Western Tal Tal Mountains and Turtle Rock (Level 8) Walkthrough

Link's Awakening 100% Completion Walkthrough9 chapters

Walkthrough overview

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• Yarna Desert and Angler’s Tunnel (Level 4)Yarna Desert and Angler’s Tunnel walkthrough for Link’s Awakening: get the Angler Key, the Flippers and the Surf Harp.
• Martha’s Bay and Catfish’s Maw (Level 5)Martha’s Bay and Catfish’s Maw walkthrough for Link’s Awakening: learn Manbo’s Mambo, free the Ghost, win the Hookshot.
• Southern Face Shrine and Face Shrine (Level 6)Southern Face Shrine and Face Shrine (Level 6) walkthrough for Link’s Awakening: Magnifying Lens, Koholint Sword.
• Tal Tal Heights and Eagle’s Tower (Level 7)Tal Tal Heights and Eagle’s Tower walkthrough for Link’s Awakening: the Flying Rooster, Bird Key, Mirror Shield, Evil.
• Western Tal Tal Mountains and Turtle Rock (Level 8)Western Tal Tal Mountains and Turtle Rock (Level 8) walkthrough for Link’s Awakening: Secret Seashell 50, Magic Rod.
• The Wind Fish’s Egg and Final BossesThe Wind Fish’s Egg and final bosses walkthrough for Link’s Awakening: read the maze book, play the Ballad, beat all.

This chapter finishes the last collectibles outside the dungeons and then clears Level 8. You win a figure at the Trendy Game, dig up the 50th Secret Seashell in the Western Tal Tal Mountains and trade the full set in at the Seashell Mansion. Then you play the Frog’s Song of Soul to wake the stone head guarding Turtle Rock, work through the lava dungeon, take the Magic Rod from its chest, grab the last Piece of Heart on the mountain top, burn Hot Head and collect the Thunder Drum.

Trendy Game: Piranha Plant figure

Win the Piranha Plant figure

Step into the Trendy Game shop in Mabe Village and pay for a few turns at the crane. Steer the claw over the Piranha Plant and drop it; the plant lies stretched out on the floor, so line the claw up with the flower head and grab it there. The prize is a Piranha Plant figure. Other prizes are covered in the figures and Trendy Game guide.

Put the figure on display

Carry the figure to the house with the two beds and put it on display. Nothing else is gained here, so head for the mountains afterwards.

Western Tal Tal Mountains: Secret Seashell 50

Dig up the 50th Secret Seashell

Cross the Tal Tal Heights rope bridges and the cave with the fire jet to reach the sandy ledges of the Western Tal Tal Mountains. On the ledge with the clay pots, dig the soft patch of sand beside a pot with the Shovel. It hides the 50th and last Secret Seashell, so your collection is now complete. The Secret Seashells guide lists the other 49.

Seashell Mansion: trade in 50 seashells

Collect the Chamber Stone

Play Manbo’s Mambo and warp to the Seashell Mansion, then talk to the keeper at the far end of the hall. With all 50 seashells in your pack the keeper hands over the final reward, a Chamber Stone for your custom dungeons in Dampé’s Shack. Warp back to the Tal Tal Mountains afterwards.

How to open the Turtle Rock entrance

Wake the stone head with the Frog’s Song of Soul

Walk to the sandy platform with the carved stone head and its two stone guards. Open the item menu, select the Frog’s Song of Soul and play it facing the head. The statue comes alive as a long stone serpent, which is the gatekeeper of Level 8.

Beat the stone head

Keep your distance and let the head slam into the wall, then step in while it is stunned. Set a Bomb off beside its face to crack the armor, then slash the exposed head with your sword. Repeat the pattern until it collapses; guides disagree on the exact number of rounds, so simply keep going. The mountain opens behind it and you can walk in.

Dungeon: Turtle Rock (Level 8)

Entrance rooms: Blue Hinox, 20 rupees and 50 rupees

Climb through the first lava room into the hex-floor room where a Blue Hinox waits. Hit it with the Boomerang until it falls, which clears the door. In the next room, take control of the red-button block with A and steer it over the broken floor so you can reach a chest holding 20 rupees. Go on to the room with pits and open its chest for 50 rupees.

Vire, Small Key and Compass

Cross the room with the sweeping spiked bar and the pink Vacuum Mouth, then fight the Vire in the pit room beyond. Beating it drops a Small Key. Use the key to reach the chest room ringed by rocks, where the chest holds the Compass.

