The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild followed a different formula than past Zelda games. Traditional titles within this franchise would follow a linear story, and a player would have to beat one dungeon at a time, and at the end of each one would be a difficult boss battle. However, in BotW, players can tackle any part of the game in any order, including the various enemies.
While there are very few traditional bosses in BotW, the game does come with several higher-level enemies for players to fight. These require more skill and strategy to win than everyday enemies and will go through various phases before finally falling. Not all of these enemies are created equal, and they can be easily ranked from easiest to hardest.
Dark Beast Ganon
Dark Beast Ganon is the final boss of the game, and ironically, the easiest of all the larger-scale enemies. Like many other Zelda games, this beast form of Ganon can only be defeated with light arrows aimed at his most vulnerable areas, but this ends up being fairly easy to do.
Dark Beast Ganon has a small variety of attacks, making him easy to avoid. Players just need to take advantage of gusts of wind to get above him and shoot at him until his health is depleted.
Calamity Ganon
Another reason that BotW is unique compared to other Zelda games is that players can choose to face off with the final boss whenever they please. If they choose to face Calamity Ganon sooner rather than later, with fewer hearts and only early-game weapons from BotW, they will have much more of a challenge than if they wait until the end.
If players wait to face him until after they have freed all four of the Divine Beasts, they will find that he is fairly easy to beat. His health will be greatly depleted from the power of the Beasts alone, and assuming that Link has a considerable amount of hearts and items, there is nothing to worry about.
Fireblight Ganon
Fireblight Ganon is slow-moving and pretty straightforward. If it manages to land an attack, the damage is substantial, so players will want to make sure that they have everything they need to keep their health up and make sure to dress Link in clothing with a high armor rating.
Fireblight starts out dealing straightforward attacks that just need to be avoided. At this stage, players can use ice arrows to cause more damage during their openings. Then, when Fireblight begins gathering energy for a larger-scale attack, players can simply allow it to suck up one of their bombs. The battle is straightforward, and slow and steady wins the race.
Waterblight Ganon
Waterblight Ganon is slightly more difficult, but a good deal of fun. At first, Waterblight is straightforward like Fireblight, using standard attacks that must be avoided and countered. However, when phase two of this battle starts, the water level rises, restricting the areas where Link can stand.
When this happens, players can use Cryonis to create more platforms to stand on. They can also use this rune to destroy ice projectiles that Waterblight will throw, or simply avoid them. Waterblight must be shot in the eye (electric arrows will cause more damage), which will stun them, and then players must make their way across any water or platforms to do more damage using standard melee attacks.
Windblight Ganon
Windblight Ganon spends most of its time flying through the air, so it can be difficult to reach. In addition, it uses this safe distance to shoot beams of energy that can do considerable damage, or send out tornados that will do the same. Players need to take their time, avoid strikes, and return fire from their bow as often as possible.
Once Windblight takes on enough damage and enters its second phase, it will continue doing largely the same thing as before, but this time with more tornados and stronger beam attacks. Between dodging, paragliding, and shooting, players will eventually take this boss down, but it will just take some time.
Guardian Scout IV - Shrine Trial
Some shrines, as opposed to containing puzzles, will have a Guardian Scout of various strengths that Link must defeat. The most difficult of these is the Guardian Scout IV within the "Major Test of Strenght" trials. These battles take tame, and a wide variety of fighting styles to complete.
These Guardian Scouts will use standard melee attacks, different forms of energy beams, and spin attacks. To win, players must avoid all of these using dodges, the surrounding pillars, and sometimes gusts of wind that can carry them into the air to deal attacks with the bow and arrow. This battle requires a lot of dodging and well-timed attacks.
Silver Lynel
Lynels are one of the most difficult enemies in the game to defeat, and the Silver Lynel can deal even more damage than the other standard Lynels. If he manages to land any of his blows, players must hope that they have enough food and potions to keep themselves afloat.
Just like any other battle in BotW, slow and steady is the name of the game. The Silver Lynel does a lot of rapid horizontal strikes. Players can do back blips to avoid these, and if the timing is right, dive in with a flurry rush. The Stasis rune will also work against Lynel's so players would be wise to take advantage of this, but beware, it won't hold him for long.
Gold Lynel
Gold Lynels are the strongest type of Lynel in Breath of the Wild and are included in the game's Master Mode, which is available with the game's DLC. Golden Lynels are said to be Silver Lynels that were struck by lightning and have therefore gained additional power. They take much longer to kill, and can deal higher damage, so players should be sure to stock up on Beath of the Wild's tasty-looking recipes.
Gold Lynels are defeated the same way as other Lynels, they will just take more time. There are several effective ways to take them down, and different players have their preferred methods. Once again, Stasis is always a good option, as long as players remember that it holds for a very short time. Other players prefer to stun a Gold Lynell by shooting them in the face, and then climb on their back to deal a flurry of attacks.
Thunderblight Ganon
One of the things that make Breath of the Wild such a great action RPG is that the game loves to take players by surprise. The game completely switches things up with Thunderblight Ganon, making him entirely different than the other Divine Beast Bosses. Thunderblight is extremely fast and difficult to avoid. It can also deal a shock attack that will make Link drop anything he has equipped, which can quickly become frustrating.
It may take some practice, but at first, the only way to push Thunderblight to its second phase is by dodging and returning a flurry of counterattacks. Once a player has dealt enough damage, Thunderblight will use large pillars to channel electricity and cause more damage. To win, players must use Magnesis to move one of these pillars near Thunderblight, causing it to electrify itself.
Monk Maz Koshia
Monk Maz Koshia is the boss of the Ressurection Divine Beast that is available with the Champions Ballad DLC. This boss has multiple phases and will require a good amount of time to defeat. However, if players want to gain access to Link's Divine Beast, they will have to brave this battle (it's worth it).
Monk Maz Koshia will start out flying around out of reach. Players must wait for an attack, dodge at the right moment, and return a flurry of attacks. This must be repeated several times before Maz Koshia will move on to creating duplicates of itself to confuse the player. Once players have attacked the right one enough times, they must use their shield to parry energy beans back at the boss, until it is finally defeated.