Where to find Dondons in Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)

The gentle giants of Hyrule

The land of Hyrule is full of many mysterious monsters and beasts for you to encounter in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But one of the most elusive and confounding are the Dondons, of which there are only a few in the entire game.

Where to find Dondons in Tears of the Kingdom

If you wish to find one of the rarest creatures in all of Hyrule, look no further than the Dondon. If you wish to locate the Dondons in Tears of the Kingdom, head to the Faron region to the Lakeside Stable.

There is a group of Dondons that hang out north of the Lakeside Stable for you to check out. There are only five of them there, and you are able to take a photo of them with the camera to add them to your Compendium.

What Dondons are for

What is most mysterious about the Dondons is their purpose in this game. If you try to attack them, you’ll quickly find out that they are somehow invincible and just shrug off your moves. They have no monster parts you can hunt them for or anything like that.

Instead, there are two key purposes to the Dondons and they aren’t immediately apparent.

The Beast and the Princess side quest, explained

The first purpose for the Dondons in Tears of the Kingdom is during the stable side quest, The Beast and the Princess. You can start this quest at Lookout Landing by speaking with Penn and then again at The Lucky Clover Gazette near Rito Village.

You need to start the Potential Princess Sightings side adventure for him by then traveling to New Serenne Stable. Once you’ve done this, head back to the Lakeside Stable and speak with Cima near the Dondons near (1562, -3354, 0059) to complete the side quest.

You’ll get 50 Rupees for completing this quest, but it is only one part of the overall Potential Princess Sightings side adventure.

Luminous stones, explained

In addition to being part of a lengthy side adventure, the Dondons have another secret purpose. Luminous stones are gems that you can occasionally find both on the surface of Hyrule and on the sky islands, much like you would other gems.

They are generally more common than most pricier gems, but they have a secret upgrade method. If you take one of these luminous stones and drop it in front of a Dondon, the beast will then eat it up.

All you need to do is return in approximately 15-20 minutes of real-world time and the Dondon will return the gem to you as a better version. It is entirely randomized what gem you’ll get each time, but it can be a ruby, sapphire, opal, etc. This is a great way to turn these otherwise plain stones into far more valuable materials to sell for Rupees.