Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — How to Find and Beat King Gleeok in TotK

If you’re looking for an endgame challenge that isn’t Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, King Gleeok is your dragon. Its attacks deal enormous amounts of damage and come from all three main element types, and its health pool is absurd. Defeating it will take a full inventory of arrows, Fused endgame weapons, and more than a bit of skill. Our guide will tell you how to find and beat King Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom.

Where to Find King Gleeok in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Herba Sky King Gleeok Location

The first King Gleeok location is high (high) up in the westernmost area of the Hebra Sky.

You’ll see the platform several hundred feet above you at the apex of the jump you take out of the Raspro Pass Skyview Tower. The Sky Island just north of the Skyview Tower has a platform you can take there, but you’ll need lots of Zonai Devices to get high enough to reach King Gleeok’s arena and far enough west.

Depths King Gleeok Location

There’s also a version of King Gleeok in the far northern portion of the Depths, in the Gleeok Den. I can attest that this version is somehow even more dangerous than the one in Herba Sky. It very much can kill you quickly. Not only does it have the same health pool, but it’s corrupted by gloom, meaning every hit will rob you of at least four or five hearts.

Don’t be like me and try to take this one on with only six hearts; you’ll get one shot over and over again. Bring plenty of Gloom warding and removal items and even more arrows. The Tunic of Memories can be a good choice for this fight. And while defeating King Gleeok in TotK without arrows is probably possible, I don’t recommend trying.

How to Beat King Gleeok in TotK

TotK King Gleeok Boss Battle: Phase 1 Tips

When you finally engage King Gleeok, its first phase sees it flying around the arena. There are several attacks to watch out for.

• King Gleeok shoots three different types of elemental beams out of its mouth: lightning (stun), fire (burn), and ice (freeze).
  • Lightning attacks will cause you to drop your held weapon. The damage is consistent across all the beams: six or so hearts. The beams travel faster than Link can sprint, but you can get away if you run in circles or curves.

• King Gleeok can also shoot elemental balls out of its mouth. These don’t track but cause different kinds of explosions when they land.
  • Fire creates a lingering flame effect, ice creates a star-shaped construct that shatters after about 10 seconds, freezing you if you touch it, and lightning creates a large sphere of electricity that hands around for about five seconds.

You can also prey on King Gleeok’s elemental weaknesses: an ice-enhanced arrow will one-shot its fire head, and a fire-enhanced arrow will do the same to its ice head.

For this first phase, get into the air and abuse Link’s ability to slow down time, using your bow while airborne. Use the time dilation to target King Gleeok’s three heads, dealing enough damage to make them droop. Once you’ve broken all three heads, the boss will fall to the ground for 15 seconds, allowing you to deal as much damage as possible.

How to Beat King Gleeok: Phase 2

King Gleeok’s second phase occurs after you’ve broken all its heads and mostly follows the pattern of the first phase. The main difference is that it will spend more time on the ground than in the air. Continue much like previously:

• Get airborne with Zonai devices.
• Jump off ledges.
• Use a Fused bomb-shield jump.

How to Defeat King Gleeok: Phase 3 Strategies

The third phase of the TotK King Gleeok boss fight is where things are tricky. At about one-third health, King Gleeok will fly high into the air and start raining down lightning bolts and large icicles. You can tell which by the beams of light that appear near the ground:

• Yellow for a lightning bolt.
• Blue for an icicle.

To deal damage to the boss in Phase 3, you need to reach him in the sky. The most apparent way is to use the updrafts caused by the lighting strikes, but to make best use of those, you have to wait until the icicles and bolts stop coming down.

Probably the easiest and safest way to get up to King Gleeok in his final phase is to wait until a few icicles fall and then use Recall to ride them back where they came from. This is the method I used, and I’d recommend it if you can pull it off. Time will freeze, and you’ll be in a good place to damage the boss.

Making it fall is the same: break all three heads, and it will tumble out of the sky, taking massive damage from the fall. It will also be staggered for 10 seconds, giving you plenty of time to finish it off.

And that’s how to find and beat King Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom. Don’t be discouraged if it takes you a few tries to defeat King Gleeok. It took me several. However, if you’re fighting it on the Sky Islands, you need to be sure you can win the fight, as getting back is a chore. Thankfully, many other aspects of the game aren’t a chore, and we’ve covered many of them, including how to build a laser drone, the best attack ingredients and recipes, and more in our TotK guides hub.