This page offers a guide on how to prepare for the final boss fight against Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. On this page, you’ll find top tips on best armor and weapons, what foods and elixirs to bring, as well as other handy advice to follow before embarking on the big boss fight of the game!

Top Tips Before Fighting Ganondorf¶

Before we go into the details of best armor, weapons and foods for fighting the big baddie of Tears of the Kingdom, here are some quick tips to keep in mind when prepping for the fight.

• Obtain all Sages - Breath and the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are known for having boss fights you can reach as soon as you start the game. However, if this is your first time playing the game and fighting Ganondorf, we recommend you complete the game and obtain all the sages during Regional Phenomena first. They’ll help you in the battle!
• Level up! - The shrine grind can sometimes feel tedious, but easily one of the most effective ways to prepare for this fight is to get some more hearts and stamina. If you’ve gotten the Master Sword and found the Fifth Sage then you have at least 10 hearts and two wheels of stamina, which is great! We recommend getting a few more hearts though, just to be safe!
• Rest at a Stable - When you rest at a Stable and purchase the fancier bed option, you’ll get extra temporary hearts and a special buff depending on which stable you stay at!
• Stock up on arrows - You can purchase arrows from shops found in major towns and cities, as well as from Beedle in Stables. Make sure to bring loads for the fight! Practice your aim too, as headshots will be imperative against Ganondorf. Oh, and don’t forget about Bomb Flowers too!
• Make sure you’ve got combat mechanics locked down - Most of the time, you can get away with not knowing how to parry, flurry rush and dodge. But this time, we do recommend you learn how to make full use of all the different combat mechanics as you’ll really need them in this fight! If you’re unsure of controls, head over to our full guide on All Combat Controls in Tears of the Kingdom.
• Farm enemies for high level fuse materials - Don’t forget to fight loads of strong enemies to obtain their fuse materials. Silver Bokoblins, Lynels, IV Constructs and Gleeoks (to name but a few) all drop great materials that you can fuse to your weapons for increased damage and special status effects!

Now that you’ve got those quick tips in your pocket, read on to learn about the best armor and weapons and the best foods for taking on Ganondorf!

Best Armor For Fighting Ganondorf¶

There are a few top contenders for best armor for the final boss fight. You don’t necessarily have to go for any of these either, but what we will recommend you do, regardless of armor choice, is upgrade your armor at one of the Great Fairies! Use our interactive map for all Great Fairy locations.

Fierce Deity Armor¶

The Fierce Deity Armor set is definitely a fan favorite! Not only does it look cool, it also offers increased Attack damage and increased Charge Attack damage when you wear the full set. Head over to our guide on how to get all Fierce Deity armor pieces for their locations!

The Depths Armor Set¶

The Depths Armor is pretty tough to get ahold of, but it is definitely worth it as it grants Gloom Resistance to the wearer. And when worn as a full set, you’ll get Gloom Attack resistance, which is ideal for the Ganondorf fight. In order to obtain this armor, you need to find six out of seven Bargainer Statues in the Depths. Once you’ve found, you can purchase these items for Poes. The Hood of the Depths costs 300 Poes, the Tunic of the Depths 150 Poes and the Gaiters of the Depths 200 Poes. Head over to our interactive map of the Depths for locations of all Bargainer Statues - there’s also one in Lookout Landing (Map Marker).

Soldier Armor Set¶

The Soldier Armor Set is great if you value defense - it has no bonus effects or set bonus but it does offer a higher base armor defense than most other armor sets. It’s actually quite easy to find all of the armor pieces too, as each one is found in the Royal Hidden Passage in Hyrule Castle. The Chest Armor piece can be found directly beneath the gate into Hyrule Castle (Map Marker), the greaves and the helm is found directly beneath Central Square south of the main castle.

Fully upgraded, the Armor boasts 28 defense each item. Whilst we don’t think you necessarily need to fully upgrade the armor, it can be useful to upgrade the set at least once. And, it’s reasonably cheap to upgrade the Soldier armor for the first time - costing only 5 Chuchu jellies and 3 Bokoblin guts for each piece!

