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If you love The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as much as I do, you wouldn’t have wanted it to end. And one of the easiest and best ways to elongate your adventure is to purchase and play the DLC packs. The Expansion Pass contains everything the DLC has to offer, including The Master Trials and The Champion’s Ballad DLC quests.
These are trials designed to test the strength of the most hardened Breath of the Wild gamers. But also contained within the DLC pack is secret armor that you can find hidden around the nooks and crannies of Hyrule.
This exclusive gear, brought to you by Misko, the great Master Theif, gives you the chance to wear gear inspired by past Zelda games, such as Majora’s Mask and Link’s outfit from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. You can even find Tingle’s outfit if you really want to flex your fashion skills.
But, by far, the coolest outfit out of all the DLC gear, and quite possibly the coolest gear in the entire game, in my opinion, is the Dark Armor. This is the gear of none other than the self-proclaimed Phantom King himself.
This gear is hidden throughout the Faron region, and it is hidden quite well. Without the clues found in the journal that begins the quest, you could easily run straight past it a hundred times without knowing it was even there.
And you know you want to find this exclusive treasure. So without further ado, here is how you can get your hands on the Dark Armor in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Key Notes Up Front
The Dark Armor is the Phantom Ganon Armor set that you get as part of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC. It was stolen from Hyrule Castle back when it was occupied by a great bandit named Misko.
Misko hid the three armor set pieces within the Faron region. The armor has a Stealth-Up set bonus and also makes Link look like he has abs. It is very likely one of the coolest armor sets in the game.
How To Begin The EX Treasure: Dark Armor Quest
As soon as you load up your DLC, all of the DLC gear quests will be there waiting for you in your quest log. Open your gear menu by pressing +, and press L to head to your Adventure Log. From there, scroll down your side quest to-do list until you find one labeled EX Treasure: Dark Armor.
The quest information reads as follows:
The royal family of Hyrule collected historically significant outfits, but they were stolen by a bandit named Misko. One of the items stolen was armor belonging to a dark entity.
Somewhere in the Deya Village Ruins is a journal that places the location of this treasure…
Click on the quest to activate your quest marker, and head off to the Deya Village Ruins. The journal should be easy to find since the quest marker leads you straight to it. But the best way to get there is to fast-travel to the Dueling Peaks Stable and take out one of your horses.
Start riding and run straight through the Dueling Peaks themselves. Once you pass through to the other side of the mountains, you will see a forest looming in the distance. Break off the path by heading to the left just before you reach the trees and ride around the hill.
Once you reach the hill, you will notice a shallow body of water. Follow it around the corner, and continue until you reach the ruins. The journal is located inside the biggest ruin closest to the hill.
Head into the ruin and walk up to the mysterious journal sitting open on a desk. Link will silently ask the question we were all wondering, no doubt, “was this book always here?” The answer is no.
The book magically appeared as soon as you loaded up the DLC. This fact in itself raises many questions, questions we will get to after we have our hands on the Dark Armor.
Reading the journal will provide you with some vague directions to the treasure. Thankfully, however, you have me to decipher them for you. The journal says:
The evil spirit’s armor set is hidden within Faron’s sea of trees. Find these pieces at the highest of three waterfalls north of Lake Floria… at the bridge between small waterfalls over Floria River… and at the broken stone bird of Ebara Forest.
Now that you are armed with your clues, you are ready to set off into the Faron region to find Misko’s lost treasure.
Finding The Phantom Ganon Greaves
At the broken stone bird of Ebara Forest…
You can, of course, find the treasure in any order. But I always prefer to travel on horseback. And the closest treasure to a stable is the Phantom Armor Greaves. So that seems like as good of a place to start as any.
Ebara Forest is in the southeastern section of the map. If you like traveling on horseback as well, fast-travel to the Lakeside Stable. But if you don’t mind going on foot, you could fast-travel to the Qukah Nata Shrine, which is closer.
Wherever you choose to start your journey, you want to aim to get to the Ebara Forest. If you decided to come from the Lakeside Stable as I did, hop on your horse and take the road to the right.
Follow it until you cross Floria Bridge. On the other side of the bridge, as soon as you enter Ebara Forest, you will notice several great looming bird statues.
The treasure is lying behind the very first bird statue to your left once you cross the bridge. Hop off your horse and run around to the back of the statue. Using magnesis, you will be able to pull the half-buried chest out of the dirt. And boom, just like that, you’ve found Link some fancy new pants.
