Just like its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gives you a great deal of control over when and how you beat the game. Having said that, if you want to experience the best possible conclusion in Tears of the Kingdom, you have to accomplish quite a few steps beforehand. In other words, if you try and conquer the final boss encounter as soon as possible, you won’t get the special cutscene that plays after the credits roll. So here’s how you can trigger this secret, or “true,” ending cutscene in Tears of the Kingdom.
Requirements for the “true” ending
1. To view this ending cutscene without simply looking it up online, I suggest that you finish every main quest that Tears of the Kingdom has to offer. Of course, this partly involves going through all of the main dungeons, including Hyrule Castle and the Spirit Temple where you get the Vow of Mineru. However, it also involves getting the Camera from Robbie, viewing all of the memories, and obtaining the Master Sword before the final battle.
2. Additionally, you will want to complete the lead-ups to some of these major objectives, such as the quest to cure the Deku Tree before getting the Master Sword and the quest to clear the thunderhead before tackling the Spirit Temple. Even if you’ve already reached the Master Sword or the Spirit Temple as I did with the latter, you should still do these preliminary quests to unlock the bonus ending cutscene.
Related: Can you tame the Lord of the Mountain in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TotK)?
Note that although the main story content includes the Autobuild quest, it does not include the Master Kohga quest that follows immediately afterward. Even though the Master Kohga quest contains crucial information regarding the final boss’s location, the game counts it as a side adventure, so you can safely ignore it if you wish.
In all, Tears of the Kingdom features 23 main quests that are necessary for obtaining the final ending cutscene. Two of them, Find Princess Zelda and Destroy Ganondorf, require you to finish the game to complete. So as long as you have 21 out of 23 quests completed on the Purah Pad’s main quest list before heading to Ganondorf, the last cutscene is yours.
Screenshot via PC Invasion
