Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: 10 Best Overworld Bosses
It's not all about the dungeon boss fights.
Breath of the Wild’s diverse landscape hides many secrets in its dark caves, high cliffs, and grassy fields. With Link stumbling upon a Korok seed every ten seconds, it isn’t too long before he’s squaring off with one of Hyrule’s overworld bosses.
While many of Breath of the Wild’s bosses reside in ‘dungeons’ as the main obstacles in story quests, the sub-bosses dotted around Hyrule’s stunning scenery are bountiful and offer a modest challenge for players. They become a splendid change of pace between enemy encampments, and can offer enticing rewards once defeated.
After a few encounters, however, players may notice that many of these bulky adversaries fall into the same sub-categories of Taluses and Hinoxes. Yet there are more than a few specific examples that stand out amongst their peers. An environmental factor may make the battle more formidable, or a story element could add poignancy to the encounter; maybe the aesthetics will leave the player in awe.
By ‘overworld bosses’, we’re not counting anything classed by the game as a ‘dungeon’ boss, including bosses in the divines, shrines, Yiga Clan Hideout, and Hyrule Castle. However, some enemies not considered ‘bosses’ by the game may be included if they act as an obstacle in progressing a story or shrine mission.
10. The Great Plateau's Stone Talus
Breath of the Wild’s tutorial is relatively simple: go to all four shrines on The Great Plateau to obtain the Old Man’s paraglider and begin your adventure. It ingeniously teaches the player about Breath of the Wild’s main game mechanics, including environmental obstacles, basic combat, and how each Sheikah Slate’s rune works.
Enemy-wise, The Great Plateau doesn’t overload the player, throwing in a few Bokoblins to dispatch in a variety of creative ways. However, things can become fiercer if Link ventures too far into the Forest of Spirits and awakens the Stone Talus.
While not precisely the most difficult boss, putting an overworld boss so early into the game can give new players quite the fright. One minute Link’s happily picking Hylian Shrooms, and the next a gigantic boulder is preparing to body-slam him into the ground.
The Talus’ weakness is the ore deposit on the top of its head. However, if the player is without a heavy weapon to swing, it can take a good few minutes to whittle away the Talus’ sizable health bar. Despite this, the fight doesn’t feel particularly unfair due to the Stone Talus’ slow movement speed, and the player can always run away to fight later when better prepared.