As the Links arrive at The Mountain Path, Kaepora Gaebora comes to greet them with news that there’s a giant masked bird causing trouble on the mountain. The Gorons are apparently troubled about it, too, but they have more immediate concerns – lots of fires all across the mountain. The Links can put out the fires by throwing pots of water at them, which is the first part of finding the way through the mountains. Then they need pots of fire to ignite fuses – one blows up a giant jug of water that spreads Force Gems all over, and the other three ignite giant jugs of explosives that function as big bombs. One of the big bombs blows up a part of the mountain, revealing the way forward, and another reveals a fairy fountain.
The next section has falling boulders, and finding the way forward requires waiting for a boulder to fall into and temporarily block the pits on the pathway. Then the Links come to a house that’s been built to block entrance to a cave; a nearby Goron isn’t happy about the placement and has been trying to push it out of the way, so the house’s inhabitant put down stakes to keep the house in place. He also has hammers, so the Links take the hammers, pound the stakes, and push the house. Inside the house are fire pots that can be used to restore the brown Force Gems lying around the area to a normal color. The next area reveals the cause of the fires in the area is Shadow Links torching everything. Once they’re defeated, the Links need to smash the ground to cause hiding Gorons – one of whom has a key they need – to come out.
After fighting four more Shadow Links – with one playing the “only the matching color can harm me” card – the Links come to the mountain summit. First they’re greeted by Kaepora Gaebora, who looks out over Hyrule and realizes something’s not right at the castle. Then they fight the Helmaroc King. A “secret Goron plan” in the caves nearby gives the hint on how to start the fight: knock the bird out of the sky with bombs. It’ll crash into one of the caves, and the Links can go in and smash it with their hammers to destroy its mask. After the mask is gone, the Helmaroc King lands out in the open, where the Links can finish it off with their swords.
The Tower of Flames is, unsurprisingly, a fire level. Fire-themed obstacles start from the very beginning with fire-breathing statues the Links need to wait to stop before sneaking past. The statues show up on the next floor, activating when the Links come close to form a simple maze through the floor. Then a flail trooper whose flail trails fire shows up, forcing the Links to find a creative way around his weapon to attack him: the simplest solution is to use the Roc’s Feather to jump and then use the slam attack. Firebars appear, and the Links can shoot switches to make them change the direction they’re spinning, which seems useful but since they can just jump over with the Roc’s Feather, and the bow isn’t really needed for anything else, I think it’s easier to stick with the Feather.
After defeating another set of Shadow Links, the Links come to the boss floor. There, a Goron laments dropping his bombs into the lava, saying he figures he could throw them into the mouths of the creatures in the next room and get past their tough hides. So, of course, the Links find bombs and the final boss turns out to be a trio of Dodongos. They walk around randomly, and every now and again open their mouths to spit fire, which is of course the opening for the Links to throw bombs in. Three bombs each, and the way forward opens.
Before the Links can rescue the maiden, they walk out on a balcony for a final chat with Kaepora Gaebora. The owl says that trouble has indeed come back to the castle, and there’s probably a maiden there. The maiden in the Tower of Flame agrees to go, and also mentions four sacred jewels which will open the path to the Realm of the Heavens. The jewels are in the care of the Knights of Hyrule… who have disappeared. Like the others, she turns into a fairy to guide the Links to their next destination.
Next: The first knight.
