Colossus Twelve - Silent Thunder

Silent Thunder's lair is located in square G2. To reach it, head east from the Shrine, cross the land bridge heading north, then take another land bridge past the Half Moon Canyon save point until you reach a small forested area. Heading west from there will lead you to another canyon path, which will eventually terminate near a waterfall. You can't bypass the large stone in your way, but you can jump onto the nearby pillar and scoot around the handhold on it to reach the other side of the walkway. That won't continue for long, though, and you'll need to jump into the water and swim underneath the bridge to reach the structures in the north end of the lake before Silent Thunder reveals itself.

Attacks

Silent Thunder, as befits a creature of its nomenclature, attacks primarily with a lightning attack that emanates from the two horns on its head. These can do serious damage, and are almost impossible to dodge when you're in the water. If you're quick, though, you can dive under the surface of the water (R1 button) to avoid the damage from these attacks.

Killing It

Hide here until the enemy gets close, then swim underneath it.

Note the presence of three large structures in the lake, each with a lower level that you can swim onto, and a higher platform above them. You'll need to get to one of these structures and hide behind one of the pillars underneath to prevent the lightning strikes from hitting you; if you wait long enough, Thunder should approach the structure and get relatively close - this is when you make your move.

In order to scale Thunder's body, you'll have to get behind him and climb up his shell from the rear. This is going to be difficult to do, though; although he's slow, he's huge, and it'll take a bit of time to swim from front to rear. You swim faster when you submerge yourself with the R1 button, so hold that down and try to make a beeline for his rear side. He'll pivot as you swim past him, so you'll need to swim a bit farther than you would if he stayed still, and even when you do reach the fur on his back, you might wind up grabbing hold of it under the waterline, where it'll be impossible for you to climb up. If you're lucky enough to get a good hold of the fur above the water, though, you'll be able to start your ascent.

You need to crawl all the way up Thunder's spine until you reach his head. Unfortunately for you, there aren't any vitals in sight here, but there's still something to whack. If you notice the glowing teeth-like protuberances on the top of the beast's head, try hitting one with your sword. You'll be rewarded with an immediate shift in the creature's velocity. That's right, with nothing but your sword, you'll be able to steer the colossus anywhere you want to go. We're going to Vegas in style, baby!

Video Walk-through

Actually reaching Silent Thunder's weak spot is the hard part of this fight.

Watch It »

Well, no, you can't actually leave the lake, thanks to the bridge, which is too narrow for the colossus to fit through. Instead, steer it back towards one of the structures, whacking it as you see fit to get it to take the correct path. When you're close enough to one of the top platforms, jump off and land on it, then hide behind the central rise to prevent any incoming laser beams from damaging you.

Eventually, the creature will take its front legs out of the water and place them on the platform. When it does, jump out underneath its head and grab hold of the fur on its belly, then quickly crawl down and start hitting the vital spot there. You'll only have enough time for one or two hits before the beast submerges and you need to repeat the process, so make sure they're solid hits! After a few sequences of this, you'll kill the beast and move on.