Gloom fire, which you avoid by walking through the clear channel, but be ready for the smash straight afterwards.
The other thing that can be helpful is a flurry of head shots with the bow, so you might want to try that if you get to the final boss and find it difficult to defeat. It’s something that worked well against Phantom Ganon at Hyrule Castle, so it could be a way to cheese things here if you get into a pinch.
However, there is one point where arrows are the best way to inflict damage on Demon King Ganondorf. When he’s in club mode he does an area of impact attack that covers the entire floor, so you need to use the glider to ride the updraft to avoid this. When you’re up in the air you can pull out the bow to trigger bullet time to get in some head shots.
Keep an eye on your stamina wheel, though, as you’re doing this to ensure you don’t use it all. If you land with no stamina then you’ll be slow to move and an easy target for him to hit.
AdvertisementWith the impact of the Gloom in the chasm, getting caught by him should be avoided over damage, unless you’ve got more sunny Sundelion meals than you know what to do with, which is another way to help you defeat the final boss. The timing gets even more intense in the third phase of the fight, so if you are really struggling with this then you can always go back to an earlier save point to fast travel out and come back better prepared.
If you’ve got the dodge timing right then the first phase of the fight will go fairly smoothly, but Demon King Ganondorf powers up with a series of phantom version of him getting in on the action. Fortunately, your Sages return at this point, but they’re a bit slow, so this can leave you overwhelmed for the first few attacks.
To make it through this safely, keep pressing shield through the cut scene with the G man, which will mean you start phase 2 targeting him instead of one of the phantoms. You can then back off in a direct line behind you, which should mean it’s only DKG that you get attacking you.
Throughout this second phase you want to steer clear of the phantom Ganondorfs, so that they don’t nick you with a cheeky swipe every now and again. If you do that then it should just be main attacks that you need to face, which you can flurry rush through in the same way as you did in part 1.
AdvertisementWhen you get his health bar down to 30-40% it will trigger the third and final phase of the boss fight. This sees him using the power of his phantoms to knock out all of the Sages, so it’s just you and the Demon King facing it off.
The challenge in part 3 is that DKG has some new moves and has learned to perfect dodge your flurry rush. The solution for the latter is to do it twice, but you’ll need to watch out for what kind of dodge you need to do on the second attack.
You can see this in the video above, but for sword you need to watch where he’s holding the blade for the second attack to decide whether to go backwards or to the side. Keep your shield up the entire time and you should still block the attack even if you don’t get the perfect dodge.
For the club it’s always a side hop for the first hit and then a back flip for the second. He doesn’t actually attack close range with the spear, but here the main point is to avoid getting hit.
AdvertisementIn fact, this is the other big challenge with phase 3. Run between the Gloom circle gaps and run away from its homing attack. Keep running in the same direction and you can avoid the lunge attack too.
If you do get caught by Demon King Ganon then you’ll need sunny meals to fix the Gloom affected hearts. This is where the food cooked with Sundelion comes in handy. Obviously, defense or attack buff meals will come in handy too, depending on your play style. However, speed up is another good choice to help you avoid anything in a pinch.
That should be enough for you to defeat Demon King Ganondorf, but the bad news is that things don’t end there. As with Ganon in Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom closes out on a big beast for the final boss fight. Don’t worry too much, though, it’s actually really difficult to lose, but you can read the guide below to see what to do.
How to defeat Demon Dragon
When Demon King Ganondorf eats the Secret Stone embedded on his forehead he transforms into the Demon Dragon and flies high above the castle with Link in his teeth. When he shakes free he gets to ride the white and gold dragon to close out the final boss fight.
AdvertisementIt’s the same dragon that had the Master Sword in its head, but this time you can control which direction it flies in. Use this to get into a good position before jumping off and diving down to attack Demon Dragon’s weak points.
They’re pretty easy to spot and they’re the key to being able to defeat it. Just look for the round spots on its top and when you get close you can see that they’re bulges of moving eyes. Hit them with the Master Sword and they’ll be toast in a few swipes.
Remember not to land on the dragon when it’s red as this will result in a lot of Gloom affected heart losses. Also, don’t land too early on the dragon. It’s best to land as close to the weak points as possible to minimize the impact of the Gloom coursing through its skin even when it’s not red.
The last weak point is the giant Secret Stone on his head, so use the glider to get close and then you can smash it up good. With this done you beat Ganondorf to complete the main story for the game and see the ending, which we’ll leave to you. It’s at the end of the video above if you want to re-watch it.
Can you do the final boss fight early?
In The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild you could go straight to the final boss fight as soon as you leave the Plateau, and it’s a similar situation in Tears of the Kingdom. You need to do the Great Sky Island and the initial investigation for Purah at Hyrule Castle and then you can go straight to Demon King Ganondorf.
However, without the Master Sword and low stamina or hearts it’s going to be a whole lot more challenging to defeat. It can be done, though, so drop us a comment over on Twitter if you manage to do it.
Check out our computer games section for more news and features on Tears of the Kingdom, or visit The Legend of Zelda website at https://www.zelda.com/.
