Although Breath of the Wild has a small selection of bosses, it also has a wide variety of minibosses and enemies that are equally formidable. Many of these enemies are much more difficult than the actual bosses of the game.
If you find yourself to be weak, don’t worry. You’ll become more powerful the further you progress in the game, so the bosses will become easier as you go. Eventually, you’ll slay the hardest enemies while barely breaking a sweat.
16. Dark Beast Ganon
As the final Breath of the Wild boss fight commences, you’re expecting it to be the epic final conclusion. The massive beast forms in front of you, and you’re prepared for a heated battle to ensue.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. When I beat this boss I thought, “Wait, that’s it?” Literally, all you do is shoot the overpowered bow at a few targets Princess Zelda highlights, and then she finishes him off herself.
Maybe I missed something, but I was also wondering where this amazing bow was the entire rest of the game. Zelda should have given the bow to Link the second he stepped off the Great Plateau, and he could have gone straight to Ganon.
This boss looks intimidating, but he takes barely any effort to kill. I got slightly annoyed during one of my playthroughs because the game wouldn’t let me hit the last target. It kept playing the same short music repeatedly until it finally worked.
To make it even worse, you find out that beating the boss will just send you back to the save right before you fought it. You won’t be able to see the results of what you’ve been working for the whole game.
Overall Difficulty: 1 out of 10
15. Master Kohga
After hearing so much about the Yoga Clan, you’d think that their leader, another Breath of the Wild Boss, is gonna be one tough baddie. It’s slightly disappointing when you find out he’s just an out-of-shape old man, who ends up doing himself in with a boulder.
Some people might find the boss funny, but I personally wanted to fight an ultra-powerful ninja master that was much more difficult than his clan members. The fight starts out pretty decent, but it ends much sooner than you think it should.
It makes you realize why Master Kohga sent his goons after Link instead of going after Link himself. After he crushes himself with the boulder, the clan comes after you to avenge their master. This is fun at first but gets slightly annoying when they frequently show up at the worst times possible. The Swordmasters are easy to beat, but the cool sword they drop is a great source of new weapons.
If you’re looking for a challenging Yoga Clan fight, try taking out all of the Swordmasters in the clan hideout. They can all kill you with one hit, so it’s actually pretty fun fighting them.
Overall Difficulty: 1.5 out of 10
14. Windblight Ganon
Besides Dark Beast Ganon, Windblight was the easiest Ganon to defeat. Revali’s Gale is my favorite of the Champion abilities, so after my first playthrough, I have always gone for Windblight first.
He really doesn’t pose a major threat to you, and I usually beat him so quickly that I don’t even remember the fight. I had to look up a video of someone fighting him in order to remember what the fight was like.
Bomb arrows shred Windblight Ganon’s health. You usually will have a bunch of these left over from when Revali gave you some. Pair this with a bow that shoots multiple arrows, and this fight becomes a piece of cake. Newer players with very few hearts can use this strategy and destroy him very easily.
His attacks are easy to avoid, as you can hide behind pillars between shots. The second phase seems even easier than the first, so you really don’t have a lot to worry about. Defeat this Ganon, and you’ll receive Revali’s Gale, one of the game’s most useful abilities.
Overall Difficulty: 2 out of 10
13. Fireblight Ganon
Although Windblight Ganon was insanely easy, Fireblight isn’t much better. He is a little more difficult due to his giant sword and laser blasts, but that’s nothing you can’t block with a shield.
He probably is one of the more enjoyable bosses to fight through. The arena is pretty cool, and it’s enjoyable when you make him pull one of his bombs right inside his forcefield.
Once you get him to fall on the ground, he’ll stay there long enough for you to take out a good chunk of his health. He’s usually the fourth Ganon I beat, which means I have some decent gear to fight him with, but players with early-game gear can get the job done.
Beating him will give you Daruk’s Protection, which is so powerful it almost feels like using it is cheating. Fighting him while using any other Champion abilities will make you end this battle so quickly that Ganon won’t even know what hit him.
