Even if you finish every main quest inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdombefore heading to the finale, Ganondorf is no pushover. He easily lives up to his title as the Demon King, as his fight stands out as one of the most challenging and technical in the whole game. But while the fight balances itself around you having both the Master Sword and all five sages at your disposal,Tears of the Kingdomdoes not stop you from taking on Ganondorf without any of those tools to help you. It may sound like a daunting challenge, but this guide will explain how to tilt the fight’s stacked odds in your favor.
Fighting Ganondorf
SinceTears of the Kingdommakes players fightPhantom Ganonbefore Ganondorf no matter what, you will likely already have some idea of how to deal with the latter considering both bosses share many of the same moves. However, the Ganondorf fight adds many new elements that make it a much more demanding test of the player’s combat skill. Like with Phantom Ganon, Ganondorf splits most of his moveset across three different weapon types that he can switch between at will. With a couple of exceptions, all of Ganondorf’s attacks deal gloom-based damage, so it pays to bring plenty of meals that can cure it.
Sword Attacks
Spear Attacks
Club Attacks
Miscellaneous Attacks
Second Phase
Once you completely deplete Ganondorf’s health bar, he will use his secret stone to turn into his powerful Demon King form, complete with a new health bar that stretches all the way to the right side of the screen. For this phase, he will summon four clones to accompany him during the fight in a manner similar to the Phantom Ganon encounter in Hyrule Castle.
Normally, if you finished all of the dungeons before this point, your sage companions would come in one after the other to distract the clones so you could focus on Ganondorf proper. But if you haven’t done this, you will have to deal with all of Ganondorf’s clones on your own. Fortunately, this isn’t as difficult as it sounds since the clones are noticeably less aggressive than Ganondorf is. And unlike the aforementioned Phantom Ganon fight, you don’t have to defeat any of the clones to progress.
This means that the strategy simply boils down to staying away from the group of clones and waiting for Ganondorf himself to come and attack you. Once he does, counter his attack with a parry or, ideally, a flurry rush, before staying back again and repeating the process. Don’t bother counterattacking the clones, as that will only waste valuable weapon durability. Ganondorf retains all of his attacks from the first phase, so all the usual strategies will remain equally as effective here.
Third Phase
Once you whittle down half of Ganondorf’s new life bar, he will remove his clones from the field and power himself up further, meaning we’re back to a one-on-one duel. At this point, Ganondorf gains a major new trick that might throw you off the first couple of times it happens. Now, whenever you perfectly dodge one of his attacks and go in for the flurry rush, Ganondorf will perform a perfect dodge of his own before coming in with the aforementioned counterattack. Only by perfectly dodging the counterattack will you be able to land a flurry rush on him.
Note that if you decide to parry Ganondorf’s strikes instead, you won’t have to deal with him perfectly dodging your counterattacks. This has the benefit of allowing you to attack Ganondorf more quickly, but you won’t be able to land as many hits on him as you do during a flurry rush.
After you strike Ganondorf a few times, he will usually leap back and perform one of three new gloom-based projectile attacks. Once again, without the Master Sword, you can’t do anything other than simply move away from the projectiles lest you get one of your hearts shattered.
New Attacks
Defeating Ganondorf
By learning Ganondorf’s attacks, countering at the right times, and keeping your lack of companions and the Master Sword in mind, you will eventually best the Demon King and come one step closer to finishing a minimal story run ofTears of the Kingdom. Fortunately, the Demon Dragon form that immediately follows this challenging battle is a pure spectacle encounter that you’re highly unlikely to lose to, so sit back and enjoy the victory lap.
Daniel Pinheiro
Daniel is a Contributing Writer who has been with PC Invasion since June 2021. A recipient of a master’s degree in Community Journalism from the University of Alabama, he holds a deep passion for the gaming medium and the impact it can have on our lives. He is open to all kinds of genres, but has a particular affinity for platformers and beat ‘em ups (or brawlers, or hack and slash, or character action, or whatever else you prefer to call them). In his spare time, he loves playing franchises like Mario, Kirby, Zelda, Tekken, and Devil May Cry. He also loves to travel and listen to multiple hours-long video essays back-to-back.
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