============================ The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening ============================ ************** Boss Strategy Guide ************** The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Boss Strategy Guide Version 2.5 Copyright 1999 XSceptor@aol.com -September 9, 1999 =================== Contents A. Introduction B. Version History C. Boss Strategies 1. Moldorm 2. Genie 3. Slime Eyes 4. Angler 5. Slime Eel 6. Facade 7. Evil Eagle 8. Hot Head 9. The Final Nightmare a. Giant Blob b. Agahnim c. Moldorm d. Ganon e. Lanmola f. Dethl D. Mini-Boss Strategies 1. Rolling Bones 2. Hinox 3. Dondogo Snakes 4. Cue Ball 5. Grommas 6. Smasher 7. Grim Creeper 8. Blaino E. Credits ================== ------------------------------------ A. Introduction In this strategy guide I will tell you the name of each boss, the location of each boss, the strategy for defeating each boss, and which Sirens' Instrument you receive for defeating each boss. The setup will go as follows: ------------------------------------ Boss Number. Boss Name--Location of Boss~Level Name*(an asterisk if you should have potion for the battle)-Difficulty: 1-10 (1 easiest-10 hardest) Items Needed: Strategy for defeating boss. -Instument received for defeating boss: -Number of hits it takes with Level 1 sword: -Number of hits it takes with Level 2 sword: -Other weapons used in battle: ------------------------------------- ************* B. Version History ************* Version 1.0-July 21, 1999. First version of the FAQ. I'm working on a mini-boss section for this FAQ. Version 1.5-July 22, 1999. Added some mini-boss strategies. Fixed some of the text at the top of the FAQ, it was way out of alignment. Changed some of the difficulty ratings. Version 2.0-July 24, 1999. Completed the mini-boss section. Once again changed the some of the difficulty ratings. Version 2.5-September 9, 1999. Updated the strategy for Slime Eyes. Changed some mini-boss difficulty ratings. For some reason I forgot to add Blaino to the mini-boss section, but I added him now, so don't worry! ************* C. Boss Strategies ************* 1. Moldorm--Level 1~Tail Cave -Difficulty: 2 Items Needed: Sword, Roc's Feather/Sheild When you begin fighting the boss, hit him in the tail. He will speed up so either block with your sheild, or dodge him with Roc's Feather. It is pretty easy to dodge Moldorm when he speeds up, but just make sure that he doesn't push you off the edge of the platform, or you will fall into the room below and you will have to start the Nightmare all over again! To avoid falling off the edge, stay close to the center of the platform. You can try and hit him when he speeds up, but just remember that you must hit his tail only. -Instrument: Full Moon Cello -Level 1 Sword: 4 hits -Level 2 Sword: 2 hits *(See note at end of FAQ) 2. Genie--Level 2~Bottle Grotto* -Difficulty: 4 Items Needed: Sword, Power Braclet/Roc's Feather *Before the battle, you should get some Potion from Crazy Tracy. When the battle begins, the Genie will throw 8 fire balls at you. Dodge these by simply walking around the room being sure to stay one step ahead of the fire balls being thrown, or you can switch your Braclet with Roc's Feather and jump away from the balls as they are thrown. After he throws the fire balls at you he will go into his bottle. While the bottle his hopping around the room, hit it with your Sword. When the bottle is immobilized, pick it up with your Power Braclet and throw it against the wall. The Genie will come back out and throw 8 more fire balls at you. Dodge them as before. After you have thrown the bottle against the wall three times, it will break and the Genie will float around the room.While he does this you will see double images of him. When the images come together, he will throw a fire ball at you. Dodge it by jumping, and then hit him with your sword. After you hit him, he will split into two images again. Repeat the process of dodging the fire balls and hitting him until he is dead. -Insturment: Conch Horn -Level 1 Sword: 8 hits -Level 2 Sword: 4 hits 3. Slime Eyes--Level 3~Key Cavern-Difficulty: 3.5 Items Needed: Sword, Pegasus Boots/Roc's Feather When you first enter the room, you must ram into the wall with your Pegasus Boots on to make the boss fall down. When Slime Eyes is on the floor, charge at the center of the eye with your Pegasus Boots on. It takes 4 or 5 _direct_ hits to make Slime Eyes split into two. (The hits must be non-stop.) Once it is split, pick one of the eyes and concentrate on it. Hit it once with your sword. After you hit it, it will fly up above the room. Watch for it's shadow and jump away from it. While it is falling, jump once to avoid getting knocked down on the floor. When it is back on the ground, hit it again. Jump to avoid the shadow, and then jump again to avoid getting knocked onto the ground. Repeat this