Overall Difficulty: 2.5 out of 10
12. Stalnox
While exploring the massive world, I came across a pile of bones several times. I thought it was pretty cool to see slain Hinoxes around, but I didn’t realize they would come to life.
My first encounter with this interesting boss was when I randomly saw one walking around a forest. It was early on in the game, so I thought I didn’t have the means to fight him yet. I shot him with a bow a few times, quickly realizing he wasn’t taking any damage. But that was due to my weapons being too low, so I got out of there as quickly as I could.
I was very annoyed with myself when I realized that shooting his eye made him fall apart. You can make him try to butt-slam you, making him break into pieces. It becomes slightly more difficult when he starts to cover his eye, but eventually, he’ll move his hand long enough or you to take the shot.
If you ever come across a Stalnox during the day, always place an enemy marker so you can come back later. It’s extremely annoying attempting to search for the area you saw it the last time, so don’t forget to mark it.
Overall Difficulty: 3 out of 10
11. Stone Talus
There are a bunch of Stone Talus variants around the world, some being more difficult than others. Some of them have the ore deposit (the area you hit the Talus to damage them) located on harder-to-reach sections of rock.
Despite the different varieties, all the stone variants are very easy to beat. I like to use bomb arrows paired with a heavy weapon like a Boulder Breaker for some massive damage. You can also sometimes blow up their arms, which will leave them vulnerable until they grab a new one.
If you’re having trouble hitting an ore deposit located on his back, it’s easiest to use bullet-time, either from Revali’s Gale or by jumping from a higher elevation. Beating any Talus variant will also give you some gems, which give you a bunch of Rupees.
Hunt for some of these guys whenever you’re low on Rupees and sell the gems you get. They are pretty easy to defeat, so you won’t really have much of a challenge with them.
Overall Difficulty: 4 out of 10
10. Hinox
Like almost every other enemy in the game, Hinoxes have different difficulties based on their color. Reds are the easiest, though still a danger to Link early game. Blues are in the middle, so they aren’t crazy hard but still can pose a challenge. Lastly, black Hinoxes are the highest difficulty and can take a while to defeat due to increased health and damage output.
Despite their difficulty differences, they all have the same attacks, such as grabbing trees out of the ground and throwing them at you. They also try to butt-slam you just like the Stalnoxes do, but they obviously don’t break apart.
At higher difficulties, a Hinox will have leg armor that prevents you from hitting him. If the armor is made out of wood, you can burn them off using a fire arrow or weapon. The metal leg armor that black Hinoxes use can’t be burned off, but you can hit it with an electric arrow or weapon to stun him.
Probably my favorite experience with a Hinox is on Eventide Island. While that entire quest was fun, it was especially enjoyable fighting a Hinox with whatever you managed to salvage on the island. You didn’t even have to beat him, but I took it as a challenge and slew the giant cyclops.
They aren’t terribly hard to beat, but at least they are fun to fight. The weapons and items hanging on their neck can be pretty useful as well, especially the loot from the black Hinoxes.
Overall Difficulty: 5 out of 10
9. Molduga
Moldugas can be terrifying the first time you come across them, and many players didn’t figure out how to beat them for a while. They aren’t terribly hard to beat, but they can do quite a bit of damage if they get you. They can’t hurt you if you climb on top of a desert ruin or some other elevated area.
I really enjoy fighting these massive sand creatures, especially the ginormous one in the Champion’s Ballad DLC. It’s satisfying to detonate your bomb after a Molduga gobbled it up out of the sand.
Once you’ve gotten onto a safe area, it’s a simple cycle of throwing a bomb, detonating it, and attacking the creature when it lands.
There are lots of fun ways you can mess around with Moldugas. One of these being if you grab a sand seal and surf around as a Molduga chases you. You can be a daredevil and attempt to Revali’s Gale straight up in the air as he leaps at you, and then fire arrows straight down at the airborne monster.
They also give you some great loot that can be useful even late-game. The Molduga parts can be used for cooking elixirs or selling for Rupees, and the chests that spawn after beating them contain some pretty strong armor and weapons.
