'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' Major Test of Strength: How to beat the hardest combat shrines

Hunting down each and every shrine in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the best parts of the game, but not every shrine contains a puzzle to solve. A handful of them contain combat challenges of varying difficulty, with "A Major Test of Strength" being the toughest of them all. 

How to beat "A Major Test of Strength" in Zelda: Breath of the Wild

There are seven "A Major Test of Strength" shrines in the game. Their names and locations can be found here. Each one contains a miniature Guardian with three arms and a powerful eye laser. These guys have a ton of health and can do serious damage if you're not careful. Thankfully, they aren't actually that difficult, as long as you have the right tools and can memorize a pattern.

The above video is a hilarious trivialization of these shrines, using some of the most powerful gear in the game. We don't expect all of you to go into these shrines with everything that player has. Still, the general strategy here is sound. Use stasis, shock arrows and guardian weapons for maximum damage.

You'll have to upgrade stasis at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, which you can do very early in the game. That will let you briefly freeze enemies in place, allowing you to close in. Shock arrows and electric weapons will stun these robotic enemies on contact, while guardian weapons do maximum damage. Obviously, you'll need to learn to dodge and block their attacks, which we can't help you with — pattern memorization is up to you. 

The last tip we'll give is that, when the guardians are almost dead, they become dedicated death beam turrets. You can wail on it while it's charging, or simply get some distance and use your shield bash to deflect the beams back at it for massive damage; either way is effective. Just don't get hit.

More Zelda: Breath of the Wild news and coverage

Find out all there is to know about Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including how to preserve your items, how to beat bosses like the Stone Talus and Lynel, the best recipes for Link and how to take on the game's shrines. If you're looking to snag a giant horse with little stamina, here's you accomplish that. You'll also want to find out where all the great fairies are in the game, how to use amiibo with your version of Zelda and what went into making Breath of the Wild.