The 20 HARDEST Bosses And Enemies In Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

20 Hardest Bosses and Enemies in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at the most challenging fights in “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” from bosses to group encounters.

Gloom Spawn

Just as Guardians hunted and terrorized us in “Breath of the Wild,” “Tears of the Kingdom” has the Gloom Spawn. These nasty baddies always appear in groups and move with surprising speed for something that looks made of slime. Whether you’re on the surface or in the depths, it is always best to keep your distance. If you don’t, they’ll quickly swarm Link, latch on, and immediately begin dealing gloom damage. Getting a higher vantage point and using AOE attacks, like bomb arrows, is a good strategy. Unfortunately, the fight doesn’t end when you’ve killed all the hands as they’ll immediately spawn a Phantom Ganon. He’s not as strong here as his actual boss fight, but that’s still pretty uncool.

Clash at the Scorching Coliseum

There are several coliseums found in the Depths where Link can earn a helpful piece of armor by conquering enemies. Most of them aren’t too bad. But the Scorching Coliseum can surprise you, especially if you find it early on. Found underneath Death Mountain, it will pit Link against waves of Moblins. First he’ll face two Red Moblins, then two Blue, then two Black, then one Silver, then a round of four with one of each color. While you should grow used to fighting Moblins on the surface, these come with the added ability to inflict the Gloom status effect, making it harder to heal if they hit you.

Marbled Gohma

Link has fought many different Gohmas, whether she be a spider or some other giant, creepy-crawly thing. This version is fought at the end of the Fire Temple and while it is a fairly straightforward fight, she can mess you up if you aren’t careful. Link will have to heavily rely on Yunobo’s dash ability to break apart its rocky legs. This stuns her, allowing you to climb up and melee the hell out her eye. Of course, she’ll be trying to stomp and drop exploding rocks on you while you aim your ally. She’s on the ceiling for the second phase, which makes lining up your shots a bit trickier, and her explosive boulders will now try to trap you in a circle.

Flux Construct III

Flux Constructs are new enemies in “Tears of the Kingdom,” coming in three increasingly stronger forms. While players have figured out ways to cheese these fights, confronting them head on can provide a decent challenge. The Flux Construct III is naturally the strongest and most durable, but the biggest problem is its speed. One of its forms flies high in the air, launching blocks from its body at Link. And another is a cube that rolls around alarmingly quickly, making it tough to pull apart its body with Ultrahand. When fighting these things, you’ll have to react quickly if you don’t want Link to get ragdolled.

Master Kohga

Master Kohga was a bit of a joke in “Breath of the Wild,” so we’re grateful Nintendo beefed him up for the sequel. The leader of the Yiga Clan has been living in the depths ever since falling into a giant hole. While he is fought across four phases, they aren’t in a row. Rather, you’ll find him in different areas for each one. This makes him more manageable, but certain phases are still a challenge. He shows you how irksome it is to face someone with the Ultrahand ability by fighting you in a tank, a glider, a ship, and a construct. That last one is definitely the most troublesome with homing rockets and laser beams.

Proving Grounds: Flow

There are a handful of Shrines in “Tears of the Kingdom” that take away Link’s gear and armor, forcing you to defeat enemies without your safety nets. One of them is the Sifumim Shrine. Here, Link is only given an old shield and a couple of sticks. Meanwhile, several constructs float around on rafts through tiered platforms, firing down on you with electrified arrows. It can be pretty annoying at the start before you can steal one of their bows. The shock arrows are especially mean, especially if you happen to be swimming when one of the enemies spots you. Like all combat Shrines, the difficulty depends on how many hearts you’ve earned throughout your travels. Generally speaking though, this is one of the harder Proving Grounds.

Blue-White Froxes

Like Flux Constructs, there are ways to cheese fights against Froxes, gigantic frog-like mini-bosses found in the Depths. But again, if you fight them head-on, they’ll certainly put up a fight. The blue-white variant is the toughest in the game, being faster and having a larger health pool than the others. It can leap ridiculously long distances, trying to squish you even when you think you’re safe. The easiest way to deal with it is throwing or shooting a bomb inside its mouth when it tries to suck Link up, but there’s no guarantee it will actually perform this move. If it doesn’t, you can stun it by shooting it in the eye, which is naturally a hard target to hit, before attacking the gem nodes on its back.