Like other overworld bosses, these respawn during blood moons, so you basically have a constant supply of items from these guys. After finishing the Gerudo area there aren’t many reasons to return to the desert, but Moldugas are definitely fun bosses worth traveling there to fight.
Overall Difficulty: 5.5 out of 10
8. Igneo Talus
Igneo Taluses are almost identical to a normal Talus, except for the fact that their entire body is covered with red hot fiery rock. Setting foot on these guys will cause Link to immediately burst into flames, so they are probably the most annoying version to fight.
Even then, you can just shoot them with an ice arrow to put out the flames. Then you can fight them like you would a regular Stone Talus. The massive Igneo Talus from the DLC was really fun to fight and was much more difficult than the normal-sized Taluses.
When I first came across an Igneo Talus, I didn’t realize I could cool him down with ice arrows. I made it way harder on myself by climbing onto him and whacking the ore deposit while Link was on fire.
They also drop some gems as the other variants do, so they are worth fighting for the extra rupees. They aren’t the hardest enemies in the world, but they are more annoying to fight than the regular Stone Taluses.
Overall Difficulty: 6 out of 10
7. Frost Talus
How could a Frost Talus be even harder than the one that’s literally on fire? Mostly because he can freeze you into place and proceed to crush you, dealing a good amount of damage.
Similarly to the Igneo variant, you can shoot a fire arrow at him so you’re able to walk on him without slipping. I haven’t run into as many of these as I have other Taluses for some reason, but most likely since I haven’t explored the snowy areas as much as I have the others.
The little tiny Taluses (Pebblits) also have the ability to freeze you into place, which is quite annoying. The Frost Taluses are just less fun to fight in general, so I generally avoid them when they pop up.
Overall Difficulty: 6.5 out of 10
6. Guardian Scout IV
Another Breath of the Wild Boss, known as the Major Test of Strength Guardian. These robots pose a very real threat to both new and intermediate players. Their attacks are pretty predictable, and most of the phases are pretty easy.
The reason I chose this Guardian Scout and not any of the other Test of Strength ones is the first two are pretty easy to destroy, even for newer players. For this guardian, however, even mid-game it seemed like these guys would break all of my best weapons and force me to eat all of my food.
Their large amount of health and damage is hard to beat, but they drop some awesome weapons that even end-game players use. Every Test of Strength Guardian respawns at a blood moon, so they are an awesome source of weapons to grab when your best ones break.
The third phase where they spam a barrage of Guardian lasers at you can sap health if you don’t avoid them, as they’ll knock you over and shoot you again. Even if you have a lot of health, their attacks can still manage to get you down to just a few hearts.
After beating a bunch of them, you can get your technique down to a science. Heavy weapons paired with an electric weapon can easily wreck any Guardian Scout. An arrow to the Guardian’s eye works as well but isn’t as fast as using a Thunderblade.
You’ll become so overpowered in the endgame that these guys will barely seem harder than the average Guardian. In order to complete every shrine in the game, you’ll end up fighting a lot of these, so spend some time figuring out your favorite method of dealing with them.
Overall Difficulty: 7 out of 10
5. Waterblight Ganon
Since he was the first version of Ganon in the roster of Breath of the Wild Bosses I fought, he seemed very hard to me at the time. The first phase is a piece of cake, but the second becomes much more annoying when the water level rises up.
Waterblight Ganon hovers above one of four platforms and sends all sorts of attacks your way. One of the most irritating is when he swings his long weapon at you and knocks you off into the water.
This fight is mainly hard because the water makes it more difficult to move around. When you do finally knock him over, he may fall into an area out of reach of your weapon, so all you can do is hit him with arrows or wait for him to get up.
The DLC sends you back to fight him a second time, but you have limited equipment this time. Your arrows run out pretty quickly, so you’ll have to resort to other methods.
I ran out of arrows during this fight, and I thought I had to chip away at his health using bombs. Turns out you can use stasis on one of the ice blocks and send it back at him, which does more damage than using arrows.
