Meeting Princess Zelda

Leaving Kokiri Forest

With the Kokiri’s Emerald in hand you can leave Kokiri Forest and set out on your grand journey. Mido will blame you for the Deku Tree’s death before moving out of the way to allow you through. Make your way to the west side of the forest to leave towards Hyrule Field. After receiving the Fairy Ocarina from Saria you’ll be met by the infamous Kaepora Gaebora. He’ll interact with you several times on your adventure to offer advice. Once you’ve finished talking with him you can finally make your way towards Hyrule Castle at the northern end of the field. If you roll the entire way (or walk backwards because that’s even faster) you can make it inside the castle gates before sundown. If you aren’t quite fast enough it’s not a big deal, you’ll just have to wait outside and fend off the Stalchildren until morning. There’s also 60 rupees you can get from jumping off top of the chains that you may want to collect before heading inside the walls.

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The door you see immediately upon entering the gates of Hyrule Castle leads to a guard shack. Inside you can break the pots for some extra rupees, but more importantly you can roll into the crates to break them and reveal a gold skulltula hiding beneath. Defeat it for another gold skulltula token!

Hyrule Castle

If you don’t have a full wallet you may want to consider stepping into the guard shack where the gold skulltula listed above is to fill it up. Head through the market to directly across from where you entered the market to continue on your way to the castle.

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Inside the building near the pathway to the castle that has a large target on it is the shooting gallery. You can pay 20 rupees to try and hit all 10 of the rupee targets that appear and collect a larger pouch to store deku seeds in for your slingshot. You will need to hit all 10 in order to win the upgrade, but fortunately they always come out in the same pattern so it isn’t too difficult. If you get 8 or 9 the clerk will allow you to play a free game, but if you only manage to hit 7 or fewer you will have to pay to play again. If you run out of rupees you can always visit the guard shack near the entrance to the market to get some more.

When you walk forward you’ll be met again by Kaepora Gaebora who will explain how the flow of times works in certain areas of the game. When he flies off, head back into the market, then back towards the castle. This seems silly but it’s so Malon will be waiting near the vines upon your return to the castle grounds. Speak with her and she’ll tell you her dad went to the castle to deliver some milk and hasn’t come back yet. Talk to her again and she’ll give you a Weird Egg she’s been incubating in exchange for you going to look for her dad.

[optional a=”castle-tree-gold-skulltula” id=”castle-tree-gs” name=”Optional: Gold Skulltula”]

A gold skulltula is hiding in the tree where Kaepora Gaebora was perched. Rolling into it will knock the gold skulltula out so you can defeat it for another token.

With the weird egg in your pocket you can climb the vines next to Malon to begin making your way to the castle. Be sure to avoid the guard’s detection while making your way there! Take some time if you need to since you are going to need to wait for the weird egg to hatch anyway. Be sure to give the guards a lot of room so you can avoid being spotted and if you mess up don’t get too frustrated. As a small secret, if you get caught you can pay the guard at the gate 10 rupees to look the other way and let you in.

Once you’ve made it through you’ll need to wait if your weird egg hasn’t hatched yet. Once it does you can pull out the cucco front of the sleeping man to wake him so he’ll move out of the way. When he’s gone, push one of the large crates off the edge and the second on top of it. Climb on top of the stacked crates to jump across the moat and enter the small hole where the water is flowing to reach the castle gardens. It’s important you enter during the day or there will be 2 guards there immediately that will prevent you from continuing.

Now that you’re inside you will need to sneak past these guards as well. They move around and stop periodically so you’ll need to pay a little more attention than you did to the ones outside the castle walls. You may get caught a couple times, but they only throw you back outside the moat if you do so you can quickly get back into the gardens. There are only 5 screens of guards so it’s not too bad, and once you’ve gotten past all of them you’ll reach the courtyard where Princess Zelda is. Speak with her for more on the story or Hyrule’s creation and to hear her thoughts about Ganondorf.

Zelda will give you a letter that will be important later before sending you to speak with her attendant, Impa. Doing so will teach you the song, Zelda’s Lullaby, and allow you to get back outside the castle walls without issue. Impa tells you where to find the second spiritual stone and that you should stop in Kakariko Village before vanishing, so let’s get to it!