Best Weapons for Fighting Ganondorf¶

It is important to come into this fight well prepared with lots of strong weapons that have been fused with powerful fuse materials. We’ve got a great list of the best fuse materials over on our Fuse Materials guide!

Master Sword¶

It goes without saying that the best weapon for fighting against Ganondorf is the Master Sword. But it’s also important to fuse the weapon with materials to give it stat boosts. We recommend something strong like Gleeok Horns offer elemental buffs and the Light Dragon’s Scale heals Link as you fight! Head over to our guide on the best Master Sword fusions for more information. And, if you haven’t already gotten the Master Sword, head over to our walkthrough!

Gloom Weapons¶

Phantom Ganons (which you fought in Hyrule Castle before this boss fight) drop high damage weapons, but the kicker is that they do gloom damage to anyone who uses them. However, these weapons can be good if you stock up on Gloom Resist and Gloom replenishing foods. We don’t recommend using these throughout the entire fight, but in a pinch they’re very powerful! You could also fuse these weapons onto other weapons to negate the Gloom!

Mighty Zonaite Weapons¶

By now, you’ll be quite high-levelled and that means that the Construct enemies you encounter will be quite tough but drop great materials and weapons. For example, whilst you’re on Thunderhead Isles (Map Marker) during the Secret of the Ring Ruins quest, you’ll encounter lots of Captain and Soldier IV Construct enemies, which will drop things like Captain Construct IV Horns and Soldier Construct IV Horns. On their own they have a pretty decent Fuse power, but when attached to Zonaite weapons, they’ll do even more damage and you can create some pretty powerful weapons. If you’re looking to stock up on some durable and powerful fused Zonaite weapons, we recommend doing a trip to Thunderhead Isles!

Hyrule Castle Weapons¶

It’s no secret that some of the best weapons and shields can be found in Hyrule Castle. We definitely recommend at least one run through the castle to pick up some strong weapons including the Royal, Royal Guard and Soldier weapons. You can use our interactive map for exact locations of these weapons. And don’t forget to pick up the legendary Hylian Shield whilst you’re at it - head to our guide for more information!

Best Food For Fighting Ganondorf¶

It’s super important that in addition to being well equipped with weapons and armor, you’ll also want to come into this fight prepared with lots and lots of food! It’s also important that the food you come into the battle with can replenish lots of hearts, offer Gloom Resistance and restore Gloomed hearts. Below, we’ll detail some of the best foods to prepare and where to get the ingredients!

Farming Prime and Gourmet Meat¶

The best “base” for dishes is by far prime meat and gourmet meat. Adding multiple cuts of meat to a dish will replenish lots of hearts and you can then customize the dishes by adding buffs like Gloom Resist, Toughness, Stamina Replenish etc. You can get prime and gourmet cuts of meat from Deer and Wolves, both of which can be found with relative ease in the area north and northwest of Death Mountain as well as around the Hebra Mountains region.

Sundelion Dishes¶

Sundelions are a small orange flower that, when cooked into dishes, replenishes hearts temporarily lost by Gloom damage. Each Sundelion will offer +3 restored hearts and you can cook them with any dish or recipe to create “Sunny” meals. Sundelions are not exactly rare, but they can be hard to come by if you’re not sure where to look. The best place to find ample Sundelions is in the South Eldin Sky Archipelago, which you can reach via the Eldin Canyon Skyview Tower. We recommend making a lot of

Dark Clump Dishes¶

Dark Clumps are dropped when Gloom Hands despawn. If you don’t attack Gloom Hands and they can’t reach you, after around 30 seconds they’ll despawn and two Dark Clumps will drop. When cooked into a dish, it will grant the meal Gloom Resistance. When you eat this food you’ll take longer to take Gloom damage, which is very useful in the Depths and during the final boss fight.

And there you have it. That’s our comprehensive guide on how to kick Ganondorf’s butt in the final fight! All you need to do is make sure you have lots of food, decent weapons and a fancy armor set!