How to beat Gleeok, locations in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Gleeok is a new family of sub-bosses in the Legend of Zelda, appearing after the events of the Upheaval in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Not only are they fearsome — and genuinely difficult — but there are four variations on the theme here.

Picture Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards Hades. Now, instead of a dog, make it a dragon. Oh, and you know how Cerberus sometimes breathes fire? Well now it sometimes shoots ice at you, or simply reigns down lightning for good measure.

The sheer power of these beasts make them very intimidating. As the compendium puts it, “fighting it alone is inadvisable.” You’ll want to go in prepared not only with the right equipment, but the right strategies.

Where to find Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom

There are several Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom, with each being one of three elements: fire (Flame Gleeok), ice (Frost Gleeok), and thunder (Thunder Gleeok).

There is also a fourth variant, the King Gleeok, which incorporates each of the three elements to make for a really tough battle.

There are a total of four Flame Gleeok, three Frost Gleeok, and three Thunder Gleeok on the surface of Hyrule.

Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin, Johnny Yu/Polygon | Source images: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

How to defeat Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom

Each Gleeok has their own element (frost, flame, and thunder), which will require their own preparation. There are two phases to a Gleeok battle: a land phase and a sky phase. During the land phase, the Gleeok will mostly stay grounded or fly close to ground level. During the sky phase, the Gleeok will soar into the air and unleash a large scale attack depending on their element.

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While the Gleeoks are grounded, your main goal is to take out the three eyeballs with your arrows, which will cause the Gleeok to fall to the ground allowing you to get some free hits in. The best method to do this is by attaching materials like Keese eyeballs, Gibdo bones, and elements to your arrows and firing them in bullet time, which is when you shoot your bow in slow motion mid-air. We’ve found that some of the best methods to enter bullet time mid-battle include using wing shields, springs, rocket shields, Ascend, or Autobuild contraptions.

Repeat this process until the Gleeok enters the sky phase where it’ll fly out of reach of your arrows to unleash a powerful attack in its respective element. You’ll need to glide into the air, and take out each head once again to make the Gleeok plummet to the ground — making it vulnerable to attacks. Equip your mightiest weapon and swing away at the Gleeok’s heads until it’s defeated.

Check out the sections below to learn about each Gleeok in detail.

How to beat the Flame Gleeok

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The Flame Gleeok, as seen in its name, will use the power of fire to shoot all kinds of flame-imbued attacks in your direction.

Preparing for the Flame Gleeok

Before fighting the Flame Gleeok, you should prepare the following:

• Cold and heat-resistant armor, elixirs, or meals — It does sound wrong to say that you need to have cold and heat resistance to fight the Flame Gleeok, but Flame Gleeoks tend to reside in areas where the temperature will fluctuate between cold and hot.
• Ice materials — If you Fuse an ice material to your arrow such as the white Chuchu jelly or the ice fruit, you’ll be able to take out one of the Gleeok’s heads in one to two arrows depending on how strong your bow is.
• Eyeballs — Gleeok heads can be pretty tricky to hit, so make your life easier by using eyeballs. Eyeball materials will add a homing quality to your arrows allowing them to go straight for the Gleeok’s head.

It’s also a good idea to bring along your strongest gear, a lot of arrows, and a ton of food as Gleeoks can be quite difficult to take down.

How to defeat the Flame Gleeok

The primary objective when facing any Gleeok is to take out its heads by shooting its eyeballs, but each Gleeok will have a different set of attacks you’ll need to avoid during the process. The Flame Gleeok has three different attacks — fire balls, fire beams, and huge fire meteors. For the fire balls and beams, you can take cover or sprint away as fast as you can to avoid the damage.

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After you’ve taken out around ²⁄₃ of the Flame Gleeok’s health, it’ll rise up into the sky and let out a huge flaming meteor down to the ground. Depending on the environment, you might be able to hide under a platform or behind a large pillar to avoid the damage, but in most cases, you’ll need to run outside of the blast range. Once you’ve avoided the attack, ride the updraft into the air and start firing away more arrows at the Gleeok’s eyes until they plummet to the ground. Start wailing away at their heads and repeat the process until they’ve been defeated.

How to beat the Frost Gleeok

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The Frost Gleeok will harness the power of ice to hurl snowballs and create a blizzard that’ll drop large icicles from overhead.

