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Dark Hyrule Castle (Final Dungeon) Walkthrough

The Minish Cap 100% Completion Walkthrough19 chapters
CoversThe Castle Garden, the Elemental Sanctuary and Hyrule Castle, then Dark Hyrule Castle up to the Darknut fight before Vaati’s chamber
DungeonDark Hyrule Castle (Dungeon 6): no new dungeon item (you use Roc’s Cape, Light Arrows, the Flame Lantern and Remote Bombs), final boss Vaati
RewardsDungeon Map, Compass, 6 Small Keys (one from the king, one early chest, four from tower chests), Big Key; no Heart Pieces, Kinstone fusions, Tiger Scrolls, bottles or Elements in this stretch

Dark Hyrule Castle is the last dungeon of the game. You slip through the Castle Garden, put the four Elements into their pedestals, and walk into Vaati’s twisted version of the castle. Inside you free the king from a cell, find the Dungeon Map and Compass, clear four tower rooms that each hold a Small Key, spend all four keys on the locked blocks, take the Big Key and open the boss door. Bring the Four Sword, Roc’s Cape, the Bow with Light Arrows, the Flame Lantern and bombs, and arrive with full hearts.

Castle Garden and Hyrule Castle

Cross the hedge maze

Enter the Castle Garden at normal size. The hedge maze is patrolled by guards who stop you with “none shall pass”, so wait until a guard has turned away and then slip along the hedges between patrols. Work your way north toward the steps of the sanctuary building and go in through its doorway.

Place the four Elements

In the Elemental Sanctuary, walk down the green hall to the pedestal chamber. Put the Earth, Fire, Water and Wind Elements on their four stands around the central pedestal; a flash fills the room as the Four Sword is raised. After the stained-glass story and a short talk with the king, the castle halls turn out to be full of stone figures, because Vaati has petrified the court. Leave through the halls to reach the way into the dark half of the castle.

Dungeon: Dark Hyrule Castle (Dungeon 6)

Entrance halls and the fire bars

The dungeon opens with a corridor of rotating fire bars; hold back at the corner and cross when a bar swings away from you. Beyond is a hall with skulls set in a carpet, where Stalfos and Ghini come at you. Cut through them and keep moving toward the pedestal room ahead.

The king’s cell and the first Small Key

A golden Minish pedestal stands in a side room of the first castle floor. Step on it to shrink to Minish size and walk through the narrow passages to a hole. Drop through, step on the switch in the passage below and enter the cell beyond, where another pedestal lets you grow back to normal size.

The old man in the cell is the king, turned to stone by Vaati. Strike him with the Four Sword to break the curse, then speak to him. He gives you a Small Key. Use it on the locked door back in the hall.

Dungeon Map

Follow the carpeted route past the fire-bar room to the stairs. A big chest stands at the top of a small stair in a room of stone statues. Open it for the Dungeon Map, which shows the castle’s rooms on your map screen.

Small Key 2 and the clone puzzles

The rooms ahead are Four Sword puzzles. Split into clones with a charged sword and line them up on the glowing floor slabs while one clone walks the pushable blocks into place. When the blocks are in position, a chest appears; open it for the second Small Key and use it on the next locked door.

In the slab rooms beyond, Stalfos stand on the tiles and a Darknut patrols the corridor. Put a clone on each slab, charge your sword and finish the Stalfos with a Spin Attack, then fight the Darknut with a strike from the side or from behind, because its shield covers the front.

Keatons and the Compass

A flock of purple Keatons runs about in the room after the green carpet hall. Hit them as they come at you instead of chasing them. A cracked wall on the west side of the room can be blown open with your bombs, which gives you a shortcut through a hall of flame rows to the stairs up.

A red Darknut waits in the throne room at the top. Hit it from the side as it turns, then take the doorway on the east side of the room to a small chest. It holds the Compass, which marks the chests and the boss on the dungeon map. Return to the throne room and push the throne aside to uncover the stairs down.

Outside: Roc’s Cape over the whirlwinds

Open the item screen and equip Roc’s Cape before you take the stairs, because the passage leads outside, onto a dark abyss with small whirlwinds. Jump from tower platform to tower platform with the cape, holding the button to glide across the larger gaps, and stay clear of the whirlwinds. Walk through the door at the far end back into the castle.

Clone buttons and the arrow switches

Inside the tower, split into four and put a clone on each of the four floor buttons at once to open the way on. In the next rooms, equip the Bow, whose slot holds the Light Arrows, and shoot any switch that is too far away. Use the Magical Boomerang as an alternative on distant switches.

Several rooms are dark, and the cracked blocks in them are cleared by Remote Bombs, which you equip from the item screen and then set off with the button. In another room, a mesh floor stands in the way. Jump onto the grate with Roc’s Cape and hit the two switches on the far side to open the door north.

The black Darknut and the Darknut rooms

A black Darknut waits in the next hall. Fight it by hitting its back; it drops a blue warp tile when it falls. More Darknuts follow in the rooms after it, some alone, some in white and red pairs, and the white ones carry heavier armour. Take them one at a time, using your sword on the exposed side.

Tower 1: torches, Ghini and a Small Key

One tower room has a spike floor, a fire bar and several unlit torches. Equip the Flame Lantern and light every torch. In the next hall, three Ghini float over the pillars; only the one that stays solid when struck can be harmed, so hit it and the rest vanish. Open the chest in the room that follows for a Small Key.

Tower 2: the switch cross

The next tower has a red Darknut, two lines of fire along the carpet, and a mesh floor you can cross with Roc’s Cape. Walk into the room whose floor holds a cross of orange switches and stand in the middle, then use a Spin Attack to flip all four at once. Fire Wizzrobes guard the room beyond, where a chest holds a second tower Small Key.

Tower 3: blue and red tiles

A white Darknut guards the way to a block room whose floor is covered in blue and red tiles. Push the blocks onto the right tiles to open the door. Past a hall of pillars, an open roof has a Moblin standing on it. Open the small chest in the room beyond for the third tower Small Key.

Tower 4: the eyes

The last tower has fire bars, Stalfos and a red Darknut. Switch to the Bow and shoot a Light Arrow into each eye on the north wall so that all of them close together, which opens the door. Work through the block puzzle beyond, then open the chest for the fourth tower Small Key.

Four locked blocks and the Big Key

Take all four tower keys to the room with four lock blocks and spend one on each. This opens the way to a big block. Stand four clones in a line and push it aside to uncover the stairs, then open the chest at the top for the Big Key.

To the boss door

Step on the blue tile to warp out, then clear the switch room beside it by splitting into clones and stepping on the switches at the same time. The boss door opens with the Big Key. Walk up the long hall while Vaati taunts you.

Keatons, the bell and the Darknut fight

Keatons fill the next room. Beat them, then split into clones and step on the floor switches together to open the way on; a bell tolls as you work, a warning that Vaati’s time is running out. A green carpet room follows, where two red Darknuts and a black Darknut attack together, and you must beat all three before the third chime.

Back toward the walls so that only one Darknut can reach you at a time, hit each from behind and use Spin Attacks when you are surrounded. Roc’s Cape or a bomb helps you slip past or stun them. When the last Darknut falls, the stairs lead up to Vaati’s chamber.

Chapter checklist

TypeNameWhere
Small KeyKey 1From the king in the cell
Dungeon MapDungeon MapBig chest in the statue room past the cell
Small KeyKey 2Chest after the block puzzle
CompassCompassSmall chest east of the throne room
Small KeyFour tower keysOne chest in each of the four tower rooms
Big KeyBig KeyChest behind the big pushed block

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