Ganondorf returns in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and he’s at his full power once again. That power is so vast this time around that even a minor incarnation with a limited amount of his strength can give Link a difficult battle. That incarnation is the Phantom Ganon.

Phantom Ganon takes various forms in Tears of the Kingdom as a recurring mini-boss in the Depths. He’s a terrifying companion to Gloom Hands and a boss monster in Hyrule Castle. His attacks are pretty straight forward, but the fact that he leaves puddles of Gloom in his wake means that dodging his onslaught can sometimes get complicated. Thus, cooking plenty of Sundelion dishes ahead of time can be invaluable in staying alive long enough to bring him down. Link’s valiant efforts won’t go unrewarded, though. Depending on the weapon he’s wielding, Phantom Ganon always drops either a powerful Gloom Sword, Gloom Spear, or Gloom Club.

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How to Defeat Phantom Ganon in Tears of the Kingdom

There are three basic versions of Phantom Ganon which are differentiated by the type of weapon he uses: a sword, a spear, or a club. While the basic attacks he’ll carry out differ depending on the weapon, his overall attack pattern is largely the same in each of these iterations. The best way to take Phantom Ganon down is to dodge his strike at the right moment to trigger a flurry rush. Flurry rushing will not only allow Link to get off numerous attacks at once, it also makes Link temporarily impervious to the Gloom he might step on until the rush wears off.

The most balanced of the three in terms of speed is Phantom Ganon’s sword stance. His attacks focus largely on charging toward Link and then using either a downward vertical slash or a horizontal strike across the body. The best way to get a flurry rush against this version of Phantom Ganon is jump to the side when he does his vertical attack, and backflip when he attacks horizontally. His attacks are always greatly telegraphed ahead of time as he will hold his sword to the side before striking horizontally, and he’ll hold his sword over his head before striking down vertically. The one move to watch out for is Phantom Ganon’s spin attack which can be difficult to dodge, but is also clearly telegraphed.

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Phantom Ganon’s spear stance is the fastest of the three and has the longest range with his attacks. However, he’s also very one-dimensional being that he mostly engages Link using a forward thrust attack. In this case, either parrying with a strong shield or side-jumping to get the flurry rush is the best option. The spear Phantom Ganon wields may have enough reach to still hit Link if he backflips at the wrong time. Another viable option is to keep distance using well-placed headshots from a strong bow, though this may prove difficult as Phantom Ganon can close distance quickly.

The club-wielding Phantom Ganon is the slowest of the three iterations, but he also does the most damage. With the club, Phantom Ganon has two basic attacks: a leaping vertical attack and a standing swing. The leaping attack is fairly easy to dodge given how slowly he moves, but the standing attack could potentially catch players off guard. The easiest way to take down this version is to simply run away while he does either of his attacks, and then move in to strike during his long recovery time between misses.

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How to Beat the Phantom Ganon Boss Fight at Hyrule Castle

After progressing through the main quest, players will eventually face off against Phantom Ganon’s most powerful form in the main hall of Hyrule Castle. Many of the methods followed in the previous iterations of Phantom Ganon come into play here, but there are some curveballs thrown in as well. For starters, the first half of the battle will be fought against five Phantom Ganons simultaneously. While this can be overwhelming alone, presuming the player has completed all four of the main quest dungeons and received the powers of the four sages, each of them should hold off one of the excess Ganons so that Link can focus on one at a time.

The first five Phantom Ganons will all use a Gloom Sword. After bringing him down to half health, Phantom Ganon will begin switching weapons. Additionally, he’ll also start covering the entire area with Gloom. When this happens, the natural reaction will be to run away and try to avoid the spreading Gloom at all costs. However, this will only result in the entire room being fully covered in Gloom with nowhere to escape. That’s why, instead of running away, players should seek out the Ganon that is the source of the Gloom and attack him, causing him to get stunned and absorb the Gloom back into himself.

Another way to stop the Gloom from spreading is to fully kill another one of the Phantom Gloom spawns wandering about the room. This can be done using the same methods as before. After taking down the last of Ganon’s spawns, Link will be rewarded with a heart piece for his trouble and a fair share of Gloom weapon drops as a bonus.