Ganon's Castle Walkthrough
Items/Weapons: Light Arrows, Golden Gauntlets, Double Defense
Heart Pieces: 0 // 36/36
Golden Skulltulas: 1 // 100/100
Songs: None
Now that you're in the Temple of Time, safe and sound, Shiek appears to talk to you and is revealed as Zelda, who gives you the *Light Arrows*. Then, Gannondorf appears and takes Zelda away. Head to the market, then to Ganon's Castle. Look at the awful mess! When you walk towards the castle, the six Sages form a rainbow bridge leading over the lava to the castle entrance. Before entering, head right of the bridge and nab the last *Golden Skulltula* on the inside of the pillar. If you head back to Kakariko Village’s House of Skulltula, you’ll get a gold rupee from the centre guy and he will continually reward you with them whenever you need it. Now, as per my tradition, here is my master checklist for all items, weapons, etc. Check your status subscreens for the following before continuing on: Fairy Bow with a max of 50 arrows, Fire, Ice & Light elemental arrows, Longshot, 3 Magic Spells (Din’s Fire, Farore’s Wind & Nayru’s Love), 4 Empty Bottles, Bombs (max. 40), Golden Scale, 3 Swords (Kokiri, Master, Biggoron), 3 Shields (Deku, Hylian, Mirror), 3 Tunics (Kokiri, Goron, Zora), 3 Boots (Kokiri, Iron, Hover), 36 Heart Pieces (20 total hearts in health meter), Stone of Agony, Gerudo’s Card, 100 Golden Skulltulas, 12 Ocarina Songs, 3 Spiritual Stones, 6 medallions, Lens of Truth, Megaton Hammer, Bombchu, and Silver Gauntlets. There is a Gauntlet upgrade and Great Fairy upgrade to come. Ready? Enter Ganon’s Castle. Head up the stairs and past the Beamos to what I will call the main room. The centre of the room has the entrance to Gannondorf, but it's blocked by six barriers (Light, Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow and Spirit.) You must shut down each barrier to reach Gannondorf. Okay, then. First, you can use the Lens of Truth while on the bottom floor to see a hole in the wall with a bunch of small red fairies and some Business Scrubs. How useful! When you're ready to proceed, search for the green medallion (Forest Barrier) and enter the door. Defeat the Wolfos, then stand in the centre platform and use Din's Fire to light all the torches. What?!?!?!? The door doesn't open. Oh....there's a torch above the door. Use a Fire Arrow to light it and enter the next room. In here, you need to collect all the silver rupees. Equip the Hover Boots and allow the fans to push you in the right direction. Step on the switch to reveal a hookshot target and use it to get a rupee. Also, bomb the Beamos so he doesn't bother you. When you have them all, enter the newly unlocked door. Here is the source of the Forest Barrier. Shoot the fat centre of the barrier with a Light Arrow to destroy it. Saria appears and takes you back to the main room. Next, find the orange medallion (Spirit Barrier) and enter the door under it. Collect all the silver rupees in the room. You can push the Armos statues to make the spiky things move a greater distance, giving you more time to grab some rupees. Use the longshot on the target to get the rupee on the ceiling. When you have them all, enter the newly unlocked door. First, beat the slugs, then use the sword to hit the diamond switch on the other side of a gate. Open the chest that appears for bombchu. Use the bombchu to go over the hole above the gate and hit the diamond switch on the other side of the gate. When it hits it, you can walk through to the other side. Continue to the next area. Shoot the spider web on the ceiling with a Fire Arrow to reveal light. Use the Mirror Shield reflecting the light on one of the suns on the wall. Again, watch for the Ceiling Masters that drop down if you hit the wrong sun. Move like crazy so you're not taken back to the beginning! The right sun should be on the right side of the entrance to this room (facing the entrance.) When you do hit the right sun, enter the newly unlocked door. Shoot a Light Arrow at the fat part of the Spirit Barrier. Nabooru appears and takes you back to the main room. Now, look for a purple medallion (Shadow Barrier) and enter the door under it. First, use arrows to get rid of the Green Bubble floating around. Use a Fire Arrow on the torch on your right. Follow the path of ice blocks to a platform with a Like Like. Get rid of it and by then, the ice blocks will have disappeared. Ignore the chest on the right (it just has rupees and is a waste of time, magic and arrows.) Shoot the torch again, lighting it and follow the ice blocks on the right side of the room down to a switch. When you hit it, a big chest appears. Quickly get up to where the door is, then longshot to the chest. Open it for the *Golden Gauntlets*. Yahoo! Look on the left, using the Lens of Truth to see a path. Follow it to a rusted switch. Use the trusty Megaton Hammer on it to open the door, then longshot to the torch and enter the next room. Shoot the Shadow Barrier down with a Light Arrow. Impa appears and takes you back to the main room. Before continuing on to the other barriers, exit the castle and go left to a bunch of boulders. Clear the