Ganon's Castle Tower

Ganon's Castle Tower

General Info

Game

OoT

Major Region

Hyrule Field

⛓️ Dungeon Entrances

• Ganon's Castle (reverse exit)

Ganon's Castle Tower is an optional hint region in OoTMM. It is found in Ocarina of Time.

The hint region only exists when Extra Hint Regions is enabled. When disabled, all checks in this region get folded into the Ganon's Castle region.

Within this article, we treat Ganon's Castle Tower as its own separate region.

When entering this area, the vanilla game does overlay any text that names this area.

Light Arrow Hint

Ganondorf will always hint the reigon where Light Arrows are located.

[Can this hint be obtained in Triforce Hunt? • Edit Article]

Final Boss in Triforce Hunt

Ganon cannot be fought in Triforce Hunt seeds.

[What about Ganondorf? • Edit Article]

Strats

Ganondorf Boss Battle Strategy

Tech Used

• (Optional) Power Crouch Stab

Logic

Light Arrows are required in this fight. Therefore a Bow and Magic are required too.

📄 Text Guide

Ganondorf's Attacks

Slam

Ganondorf slams the ground, causing a shockwave that damages Link and removes floor tiles.

Ganondorf uses this attack first. He often repeats this attack after being damaged or if Link is nearby.

When standing on the central platform, it's possible to avoid this attack by back-walking (target and hold down on the analogue stick) off the central platform. Link will grab the climbable wall and the attack will not hit Link.

Single Orb

The single orb attack must be reflected back until it hits him. While he is recovering, shoot a Light Arrow at him. He will then fall to the ground, where he can be attacked with weapons.

When Link is stood on the central platform, Ganondorf (almost?) never reflects attacks thrown back at him.

To reflect his attack:

• Swinging an empty bottle is the easiest method. Due to the long swing animation, the timing is much more lenient compared to the much faster sword swing.
• Quickspin is also effective.

Multiple Orb

When weakened enough, Ganondorf gains a third attack. He first charges this attack, then he fires numerous orbs that surround Link. Whilst these orbs can be countered with a spin attack, he can instead be shot with Light Arrows while he is charging the attack. When shot with Light Arrows, he falls to the ground where he can be attacked with weapons.

Damaging Floored Ganondorf

• Jumpslash does more damage in one swing than a normal sword swing.
• Jumpslash with the Biggoron's Sword / Giant's Knife does more damage than Jumpslash with the Master Sword
• Power Crouch Stab (PCS) can be used to one-cycle Ganondorf. It's possible with Master Sword, but the timing is a little tight even with a Two-Handed Sword.

Spamming PCS is not optimum; use well timed crouch stabs to optimise damage. When Ganondorf is damaged with a weapon he enters a 'recoil' animation and is briefly invulnerable. By paying attention to the animation and/or sound cues, you can time your crouch stabs to coincide with the exact moment that Ganondorf becomes vulnerable again. Good Power Crouch Stab timing is essential to one-cycling Ganondorf.

Please note the situations in which your Power Crouch Stab damage gets overridden:

• Sets PCS damage: Any slash or spin with a sword, Megaton Hammer or Deku Stick.
• Does not set PCS damage: using a Bow, Light Arrows, swinging an Emtpy Bottle, using the Hookshot, etc. You are free to use all of these without needing to reset PCS damage.

Also note that it's possible to set PCS with Giant's Knife and then switch to another weapon. This allows you to take advantage of the extra damage granted by Giant's Knife without damaging it.

Speed Strategy

(This guide builds on the knowledge imparted in the above sections.)

1. During the first slam attack, run away.
2. If you're going to be using a bottle to reflect attacks, now may be a good time to store Jump Slash damage for Power Crouch Stab.
3. After the slam attack finishes, jump (or hover boots) back to the central platform.
4. Position yourself very close to the edge of the central platform. Henceforth, always reset yourself to this position when Ganondorf is able to attack.

From this point onwards, Ganondorf will pick randomly between his available attacks. Ganondorf may be floating off camera, so try to figure out reliable visual/audio cues for each attack - you need to be able to react quickly, especially for the slam attack.

