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One of the most intimidating looking bosses in Zelda: Skyward Sword HD by quite some distance, this ancient automaton stands guard over the Ancient Cistern. He's got eight arms, eight swords and a bunch of Cursed Bokoblins to help him out but, with the right strategy, it won't be long before you've chopped and whipped this clanking clunker down to size.

Phase One

The first thing to be aware of as Koloktos comes to life and starts swinging his blades around here is your surroundings. The circular room in which this battle takes place is full of pillars that you can use to your advantage, blocking his spinning blades as he chucks them in your direction. More to the point, if you're in a spot of bother in terms of your health, you can draw Koloktos into these pillars - once he starts to walk around the room in the second phase - in order to have him knock them down so you can grab the resulting hearts.

In the early stages of this fight we advise keeping your distance, let Koloktos fling his blades at you and dodge out of their way or use the pillars for protection. Once he's fired off a few rounds at you in this manner he'll switch things up and decide to smash the ground with a set of his arms, get your whip equipped at this point and, when his arms are laid out on the ground, target them and yank on them in order to pull them off.

If you've got your whip ready in time and act quickly enough you can easily pull both arms off every time he does this and once you do, you need get in quickly and do as much damage to the weak spot at the centre of his body as you can before he covers it up again with his remaining arms.

The first phase of this battle will continue in this manner with Koloktos firing blades around and then smashing a set of arms into the floor where you can pull them off and get in for some hits on that weak spot. Once you've pulled all of his arms off, he'll decide to give up with this strategy and move onto his next phase.

Phase Two

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Koloktos will now rise to his feet armed with six huge blades and become much more mobile, following you around the room in a flurry of sword slashes. He's also going to periodically summon some Cursed Bokoblins, but honestly, you don't even need to worry about these guys because they'll get trampled into the floor by Koloktos himself.

What we need to do here, although it all looks frightfully alarming and busy in the arena, is just keep our distance, keep moving around the edges of the area and let him do his thing. Eventually, he's going to stop moving and make the mistake of slamming his arms into the ground again, at which point you're going to pull them right off.

When you successfully pull his arms off this time he's going to drop his massive swords and you're going to pick one up and keep moving until he slams his remaining arms into the floor, at which point you'll use your new weapon to chop them all off in one swift flurry of blows.

Once the arms are off he'll become disorientated, get in and chop his legs and his torso will drop to the ground, hammer at this in order to remove the little cage that now protects his weak spot and it'll open up, allowing you to get in for a few hits.

Now that you've damaged him enough he'll regenerate all of his arms and swords and come at you again and you'll need to repeat the entire process two more times, yanking his arms off, using his sword to chop him down and exposing the weak spot until he finally gives up the ghost and explodes.

Congratulations, you've beaten this hulking great monstrosity and can now be on your merry way!

Other Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Boss Guides

Now that you've defeated Koloktos, why not check out more boss guides for the game back at our Zelda: Skyward Sword HD hub?

There you'll find tips on the pros and cons of motion controls vs. analogue stick control, a list of the main differences between Skyward Sword on Switch and the Wii original, how to use the Zelda & Loftwing amiibo, where to find the Moonlight Merchant and the Thunder Dragon, and how to beat every boss and minigame.

You'll also find guides for all heart piece locations, all goddess cubes, and where to find every Gratitude Crystal, every upgrade treasure, every bug, and every potion recipe to fill your bottles with.