The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past - A Walkthrough with Dagger

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Cane Of Somaria

Usually the last of the main item menu's items that I get during the game. It comes in quite handy in the Turtle Rock temple. In fact, it's impossible without it. The cane can create platforms on the ropes in that temple that move you in some rooms. On regular floors it creates a block that can be moved onto switches that require something standing on them. You can also hit the block again with the cane to make it explode into lasers that shoot in the four compass directions to hit enemies.
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[Dagger Dias]

Enemy Spotlight: Laser Eye

These are eyes that are on the walls in temples. They shoot lasers at Link if they see him, which you cannot block unless you have the Mirror Shield.​

 

[Dagger Dias]

From the room where the big chest was, go right, up, up, and right. Now you should be back to the spider door room that you were in when I told you to go back to grab the Cane of Somaria. Go through the spider door and go downstairs. Unfortunately the downstairs portion of this temple is tougher. First you find yourself in a dark room. Great, those are always fun. Not. The locked door to the southeast leads to a room with some blue rupees. Not really worth your time though so hold onto that key. Use the Cane of Somaria to make a block on the switch under the skull in the southwestern part of the room. Not much of note in the next room just some skeletons, a Fire Fairy, and a weird large block. Go left.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This next room still has you in a dark area. Use the Magic Cape to avoid being damaged by the saw trap north of you. Take the left-most path down and lift the skull. Make your way to the northern part of the room. Use a bomb on the crack on the northwest corner of the room. Inside are lots of blue rupees, grab those if you need them and watch out for the Fire Fairies guarding them. Flip the red/blue switch with your boomerang, watch out for fireballs from the Medusa Statue by the switch. Now go through the door to your left. Bomb open the cracked wall north of you. Wait for a moment before going inside. You'll see little spider thingies running out through the hole in the wall. What in the heck are those things!? These can damage you as you walk through the hole so watch out. They are called Zoros. Inside is a red/blue switch below the spot where all those blue rupees were. Flip that. Now you can get past the blue blocks in the previous room.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Enemy Spotlight: Zoro

These are really rare enemies that resemble spiders. They run out from some holes blown open by bombs. They do not hit you for too much damage but can catch you by surprise as you walk through a bombed open hole. They always show up in groups and are one of the weirder enemies in the game. If you bomb open a cracked door on the north wall in a temple, wait a couple of seconds first to see if Zoros run out.
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[Dagger Dias]

The next room has a Rabbit Beam as well as some Fire Fairies, Medusa Statues, and an seemingly endless amount of Zols falling down into the room one by one. The Zols stop falling in once there are 5 in the room, then begin respawning one by one if you defeat one until there are 5 in the room again. Avoid them all and go upstairs. Or defeat some Zols to fill up hearts and your magic meter as needed, they might drop the necessary items. Make sure that the red/blue switch is red before going upstairs though. Flip the switch in the upper part of the room as needed, otherwise red blocks will be in your way upstairs. A Winder is also up there, avoid him and go left to find the boss door. Time to fight the next boss!

 

[Dagger Dias]

BOSS BATTLE: Vitreous

This boss is a gigantic eye under slime surrounded by lots of smaller eyes. The slime hurts you if you step on it. The large eye shoots lightning at you every now and then while the smaller eyes charge at you. All but four of the small eyes charge you. These four for some reason never do anything during the fight and they die when the large eye does. You have to attack using your sword constantly to defeat the small eyes while avoiding the lightning of the large eye. The lightning resembles one of the spells used by Aghanim. Once the small eyes are defeated, the difficulty of the boss drops significantly lower. The large eye jumps out of the slime and jumps at you to attack. You can literally stand at the doorway and hold down the B button, he will jump right into your sword. Repeat this until he dies. How easy. There is also another method to make this boss even easier, which I will explain below.

Vitreous is actually one of the easiest bosses in the game if you dare take a risk using this second tactic, which requires a full magic meter. Use the Magic Cape once the fight starts. Go into the slime and stand right in front of the large eyeball. Now hit B non-stop. You will eventually take out most of the small eyes this way and can damage the large eyeball when the lightning ability gets used. You can win the fight this way without taking a single point of damage.

Next time we get the Super Bomb in order to obtain the final upgrade for the sword and the Silver Arrows. Then there's the final sets of heart pieces as well. After that.... Turtle Rock!​

 

[Dagger Dias]

The first thing you need to do after having cleared both Misery Mire and the Ice Palace is getting the final upgrade to your sword. You can also upgrade your Arrows during this sidequest, and the Silver Arrows are required in order to defeat the final boss so.... that's pretty important. Go to The Bomb Shop which is located in the Dark World counterpart of where Link's House was in the Light World. Inside is a guy who looks like a green anteater. Once inside, go buy a Super Bomb. The weird music playing in every other shop does not play here for some odd reason. A quieter version of the Dark World overworld theme plays.

