The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past #31 - Tower of Hera

1. Ascend Death Mountain, Tower of Hera

you will arrive back at the front of the upper section of the Desert Palace, and your goal now is high on Death Mountain. there is only one path up the steep mountainside, and so that should be your aim. there is also not really any errands that need to be run before you get there (that is, unless you need to go buy some potions before you go), so there is nothing stopping you from heading straight up the mountain.

Head southeast in order to drop off the raised cliff and then continue southeast across the desert until you reach the valley. Continue through it, working your way through the enemies until you finally reach the Great Swamp. Once you are there, you can actually take a shortcut back to central Hyrule. You can head due north and you will find a small pass through the rock wall separating the swamp from central Hyrule; you would not have been able to lift the giant rock here before, but the Power Glove allows you to do so.

SEQUENCE BREAK

Now that you have the Power Glove, you are now able to purchase the Zora Flippers if you have 500 Rupees. You will not need these until Chapter 7, but if those rupees are burning a hole in your pocket or if you are getting close to the 999 maximum, it is not a bad time to spend them.

Continue heading north through the woods, bearing east when you finally get to the bridge to Hyrule Castle. This time, head clockwise around the castle, constantly on the watch for bomb-throwing Soldiers from atop the castle’s outer wall. Eventually you will be led to a path over the moat heading west. Take that, and continue bearing north through the forest, dispatching Soldiers as you meet them. Once you clear the forest, you will be back on the path between northern Kakariko and Sanctuary. However, the entrance to Death Mountain is further north still, so continue past the pond with the whirlpool in it.

The Power Glove provides a shortcut out of the swamp

The Power Glove also gives you access to Death Mountain.

If you keep going, you will eventually find a group of trees clustered in the shape of a V. The cave entrance to Death Mountain is up on a ledge just to the northeast of these trees; you should see a rock blocking the road and a sign just to its west. Lift up the rock and enter the cave. Only do so if you really do not want to be returning any time soon as, once you enter, you will not be coming back for a bit.

it is dark inside, but as there are no torches available, you do not need to bother bringing your Lantern out. Leap off the cliff and then carefully make your way through the cavern maze. There are bottomless pits strewn about, so go slow and make sure you have got steady footing. At the first junction, head right. Continue heading that direction until you come to a wall with a passageway leading north and south. Squeeze through the narrow passageway north and then take an immediate right turn.

Here you will come across an old man lost within the caves. The man’s lantern went out, and he got stuck, unable to find his way out. he will ask you to guide him out, and you will naturally say yes. For the trouble, he will ramble on about his life, telling you about his granddaughter who apparently was sent to the castle on the order of the King, but surprisingly she never returned. Perhaps she is one of the missing maidens Zelda told you about?

Continue through the cave. The old man will guide you out, but the path is fairly simple regardless. Continue bearing east, being very careful for a pit in the floor just ahead of you. Keep going as far as you can until you are left with a choice of heading up or down; choose to go southward, watching out for the Keese that inhabit the halls until you reach the entrance.

The lost old man proves to be worth his salt if you agree to lead him out of the caves.

When you finally emerge, the old man will be grateful for the help. Continue heading east until you arrive at the next cave entrance, and he will then depart inside to his secret abode. But before he departs, he will give you a very useful treasure, the Magic Mirror. You cannot use it just this moment; in fact, equipping it and trying to use it will cause an error noise. But that will become one of the more commonly used items in the game.

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2. Reach Spectacle Rock, Tower of Hera

Now in the foothills of Death Mountain, it is time to continue your way to the Tower of Hera. But seeing as how the tower is practically at Death Mountain’s highest point, you will have to journey your way up. Fresh out of the cave, you will see a new enemy and perhaps one of the most annoying ones to date: Deadrocks. Deadrocks are pretty dangerous as they do a fair bit of damage; what’s more is that they’re more or less undefeatable; striking them with any weapon will cause them to turn to stone. While they might be safe to touch while in stone form, they will block your path, which can be annoying at times. This can be especially dangerous since Boulders are constantly raining down from on high. If you have managed to get the Magic Powder by now, you can use that to convert these enemies into Slimes, which are much easier to kill.

Thankfully, there is a Boulder-free shortcut halfway up the mountain. That shortcut happens to be the cave that the lost, old man went into, which also happens to double as his “house.” Whenever you talk to him, he will restore your health to full, which will give you a little bit of damage buffer from the sometimes unavoidable Boulders. Instead of heading out of his house, head further back and up the stairs, continuing through the doorway in the back.

Take a shortcut halfway up the mountain using the old man's cave.

you will see a passageway forward with three Keese and a pot at the end; you can ignore it because it is just a single Heart, so take the passage downward that eventually ends at another doorway. Faced with two new directions, head southeast, and eventually you will see a fork heading due south, which leads outside once more.