Mucktorok

This weird little guy shows us bosses don’t have to be giant to be intimidating. Or annoying. Fought in this game’s Water Temple, Mucktorok is a perfect name considering it’s an Octorok variant and it covers the arena in sludge. This hazard can be very problematic as it slows Link’s movement and takes away his jump. Sidon’s ability can protect you from it, as can certain resources. That doesn’t change the fact that Muctorok rides a quick-moving sludge shark and can fire a tracking beam. In the second phase, it’ll rain sludge down and mostly stick to those covered areas, still moving quickly and being extra hard to hit. It’s a pretty easy boss to dislike.

Proving Grounds: The Hunt

By far one of the most obnoxious Shrines in the game is the Mayachideg Shrine. In this Proving Grounds challenge, Link must rely on little bots that roll around, targeting enemies, by fusing certain materials to them to make them deadlier. The problem is that they move at a snail’s pace. They’re so slow, in fact, that if and when a construct spots Link, it can easily sidestep the bot, rush over, and kick his teeth in…so to speak. And Gods help you if it’s a group that comes running your way. You can try to hide and be patient, but your little helpers don’t deal a lot of damage. So your options are to either be annoyed or be bored.

Armored Lynels

Lynels gained a reputation in “Breath of the Wild” for being some of the toughest enemies Link could face. While “Tears of the Kingdom” didn’t receive the mighty Gold Lynels like its predecessor did through DLC, it did get its own nasty variant. Armored Lynels now appear, giving Link an extra layer to chip through before he can actually deal damage. Anything that makes these enemies stronger is unwelcome. Any Lynel variant can come with armor, so an Armored Silver Lynel is obviously going to be the strongest. However, the armored versions are also only found in the Depths, meaning they also have the ability to inflict Gloom damage with every hit.

Phantom Ganon

In addition to spawning after Link kills Gloom Hands, Phantom Ganon provides a pretty tough boss fight. You’ll fight him once in the Deku Tree Chasm, but the far more challenging encounter happens in Hyrule Castle. Here, he splits into several copies, which is challenging enough. Your Sage companions will rush into the fight, which is nice, but that means you can’t use their abilities unless you jump into the fray as well. Unfortunately, these Phantoms also deal gloom damage, and Link is their main target. Even if you keep your distance, they can also teleport. It shouldn’t be surprising, given the climactic location. But this is probably the hardest the villain’s phantom form has ever been.

The Demon King’s Army

Let’s talk about one of the final big combat encounters in the story. As Link delves deeper into the depths beneath Hyrule in search of Ganondorf, he’ll eventually be confronted by the Demon King’s Army. Similar to encounters with large enemy groups in other sections, the army will have a single health bar to whittle down. However, being in the depths, they will all inflict gloom. It’s best to always be on the move lest Link quickly be overwhelmed. Thankfully, the actual Sages join you in the fight. But you can actually make this part much, much harder on yourself if you reach this area without completing their dungeons. Not only will they not be there, but you’ll then have to fight the bosses you skipped after the army.

The Seized Construct

At the end of the Spirit Temple, Link and Mineru must face off against the Seized Construct, a robot overflowing with Gloom. What makes this fight a little tricky is being forced to ride on Mineru’s back, since the arena itself is also covered in Gloom. The Construct uses a variety of Zonai devices to attack you while you try to knock your opponent into an electrical field that makes up each wall. While Mineru can be very helpful in traversal, she’s a bit harder to get used to in combat. That’s especially true when it’s your first time getting to use her and in the second phase, when the Seized Construct grows more aggressive.

Queen Gibdo

It was nice seeing the creepy Gibdos make a return, but their queen is the very definition of something that should be killed with fire. Or, in this case, lightning. Link and Riju will get ambushed outside of the Lightning Temple, but the actual battle doesn’t occur until the end. Like some others on our list, the winged behemoth fires a tracking beam that can be fairly annoying. She’ll also produce sandstorms and, during the second phase, spawn hordes of Gibdos. The sheer amount of minions can be a bit hard to deal with as you’ll have to destroy their spawn points to make them stop. And it isn’t as if the Queen lets up on her attacks.

