This guide describes all the boss fights in A Link to the Past, how to beat them, and provides strategies on how to defeat them more easily.
Eastern Palace - Armos Knights
| This is the boss in the first dungeon, and is therefore the first boss you’ll encounter in the game. Six Armos Knights will bounce around in the room, making different formations. You can use both your sword and bow in this battle, but the bow is recommended. Try standing in the lower right corner and fire arrows as they bounce around (see picture). Each Knight takes three hits with the bow before it’s defeated. Once you have defeated five of them, the last one will turn red and constantly jump after you. When it is over you, quickly go out of the way and fire an arrow in the opposite direction. If you are quick enough, this arrow will likely hit it. Repeat this maximum two more times, and it will be defeated. Grab the heart container and the Pendent of Courage. |  |
| There are three Lanmolas in the end of the Desert Palace. Individually, they will hide below the sand and jump up, shooting four rocks in each diagonal direction. You will notice the spot where they’ll charge on beforehand, so start slashing at that spot, standing so you make a vertical or horizontal line with it. If you stand in a diagonal direction from them, you’ll get hit by a rock. If you stand correctly, you will be able to hit them several times before they dive back below the sand, without being hurt yourself. When there’s only one of them left, it will start shooting eight rocks instead of four. Including the four diagonal directions, rocks will be shot up, down, to the left and to the right, which means you can’t rely on your previous method anymore. Stand farther away from the spot where it’ll charge, and chase after it once it shows itself. A few hits will kill it, and you can go grab the heart container, as well as the Pendant of Power. |  |
| In the top of Tower of Hera, you’ll find Moldorm. This the most annoying boss in the game, with a good reason. When hurting you, he’ll try pushing you down. If he succeeds in doing so, you’ll have to make yourself back up again. However, during the time you’ve been gone, Moldorm has recovered all of his health, meaning all hits you have previously landed on him doesn’t count anymore. To defeat him, you have to slash the red part of his tail with your sword a total of 6 times. Each time you hit him, he’ll start moving faster, which means you’ll more likely fall down if he hits you. Once he’s defeated, grab the heart container and the Pendent of Wisdom afterwards. |  |
| Reaching the top of Hyrule Castle Tower, results in a battle against the evil wizard Agahnim. He will constantly turn into a small shadow and move around in the room, so pay close attention to his shadow. Agahnim has got three different moves; energy ball, a ring of four small energy balls, and lightning. Your goal in this battle is to hit his big energy balls with your sword or bug catching net, and send them back at him a total of 6 times. The ring of smaller energy balls can’t be deflected back at him, so if he sends one after you, quicky run away from it, and block the small energy balls after they split in the wall. Agahnim only shows us his lightning when he’s in the north center part of the room. So if you see his shadow move towards that spot, quickly get to either side of the room and get up to the side of him. If he doesn’t turn after you, it means he’s preparing a lightning. When he’s defeated, he’ll pull you into the Dark World. |  |
| This boss lurks within the depths of the Dark Palace. Helmasaur King knows a few moves. He can shoot a fireball from his mouth, but this fireball is special. It will first spilt into three similar fireballs, which will each send out four new fireballs, one in each diagonal direction. To avoid them, stand so you make a vertical or horizontal line with them. His tail sometimes tries to hit you; so if you see his tail starting to swing faster, try getting close up to his head, without being hurt by his head itself. Grab your magic hammer and smash his mask until it comes off. Pull out your sword, and slash his revealed face until he’s defeated. Grab the heart container, and your first crystal will fall down. |  |
| Arrghus is a jellyfish-like creature, and is surrounded by orange cloud-puff creatures. In this battle, Arrghus will try hitting you with his cloud-puffs by spinning them around. Set your hookshot, grab all the cloud-puffs and kill them, one by one. They take two hits to kill with the Master Sword, and one hit with the Tempered Sword. When you have killed all of them, Arrghus will bounce up trying to land on you, and afterwards bounce from wall to wall. After he has landed, try getting below him and slash after his eye with your sword. Each time you damage him, he will bounce up once again, trying to land on you, and bounce from wall to wall. When he’s defeated, pick up the heart container and your second crystal. |  |
| Mothula is found deep inside Skull Woods, and his boss room is quite special. The floor is moving, and spikes are constantly sent across the floor. The most important factor in this battle is to always know which way the floor is moving, or you’ll be dead before you know it. The Fire Rod is your best pick in this fight, but if you’ve already got the Tempered Sword, I recommend using that instead. Mothula will occasionally shoot three psy-ring beams. The directions of the beams are straight down, and diagonally down, both left and right. If you keep being to the side or over him, you’ll avoid these beams without a problem (see picture). Pay attention to the floor and avoid the spikes rather than killing him as fast as you can. When he’s defeated, grab the heart container, and the third crystal will drop down. |  |
| Blind will first go to the top of the screen. He’ll start moving from side to side and spin his head around, shooting fireballs in all directions. He’ll occasionally shoot a laser beam, and freeze a small second right before doing so. After a while, he’ll head to the bottom of the screen and doing the same here. Try getting above him, especially when he’s in the bottom of the screen, and slash his head with your sword. After a few hits, his head will come off, spinning around in the room shooting fireballs in all directions, and he’ll grow a new head. His lost head will spin around for the rest of the battle, so you may want to finish this quickly. Slash his new head until it comes off, and it will start doing the same as the first head. In addition to this, Blind will grow his final head. While avoiding the two flying heads, slash Blind’s last head and defeat him by doing so. Grab the heart container and your fourth crystal. |  |