Once you are outside, head towards the west as fast as you can to avoid the falling Boulders. If you decide to dash, be wary of the fact that there is no guardrail on the cliff face straight down, and running completely at breakneck speed might cause you to fall down back to where you came from. Eventually you will see a cave entrance and a staircase cut into the mountainside. The cave is actually the way back down the mountainside, so you will want to dash your way up the staircase. About midway, the Boulders will stop falling, letting you know that you are nearing the top.

As you make it to the top, you will start to see that you are well above the cloud line of Hyrule now. Continue east, and eventually you will see a massive rock structure to the north called Spectacle Rock, the official apex of the mountain. The Tower of Hera is just on the other side of Spectacle Rock, but unfortunately there is a cliff between you and the Tower that you will not be able to find a way to ascend.

PIECE OF HEART

You can find the ninth Piece of Heart around here if you want to go looking for it.

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3. Enter the Tower of Hera, Tower of Hera

it is at this point that you should just pass Spectacle Rock and continue east. you will see a curious little blue tile, and you should totally go stand in it. Suddenly, the world will fade away, and you not only find that the world has changed around you but that you yourself have changed. you are now a furry, pink defenseless bunny rabbit trapped high on the mountain. You will not even be able to use your sword without some much needed opposable thumbs.

The way up to the top of spectacle rock is not the most straightforward one.

Thankfully, there are no enemies over here; there is just a clearly agitated looking monster kicking around a ball-shaped creature around, both of which will be happy to talk to you. You can explore around, but there is really nothing to find here, especially as ill-equipped as you are.

You might notice that there is a light patch of ground below that vaguely looks like the shape of Spectacle Rock where Spectacle Rock would be in the Light World. Go stand in the dark patches of ground within the light patches, grab your Magic Mirror, and use it to warp yourself back to the Light World.

And suddenly, you will be standing atop Spectacle Rock. A shimmering circle will remain where you once stood, which will serve as a one-way trip back to the Dark World. This is the purpose of the Magic Mirror; should you ever need to return to the Light World from the Dark, use the Mirror to bring you there. To go from Light to Dark, you will either need to use one of the eight warp tiles scattered about Hyrule or the temporary portal created from the Mirror.

PIECE OF HEART

The tenth Piece of Heart will be right next to you when you re-emerge back in the Light World, so you might as well grab it now.

Back in the Light World, jump off the cliff to the north. it is then just a simple walk up and to the right to enter the Tower of Hera.

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4. Locate the Map and Collect the Big Key, Tower of Hera

you will start the Tower of Hera on the second floor instead of the first, and you will immediately see a row of blue blocks blocking your path forward. However, there is a Crystal Switch, currently colored brown in front of you. Strike it with your sword or anything else, and the switch will turn from brown to blue; at the same time, the blue blocks will fall while the brown blocks at the edges of the screen will rise. This is the core mechanic of this dungeon, and this will be present in most of the remaining dungeons after this point. With the blue blocks lowered, head left and head down the stairs to the first floor.

Crystal Switches lower the tiles of the color of the switch while raising the other ones.

The room will contain two Stalfos — one white and one red — and a new enemy, the Mini-moldorm. The Mini-moldorm wanders about fairly randomly, travelling alternatively in straight lines and circular arcs; their movements are very difficult to predict, though they’re easy to destroy once you manage to get hits on them. However, in this room you do not need to deal with any of the enemies at all since you are just here for the Small Key. Use your Boomerang to pull it out of the Mini-moldorm pen before heading back upstairs.

Head outside of the blue blocks guarding the staircase and hit the Crystal Switch back to brown. You can then head up to the north end of the room where you will find a Telepathy Tile. You will also find two pens holding enemies called Kodongos; these will wander about randomly before firing bursts of fire across the room, alighting anything that it touches. Be careful to avoid their fire and pass them to find the Map sitting easily available in a treasure chest. Once you have got that, head to the northwest corner of the room and use the Small Key to descend to the other part of the first floor.

you will enter a room that looks simple at first until your favorite trap — the Flying Tiles — start to emerge from the floor. there is no shortcutting this room; you have to wait and dodge them until they’re done. Once they finish flying, the door to the right will unseal itself. But to get to that door, you will need to flip the Crystal Switch to blue.

The tower of hera starts out with some clever fights, traps, and puzzles.

The next room will bring your first real encounter with the Mini-moldorm. There will be three, but two are contained within pens. Defeat the first one with two hits from your Sword before hitting the Crystal Switch to face the other two. Defeat or bypass them and then head south into the final room of this floor.

you will be done with Mini-moldorms for a brief moment, but you will have two red Stalfos that will hamper your efforts. Use the Boomerang to defeat them to get some breathing room. Once the room is clear of enemies, use your Lantern to light the four torches in the room to reveal a chest. That chest will contain the Big Key and allow you to access the upper floors of the dungeon!

