If you’re about to finish Breath of the Wild and get one of its endings but want to make sure you’re prepared for the boss fight you’re about to encounter, you’re in the right place. If you’re ready for your adventure to come to an end, here’s our spoiler-free guide to the final boss fight in Breath of the Wild.
Calamity Ganon
After the battle intro, the champions of Hyrule you’ve rescued will step in to take their piece of Ganon’s hide. Each of the Divine Beasts will remove one-eighth of Ganon’s health bar. If you’ve conquered all four Divine Beasts, the health of your enemy will be down by a full 50 percent when the battle begins. Calamity Ganon’s techniques are similar to those of the four dungeon bosses, so you’ll know what to do with them.
Your best strategy is to use perfect-dodges and flurry rushes, though you can also use arrows to slowly chip away at Ganon’s health. Flurry rushes have a big advantage over perfect-guard counters in this battle: the slow-motion effect of a flurry rush means that Ganon cannot perform his area-of-effect attack every time you’re within melee range.
If you’re wielding the Master Sword, you can cause massive damage while keeping your shield at hand to perfect-guard against Calamity Ganon’s laser beam attacks. Keep the boss in sight at all times, defend against long-range assaults and do flurry rushes at close range to take Calamity Ganon down.
Phase One: All Of Calamity Ganon’s Attacks And How To Counter Them
Fire-Infused Melee Attack: At close-range, Calamity Ganon performs melee attacks with his fire-infused sword, similar to Fireblight Ganon. These cause fire to spread at their point of impact, so be careful. As soon as you notice the boss’s arm start to move forward, Calamity Ganon will begin preparing its attack, so initiate your perfect dodge or perfect guard at that moment. This one is simple to defend against due to the preparation time.
Guardian Blade Melee Attack: Calamity Ganon also attacks with its Guardian blades, which glow blue and are much swifter. These are therefore much harder to perfect-dodge. Keep your shield drawn at all times except when counterattacking so you can at least negate the damage of these blows.
Windblight Ganon Tornado: Calamity Ganon summons large tornadoes that head unpredictably your way, just like Windblight Ganon. They can’t be blocked or stopped, so sprint away from them as soon as they appear.
Windblight Ganon Galestrike: Calamity Ganon also has the galestrike attack used by Windblight Ganon, which cannot be blocked. When you notice Calamity Ganon point his weapon at you and a vortex of wind swirling in front of it, sprint sideways to avoid the shot.
Waterblight Ganon’s Ice Attack: When Calamity Ganon starts summoning multiple ice blocks in the air, get your Cryonis rune and get ready to hit A repeatedly while aiming at the incoming projectiles so that you can shatter them. You can also just sprint away.
Pillar Area Of Effect Shock Attack: Sometimes Calamity Ganon will summon pillars that fall close to you. Get away! These will be struck by lightning, causing shock damage in the area.
Fireball: When Ganon throws a fireball, either run as far as you can from the point of impact, or freeze it with an ice arrow.
Blue Projectile Attack: Calamity Ganon regularly fires blue-glowing projectiles against you. You can perfect-guard against these, which will redirect at Ganon and stun him, leaving him vulnerable to a full combo.
Area-of-Effect Blue Energy Melee Attack: If you stay within melee range for more than a few seconds, Calamity Ganon will perform an area-of-effect attack that causes blue energy to strike everything around him. This cannot be blocked. Don’t stay at close range unless you’ve stunned him beforehand.
Spear Throw: Calamity Ganon will sometimes throw his spear at you. If you notice him about to do this, dodge it with a sidehop or sprint away from the point of impact.
Phase Two: How To Defeat ‘Invincible’ Calamity Ganon
After losing half of his starting health, Calamity Ganon summons a fire shield protecting him from all of your assaults. You can only damage him by temporarily disabling this barrier.
As long as his body glows orange, no direct attacks will hurt him. His attacks will remain the same, so don’t panic. You must defend calmly and consistently until you create an opening. Whenever he is stunned, rush to him and unleash your most powerful combo.
Gun Shots: The easiest method of stunning him is to perfect-guard his blue projectiles. He fires six of them usually, each one an opportunity for a perfect-guard counter. If you succeed, the beam will stun him, so rush and attack with all your might until a new cycle begins. If you fail, the beams aren’t that strong so your shield’s durability won’t be hurt too badly.
Laser Beam: Ganon directs a red laser beam at you. When fully charged, the beam fires. A successful perfect-guard redirects it back to him. However, this is not easy: the charge delay is brief and the beam moves fast. Initiate the perfect-guard just before the beam materializes. NOTE : If you fail, your shield will be destroyed. If you run out of shields, you won’t be able to perfect-guard either the blue projectiles or the laser beam, which really limits your options. So if you’re not sure you can perfect-guard the laser beam, run away and save your shield for the blue projectiles, which are easier.
Melee : When Ganon performs a melee attack, you can perform a perfect-dodge or perfect-guard by initiating your order at the last moment. Then follow up with a flurry rush or standard counter, both of which damage your opponent regardless of its defense. The perfect-dodge/flurry rush combo’s slow-motion effect will leave you less exposed to Calamity Ganon’s immediate retaliation when it recovers.
Dark Beast Ganon
You regain control of Link outside of the castle, facing an enormous enemy. As soon as the final battle begins, grab the nearby Bow of Light, which has incredible power and infinite ammo. No need to get down from your horse: just gallop towards the bow. Link will pick it up automatically.
WIth the Bow of Light drawn, head to either side of Dark Beast Ganon and wait for glyphs to appear on its body. Once they do, slow down or stop your horse if you’re not under threat and fire an arrow at all three of them: one at the top of each leg and one on the flank. Fire as much as you want: your ammo is unlimited!
Once you eliminate the three light glyphs on one side of Dark Beast Ganon, go to to the other side and repeat the process.
Once the first six glyphs have been hit, a seventh one appears on the grotesque creature’s belly. Gallop beneath it and look up. You’re at such close range it should be an easy shot.
Gallop until you’re in front of Dark Beast Ganon. Its weak point will appear in the form of a large eyeball. Don’t fire an arrow at it from the ground: the eyelid will close and stop you from dealing any damage. Instead, wait for the boss to fire a beam of energy and use the updraft of this beam to fly high in the air. Then, hit that perfect, slow-motion finishing arrow…
Congratulations! If you later load this save file from the title screen, you can resume your playthrough at the entrance to Hyrule Castle Sanctum with your equipment and parameters unchanged. The save file will sport a star icon, acknowledging your defeat of Ganon.
Got any more tips and tricks for beating the final boss of Breath of the Wild? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below. And don’t forget to check out the following guides:
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