Tears of the Kingdom Endgame Guide (Part 2)

It’s time to face Ganondorf. Tears of the Kingdom has hundreds of hours of content, but don’t forget the endgame. You know the Demon King rests below Hyrule Castle, but you don’t know how to get there, nor do you what to do when you arrive.

This will be a step-by-step guide on how to make the final descent and finish the Demon King once and for all. For help on the preparations, click here, but otherwise, continue reading.

The Endgame Starts Below Hyrule Castle

As expected, Ganondorf rests directly below Hyrule Castle. To kick off the endgame, drop down into the chasm the castle left behind. Before you go to the absolute bottom, there’s a Lightroot on a cliff. That is the final Lightroot before the challenges ahead.

Activate the Lightroot, and jump down again. Welcome to Gloom’s Approach, where Gloom pours out from the path leading to Ganondorf. There’s Gloom splotches on the ground and Gloom Roots throughout. Likewise, all enemies are Gloom-Blighted. You will have hearts locked off as you take damage. If you have Gloom-Resistant armor, now’s the time to equip it.

As you’re first heading down you’ll find some Thunder Likes stuck on the walls. Drop down the tube and continue on through the Horriblins and Thunder Keese. At least kill the Likes and Keese for their loot. After you’ve past them you’ll find a bigger space with a Silver Lynel. If you fight, best of luck, but if you run, go left. A crumbled precipice overlooks the fight and leads to a side passage.

To use the side passage, be wary of falling debris that can be Recalled to its original spot. Hop on, Recall to the top, and go towards the breakable rocks. Clear them and you’ll reach the other main exit from the Lynel spot.

This spot has numerous Frost Likes and Frost Keeses. Past them is a long drop down a ruined stairwell. When you land at the bottom or close to the bottom, all of your sages disappear. For now, you’re on your own.

Tears of the Kingdom’s Final Descent Gets Lonely

At the very bottom are two Lizfalos, one of which is silver. Normally I’d leave fight or flight up to the player for this path but these two I strongly recommend killing.

After you kill them, look at the three doorways leading from this stairwell. Facing out from the stairwell, you’ll find a Zonai armory on your right and Zonai machine pieces on your left. Stock up on weaponry and at least build a glider with the Machine Parts.

Lastly, the path going straight forward leads to a broken bridge with a pit underneath where the pit lands. A Silver Moblin sits on the other side. If you land in the pit, the final set of Gloom Hands in Tears of the Kingdom will spawn.

Get across the pit and keep heading down. You’ve come full circle and reached where Zelda and Link were first spelunking when Ganondorf awoke. There’s a Silver Bokoblin and some Gibdo. Kill them all and take their loot (especially the Gibdo Bones, those are great for arrows).

When you reach the Imprisoning Chamber where Ganondorf originally was, there will be a deep drop off. Drop down, avoid the Gloom that sits around, and continue until you see a stone diving platform to what’s below.

This is the point of no return. When you dive down you’ll start the final gauntlet and can’t leave until you finish it. Two things I strongly suggest doing here: drop a Travel Medallion here and build Zonai Devices. If you want to come back later without needing to slog through the Depths, a Travel Medallion will work here. Additionally, if you get stuck on the first part of the gauntlet, build a Zonai Device and drop it down before you. It won’t break when it hits the bottom, and at most will only need to be put back up and activated.

Other than that, dive down to the final fights.

The Demon King’s Army

When you land, The Demon King’s Army greets you. It has a health bar for the whole bout, but the fight happens in four waves. Any fellow sages you’ve found went after you when your connection severed as mentioned earlier. Now, instead of having ghostly blue representations here, you actually have your friends.

This army has four waves. Each wave has many different colored variations of that main enemy. For example, wave one are Bokoblins and one Boss Bokoblin. They have troops from normal Bokoblins that die in one hit, all the way to Silver Bokoblins. Muddleblooms can be very handy here that can help turn the mass numbers in your favor. The Bokoblins take up half of the health bar.

Next you have Lizfalos, then Gibdos, and Moblins. Across all the waves, grab the weapons and loot that these enemies drop if you’re running low on either throughout the fights. The weapons are decent to okay replacements to what you lose, but their horns are especially good to have to Fuse to weapons.

