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How to beat King Gleeok in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Stock up on weapons, materials, and arrows to beat this difficult mini-boss.

King Gleeok in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are another variant of Gleeoks, only this one has a different elemental head for each of its three heads. Before you attempt to battle a King Gleeok, we strongly advise that you use our Frost, Flame, and Thunder Gleeok guide to beat one of each type of these other Gleooks first. This is because a King Gleeok uses attacks from each Gleeok type.

As with fighting other mini-bosses in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the more prepared you are when you go into the fight the easier it will be. However, we are by no means saying that fighting a King Gleeok is a smooth ride - it's one of the trickiest bosses we've come up against so far.

Without further ado, we're here to show you how to beat King Gleeok in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

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10 Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting The Legend of Zelda Tears of the KingdomWatch on YouTube

If you'd like to learn more about Link's adventure, visit our Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom walkthrough.

How to prepare for King Gleeok in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

To prepare for fighting a King Gleeok, we recommend spending a good amount of time filling your pockets with supplies. This may mean you need to explore and fast travel around different points in Hyrule to get the things you need, but it's worth it. If you need to leave the fight halfway through to restock, the King Gleeok's health will reset. We found this out the hard way after our last Bow shattered near the end of the fight.

Here's a list of all of the preparations we recommend making before taking on a King Gleeok:

  • Armor - As the King Gleeok has three heads of three different elements - fire, ice, thunder - it's pretty hard to get all of those elemental resistances into one piece of armor. We found it easiest to wear the Phantom Armor and ensure that our pockets were full of meals that boost our elemental resistances. If you want to learn more about things to cook in Hyrule, check out our recipes list.
  • Weapons - Having any melee weapon that has an attack stat of 32 or above is ideal for beating a King Gleeok. Getting it on the ground takes a lot of work, so you'll want to inflict as much damage as you can in a short space of time.
  • Bow and Arrow - Fill your entire bow inventory up if you can, the higher the attack power and durability of your chosen bows the better. However, we did manage to use a Bokoblin Bow as a last resort in our fight, so it's possible to beat a King Gleeok with lower level bows - it's just harder as they run out faster.
  • Keese Eyeballs and Wings - Keese Eyeballs and Wings will help you get accurate shots on the King Gleeok as you run around its relentless attacks on you. Having ice, fire, and electric Keese parts will all be useful as each head will react differently to each elemental attack thrown at it.
  • Aerocuda Eyeballs and Wings - We highly advise tracking these creatures down to farm their eyeballs, having a few of these items in your inventory will help when things get a bit heated with the King Gleeok.
  • Dazzle Fruit - This fruit is extremely helpful here. Attaching a Dazzle Fruit to an arrow and firing it at the King Gleeok will briefly daze it, often bringing a halt to the Gleeok's attack for a short space of time. Also, using a Dazzle Fruit when a downed Gleeok stands up will give you a few seconds to get to safety.
  • zelda totk king gleeok side view
  • Meals and Elixirs - The King Gleeok has electric, fire, and ice attacks. We highly recommend having several meals that have shock, cold, and heat resistance effects in them. We also advise having meals that can restore five or more hearts in a single sitting (the King Gleeok will see to it that you lose plenty of hearts throughout the fight). On top of that, having a few Hasty Elixirs in your inventory will make the final portion of this fight a bit easier.
  • Activate The Sages - If you don't have any, we suggest investigating at least four Regional Phenomena before taking on this creature. Having a few Sage's at your side will make the battle less intense as they can distract the King Gleeok at times.
  • Increase Hearts and Stamina - If you're low on hearts and your stamina wheel is below two full wheels, we recommend spending some time doing Shrines to collect Lights of Blessing that can be spent on Heart and Stamina upgrades at Goddess Statues. We had two full wheels of stamina and nine hearts when we took on the King Gleeok and we just about made it.
  • Dragon Shard Melee Weapon - If you can track down one of the Dragons in Hyrule and collect their shards, attaching them to melee weapons will give that weapon a strong elemental attack.
  • Attach Gleeok Horns to Melee Weapons - When you beat any of the three Gleeok types, you get an elemental horn of the specific Gleeok you've beaten. Using Fuse to attach a Gleeok Horn to a melee weapon will significantly increase that weapon's damage and, surprisingly, it really hurts the King Gleeok.
  • Collect elemental Chu Chu Jelly - Those little globs that appear after defeating a Chu Chu are surprisingly useful in this fight. Sure, Keese and Aerocuda parts are more effective but every little bit counts when bringing down a King Gleeok.
  • Gleeok Wings - When you take down any other Gleeok in Hyrule, you'll collect a few Gleeok Wings. These really improve the range and accuracy of your arrows, giving you a better chance at getting a clean head shot while standing at a reasonably safe distance.

