Riju of Gerudo Town is a Main Quest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the Riju of Gerudo Town story mission.
Requirement: Automatically triggered during Main Quest: Regional Phenomena, after completing the main objective in Gerudo desert (southwest region) to talk to the townspeople inside the shelter.
Reward: Vow of Riju (can summon Riju anywhere to aid you in battle)
Quest Info: Gerudo Town has been beset by an ominous sand shroud, forcing the people there to retreat to an underground shelter. Chief Riju, however, was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, Buliara informed you that the Gerudo leader had gone to the North Gerudo Ruins to train.
Objectives:
- Meet Riju
- Defend Kara Kara Bazar
- Meet Riju in Gerudo Town
- Destroy the Gibdo Hives
- Solve the Mural Riddle
- Gibdo Boss Fight
- Solve the Lightning Temple
- Gibdo Boss Fight (Again)
- Return to Gerudo Town
Starting Location: Riju of Gerudo Town
This quest starts automatically during Main Quest: Regional Phenomena, after going to the quest marker in the southwest of the map (Gerudo region). After talking to the townspeople in the underground shelter they will send you to talk to Riju.
Meet Riju
From where the quest starts, stay in the underground shelter and follow the path on the left.
You will reach a path going down into the ruins, follow that path.
When you reach a room where the ground crumbles, glide over to the wooden ladder and boards on the wall. You can climb the wall from one board to the next until you reach the top.
Then keep following the linear path forward, can only go one direction here. At the end of the cave you encounter two enemies and some wooden logs leading upstairs.
Go up, then exit the cave to find Riju. She’s the warrior practicing with electrical attacks. Talk to her.
Riju wants you to shoot arrows at targets where she should use her electric attack. Hit the test dummy with an arrow ( ).
Next you will have to hit 3 targets at once. Walk up close to them. Wait for the yellow ring to spread far enough from Riju to the 3 targets, this takes a few seconds. Then shoot an arrow at the small stone on the floor between the 3 statues. The explosion from Riju’s attack will hit all 3 targets at once.
Defend Kara Kara Bazar
A guard called Faundi arrives and tells you that Kara Kara Bazaar is being attacked by a group of Gibdos. We must head there now. It’s the settlement northeast of Gerudo, just outside the storm.
Ideally, you would have activated the Mayatat Shrine if you went through there earlier. Then you can simply fast travel and a cutscene auto-triggers when you arrive. If you haven’t activated the shrine for fast travel, the next best option is to fast travel to Gerudo Canyon Skyview Tower. If you haven’t activated that either, you must walk back through the storm yourself.
Defeat the enemies at Kara Kara Bazar. You can shoot arrows at them and Riju will cast her electricity attack to defeat them in one hit. After a while, you get a short cutscene explaining that the enemies keep spawning from a purple-colored mushroom on the right side of the battlefield. Shoot an arrow at the purple part in the middle of the mushroom to have Riju destroy it.
Then defeat all remaining enemies to finish this fight.
Meet Riju in Gerudo Town
Fast travel back to the shrine at Gerudo Town. Talk to Riju on the stairs outside.
Afterward, go inside to the throne room and talk to Buliara, the one standing next to the throne. Pick the first dialogue “What’s the Plan?”.
She will tell you to talk to Captain Teake in the right courtyard and Padda in the left courtyard. Do this now.
With Captain Teake you get to pick where to place the soldiers to fend off the attack. It doesn’t matter where you put them but I put Spears on East, Swords on West, Cannons on North.
With Padda, you can look all materials, weapons, and chests around her. Talk to her and pick the first dialogue “Let’s talk Barricades…”. Then you can pick where to put the barricade, it doesn’t matter, I put north.
Talk to Riju again on the throne and pick the first dialogue “They are”. Then the defense starts.
Destroy the Gibdo Hives
There are 3 hives you must destroy: North, East, West. When they light up purple, shoot them with an arrow. They will light up when more enemies drop from them. The NPCs should hold off the enemies so you can quickly run from one hive to the next.
After destroying all 3, return to Riju at the town square and defeat the remaining enemies there. After defeating enough enemies, a cutscene triggers. After the dialogue, follow Riju to the underground shelter. There will be a yellow waypoint. Inspect the mural there.
Solve the Mural Riddle
This will give you a riddle: “Standing back-to-back with the throne, witness red pillars across a vast sea. Unite the pillars in light to reach the lightning stone and open the way. You who can hear my voice, come to me. I await you.“.
Start by going to the throne room. Straight behind the throne you will see 3 tall stone pillars in the distance, to the west. That’s where you must go. It’s not far, only about 100 meters/yards.
Climb up the platform at the 3 pillars. There is a breakable floor on the platform. Fuse a weapon with a rock to make a hammer (there’s a rock right here), then do a jump-attack with the hammer to break the floor (press + ).
When the floor breaks it reveals a mirror that shines a light. Follow the beam of light further into the desert.
Near the end of the beam of light you will reach another 3-pillar platform.