One last note about this fight: you need fire or thunder weaponry to make Gibdo’s mortal. Make sure you snag as many of their bones as you can because they add +40 to your weapon, but break (almost) immediately. Gibdo Bone’s fit excellently for arrows.

Optional Fight(s): Temple Bosses

This entire section depends on if you skipped any Temples. Much like Breath of the Wild’s endgame, you must beat each Temple Boss by the end of the game. Each one you didn’t fight before this must be fought now, one at a time. Be aware that this also includes the Phantom Ganon fight from Hyrule Castle if you skipped that as well.

Dread it, run from it, destiny still arrives. So unless you’re speedrunning, go fight them at their Temple and let the respective Sage cover for you here.

Once you’re past them, walk forward and stand before Ganondorf’s zombified (read dehydrated) body. He summons the Gloom to fill him, and he changes to his main form.

Ganondorf: The Menace Unleashed

It’s time. Part one demands to be a duel, as Ganondorf’s Gloom can destroy Zonai devices and the Sages are busy. Ganondorf switches between his Gloom Sword, Spear, Hammer, and Bow. In case you’re wondering, yes. Ganondorf fights exactly like Phantom Ganon.

He will charge you with the first two weapons, jump and slam with the Hammer, and fire up at you with the Bow if necessary. If you don’t have any defensive buffs on right now, you’ll get hit for a lot and hearts will be locked off.

Most importantly about this fight: Ganondorf will dodge and close in for the attack if you try immediate follow up attacks. Sometimes, he’ll even dodge your own Flurry Strikes. Parrying with your shield will stagger him and steal his chance to dodge. Prioritize these instead of dodges.

Once you finish his health, he goes into his main form, the one that beat Rauru and the Sages years ago.

Ganondorf: Master of the Secret Stone

As the Demon King takes his powered form, health bar grows. It keeps growing. That health bar grows all the way to the right end of the screen.

When the fight resumes, this powered giant summons Phantoms, similarly to the main Phantom Ganon fight. Much like that fight, each Sage you unlocked joins the fight one by one. They do an excellent job of crowd control, and Tulin especially is a critical hit sharpshooter. Those critical hits will stagger any of these opponents.

In addition to his moves in the last stage, Ganondorf now also has multiple Gloom projectile-related moves. The spear shoots out three heat-seeking shots before he lunges across the arena. His hammer sends out two waves of these projectiles across the ground in a windowed pattern.

These projectiles have two very important features: they automatically destroy any Zonai device, and they destroy any already Gloom-locked heart container permanently (including parries). Take extra precaution to not get hit here.

Once you bring Ganondorf down to half, the Phantoms leave and he stuns the Sages. For the rest of the fight, it’s just you and him.

Keep parrying him, unlock your heart containers as you lose them, and keep whittling down his health. After that, there’s one final challenge. Ganondorf gets drastic, and swallows the Tear. As he grows ever powerful, he snaps Link up in his growing jaw and ascends out to the skies.

The Light Dragon rushes to your aid and frees you. Should you start this gauntlet before finding the Master Sword, you’ll find it on the Light Dragon’s head. It’s time

Demon Dragon: Draconified Demon King

Welcome to your final challenge. Throughout this fight, you’re either on the Demon Dragon, the Light Dragon, or midair. As you start, the Light Dragon flies up high above the Demon Dragon, letting you skydive onto the Demon. Whenever you fall below or off the Demon Dragon the Light Dragon will grab you and bring you back up high.

As you dive, the Demon Dragon will spew those same Gloom projectiles in a scattershot pattern. Duck and weave through them because they’ll still remove a broken heart container (although since you’re above ground, these containers will unlock if you still have them). Additionally, he’ll shoot out darker colored, heat-seeking projectiles with the same affect.

Look for yellowish spots on the Demon Dragon’s body. These are his weak points, and shoot you out into the sky when you destroy each one. Be aware that running along his body will lock your heart containers, so try landing right on these spots.

Finally, once you get all of the spots, the giant Tear on his forehead will glow brightly. Dive to it, destroy it, and then you’ll trigger the final blow cutscene (which require a button command) and you’ve beaten him.

Epilogue: Grab Zelda Midair

Skydive to the now human Zelda, grab her, and the game is done. Congratulations, you’ve beaten Tears of the Kingdom.