When you feel you're ready, you can head out to take on a King Gleeok.

zelda totk king gleeok underneath view

How to beat King Gleeok in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Now, if you've already fought a Thunder, Flame, and Frost Gleeok then the attacks a King Gleeok uses will be familiar to you. As we said earlier, a King Gleeok has the head of a Thunder Gleeok, Flame Gleeok, and Frost Gleeok which means three times the trouble and triple the amount of elemental attacks you need to watch out for.

Here's a list of all of the attacks a King Gleeok used on us and ones you should watch out for:

Thunder Attacks

  • Lightning Beams - The Thunder head of the King Gleeok breathes lightning. The beam itself will follow you and it's a lot faster in catching up to you than it is when being used by a plain Thunder Gleeok.
  • Lightning Balls - Think of these as massive Electric Keese (though they're just electricity now, no monster inside). If you get hit by one of these, you'll drop whatever you're holding and briefly be stuck in place, which leaves you open to the King Gleeok's attacks.

When we fought the King Gleeok, it did unleash its Mega Bolt attack at the end of the fight. When the King Gleeok flies high into the sky, it will start to rain down powerful bolts of lightning that leave an updraft behind. You can ride the updrafts left behind to get closer to the Gleeok in the sky to take your final attempts at bringing it down.

Flame Attacks

  • Fire Beams - The King Gleeok fires fire beams from its Flame head and will aim them at you with deadly accuracy. Due to the fact that you have two other elemental heads trying to get you at the same time, we recommend getting behind cover or running away from the beams to dodge this attack. Shielding it may put you in danger of being frozen by the ice head or electrecuted by the thunder one.
  • Fire Balls - This attack is usually merged with Thunder Balls being thrown out too. The same rule applies to both types, stick to cover and don't get hit.
  • At the time we fought it, the King Gleeok didn't unleash its epic Flame Meteor attack but it's always worth keeping an eye out for it when it flies high into the sky. If you see a massive flaming meteor heading your way, it's best to run and make sure it doesn't hit you.

zelda totk link in sidon shield flame gleeok raining fire
This is how the fire balls look (but this is a Flame Gleeok).

Frost Attacks

  • Ice Beam - Like a dragon would breathe fire, the Frost Gleeok breathes ice. Each head will fire out beams of ice that can reach pretty far and can instantly freeze Link if he's not protected enough. Hiding behind some cover or running to a distance where the beams cannot reach you is a good way to avoid this attack.
  • Projectile Snowflakes - No, we're not kidding, the Frost Gleeok really does shoot out projectile ice blasts that turn into large deadly snowflakes upon impact. Again, getting to cover or making sure you're out of the way of the incoming attack is a good way to avoid being frozen.

When we fought the King Gleeok it used its 'Snowstorm' attack where it rains down large chunks of ice into the ground that can crush Link if he's caught under them. However, these serve another purpose. You can climb on top of one and use the Rewind ability to ride it back into the sky to get a better shot at the King Gleeok.

Another frustrating attack to watch out for is the 'Gust' attack it does with its wings once it stands up after you've downed it. This attack can go on for a while and repeatedly knock Link to the ground, which leaves him extremely vulnerable.

zelda totk king gleeok link clinging to rock
The King Gleeok actively seeks you out, that's not terrifying at all...

To beat the King Gleeok, you need to attack each of its three heads with arrows (plus any attachments you want) until each head's health bar is down to zero. When the heads are down, the King Gleeok will crash into the ground and be vulnerable for a short space of time.

When this happens, run to the King Gleeok and repeatedly attack it with your strongest melee weapon to chip away at its health bar at the top of the screen. However, watch for it to begin to stir as it will quickly stand up. You can fire a Dazzle Fruit at the King Gleeok once it's standing to give yourself a few seconds to get to safety.

Then you need to rinse and repeat until you bring the King Gleeok down, though that's a lot easier said than done.

zelda totk downed king gleeok
Should we get this close to something with that many heads and teeth?

If you find yourself being overwhelmed with attacks, you can always attach a Puffshroom to an arrow and fire it at the middle head of the King Gleeok. This will briefly confuse the King Gleeok and give you a chance to get to cover to figure out your next move.

When fighting a King Gleeok, slow motion is your friend and will make the entire fight easier. Plus, it helps you to make good use of your materials without wasting them. We fought the King Gleeok in Gerudo Sky, and we used Ascend on the tall rocks dotted around to get on top of them. Then, we jumped off and pulled our bow to trigger slow-mo, then attacked the heads.

zelda totk link using ascend against king gleeok
Matrix moment in the making.

Once you get the King Gleeok's health down to its last section, it will fly high into the sky where your arrows won't be able to reach it and it will rain down powerful attacks that can easily kill Link in blow. However, once any of the elemental attacks we've mentioned above hit the ground, you can use Rewind or the updrafts they create to get close to the King Gleeok's level.

zelda totk king gleeok in sky
From far away, it's not that bad.

Once you begin to fall back down, pull your bow and aim at the King Gleeok to start slow-mo. When you do this, attack every head to bring its health down to zero (it may take a few attempts because the King Gleeok is strong). However, keep an eye on your stamina wheel and how close you are to the ground - you really don't want Link to end up being a pancake when you're so close to beating this creature.

Now, once you do hit all three heads and bring their health bars down to zero, one of two things can happen. One, the King Gleeok will crash into the ground once more and you can attack it with your Melee weapons to defeat it. Two, the attack on its heads will have destroyed its health bar and when it crashes to the ground you will have already won.

However you've managed to do it, once the King Gleeok's health bar has reached zero, you can rejoice in the fact you've just beaten it!

zelda totk defeated king gleeok
Link - 1, King Gleeok - 0 (Ignoring the ten times we died).

Rewards for beating King Gleeok in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Of course, there are plenty of rewards waiting for you once you beat a King Gleeok. Here's a list of everything you can expect for beating this beast:

  • Gleeok Wings
  • Gleeok Frost Horn
  • Gleeok Thunder Horn
  • Gleeok Flame Horn
  • Gleeok Guts

Also, some King Gleeoks guard a locked chest. Once you beat the King Gleeok, the chest will open and you can collect a Sage's Will.

zelda totk king gleeok chest

All King Gleeok Locations in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

So far, we've found four King Gleeoks in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as we travelled around Hyrule. That doesn't mean to say there aren't more, but this is the amount we've managed to run into so far.

Here are all of the King Gleeok locations in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that we've found so far:

West Hebra Sky Archipelago (-4469, 2173, 1524)

To get to this King Gleeok, head to the Wind Temple and climb the ships on the outside until you get to the highest level. From here, jump off a glide across to the King Gleeok. This takes a lot of stamina, so make sure you have plenty of elixirs on you and we recommend completing the Wind Temple before attempting to get to this boss.

zelda totk west hebra sky archipelago sages will map location

Gerudo Sky (-4447, -2130, 1419)

To get to the King Gleeok in Gerudo Sky, you can launch Link from the Gerudo Highlands Skyview Tower and simply glide across. Again, this takes a lot of stamina.

zelda totk gerudo sky island sages will map location

Sky Island above Koholit Rock ( 4651, -3830, 1065)

Getting to this King Gleeok was tricky, we stood and built a strong flying machine near the Flux Construct on the edge of Necluda Sky Archipelago, which is the point closest to the target island. We used the machine to fly halfway there and then used two wheels of stamina (refilled twice) to glide over to the island.

zelda totk sky island above koholit rock sages will map location

Gleeok Den - The Depths (0175, 3120, -0623)

The King Gleeok in the Depths can be found in the Gleeok Den directly beneath the Thyphlo Ruins Skyview Tower. Head to the Skyview Tower and then dive down the Drenan Highlands Chasm to the west of it. Once you land in the Depths, head north east to the point we've marked on the map to find a Gloom covered King Gleeok.

You can beat this one like the others, but you will only be able to recover your hearts if you have cooked Gloom Resistant meals.

zelda totk king gleeok den the depths map location

Congratulations if you manage to beat a King Gleeok! If you're not quite ready to take one on yet, then check out our guide on how to get Zelda's Golden Horse or our one on how to get the Yiga Armor for all of Link's stealth needs.

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Marie Pritchard

Guides Writer

When she isn't exploring Horizon Zero Dawn or dropping into Apex Legends, Marie can be found causing havoc around Los Santos.

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