• If he picks his slam, quickly backwalk off the central platform.
• If he picks the single orb attack, reflect it back at him. If you're stood on the central platform, it should hit him first time. (No tennis matches!)
• If, later during the fight, he uses his multiple orb attack, immediately shoot him with a Light Arrow.

Once he is stunned and floorbound, damage him with Power Crouch Stab. Focus on your timing.

If you ever fall to the ground floor, you can use hookshot on the climbable wall to climb back up faster.

Ganon Boss Battle Strategy

Tech Used

• (Optional) Power Crouch Stab
• (Optional) Infinite Sword Glitch
• (Optional) Equip Swap

Logic

Logic requires possession of the Master Sword for beating Ganon. During the course of the Ganon fight, however; you will obtain the Master Sword. This does not count as a logical Master Sword. In other words, it would be breaking logic to complete this fight were it to be entered without the Master Sword already in inventory. Some developers of OoTMM have expressed a desire to change this handling in future versions of OoTMM.

📄 Text Guide

It is possible to stun Ganon with Light Arrows and then follow up with a hit to his tail. This strategy is (probably) slower but is probably safer for those struggling to beat Ganon reliably. If you have a limited source of magic or arrows, it may be worth conserving it for the second phase.

Ganon can be kited into destroying various debris around the battlefield. When destroyed, this debris can drop useful item refills. The items dropped are not random; each piece of debris always drops the same items. The debris carries arrows (two debris pieces), bombs, magic (two debris pieces) and a set of four fairies.

Ganon is only capable of turning around when he is not attacking.

Phase 1

Here is a summary of how many hits it takes to end phase 1 with each damage type:

• 3 hits: Master Sword jumpslash
• 5 hits: Master Sword normal swing and Master Sword quickspin
• 10 hits': other sources of damage, such as Biggoron/Giant's Knife slash, Biggoron/Giant's Knife jumpslash, bombs and even Deku Nuts.

You can use Power Crouch Stab (PCS) to store Master Sword damage before Ganon disarms Link. Thereafter, Megaton Hammer, Biggoron Sword, Giant's Knife, Broken Giant's Knife or Deku Sticks (via Ageless Items or Equip Swap) can be used with Power Crouch Stab to deal Master Sword damage. The best option, obviously, is to store Master Sword jumpslash damage.

During phase 1, Ganon turns around very slowly, except when he just been damaged. After damage, he will be turn around quickly until Link is in front of him. After his next strike, he will return to slow turnaround speed.

Phase 2

For phase 2, the best source of damage is again Master Sword jumpslash damage.

[Does the final hit of phase 2 (before Ganon is permanently stunned and waiting to trigger the credits, which definitely does have to be triggered with the Master Sword) have to be with Master Sword damage? PCS with MS damage can still end phase 2, but I'm unsure of other weapons since damage is hard to calculate. • Edit Article]

During phase 2, Ganon always turns around quickly. He is unable to turn when attacking. This can be exploited to get hits.

Speed Strategy

Infinite Sword Glitch is effective against Ganon due to it using PCS damage.

Rolling between Ganon's legs offers one of the fastest ways of beating this boss. Roll between Ganon's legs and then strike the tail. After damaging the tail, rolling back through Ganon's legs to his front allows you to bait Ganon's attack so that you can roll underneath him again to his back side and attack again. During phase 1, we're interested in baiting his attack so that he cannot fast turn after he has taken damage. In phase 2, our time window to attack is more narrow: we're baiting the attack since this is the only time he cannot turn.

Thus one of the fastest ways to beat Ganon is to repeatedly roll underneath his legs; back and forth in a cycle of baiting his attack and attacking his tail. The camera can be one of the hardest parts to manage. The better the camera angle the easier it is to roll back and forth without error.

[Advice on Z-Targetting would be helpful, especially for phase 2. 'Unlucky' targetting can result in a missed jumpslash. So are missed jumplashes unlucky or can it be avoided with technique? • Edit Article]