Dodongo’s Cavern
Dungeon Map
If you have a Hylian Shield be sure to equip it now! Before really entering Dodongo’s Cavern you’ll need to grab one of the bomb flowers to either side and blow up the wall directly ahead. In the next room there are three rising and falling pillars in the lava. Use these to reach the middle area, then head to the left while avoiding the beamos as best you can. Grab the bomb flower here and use it on the cracked wall to reveal the chest containing the dungeon map. Head to the opposite side of the room from here where you’ll find another bomb flower. You may want to use the bomb flower here to kill the beamos before taking a bomb flower over to the cracked wall nearest the entrance.
Opening the Barred Door
[optional a=”baby-dodongo-skulltula” id=”baby-dodongo-gs” name=”Optional: Gold Skulltula”]
Head down the hallway while avoiding the baby dodongos and climb the small ledge you find. Drag one of the armos statues to in front of the raised section and then push it over on top of the blue switch you see there to keep the door open. Head through the small hallway behind it and break the pots if you need some extra health.
In the next room you’ll encounter two lizalfos. They take turns coming to fight you, so just take your time and don’t rush. An easy way to deal with them is to block their attack with your shield and follow up with a jump slash. After two hits they cycle out and you’ll fight the other one. Using jump slashes it should only take two hits for each of them. Once they’ve been defeated the bars on the doors will open and allow you to continue.
Here you’ll find some dodongos and torches in a cave-like room. You can defeat the dodongos if you’d like by either attacking their tail or feeding them one of the bomb flowers at the room entrance, but it’s not necessary. All you need to do here is light a deku stick with the torch and then light the other three torches. If you don’t have a deku stick, there was a cracked wall at the entrance of the room where a business scrub will sell you a deku stick for 15 rupees. Once all the torches are lit the door will be unbarred and you can exit the room.
Once through the door simply walk forward and step on the switch to open the door on the other side. Use the central platform and the rising pillars to make your way over and head through the now open door.
Bombs
That’s a lot of bomb flowers! If you want the compass, grab any bomb flower and use it to blow up the cracked wall on the left side of the room. Use the bomb flowers in the next room to defeat the armos so you can open the chest and snag it. Back in the room with the bomb flowers, grab the one that’s away from the rest and set it in the gap. When it blows up it will trigger a reaction that will knock the staircase loose so you can climb up. Circle around the wooden platform at the top to reach the door leading out of the room.
[optional a=”explosive-stairway-skulltula” id=”explosive-stairway-gs” name=”Optional: Gold Skulltula”]
You may want to take out the fire keese in this room before doing anything else. If you touch most of the armos statues here they’ll come to life and attack you. Look for the one in front of the ladder and move it away so you can climb it. Step on the switch at the top and leave through the door Link faces.
Use the slingshot to take out the fire keese here before crossing the bridge if you want to be a little safe. The room on the other side has several spike traps in tight corridors and Navi will advise you to use your targeting to look around the corners to see them. After navigating through the traps to the other side you’ll need to climb the block you find in front of a ladder. Use the ladder – or jump from the block if you want – and jump over to the small pillar with a bomb flower and chest on it. You can open the chest for 20 rupees, then toss the bomb flower over to the cracked wall by the ladder to blow it up.
Down the hallway you’ll find a platform covered completely in fire. Use your slingshot to hit the eye switch near the roof on the other side of the room to deactivate it. Hop across the now safe platform and dodge the baby dodongos as you head down the hallway. Open the door you find and you’ll be greeted with another set of lizalfos. Defeat them the same way you dealt with the first set and continue on.
Another room with some platforms on fire. The first eye switch is near the ceiling across the room again. To hit the second one you’ll need to jump to the first platform and aim your slingshot into the small alcove there and shoot the eye switch. Jump across the gap in the next room and open the large chest for the bombs. You can drop down and blow up the cracked wall to find some business scrubs selling deku nuts and deku seeds, but I would recommend doing the next part first and coming back if you want to go that route.
Go down the hallway near the bomb chest and step on the switch there to cause one of the platforms to raise all the way up to this level. This is useful in case you fall or want to revisit the dungeon later. To the right you’ll find a bridge with two gaps in it. Use your new bombs to drop a bomb through each of these gaps and “light” up the eyes of the dodongo head below. The cracked wall on the opposite end has a deku shield if you got yours burned earlier. With the dodongo mouth open you can head through to the back area of the dungeon.
Back Rooms
Head to the right since it’s the only ledge low enough for you to reach and climb up. Follow the hallway to a room with a couple fire keese and tall walls. The intended way to do this room is to drag one block to push the other off, then use that block to push the last one off. Instead, you can actually just jump up on the block that’s near the high wall and run across that to the end. Much easier and faster! Jump down to the doorway at the end and break the pots for a fairy if you need it.
[optional a=”back-room-skulltula” id=”back-room-gs” name=”Optional: Gold Skulltula”]
Continue down another lengthy hallway until you find a lone block. Push it off the edge into the room below and jump down after it. You may want to take a second to defeat the fire keese flying around before you pull and push the block to the center of the room. Dropping the block into the hole will hold down the switch there so you can go through the door that was barred before.
Dungeon Boss: King Dodongo
The darkened square in the center of the room needs to be blown up to reach the actual boss. You can open the chest up here for some extra bombs too before dropping down. Once engaged, King Dodongo will mostly just stomp around and stop to charge up a fire breath attack. When he’s taking in air to breathe fire at you, toss a bomb or bomb flower in his mouth and he’ll eat it. After it explodes his head will be vulnerable to damage so slash at it. You only get to hit him once every time though, so we’d recommend using a jump slash for the most damage you can get.
After taking damage, King Dodongo will curl up and roll towards you around the room. You can dodge this by standing near the lava or inside one of the corners where there’s a lot of space to avoid him. He’ll crash into the second wall he hits and stop rolling to find you again. Repeat these cycles until he’s defeated. There’s really nothing more to this boss and it shouldn’t prove much trouble at all.
Once he’s defeated he’ll roll into the lava at the center and burn to a crisp. This somehow cools the lava enough for you to walk on it, so collect your heart container and step into the blue warp to leave. After a brief cutscene, Darunia will give you the Goron’s Ruby and tell you to visit the magic fairy at the top of the mountain, but we’ll cover that in the next chapter!