| Currency | Yellow Rupee (1) and Blue Rupee (5). You can carry 255 rupees at most. |
|---|---|
| Money Making Game | Five caves on the first quest map, at P2 (a tree in the north-east), M8, G2, G8 and A2. Every game costs at least 10 rupees on the first move, and the amounts change as you play. |
| Secret caves | Hidden stairwells pay 10, 30 or 100 rupees each. Find them by burning trees, bombing walls or moving Armos. |
| Rupee sinks | Door repairs cost 20 rupees each. Hints from the Old Woman cost 5 to 50 rupees. Shop prices run from 10 to 250. |
You need the most rupees for the Blue Ring (250), the two bomb upgrades (100 each), the Red and Blue Potions and the Magical Shield. The fastest sources are the secret caves that pay out, which take a few minutes each to reach once you know the spot. The Money Making Game is slower but has no limit, so use it when you have spare rupees to risk.
Table of Contents
Rupee values
| Rupee | Value | Where you usually find it |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow Rupee | 1 | Dropped by enemies and found in rooms |
 Blue Rupee | 5 | Less common drops, and rewards from some hidden caves |
The Money Making Game
How the game works
Walk into the tree at P2, in the far north-east, to find the Old Man who runs the game. Three rupees lie on the floor in a row, and you walk onto one of them to play. The first move always costs you 10 rupees. After that the rupee values move up or down, so a rupee can end up paying you more or costing you more. You can play as long as you like, and you can stop whenever you choose.
Where the other games are
A second game is in a cave at M8, in the south-east corner of the map, reached by bombing the cliff wall a little left of centre. Bomb the wall, step inside, and the same game is waiting. Bombing the wall right beside it, on N8, opens a different room, with a repair man who charges 20 rupees.
The third game sits in a cave on Death Mountain at G2. Avoid the rocks and bomb the flat part of the north wall to open the entrance. The same three-rupee rule applies there. Two more games are close to the start and in the north-west: bomb the middle of the north wall at G8, the screen just west of the start, and bomb the wall to the right of the stairs at A2.
Secret caves that pay rupees
Rupees for free
Burn the bottom centre tree among the group of trees on the right side of the central lake screen, at L7, to find a stairwell with a Moblin, who gives you 100 rupees. Another 100 sits under the top tree of the tree column at C7 in the south-west. The cave at I5, found by burning the topmost tree along the right edge, pays 30 rupees.
Near the entrance to the desert, at I3, burn the lower-right tree to reveal a stairwell. The Moblin down there gives you 30 rupees. In the Second Quest, playing the Recorder in the desert reveals more staircases with Moblins who pay 10 rupees.
Touch the right Armos at N4 to move it off the stairwell it guards, then go down. The cave pays 30 rupees. The Armos at O5 hides a 10-rupee staircase the same way. Bomb the small flat wall to the right of the stairs at N3 to find a second cave with 30 rupees, and enter the invisible passage from the P2 screen for a cave with 100 rupees on P1.
Door repairs and the rupees they cost
Some bombed walls open onto a room with a man who charges you 20 rupees for repairs. The bombed wall opens a secret door, and the man inside asks for the 20 rupees before he lets you through. The walls are flat sections of the north side of the screen, so check which one you bombed before you pay.
Where rupees go
Buy the Magical Shield and the Blue Candle first if you need them to reach a dungeon, then save for the Blue Ring at 250 rupees. The two bomb upgrades cost 100 each. Potions are 40 and 68 rupees from the Old Woman once you show her the Letter. The Old Woman at A8 near the Lost Woods sells the Lost Woods order for 30 rupees, and the one behind the K2 waterfall sells her Lost Hills hint for 20. Each shows three amounts and only talks at the middle one, so pick the middle amount rather than the cheapest.
