Southern Swamp and Deku Palace Walkthrough

Majora's Mask 100% Completion Walkthrough11 chapters

Walkthrough overview

• PrologueDeku curse, Clock Town, Bombers’ code, Moon’s Tear, first Heart Piece, Ocarina, Song of Time and the Deku Mask.
• Clock Town, Termina Field and Romani RanchGreat Fairy’s Mask, Notebook, Adult Wallet, Heart Pieces, Epona’s Song and Bunny Hood.
• Southern Swamp and Deku PalaceKoume, the Pictograph Box, the monkey, Sonata of Awakening and every Heart Piece.
• Woodfall TempleAll 15 Stray Fairies, Hero’s Bow, Boss Key, Odolwa, the Great Fairy’s spin attack and the Deku Princess.
• Snowhead RegionMountain Village, Lens of Truth, Goron Mask, Goron Lullaby, Powder Keg trial, Goron Race and sword upgrades.
• Snowhead TempleAll 15 Stray Fairies, 3 small keys, Fire Arrows, Boss Key, Goht boss fight and the Great Fairy’s reward.
• Great Bay RegionGet the Zora Mask, the Hookshot, all seven Zora eggs and the New Wave Bossa Nova before Great Bay Temple.
• Great Bay Temple15 Stray Fairies, water pipe puzzles, Wart, Ice Arrows, Gekko, Boss Key, Gyorg and the Double Defense reward.
• Ikana Canyon and Ancient Castle of IkanaCaptain’s Hat, Song of Storms, Gibdo Mask, Beneath the Well, Mirror Shield, Ancient Castle, Elegy of Emptiness.
• Stone Tower TempleClimb the tower, find all 15 Stray Fairies, win the Light Arrows and Giant’s Mask, and beat Twinmold.
• Final ConfrontationPlay the Oath to Order, clear the four Moon dungeons, earn the Fierce Deity’s Mask and beat Majora’s three forms.

This chapter takes you from the south gate of Clock Town to the foot of Woodfall Temple. You walk the Road to Southern Swamp, rescue the witch Koume with a Red Potion, ride the swamp boat to the Deku Palace, free the monkey in the cage to learn the Sonata of Awakening, take the Deku shortcut to Woodfall (where you learn the Song of Soaring) and use the Sonata to raise the temple. Along the way you pick up a bottle, the Pictograph Box and three Heart Pieces.

Road to Southern Swamp

How to get to the Southern Swamp

Start from the Dawn of the First Day (play the Song of Time to go back) if you want the most hours, and play the Inverted Song of Time if you want the clock to crawl while you explore. Leave Clock Town through the south gate. Follow the path across Termina Field to the exit that leads onto the Road to Southern Swamp. Bring at least 30 Rupees: 20 for a map and 10 for a Magic Bean later.

Road to Southern Swamp Heart Piece

Do not run straight through the road. A withered tree stands along the road, and a Bad Bat sits next to the Heart Piece on it. As Deku Link, knock the bat out with a bubble (an arrow also works once you have the bow). Then climb the vine to reach the Heart Piece. Do the bat first, or it will knock you off the vine while you climb.

Woodfall map from Tingle

Tingle floats above the path in his balloon. Pop the balloon with a Deku bubble and buy the Woodfall map for 20 Rupees. Tingle offers two maps, Woodfall at 20 Rupees and Snowhead at 40, or you can say no thanks. It is cheap and worth buying now. Cut grass and bushes nearby if you are short on money.

Swamp Shooting Gallery

A shooting gallery sits on this road. It costs 20 Rupees per game and needs the bow, so it waits until after Woodfall Temple. The details are in the section on the swamp games below.

Swamp Tourist Center

Southern Swamp Owl Statue

The path ends at the water in front of the Swamp Tourist Center, a large wooden building on stilts. Strike the Owl Statue beside it with your sword to activate it. This gives you a warp point for the Song of Soaring, which you learn a little later. A wooden walkway runs along the front of the Center, and a Business Scrub stands in a Deku Flower beside it (see the next section).

Swamp Title Deed trade

Beside the walkway in front of the Tourist Center, a Business Scrub stands in a Deku Flower. He explains that he wants to do business at the palace, but a big octopus is in the way. If you brought the Land Title Deed out of Clock Town, open the item screen when he asks, set the deed on a C button and use it. He swaps your Land Title Deed for the Swamp Title Deed, hands over his Deku flower and hurries off to town. Keep the Swamp Title Deed for the Goron Village scrub later in the guide. A cycle reset takes the deeds away, so make this trade only when you are about to use the deed or are willing to repeat it.

Swamp Tourist Center roof Heart Piece

Put on the Deku Mask and use the flower the scrub left you to launch into the air. Glide onto the roof of the Tourist Center and open the Heart Piece there. The flower is yours only after the scrub has left, so make the trade first.

