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Lightning Temple & Queen Gibdo boss - Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Learn how to complete the Lightning Temple including the first encounter with Queen Gibdo in Tears of the Kingdom.

Sam Chandler

June 20, 2023 1:45 AM

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dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This multi-story temple is full of light-bending puzzles and the fight against the boss can result in Link getting one-shot with ease. Below is a walkthrough for the Lightning Temple, including details on how to easily beat Queen Gibdo.

Before we begin, the Lightning Temple is definitely the most challenging. It’s worth going off an doing the other temples and upgrading Link’s hearts and stamina.

Lightning Temple

The Lightning Temple is the last part of the Main Quest, Riju of Gerudo Town. This is one of the four quests for Purah’s Regional Phenomena that has Link investigating weird happenings in four areas of Hyrule. The Lightning Temple is a seven story pyramid that requires exploring before you reach the fast travel point within.

After igniting the three structures to form a triangle of light, meet Riju in the middle and use her ability on the relic. This will have the Lightning Temple rise up out of the sand.

Queen Gibdo – Outside the Lightning Temple

Go to the Lightning Temple and use Riju’s ability to destroy the mushroom in the middle. This will reveal the boss of the dungeon, Queen Gibdo. Link will need to fight her outside the temple, dealing enough damage to make her retreat.

Begin by using Riju’s ability to remove the Queen Gibdo’s protection. Strike it again with Riju’s lightning to make it retreat. Don’t try to hit it with any of your weapons, including arrows. It’s especially important to avoid getting hit as it can one-shot Link even at high hearts.

Hitting the Queen once with a lightning arrow will cause it to go white. It will run away and send forth tornadoes of sand. Run around the dust devils while trying to stay close to Riju. As soon as her ability is available, activate it and get close to the boss again. Hit it with another lightning arrow while avoiding its attacks.

If you take too long to hit Queen Gibdo a second time, it will recover its protect. When this happens, Link must remove the protection again. Once Queen Gibdo retreats, go to the entrance of the Lightning Temple, destroy the mushrooms, and clear out the Gibdos.

Lightning Temple – Reaching the fast travel point

Enter the Lightning Temple and search around for a korok leaf attached to a branch (Korok-Frond Guster). This will be used throughout the temple to clear sand from objects. Use it now to blow away the sand on the button. Stand on the button, go through into the next room, and grab one of the torches.

Continue into the temple, across the bridge, and into the room. You can use Ultrahand on the blocks to remove them to reach a chest and an enemy.

Follow the main path toward the fire that’s blasting from the wall. Use the blocks from the other room to block the flames, allowing Link to slip by easily. Alternatively, you can brute force your way through by trying to dodge the flames. Stand on the button in the next room to stop the fire and give Riju a chance to catch up.

The next room will have fire balls rolling down a hallway. Use Recall on a ball and follow it back up the hallway. When the ball explodes, be ready to use Recall on the next one that drops down. The button will stop the fire balls and open the next door.

Riju and Link will reach a new room with a mushroom in the middle. Go down the stairs, destroy the mushroom, and grab any resources you need.

A set of stairs will take you to another room, this time with a beam of light in the middle. Defeat the Construct and then use your korok leaf weapon to blow away the sand. Find the mirror and hold it the light while aiming it at the panel above where the Construct was. When the panel turns green, the door will open, and a the incline will take you up to the Lightning Temple proper.

Lightning Temple

Solving the Lightning Temple requires shining four beams of light onto specific panels to turn them green. This will activate the elevator in the center of the room, granting Link and Riju access to the top of the dungeon where Queen Gibdo awaits.

To begin with, lift the block off the windy part of the floor to give Link an updraft. This will let you reach the upper levels.

Battery Relic – 1F

The first battery you can activate is on the first floor in the northeast corner of the room. Remove the blocks near the jars and go through to find it. Zap it with Riju’s lightning ability and move on.

Battery Relic – 4F

This next battery is activated by finding a small gap in the wall on 4F. This can be found by using the gust of wind in the corner of the room. The gap is diagonally across from the wind on the north side of the dungeon.

Defeat the Construct and then move through the turbines into another room. Take the blocks out of the wall to reveal a beam of light. Now, use Recall on one of the circular turbines. This will make the gaps line up, letting the light activate another panel across the gap.

Go over to this statue and down into a new room to find two massive spikey walls. Use a block to stop them from moving, allowing Link to reach the next room. Again, use blocks to stop the spikey ceiling from moving down.