Preparing for the Frost Gleeok

Before fighting the Frost Gleeok, we recommend to do the following:

• Cold-resistant armor, elixirs, and meals — Needless to say, the Frost Gleeoks reside in cold environments that require you to have at least one level of cold resistance.
• Fire materials — The Frost Gleeok is prone to fire damage, so attach a fire fruit or a red Chuchu jelly to one of your arrows to take out one of the heads in one shot.
• Eyeballs — Gleeok heads can be pretty tricky to hit, so make your life easier by using eyeballs. Eyeball materials will add a homing quality to your arrows allowing them to go straight for the Gleeok’s head.

It’s also a good idea to bring along your strongest gear, a lot of arrows, and a ton of food as Gleeoks can be quite difficult to take down.

How to defeat the Frost Gleeok

As always, focus on taking out each of the Frost Gleeok’s heads to cause the Gleeok to drop to the ground in a vulnerable state where you can swing away to your heart’s content. However, there are four attacks that you should watch out for — snowballs, ice beams, ice blasts, and the blizzard. Each of these attacks have a deceptively large hit box, and all of the attacks except for the ice beam will have a blast radius as well. Any time you see the Frost Gleeok winding up an attack, you should get behind cover as fast as possible.

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At around one-third health, the Frost Gleeok will fly into the air and conjure up a blizzard, causing huge icicles to fall from the sky. Look at the ground to see beams of light indicating where the icicles will land and avoid those areas. Once an icicle lands on the ground, hop on top and use Recall to reach the same elevation as the Frost Gleeok. Take out each head to cause the Gleeok to drop to the ground. Ready your weapon and deal as much damage as you can to defeat the Frost Gleeok.

How to beat the Thunder Gleeok

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The Thunder Gleeok will use electricity to make you drop your weapons and strike you with lightning.

Preparing for the Thunder Gleeok

Before facing off against the Thunder Gleeok, we recommend to grab the following items:

• Rubber armor — As the Thunder Gleeok fight revolves around shock damage, the Rubber armor is a perfect fit for the job as it’ll reduce the amount of damage you’ll take. If you have the full set bonus, you’ll be protected from all electrical damage to make this fight a breeze.
• Shock-resistant weapons — If you’re using metal weapons, you’ll drop them at the faintest touch of shock damage, forcing you to scramble and pick up your equipment in the heat of battle. Avoid the mess with shock-resistant weapons such as Zonaite weapons. You can always switch back to your strongest equipment once the Gleeok is knocked out to deal as much damage as possible.
• Shock-resistant elixirs and food — If you don’t have the Rubber armor set, your second best bet is shock-resistant elixirs and meals. The Thunder Gleeok’s attacks will deal a surprisingly large amount of damage, so help yourself out by consuming a shock-resistant elixir or dish.
• Eyeballs — Gleeok heads can be pretty tricky to hit, so make your life easier by using eyeballs. Eyeball materials will add a homing quality to your arrows allowing them to go straight for the Gleeok’s head.

It’s also a good idea to bring along your strongest gear, a lot of arrows, and a ton of food as Gleeoks can be quite difficult to take down.

How to defeat the Thunder Gleeok

First things first, try your best to take out each head by shooting the Gleeok’s eyeballs with your arrows. Don’t forget to enter bullet time and use materials to quickly dispose of each head. While you’re shooting away, the Thunder Gleeok has three attacks to look out for — shock balls, shock beams, and lightning strikes. Overhead cover and pillars are your friends here! Avoid the attacks by placing something in between yourself and the Thunder Gleeok.

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At ¹⁄₃ health, the Thunder Gleeok will fly into the sky and unleash a thunder storm. Beams of light appear on the ground indicating that lightning will soon strike at that location, but an updraft will immediately form after the ground has been struck. Avoid the initial lightning strike, but return to the area to take the updraft into the air. Make use of bullet time to destroy each Gleeok head, causing the Thunder Gleeok to fall to the ground. Deal as much damage as you can and repeat the process until the Thunder Gleeok has been slain.

What rewards do you get from Gleeok?

Each Gleeok will drop three types of item — its guts (use it to make a “powerful” elixir) and its wing, which not only grants an impressive +24 Fuse attack power, but makes your arrows and thrown weapons fly further.

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But while these are already decent items, they pale in comparison to the real reason we’re here — the Gleeok horns. At +30 Fuse attack power, it’s one of the most powerful elemental items in the game. The elder dragon scales, by comparison, only add +16 attack. Each Gleeok will drop a horn in their respective element — flame, frost, and thunder.

Update (July 14): This story has been updated to add additional details about every elemental type of Gleeok.