‘Destroy Ganondorf’ walkthrough, how to get to Ganondorf in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

“Destroy Ganondorf” is the final main quest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The quest gives you a plainly evident goal: You need to find Ganondorf and destroy him. But even getting to the Demon King in the first place poses its own challenge (easily one of the toughest in the game).

In this walkthrough, we will cover every step on your march to the final fight, from the Hyrule Castle Chasm through the Forgotten Foundation and the fight against the Demon King’s Army. If you’re solely looking for advice on coming out victorious in the final boss fight, our guide on defeating Demon King Ganondorf has you covered.

How to reach Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom

Your goal is to reach the chamber where the game started and put an end to the Demon King once and for all. If you’ve been to Hyrule Castle in the sky (which you may have done on your quest to get the Royal Guard Armor), start at the Serutabomac Shrine and jump down to ground level.

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If not, start at Lookout Landing and head north toward Hyrule Castle. Open the gates with Ultrahand and press on northward until you reach the yawning chasm where the castle once stood.

Once there, save the game. We’re going to effectively speed run this, but you can stop and fight as many baddies as you like.

Hyrule Castle Chasm

Jump on in.

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As you descend, you will see the Cambobatures Lightroot to the north (this is really easy to spot if you start at the Serutabomac Shrine, as it is immediately below it). Hit it to dispel the darkness from your map.

At the bottom of the chasm, turn south. There are three Shock Likes in this cavern. Run, jump, and glide past them to find a chamber with five Black Horroblins in — continue south, climb the wall (you can dyno it if you have two full stamina wheels).

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At the top you will find five Electric Keese — kill these quickly and then slowly approach the drop to the south to spot a Silver Lynel. These are really tough, even when they’re not Gloom-Wreathed.

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So look to your left to see where the path continues, and glide on over.

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Proceed into the corridor and the ground beneath you will begin to drop. This is fine — fall on down. In the next chamber you’ll see a few falling blocks. Jump on one and Recall your way back up.

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Your southbound march takes a turn west. Follow the corridor into another atrium. To your right is the Lynel you just avoided. To your left is a bunch of Frost Likes and Frost Keese. Again, dispatch or avoid at your leisure, but get past them and you’ll find yourself on another falling platform. (Just what has Ganon done to the place?!)

Link fights off two frost likes under Hyrule Castle during the Destroy Ganondorf mission in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

Plummet to the bottom and you’ll find yourself against a couple of Lizalfos, and this disheartening message saying the power of the sages is out of reach. Yes, you’re on your own, kid…

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These two are worth taking out — start with the silver one, as it has an electric weapon that makes things needlessly difficult. Once you’re done, loot the eastern room for a bunch of mighty Zonaite weapons, a mighty Construct bow, and a mighty Zonai shield.

This is a good place to save the game, by the way.

Looking to the north, there is a Silver Moblin patrolling the other side of a broken bridge.

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As you approach, two Chuchus will appear. Defeat them, but watch your step. The final portion of the passage will crumble if you step on it, spawning some Gloom Hands.

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You do not want to fight them, so turn around and grab the wing in the west wing and use it to traverse the gap. If you struggle at building Zonai devices, a rocket on the back will certainly help.

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Run past the Moblin and follow the path down to your left. This should all start looking mighty familiar.

Forgotten Foundation

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Head past the luminous stone to find a Silver Bokoblin waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Take it out because the corridor beyond holds four Gibdo and ends in a breakable wall.

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Smash on through and run into the next room. This returns you not only to the visible map, but to a room you will remember from the beginning of the game.

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When ready, turn east, follow the corridor to the Imprisoning Chamber and jump on down into Glooms Lair. Pick up Zelda’s torch if, like us, you’re the sentimental type.

Heads up: When you get this location, you’ve reached the point of no return.

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We strongly suggest you put down a Travel Medallion here, just in case things go south. It also means you can teleport away now to stock up on any restorative items you may have used on the way in, and restore any Gloom-stricken hearts you may have.

Hit the Jump prompt, glide on down and sit back.

An Audience with the Demon King

After a brief cutscene involving the Avengers of Hyrule (aka your Sages coming and making a showy entrance), the things will kick off.

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There’s three stages to this, with each being broken down into several parts. It wouldn’t be a final level if there wasn’t a ton of different stages, would it?

Defeat the Demon King’s Army

Fortunately, as the Sage of Wind points out, you don’t have to fight alone, and the power of the sages is with you once more.

You’ll be facing a veritable army of Bokoblins of all shapes and sizes, up to and including a Boss Bokoblin. At the top of the screen is a joint health bar.

As you defeat enemies this bar will decrease in size. At certain increments, new enemies will spawn. Here’s a brief rundown:

• 100% army health — Bokoblin army
• 50% army health — Lizalfos army
• 25% army health — Gibdo army
• 20% army health — Moblin army

Grid View

• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
• Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

There’s no real tactics here other than fight things the way you usually fight them! Make good use of dodging and Flurry Rushes and you’ll be fine. If they have shields, hit them with a weapon with a shock-emitter attached.

After defeating the Demon King’s Army

We call this detention because it’s entirely avoidable if you do your homework.

If you have all five Sages, you won’t need to do this; however, if you skipped the Sages, you need to fight the bosses from each of their respective temples now, adding a huge amount of difficulty to an already tricky battle.

Yes, you have to fight them all in turn. No, your health does not recover, and your gloomy hearts do not restore. Oh, and you don’t have the back-up you’d have if you fought at the temple and secured the help of the sages.

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If you have already defeated the bosses, you instead see a scene of them all appearing together; your Sages step up and take them out while you get walled off, ready for the final stage: actually fighting Ganon.

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Follow the path to the chamber at the end. This is where the final showdown against Demon King Ganondorf begins.