As I was playing Breath of the Wild this week, I came across the Yiga Clan Hideout quest. I thought this would be a great opportunity for our first walkthrough post!

Getting There

Upon receiving the mission to retrieve the sacred “thunder helm” from the Yiga Clan, you will want to head north of Gerudo Town toward Karusa Valley.

After hiking up Karusa Valley and fighting a few members of the Yiga Clan, you will find yourself at the entrance.

Here, there are torches circling a platform, and in almost every direction there are banners. One path to the right has storage crates, and behind you is where you came from. Shoot the banners with fire arrows (you can use the fire surrounding you as well). Alternatively, you could grab a torch, light it, and burn the banners down.

One of the banners, (in front and to the right), will reveal a secret stairwell entrance to the base.

Now before you continue, make sure you have saved recently. Once you have entered, your save screen will give you the message,”You cannot save right now.”

At the top of the stairs is a cage holding a Gerudo named Barta. She tells you that nothing seems to distract the Yiga guards other than bananas.

Before proceeding, make sure you have collected some Mighty Bananas. You should have received some from defeating the Yiga Clan members on the way up Karusa Valley. There are also a couple just to the left of the cage.

This next part of BOTW feels very reminiscent of prior Zelda games and I’m glad something in Gerudo involved sneaking around. Loudness doesn’t seem to be an issue, (I opted for wearing the Gerudo clothes we just received to make it feel authentic in the timeline). Stay out of the guards vision, they will recognize you as an enemy after a second or so.

When you get to the bottom you may use the bananas (tossing is easiest) to distract the guards long enough to slip by. Make your way past the first guard, posted by the pillars, and go down the stairs. Feel free to sneak all the way around to the chest across from you, but make sure you have enough bananas to distract this second guard twice.

After going through the doorway, and up another set of stairs, there is a hallway to a ladder. To the right is a room with a cage of bananas on the ceiling.

OPTIONAL: On the right side of the room is a lamp you can use to light an arrow and shoot the 3 banners hanging on the right. If you have fire arrows, you can leave this until later. Burning the banners will reveal a secret room. If you have no more bananas, I’d recommend waiting to go into the secret room until later.

You may take the ladder up to a path above with instant access to the bananas. Unaware of where the ladder lead, I decided to skip the ladder and first enter the room, which has its own ladder to the rafters in the far corner, not knowing there was a far simpler way to acquire the bananas.

Once up the Hallway ladder, you instantly enter a catwalk to the bananas. Yay! Just look at all those Mighty Bananas! Much more than you will need to complete this area.

Leaving the banana cage, you have a few options.

1: Go down the ladder and enter the room normally. There are some gemstones to easily acquire this way.

2: Drop from the opening in the cage and make your way to the opposite side of the room. (You can take the ladder within the guarded room back up to the rafters.)

Or,

3: If you have enough stamina, (and you don’t need a lot), you can climb on the outside of the cage to where the bananas hung over the rafters. Jump down onto the rafters.

I’d recommend option 3. It is the safest and simplest.

Once getting on the rafters above, there is a chest in the middle of the room containing 100 rupees.

OPTIONAL: If you haven’t burnt the hanging banners on the opposite corner from the banana cage, now’s the time to use that fire arrow.

Inside this secret room you find two chests filled with rupees.

Now you can exit out the side which will have you walk off a drop into another the room exit area. Here, there is a ladder up to the rafters above the guarded door.

I actually “entered” through the “exit” by using my glider to perfectly avoid the spikes surrounding the secret room’s exit. Taking this approach actually allowed me to avoid any guards during the process.

Treasure Room

Now that you are back on track, the doorway you are aiming for is once again guarded by a Yiga guard standing in place. Above and behind this doorway is a chest containing topaz. If you did the secret room, the exit ladder places you right next to this chest.

Once on the rafters above the doorway guard, simply toss a banana down to distract him. Drop down, and head through the doorway.

Past the guard, you will find the treasure room which has chests with valuable items, pots filled with arrows, a bow, and in the most prominent chest of course…

MIGHTY BANANAS!

A red herring? I think not. The Yiga Clan truly treasure their bananas. After spending some time pulling the chests from the sand, you may discover that one of the walls can be moved with magnesis. Spin the wall to reveal… a large open area. Head on through.

Yiga Clan Boss Battle

Next, you’ll come upon a cutscene where a Yiga leader discovers you and confronts you.

He recognizes the Sheikah Slate in your hip, and admits to knowing you. After a little dance he introduces himself as Master Kogha.

You may now save.

The following boss battle occurs in 3 phases. In each phase his moves will change but the premise stays the same.

Phase 1:

Use his attack against him. At first, he will form a singular ball to attack with. Shoot him right before he throws it at you. He has a shield that goes down when he begins to take aim, shoot him then. The ball will drop on him, doing significant damage and burying him in the ground. Attack him. Repeat until he changes his strategy.

Phase 2:

Same idea here. He creates 2 balls and rotates them before throwing. Shoot him as one of them is overhead and it will drop on him like before. The blow will knock him to the ground in front of you, and you may hit him. Repeat.

Phase 3:

When he gets to his last third of health, he will float in the middle creating a large spiky ball. His shield won’t drop this time, so you should change your strategy. Use magnesis to grab the ball and move it to him, this will hurt him greatly. Repeat until a cutscene begins.

After a very silly cutscene, a chest will appear in front of you containing the thunder helm.

Congrats! You beat the Yiga Clan Headquarters! If you head up the slope opposite from where you came, there is a shrine to be found.

Finally, return to Gerudo Town. Riju will be waiting for you on the steps to the second floor of the palace.

That’s all there is to it!

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