How to get to Ganondorf in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

How to prepare to reach Ganondorf’s location in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Before you go looking for Ganondorf in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, we strongly recommend that you unlock at least one Travel Medallion as this will allow you to return to the location just before where the final battle takes place. With this in place, you can easily skip the trip to Ganondorf if you realize that additional preparations are in order after your first attempt to defeat him.

Since you’re heading to the Depths, we also recommend bringing items that will provide resistance to the Gloom, such as food to replenish your Gloom-locked hearts or the Armor of the Depths set. You’ll have to face both Gloom puddles and Gloom-infested monsters on your way to Ganondorf, not to mention his own Gloom-based attacks, so it’s important to have these in place to stay protected. Keep in mind that you can also use Mineru’s Construct to avoid Gloom puddles.

It’s also a good idea to bring a good stock of explosive flowers – both for destroying the rocks you encounter and for combat – as well as energizing elixirs if you need more stamina to reach the chasm beneath Hyrule Castle by air.

Personally, I went on this journey wearing the Fierce Deity armor set, using Mineru’s build to cut through any darkness when possible, while wielding the Master Sword, a guard bow royal and a powerful Zoaite shield. (I kept Link alive by eating only apples – this is not recommended.)

Along with this, you’ll also want to stock up on all the food, potions, armor, and weapons – including bows and shields – that you plan to use against Ganondorf. For our recommendations on how to prepare for this fight, visit our how to beat Ganondorf guide and our recipe list for food recommendations.

While you can still reach the location before your final showdown with the Demon King, place the Travel Medallion and then return to surface-level Hyrule to collect this gear.

Finally, if you plan to use the Master Sword during this journey, we recommend making sure it is fully charged before fighting Ganondorf.

How to reach Ganondorf in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

The first step to reach Ganondorf in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dives into the chasm above which Hyrule Castle floats. You can do this by shooting Link into the sky from Lookout Landing Skyview Tower, jumping off the edge of the lower part of Hyrule Castle, or jumping from Hyrule Castle itself, using Serutabomac Shrine as a point rapid movement.

No matter how you do it, you have to dive into the chasm of Hyrule Castle. If this is your first time visiting this area, we highly recommend activating the Camobatures Lightroot to bring some much-needed light to the location and add it to your Depths map.

After that, or if you have already activated this Lightroot, head to the southern part of this section of the chasm. Here you’ll find another hole guarded by Gloom-infested Shock Likes. You can avoid fighting these monsters if you want.

Whether you decide to kill them or not, you’ll want to jump off the ledge and paraglide across the hole on the left side.

This will lead you to another small cave containing Gloom-infested Horriblins. Again, you can avoid fighting these monsters if you want, just make sure to quickly climb up the wall right in front of you.

After climbing this wall, you will find yourself in a larger cavern, located on a ledge above a White-Maned Lynel. Once again, you have the choice to fight this monster or simply avoid it. We recommend avoiding it to conserve your resources, as Lynels are some of the hardest in the game and being infested by Gloom doesn’t make things any easier.

Instead of fighting the White-Maned Lynel, look to your left to see a door on the left wall of the cavern. You can easily paraglide to this gate, using Tulin’s Wish to reach it even faster.

Once there, go through the door and let the block take you to the lower floor.

You will now find yourself in a room where two blocks will fall from the ceiling. Using Recall, find the block that has the most direct path to the top of the room (or less, you might find yourself falling to the ground). After finding it, climb on it and use Rappel to reach the top of the room.

From there, follow the hallway until you find yourself in an area containing several Ice Likes and Ice Keese. Here we recommend defeating these monsters, as this will make progressing through the corridor much easier without them.

You can defeat Ice Likes by fusing materials like Fire Fruits with an arrow, then shooting them as if they are stunned. Ice Keese, on the other hand, can be quickly murdered with a hit from any weapon or a single arrow.

With the monsters gone, you can now safely pass through the corridor they were guarding. Given the amount of Gloom in the hallway, it’s a good idea to jump to the top of Mineru’s Construct in order to avoid getting hit by the Gloom.

At the end of the corridor, you will find yourself on the edge of yet another chasm. The quickest way to reach the bottom is to simply paraglide or dive until you reach the lowest floor. Keep in mind that going down this hole you will also lose contact with the sages, so you will not be able to use their powers in the future.

Two Gloom-infested Lizalfos await you at the bottom of this pit, but, if you’re lucky, you can avoid fighting them by sliding through the archway in the north wall. However, two Gloom-infested Chuchus will come out of you when you go through this door!

You will now find yourself looking across a room at an arcade with a Silver Moblin standing in front of it. This is the arch you need to reach and there are two ways to reach it.

The first is to head towards the stairs on the right side of this room, which will lead you to a tunnel that circles the corridor. Although the only inhabitants of this corridor are patches of Gloom, you will need to break through several rock walls to reach your destination. This can easily eat into your reserves of explosive flowers and weapons.

The second option is to slide down the right side of the broken bridge directly in front of you and climb the part of the bridge that isn’t covered in Gloom. While doing so, try to keep an eye out for the Silver Moblin, otherwise you might find yourself facing an arrow.

The only problem with both methods is that there is a Hand Gloom waiting for you in the middle of this cavern and, if you’re not careful, you might fall prey to it. Using the paraglider will help put some distance between you and Gloom Hand, but we recommend trying to avoid fighting him. Again, like previous monsters, you run the risk of using the gear you save for Ganondorf, especially since you then have to fight a Ghost Ganon.

Once you’re on the other side of the cavern, you’ll find yourself at the top of a familiar set of stairs. Go down them to find yourself in the Forgotten Foundation that Zelda and Link were exploring at the start of Tears of the Kingdom.

You will now find yourself retracing your steps from the start of the game. Don’t let your guard down, there is a Silver Bokoblin and four Gibdo waiting for you. The Gibdo, however, can be easily taken care of by standing far away and shooting it with Shock-Fruit fused arrows.

You’ll need to destroy a few rocks at the back of the room containing a Gibdo, but you should be able to find a rusty weapon and a rock that you can fuse together to avoid using anything valuable.

Eventually, you will find yourself in the room containing the murals from Hyrule’s past. If you want to take a look at the full mural, make sure to destroy all the rocks in this room. Just as well, because you have to destroy those on the far right anyway to reach Ganondorf.

Now head down the final stairwell, avoiding areas of darkness as you go, until you reach the ledge overlooking the imprisonment chamber.

It’s a good idea to place a Travel Medallion on this ledge in case you are defeated by Ganondorf. You can then go for better gear, more meals, or complete more shrines to get extra hearts or stamina without having to worry about crossing the chasm in Hyrule Castle again.

When you’re ready, dive into the Imprisonment Chamber and enter Gloom’s Lair. Here you’ll find a torch you might remember, and at the bottom of the cavern, after avoiding Gloom, you’ll find a diving platform.

This is the point of no return in Tears of the Kingdom. Once you dive from this location, you will be in the final battle against Ganondorf and nothing but death or success can free you from him. (Or reload an earlier save file – that works too, but doesn’t seem as dramatic.)

For now, it’s time to make your final preparations and, if you wish, place a travel medallion here. When you’re ready, dive in to meet Ganondorf.

If you need help defeating the Demon King, visit our guide on how to defeat Ganondorf or, if you’re interested in a different adventure in Hyrule, visit our Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough.

Good luck defeating Ganondorf!