The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has plenty of tough bosses, but the Frost Gleeok in Tabantha Tundra is one of the game’s hardest encounters. Fighting it will require some preparation and careful planning, but if you know what to look for, you can slay it and rid Hyrule of this icy menace once and for all (or at least until the next Blood Moon). Let’s break down some strategies for taking out one of Tears of the Kingdom’s most powerful foes.
Where is the Frost Gleeok?
You’ll find the Frost Gleeok flying around the Tabantha Tundra, usually in the northern region past Snowfield Stable. If you’ve done the Lucky Clover Gazette quests, you’ve likely already come across this beast once and most likely ran away from it. But the boss wasn’t just placed there for the quest. That’s its natural habitat, so it’s still vibing there, just waiting for you to enter its domain.
What should you bring to fight the Frost Gleeok?
While powerful weapons and shields are a given for any boss fight, the Frost Gleeok specializes in ice attacks and the weather is like Hell froze over in Tabantha Tundra. So it’s good to bring an armor set like the Snowquill Tunic that gives Link cold resistance (upgrade it with the Great Fairies if you need to). The Frostbite shirt, which you can find in Brightcap Cave southeast of Rito Village, will also increase your attack power in cold weather. If you don’t have any cold-resistant armor or your most powerful armor has a different perk, mix up a cold-resistant elixir or food by mixing in ingredients like Spicy Peppers to add the buff to your recipes.
Those things are helpful for weathering the cold, As far as dealing damage, fire-based attacks will be your friend in this fight. The Frost Gleeok flies around the battlefield, so you’ll want a good bow on hand and fire-based items like Fire Keese Eyeballs and Fire Fruit to Fuse with your arrows. Fire Keese can be found flying around in the Eldin Mountains at night just east of Tabantha Tundra. You can also find them in the Depths right under the mountains. Fusing their eyeballs to your arrows will give them a homing effect which means that even when the three-headed beast is flying around, your aim doesn’t have to be perfect to land a fire-based shot. It’s worth it to farm as many of those as you can before facing the Frost Gleeok.
Handling the elements is only half the battle, however. You’ll also need to buff your actual base defense because the Frost Gleeok hits hard. Even if you’ve got a ton of hearts, this monster’s ice breath can knock out most if not all of your health in one attack. One way to do this is by making Tough Elixirs or food with perks that raise Link’s defense for a short amount of time. By mixing in certain ingredients with monster parts or other food, you can make one of these concoctions, and most of them have names that sound like they boost defense. You can use a Rugged Rhino Beetle as a base to make an elixir, or mix ingredients like Armoranth, Armored Carp, Fortified Pumpkin, or Ironshroom, to make food that will heal you and give you some defensive edge.
How do I fight the Frost Gleeok?
The Frost Gleeok is a big guy, but the main points you need to focus on initially are its three eyes (it has one big eye per head). Shoot these with your bow, mixing in fire-based fusions as needed, until you do enough damage to all three that the Gleeok falls to the ground. This will give you a chance to save some arrows and strike it with a melee weapon, though you’ll want something powerful like the Master Sword to make the most of the small window you’ll have to do damage.
Use the rock formations on the ground to take cover from its ice breath until you’ll get another window to shoot its eyes again. If you’re having trouble landing your shots, try climbing on top of the rocks so you can jump off of them and get some slo-mo air time to aim your bow for a more precise shot.
After you’ve done this enough to get its health low, the Frost Gleeok will fly high up into the sky and rain down giant icicles on you. There will be a visual indicator of where they’ll land so you can avoid them, and once you do, hop on top of one and use Recall. This will send the icicle, and you, back where it came from. Whip out your paraglider and fly close to the monster and fire some more arrows at its weak points. Stun it one more time and it should fall to the ground and die from the fall damage.
What do I get for killing the Frost Gleeok?
Admittedly, beyond a sense of satisfaction, the rewards for killing the Frost Gleeok are a bit underwhelming. You’ll get some Gleeok parts that can be used to significantly upgrade your weapons by Fusing them, and you may get Gleeok Guts which can be used to complete the sidequest of the same name (though it seems to be somewhat random whether they actually drop or not). But if you were hoping for something a little more theatrical or celebratory, you can pat yourself on the back.