The world of Hyrule has changed a lot in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom when compared to its predecessor. There are environmental disasters, great ruins falling from the sky, and bands of pirates terrorising the more law-abiding citizens. This last one is what we're concerned with today.
Lurelin Village has been taken over by a horde of monsters - mostly Bokoblins, but a handful of Lizalfos, too. This quest tasks you with eradicating the monsters from the village, which would allow a rebuilding effort to begin. It's quite a tough one, though, so make sure you're prepared before heading in.
Preparing For Ruffian-Infested Village
There are two things that make this quest particularly difficult:
- There are lots of high-level monsters, such as Black Bokoblins, Black Lizalfos, and a Boss Black Bokoblin.
- You have to defeat all the enemies in one sweep - dying will make you start all over again.
This is quite a gauntlet of challenges, so we recommend that you have all or most of the following:
- Some of the summons that are obtained from completing the Regional Phenomena quests. Particularly useful are the Sidon and Riju summons.
- Plenty of high-quality food, preferably with defensive buffs or extra hearts.
- Hearty Truffles will give you extra, temporary hearts when used in a dish.
- Ironshrooms and Fortified Pumpkins will give you a defense buff when used in a dish.
- Hyrule Herbs and Palm Fruit (which can be found throughout Lurelin Village) will improve the base number of hearts recovered in a dish.
- A good stash of weapons. You'll be able to craft some very good weapons with the monster parts dropped in this quest, but having a good collection beforehand is a plus.
- Some upgraded armor, preferably to level three at the very least.
- A good number of Heart Containers, preferably ten or more.
- A good number of electricity and icy-elemental materials for arrows.
The good thing about this quest is that it is possible to take small breaks between groups of monsters, allowing you to cook or fuse new weapons at your leisure.
How To Complete Ruffian-Infested Village
The monsters in Lurelin are separated into a few separate groups, though they all have the same general makeup - a few Bokoblins backed up by Lizalfos, who attack with melee weapons, and some Bokoblins with bows.
It's a good idea to take out the Lizalfos first, as they can be very annoying to deal with thanks to their erratic movements. After that, hunt down any archers, as it's very disheartening to get sniped from afar while dealing with melee enemies.
Make sure you don't wander too far from a fight in progress, as you may end up inadvertently drawing another pack of monsters toward you.
In the first stages of this quest, you'll be clearing out monsters near the village entrance, then the ones closer to and on the beach. Don't forget to stay healed and take breaks to cook and fuse new weapons when needed.
When it's time to get onto the ship, you'll need to climb the long ladder near the end with the skull - from the platform on top, you can glide on over to the skull. The ship is very dangerous, as there's a small space to fight in and the enemies here are very strong.
One way to deal with the ship enemies is to stay on the skull and shoot at them with your bow. They won't be able to reach you with their melee weapons, only throwing rocks at you which don't deal that much damage and are easily dodged.
Even better, if you have Muddle Buds, use these to confuse the enemies down below and watch as they fight each other. Once they've mostly taken each other out and the only ones left are weakened, they're easy to mop up - even the Boss Moblin.
Muddle Buds in general are great for this quest - if you have enough of them, you'll barely ever have to fight an enemy yourself.
The Lizalfos on the opposite side of the ship can be a pain, as it will spit water at you constantly. Get a critical hit arrow shot at it and it'll be flung into the water - it's very easy to shoot down at it from here to finish it off.
If you find that you've beaten up every monster you can see, including those on the ship, but there still seems to be one monster remaining, check the well near the village entrance. There is a single Bokoblin at the bottom of the well - just be careful when descending as it might manage to strike you before you can get a look at your surroundings.
After wiping out all the monsters, the quest will be completed. As a reward, Lurelin Village will be made safe, and you'll be given a new quest automatically: the Lurelin Village Restoration Project. This is a long-term quest that has you helping out with the rebuilding effort.