TotK Combat Tips: Perfect Guard, Flurry Rush, Sneakstrike

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom keeps the full combat toolkit from Breath of the Wild: the Perfect Guard (parry), the Perfect Dodge into a Flurry Rush, Sneakstrikes, charged attacks, headshots and midair bullet time. Fuse adds a lot on top: shields that breathe fire, arrows that home in, weapons whose attack you build yourself. This page covers how to do each move, when to use it and what it is good for. Buttons are the default Switch layout.

Which buttons do you need?

Where can you practice?

A set of shrine trials called Combat Training each teach one move, with a chest at the end. If you are unsure of the inputs, start with these:

How do you time a Perfect Guard?

With your shield up (hold ZL), press A in the instant before an attack hits you. The game describes it as “Parry at the right time to repel enemy attacks.” The enemy reels back and leaves an opening for a counter, and sometimes drops its weapon.

The trick to the timing is to watch the attack, not the enemy’s body. For a swing, watch the weapon as it reaches you; for something flying at you, watch the projectile arrive.

What can it reflect?

A shrine hint puts it plainly: “You can reflect a projectile if you parry with your shield at just the right time. Turn the enemy’s attack against them.” Time it right and incoming shots go back the way they came:

• Training Construct fireballs. Eshos Shrine uses these to teach the move; the returned fireball bursts on the construct.
• Octorok rocks. The Hyrule Compendium says: “The rocks they spit out can be bounced back with a shield.”

What do fused shields do?

Shields can be fused too, and what you attach changes what happens when you raise the shield, swing it or take a hit:

• Sharp, spiky things: the game’s tip says a shield with a spike-shaped thing fused to it deals damage when you swing it at an enemy. A spiked shield is also said to hurt the attacker when you Perfect Guard.
• Elemental materials like a Fire Fruit: they go off when an enemy hits the shield; a Fire Fruit bursts into flame when an attack lands on it.
• Zonai devices: the game notes that some Zonai devices make powerful defenses when fused to a weapon or shield. A Flame Emitter shield breathes fire when you raise it, and a Rocket shield launches you into one high jump.

Defense and durability for every shield are on the shield list.

How do Perfect Dodges and Flurry Rushes work?

Hold ZL to lock on and press X just before an attack lands: push the left stick back to backflip, or left or right to side hop. Get the timing right and it is a Perfect Dodge: time slows down and you can mash Y for a Flurry Rush, where Link dashes in and lands a string of hits.

Match the dodge to the attack. The game’s control guide puts it this way:

• Sideways attacks (horizontal swings): backflip.
• Vertical attacks (overhead slams, forward lunges): side hop.

The number of hits depends on your weapon: 7 with a one-handed weapon, 4 with a two-handed weapon. The rush stops if another enemy hits you or your weapon breaks.

The Royal Broadsword, Royal Claymore and Royal Halberd have a bonus that “increases the power of flurry rush during perfect dodge,” so bring one if you plan to rely on rushes. Dodging into Flurry Rushes is also the main plan against Demon King Ganondorf, though in the last phase he dodges your rush and counters, so you have to dodge once more before you get in. The whole fight is on the final battle walkthrough.

How do Sneakstrikes work, and how strong are they?

Come up behind an enemy that has not noticed you, or one that is asleep, and a Sneakstrike prompt appears; press Y. A Sneakstrike deals 8 times your weapon’s damage.

Ways to get close unnoticed:

• Crouch. Press the left stick; you move slower but make less noise.
• Wait for rain or night. Footsteps are harder to hear in the rain, and some monsters sleep at night. Lizalfos are the exception: the Compendium says they never sleep.
• Come in from above. If a camp has a tall lookout packed with monsters, glide in to the top floor.
• Use a Puffshroom. Its cloud blocks enemies’ vision, and the game’s tip is that “while enemies are disoriented by the smoke, you’ll have a chance to move in for a sneakstrike.” Fuse one to an arrow to do it from range.

The Eightfold Blade “yields more powerful sneakstrikes than ordinary blades,” and the Stealth set makes you harder to notice.

Charged attacks: what changes between one-handed, two-handed and spears?

Hold Y to charge and release to attack. Charging uses stamina, and the game’s tip is to “time your attack carefully.”

The Soldier’s Broadsword and Soldier’s Spear “enable quicker charged attacks,” and the Soldier’s Claymore “consumes less stamina during charge attacks.” If a monster is hiding behind a shield, hitting the shield with a heavy sword knocks it away.

Where should you aim: headshots and weak points?

An arrow to the head is a critical hit that deals 2x damage. Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, constructs, Wizzrobes and the Yiga all take double damage to the head; Chuchus are weak in the eye and Like Likes in the tongue. A headshot makes a Lynel flinch; see Lynel farming. Weak points for every monster are on the enemy list.

A few more from the in-game tips:

• Hit an Electric Lizalfos’s horn with an arrow and it lets out a huge electric shock.
• Use fire on an icy enemy, or ice on a fiery enemy, and it may go down in one hit.
• Hitting an Electric, Fire or Ice Chuchu can make it burst, shocking, burning or freezing the monsters around it.

How do you trigger bullet time?

Hold ZR to draw your bow while you are in the air and time slows down; the game says it lets you “slow down time so that you can aim with greater accuracy,” and players call it bullet time. Slow motion keeps draining stamina and ends when the wheel runs out.

Ways to get airborne:

• Jump off a high place and draw.
• Ride an updraft with the paraglider, then draw (this is how Taunhiy Shrine teaches it).
• Leap off a galloping horse and draw in midair.
• Raise a shield fused with a Rocket for one high jump.

Against big monsters like Gleeoks, slow motion lets you hit several heads in one jump; see Gleeok locations.

What can fused arrows do?

Hold ZR and press up on the D-pad to fuse a material to your arrow. The ones covered by the in-game tips:

How much stronger do fused weapons get?

Fusing a material to a weapon adds the material’s Fuse attack power straight onto the weapon. Uses the in-game tips mention:

• Monster horns: blades and hammers with higher attack power.
• A rock: a hammer that can crush sturdy objects.
• Gems: unleash a hidden power that fires projectiles of fire, ice and so on.
• Monster tails: an extendable weapon that reaches a little farther.

Gerudo weapons double the Fuse attack power of whatever you attach. Fuse attack power for 148 materials is on the Fuse guide. Fused items can be removed in your inventory, but once removed they cannot be recovered.

When should you throw weapons and materials?

Hold R to aim and release to throw; a thrown weapon that hits is a critical hit for double damage. The game’s tip is to throw a weapon that is close to breaking, and the hit that breaks a weapon also deals double damage. A boomerang flies in a wide arc and comes back to you.

Hold R and press up on the D-pad to throw a material instead, such as a Fire Fruit into a group of enemies or a Bomb Flower.

Is shield surfing any use in a fight?

Hold ZL to raise your shield, press X to jump, then press A in the air to hop on and slide downhill; it costs the shield durability. In Tears of the Kingdom you can also shield surf along mine cart rails. If a fused item gets in the way, Link falls off when he tries to surf, so switch to a clean shield first.

Related pages

• TotK beginner tips
• Lynel locations: the enemy where Perfect Guards, Flurry Rushes and headshot-and-mount all come together.
• Phantom Ganon: good practice for Perfect Dodges.
• BotW combat tips