Ganondorfs Return: Gerudo Desert

Rise Again, King of Evil!

Peace in Hyrule: What a naive notion! With that meddling witch, Cia, out of the way, and the Master Sword no longer sealing the remaining fragment of his soul, the Dark Lord is free to rise again and take back what is his: the completed Triforce. Let all who stand in his path suffer demise and despair. Hyrule is his and his alone!

To win this Scenario, you must defeat anything and everything in your path. There is no Defeat Condition because the Prince of Darkness will not be stopped by anything in his quest for the Triforce. Follow the missions as they appear and you’ll make short work of this Scenario.

Hard Gold Skulltula Opportunity In order to coax the Hard Gold Skulltula for this Scenario out, you’ll need to defeat all Lizalfos and Aeralfos Captains, capture all the enemy Keeps and defeat two Giant Bosses. You can complete these tasks in any order, so take your time. The important thing is to have as many Keeps capture and Captains defeated as possible before you enter the Sacred Grounds Keep in the northeast corner of the map. Around the time you enter that Keep, King Dodongo will make its appearance on the battlefield. You’ll be temporarily trapped in the Sacred Grounds, meaning any Captains you haven’t defeated will have free reign of your captured Keeps. Shortly after King Dodongo arrives, Gohma and Manhandla will join the fight. As you can see, things become pretty chaotic very quickly, that’s why it’s important to get control of as much of the field as possible.

Capture the Settlement

You first task is to capture the Keeps within the southwestern settlement. The clever—and obviously desperate—citizens of the settlement close the east and north gates leading into the settlement in an attempt to keep you out. They then follow up by opening the S. Desert, South Oasis, and Central Keeps to unleash their inhabitants on you. Don’t let them slow you down; the Gerudo Desert belongs to the Gerudo Prince of Thieves and no others!

Once you reach the S. Desert Keep and capture it, head to the southeast corner of the map and defeat the Gatekeeper. The area behind the Gatekeeper is actually a prison full of your loyal subjects. Defeating the Gatekeeper opens the prison, freeing your subjects so they can join the battle and assist their master’s conquest.

There are two more of these prisons in the northwestern area of the map. The monsters inside can be freed in the same way: Defeat the Gatekeepers and the monsters are freed to do your bidding.

Gold Skulltula Opportunity Keep an eye on your KO count at all times; getting this Skulltula can be pretty hard since most of the Keep gates are closed. The Skulltula can be found in the corridor directly to the east of the Arbiter’s Keep.

NOW Capture the Settlement

The settlement gates open up as soon as you’ve captured all three of the central Keeps. When that happens, instead of entering through the settlement’s east gates, head north and free your subjects from the prisons so they can assist with the fight. Ganondorf is more than a match for anything on the battlefield, but having some extra help certainly isn’t a bad thing.

Heart Container Opportunity You can also grab Ganondorf’s Heart Container for this Scenario by destroying the boulder that is on the outer northwest corner of the North Oasis Keep.

After you’ve freed your loyal subjects, enter the settlement from its north entrance and capture both the S. and N. Settlement Keeps.

Defeat Aeralfos

When the Settlement Keeps are under your control, all but the Sacred Grounds Keep will open up to you. Run around the map capturing all of the Keeps to show your adversaries that there is no resisting the King of Evil.

Piece of Heart Opportunity You’ll find a chest containing a Piece of Heart after you capture the Clifftop Keep.

Shortly after you begin your campaign to capture all the Keeps, you’re tasked with taking out the leaders of this little resistance: the Aeralfos that are hiding in the Sacred Grounds Keep in the northeast corner of the map. Assist Ghirahim in capturing the Arbiter’s Keep gain access to the Sacred Grounds.

Once you enter the Sacred Grounds Keep, the gates behind you slam shut and you’re forced to defeat the Aeralfos’ before you can open the gates again. To make matters worse, King Dodongo enters the battle around this time, which means you need to hurry if you want to prevent the killer king from taking Keeps you’ve already captured.

Monster Mayhem!

Not too long after King Dodongo enters the battlefield, Gohma and Manhandla join the fight. You must defeat one of them before they rendezvous on the map, otherwise the Giant Bosses get a morale boost that makes them much more devastating than they already are.

Manhandla enters the field and begins firing seed mortars wherever you are on the map. Focus on taking out Manhandla as soon as you can to prevent being pelted relentlessly by its seeds.

Once you’ve defeated the Aeralfos’ and all three Giant Bosses, the battle is over and your enemies will never again forget the name of the Dark Lord, Ganondorf.