 

[Dagger Dias]

NPC Spotlight: Bomb Shop Guy

This guy who looks like a green anteater runs the Dark World's Bomb Shop located in the same spot as where Link's house was in the Light World. Every now and then he does something that looks like he's sneezing. It's quite strange.
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[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Super Bomb

This is much more powerful than a regular bomb. It is needed in order to bomb open the cracked wall at the Pyramid Of Power in the Dark World. You cannot get this until after clearing both Misery Mire and the Ice Palace. It is for sale after that at the Dark World's Bomb Shop. If you accidentally detonate it you can go back to buy another. However, you cannot buy another once you have bombed open the Pyramid's cracked wall since it has served its purpose by that point. The Bomb follows you and you cannot equip it. To detonate it, press A. You cannot undo this though if the countdown reaches 1 before you walk through the bomb's graphic, so do not detonate until you are at just the right spot. Also, do not jump off a cliff leaving the bomb behind, this for some reason makes it start the countdown to detonate.
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[Dagger Dias]

Once you have the Super Bomb, go to the Pyramid. Walk up the steps and you will see the cracked wall to your left. Press A when the bomb is right in front of it, walk a few steps away from it and watch the awesome looking huge explosion. Now you can go inside the new entrance to meet the Fat Fairy (yes, that really is her name).

 

[Dagger Dias]

NPC Spotlight: The Fat Fairy

Yes, that really is her name within the Zelda universe. The Fat Fairy got transformed by Ganon's curse when the Dark World was created. She is now stuck in this form. She plays a crucial role by upgrading your Arrows into the Silver Arrows, which the final boss is impossible to defeat without. Go visit her as soon as you can after clearing the Misery Mire and Ice Palace temples. She can also upgrade your Tempered Sword into the Golden Sword and fill empty bottles with Green Potion for free.
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[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Silver Arrows

The most powerful weapon in the game. This will defeat most enemies in a single hit and it is also the only item in your entire arsenal that can inflict legitimate damage on Ganon when he becomes vulnerable.
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[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Golden Sword

The final and most powerful upgrade to your sword. With the exception of the Silver Arrows, this is the strongest weapon you have access to. It makes Turtle Rock and Ganon's Tower both much easier if you have this, so I recommend getting it as soon as you have cleared both Misery Mire and the Ice Palace. It does twice as much damage as the Tempered Sword, four times as much as the Master Sword, and 8 times as much damage as your first sword did.
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[Dagger Dias]

If you have not yet, this would be a good time to visit the Pond Of Happiness. The old guy in the bar in Kakariko Village hints at this if you ever talked to him. You will be going to where the Ice Palace was, but in the Light World. Have the duck fly you to spot number 8. Now jump in the water and swim to the left. You will eventually see an island that has two Buzzblobs, some foliage, and a dark rock. Enter the cave there. See the screenshot below in case you cannot find it. Inside, you can throw rupees into the pond. Do so and throw in 100 to make Venus the Queen Of Fairies appear. She allows you an upgrade to how many Bombs or Arrows you can carry. She also looks a lot like the Great Fairy from the waterfall over by the Zora area who upgraded your Shield and Boomerang. Even though making her appear and getting all of the upgrades does take forever, if she has appeared once you can throw in 25 or 50 rupees at a time so at least the additional appearances take less time.

 

[Dagger Dias]

NPC Spotlight: Venus the Queen Of Fairies

Venus is the Queen of Fairies. If you visit her by throwing 100 rupees into the pond, she allows you to upgrade your carrying capacity of Bombs or Arrows. This can be repeated up until you can carry 50 Bombs and 70 Arrows. She increases the capacity by 5 each time, so that's a LOT of rupees. It is best to visit her in between temples, but you can do it all at once if you want. You can sell Good Bees to the Merchant in Kakariko at 100 per bee or you can gamble for it by playing the Chest Opening Game in the Lost Woods, sometimes you get 300 rupees from one chest. If you have the rupees to spend, visiting Venus can be helpful. You can only throw 20 at a time so it honestly takes forever to do. I don't usually visit her at all, but increasing your carrying capacity could prove useful. The more Silver Arrows you can shoot at the end of the game, the better, so I recommend it unless you want the challenge that carrying the default amount provides. If you try to get more Arrows or Bombs beyond the maximum capacity she can increase it to, she gives you a hint about the location of the other Great Fairy who resembles her in appearance.
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[Dagger Dias]

