Riju of Gerudo Town is the main story quest for the Gerudo in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. You will pick it up as you make your way toward the Gerudo town in the desert. When you reach the Kara Kara Bazar, you will notice the desert is currently engulfed in tornados and high winds and this will be the beginning of your quest.
The desert is hot. From the canyon to the Kara Kara Bazar, you will need to have some kind of item that will provide you with heat resistance. You can find out more on heat resistance here. A simple recipe will cover your needs but as you progress further toward the town in the desert, you are going to need to have level 2 heat resistance so make sure you come prepared!
The Mystery Of The Abandoned Gerudo Town
When you arrive at the Gerudo town in the desert, you will find that it is completely abandoned and in a fairly poor state. There will be no signs of anyone nearby. Before you dig into the mystery, there is a shrine at the top of the rock pillar toward the back of the town. You can use the ascend ability to get up here and at least open the shrine to get to the fast-travel location as you may need to leave the desert if you run out of heat resistance supplies.
Directly below the shrine, you will find a larger structure, which serves as the throne room. If you head up to the bedroom above this room, you will find a diary that gives you lots of information on what has happened to the Gerudo people that were here. They are currently taking shelter in a cave beneath the town. The diary will mention that they have covered up the entrance behind the throne. So you need to go back down to the throne room
Directly behind the throne, you will see a large statue of a sand lion. Using the ultrahand ability, lift this statue up and move it to the side. This will reveal an opening that Link can jump down into. This will be the Gerudo cave the diary spoke of.
When you get down you will speak to the person in charge and she will allow you to roam around the cave and also tell you that you should head north if you are looking for Riju. The cave is a little tricky to navigate but look around until you reach an area with some sand lions. Follow this tunnel until you reach a large cave area that has some old ruins. You need to make your way to the other side of this area, avoiding falling into the sand below.
You will come across Gibdo when you get to the other side. If you have not tried to kill any of them yet, fire does a pretty good job of killing them fast.
Training With Riju
When you find Ruji, you will need to help her with her lightening ability. Watch the circle of lighting grow as she charges it up. Once it has gone past the dummy, shoot the dummy with an arrow. This will cause a big lightning explosion.
Next, there will be three dummies and you will need to hit all three with a single explosion. You will see a small rock sitting in front of the middle dummy. Once the area of electricity has expanded beyond all three of them, shoot the rock and it will damage all three of the dummies, completing your training with Riju.
Defending Kara Kara Bazard From Gibdo Attack
You will be called back to the Kara Kara Bazar to deal with an attack by Gibdos. You will need to make use of the lighting and arrows again based on what you just learned. Killing them is super easy.
How to Stop Gibdos Spawning
The Gibdos will be dropping out of the large mushrooms. If you shoot the pink part of the stem nothing will happen. You need to wait until the mushroom is powering up to spawn new Gibdos and the pink part lights up bright. Shoot it with an electric burst and it will destroy the mushroom, preventing any future Gibdos from spawning from this mushroom. Do the same for them all to complete this part of the attack.
Defending Gerudo Town From Gibdo Attack
The next stage will bring you back to the Gerudo town which is now under attack from a much larger swarm of Gibdos. You will need to prepare the defences of the town. You can use logs and such to block the town’s three main gates, all easy enough. When you are happy with the defences, return to Riju to begin the defence.
There will be a Gibdo mushroom spawner outside all three gates to the town. You will need to use the same lighting attack that you used back at the Kara Kara Bazar. When the mushrooms are about to spawn, shoot the pink part and it will cause the lighting to strike the mushroom, destroying it in the process.
After the battle, go back down to the Gerudo shelter by moving the sand lion statue behind the throne again. Speak with Ruji downstairs for the riddle. This one isn’t as hard as it was for the Zora quest but is still fun.
Solving The Riddle In Riju Of Gerudo Town
Standing back-to-back with the throne, witness red pillars across a vast sea.
Unite the pillars in light to reveal the lightning stone and open the way.
You who can hear my voice, come to me. I await you.
Riju will suggest that you soar above the desert to figure this out but it isn’t too hard to find what you need to do. Stand to the back of the throne and look out into the desert and you will see what the riddle is suggesting you do.
The First Red Pillar
The first pillar is a simple one. Using some kind of rock-destroying tool such as a sword with a boulder fused to it, a goron rock smasher, bomb, etc. destroy the broken rocks in the middle of the tower. This will trigger a beam of light to shoot up into the mirror above and across the desert. Follow this beam of light to find the next tower which will not be visible until you get a lot closer.
The Second Red Pillar
The second red pillar is a little tricky to find since it is partially buried beneath the sand. There will also be some Gibdo nearby to deal with. If you climb up onto the pillar and look around, you will spot a small structure a little further in the same direction as the beam of light. You need to glide over to this. You will find a large rotating device on the top. Spin this around to raise the height of the red pillar. Keep lifting this up until the reflective mirror on the pillar touches the beam of light from the first pillar.
Once the pillar is correctly positioned, you will need to follow the new beam of light over to the third and final pillar. The video guide below will help you out with some of this if you are having trouble.
Final Red Pillar
The final red pillar is already the correct height but the position of the light beam is not pointing back toward the first pillar, therefore not completing the triangle. You will need to rotate this tower to fix this issue. If you head up to the very top of this tower you will find some kind of mechanism that looks like it had all of its handles broken off, you will need to repair this somehow.
If you go back down to the main platform of the pillar, you will find the center of the tower can be smashed, similar to the first tower. Do this and you will find some supplies inside that will help you restore the gears above. The video guide above will show you how to get those items up to the top if you are having trouble figuring this part out.
Once you have attached a handle to the gear on top, rotate it so that the beam of light for this tower turns back toward the first tower. Once the triangle has been connected between the three towers, a new platform will rise from the sand in the middle of the desert.
Head to this new platform and strike it with an electric arrow once Riju has charged up her powers. This will trigger the temple to rise from the sands and this will be the conclusion of the Riju of Gerudo town!
