The Picori Festival and the Minish Woods Walkthrough

The Minish Cap 100% Completion Walkthrough19 chapters

Walkthrough overview

• The Picori Festival and the Minish WoodsGet the Small Shield and Smith’s Sword, meet Ezlo, shrink and reach Minish Village.
• Deepwood Shrine (Dungeon 1)All four small keys, Dungeon Map, Compass, Madderpillar, Gust Jar, Big Key, Heart Pieces and Big Green Chuchu.
• Ascent to Mount CrenelBomb Bag, Kinstone Bag, Big Wallet, bottle, Grip Ring, Great Fairy, Heart Pieces and Melari’s Mines.
• Cave of Flames (Dungeon 2)Every key, chest and mine cart, the Cane of Pacci, the Big Key, Gleerok boss tactics and the Fire Element.
• Infusing the Picori BladeMelari’s White Sword, the Elemental Sanctuary, a Heart Piece and a Kinstone piece on the way.
• Getting the Pegasus BootsSyrup’s Wake-Up Mushroom, Lon Lon Ranch, eight Kinstone fusions, three Heart Pieces and Swiftblade.
• Castor Wilds and the Wind RuinsThree Gold Kinstones, the Bow, the Mysterious Statue fusions and the road to the Fortress of Winds.
• Fortress of Winds (Dungeon 3)Every key, Compass, Map, Mole Mitts, Big Key, Mazaal boss tactics, Heart Container and Ocarina of Wind.
• The Library Books and the FlippersReturn the three overdue books in Hyrule Town, win the Power Bracelets and get the Flippers.
• Hyrule Town Side Quests and Kinstone FusionsAnju’s Cucco Roundup, Simon’s Simulation, Kinstone fusions, heart pieces and the Magical Boomerang.
• Collectibles Sweep Before the Temple of DropletsKinstone fusions, 10 Pieces of Heart, Roll Attack and Peril Beam dojos and the Bigger Quiver.
• Temple of Droplets (Dungeon 4)Every key, Map, Compass, Big Key, Flame Lantern, Big Blue Chuchu, Big Octorok and the Water Element.
• Royal Valley and the Royal CryptWater Element, Sword Beam, Remote Bombs, Graveyard Key, Great Fairy and King Gustaf’s Gold Kinstone
• Veil Falls and the Cloud TopsHeart Pieces, Splitblade’s dojo, Source of the Flow and five Mysterious Cloud fusions.
• Palace of Winds (Dungeon 5)Roc’s Cape, four Small Keys, Big Key, Compass, Map, Heart Piece, Gyorg Pair boss and Wind Element.
• Collecting the Upgrades Before the Four SwordDown Thrust, Great Spin Attack, seven Kinstone fusions, seven Heart Pieces and the Goron Cave bottle.
• Dark Hyrule Castle (Final Dungeon)King’s cell, Map, Compass, six Small Keys, Big Key, Darknut rooms and the Darknut trio before Vaati.
• Vaati Final Boss and EndingBeat Vaati Reborn, Transfigured and Wrath, free Zelda, escape the castle, then save after the credits.
• Postgame Collectibles and 100% CompletionLast Kinstone fusions, Biggoron’s Mirror Shield, Heart Pieces, Heart Container, Tingle Trophy and all 136 figurines.

This opening chapter takes you from bed to the doorstep of the first dungeon. You collect the Small Shield at the festival, receive the Smith’s Sword and a map from the king after Vaati’s attack, rescue Ezlo in the Minish Woods, shrink for the first time on a tree stump, eat the Jabber Nut in Minish Village and win the Elder’s blessing to enter Deepwood Shrine.

Link’s house and the Picori Festival

Wake up and open the chest

You start upstairs in your grandfather’s house in Hyrule Town. Go down the stairs and talk to Princess Zelda and the Smith; they chat about the Picori Festival, and Smith tells you to watch over Zelda. Once Zelda heads out, walk to the chest against the back wall of the workshop and open it for 20 rupees, the first money of the game. Then leave through the front door.

Follow Zelda to the stall

Outside, Zelda waits a little way up the path and calls you over. Follow her north into the festival streets, where banners, stalls and townspeople fill the square, and keep walking each time she runs ahead. You can talk to the festival guests along the way, but none of it is required.