This one doesn’t have a breakable floor. Walk a little further where the beam of light stops in the sky, there is a smaller tower on the right. Climb up to find a big wheel.
Spin this wheel counter-clockwise until a cutscene triggers that shows the tower reflecting the beam of light.
Now follow the new beam of light to the third tower.
To get up the third tower you must use the paraglider over a nearby gust of wind (there is one next to the tower). Then land on the tower.
Break the floor on the tower with a rock-hammer and jump attack. This reveals two green stones and 4 wooden sticks.
Warning: Make a Manual Save here. The next platforming section is tricky. If the flying stones fall down the tower, reload the save to reset them.
Use Ultrahand to attach both stones together into one long stone. Attach the 4 sticks onto the stones.
Hit the stones to activate their battery. This keeps them flying in the air wherever you place them. Lift them up in the air near the balcony. Then climb the pillar to the balcony, as shown in the image below.
From the balcony grab the stones with Ultrahand. Place them on the balcony, let their battery recharge.
After they are fully recharged, hit them again to activate the battery. Grab them with Ultrahand and place vertically (not horizontal) about 2 meters from the wall. You don’t want them to be leaning directly against the wall, because you wouldn’t be able to see them from the tower top. Now climb up the stones, from them jump to the tower wall and climb to the top. Be very quick here before the battery runs out or else the stones might fall down the tower (if that happens reload the save).
From the top of the tower use Ultrahand again to grab the stones and lift them up.
Use Ultrahand on the sticks that you attached to the stones and wiggle the Right Stick until they come off. Attach one stick to the wheel on top of the tower. Then use Ultrahand to turn the wheel until you see a cutscene of the tower reflecting the light back to the first tower.
Now all 3 towers are shining the light at each other in a triangle. In the middle of this triangle a new altar appears, interact with it. This raises the Lightning Temple from the sands below.
Click on Riju to activate her lightning ability, then shoot the big purple hive at the front of the temple. Doing so will trigger the Queen Gibdo boss fight!
Queen Gibdo Boss Fight
This boss is a huge beetle. You can interact with Riju and then shoot an arrow at the boss when it’s within range. This makes the boss vulnerable to other damage. Then you can melee attack it. It deals a lot of damage. Always heal back to fully health if you take any damage so that it doesn’t kill you in 1 hit.
Its two main attacks are a tackle where it runs straight towards you, and whirlwinds that spread out in front of the boss. Both are easily evaded by running sideways. When near the boss it will sometimes use other melee attacks as well. So don’t stay near the boss for too long, just land a few hits with a high damage weapon. If you have already completed the other quests of Regional Phenoma, you can use your companions as well by activating their vows from the Key Items menu.
After dealing the boss 33% damage the fight will end.
Lightning Temple
After the boss fight, shoot the purple hives with Riju’s lightning strike. The one in the middle opens up the temple.
Enter the temple. In the left and right corners you can find a weapon called “Korok-Frond Guster”. Equip this, it can be used to wipe sand away.
Wipe away the sand pile in front of the gate at the end of the room. It reveals a pressure plate on the floor. Stand on it. This opens the door.
Now go forward through the door. Take the first turn on the right. When you see a wall of fire, be careful, the floor in the middle will crumble. You can run-jump over it before it falls, or if you drop down you can get back up by using Ascend.
Watch the rhythm of the flames turning on and off. You must quickly run through when they are off. Stand on the pressure plate behind the flames, this turns them off so that Riju can get across.
The next room has fireballs rolling at you. Use Recall ability to make a ball roll back, then quickly run through the corridor and stand on the floor plate to disable this trap.
Follow the path until you reach a room with a beam of light and a Zonai enemy. Defeat the enemy. Use the Korok-Fond Guster weapon on the sand in the corner to reveal a small mirror. Pick up the mirror with Ultrahand and hold it in the light to make it shine on the yellow crystal above the locked door. This will open the door.
Go through the door and upstairs to reach the Room of Ascension. Interact with the green altar. Now you must charge 4 batteries in the temple, this will activate the elevator to reach the top of the temple. The batteries are on floor 1F, 2F, 3F, 4F.
Lightning Temple Battery #1
The first battery is straight in front of you on floor 1F (Room of Ascension). In the right corner you can use Ultrahand to remove the loose stones from the wall.
Then you can walk through the hole in the wall to find the battery. Activate Riju’s lightning ability by clicking on her with then shoot an arrow at the battery to charge it with electricity.
Lightning Temple Battery #2
In the right corner of the main room on first floor (1F Room of Ascension) there is a stone blocking a gust of wind. Lift it out of the way with Ultrahand. Use the Paraglider over the wind to fly to the top, Floor 5F.
From the top floor, look down one floor and watch for a locked metal gate and an opening in the wall next to it. You must glide down there, land in the open wall next to the gate (Floor 4F).
Defeat the enemy here, then go through the opening in the two moving stones. There you find a beam of light that’s blocked by 2 stones. Lift them out of the way with Ultrahand.
