Before starting the Triforce hunt, Link can cash in the two treasure maps from the dungeon for another piece of heart and 200 rupees. He can mostly finish filling the Nintendo Gallery now. There are seven and a half characters who have only appeared in cutscenes: Laruto, Fado, Ganon, Daphnes, great fairies, the fairy queen, Jabun, plus Tetra post-transformation into Zelda. These are unlocked by buying Lenzo’s legendary pictographs, 50 rupees each, one per night over the course of a week. (Zelda is unlocked with Daphnes.) Along with all the pictographs Link can already get at this point, this leaves seven empty pedestals: four in the boss room, and three in the miscellaneous room. Three of these are for Gohma, Kalle Demos, and Tingle. And the King of Red Lions is not one of them.
One of the maps is on the ghost ship, so Link needs to find the item that makes the ghost ship not disappear when he gets to close, which is located in a cave on Diamond Steppe Island. Inside the cave is a maze of pots, with Floormasters constantly trying to reset Link’s progress. Once Link makes it through, he finds a map showing all the places the ghost ship can be. As my luck had it, Link emerged from the cave at night when the ghost ship was there by Diamond Steppe Island, so it was a simple matter of tracking it down and getting aboard. After fighting off Poes, a Wizzrobe, and a bunch of other enemies, Link claimed the first chart. As soon as he did, there was ghostly laughter, and Link returned to the King of Red Lions, with the ghost ship nowhere to be seen.
The next map is on the Private Oasis. Link shows the deed to the cabin to the door/butler, then enters. He then has to use his grappling hook to put out the fire in the fireplace, allowing him to access the tunnels underneath the island. Exploring them leads to a crawlspace similar to the one in Windfall Island’s jail, and by successfully navigating, he’ll find the map in a chest hidden until he plays the Wind’s Requiem. The Islet of Steel has a cave protected by a bunch of patrolling warships with a Triforce map. At Needle Rock Island, there’s now a golden warship; when Link sinks it, he can salvage a Triforce Map.
Bird’s Peak Rock is probably the most annoying map to get. Link needs to command a seagull with a Hyoi pear, then fly into six switches at the top of the little rock spires in the area. Complicating matters are Kargarocs all over the area; fortunately, they don’t respawn if Link uses the seagull to lure them to where he’s standing and then kills them. It costs an extra pear, but it also means he’s no longer being hounded on future attempts. Stone Watcher Island and Overlook Island have caves with four side rooms filled with enemies, and once they’re all clear, enemies appear in the central room and need to be defeated before Link can access the room with the map.
The final Triforce map is hidden on Outset Island. Link needs the hookshot to reach the entrance to the cave, and the power bracelets to lift the rock blocking it. Inside, Link finds a series of challenges: thirty floors, most filled with enemies that don’t drop anything. Every ten floors, Link gets a bunch of rupees, a few hearts, and a chance to return to the surface. The enemy floors are divided into three sets – one for each of the first three dungeons. After completing all thirty floors, Link finds the last Triforce map. There’s also a statue he can melt with the mirror shield, opening the way to even more levels. The next ten levels have enemies from the Earth and Wind Shrines, and there are no heart drops for the final set, at which point the game throws huge groups of enemies at Link. The final two fights add environmental hazards: bomb flowers with Stalfos (which is fun because the Stalfos blow themselves up a bunch), then fire-spitting statues with four Darknuts. If Link makes it all the way through this, he gets the last piece of heart.
While gathering all the Triforce charts, Link earned enough points from Beedle to unlock the gold membership. The reward for this is a fill-up coupon, which can be redeemed to refill Link’s bombs and arrows. Now seems to be the time for it, since I won’t have many opportunities afterward.
Link can’t read the Triforce charts himself, so he takes them to Tingle, who deciphers them for 398 rupees apiece. He marks the locations of the Triforce shards on the Triforce map, but this is mostly extraneous because they’re the eight squares where Link hasn’t excavated a treasure. (Also, Tingle and the two guys making the tower spin are the three missing figurines in the Gallery’s miscellaneous room.) Once Link has all eight shards, they fuse together into the Triforce of Courage, which he takes to the Tower of the Gods. By holding up the Triforce, Link gets the Gods to accept him as its new bearer, and the King of Red Lions dubs him the Hero of Winds. The portal to Hyrule opens, and Link and the King head down to find what’s going on.
Next: Thank you Link! But our princess is in another castle!
