Back in the future, Symmetry City is restored, including the entrance to the next dungeon. But now that Link has access to the gale seeds, he can warp around and be right back to run the next dungeon. Back on Crescent Island in the past, the raft has washed ashore, giving Link a chance to explore the island and its surrounding areas a little better without the threat of a storm. South of where the entrance to Moonlit Grotto will be is a great Gasha soil location, one of the locations where a Gasha nut can contain a heart piece. In Lynna Village/City, Link can use the Tune of Currents to warp into a fenced-in area by the village shop, which gives access to the shop’s secret basement. There’s another heart piece for sale here, as well as the second ring box upgrade, a couple Gasha seeds, and a ring. Just like in Horon City, when Link buys out their inventory, he gains access to a treasure chest game that gives him a chance to win rings.
Back in the house with the Tuni Nut in the past, Link can find a guy working out with only one dumbbell, who trades his cheesy mustache for Link’s sole dumbbell. The cheesy mustache goes to the guy in Lynna City who tells jokes, who teaches Link the funniest joke he knows. In past Lynna Village, there’s a kid going through a gloomy phase; Link tries to tell him the joke to cheer him up, but botches it, and the kid decides he can be as depressed (his word, not mine) as he wants and lets Link take one of his books. The book goes to Maple next time Link runs into her; in the meantime, she’s upgraded to riding a flying saucer. She leaves Link an oar she made, which goes to Rafton so he can enter raft races in return for a sea ukulele.
Skull Dungeon
Skull Dungeon is the game’s fire/lava dungeon. In addition to the obvious addition of lava as a hazard for jumping puzzles, there are sequences where Link pulls down on a switch to halt lava flows, giving him a brief moment to run over the lava bed to the next safe spot. The dungeon’s treasure is the hookshot variant, the switch hook, which switches Link’s place with whatever he hooks onto, adding a couple extra elements of strategy to its use: positioning is important, and once something is switched, it can’t be used again until it’s switched back. (Also, pots can be hooked, but they break rather than appear in Link’s old position.) The game also adds a new type of color puzzle: floors that start entirely one color, except one square Link’s standing on, that changes as Link walks over. The goal is to change the entire floor of the room in a single path, looping around stationary elements like statues.
The dungeon miniboss is a giant armos knight who boasts that his sword and shield make him unbeatable. He throws the sword, which follows Link around the room, and the trick is to have it attack the knight until both sword and shield are destroyed. With them gone, it’s a simple matter of beating on the boss till it dies. The end boss is Eyesoar, a standard big eye surrounded by little eyes enemy, only this time the little eyes are just a distraction. Link needs to use the switch hook to pull the big eye out of position, disorienting it and leaving it vulnerable to sword attacks. After Eyesoar goes down, Link claims the next Essence, Burning Flame, and the Maku Tree directs him to the ridge north of Nayru’s home.
Link can wrap up the trading sequence now. East of Lynna Village in the past, across a series of gaps that requires the switch hook to cross, there’s an old zora who misses the sound of the sea. He trades the sea ukulele for a sword – a broken sword. Without any blacksmiths of repute around, Link takes the sword up Restoration Wall to Patch, whose ritual now has two rounds and is even more annoying but fixes the sword into the Noble Sword. In the future, there’s an old woman who tells Link of a hidden cave behind Holodrum’s Clock Shop, and gives him a secret to pass to the man there. The man tests Link by having him fight a series of enemies, and after Link’s successful, upgrades his Noble Sword to the Master Sword and gives him a code to do the same back in Labrynna. This is, presumably, not the real Master Sword which is still back in Hyrule, but its approximate equivalent in power.
Next: Moblins and gorons.
