Walkthrough: Dodongo's Cavern

[Dark Link]

[shadow=dimgray,left,300]DODONGO'S CAVERN[/shadow]

Hyrule Castle Town
Meet Malon in the town center; she is the short red head in the white dress. After you talk to her, walk straight ahead to the castle entrance and then exit back into the town. Re-enter to the castle entrance and talk to Malon again. She will give you a chicken egg. You won’t be able to enter the castle through the gate so you’ll need to sneak past the guards.

Climb the vines directly next to Malon and work your way across the cliff and either climb down the ladder and exit out of the door or simply jump and roll off the edge.

Go up the path and take a left at the fork; in order to avoid the two guards in the way of the path and the other on top of the ledge above, you need to walk up the hill anywhere in the middle.

Run across the open field directly to the opposite side. There’s a brick wall next to the opening of the castle; climb up the part that looks different from the rest and jump to the other side and swim through the water. Once you get to the opposite end of the castle, find the shallow water and climb up the cliff. Find the sleeping man on the ground. Let the egg hatch overnight to form a chicken.

Select the chicken to one of your c-buttons. Stand next to Malon’s father and use the chicken; he will wake up and run away to Malon. With him out of the way, you can push the boxes to reach the small waterfall on the other side. Stack the boxes and jump to the other side. Crawl through the small hole to an area that is being heavily guarded.

Note: you will only be able to enter the castle during the daytime. In order to get to Princess Zelda, you need to sneak past the guards. The guards won’t start out at the same position everytime so there’s no true pattern to memorize. Sneaking past the guards is very easy; there’s no trick to it other than waiting for the guards to turn their backs. Never get too close though, or you’ll surely get caught! After you sneak past the last set of guards, go to the left and meet with the princess.

Once you talk to her and get the letter from her, meet with Impa to learn Zelda’s Lullaby on your Ocarina. Impa tells you to go to Kakariko Village; before doing that, go to the lost woods and follow the music to Saria.

Once you arrive in the special maze area of the forest, first kill the wolf to open the gate and then walk through it to the other side using your map to guide you. Avoid getting hit by the Mad Scrubs. Saria will teach you a new melody that will be useful to you later on.

Kakariko Village
Give Zelda’s letter to the guard at the gate and he will unlock the gate for you. Before going to the top of Death Mountain, follow the guard’s tip and get your Hylian shield from the Hyrule Castle Market.

[Dark Link]

Death Mountain Trail / Goron City
Walk up the mountain, killing any red Tektite spiders that get in your way. Turn the corners until you get to the red flag. Go to the right at the flag and watch out for the rolling Dodongo. Go straight past the circle of rocks (throw and break them for hearts and rupees) into Goron City.

Walk across the wooden ledge and jump straight to the bottom. Stand on the rug and play Zelda’s Lullaby to open the door to Darunia’s lair. Talk to Darunia and then play Saria’s Song to cheer him up a bit. Darunia offers you the spiritual stone of fire in return for clearing Dodongo’s Cavern of monsters. He gives you Goron’s Bracelet for picking up bomb flowers and other heavy rocks.

Exit Goron City and walk past the circle of rocks. The entrance to Dodongo’s Cavern is blocked off so you’ll need a bomb flower. There is a bomb flower to the right of the circle of rocks, just outside of Goron City. Pick the bomb flower up and throw it off the ledge. If it doesn’t blow the sealed entrance up the first time, try again. Jump down the cliff to the entrance to Dodongo’s Cavern.

Dodongo’s Cavern
Pick up a bomb flower from either side of the room and throw it at the cracked wall. Dodongo’s Cavern has a left side and a right side, 3 rising platforms around the center ring, and a Lizard mouth at the opposite end of the entrance. Unless you really need a map, don’t go to the left side of the cavern just yet. If you do need the map for whatever reason, it’s behind the cracked wall. Jump over to the right side and use the bomb flower to get the beamos out of the way. Note the cracked wall, a switch in a room above that can’t be reached, and another cracked wall on the right. The left wall only contains a gossip stone so skip over it and blow up the cracked wall on the right. Baby Dodongos will appear from the ground. With one swipe of your sword, these weak enemies become active time bombs. As you walk further down, take out each Dodongo as it appears. Once you get to the blue switch, push/pull one of the Armos statues on it to hold it down and unlock the door above.