In the center of this room is a structure with light blocked by a door on the ground. Go down below the room to find the walls rotating. Use the stakes to stop the wall so the green panel is revealed. Grab a mirror from the sand and shine it at the panel to open the hatch.

Head back up to the room and place a mirror on the catwalk so it shines down to activate the panel. This will let you access another battery relic. Use Riju’s ability and hit it with lightning to charge it up.

Battery Relic – 3F

Jump into the gust of wind and activate your glider to soar to the top floor. Go to the southwest side of the temple and look for the slit in the wall between two torches – you’ll see a beam of light. Climb in, grab the mirror from through the crack, and attach it to the top of a block using Ultrahand. Position it so the light shines out the slit.

Exit through the slit and move the statue so the beam of light bounces to the southeast side of the temple. Move the statue on this side so the light shines down to a statue below. The statue’s panel will turn green and it will slide backward.

Drop down to the statue, stand on the button, and go up the stairs to a new room. Clear out the Constructs, the mushroom, and the Gibdos.

When everything is clear, remove any sand that’s in your way and make a hot air balloon platform. The goal is to have the mirror floating above the beam of light so it hits the panel. Stand on the platform with an ignited torch and ride it up so the panel activates.

The panel will cause a gate to rise up, granting Link access to the 3F battery. Use Riju’s ability to charge the battery.

Battery Relic – 2F

Go to the top floor again using the gust of wind. Move the statue nearest the slit to make the beam of light cross the gap to the other side. Move the northeast statue so the light hits the statue on the northwest side. If aligned, the beam of light will shine up high and activates another panel. Jump into the updraft, glide up as high as you can, and climb the rest of the way to the statue.

Stand on the button to make the statue move and walk to the end of the hall. Jump down the chute at the end, being careful to avoid the flames. At the bottom is the relic to activate using Riju’s ability.

With all four battery relics activated, the center elevator will be charged and ready to take Link and Riju to the Queen Gibdo boss fight.

Queen Gibdo boss fight

The Queen Gibdo boss fight is the hardest fight out of the four Regional Phenomena quests. If you haven’t already, it’s definitely worth completing the other temples, upgrading Link’s heart container and stamina vessels, cooking meals, and getting a decent set of armor. The fight is exactly as it was outside the Lightning Temple, except this time you’ll need to hit it with your weapons!

Begin by hitting it with Riju’s lightning ability. This will put it into a vulnerable state. Instead of rushing to Queen Gibdo immediately, stand near Riju and wait for her ability to cooldown and then activate it as soon as it’s ready. Now get close enough to the boss while avoiding its tornadoes and hit it with a second lightning strike.

By staying back and waiting, you can ensure Riju is near you when you need her and the area-of-effect is large enough to hit the boss if it jumps away.

Hitting Queen Gibdo with a lightning attack while it is vulnerable will stun it. Jump in and smash it with everything you’ve got while it’s on the ground. When Queen Gibdo is on half health, the second phase will begin.

The second phase of the Queen Gibdo fight will have it summoning Gibdos out of the mushrooms. Don’t focus on the boss or the Gibdos, just run around and destroy all the mushrooms. When all the mushrooms are clear, stand in the beams of light and defeat any enemies. The light will remove their protection, making it easy to beat them.

With all the enemies handled, you can now focus entirely on Queen Gibdo. As before, hit it once with Riju’s lightning to make it vulnerable and hit it a second time to stun it. If the queen recovers her protection, you’ll need to do it again. When it’s on the ground, run up and hit it as hard as you can.

If you can’t seem to get the second arrow off to stun it, don’t fret as you can defeat it by using Riju’s ability. Each time the queen is struck by lightning, a chunk of its health is removed. It’s just quicker to stun it and hit it with your weapons.

As mentioned above, Queen Gibdo has a tornado ability but it also has a sand laser. It will blast a beam out of its mouth that tracks along the ground toward Link. Avoid it by running away. It also has a charging move that can easily knock 10 hearts off of Link, so try to avoid standing directly in front of the boss when it’s moving around.

While the Lightning Temple is easy to solve, the Queen Gibdo fight is by far the most difficult boss out of the first four temples. But with this done, Riju of Gerudo Town will be finished and you should hopefully be ready to complete Regional Phenomena and get back to saving Zelda and Hyrule. Check out our Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Strategy Guide for more Main Quest walkthroughs.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler