Upon making your way to the surface in Tears of the Kingdom, you’ve probably been waiting for the time that you can storm the gloom infested Hyrule Castle in an effort to expel the evil that awaits you there. While you can technically head over there whenever you like, you’ll be severely underlevelled and won’t have made the necessary quest progress to unlock the true power of this ‘dungeon’.

However, if you’ve completed all of the temples and have finished up the Regional Phenomena quest, you’ll know you’ve finally made it to what you’ve been waiting for. In your path though is not only gloom but also various Monster Forces, hindering your exploration of the area and the final boss that lies in wait.

Moreover, overcoming these Monster Forces are an integral part of the Main Quest of Tears of the Kingdom as they are tied to the Crisis at Hyrule Castle quest, something that as been building up for most of your playthrough.

With this guide, we’ll reveal how to beat these !Hyrule Castle Monster Forces so you can progress to the final stages of your Tears of the Kingdom adventure. This is a multi-stage process so we’ll break down each fight to make it as easy as possible.

How to Reach Hyrule Castle in TotK¶

So, before you can tackle the Monster Forces, you’ll have to actually get to the castle itself. You may have done this already to get ahead on collecting important equipment such as the Hylian Shield, but if not, this is what you need to do.

Use the Lookout Landing Skyview Tower and launch yourself into the air. After, get your paraglider out and simply float down to the castle, preferably at the front. At this point in the game you should have a bunch of stamina to make it there but if not, you can use some stamina boosting elixirs and foods to ensure you do so. you can also use Tulin’s ability to give yourself and extra push.

How to Beat Hyrule Castle Monster Forces 1¶

The first Monster Forces fight takes place in the Second Gatehouse of !Hyrule Castle. Upon starting the fight, you’ll be up against a pretty familiar set of Monster Forces enemies consisting of Bokoblins and a Boss Bokoblin

So, what you can do here is just employ the strategies that you’ve been using in other Monster Forces fights you’ve taken part in previously. What we recommend is that although the boss arena is a small one, use your bow to get headshots on the Boss Bokoblin as this will enable you more time to pick off the smaller Bokoblins

Using a spear weapon is always a good idea here just to get as many hits in as possible before the Boss Bokoblin gets back up and joins the battle. The only real annoyance with this fight is the Bokoblin carrying Yellow Chuchu Jelly as this will stun you. Use your bow again here just to allow for a bit of space and mitigate any potential chance of electrocution

How to Beat Hyrule Castle Monster Forces 2¶

This next Monster Forces battle, on the face of it, might look a little more challenging but in fact, it’s an extremely easy one.

To make it here, you’ll need to find the Library situated in B3 of the castle. If you’re unsure as to where to go, you can start at the Serutabomac Shrine and jump off the platform to the west. Here, you’ll see an entrance that can be followed all the way down to the !Library.

You’ll be facing a Black Hinox as well as three different elemental Chuchus but this fight can be taken care of almost instantaneously. This is because what you can do is quickly get your bow out, hit the Hinox’s eye, then destroy the Chuchus as fast as you can, causing them to explode in the process. This will do some pretty severe damage to the Hinox, taking a huge chunk out of that life bar.

Now all you have to do is mop up the rest of the Hinox’s health. You’ve probably defeated a bunch of these by now so simply aim for that eye and get your best physical weapons equipped for the follow up attack and it will be gone in no time.

How to Beat Hyrule Castle Monster Forces 3¶

The third set of Monster Forces consists of Gibdo, which if you haven’t taken on already for whatever reason, require a certain method of defeating.

This one is easy to get to as you’ll just need to head north from the Library, up the necessary stairs. Your map marker shouldn’t be tripping you up.

You want to use either fire or lightning here to dispatch them fast and the easiest methods of doing so are fusing something like a Fire Fruit to an arrow or using some form of Flame Emitter weapon to ensure success.

Once you inflict this elemental damage, the Gibdo will be susceptible to regular attacks so using a spinning attack with a two handed weapon could be good to get rid of as many as possible in this tight hallway.

How to Beat Hyrule Castle Monster Forces 4¶

To progress the next battle, you’ll be heading to the B1 area of the castle, in Princess Zelda’s Room. However, the best way of accessing this is actually to go all the way out to 1F and drop down.

The easiest way of getting here is to start from the Sanctum and exit through the south west entrance, you need to get to the large circular spot on the map and then drop down into the room itself.

This set of Monster Forces can be a little more tricky not because of the number of enemies but because you’re up against Lizalfos, Fire Breath ones at that. Now, as we’re sure you’re aware, Lizalfos don’t have huge amounts of health but they’re just so slippery with their movement so pinning them down is a tough ask.

What you can do here, and you’ll deal some solid damage in the process, is to try and get off an ice fused arrow to freeze them, and at the same time, potentially use Sidon’s ability to get some water damage in.

If you managed to get either of these attacks off, you’ll have likely done enough damage to one, or multiple of the Lizalfos, and it’ll just be a mopping up process once more. Just have your wits about you, look out for any of those fire attacks, and you should be able to do enough damage to defeat them.

How to Beat Hyrule Castle Monster Forces 5¶

Next up, we’ve got a short Monster Forces battle on our hands. This one only consists of a couple of Ice Keese and a Silver Moblin, allowing you to get this wrapped up pretty fast.

To get here you’ll need to ascend out of Princess Zelda’s Room and jump off to the west as you’ll be going back down to B3. The entrance is actually at the most western portion of the castle map which is pretty tucked away. Here is the final drop down you need to use:

When the enemies first spawn, you need to immediately turn around and look behind you as the way this fight is set up almost forces a one-two punch on you with the Ice Keese freezing you then the Moblin destroying all of your hearts. So, just do a quick 180 and take out the Ice Keese by whatever means you have. A !Flame Emitter Shield is a good option here to get some fire off but isn’t a necessity.

With those taken care of, the Moblin is pretty light work, especially if you have all of your Sage companions. Just wail on it with as much as you’ve got in your arsenal and you should be able to stun it enough to just keep going until it’s been defeated. A charged spinning attack works well here so a two handed weapon is advantageous.

How to Beat Hyrule Castle Monster Forces 6¶

Last, but by no means least is the final Monster Forces battle. This one is probably the most awkward of the lot as you’ll be taking on multiple Shock Likes who are blocking your path. Again, like all of the enemies you’ve faced so far, you will have likely encountered these on your playthrough allowing you to know what to expect.

To get to this last battle, you’ll need to exit out of your current location and look a little south. You’re looking for another hidden entrance. For this one, you’ll actually have to jump off the side and glide your way in.

You can use the !Sanctum once more as your starting point if you like and just head more south than the previous fight, using the quest marker on your map as a general guide.

The strategy for the battle is if you have enough Bomb Flowers, attach them to your arrows and fire them off down the hallway. These will do significant damage to the Shock Likes and will expose their weak spot more easily. This way, you can get more arrows off and hopefully get rid of them.

If you’re having issues dodging the plethora of electric balls coming your way, there is a convenient room to your left that you can duck into and avoid as much as you can. This will make the fight more of a certainty, removing a bunch of worry that you’ll die.

And there you have it, the long and arduous set of Monster Forces battles should have been overcome, allowing you to not only progress the Crisis at Hyrule Castle quest but also be on your way to the end of the game. Now onto dispelling the final evil that lies in wait! You’ll also have the opportunity to head to a final temple - head to our guide for more information!