The tour guide and the boat counter

Inside, the staff explain the swamp tour, which is open to all ages, and the photo contest (“For nice pictographs taken in the swamp, a free boat cruise will be awarded as a special prize”). The counter is closed to you for now: the cruise guide, Koume, has gone into the woods behind the Magic Hags’ Potion Shop and has not come back, so you are told to inquire at the Potion Shop near the edge of the swamp.

Woods of Mystery and Koume

How to reach the Magic Hags’ Potion Shop

From the Tourist Center, cross the lily pads and shallows to the east side of the swamp. Deku Link can hop across them. A sign points to the Magic Hags’ Potion Shop. A signpost reads “Magic Hags’ Potion Shop ahead.” Climb the ladder and listen to the hag Kotake. She asks whether you are a boat cruise customer, explains that her sister Koume went into the woods out back looking for mushrooms, and asks you to find her. She warns that it is easy to get lost there and tells you to ask the monkeys that live in the woods. Leave the shop by the path to the left and enter the Woods of Mystery.

How to cross the Woods of Mystery

The simplest way through the woods is to follow the monkey that waits near the entrance. Talk to him, then stay close behind him as he runs; stopping to fight loses him. The Bunny Hood makes this much easier. A sign at the entrance warns you to beware of ferocious turtles. The Snappers (turtles) in the woods are best ignored; Tatl points out that their weak spot never shows while they are on their feet.

The maze ends where Koume lies hurt on the ground. Talk to her without a mask. She is weak, grumbles about the pesky Skull Kid and asks whether you have anything that gives you energy, but you have no bottle to carry anything in.

First bottle: Red Potion from Kotake

Return to the Potion Shop the way you came, climb the ladder, and tell Kotake that Koume needs help. She is sure it is only the Skull Kid and not dangerous, then thinks again and hands you a Bottle with a Red Potion in it (“Red Potion replenishes health. After using the potion, save the bottle for storing things”). This is your first bottle. She tells you to hurry and take it to her sister.

How to heal Koume

Go back through the woods and talk to Koume. When she asks for something, the game tells you to open the Select Item screen and use an item with a C button: pick the bottle with the Red Potion there and give it to her. Do not drink it first, because the potion is what she needs. She recognises the colour and smell as her sister’s, and cries that she can feel the energy flowing. Koume recovers and flies back to the swamp. The potion is used up, but the Empty Bottle is yours to keep.

Two monkeys near her say you have strange powers. One tells you that his brother could not find the temple entrance, because the temple is for the Deku only, and that his brother was captured by the Deku and is now held in the palace. This is your next destination.

Pictograph Box and the boat to Deku Palace

Swamp boat cruise

The boat follows its own route, so just take pictures. Aim at anything in the swamp. The boat carries you across the poisoned water, past the Big Octo, to the Deku Palace. A recorded voice announces “Now arriving at Deku Palace” and warns you that the swamp water is poisonous there, so watch your step. Choose Yes when asked whether to get off.

Deku Palace

How to get into the Deku Palace

The guards at the gate chase away anyone who is not a Deku, so put on the Deku Mask before you walk in. The guards then let you enter to look around. Talk to the Deku Scrubs in the garden if you want hints, then head to the Royal Chamber.

Photograph the Deku King

The Deku King is surprised to see you, since he does not usually allow the likes of you into the Royal Chamber, but today is different. He fears for his missing daughter and cannot send troops to look for her while he is in this state. In the throne room, take a picture of the Deku King with the Pictograph Box before you talk to him. A clear photo of him can be handed in for the swamp photo contest at the Tourist Center. A clear photo of Tingle taken somewhere in the swamp also counts. You get a Heart Piece for the first winning entry, but the contest ends as soon as Woodfall Temple is cleared, so hand the photo in before you beat Odolwa.

Talk to the monkey

The king accuses the monkey of kidnapping his daughter and has him locked in a cage. Speak to the king and then to the guards and the monkey himself. One Deku Scrub swears that he saw the monkey and the princess go into the temple at night, while the monkey insists that he is innocent: he went to look into the poison in the swamp, but the temple had become a monster’s lair and the princess was captured by the monster. Another monkey says that the only way to the cage is up high, and that you need a Magic Bean from the bean seller who lives beneath the palace garden.

Deku Palace Heart Piece

Leave the throne room and enter the left Inner Palace Garden. Stay out of the guards’ sight, and use the hedges and tall grass to cross each section. Keep going until you reach the Piece of Heart at the far end. If a guard catches you (“Aha! An intruder!”), you are sent back to the entrance of the garden, so wait for the guards to turn away before you run.

Magic Beans and Spring Water

Go into the right Inner Palace Garden, and drop through the hole in the second part of the garden to reach the Bean Seller’s cave below. He is thrilled to see his first customer in a very long time, explains that beans sprout leaves as soon as you water them, and gives you one Magic Bean for free as a sample. A pond in the cave has Spring Water: take off the Deku Mask and fill your bottle. A sign by the pond invites you to take the water home. Buy a second bean for 10 Rupees (he sells them at 10 Rupees a pod). The bean needs water, so make sure the bottle is full before leaving.

