I’ve had various conversations with people who at this point don’t feel like they would be able to finish the game before Tears of the Kingdom comes out this Friday May 12th. I’ve claimed that the final fight with Ganon was easy peasy but I was prepared with multiple Lynel shields, Lynel bows, and jacked Master Sword. I realize that not everyone can be as prepared and that there are various levels of progression. But I still believe that no matter what point of the game you’re in, you can still defeat Ganon easily. It just takes a bit of prep work and knowing what to do. There are two methods to doing this and I’ll describe both.
Method 1: It all comes down to food
Increasing your hearts requires four spirit orbs and you get one orb for completing shrines. It’s daunting to think about the time it would take to get just even one additional heart container. One way around this is to cook food that increases your hearts beyond your maximum. It doesn’t take a lot of ingredients either. Cooking just one Hearty Radish, for instance, will fully recover all of your hearts and, assuming you’re not maxed out, add 3 additional temporary hearts. The temporary hearts go away once you’ve taken enough damage and cannot be recovered by normal meals but if you can stock up on hearty meals, you’ll be able to keep recovering the temporary hearts. Here’s a handy list of heart foods you can make with just using a single ingredient:
- Hearty Radish > Hearty Fried Wild Greens > Full Recovery + 3 extra hearts
- Big Hearty Radish > Hearty Fried Wild Greens > Full Recovery + 5 extra hearts
- Hearty Durian > Hearty Simmered Fruit > Full Recovery + 4 extra hearts
- Hearty Truffle > Hearty Mushroom Skewer > Full Recovery + 1 extra hearts
- Big Hearty Truffle > Hearty Mushroom Skewer > Full Recovery + 4 extra hearts
- Hearty Bass > Hearty Fish Skewer > Full Recovery + 2 extra hearts
- Hearty Blueshell Crab >Hearty Seafood Skewer > Full Recovery + 3 extra hearts
- Hearty Salmon > Hearty Fish Skewer > Full Recovery + 4 extra hearts
And again, those recovery rates are for a single ingredient. Adding an additional ingredients of the same type will scale the number of additional hearts you get. So cooking two Hearty Radishes will net you a Hearty Fried Wild Greens with full recovery and 6 extra hearts. I mixed 5 different hearty ingredients and ended up with a Hearty Seafood Skewer that provided full recovery and 13 extra hearts.
If you’re short on the hearty ingredients, cooking just meats will give you skewers that can recover a good amount of hearts. Five different meats will net you a skewer that will recover 16 hearts.
You can also cook foods that increase defense or attack power. You don’t need to try figure out fancy recipes like a risotto or fried rice. Just cook five of one ingredient and you’ll get a nice meal with a huge boost.
Stock up on meals, eat them during the battle as needed, done. You just need to make it to phase two where you’re on the field.
As far as weapons, shields, and bows go though, well you’re on your own for that one. I farmed Lynels for my arsenal. That may not be for everyone but they do drop some nice gear.
Method 2: Watch this video
Now, if all of that still feels like a lot of work, you can skip all that and just watch the following story recap video Nintedo put out a few days ago:
It contains BOTW spoilers obviously but it’s a nice shortcut if you really can’t be bothered.