Dungeon Map

Open your map and head to the lava corridors in the middle of the dungeon. Move the red-button block to pave a path over the lava and jump the narrow gaps between the blocks. The chest at the end of the lava corridor holds the Dungeon Map.

Stone Beak

Drop into the side-scrolling lava room below the map room and jump between the platforms and ladders, timing your climbs to avoid the fireballs. In the chest room at the top, which is full of pits and snakes, open the chest for the Stone Beak. Slot it into the owl statue to get the hint for the way on.

Mini-boss Smasher

In the next hex-floor room Smasher, the mini-boss you may remember, attacks with a heavy ball. Lift the ball with the Power Bracelet when it stops rolling and throw it back at him. It takes several hits, and the exact count differs between guides, so just keep returning it. When he is down the doors reopen.

Secret Medicine chest

Past the pot room, with its fire sparks and Keese, a chest sits on a raised platform in the lava. Aim the Hookshot at the chest from the higher ledge to pull yourself over. It holds Secret Medicine; if you already carry a bottle of it, the chest gives nothing more, so take it only when your bottle is empty. The small flying pickups in the room (Bombs, Arrows, hearts) are good for restocking.

Small Key from the block chest

Work through the dark rooms with locked doors, bombing the cracked walls as you go. Reach the room with the chest ringed by blocks and clear the blocks away so the chest is free. It holds another Small Key.

Piece of Heart 32: Turtle Rock roof

Take the stairs out onto the mountain

From the lava pot room, find the way that leads out of the dungeon onto the mountain top. Climb the stairs to the grassy patch above the entrance and walk into the grass to collect the last Piece of Heart. It is your fourth piece in a set, so your hearts increase by one and you have all 32 pieces. See the heart piece locations for the rest.

Warp back inside

Use the Ocarina to warp back to the Turtle Rock entrance, since it saves the walk back. Return inside and use the Hookshot across the side-scrolling lava room to get back to the center of the dungeon.

Magic Rod: how to get it in Turtle Rock

Mini-boss Blaino

Enter the hex-floor room with the two lit torches and Blaino. He fights with boxing gloves, so keep your distance and use Roc’s Feather to dodge his punches, then strike his back with your sword. Do not let a heavy punch send you back to the entrance. A blue crystal switch appears afterwards; strike it with your sword so the colored blocks lower.

Open the chest with the Magic Rod

With the blocks lowered, climb the stairs behind the torches to the chest at the top. Open it for the Magic Rod, the dungeon’s item, which shoots a purple fireball and burns whatever it hits. Spend a moment lighting torches with it, because the rest of the dungeon depends on it.

Nightmare Key and Hot Head’s door

Light the torches for a Small Key

In the room with two unlit torches, shoot a fireball at each one with the Magic Rod. A chest appears and holds a Small Key.

Melt the ice blocks

Go through the blue side-scrolling rooms and burn the ice blocks in your way with the Magic Rod. In the first one clear a way along the floor, where Goombas patrol; in the later one with the ladders, melt blocks until you can climb to the top. In the lava room on the way, use the red-button block to pave a walkway across.

Nightmare Key

In the room with the two lit torches, take control of the red-button block and steer it back and forth across the floor until every tile is filled. A chest appears in the far corner and holds the Nightmare Key.

Last chest: 50 rupees

Clear the enemies around the big lava pit, burning them with the Magic Rod. Then pass through the pot room, defeat the Vire and open the chest in the corner for another 50 rupees. After that, check the map and walk to the Nightmare Door.

Boss: Hot Head (Level 8)

How to beat Hot Head

Hot Head fights in a room filled with lava, with a safe strip along the bottom edge where you stand. It leaps out of the lava as a flaming face and splashes fire diagonally when it lands, so stay out of the diagonals. Shoot it with the Magic Rod as it jumps out. Each hit cools it into a bouncing ball, so keep firing. After a few rounds it loses its armor and moves faster, and a few more rod shots finish it.

Heart Container and Thunder Drum

Hot Head leaves a Heart Container on the ledge at the top of the room, so take it to raise your maximum health. Walk through the door to the shrine and collect the eighth instrument, the Thunder Drum, then play it. A voice tells you that the egg on the mountain is calling, and you wake up outside next to the stone head. The next stop is Mount Tamaranch.

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