Pick the bats hanging on the walls off before they get the chance to annoy you. Smash the pots and walk across the hall and through the door. The door will lock behind you and the Lizalfos brothers attack. Not to worry though, they only attack one at a time so you don’t have to worry about watching your back too much. Just make sure that you avoid the lava pits. The slingshot is the easiest way to defeat them, as you can keep your distance from their sword attacks. There are hearts in two of the pots if you need them and the other two pots contain blue rupees. Go through the unlocked door after they are taken care of. There’s a bomb flower at the end of the hall that you can use on the cracked wall. The Business Scrub behind the wall isn’t of much use unless you are out of Deku sticks (which you will need for the next part).

There are Dodongos in the next room that could cause problems if not taken care of. Don’t get in front of their mouths and watch out for their long tails when the spin around. Its armored body is no match for your sword so you need to attack its tail. Do a strong sword attack on the tail and back off as it spins around. Walk back around to the tail and attack again. Once defeated, it will blow up so back out of the way. After you get all the Dodongo enemies out of the way, you’re ready to unlock the door. Locate the three unlit torches and light your deku stick with the lit torch. Run down the hall and light all three torches to unlock the door. Run and hit the switch that will unlock the door on the other side. Jump down and cross over to the unlocked door.

Pick up any bomb flower and blow up the cracked wall. There are three Armos statues guarding the treasure chest; one is alive. Throw a bomb flower at the center Armos and then dodge it when it comes at you. Pick up another bomb and throw it at him and then throw another one. The Armos will then become mad; stay as far away from it as possible until it blows up. Get the compass from the treasure chest and then go back out to the chain of bomb flowers. Place the bomb that is not in the long chain of flowers in the middle of the gap of the bombs. The stairs will lower down and the path at the top of the stairs will split to the left and right. You’ll end up in the same place going either way. Go through the door at the top of the stairs. The door will lock behind you; there’s circle of Armos statues. All of them are real Armos except for the one blocking the ladder. Kill the flaming bats and avoid the other Armos statues. Pull the statue in front of the ladder out of the way and climb up and hit the switch. Go through the unlocked door straight ahead and across the bridge. Watch out for the flame bats and jump the gap in the middle of the bridge.

Don’t climb down the ladder to the other side or else you’ll be run over by the sliding spikes below. Jump in between the two pillars directly in front of you. Cross over to the next set of pillars when the spike slowly moves back to the right side. Pull the box out if you need a heart; otherwise, climb the ladder and jump over to the short platform nearby. Throw or time the bomb flower so it hits the wall exactly when it blows up. Or you can throw it so it lands on the small ledge and then climb up the ladder to the next room.

To get rid of the fire on the platform, shoot the eye above the door on the other side. If you don’t have any slingshot nuts, slice the plant below until it gives them up. Kill the baby Dodongos as you walk through the hallway. You’re going to have to fight the Lizalfos brothers again so the door locks behind you. There are hearts on the last platform across from the door you just came through. This is also the best place to fight them so they can only approach from one direction. Just make sure you keep a safe distance from the edge or you’ll fall straight down to where you fought them the first time. They are a bit more aggressive than the first time you met up so you might want to throw a few deku nuts at them to hold them still. Through the door is more fire platforms to cross and more eyes to shoot. If you don’t have deku nuts this time around, you have to go all the way back to the first fire platform where you got them before. Shoot the first eye across from where you’re standing. Jump onto the platform where the fire was and turn to the left and shoot the other eye. Jump all the way across and jump across the bridge to the other side in the next room. Open the treasure chest and get the bomb bag and the 20 bombs inside. Don’t waste your time blowing up the cracked wall below; you’ll only find a few business scrubs trying to rip you off.

The switch will raise and lower a platform allowing you access to the lower level of Dodongo’s Cavern. Kill the flame bat and make your way over to the bridge on the right side. The cracked wall at the end of the bridge contains a blue rupee. The bridge itself has two holes in it; the lizard below has two eyes. Drop bombs down the holes into the Lizard’s eyes and its mouth will open up. Have your slingshot ready for a few fire bats that occupy the Lizard mouth. The switch in the middle of the room won’t stay without something holding it down so climb up the small ledge and work your way down the hall. Jump off the ledge and climb up the ledge on the other side. Climb up the box on the ledge and then up the next ledge. Walk across the ledge until you get to the end at which point you’ll be able to jump down. Collect the items from the pots as you walk down the hall and push the box off the ledge and into the hole where the switch is. Go through the unlocked door and place a bomb on the different colored part of the ground and then open the treasure chest to restock your bombs. Jump down the hole and have your bombs ready for use.

Boss: King Dodongo
King Dodongo rolls around in a repetitive pattern. Stand off to the side somewhere and let him roll right past you. When he runs into the wall and turns around to shoot his fire breath at you, throw a bomb (or bomb flower) in his mouth. Repeat this until he is dead; collect your heart and exit back outside

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