The monkey and the Sonata of Awakening

How to reach the monkey’s cage

Leave the garden and find the soft soil by the outer garden. Plant a bean in the patch of soft soil as Deku Link and water it with the Spring Water, unless it is raining, in which case it grows by itself. Ride the plant up to the high ledge, then use the Deku flowers and bubbles to cross the gardens to the monkey’s cage. A fall sends you back to the bean, so begin again from there.

How to learn the Sonata of Awakening

Talk to the monkey as Deku Link. He is bitter that nobody believes him, but when he sees you are on his side he tells you that the princess taught him a song, and that he must sing it quietly so the guards cannot hear. He teaches you the Sonata of Awakening, a song that wakes those who have fallen into a deep sleep. Play it back to him with A and the C buttons to learn it.

The Deku King hears the music (“Everyone, did you hear that?”), takes it as proof that the monkey is guilty and orders his punishment to begin, and you are thrown out of the palace. The monkey stays locked in his cage until you bring back the Deku Princess after Woodfall Temple. He tells you of the shortcut his people use to get to Woodfall, so you need not go back through the swamp.

Woodfall shortcut and the Song of Soaring

How to take the Deku shortcut

Leave the palace and follow the signposted path to Woodfall. Cross the cave, follow the arrow sign that reads “Woodfall” and go through a dark tunnel. Beyond it you hop from Deku flower to Deku flower and across mushroom platforms and orange pools up the cliff above the swamp. Watch out for Dragonflies on the way.

How to learn the Song of Soaring

At the top, Kaepora Gaebora, the great owl, is waiting for you. He is surprised to see a fairy child in the poisoned swamp, tells you the swamp has lost its guardian deity, and explains that he placed the owl statues around Termina to aid the one with the power to change the destiny of this land. The Song of Soaring is carved into a stone tablet nearby: read it and play the notes to learn it. The song carries you to any owl statue you have struck with your sword, so strike this one and you can warp back here. When you play it, a message says that the melody swoops you up and sends you soaring to a stone bird statue in an instant.

Woodfall approach and temple entrance

Woodfall Heart Piece

Before you raise the temple, fly through the flowers past the Hiploops and Mad Scrubs. Deal with each Hiploop before you go past it, and watch for the nuts the Mad Scrubs spit. Work your way round the poisoned water, defeat the last Mad Scrub and open the chest for a Piece of Heart. This one can wait until after the temple if you prefer.

How to raise Woodfall Temple

Strike the Woodfall Owl Statue if you have not yet, then stand on the Deku emblem at the centre of the platform and play the Sonata of Awakening. The temple rises out of the swamp. Fly across to the entrance. Before you go in, play the Song of Time and use the Song of Soaring to come back if you want a fresh three days for the temple. A reset keeps your songs, the Pictograph Box, bottles and Heart Pieces, but removes the deeds, Magic Beans, Spring Water, arrows and Rupees. Hand in any Pictograph Contest photo first. The next chapter covers the temple.

Woodfall is a purple, poisoned courtyard strung with pink bunting, with Deku Flowers and tree stumps you cross as Deku Link. The Woodfall owl statue stands near the Deku shortcut; strike it so the Song of Soaring can bring you back. A tunnel of red rock leads off to the Great Fairy Fountain, where the Great Fairy of Power rewards you once you hold all fifteen Stray Fairies from the temple.

Swamp games after Woodfall Temple

Boat archery Heart Piece

Once the temple is cleared and the poison is gone, Koume offers a new game at the Tourist Center for 10 Rupees. You ride the boat and shoot targets with the Hero’s Bow while she flies past on her broom with a target hanging under it, and your hits are counted in the top corner of the screen. Hit at least 20 targets for a Piece of Heart; a score of 21 earned one, and the host comments that it is pretty good. If you come back for another go, she reminds you the game costs 10 Rupees.

Swamp Shooting Gallery score

On the road to the swamp, the gallery gives you a score rather than a hit count, and different targets are worth different points. The first time you score 2,120 or more, you receive a quiver upgrade: the Large Quiver (40 arrows) if you do not have it yet, or the Largest Quiver (50 arrows) if the Town gallery already gave you the Large one. After that, a score of 2,180 or more wins a Piece of Heart. Games cost 20 Rupees and the gallery is open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.

Swamp Spider House

The Swamp Spider House in the Southern Swamp has its own page. It needs the Deku Mask, a bottle, Magic Beans, Spring Water and bombs, and rewards you with the Mask of Truth for rescuing all 30 Gold Skulltula spirits. Visit it once you have the Deku Palace beans, and read the full room-by-room guide on the Swamp Spider House page.

Chapter checklist

Next, climb inside the temple in the Woodfall Temple walkthrough.