The Legend Of Zelda: The 9 Hardest Bosses In The Series

There’s no shortage of titanic enemies and colossal beasts in Hyrule, and these are the hardest bosses in The Legend of Zelda series.

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For thirty-five years, The Legend of Zelda franchise has helped define the gaming industry with its dynamic and innovative gameplay design. Through the Zelda games, Nintendo first implemented gameplay mechanics that are taken for granted as fundamental in contemporary game design.

The Legend of Zelda’s boss fights is one such example, pioneering narrative-driven multi-stage encounters long before they were standard in fantasy action games. Even if they were not the first to implement all of these mechanics, Nintendo perfected their early iterations, contributing to a long roster of franchise bosses that are as difficult today as they were decades ago.

9 Gyorg (Majora’s Mask)

Though it is arguably the strangest Zelda game in the series, Majora’s Mask features a somewhat typical conceit for the oceanic Great Bay Temple’s boss — a mutated giant fish named Gyorg. As such a design might suggest, players must face off against this boss in a mostly underwater environment. Though Majora’s Mask features one of the franchise’s best swimming mechanics — certainly the best for its time — Gyorg is a far better swimmer, capable of turning on a dime and leaping onto the arena’s sole platform to attack Link.

To defeat this boss, players must hit the fish’s eye with arrows or Zora Link’s Boomerang Fins to stun it before swimming in for an attack — provided they’re quick enough. The boss was deemed so difficult that Nintendo took the rare steps of changing the fight’s dynamics for 2015’s 3DS remake, giving players a much easier target to hit within Gyorg’s mouth and more time to land an attack.

8 Demise (Skyward Sword)

Demise is the rare Legend of Zelda boss whose encounter feels more like something out of the Dark Souls or even Final Fantasy franchises. This battle is devoid of the somewhat tired and gimmicky boss mechanics that dominate Skyward Sword’s boss encounters, like dismantling the Koloktos armor with the whip or shooting Tantalus’ giant glowing eye.

Instead, this fight focuses on Skyward Sword’s dynamic swordplay mechanics, necessitating skill and finesse particularly when played with the title’s intended controller, the Wiimote. As a boss, Demise puts up as much of a fight as players would expect from the immortal spirit of evil at the core of Ganondorf, a fan-favorite recurring antagonist in the Zelda series. It’s a grueling battle and a worthy conclusion to one of the franchise’s best titles.

7 Ghirahim (Skyward Sword)

Players cross swords with Ghirahim the Demon Lord three times throughout the course of Skyward Sword, and he bears the rare distinction among recurring bosses of effectively escalating the difficulty in each encounter. This boss first introduces players to the nuances of the game’s sword-fighting mechanics, requiring the careful study of his technique and poise in order to break his defenses and effectively guard against his attacks.

As Link’s skills deepen across the story, so do Ghirahim’s, so the player can never grow complacent during his fights. Every technique gained and combat strategy learned must be used to defeat this imposing foe, and a momentary misstep can prove fatal. In this way, Ghirahim becomes a true gauge of the player’s skill and elevates him to a tier above most bosses in Skyward Sword.

6 Gleeok (The Legend of Zelda)

A boss featured in the very first installment in The Legend of Zelda series from 1987, the Gleeok is a prime example of a classic boss design that is still challenging by contemporary standards. This hydra-like creature guards a shard of the Triforce in Level 4 and spews patterns of fireballs at Link from its two heads. While dodging these attacks within the tiny boss arena, players must deal damage to both of the creature’s heads.

When one is destroyed, however, the disembodied head floats around the room, still hurling fireballs from ever-changing positions. Even more challenging, a subsequent battle with this boss features twice as many heads. It’s a fight any Legend of Zelda veteran recalls with woe, and it easily ranks among the most difficult in the series.

5 Calamity Ganon (Breath of the Wild)

Though this boss fight is made easier from the combined intervention of the four Divine Beasts, Breath of the Wild’s Calamity Ganon is still a punishing foe that can’t be taken lightly. A nightmarish creature that looks like a hybrid between the game’s Lynels and an ancient Hylian spider, this boss is as dangerous as he looks due to his raw damage output potential. With a single slash of any one of his half dozen magical swords, Calamity Ganon can decimate Link’s health.

The third phase of the fight against Calamity Ganon implements a challenging precision-based spin on a classic Zelda combat mechanic, requiring the player to use the Master Sword to return volleys of magical energy with the boss like a game of enchanted tennis. Indeed, the battle is so difficult that it can even make the ensuing final boss fight with Dark Beast Ganon feel like a mere cutscene in comparison.

4 Phantom Ganon (Ocarina of Time)

This boss fight takes place in the Forest Temple’s somewhat out-of-place art gallery. Surrounded by identical paintings of a woodland road, players must watch for the image which features Phantom Ganon galloping toward them on his spectral horse and strike him with an arrow.

Adding to this challenge is the presence of several doppelgangers that can serve to distract the player while the real boss emerges from a painting behind Link for a sneak attack. After three strikes, the phantom will dismount his steed and Link must return a barrage of electrical volleys in order to stun the boss and open him up for a series of slashes.

3 Puppet Ganon (Wind Waker)

Though arguably one of the easier Legend of Zelda titles in the franchise, 2002’s Wind Waker features an assortment of dynamic boss fights that employ skill-based mechanics, and no boss in the game can compare with Puppet Ganon in this regard. Across this fight, Link must face off against three incarnations of this monster, including a boar marionette, a spider, and a worm reminiscent of another challenging Zelda boss, Moldorm.

The key mechanic in this fight is striking a tiny ball of light attached to the monster’s tail, and the final stage proves to be the most challenging in this regard. This insectoid form moves so quickly that it becomes exceptionally difficult to target its weak spot, forcing players to take a slow and risky pace or unleash a barrage of Light Arrows — arguably the most useful item in the Zelda series — in the hopes of becoming victorious.

2 Twinmold (Majora’s Mask)

A pair of enormous flying centipede-like creatures, Twinmold is one of Majora’s Mask’s only bosses of truly colossal scale. They absolutely tower over Link and can pop up from almost anywhere amidst the sandy ruins that compose the Stone Tower Temple’s boss arena, dealing significant damage before soaring out of range. The game creates something of a contrived mechanic to offset this difference with the Giant’s Mask — a mask that dramatically increases Link’s size and can only be used within Twinmold’s lair.

Even of near-equal stature, it’s almost impossible to predict where these two flying centipedes will emerge from next. The Giant’s Mask also steadily drains the player’s magic, and when it’s gone, Link is at the mercy of Twinmold destroying the environment at random to find any replenishing potions.

1 Moldorm (A Link to the Past)

Though Nintendo would develop the mechanics underlying the Moldorm boss fight in subsequent games, its original iteration in 1992’s A Link from the Past is arguably still the best version. A segmented worm with bulging eyes, Moldorm wriggles and writhes around its tiny boss platform with blistering speed and unpredictable patterns.

The environment, however, proves to be the most challenging element of this boss fight, as one strike from the boss — or even a misplaced slash from the player — can send Link tumbling over the edge of a platform and down several floors of the Tower of Hera. Even worse, this wholly restores the boss’s health and requires the player to endure the entire fight all over again. It’s as infuriating as it was inventive and represents a prime example of a timeless and challenging Zelda boss fight.

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