Clash at the Floating Coliseum

We’ve already talked about Armored Lynels, but this encounter deserves its own spot. By far the hardest combat challenge in the Depths is the one found at the Floating Coliseum. In order to get Majora’s Mask, Link must face several Lynel fights in a row. It begins with a regular one and escalates in power for five total fights, ending with an Armored Silver variant. Of course, this being found in the Depths, they can all deal Gloom damage too. This is an encounter you should be heavily prepared for with the proper meals to nullify the Gloom effect. But if you stumble upon this without the proper resources, it will be an uphill battle.

Flame Gleeok

Gleeoks make a return in “Tears of the Kingdom” as overworld bosses and come in a few variations. While the Flame Gleeok is perhaps the easiest to deal with, that doesn’t make it weak. You should still come prepared with armor that can make its fire attacks less of a hassle and ice materials you can fuse to weapons to deal more damage. Still, its fire beams can be gnarly, and the massive fireball it unleashes when close to death can potentially kill you outright. However, one thing that makes this version a little easier is that this giant fireball creates a huge updraft, making it easier to get into the air and attack when the Flame Gleeok is out of range.

Thunder Gleeok

Just like in “Breath of the Wild,” getting electrocuted is one of the more disheartening side effects of combat in “Tears of the Kingdom.” That’s even more true if you happen to be holding a metal weapon, which Link will drop as soon as he’s shocked. This makes the Thunder Gleeok a pain, on top of the other aspects that make these bosses hard in the first place. If you happen to have the Thunder Helm, or an upgraded Rubber Armor set, these fights are much easier. But if you don’t, a Thunder Gleeok can easily annihilate poor Link. The attack it unleashes while close to death is a tad more troublesome than the Flame Gleeok’s giant fireball; while the lightning storm also produces updrafts, avoiding multiple attacks instead of one is obviously a little harder.

Frost Gleeok

Each elemental Gleeok will have its own issues to deal with. Unless you have the proper armor, the Frost Gleeok will easily freeze Link, which hurts and stuns, opening him up for further damage. Again, if you have the proper armor, you can nullify the freezing effect. If not, the Frost Gleeok seems the most adept of the three at making you regret it. The most challenging aspect is the attack it unleashes while close to death and high up in the air. While the other two have attacks the produce updrafts, this one shoots down massive icicles that act as platforms Link can Recall. Better be quick though, because they can break pretty quickly and there’s no guarantee another won’t fall right on top of you when you’re trying to activate your ability.

King Gleeok

What’s worse than a Gleeok? One that holds the power of all three elements, of course! King Gleeok isn’t necessarily fought differently than regular ones. But the problem is that each of its heads uses one of three elements found in the others. Not only does this force you to constantly swap what damage type you’re using, but also your armor to avoid being annihilated by one of its beams. It will also fly up high after you’ve dealt enough damage, where it will spam elemental attacks. There are four of these bad boys to find and they’re all going to pose a challenge. But the absolute worst one is found in the Depths, as it has the added annoyance of inflicting gloom on top of everything else.

Ganondorf

A shocker, I know. The Demon King packs a mean punch, and a few other powerfully annoying skills as well. Similar to some of his past appearances, Ganondorf is fought in a few phases, this time three. The first has a variety of weapons, all of which inflict gloom, and will dodge normal melee attacks, leaving only arrows and the flurry rush as viable options. The second phase is the hardest of the three; your allies can deal with his Phantoms, but he’ll be faster, stronger, and, instead of gloom, will remove hearts if you’re hit, meaning you basically can’t heal. The third phase is an epic, skybound bout against his dragon form, which isn’t nearly as hard as the other two. Still, the whole encounter is a gauntlet you best be prepared for.

What combat encounter gave you the most trouble in “Tears of the Kingdom?” Head to the comments and let us know!