Tears of the Kingdom: Last boss Ganondorf caged, humiliated and turned into a plaything 

A number of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have been spotted taking advantage of what is believed to be a glitch to mess with the game’s last boss in a variety of ways. The sight of the powerful last boss just taking whatever is being dished out at him has attracted the attention of players and media outlets across the world. 

We spoke with Yukino, a player who has shown off a great number of different ways to “mess with the last boss,” and discussed what led to the discovery of this phenomenon as well as their preferred methods of toying with the boss. 

Please be warned that this article discusses the final boss fight of the game and includes images and videos showing the fight. 

Like the majority of entries in the series, Tears of the Kingdom features Link’s archenemy, Ganondorf. During the final battle of the game, he takes the form of Demon King Ganondorf and stands as Link’s opponent. But some players have taken advantage of what seems to be a glitch to cause a strange phenomenon that lets them toy with the mighty Demon King as they wish. One of the players who has posted many different ways of messing with Ganondorf is Yukino, a player who has performed experiments pushing the limits of what can be achieved in the world of Hyrule ever since Breath of the Wild. You can see the fruits of Yukino’s research on their Twitter account and YouTube channel. As part of their research, they have been posting many examples on social media of how they’ve messed with Ganondorf. 

For example, in the video below, Yukino has built a machine that repeatedly spanks Ganondorf in the behind with a bat. The spanking-machine consists of a sturdy wooden stick that has been attached to a Big Wheel Zonai Device. The wheel turns round and round, giving the Demon King a good whack on the butt each time it goes past. While this is going on, Ganondorf barely reacts at all. His imposing figure stands with his back towards the camera, letting everything happen while merely glaring in the direction of Link. 

The fun didn’t end there, as Yukino also created a bowling ramp that sends Time Bombs rolling down at Ganondorf, and practiced archery by shooting an apple off the top of Ganondorf’s head. As for the latter style of fun, Yukino described it as “playing Willam Tell,” in reference to the Swiss folk hero known for his skill with a bow. The William Tell video also includes a failed take, where Yukino’s aim is a bit off, and an arrow is sent flying straight into Ganondorf’s face. It seems that the Demon King couldn’t let that one slide. 

Yukino continued to play around with Ganondorf while using the ultra-light railings discovered by the player community some time ago, and tested out what would happen as they added more and more railings to the boss area. Possibly due to there being too many objects, Ganondorf ended up entirely disappearing from the room. It almost feels as if he became so fed up with the mess that Link was making that he decided to just up and leave. 

Following this, Yukino reported that their experiments with huge quantities of railings caused them to be whisked off to a mysterious location (Related article). There were no lights, items, or sounds in this strange place, and it wasn’t even clear where it existed in the game’s world. To make matters worse, regardless of which file Yukino loaded, they always ended up in this same room. The only way out was to relaunch the game. Yukino believes that they ended up in that place as a result of putting too much processing load on the game and called it a “punishment zone.” Some days later, they discovered a reproducible—albeit somewhat unreliable—method to cause this phenomenon. It’s possible that if you don’t practice moderation in your teasing of Ganondorf, you’ll be thrown into this “solitary confinement” as punishment.  

Now, we seem to have glossed over a vital point: Ganondorf isn’t the kind of fellow who would just willingly let his backside take a beating. Furthermore, several of his attacks cause the contraptions you create with Autobuild Schematics to disappear. In a normal situation, it would be impossible to mess with Ganondorf in the way we’ve seen Yukino and others do it. The key to all of this are the green colored lattices that can be seen in Yukino’s series of videos. 

These are actually elevator railings found in the Construct Factory and Right-leg Depot. Using Zonai Devices to break apart the elevator allows you to forcefully remove the railings. Unlike regular objects, these railings generally can’t be broken and have drawn attention for their unique characteristics, such as their light weight and strange physics. When Ganondorf is surrounded by these railings, he exhibits some rather unexpected behavior, suddenly becoming meek and not moving an inch. Although there are certain circumstances where he will attack in response to your actions, for the most part, he will stay fixed in one spot. 

We asked Yukino what led to the discovery that Ganondorf could be stopped with the elevator railings, and they said the impetus was linked to an experiment with Lynels in which the railings produced strange behavior from the creatures. Lynels are capable of eradicating your Autobuild Schematic creations with their roar, but this roar is unable to make the railings disappear, so they become stuck in loop where they roar over and over in a futile effort. 

Yukino hypothesized that if the railings worked on Lynels, then they may also have an effect on Ganondorf, so they surrounded the Demon King with railings to put it to the test. Using the same railings as for the Lynel, Yukino was successful in pacifying Ganondorf in the very first experiment. This all happened in under a minute, since Yukino surrounded Ganondorf with the railings as soon as they entered the boss battle area. Unlike the Lynels and their continual roaring, Ganondorf simply stood completely still, and Yukino couldn’t help but laugh at such a sight. 

Ganondorf can wield a variety of different weapons, but according to Yukino, this method of stopping his movement will only work while he is using a sword. But since that is the weapon that he uses to begin the fight, it makes sense that Yukino’s first experiment proved a success, even if it was partly by chance.  

We asked Yukino whether they feel any guilt over doing all these humiliating things to Ganondorf when he can’t fight back, and they replied, “This is the Demon King that is trying to destroy Hyrule. I can’t say I feel much guilt at all.” They then noted, “I do prefer messing with him in pleasant ways, rather than attacking him in a one-sided manner.” When we asked Yukino for their favorite method of toying with Ganondorf, they gave us their top three, which can be seen below: 

As for what they like about each one, Yukino finds the first method appealing for how surreal it is, the second for the contrast in someone with Ganondorf’s (very uncute) appearance liking cute things, and the third for the way it makes the Hudson sign look (even more than expected) like it’s the true mastermind pulling the strings. It’s important to highlight that all these ways of messing with Ganondorf—whether it’s dancing together while recording it with the camera of the Purah Pad or taking a photo of the menacing looking Demon King with stuffed animals or a Hudson sign sitting on his shoulders—are completely safe and have no risk of causing any harm to our vulnerable friend. 

This fun with Ganondorf is all made possible thanks to one mysterious material, but there was actually another material that could cause the same behavior in Lynels. This “U-shaped block,” an object found in the Construct Factory, was also invulnerable to a Lynel roar. At least, until that property was removed as part of the changes in update Ver.1.2.0. Bearing that in mind, it may be only a matter of time until they remove that same property from the elevator railings. 

As an aside, by completing certain events in the game, it becomes possible to create sculptures in Tarrey Town based on enemies that you have photographed with the Purah Pad. Ganondorf is no exception, so if you can’t use the elevator railings for some reason (like if they get patched), then you might still be able to get your fix of fun with a Ganondorf sculpture.  

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-07-22 17:51 JST)