Many players don’t rush to the Tears of the Kingdom endgame. Zelda and Link’s latest appearance has literal hundreds of hours that keeps players enraptured. There’s no rush to go fight Ganondorf.
That said, if you are mentally ready to go fight the Demon King, then read through this guide to know how to prepare for the final battle. Some equipment, recipes, and abilities will go a long way to help conquer this final challenge.
Writer’s Note: We are spoiling a lot about Tears of the Kingdom here, as you’d expect for a final fight strategy guide.
Complete the Main Quests for Their Rewards
Normally this section feels like a “no duh” statement. However, considering players can go straight to face Ganondorf after getting the paraglider, it needs said.
Like Breath of the Wild, each region’s main quest leads you to the area Temple. When you beat the temple, however, you get a spirit-form of that region’s main contact to run around Hyrule with you. There is an additional Temple that gives a fifth, but it’s not linked to a specific area.
After these quests, go find the Master Sword. If you’ve completed the Tears of the Dragon questline, then you know that the Light Dragon has it. You need to fly up to the Dragon, get to its forehead, and start pulling it.
Unlike Breath of the Wild, you don’t need a certain amount of health, you need a certain amount of stamina. Specifically, you need two full circles of stamina. When you have the Master Sword and use all of its energy to breaking, it will respawn in your inventory soon after.
Next, Do Some Side Adventures
Some of these require main quests to unlock. Robbie wants to go back to Hateno Village’s Lab and work on the Purah Pad. However, he’s stuck trying to fix a hot air balloon at Lookout Landing.
To rebuild it, you’re gonna need Autobuild. There’s a long way and a short way to get it. The long way is to follow Josha’s questline, which drives you to explore the Depths. Now the short way is right under the Great Plateau. Drop down the Plateau’s northernmost chasm and go south.
You’ll find the Great Abandoned Central Mine, and do the short quest to unlock Autobuild. You’ll also unlock the schema for the Hot Air Balloon, so go find Robbie, build his balloon, and free him of his personal but not really that bad torment.
When he gets back to Hateno, he’ll help you upgrade your Purah Pad. The two most important upgrades you’ll want are the Sensor+ and the Travel Medallions. Sensor+ lets you look for specific items you’ve documented with a photo, and Travel Medallions let you set up a free teleportation spot.
Use Sensor+ for our next step and use the Travel Medallion to set up a waypoint before the point of no return when you go down to fight Ganondorf. Otherwise, if you want to leave and come back, you’ll need to use the Lightroot right before the final descent leading to the fight.
Hoard Sundelions and Stat Boosting Ingredients
First, let’s talk Sundelions. Sundelions are a flower that grows on the Sky Islands. They offer Gloom Heart Recovery when used in a recipe. You need to hoard them like your life depended on it because Link’s will.
Everything in the final battles leave you with Gloom-blocked hearts, meaning you can’t just use a meal to heal those hearts. More importantly, one of Ganondorf’s late stage attacks destroys Gloom-blocked hearts, meaning they’re gone for the rest of the fight.
The more Sundelions you toss in a recipe, the more Gloom-blocked hearts you can reopen. Just make sure you don’t mix too much in or the various buffs will cancel out.
Speaking of buffs, you’re also going to want to find many attack and defense boosting ingredients. Mighty Bananas, the Yiga Clan’s favorite food, boosts attack, and Ironshrooms, found in caves, bolsters defense.
There’s a couple other ingredients that do each, but these two are the most commonplace. Finally, as mentioned here, shoot Dragon Horns off the flying Dragons and use them in your cooking. That will max out the length of the boost at 30 minutes.
Preparing for Ganondorf is the Easy Part
Preparation is easy, but important for all endgame challenges. Fighting and getting to Ganondorf, on the other hand, is not. It’s time to go in for the fight.