path to a big black pillar. Lift it up, you strong thang :o) Enter the last Great Fairy's Fountain and receive *Double Defense*! Awesome! All the hearts in the health meter are enhanced, so that when you're attacked, only half of whatever you'd lose before is taken off! Return to the castle's main room and look for another black pillar exactly like the one in front of the Great Fairy's Fountain. Lift it up and toss it. Open the door to the Light Barrier. All of the barriers have some similarities to their temples, but there was no Light Temple, so let's see what this is like. Use the Lens of Truth to see the invisible enemies. Defeat them all to make a small chest appear. Open it for a key. All the other chests are fake, so DON'T OPEN THEM! They'll freeze you and you lose some health. Use the key on the locked door and enter it. Stand on the Triforce symbol and play Zelda's Lullaby. A chest drops down. Open it for another key and use it on the locked door. Enter, of course! You have 1 minute to collect all the silver rupees. This room has a couple of boulders, but it's pretty easy. Look around the centre, in the coves against the wall and use the longshot on the target to get the one on top. When you have them all, enter the newly unlocked door. This room should have the Light Barrier, so where is it? Use the Lens of Truth to see a path through the front wall. Walk over to the Light Barrier and shoot it with the Light Arrow, as usual. Rauru appears and takes you back to the main room. Now, look for a red medallion (Fire Barrier) and enter the door there. Put on the Goron Tunic because it's hot in here! Collect all the silver rupees in the room. Watch for sinking platforms or you'll sink in lava and have to start this room over again. One of the rupees is under a big black pillar. Just lift it up to get it. Then, the pillar you threw is used as a platform to get to another rupee. When you have them all, the door opens. Longshot to the target and enter the door. Here's the Fire Barrier, so do the usual and Darunia appears, taking you back to the main room. One more barrier to go. Look for the blue medallion (Water Barrier) and enter the door under it. This isn't like the Water Temple, but more like the Ice Cavern! Fill one of your empty bottles with some blue fire and use it to melt the red ice blocking the door. Chop up the Freezards to open the door. The two chests are fake, so DON'T OPEN THEM! As usual, you'll be frozen! Re-fill the bottle with more blue fire, then go to the next room. You now have 2 minutes to solve this block puzzle and move on to the barrier. First, push the block farthest from you to the right, then go behind it and push it into the hole. Now, use the other block to get up to the red ice up high. Push it right into a rock, then push it to the red ice. Perfect fit! Climb up and use the blue fire on the red ice to reveal a rusted switch. Hammer it to open the door. Quickly, exit to the Water Barrier. Shoot it with a Light Arrow and your fiancée (Ruto) appears, taking you back to the main room (I personally would have liked her to say "Hurry up, honey!" That would've been cute!) Now that all the barriers are gone, you can enter the centre room to face Ganondorf. Make sure you have at least one green potion and one small red fairy or red potion. Ganondorf might not take too much health, but it takes up a lot of magic. Enter the door and make your way all the way up all kinds of stairways. Along the way, you'll have to stop and fight a couple of Dinolfoses to open the barred door. Continue and then you'll need to fight two Stalfoses to get the Boss Key. Continue along and you'll need to fight two Iron Knuckles (a funny anecdote for you: When I played the game all the way through while writing up this walkthrough, I got to the Iron Knuckles and hit them both at the same time! YIKES! Actually, it turned out to be just as easy when both are awake and more fun!) When the knuckleheads are gone, go up the stairs and through the boss door, then through the next door, up a long staircase, then through another door to finally reach Ganondorf, tickling the ivories. Time to fight! See the boss section for details on beating him. When he's gone, Princess Zelda is released, but Ganondorf uses his last breath of power to destroy the castle. Follow Zelda around the castle and she'll open the barred doors for you. How sweet! At one point, Zelda will be trapped in fire. Beat the Stalfoses quickly to free her, then continue. At another point, a ReDead will block your way. Avoid it by rolling to the right, but if you do get caught, just keep tapping the A Button to escape. Continue to the outside and the castle flattens so it's perfectly flat. Maybe too perfect.....What was that?!?!?!? Investigate the rubble and whoa! Ganondorf has transformed to the almighty villain: Ganon. Again, see the boss section for help in beating him. When he's gone, watch a beautiful, long cinema of celebration and peace. Congratulations, you brave warrior! You have mastered the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!
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