This fight will be easy if you’ve loaded up on arrows and weapons. He’s more difficult than the previous two Ganons on the list, but a good amount of arrows will take him out very quickly.
Overall Difficulty: 7.5 out of 10
4. Calamity Ganon
Being one of the final Breath of the Wild bosses, I’m glad he was difficult to fight. The disappointing Dark Beast Ganon immediately follows him, so at least one final boss fight was enjoyable.
If you didn’t complete any of the Divine Beasts before facing Calamity Ganon, he has the potential to be one of the hardest fights that can take the longest amount of time. Before the Calamity Ganon fight, you’ll be forced to fight every elemental Ganon you didn’t beat before. Potentially, you’ll have to fight all four elemental Ganons, Calamity Ganon, and Dark Beast Ganon in a single sitting.
He proves to be a difficult boss even with Daruk’s Protection and the other Champion abilities enabled. Make sure you bring plenty of fairies and a lot of food because you’ll probably get hurt quite a bit.
Another thing I like about this boss is that you can fight him as much as you want. There really aren’t a lot of reasons to fight him, as the game just reverts to your previous save. I personally waited a long time to fight Ganon, just because it felt like the game would end after beating him.
Overall he’s a pretty difficult boss and is one of the most fun bosses in the game. If you get bored of exploring and are looking for something interesting to do, challenge yourself to fight Ganon with limited weapons and armor.
Overall Difficulty: 8 out of 10
3. Thunderblight Ganon
Unless you have Daruk’s Protection enabled, his first phase is going to be very annoying to most players. One of his attacks is to fly around with super speed and hit you when you’re not expecting it. If you look at any forum threads online, you’ll see the majority of players agreeing that Thunderblight is one of the most challenging bosses in the game to beat.
It’s extremely hard to avoid this without a shield, and even then, sometimes, you still get hit. When he finally stops attacking, you have to bash his shield until it breaks. I think it’s satisfying to smash his shield to pieces, which leaves him vulnerable to your attacks.
The second phase of his attack is quite annoying as well. In this phase, he sends out some metal rods that stab into the ground and proceeds to electrify them one by one. You have to use Magnesis to grab one of these rods, then push it near him when it gets electrified. What makes this part annoying is that it’s sometimes difficult to grab one of the poles in time while avoiding getting electrified yourself.
This Breath of the Wild boss has some annoying attacks that are sometimes very hard to avoid. Once you beat him you’ll get Urbosa’s Fury, which is an insanely powerful ability that melts the health of any enemy.
Overall Difficulty: 9 out of 10
2. Lynel
In Breath of the Wild, Lynel isn’t technically a boss, but he really should be. At lower levels, he’ll absolutely wreck all your weapons and health. Unless you’re stocked up on Fairies and Mipha’s Grace, you’ll probably get the “You Died” screen more than once.
You can get a Savage Lynel Crusher from White Maned Lynels, which has a base attack power of 78. This is one of the most powerful weapons in the game and will absolutely wreck Lynels. If you pair this with Urbosa’s Fury, most Lynels won’t even know what hit them.
The Gold Lynel that Master Mode adds is insanely difficult to beat and is made even harder now that enemies regen health. I wouldn’t dare fight one of these Lynels until I had the best late-game items possible.
Overall Difficulty: 9.5 out of 10
1. Monk Maz Koshia
While not as damaging as Lynels are, Monk Maz Koshia is definitely one of the more difficult bosses in the game. As it turns out, he’s probably my personal favorite on this list simply because of the cool attacks he has. He’ll fight you with melee combat, summon many clones of himself, turn huge, and does many other interesting moves.
If you haven’t bought the Breath of the Wild DLC and fought this boss, he’s well worth fighting. I included him as the most difficult simply because of the damage he caused me. I basically had to eat every food item in my inventory before I was done with him.
The reward for beating him is the Master Cycle Zero, an awesome item well worth the effort.
Overall Difficulty: 10 out of 10