| This is the evil master of the Ice Palace. Kholdstare is a fluffy eyeball surrounded by ice, and will make ice balls fall down at you. When they hit the ground, they will spilt up in four smaller ice balls and disappear. Pull out your Fire Rod and send fire at him, while avoiding the ice balls. When you’ve hit him 8 times with the Fire Rod, the ice around him will melt, and he’ll spilt into three, starting to move around. Take out one of them at a time, so you won’t have to battle all three of them at the same time, for the rest of the battle. Use the Fire Rod till you’re out of magic, before switching to your sword. The Fire Rod is more effective, but using the Tempered Sword won't make much difference. When you’ve killed all three of them, get the heart container and you’ll be given the fifth crystal. |  |
| Deep within the Misery Mire, Vitreous will challenge you to a battle. He is a giant eyeball and will send his smaller eyeball minions after you. He is surrounded by acid, which can damage you, so don’t run into it. Occasionally, he shoots lightning, but his lightning will always be sent in the direction of the door, so it is easy to avoid. Vitreous will look up from the acid a few seconds before performing his lightning attack, so be aware. To finish this battle easily, stand a small step away from the right wall, close up to the acid, without being hurt by it. Start slashing away. If you keep it up like this, you will avoid the lightning and defeat his eyeball minions very easily. When he’s out of minions to fling after you, quickly get in front of the door and start spamming arrows towards him. He will jump out of the acid towards you, getting pushed back by your arrows. When 8 arrows have hit him, he’ll be defeated. Pick up the heart container and your sixth crystal. |  |
| Trinexx is found deep inside of Turtle Rock. I highly recommend having two magic potions and the magic meter upgrade, or you might be sorry. This boss has got three heads. The left head shoots fire, the right head shoots ice, and the middle one occasionally shoots its own head at you. Trinexx will start whipping his tail faster right before shooting his middle head, and you will see the two other heads charging up just before they unleash their attacks, so pay attention. Now you’ll see why we’ll need so much magic. You have to shoot the ice head with the Fire Rod and the fire head with the Ice Rod, and both heads take over 10 hits each. I recommend taking out the ice head first and the fire head afterwards. When you’ve taken out both heads, Trinexx will draw back in his shell, exploding, but the battle isn’t over yet. He’ll take the shape of a moldorm and start moving around like one. Slash the red glowing part of his body a few times, and he’ll be defeated. Grab the last heart container of the game, as well as the last crystal. |  |
| In the top of Ganon’s Tower, we face the evil wizard Agahnim for the second time. This time, he’s without his lightning, but is accompanied by two of his clones. His clones look fake right through them, so you can easily tell the difference between them and the real Agahnim. The clones only attack with the energy ball, but Agahnim still uses the ring of energy balls every once in a while. Like the last time we faced him, you’ve got to slash his energy balls back at him a total of 6 times. However, in this battle, you can slash the clones’ energy balls at him too. When Agahnim’s defeated, Ganon’s spirit will rise out of his dead body and fly away as a bat. You’ll automatically chase after him with your bird. |  |
| Ganon is the final boss of the game, and is by far the hardest one. I recommend having the magic meter upgrade and at least one bottle of magic potion. Ganon will start warping around, throwing his trident after you as a boomerang. Try getting around him and slash him while he is busy with his trident. After giving him enough damage, he will start using his trident to spin eight fireballs around him. Slash him a few times on the opposite side of where he holds the trident, where the fireballs can’t reach you. Now be aware, he will slightly increase the diameter of the fireball circle, and then bring the circle back to normal state again. Grab your opportunities, and slash him when you’ve got the chance. After bringing the fireball circle back, Ganon will turn the eight fireballs into fire bats and send them at you. Avoid these bats out of the way before trying to damage Ganon more. Be sure to damage him as much as you can, and he will eventually start to spin a fire bat outwards around him, like a spiral. Now you’ve got to follow where he’s heading and slash him. He will jump up in the air and land, making the floor tiles along the top wall disappear. After this is repeated three more times, all the outermost floor tiles will disappear. Be aware, if you fall down here, you’ll have to start the battle all over again. Ganon will now abandon his previous tactic and leave the room in darkness. As long as none of the torches are lit, Ganon will be invisible and try making you fall down the gap along the walls, by shooting a single fire bat after you. Quickly get out your fire rod and light the torches. It is easiest to get hit and fall down while lighting the torches, so go light them the second after Ganon has given his last move. The torches will only stay lit for a short amount of time, so be quick about what you’re now going to do. Slash Ganon with your sword, making him freeze, and immediately shoot him with a silver arrow. The room will most likely turn dark right away, so carefully light up the room again. Remember, Ganon might warp just where you’re standing. Hit him with a total of 4 silver arrows, and he will be defeated. The door to the sacred realm will open for you. Go grab the Triforce, and watch the ending credits! |
 |
~Written by Emhave ~Screenshots by Emhave
