Boss Strategies

You reach this duel at the end of Skyview Temple, after the Beetle and the golden door. Ghirahim starts unarmed and walks toward you with one glowing hand held out. If you swing in a pattern he can read, he stops the blade between two fingers and may steal your sword. Hold your sword to one side so his hand follows it, then cut quickly from the opposite side. If he does grab your weapon, a Shield Bash as he swings it knocks it loose. After a few hits he draws a thin saber. From then on he teleports around the room, throws red diamond blades that you can slash or Shield Bash away, and sometimes crouches before a charging thrust, which a Shield Bash or a well-timed slash will stop. When he appears behind you holding the saber to one side, swing in that same direction before he strikes. Once he is hurt enough he leaves, and a Heart Container drops. You also earn the Ruby Tablet for finishing the temple.

Ghirahim drops a boulder on you at the far end of the Earth Temple, and the boulder unfolds into Scaldera on a long sloped bridge. It chases you uphill and spits fireballs, which you avoid by stepping aside. Bomb Flowers on the slope refill your Bomb Bag. Throw a Bomb to knock it onto its back and send it rolling down, then, as it rears up and inhales, toss or roll a second Bomb straight into its mouth. The blast cracks off part of its rock shell and exposes the single eye, which you slash while it is stunned. When it ignites itself and charges, back off and repeat: a Bomb to knock it down, another into its mouth to put the flames out. As it weakens its eye starts to dart and its fireballs curve toward you, and near the end it curls into a boulder and rolls down the bridge, so sidestep as it passes. Break all the armor and finish the eye to win the Heart Container and the Amber Tablet.

Moldarach bursts from a sand-filled room at the end of the Lanayru Mining Facility. It guards itself with two large claws, each with an eye inside. Wait for a claw to open, then slash the eye in the opposite direction to the way the claw opens: a vertical opening needs a horizontal slash and the other way round. Slingshot pellets stun the eyes briefly. If an eye turns red, Moldarach tries to grab you, so shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to break free before the stinger lands. After enough hits each claw drops off. Moldarach then burrows and jabs up with its stinger, which a side jump or backflip avoids. Blow the sand off its back with the Gust Bellows to force it out. When its eye turns red as it charges the stinger, stab it until it falls. Beating it gives a Heart Container.

After the Goddess’s Harp, you meet this huge demon in a circular pit in the Sealed Grounds, as covered in The Imprisoned and Isle of Songs. Its first form has only two legs, and each foot ends in four pale toes. Destroy all eight toes and it collapses. Run up and slash the sealing spike in its head. If you take too long it throws you off the head, though the spike stays at its current depth. After the spike has been driven in three times the demon bursts and the spike falls back down into the center of the arena. Aim a Skyward Strike at the seal, then trace its pattern to close it again. If the Imprisoned reaches the Sealed Temple the fight ends in a Game Over, so keep it from climbing the slopes.

You face Koloktos in the golden arena at the bottom of the Ancient Cistern, where Ghirahim wakes it with cursed power. The machine shields its core with its lower hands and hurls swords from its top arms, which you can block with your shield. When it smashes its fists down, grab an arm joint with the Whip and pull off the red core. After two arms are gone it tries to use its lower hands, which you can also whip off, or you can strike the exposed core. Koloktos then rebuilds itself. In the second phase it stands up on legs, draws six swords, and covers its chest core with a cage. It also summons three Cursed Bokoblins. Dodge its flurry, whip the cores out of its arms, then pick up one of the dropped swords. Use the large blade to cut off the arms and legs and to break the cage, then hit the core. The Heart Container and Farore’s Flame follow, and Farore’s Flame upgrades your sword into the Goddess Longsword.

Once you open the door to the power room of the Sandship with the Squid Carving, a storm rolls in and Tentalus attacks. Climb toward the deck while tentacles burst through the hull. Cut each one with a Skyward Strike aimed across its length, or shoot them with the Bow. On deck, remove more tentacles until Tentalus rises from the waves. Shoot its large eye with an arrow to stun it, rush over and slash the eye. Severing its hair-like tentacles also gives arrows and hearts. After enough damage it breaks part of the deck. Use the fallen crate to climb to the upper level, where it repeats the pattern but attacks with a toothed tentacle that you slash back, or you can jump off the deck to avoid it and line up the next arrow. Defeating it clears the storm and gives you a Heart Container and Nayru’s Flame, which turns your sword into the Goddess White Sword.

