Tears of the Kingdom: How to one-up and exterminate those pesky Yiga clan members 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have devised a wide variety of ways to take out members of the Yiga Clan. Players are especially enjoying thinking up all sorts of interesting setups to defeat disguised Yiga Clan members without even giving them a chance in battle. The results of these clever traps can be found all over social media. 

Please note that this article contains spoilers relating to the Yiga Clan. 

The Yiga Clan appears in Tears of the Kingdom, just like they did in Breath of the Wild. Aside from encountering them in The Depths during the early stages of the game, they also appear on Hyrule’s surface later on, disguising themselves as travelers and laying traps for Link. Talking to a Yiga Clan member in disguise will result in them revealing their identity and immediately attacking Link. 

However, a number of players can be seen on social media attempting to set up ways to defeat these Yiga before they can even strike. Before initiating conversation with a disguised Yiga, these players devise plans that can take out the Yiga at the very moment their identities are revealed. One Reddit user posted a thread titled, “What’s your preferred way of dealing with the Yiga?” and included a video showing them defeat a Yiga using a rather bizarre method.  

In the video, the “traveler” that Link talks to transforms into a Yiga Clan member, complete with mask and red attire. Despite the Yiga being eager to go toe to toe with our hero, they are immediately sent to an early grave by a magnificent green object that comes hurtling across the screen, ramming them at full speed. Prior to talking to the Yiga, the player had laid a trap that was designed to defeat them as soon as the conversation ended.  

In Tears of the Kingdom, once you have spoken to an NPC for the first time, their name will appear above their head when you approach them. This means that if you don’t see a name pop up, there’s a good chance that they’re actually a Yiga Clan member in disguise. Another tip-off is that disguised Yiga often behave differently than regular characters. Furthermore, they love Mighty Bananas, so you can draw their attention by placing some nearby. 

These are the characteristics you can use to determine whether an NPC that you come across is a Yiga, and after you’ve made sure of their identity, you can put together a setup that will defeat them immediately after you finish talking to them. Players with an eye for picking out Yiga have been thinking up all sorts of ways to take them out in advance and sharing their methods on social media.  

In the above video, the player approaches a Yiga Clan member disguised as a traveler during a thunderstorm and then throws a metal spear into the ground behind them. After speaking to the “traveler,” they reveal themselves as a Yiga and  leap back towards the spot of the spear at the exact moment it is struck by an impeccably timed bolt of lightning. Incidentally, the Yiga carry metal weapons themselves, so they can end up being struck by lightning even without any traps being set up.   

Other players have come up with specialized ways to take out Yiga using things like Zonai Devices. One sent a Yiga to the afterlife by dropping in on them with a thrilling aerial bombing, another did the opposite and built a device that launched a Yiga into the air before blowing up, and one more player took a much simpler approach and just laid a bomb at a Yiga’s feet.  

Even users on the r/HyruleEngineering subreddit have gotten in on the fun, constructing weapons to rapidly take out Yiga Clan members. One user created an electric trap that they dubbed the “Tesla Coil.” It uses the electricity dispelled from a Shock Emitter and chains it along fire hydrants blocked with shields to construct an electric fence that traps the Yiga within it. After transforming, the Yiga is left as a helpless victim with no chance of escape. 

Setting up traps in advance to take out Yiga Clan members is not a new undertaking, as players were doing this even in Breath of the Wild. Some methods involved firing up a Bomb Arrow before speaking to the Yiga and having them get caught in the blast, or hitting them with logs that have been charged with the maximum amount of kinetic energy via Stasis. It’s almost as if the pastime of identifying Yiga and defeating them in all kinds of extravagant ways is one of the game features that got carried over to the sequel.  

In Tears of the Kingdom, players have also discovered a new “weakness” of the Yiga in addition to seeing through their disguises. For example, Yiga don’t just try to trick you with their disguises, but also lay banana traps. If you pick up the bananas, Yiga Clan members who were patiently waiting while disguised as trees will reveal themselves and attack. At the same time, if you see a banana and three oddly located trees on the field, then you can easily tell that it’s a trap. One player posted a video showing them easily dispatch a bunch of Yiga with an imposing battle mech that they had prepared beforehand.  

You can also catch a glimpse of a rather amusing side to the Yiga that patrol The Depths on flying Zonai Devices. If Link jumps onto their vehicle, they become flustered and are unable to do anything. The Clan leader, Master Kohga, also reacts in the same way. If you board his vehicle during the fight against him, Master Kohga will panic and cause a commotion, leaving himself open to attack. What’s more, at certain points in the fight, it is possible to steal the vehicles that he summons if you can board them before he gets a chance to do so himself. You will get to see the spectacle of Master Kohga running round and round as he chases his own vehicle. 

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-06-29 16:56 JST)