Zelda stops at a prize stall, wins the drawing and may pick one of three prizes, which include a heart-shaped stone. She teases that the others are nicer, then asks for the shield and hands it to you. Talk to her to receive the Small Shield, your first piece of equipment. Hold the R button to raise it and block rocks and other small projectiles.

Hyrule Castle and Vaati’s attack

The Business Scrub on the road

Follow Zelda north out of the festival toward the castle. A Business Scrub in the bushes ahead spits Deku Nuts at you. Stand in front of it and hold R: the Small Shield bounces the nut back, and the Scrub gives up and runs home to its cave. Nothing is lost here, and the Scrub has nothing to sell yet.

The award ceremony

Minister Potho greets you at the castle entrance and lets you into the courtyard. Watch the ceremony: the tournament champion, a young man named Vaati, is invited to approach the Picori Blade. He shatters it, opens the chest that held it, and turns Zelda to stone. You are knocked out and wake up in a bed inside the castle.

The king’s orders

Walk to King Daltus in the throne room and listen. He explains that the Picori, the tiny people of the Minish Woods, can reforge the sacred sword and lift Zelda’s curse, and that they show themselves only to children, so he sends you. Accept the Broken Picori Blade, then the Smith’s Sword, your first sword; press A to swing it. Press Start and then L or R to open the Map of Hyrule, and leave through the south end of the throne room.

North Hyrule Field to the Minish Woods

Leave the castle and head east

Walk out through the castle garden and the south gate. The way back into town is buried under rubble, so turn into North Hyrule Field instead. Red Octoroks roam here; strike them with the sword, and cut grass and bushes for extra rupees and hearts if you want them. Go south to the workers clearing the road, then east to a row of short trees, cut through them and continue east into Lon Lon Ranch.

Walk south through Lon Lon Ranch until the path ends, then follow the Eastern Hills south, down the steps, and cross the bridge on your right into the Minish Woods. Inside the woods, follow the path east, over the narrow bridge and south toward the shrine.

Rescue Ezlo

A cry for help stops you in the woods. Before you answer it, take the optional detour west of the spot where the cry came from to grab a Piece of Heart. This is the first of two early pieces listed on the Heart Piece page, and it is the one you can reach at full size.

Return to the clearing, where two Red Octoroks are attacking a talking green cap. Kill both with the sword; the shield also reflects their rocks. The cap introduces himself as Ezlo, grumbles at you and settles on your head. From now on Ezlo comments on what you do, and pressing Select lets you ask him for a hint.

Shrink at the tree stump

Walk back to the tree stump near where you found Ezlo; he points out that it is a Minish Portal. Stand on the stump and press R to shrink to Minish size. You return to normal size by standing next to a stump or another portal and pressing R again. While small you cannot swim, even in puddles, and ordinary enemies become dangerous.

Minish Village

Cross the log and the lily pad

As a Minish, go west through the hollow log by the stump. Beyond it a pond blocks the way: step onto a lily pad as it drifts by, ride it across and step off on the north side. Follow the path of huge acorns and clover leaves north. Red-capped Minish come to greet you, but their speech is gibberish until you eat the Jabber Nut.

Talk to Festari and eat the Jabber Nut

Go north to the big building with the blue roof and walk in. Festari, who looks after the abbey and the shrine to the north, is the only Minish here who speaks your language. He tells you to find the Jabber Nut in the barrel house just south of the abbey.

Leave the abbey and walk to the barrel-shaped house in the south-east of the village. Cross the bridge onto its roof, go inside and climb down the ladder. Push the crate in your way left or right, then walk to the Jabber Nut and press R to eat it. You can now understand every Minish in the village.

Optional: before you visit the Elder, follow the wooden walkway east of the bridge that leads to Festari’s abbey to find the second early Piece of Heart. You need Minish size for it.

Visit the Elder and return to Festari

Walk to the round yellow house in the north-west of the village and go in. The Elder, Gentari, welcomes you and says the broken blade can be reforged only with the four Elements, the crystallized energies of the world. He takes your map and marks where each one can be found. He asks you to come back as soon as you have the Earth Element, which lies in the shrine north of the abbey.

Go back to Festari’s abbey and speak to him again. Now that the Elder has sent you, he steps aside; say yes when he asks if you wish to go to the shrine, and he warns you that dangerous beasts have moved in. Take the passage behind him north to the entrance of Deepwood Shrine, the first dungeon.

Chapter checklist