Ghirahim waits at the end of the Fire Sanctuary, and this time he guards himself with floating red diamonds. First, he circles two diamonds around himself that block your sword, and he throws them if you stay far away. Lure his hand in one direction and strike from the other side without touching the diamonds. If they sit at the top and bottom, use horizontal cuts. Later he summons four diamonds in a square. After he takes enough damage he draws two slim sabers and blocks like a Stalfos, so slash where he leaves himself open. His other moves include a rush with both swords, whose follow-up slashes a timely Shield Bash turns into an opening, and a teleport followed by a downward stab. If you dodge the stab, his swords stick in the floor and he is exposed. He also surrounds you with a ring of diamonds, horizontal or vertical, which a Spin Attack in the same direction clears, or fires them in groups of five that you slash away one by one. When he falls, you receive a Heart Container and Din’s Flame, which creates the Master Sword.

The Imprisoned breaks free again after the Fire Sanctuary, and this time it has grown arms and tries to climb the slopes toward the Sealed Temple. Groose has built a machine to help. Aim and fire a bomb from it to stun the demon and push it back down the slope. Then repeat the first battle: cut off the eight toes, slash the sealing spike in its head, and finish with a Skyward Strike on the seal. Use the machine whenever the demon gets too far ahead or tries to reach the top of the slope.

Bilocyte is a parasite that has taken over the Sky Spirit Levias inside the Thunderhead. Fly your Loftwing at each eye on the tentacles that stick out of Levias’s body and hit it with a Spiral Charge, or shoot them from Levias’s back with the Bow. When all the tentacle eyes are gone, land on Levias’s head and the parasite’s main eye emerges. Bilocyte spits green blobs at you. Knock them back with your sword at its two frills so they close. After both frills are closed, hit the eye with another blob, a Skyward Strike or an arrow to bring it down, and then slash it repeatedly. Repeat this a few times and Levias comes back to his senses. This battle is part of the True Master Sword and Levias chapter.

The last battle against The Imprisoned adds a tail, and it can fly on a large black halo that appears behind it. Remove the toes and hit the spike as before. When it takes to the air, use Groose’s machine to knock it down, but the quake blocks Groose’s stash of bombs, so he instead flings you onto the demon’s head. Strike the spike three times, then use the Skyward Strike on the seal to close it. It is the last time you fight it before the finale.

After the wish at the Statue of the Goddess, Ghirahim takes Zelda to the past and sends his army against you in Hylia’s Realm. You cannot use the Beetle here. The fight has five waves, and each wave ends at a barrier that opens only when you beat the guards it summons. The first wave is Red Bokoblins, with five Bokoblin Leaders at the barrier. The second adds Bokoblins with weapons and Bombs, with three Wooden Shield Moblins at the barrier. In the third you also face archers, and a Blue Bokoblin guards the barrier. The fourth brings more weapons, bombs, archers and Leaders, and two Stalfos guard the barrier. The fifth wave is every kind of Bokoblin plus Moblins. Take out Leaders first, because they call for help, and use Spin Attacks when you are surrounded.

This is the third and last Ghirahim fight. It is a single battle in several stages, with no separate final-form fight afterward. Ghirahim fights you on platforms he summons high above the center of the Sealed Grounds. His body cannot be hurt at first, but sword strikes push him back, and if he falls off the edge he lands on his back on a lower platform where you can use a Fatal Blow. He tries to kick you, and if you stand near the edge he grabs you and swaps places. After several hits he holds out electric hands to block your sword, so slash the unprotected side. After several hits, you both end up on the ground and he fights with a rapier. You can only hurt him by thrusting at the jewel on his chest. He also fires a slow dark disc, which you must send back by hitting it in the direction it is traveling, and when he fails to return it he is stunned. A Shield Bash also opens him up when he strikes. At last he pulls out a huge broadsword and raises it vertically or horizontally. Strike it from the opposite direction repeatedly to chip it. If you pause too long, he repairs it. Once it breaks, thrust at him. Beating him leaves only Demise to face.

