By Guy Desmarais
The Legend of Zelda games are known for their tough puzzles. But these stand out as the absolute hardest.
The Legend of Zelda is a superb series which is famous for its dungeons and puzzles, but it is not exactly known for its difficulty. Most of its brain teasers only require the player to use the right tool at the right time, and the games are generally good at leaving enough breadcrumbs to make the solution eventually apparent to those with enough patience.
Still, there are times where the puzzle design seems to have gone wrong, either because something was lost in translation or because the mind of the average designer at Nintendo works in a very different way. Because lists are neat, we have compiled ten of the toughest puzzles and challenges the series has offered since its inception, as well as their solution when possible.
If you learn something new, you’re welcome! And if you never lost your cool in front of any of these, then you truly are a Zelda expert.
10 The Sun Crest Symbol (Phantom Hourglass)
After entering the Temple of the Ocean King for a third time, you are asked to copy the Sun Crest onto your own chart. You might think that this means using the stylus to approximately reproduce the symbol, but you will find that to be ineffective. Instead, what the game wants you to do is to close your Nintendo DS and reopen it. Since the chart is on one screen and the crest on the other, you are effectively “pressing” the sacred crest as instructed. It’s confusing because it is the only moment where the game breaks the fourth wall, so it’s not like players were expecting this to even be a possibility.
9 The Entire Water Temple (Ocarina of Time)
So much has been written about the Water Temple that Nintendo even remade the dungeon for its 3DS remake, adding fluorescent lines to help guide players through its vast rooms. The truth is, most players get stumped because they always forget about one particular key: In the tower in the middle of the main room of the dungeon, a key is hidden underneath a platform at the bottom. This key will only be attainable when the water level is at its peak so that the platform covering the key will float away. Keep that in mind, and the temple should be much less maddening in the future.
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8 Retrieving The Sols (Twilight Princess)
This one isn’t a puzzle as much as it is a crazed obstacle race against both time and disembodied hands. Once you grab onto one of the orbs, the hand holding it will pursue you until you bring it back to the entrance of the Palace of Twilight. It’s stressful, but if you remember to keep your clawshot and arrows equipped, you’ll make it through. Keep periodically stunning Zant’s Hands with these items, and you will have more freedom to work your way back to the entrance.
7 The Master Sword Statues (Twilight Princess)
Before accessing the Master Sword in Twilight Princess, you are tasked with maneuvering two statues into the proper spot on a grid. These statues will move when you do, but not in the same direction, and there are obstacles in the way to make things harder. Unfortunately, there are no quick and simple ways to explain this one. The patterns of movement are constant, so you can do it with enough practice, patience, and observation. Or, you know, you can always cheat and use one of the many step-by-step guides available online.
We mostly all used the guides, to be honest.
6 The Sky Keep (Skyward Sword)
As the last dungeon in Skyward Sword, the Sky Keep is a pain in the butt. It’s like a final exam where everything you have learned will be put to the test. The real challenge in this one is the layout, which is a maddening sliding puzzle where you rearrange the map through a pedestal. If you want to finish the dungeon without a guide, you would do well to remember one thing: if you get lost in its depth and you can no longer rearrange the rooms to go where you want, you can always exit the dungeon and come back. The gates you have opened will remain so, but the rooms will go back to their original configuration, undoing that tangle you may have created.
5 Turtle Rock (Link’s Awakening)
This dungeon relies on many secret rooms being hidden behind cracked walls, which you can open using bombs. The Game Boy version of the game however has a surprise for you. Once you think you have bombed every crack in every wall, it turns out that you still cannot proceed forward. So what to do? Look at your map, and notice which room you haven’t gone to yet. Go to the adjacent one, and then place another bomb to the wall separating the two rooms. Nintendo did not mark this one with a crack, thinking that the fact that you had been blowing up walls left and right throughout the dungeon was enough of a clue.
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4 Ghost Ship Chart (Wind Waker)
Late in the game, you are asked to locate the Ghost Ship, which you must board. But how can one locate a ship which has the bad habit of disappearing when you approach? With a Ghost Ship Chart, of course! That sounds obvious, but finding that chart really isn’t. That is because the one clue you need to spot it is given by a Fishman near Diamond Steppe Island, a place which you might miss because of how unremarkable it is otherwise. Stumbling upon the clue the first time you play is almost a crapshoot, but once you know, you never forget it.
3 The One Hit Obliterator (Breath of the Wild)
The Champion’s Ballad DLG in Breath of the Wild is a fun add-on which culminates with the addition of the awesome Master Cycle Zero, but you must make your way through the nail-biting One-Hit Obliterator section first. More of a quest than a puzzle, this section claims many victims because they rush head on at enemies, thinking the powerful weapon will save them. The obliterator, instead, should be a last resort. Stay away from everyone, use up all your arrows, throw bombs if necessary, and use the obliterator when you have no choice. You’ll make it through the night.
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2 The Stone Tower’s Mirror Room (Majora’s Mask)
The Stone Tower is a piece of work in itself, especially when you start flipping the entire temple upside down, but it’s the mirror room that’s the biggest obstacle for first time players. That’s because the mirrors in there do not act like regular mirror, and your only clue is a hint saying that there’s something “strange” about them. It’s not much of a clue, but what it truly means it that the mirrors can be charged like batteries; they will keep shining light back at you the longer you shine it into them first. After that, use your new light sources to clear the sun blocks and symbols in out-of-reach places.
1 Yiga Clan Hideout (Breath of the Wild)
Stealth missions are fine in a Metal Gear game, but they feel a bit out of place in The Legend of Zelda. Getting the orb from the Yiga Clan Hideout is one of the most frustrating missions in Breath of the Wild, and you might be tempted to try and brute force your way out. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS! It’s doable, but insanely tough and long. Instead, stock up on bananas, and drop them out of the way to attract the guards. Use a lot of them. You’ll see that it doesn’t really matter how much sound you make or how subtle you are when all the guards are busy fawning over bananas.
