The Talus is a recurring monster in the Legend of Zelda series Tears of the Kingdom brings them back in style. Be it the Battle Talus with his Bokoblin friends, or the simple yet deadly Stone talusthese enemies have quite a bit of power.
If you’ve knocked out one of these titans, you might think you could run in and do the same for everyone else, but there are subtle differences you’ll want to learn more about. For example, the Stone Talus can kill you if you bring it to the ground.
In addition, the Stone Talus has a nasty habit of trying to be a Basarios and burying itself in the ground, ready to pancake unexpected heroes of Hyrule.
Where to find the Stone Talus in Tears of the Kingdom
The first Stone talus the one you encounter is probably the one in the Crenel Hill Cave. This is directly north of the Battle Talus found on Orstedd Bridge, but it’s a lot harder.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Enter the cave and make a ring around the outside, breaking all the mining points you can, but be careful not to go into the water. That’s how Talus is…
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
How to defeat the Stone Talus in Tears of the Kingdom
As with the other talus, a bow and some good arrows are essential to your success. We’ve tried this with bombs and all sorts of thrown items, but that route is a quick way to reach Game Over. Check that you have enough arrows before entering.
At first, make a frenzied rush to jump on top of the Talus’ head when it wakes up.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
This is a great way to ‘cheat’ the first piece of damage out of this boss. Equipped with a one-handed weapon, you have time for exactly 12 hits before you have to run and slide off his back. If you hang on to it, he’ll throw you off his back and take a quarter of a heart. This may not seem like much, but it is important if you have five or fewer hearts.
Sprint away, making sure to dodge the projectile coming at you, turn around and shoot the blue glowing rock on its back. Get ready for another frenzied sprint, but be careful because if he hits the ground (then he’s ready to climb on it), the impact of his head hitting you when you jump with the gun can take more than four of your destroy hearts when wearing low armor.
Again, sprint, jump and climb upside down. This Talus gets up quicker than its Battle Talus cousin – if you’re familiar with that fight – so make sure you’re quick. Again, you have time for 12 hits.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Depending on your weapon, repeat this one or two more times before another bites the dust.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
How to use the Luminous Stone Talus Heart
Along with a whole bunch of gems (Luminous stone, amber, rubyAnd opal), let the Stone Talus a Luminous stone talus heart. Like the Flux Construct 1 core and the Stone Talus Heart, you can’t pick this up – you can attach it to a weapon to give it a massive damage spike.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Simply put, equip a weapon that is not yet fused (we used a Zonaite Sword), use the Fuse ability and make a Luminous stone talus hammer. The attack power jumped from 6 to 21, which resulted in a whopping amount +21 attack.
That’s huge, and considering you’re about to beat a poor unsuspecting Bokoblin with it, it really puts a whole new twist on the phrase “kill them with love”…
Note: You can fuse the talus heart with your shield, but it won’t give you any stats, making it a waste of a super rare item.