As you progress The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you encounter all kinds of strange beasts. Sometimes those beasts drive other beasts into battle.
The Battle Talus is such a bad guy – home to three Bokoblins, this Stone Talus Variant has more offensive capabilities than its cousin, but it doesn’t hit as hard and it also has less health. This is all great news if it’s your first Talus fight, but that’s not to say it’s an easy fight by any means.
It’s fairly easy to spot, thanks to its hulking awesome shape, but if you’re not up for a four-on-one fight, you’ll soon find yourself slammed to the pavement.
Where to find the Battle Talus in Tears of the Kingdom
The first Battle Talus you’re likely to encounter is located east of the Lookout Landing below Hyrule Castle on your way to Tukarok Shrine. You can see it just at the end of Orsedd Bridge.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
As you approach this enemy, make sure to head towards the blue cover just south of the road. This boss hits hard and indestructible cover will be your best friend.
How to beat the Battle Talus in Tears of the Kingdom
First of all, make sure you have a bow and some good arrows with you. And equip your Ascend ability.
You want to duck behind cover and take out the three Bokoblins riding the talus (one on each shoulder, plus the head). This is not essential, but it will make your life easier.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Once that’s done, look for the big black stone on his left shoulder (the right side if he’s approaching you). You can target this with ZL if needed, to make things a little easier.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
This next stretch is difficult, as it requires careful timing. Once you hit the black rock, the Battle Talus will be momentarily stunned and kneel. You need to sprint under it and use the Ascend ability to “swim” through your enemy. It’s a little weird, if you think about it too hard, but it works.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Once you get to the top, jump out and whale onto the black rock with your strongest weapon. If you the Flux construction 1 and have a 20-ish-power weapon, now is the time to use it.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
If you don’t deal enough damage, the Talus will throw you off. You will probably take some damage in the process, but just hit the black rock again and repeat the process of taking off and hitting the black rock.
But be careful – without the cover of the blue tarpaulin you are open to his attacks. Not only does it lob at you, but it also has quite a bit of power.
How to use the stone talus heart
Along with a whole bunch of gems (amber, rubyAnd opal), the Battle Talus (and standard Stone Talus) drop a Stone talus heart. Like the Flux Construct 1 coreyou can’t pick this up – but what you can do is fuse it with a weapon to allow a massive damage spike.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Simply put, equip a weapon that is not yet fused (we used a strong Zonaite sword), then use the Fuse ability and make a Stone talus hammer. The attack power on our weapon jumped from 7 to 20, which is what this means almost tripled its attack power with +13 attack.
Note: You can fuse the stone talus heart to your shield, but we don’t recommend it. We’ve done the science for you, and as you can see, you get zero buff to your shield for doing this.