The light gets blocked by the two rotating stones. Use Recall on one of them to line up the openings in the two stones. Stop Recall, now wait until the opening of both stones rotates in front of the light. If you lined up the openings properly, the light can now shine through and opens the gate.
Wait for the stones to do another 1-2 full rotations, then the light will shine to the other end of Floor 4F through the entire tower. This opens a statue there. Glide over to this statue and stand on the floor plate. This opens the path behind the statue.
You will reach two spiked walls. Grab a stone from the right and place it between the spikes. The stone blocks the spikes, now you can safely go through.
Shoot the archer on the left, then grab another stone and place it underneath the spikes coming from above. Crouch by pressing the Left Stick to sneak under those spikes.
On the other side, defeat the enemy and drop the left side where you see the light coming from. Next to the light source use a Korok-Frond Guster on the sand to reveal a small mirror (alternatively, can take the one dropped by the previous enemy).
Use Ultrahand to hold the mirror in the light and shine it at the yellow crystal on the side behind the rotating wall. Hold it until the crystal turns green (takes a few wall rotations). This opens the roof above the light.
Get back up by using Ascend on the metal grate above the light.
Unblock the spike trap by taking out the stone. Then hold a mirror in the light to shine it through the corridor. This opens the gate to the second battery. You can find a small mirror here in the sand (use Korok-Frond Guster) or pick it up from the defeated enemy.
Block the spike trap again to backtrack to the previous room. If you haven’t already, you must stand on the floor plate at the first spike trap, so that Riju can pass through the trap and rejoin you. Then use Riju’s ability and shoot an arrow at the battery to charge it.
Lightning Temple Battery #3
Backtrack to the Room of Ascension on Floor 1F (where you started). From there glide in the gust of wind to Floor 5F.
In 5F you can see a light shining from the wall where an archer enemy is. The light is blocked by a statue in front it. You must move the statue with Ultrahand, it has a mirror on it that will reflect the light to the side towards a 2nd statue.
Go to the 2nd statue and move it too until the beam of light hits it. This activates a statue on Floor 2F.
Follow the beam of light and stand on the floor plate at this statue to open the path behind it.
Follow the path to reach a room filled with enemies. Destroy the purple Hive using Riju’s ability. Shoot an arrow at the two floating rocks with archers on them, this drops the archers and you can quickly defeat them with melee attacks. Then take care of the remaining enemies.
After everyone is defeated, attach a balloon on top of a metal grate. Then attach a small mirror on the side.
Place it over the beam of light in the middle, with the mirror facing forward (towards where the battery is). Grab the torch from the left side of the room, light it by holding it in the small fires near the beam of light.
Then stand on the balloon platform, the torch will fill the balloon with hot air and it floats up. The mirror will shine the light forward. Stay on the platform with the balloon until it reaches the top, then the mirror will shine light at a yellow crystal.
This opens the gate to the 3rd battery. Activate it with Riju’s lightning.
Lightning Temple Battery #4
Again backtrack to the Room of Ascension on 1F and use the Gust of Wind to get back to 5F.
We need to use the same light on 5F that we used for the 3rd battery. This time, move the statue in front of the light all the way to the side so that it shines across to another statue.
Move the statue across from the light to reflect it to the next statue. You must move the next statue to reflect the light upward to 6F. This will light up a statue.
Use the Gust of Wind to fly up and climb the wall to 6F. Stand on the pressure plate where the light shines.
This opens the path behind the statue and leads to a hole in the floor. Drop down and glide between the streams of fire to reach 2F.
You will land in front of the battery. Stand on the floor plate to open the door, then Riju can come in and you can use her ability to charge the battery.
Now all 4 batteries are charged and you can return to the elevator on 1F.
Warning: Interacting with the green altar leads to a boss fight. It’s best to make a manual save here and bring plenty of cooked meals for healing. Activate the altar when you’re ready.
Queen Gibdo Boss Fight (Again)
After the elevator ride, use Riju’s lightning on the big purple hive. Then the boss spawns. It’s the same Queen Gibdo boss you encountered earlier. The boss deals 7.75 hearts damage per hit so you should have at least 8 health hearts to not die instantly here.
The strategy is the same as before and the boss uses the same attacks. Walk sideways to evade all attacks, use Riju’s lightning ability and shoot an arrow at the boss. Run towards it to land 1-2 quick hits, rinse and repeat. If you have unlocked the Vows of other Sages you can summon them from the Key Items menu and spam their abilities on the boss too. Using Yunobo’s ability (if you unlocked him from the story) to set the boss on fire and immediately applying Riju’s lightning has a high chance to stun the boss.
Return to Gerudo Town
After defeating the boss, pick up the Heart Container and talk to Riju. Then you will automatically be transported back to Gerudo Town, after some dialogue the quest ends.
This finishes Riju of Gerudo Town Main Quest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Next Quest: Regional Phenomena (Part 5)
For all other Quests refer to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough.
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