Mini-Games and Shops

Koholint has only a handful of places that take your rupees. The Town Tool Shop in Mabe Village sells the Shovel, a Shield, Bombs, Arrows, Recovery Hearts and, later in the game, the Bow. Crazy Tracy sells the Secret Medicine. Three mini-games ask for a fee: the Trendy Game crane (10 rupees), the fishing pond (10 rupees a try) and the Rapids Ride (100 rupees). For a 100% file only two prizes matter, the Yoshi Doll from the crane and the Piece of Heart from the pond, and both are cheap. The one big expense is the Bow, which you can also take for nothing by stealing it, at a heavy price. A quick reference comes first, then each place in turn.

Shops

Town Tool Shop

The shop stands in Mabe Village. The prices are printed above the items on the counter, and when you pick one up the shopkeeper asks whether you want to pay. His stock changes as the game goes on, so look in again after each dungeon.

Buy the Shovel as soon as you have 200 rupees; the first chapter shows where it first pays off. The Bow is the one purchase worth saving for: the later dungeons expect you to be able to shoot, and bomb arrows (equip Bow and Bombs and press both buttons together) solve a few rooms. Because it is not on sale at the start, look again after each dungeon until it appears.

Crazy Tracy and the Secret Medicine

Crazy Tracy’s Health Spa stands beside Manbo’s Pond near Goponga Swamp. Playing Manbo’s Mambo drops you at her door; on foot you need the Power Bracelet to get there. She sells a single thing, the Secret Medicine. The price depends on a hidden count of the enemies you have defeated: 28 rupees when the count is even, 42 when it is odd. She refuses to sell a second dose while you hold one. The medicine, and every free dose of it, is explained on the Fairies and Secret Medicine page.

Camera Shop

The Camera Shop east of Goponga Swamp sells nothing. The photographer inside takes your first photo and later shows you the album. The twelve pictures are on the Photographs page.

Mini-games

Trendy Game

The Trendy Game is the crane machine in the purple-roofed building in the east of Mabe Village. One play costs 10 rupees. A conveyor belt carries prizes around the floor and you steer a crane over it: press B to move the crane and A to lower it. The owner’s advice is that the rest is just timing.

The belt carries rupees, a Shield, a pouch of Magic Powder and a Recovery Heart. A red rupee is worth 30, so a lucky grab pays for itself with 20 to spare. Win the Yoshi Doll first, because it starts the trading sequence. If the crane comes up empty, walk out and back in, and pay again, to have another try.

Fishing pond

The pond is in the north of Mabe Village, north of Madam MeowMeow’s house. The fisherman charges 10 rupees for each try. A runt pays 5 rupees and a lunker pays 20, and the first lunker you land, the big fish under your spot, also earns a Piece of Heart. That heart is one of the first you can collect; the others are on Heart Piece Locations.

When a fish bites, press the button rapidly to reel it in. Heavier fish pull harder, so do not give up early. Once you hold the heart, fishing loses its point, since even a lunker returns only double the fee.

Rapids Ride

The Rapids Ride is a raft course. The Raft Shop is on Tal Tal Heights, and the raft costs 100 rupees. It waits outside the shop once you have paid. Float down the rapids and use Roc’s Feather to jump for prizes drifting above the water: rupees, Bombs, Arrows, Magic Powder and Recovery Hearts. Two chests along the course each hold 20 rupees. There is no Piece of Heart or Secret Seashell in it, so it is a pastime and an unlikely way to make money.

Stealing from the Town Tool Shop

You can leave the Town Tool Shop with an item you did not pay for. Pick it up, then keep moving around the shopkeeper until he loses track of you, and leave through the door while his back is to you. He watches you closely, so running straight out does not work; slipping behind him does.

The price is permanent. From then on your name is THIEF: characters call you by it. If you ever set foot in the shop again, the shopkeeper hits you with an electric beam and you die on the spot. Buy everything you need there first, above all the Shovel and any Bombs, Arrows or Hearts.

Stealing earns one thing, the seventh photograph, “THIEF!”, which the photographer takes the first time you leave with an item. It needs your first photo to be in the album already, so see the Photographs page for the order. The usual target is the Bow, which saves 980 rupees. Do the theft last, after the shop has given you everything else you want, and remember that a death ruins the secret credits scene, described in the finale chapter.