Demise is the last boss, and you reach him through a portal at the end of Hylia’s Realm, in a stormy arena of water and smoke, and your Skyward Strike is not usable at first. In the first phase he blocks almost every attack, so Shield Bash his sword swings and follow up with a vertical slash or a Spin Attack. After you knock him back he rises, summons a storm, and charges his blade with lightning. Striking the blade now hurts you. He uses his own Skyward Strike and has to recharge his sword by pointing it up. You can attack while he recharges, but it is easier to copy him by raising the Master Sword skyward to charge it with lightning. The lightning-charged Skyward Strike now paralyzes him. When he falls, finish him with a lightning-charged Fatal Blow. He often dodges the first try, and sometimes the second, so be ready to follow up. You can read the closing events in Demise and the Ending.

A single Stalfos guards a circular arena in Skyview Temple on your first visit, and three of them guard the area on your return for Sacred Water. It carries two swords, so slash where it leaves a gap, and use precise strikes rather than random swings.

Two Lizalfos wait in a statue room of the Earth Temple, guarding the Bomb Bag. Their gauntlets protect them, and they leap out of the way of lazy swings. Use a powerful strike such as a Spin Attack to knock one down, then finish it with a Fatal Blow. Bombs and arrows work too. The Mogma Ledd gives you the Bomb Bag when they are gone.

A second Moldarach nests in the sand of the Lanayru Shipyard’s construction bay in the Lanayru Sand Sea. Blow at the sand with the Gust Bellows to wake it, then fight it the same way as in the Mining Facility: slash the claw eyes, then blow the sand away and stab the red eye.

The mini-boss of the Ancient Cistern is an elite Stalfos with extra arms. It starts with two swords like a normal Stalfos. After taking enough damage it unfolds two more arms, ending with three swords and an axe, and it attacks much faster, including a charge where it first guards with all four weapons. Wait for the slight gap as it winds up and strike then. When it is nearly beaten its helmet falls off and hearts appear.

Scervo is a robot pirate captain who took over the Sandship, and the fight happens on a narrow plank. A wall of spikes is behind you and a drop is behind him. Use thrusts rather than wide swings, force him back to the edge, and prevent him from advancing, because every double attack he lands moves you closer to the spikes. The second time you drive him to the edge he loses his right arm and attacks with a hook by spinning his body, and the third time he falls into the sea of sand. Beating him gives you the Bow.

These purple Lizalfos appear in the Fire Sanctuary alone or in a pair. They are quicker than the Earth Temple pair, and they breathe dark smoke that Curses you and leaves you briefly helpless. A single one always carries its gauntlet on its left arm. Break their defense with a strong hit to a gauntlet or a Shield Bash, and use a Fatal Blow when one falls over.

Magmanos are molten hands that rise from lava pits behind grates. One cannot be beaten on your first pass because the Water Fruit is out of reach. Later you fight two at once in the room next to the cell of the captured Mogma Silva. Splash water on them with a Water Fruit to harden them, then attack the stone. Beating the pair opens the way to the captive Mogma in the next room, who gives you the Mogma Mitts from his secret stash.

The Moldorm in the Fire Sanctuary lives underground, in tunnels you enter with the Mogma Mitts. Strike its glowing tail with the Mitts. Each hit removes rear segments and speeds it up. Another Moldorm appears in the Sky Keep.

In Sky Keep you face Dreadfuse, a robot similar to Scervo, on a broken bridge. Push it to the edge to make it lose its sword, then again to lose a second sword and an arm, and a third time to finish it. You also fight two Metal Shield Moblins at once on a bridge. Their iron shields shrug off swords and bombs, so climb over a shield and hit the Moblin from behind. The dungeon also contains another Stalmaster, with Cursed Bokoblins beside it, and another Moldorm.