How to defeat Gleeok in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Gleeok is a new family of sub-bosses in the Legend of Zelda, appearing after the events of the Upheaval in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Not only are they fearsome — and genuinely difficult — but there are four variations on the theme here.

Picture Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards Hades. Now, instead of a dog, make it a dragon. Oh, and you know how Cerberus sometimes breathes fire? Well now it sometimes shoots ice at you, or simply reigns down lightning for good measure.

The sheer power of these beasts make them very intimidating. As the compendium puts it, “fighting it alone is inadvisable.” You’ll want to go in prepared not only with the right equipment, but the right strategies.

Where to find Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom

There are several Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom, with each being one of three elements: fire (Flame Gleeok), ice (Frost Gleeok), and thunder (Thunder Gleeok).

There is a fourth variant, the King Gleeok, which incorporates each of the three elements to make for a really tough battle. We’re

The three easiest places to find these fearsome beasts are mapped below. For Flame Gleeok, it’s Spectacle Rock in Gerudo Canyon. For the Frost Gleeok it’s the south end of the Gerudo Summit. For the Thunder Gleeok it’s Herin Lake South.

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How to defeat Gleeok in Tears of the Kingdom

Each Gleeok is a variation on a theme. We’ll cover the Flame Gleeok in detail here, since it’s the first one you should do. If you fancy taking a crack at the Frost Gleeok, know that it shoots ice at you; if you touch it while it’s on the battlefield, you will instantly freeze. The Thunder Gleeok, meanwhile, shoots lighting at you, so find and equip the Rubber Armor set before heading into battle!

How to prepare for Flame Gleeok

The first thing you need to do here is prepare. We strongly recommend you start at the Gerudo Highlands Skyview Tower, launch yourself, and fly north east to the sky island with the pool on it.

This is a great (literal) jumping off point for two reasons: Your best bet is to start with an aerial attack, so channel your Obi Wan and rejoice in having the high ground.

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Second, and importantly, this island has fairies on it. These little pink fireflies will automatically revive you with a few hearts if you die, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to nab them. There’s a very good chance that you will die at least once until you have the hang of this battle.

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Once you’ve grabbed the fairies, it’s time to kit up — despite this being a Flame Gleeok, you will want cold resistance and heat resistance, because there’s a solid chance that this will take a full in-game day, and the temperature in the desert fluctuates wildly between day and night. One point of each will do nicely.

Next, prepare your weapons. Elemental damage is huge here, and ranged attacks are essential, since the Gleeok’s eyes are its only weak point.

Grab the mighty Lynel bow if you have it (the same one you may have used to defeat a Lynel) and check that you have plenty of arrows and ice fruit (or similar; 20 total will more than suffice) to Fuse to said arrows.

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Lastly, make an ice-based melee weapon. We recommend a spear for the reach, with an ice-breath Lizalflos horn (or your strongest similar item), and a sword with an ice-based Fuse.

(Note: for the Frost Gleeok, you’ll want to use the item you get from the Flame Gleeok here; for Thunder Gleeok, which is weak to wind, just use whatever you have that offers high non-elemental damage.)

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How to beat the Flame Gleeok

Fly in front of the Gleeok and ready your bow. With time slowed (Tears of the Kingdom automatically activates Matrix Time when you aim a bow in midair), Fuse an ice fruit and hit each eye with an ice arrow. It is important that you hit each eye to deplete its health bar to stun it; attacks on the rest of body do zero damage, and if you get too close while it’s not stunned, it will swat you away with a gust of wind.

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If you run out of ice fruit (or similar), normal arrows will work, but you’ll need to hit each eye twice as many times to stun it.

This next bit is crucial. Drop to the floor (open your paraglider at the last second to avoid damage), run under the rock the Gleeok is on and Ascend. When you get to the top, with time paused, spin the camera to see how it has landed and if you’ve come up in the right place.

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The Gleeok’s head will either be on the ground or hanging over the edge — this is why we recommended a spear. Depending on how it lands, use equip whichever you feel easiest and mash the attack button until it gets up.

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Now, with its heads firmly out of reach, we need to Hawkeye this — jump off the ledge, ready your bow, spin, and shoot each eye with an Ice Arrow again. Rinse and repeat, basically.

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Once you get the Gleeok down to its final third (or so) of health, the easy part is over. It’s about to go fell Sephiroth and use Meteor.

From here on out, the Gleeok is not coming down, so stand under the rock and wait for the screen to shake from the impact. Immediately Ascend and get ready to ride the updraft. If you Ascend too early and ground isn’t on fire, look up. If you see this button, nope outta there by hitting B.

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Time it right, and you can ride the updraft to eye-level and ready your bow. At this point, you know what to do… Let it hit the dirt and whale on it one last time.

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What rewards do you get from Gleeok?

Each Gleeok will drop three types of item — its guts (use it to make a “powerful” elixir) and its wing, which not only grants an impressive +24 Fuse attack power, but makes your arrows and thrown weapons fly further.

But while these are already decent items, they pale in comparison to the real reason we’re here — the Gleeok Flame Horn. At +30 Fuse attack power, it’s one of the most powerful elemental items in the game. The elder dragon scales, by comparison, only add +16 attack.

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Importantly, this item is extremely useful against its cousin, the Frost Gleeok, and the ultimate Gleeok, the King Gleeok, which has one head of each element.