How to beat the Talus enemies in Tears of the Kingdom

Rock hard

The Talus are a returning enemy from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The giant rock creatures are hard to miss, rising from the earth and lumbering around. New to Tears of the Kingdom, however, are the walking fortresses, Battle Talus. Despite this, they’re relatively easy to take down.

Keep in mind, however, that they hit like a train. This is maybe unsurprising considering their size and rocky complexion, but if you take them lightly, you’ll be smeared across the floor. They can take quite a bit of abuse before they crumble, but it only takes a good couple of smacks to reduce you to the game over screen. You’re on your own when it comes to avoiding their attacks, but we’ll do our best to tell you how to take them down.

Glowing weak point

The most important thing to know about the Talus is that they always have very visible weak points. They just don’t look particularly weak. Every Talus will have deposits of ore jutting out from their grey bodies, and that’s where you need to aim.

If you’ve come up against a chunk of stone before, you’ll probably think you need a hammer or something heavy to break it. However, this isn’t the case with a Talus. Any weapon will do, even those that would normally not be very effective against a stone deposit. You might want something that has a high attack rating to decrease how much time you’ll spend vulnerable, but if you feel like whittling down its health bar from a range by hurling arrows at it, that will work.

Swim through your enemy

Don’t bother with bomb arrows. To begin, simply find where the ore deposit is jutting out of the Talus. That’s the only vulnerable spot on the monster. They are usually located on the shoulder or upper back.

Next, shoot an arrow at the weak spot. It doesn’t need to be equipped with a bomb or other upgrade. A normal arrow will do. Hitting the ore deposit enough will stagger the Talus, which will give you the opportunity to get on its back.

Like any cliffside, the Talus is climbable. This expels stamina, so if you’re dashing toward it, you’ll want to give Link a brief rest before grabbing hold. Even when the Talus is moving, you can grab hold, so it’s not completely necessary to stagger it first, it just makes it easier to get a hold of. If you’re having difficulty, you can use Link’s ascend power to swim directly through the Talus as a shortcut to get to the top.

Once you’re back on stable ground, it’s time to get whacking. Simply unload your fury on the ore deposit, and watch the health bar start decreasing. After enough time or damage, the Talus will shake you off, and you’ll need to repeat the process to get back up there.

Heart of the problem

While the Talus will often try to give you a good rocky smack, don’t start feeling comfortable when you run out of its range. To attack when you’re not at arm’s length, the Talus will rip off its limbs and hurl them at you. It won’t stay in an unarmed state, however, but once it reaches into the ground to produce a new limb, it will also be vulnerable to climbing.

Another thing to note is the Battle Talus, which are essentially monster bases built on the back of a Talus. These work largely the same as their unencumbered cousin, but you may want to snipe off any monsters riding on it to make things easier. Once it’s pest free, you take it down in the same way as any other Talus.

Beating a Talus will grant you, among other things, a Talus Heart. You can’t pick up a Talus Heart, but you can fuse it with a weapon, which you should absolutely do. The Talus Heart acts like a hammer and does tremendous damage. It’s the perfect ironic weapon to use against another Talus.