Skyward Sword Demise: How To Beat The Final Boss, Both Phases

Demise is the last fight in Skyward Sword and the one the rest of the game has been training you for. No dungeon item solves him, no weak point lights up, and the arena holds nothing to use. He is a swordsman who is better than Link and knows it, and the fight is built so that patience beats aggression on a timer that never expires. Players who lose here almost always lose the same way: they attack first.

How the game gets you here

The Sky Keep gives up the three pieces of the Triforce, and the Triforce is what finally ends The Imprisoned rather than delaying it again. Ghirahim uses that window to carry Zelda's sealed body back through the Gate of Time and finish the revival he has been chasing all game, which means the third and hardest Ghirahim fight comes first, covered on our bosses page. Demise then takes the duel somewhere of his own choosing and sets the terms himself. There is no shop, no save room and no going back once it starts, so the preparation happens before the Sky Keep.

Phase one: he blocks everything, so let him swing

Demise opens by guarding, and an opening attack simply bounces. Hold the shield and wait for his large vertical and horizontal swings, bash them, and take the window that follows. When you do commit, commit properly: the first few strikes of a flurry are blocked and the fourth or fifth is the one that lands, so a single cautious swing is wasted effort while a sustained set is not. Expect a counterattack every time you connect, usually two swings in a row, and expect a punch if you crowd him. Shield bashing is the answer to both, which is why the shield you bring matters more here than the sword you bring.

One mechanic is missing in this fight and it catches people out. The charged Skyward Strike, the move the whole game has trained you to open with, does not work against him in this phase. Raising the sword here does nothing useful until the weather changes.

Phase two: the storm, and who gets to throw lightning

Once he has taken enough damage a thunderstorm rolls in and both fighters get a new tool. Demise holds his blade up, takes a lightning strike on it, and starts throwing discs of it across the arena. Link can do exactly the same thing: raise the sword skyward, walk until the lightning finds it, and the next slash throws a charged disc back. The trap is that raising the sword leaves you standing still and Demise will rush at you while you are doing it, so treat the charge as something you steal during his recovery rather than something you set up at leisure.

The exchange itself is a mirror match. Wait for him to launch his disc, launch yours into it, and the hit knocks him down. Then get on top of him and keep swinging. There is one quirk worth knowing on the first knockdown: rather than taking the finishing stab, walk off and recharge the sword with lightning again, because the fight is not over at that point and a charged blade is worth more than the animation. On the later knockdowns, take the finisher.

What to carry in

Shield first. Every phase of this fight rewards a bash and punishes a break, so the Hylian Shield, which our items page calls indestructible and puts at Lanayru Gorge, is the one to have; the Goddess Shield at the top of the Sacred line is the next best thing because its meter refills on its own between exchanges. Potions second. The Guardian Potion is 200 rupees at the Bazaar on our shops page and blocks all damage for three minutes, which covers most of phase one on its own, and the infused Heart Potion with two servings is the safer pick if you would rather not race a clock. Hearts third: the 24 entries listed on our Heart Pieces page are worth six hearts between them, and this is the fight they were collected for.

The Bug Net report

One widely used guide says the Bug Net can swat Demise's thunder attack in phase two and leave him briefly stunned, which would make a 50 rupee purchase into a final boss counter. A second guide walking the same fight does not mention it at all and describes the lightning exchange as the only reply. We have not been able to confirm it against a source that states it plainly, so treat it as a trick to try if you are curious rather than a plan to rely on, and keep the shield bash as the answer you practise.

What the win actually does

Demise loses and is sealed, essence and all, inside the blade that killed him, which is the moment the Master Sword becomes the Master Sword rather than an upgraded Goddess Sword. His last act is a curse: his hatred will keep coming back, hunting the bloodline of the goddess and the spirit of the hero for as long as both exist. That single line is why this fight sits at the root of the series rather than the end of one game, and it is also the reason Ghirahim spends the whole story behaving like a sword with opinions. He is one, as our page on Fi explains, and so was everything Link had been carrying.