Stone Talus

New to Tears of the Kingdom is the ability for other enemies like Bokoblins to build small wooden platforms atop the Talus, turning into a mobile base and mount from which they can launch arrows from, making this dangerous enemy even more formidable and protected from attacks to its lone weak spot - a small ore vein located on its larger upper body.

Compendium Number: 169

Gear isn’t too important when it comes to toppling the giant rocks, so use whichever set you want, but if you are having trouble, go for something with a solid defense like the Soldiers Armor set or the Climbing gear to help you climb to the top a bit faster though we preferred using Ascend over climbing them traditionally.Weapons we would recommend are anything fused with a boulder or other kinds of rocks, as they will give you some of the best damage against the ore deposit weak point. As for ranged, any single target bow will work. You can fuse eyeballs to your arrows to guarantee hits to the weak point on the Stone Talus and add powerful fusions like bomb flowers and gems (rubies, sapphires, etc.) to erode its health faster.

The Stone Talus has four main attacks. Its ranged attack is the most commonly seen attack, as it will usually be used as you attempt to get in range to fight it. The Stone Talus will detach and throw its arms at you in succession, starting with its left arm. Sprint to the left or right to dodge this attack or, better yet, use recall to hit the Talus in the face with its own arm.

The next attacks are its melee strikes, it will use its left arm to throw a hook. You have a variety of options here, you can either block with your shield, but the impact will send you flying, albeit without damage. If you have practiced your perfect dodge timing, you can backflip to dodge it, though it won’t trigger the flurry attack, which doesn’t matter as its weak point is on its back. The simplest option is to back up or sprint directly underneath the Stone Talus.

Its other main melee attack involves the Stone Talus raising its right arm and slamming it on the ground to try and squish Link. Short hop or sprint to the right to dodge this attack.The Stone Talus’s final attack will occur after a period of time of you climbing or standing on it. This attack will see the Talus begin to shake, and after a short time, he will give a big shake to damage and knock you off. Simply jump off the Talus as before the big shake to avoid damage.

It should be noted that while not technically an attack, after throwing its arms, it will slam its body into the ground to pick up new arms, which can do damage if you are standing underneath it.

Aside: There is also a variant of the Stone Talus called the Battle Talus that has Bokoblins armed with bows and other weapons riding on a mobile base built atop the Stone Talus. The Talus themselves have the same attack patterns the only additional thing you need to worry about are the ranged attacks from the Bokoblins.

Taking down the Stone Talus involves 2 basic strategies, either climb to the top and strike the ore deposit sticking out from it, or fight from afar using your bow to target the ore deposit with arrows. Melee:If you choose the melee option stone type, fusion weapons work really well, similar to when mining regular ore, but if you don’t have them, regular weapons will work just fine. Depending on your weapon and how soon you attack the weak point, you can usually get in 1-2 full combos before the Talus will attempt to shake you off. The quickest strategy to fight the Stone Talus with only melee is to get underneath it and use Ascend to reach the top, unleash a combo or two with your weapon of choice, jump off, then get underneath it and repeat the strategy with another use of Ascend.

The Ascend strategy is actually easier on the Battle Talus variant as the added structures built on top of the Stone portion create more locations to use Ascend on and reach its weak point, though keep in mind there are wooden barriers that will obscure the weak point that will make ranged attacks slightly tougher to land until they are either knocked down or burned away.

Ranged: Using a bow to take down the Talus is typically safer, as the only attack you will need to dodge are its ranged attack, where it throws its arms at you. Hitting the weak point will cause the Stone Talus to fall to the ground allowing you to hit it with a bunch more arrows. You can expedite the fight by attaching various things like bomb flowers and other powerful fusions to your arrows.

If you go the ranged route, hitting the weak point with an arrow will usually cause it to fall to the ground making it easier to climb on if you want to mix melee and ranged fighting.

Defeating either variant of the Stone Talus will drop a variety of items, including Flint, Amber, a Stone Talus Heart that grants +13 when fused to a weapon, and a variety of gemstones like rubies, sapphires, topaz, and opals. Taking down a Stone Talus in the depths also has a chance of rewarding you with a Large Crystallized charge to help improve your battery reserve, so if you’re looking for easy bosses to farm for batteries, use the IGN interactive map to find them as this strategy is rock solid.