Have the duck fly you to spot number 1. Go to the Tower Of Hera, but instead of entering that temple go to the right. Use the Hammer to get past the obstacles. Keep going right. There's a fairy underneath the cluster of five.... whatever those things are.... so get the fairy if you are low on hearts. Keep going right until you see a large dark rock, lift that. Now go up the stairs and use the Hammer on the right obstacle, then the top, then the left. A warp tile appears! Step on that to be in the Dark World, right outside Turtle Rock. Stand on the altar that has the graphic of the Quake spell and cast the spell. You will now be able to go inside. You are unable to get inside without being able to cast Quake.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Ignore the temple entrance for now if you want to get a heart piece first. There are two pieces of heart left and you can get one of them now before entering the next temple. Pull on the right claw to get some rupees to appear, not that you need them at the moment if you have all your bottles filled with blue potion and maxed out your bomb/arrow capacities. Go left one screen. Under the large rock is a hidden entrance, go inside. This kind of sucks, it is a preview of a MUCH worse puzzle you'll find in Ganon's Tower. An invisible path which you can only see by casting Ether. Carefully walk across the path (draw a picture or take a screenshot to save frustration) then bomb open the cracked wall north of you. Bomb the cracked wall to the left of you. The right wall's crack is fake. The north crack leads to a fairy, if you want to bomb open that too. The next room also has a cracked wall to the north that you can bomb open to reach more fairies. Go south. You will be outside. Use the Magic Mirror to be in the Light World and you will see the heart! Take the heart and then warp back to the Dark World. For some weird reason there is a hole in the cliff you can jump down here in the Dark World. If you do, it looks like you'd jump into the gorge below and lose hearts, but you end up jumping down to the path that takes you to Turtle Rock instead. Do that once you have the heart.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Only 1 heart piece, 1 Crystal, the Mirror Shield and the Red Mail remain. You get the Mirror Shield in the next temple and the Red Mail in the final temple. Head back to Turtle Rock and let's head inside. Next time we will go through this temple, which while I personally find Misery Mire and the Ice Palace to be worse, it can be quite tough.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The first thing you will see upon entering Turtle Rock is a telepathy tile. It gives you a warning that you need plenty of potions to replenish your Magic Meter in this temple. This is absolutely true. All four of your bottles should contain either Blue or Green potions. See the rope behind the skull jars? Use the Cane of Somaria on the question mark at the edge of the rope to make a tile. Get on it. This moves you across the rope. Exit through the north door. These ropes are one of the focal points of this temple, so get used to them.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The next room has a rope with several exits alongside the path. Make a tile and get on. The first door to the right of you as you float counter-clockwise is not relevant as you cannot do anything but lift up two skull jars in here. Float north a bit and get off on the next door on your right. This room has an EXTREMELY annoying puzzle. You must float on a platform on the rope while using the Fire Rod to light the torches and get all the way to the northern door to run inside before it closes, which is triggered by a torch no longer being lit. Float counter-clockwise and face north. Use the Fire Rod when you are south and vertically parallel to the western two torches. Now face right and use the Fire Rod on the eastern two as you become horizontically parallel with them. Patiently float back to where you started and hurry inside the northern door. The next room has a Spiked Roller in it. Do your best to avoid getting hit by it as they do a lot of damage. There are two chests at the end of this room. The right one has a key and the left one has this temple's Map!

 

[Dagger Dias]

Enemy Spotlight: Spiked Roller

These roll along a predetermined path either vertically or horizontally. You cannot defeat them so use the Magic Cape to avoid taking damage if you cannot get past one without ending up in its path. They do a lot of damage so don't get hit.
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[Dagger Dias]

Make your way back the way you came, back to the room where you were going counter-clockwise on the rope. You'll have to make a new platform. Float to your left and head inside the door north of you. In here Tiles from the floor fly up at you. Haven't seen this in a while. Attack them with your sword to deal with them in the easiest way due to the spikes along the floor by the walls making it more difficult to avoid the tiles. When the tiles stop, a door opens north of you. In the room to the north is a fairy. You didn't need to do this area, but the fairy is helpful if the Spiked Rollers damaged you. Make a new platform and float left. Float to the lower left corner and enter the door. Watch out as a Laser Eye is guarding the door. Go one space to the left or right otherwise he will zap you. You'll find a chest guarded by spikes and two Medusa Statues. It has this temple's Compass in it! Be careful as you exit. You must hold down B while facing south in order for the Laser Eye to allow you to exit.

 

[Dagger Dias]

You should now be able to see what is in the screenshot below as you have both the Map and the Compass. The boss is located on the 3rd Basement. We still have a ways to go unfortunately.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Make a new platform and float to the upper left. Use the key to open the door. You are now in a room with a weird enemy called a Hokkubokku. Use the Fire Rod on it or attack with your sword. The Hokkubokku leaves behind a key when you defeat him. In the next room, you find Chain Chomps and some red/blue switches. This room is tough. You have to use a Bomb or your Boomerang to flip the red/blue switch in order to move the northmost block on the east set of blocks to the left. Then flip the red/blue switch again, open the chest, and go unlock the door, all without being hit for tons of damage by the Chain Chomps. Easier said than done. Use the Magic Cape to avoid the Chain Chomps, and/or re-fill your hearts with a Red/Blue potion after completing the room.