Zelda Breath of the Wild Champions’ Ballad guide: Thunderblight Ganon in the Illusory Realm boss fight (2024)

In this The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide, we’ll show you how to Thunderblight Ganon in the Illusory Realm to complete the EX Urbosa’s Song main story quest.

The Champions’ Ballad adds a new main story quest for you to take on after you’ve tamed all four Divine Beasts. The first stage of EX The Champions’ Ballad presents you with a new series of challenges on the Great Plateau. After that, you must complete a series of challenges for each of the Champions.

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The earlier stages of EX Urbosa’s Song require you to find three shrines: Keive Tala, Takama Shiri and Kihoro Moh. Those shrines reward you with Naboris’ Emblems. Once you have all three, you can return to the Divine Beast Vah Naboris where you’ll be transported into the Illusory Realm to once again face Thunderblight Ganon.

During the fight, your inventory will be basically empty. You have a Scimitar of the Seven and an Edge of Duality, no bows, a radiant shield and a Shield Of The Mind’s Eye, a level two Desert Voe set and a few pieces of food. Aside from taking your armor off and fighting in your underpants, there’s not much you can change.

However, if you drink an elixir or eat a meal that grants a temporary boost, that boost will carry over into the Illusory Realm. Like the other Illusory Realm fight, an attack up or speed up boost will help you finish the fight more quickly, but Thunderblight Ganon’s electricity-charged attacks are far more dangerous. An electro elixir made with four electric darners and a monster part will help you immensely in this fight.

You also retain all of the powers granted when you defeat the four Divine Beasts. While there might be a lot of standing around doing nothing involved, waiting for all of the powers to recharge is a great help during this fight (especially Daruk’s Protection).

Since your resources are limited this time around, you want to finish this fight quickly. That means you have to be very purposeful in your approach. Read through our notes below to help you prepare.

1. As soon as you are able, pull out your shield and start blocking — this iteration of Thunderblight Ganon is fast and is about to attack you. But there’s a pattern to his attacks: three blindingly-fast dashes followed by a swing. Your goal is to backflip in the moment between the end of his third dash and the start of his swing. That will trigger a flurry rush — three of these will move the fight into the next phase.
2. After your flurry rush, Thunderblight Ganon will be knocked back. If you can sprint to him before he gets up, you’ll have time to deal a little extra damage.
3. The first time Thunderblight Ganon falls down, he’ll likely hit to the floor below you. Follow him — there’s a lot more room to maneuver down below.
4. Phase two of this fight will trigger after roughly three successful flurry rushes (flurries rush?). Thunderblight Ganon will float high into the room, so climb up to the platform in the middle.
5. Iron spikes will drop from the ceiling while Thunderblight Ganon electrifies them. Use magnesis to grab one, then hold it up next to Thunderblight Ganon. With a little patience, you can get him to electrocute himself. After he falls, phase three will begin.
6. Phase three of this fight is much like phase one, but with a lot more risk of being electrocuted. The same basic rules apply, though. Thunderblight Ganon will make his three dash approach and swing at you. He actually adds a couple additional swings this time, but that works in your favor because it gives you additional chances for backflips.
7. During this phase, Thunderblight Ganon may occasionally lock onto you with a Guardian eye-beam. The radiant shield will (mostly) protect you from these — which is good because you don’t have a lot of hiding options. If you can, parry when he fires the beam. You can reflect it back into his face to deal extra damage.
8. Once you’ve bested Thunderblight Ganon, watch the cutscene, then collect Urbosa’s Fury+ as your reward.