Finding The Phantom Ganon Skull
At the highest of three waterfalls north of Lake Floria…
The next closest piece of the Phantom Ganon Armor set is the helmet, awesomely named the Phantom Ganon Skull, in this case. It has yet to be confirmed if the helm was constructed out of a real skull, but I’m honestly not sure if that would make it cooler or just straight-up morbid. So it’s probably best not to ask questions we don’t want to know the answer to.
The Phantom Ganon Skull is located on the opposite side of Floria Falls. And although you can climb most things in Breath of the Wild without too much trouble, I did meet my demise trying to swim to the other side and climb up the cliff face. And I have as much stamina as you can get.
So the safest way to get to our next destination is probably just to fast-travel to Faron Tower or Cryosis your way across the river so you have enough stamina to make the climb once you reach the other side.
The treasure is hidden just below Corta Lake. Beside the Corta Lake marker on your map, you will see a small island with two collections of bush on it. Below that is a bushier, slightly bigger island. That is where you want to head to.
Once you reach the island, look towards the bottom of the waterfall that falls from above. Use magnesis and aim at the bottom of the waterfall to grab hold of the treasure and pull it out of the lake.
Now you have two pieces of the Phantom Ganon set, and one left to find.
Finding The Phantom Ganon Armor
At the bridge between small waterfalls over Floria River…
The last piece of Phantom Ganon gear you need to collect is the furthest away. The easiest way to cover a lot of ground fast is to travel to Faron Tower and glide straight towards the west.
The armor isn’t too far from the tower, so if you have a lot of stamina, you can glide straight to it. Your destination is Sarjon Bridge. It crosses the Floria River and can be found around just outside the Sarjon Woods.
The treasure is hidden right underneath the bridge, so the easiest way to reach it is to Cryosis yourself a little pedestal to stand on in the river. Once you’re there, use your magnesis to pull the chest out from the water underneath the bridge and place it on the bridge. Glide back over to the bridge, and open the chest to complete the EX Treasure: Dark Armor side quest.
The piece of the Dark Armor puzzle you will find here is the Phantom Ganon Armor, or the chest piece, if you will. Out of all the pieces, this one is probably the most badass due to the metallic six-pack it makes Link look like he has.
Don all of your Phantom Ganon Armor pieces to get a Stealth-Up set bonus. It will also make you look extremely awesome, but that’s just an added bonus.
Who Is Misko?
Misko seems to be the collector of all the secret treasure gear in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC. He carelessly left not one, but two secret journals lying open for anyone to find and snatch up his treasure culminating in over ten different pieces of armor.
This is great, for Link, at least. But it did get me wondering. Who is Misko? The fact that the open journals appear only after you purchase and install the DLC implies that he is still out there somewhere. Or at least one of his ancestors is, anyway.
Since Misko stole his loot from the depths of Hyrule Castle, it must have been back when it was occupied and guarded. That means that Misko was actively stealing at the height of his career before the calamity occurred.
That was over a century before the events of Breath of the Wild, so he couldn’t possibly still be alive unless he stole one of the same cryogenic sleep devices that Link used, but this seems unlikely.
But if Misko didn’t leave the journals in the Deya Village Ruins, then who did?
There are only two people in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that seem to know anything whatsoever about the Great Bandit Misko’s existence. There are two brothers named Prissin and Dominak, who you will find arguing in the Dueling Peaks Stable.
Talking to these two brothers begins the Misko, The Great Bandit side quest, which is part of the main game and doesn’t have anything to do with the DLC. This further solidifies the Great Bandit Misko in the Zelda canon, as it establishes that he isn’t just a random unnamed entity made up purely for the events of the DLC.
Misko was alive and well in the Breath of the Wild universe, stealing things and making a name for himself.
Link overhears the two brothers bickering about the location of some secret treasure hidden somewhere close to the Dueling Peaks. If you speak to the brothers, they will con you out of 100 Rupees in exchange for a riddle which, when solved, will lead you straight to the treasure.
Apparently, the brothers got wind of the rumor from a long lineage of people, none of who had ever been able to solve it. The fact that no one was able to decipher the riddle is almost as big of a mystery as Misko’s identity itself since it is quite possibly one of the easiest riddles I have ever heard. It goes like this:
The Little Twin steps over the Little River. My cave sets above that river’s source.