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5. Obtain the Compass, Tower of Hera

you will want to head back to the second floor. In each room with a Crystal Switch, you will want to toggle them all again, first from brown to blue in the Mini-moldorm room and then from blue to brown in the Flying Tile room so that you can actually get to the southern half of the second floor. do not hit any Crystal Switches on 2F and head towards the lower-right and ascend the steps up to 3F.

The upper levels of the dungeon are very much the more annoying part of this dungeon. The Tower of Hera has clearly fallen into decay as there are holes appearing in the floor everywhere. Unlike the pits seen in earlier dungeons, these will not return you to the center of the room but instead drop you down one floor (or possibly more, depending on their placement). So from here on be careful lest you have to redo these sections along with defeating all the enemies again.

Hardhat Beetles are extremely tough and durable enemies. Dispatch these to open the door and then leave the Crystal Switch brown.

Three Beetles in the next room; you will want to get rid of these too.

Use the Star Switch to open the passage through the lowered brown block.

More Beetles await in the next room, but thankfully the pits are set up for the next segment.

Hit the far Star Switch to open the pathway to the staircase to 4F.

Finally, up on 4F, make your way south into the pseudo-maze below. The Mini-moldorm above does not need to be messed with and should stay in its pen. The two below do. You can smash the pottery into the Mini-moldorms if you can in order to defeat them; failing that, just use your Sword. Once you have cleared a path, head to the center of the room to find a Telepathy Tile and a treasure chest containing the dungeon Compass. there is no surprise where the boss is though; he is all the way at the top of the dungeon.

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6. Get the Moon Pearl, Tower of Hera

With all the dungeon items in your possession, it is time to get that big chest. That chest is just up at the top of this room; however, there is a nice little pit that will keep you from accessing it, and no amount of Star Switch manipulation will make it accessible. That means that you will have to drop down from above. Beware the Kodongos to the left as they will spit fire at you as you are navigating the small maze towards the staircase up in the northwest of the room.

getting to the moon pearl requires some very precise three-dimensional thinking and maneuvers.

The fifth floor is a huge open room like the one below it, and you will have to face some more Hardhat Beetles, a spinning bar of fire called the Guruguru Bar, and lots of pits. There are so many pits to choose from; how do you know which one you need to drop into to get the Moon Pearl? First, you will need to activate the Star Switch right next to the Guruguru Bar, so wait for your opportunity to do so. Then, head to the north part of the room and you should see a pit due north from the Bumper in the center of the room. It is extremely important that you approach that pit from the north side as otherwise you might not be north enough to avoid the Star Switches on 4F. Fall in and descend to land just in front of the Big Chest, which you can open to get the Moon Pearl.

From the Moon Pearl’s chest, head confidently over the Star Switches to the south so that you can clamber back up to 5F. If you want to get some Fairies, you can fall into the only pit adjacent to the north wall (in the northwest corner), which will cause you to fall all the way to 2F via a series of connected pots; you will find a couple of fairies and a Magical Warp Tile taking you back to 5F. There are also 12 clay pots on the far right of the room, just south of the stairs up, each one containing a heart. When you are ready for the boss, journey on up to 6F.

If you fall into this pit here, you will fall all the way down to 2F.

The pit has two Fairies plus a way back up.

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7. Defeat Moldorm, Tower of Hera

you have been facing Moldorm’s miniature cousins the entire dungeon, but the giant-sized Moldorm is much more of a pain. you will see it scooting its way across the platform in the center of the room as you head towards the south side of the room to gain entrance to his private room. Moldorm combines the worst part of Mini-moldorms (their erratic movement) and Hardhat Beetles (their extreme knockback) and adds the fact that it is only able to be damaged at the red tip of its tail. Hitting it anywhere else on the body will send you flying, and there is a very large pit on the periphery which will send you back down a floor (or maybe two). Even worse is that, every time you fall, Moldorm will regain all his health, meaning you will start over from scratch.

Moldorm is the most annoying boss; you can only hit it in the tail.

When you are ready, drop down into the central podium and combat Moldorm. The best strategy is to stay on the right-hand side of the podium where there is lots of maneuverability and wait for Moldorm to come to you. It might take a while, but it will come. Do your best to avoid its assaults and move around him to strike the tail. If you can manage it, Spin Attacks will do twice the damage at the expense of limited maneuverability. It will take six hits with the Fighter’s Sword to kill him (three with Spin Attacks), and each hit will cause Moldorm to become more irritated and move more quickly. Keep up the effort, remembering the hearts and the Fairies down on 5F should ever you fall and eventually you will prevail, earning you the Pendant of Power and one more Heart Container.

The Pendant of Power.

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