The riddle is extremely easy to figure out. Especially since the Dueling Peaks Stable is situated almost directly opposite two bridges named the Big Twin and the Little Twin. Crossing both of the bridges takes you straight to a waterfall. At the top of the waterfall, there is a bombable wall, which, when destroyed, reveals Misko’s treasure hoard.
Inside you will find a Luminous Stone, Amber, two Sapphires, an Opal, two Toasted Hearty Truffles, two Roasted Bird Drumsticks, a Soldier’s Spear, and behind another bombable wall, a Flameblade.
Finding the loot completes the Misko, The Great Bandit side quest that began once you got the riddle from Prissin and Dominak, but it doesn’t answer the question that is still eating away at me. Who was, or is, Misko?
After much thought and consideration, I have arrived at the theory that the two brothers, Prissin and Dominak, are Misko. Well, his ancestors, at least. They are the only people in the game that seemed to have any knowledge of Misko, and they also knew where his ancient treasure hoard was.
Someone had to leave those books out at the ruins. Even Link himself accepted the fact that they weren’t always there. Someone was leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that led Link straight to the treasure. And I do think that it was Prissin and Dominak.
After all, that riddle was so easy. How could the brothers really not have figured it out when they were so close to the treasure? They were also within close proximity to the location where Link found the journal and easily could have planted them there.
There were also two Toasted Hearty Truffles in the treasure cave, as well as two Roasted Bird Drumsticks. It might be pedantic, but I have a firm belief that nothing exists in a video game for no reason. It was actually Zelda games that taught me that, and that knowledge has helped me decipher many a Zelda puzzle.
It takes a lot of effort for developers to put things places in a video game; things don’t just appear on accident. If it exists, it has a meaning.
The fact that there were two drumsticks and two truffles in the cave does lead me to believe that there may have been two people that knew about the cave’s existence and perhaps had even been there before.
Why they would lead Link to the DLC treasure and Misko’s Cave isn’t something I have been able to figure out. Perhaps they just wanted to lead a more honest life than their bandit ancestor. But I digress. This probably isn’t a question that will ever be canonically answered, and the identity of Misko’s ancestors is most likely a secret that died when he did.
What Do You Get For Completing The EX Treasure: Dark Armor Side Quest?
Completing the side quest will provide you with the entire Dark Armor set, which endows Link with a Stealth-Up set bonus and some incredible washboard abs. The journal that contained the clues that lead you to the armor also contained clues that can lead you to other items.
The journal contains clues that lead you to the Merchant Hood, which is a reference to Ravio, who was a shop owner in A Link Between Worlds. The journal also contains clues that lead you to the Garb of Winds, which is a Wind Waker outfit, and also contains clues leading to the location of the helm of the Usurper King, which was Zant from Twilight Princess’ helmet.
So along with finding the Dark Armor set itself, you also receive clues to three other pieces of Misko’s stolen treasure.
Dark Armor BOTW Guide: FAQs
Question: Is the Dark Armor the Strongest Stealth Outfit in the Game?
Answer: Yes, it is. The other stealth outfit you can get in the game comes from Kakariko Village and looks like a Sheikah outfit. That outfit applies the same Stealth-Up set bonus but only has 10 defense. The Dark Armor, however, has 12 defense.
Question: How Many DLC Outfits are There in Total?
Answer: The entire DLC contains clues and secrets that lead to a total of 10 pieces of gear for both Link and his horse.
Question: Can you Upgrade the Breath of the Wild DLC gear at The Great Fairy Fountain?
Answer: Unfortunately, you cannot upgrade any of the DLC gear at The Great Fairy Fountain. Thankfully, they all have pretty good stats, but it is still a little disappointing that they can’t be made any better by upgrading them.
Question: How Many Past Zelda Games do the DLC gear Pieces Reference?
Answer: The DLC gear references many past Zelda games. There are references to Twilight Princess, Majora’s Mask, A Link Between Worlds, Wind Waker, Tingle – who appears in several Zelda games, and there is even Xenoblade Chronicles 2 armor.
Enjoy The Sneaky Life, Just Like Misko, With Your New Dark Armor Set
Hopefully, this guide helped you out on your quest to locate all of the missing pieces of the Phantom Ganon Armor set to complete the EX Treasure: Dark Armor side quest. With your new armor, you should be fully equipped to be so stealthy that even The Lord Of The Mountain found atop Mount Satori won’t hear you coming.