process of hitting and jumping until the eye dies.Do the same to the other eye until it is dead. -Instrument: Sea Lily's Bell -Level 1 Sword: 8 hits, 4 per eye -Level 2 Sword: 4 hits, 2 per eye 4. Angler--Level 4~Angler's Tunnel*-Difficluty: 4 Items Needed: Sword, Flippers (used automatically) When you enter the Nightmare's Lair, climb the ladder down into the water. When the battle starts, hit him with your sword as many times as you can. Becareful to dodge the little fish that swim by you during battle. Sometimes Angler will charge at you. When he charges, dodge him and he will hit the wall. When he hits the wall, rocks will come falling through the water. Dodge the rocks and little fish and hit Angler if you can. Keep repeating the process of hitting him and dodging him if he charges. To get some extra damage on the boss, use the swinging blade technique. -Instrument: Surf Harp -Level 1 Sword: 10 hits -Level 2 Sword: 5 hits 5. Slime Eel--Level 5~Catfish's Maw*-Difficulty: 5 Items Needed: Sword, Hookshot When you enter the Nightmare's Lair, stay at the door. When the fight begins, the boss will punch a hole in the middle of the room with it's tail. Next it will smash four holes into the wall with it's head. When it's finished smashing all of it's holes, get _behind_ it's tail and stay close behind it all the way through the battle. When Slime Eel's head pops out of a hole near you, grab it with your Hookshot and then hit it with your Sword as many times as you can. After you hit it keep moving, or otherwise the tail will catch up with you and cause you damage. Sometimes when you grab the head with the Hookshot it will come all the way out and move around the room. Move away from it while remaining behind the tail, otherwise you will sustain heavy damage from the decoy and the tail. When the decoy comes out all the way and moves around the room don't try and hit it because it is_just_a decoy and any damage you put on it won't damage the boss. Keep grabbing the head with the Hookshot and hitting it with your Sword until it is dead. Remember to always stay close behind the tail. A good way to stay behind the tail is to move around the hole in the center of the room. -Instrument: Wind Marimba -Level 1 Sword: 16 hits -Level 2 Sword: 8 hits 6. Facade--Level 6~Face Shrine*-Difficulty: 5.5 Items Needed: Bombs, Power Braclet/Sword/Sheild This is the first battle in the game in which you do not attack the boss with your sword. When you first enter the Nightmare's Lair, even before Facade appears on the floor, go around to all four of the pots in the four corners of the room, pick them up and break them. Facade should appear after you have broken the third pot. When you can, go and brake the fourth pot. When all the tiles start to come up off of the floor, break them with your Sword, or block them with your Sheild. I recommend that you get into a corner and block all the incoming tiles with your sheild. After all the tiles are gone, holes will begin to randomly appear on the floor. Dodge these as best as you can and walk onto Facade. Don't worry, as long as you stand on top of Facade, you can't get hurt! When you are on it's face, drop a bomb on it. When it explodes the face will disappear for a second or two. When the face reappears, drop another bomb. Stay on Facade and keep dropping bombs until it dies. -Instrument: Coral Triangle -Level 1 Sword: - -Level 2 Sword: - -Bombs: 5 7. Evil Eagle--Level 7~Eagle's Tower*-Difficulty: 7 Items Needed: Hookshot, Shield One thing to remeber for this battle-Never fall off of the tower or you will have to start the Nightmare all over again! When you get on top of the tower, get to the center of it and stay at the center of it as much as you can. When Evil Eagle flies by you, hit it's beak with your Hookshot. This can get kind of difficult because sometimes he flies very high, and sometimes he flies directly towards you. In either case, you must use your Hookshot _before_ Evil Eagle flies by you, or else your timing will be off and he will fly right on by. When Evil Eagle suddenly stops and hovers vertically in the air, this is your cue to use your Sheild. While he flaps his wings, hold your Sheild out to protect you from the feathers, and to prevent you from being blown off the edge. If you are not close enough to the center of the platform when he starts to flap, then you will fall off the edge whether you are using your sheild or not. When he is done flapping, get back to the center of the platform and get ready to hit him again. Try not to get hit too many times by Evil Eagle, because he can take up to three hearts away from you from each hit. Remember to stay close to the center of the platform, and hit him whenever you have the chance. -Instrument: Organ of Evening Calm -Level 1 Sword: - -Level 2 Sword: - -Hookshot: 6 hits 8. Hot head--Level 8~Turtle Rock**-Difficulty: 8 Items Needed: Magic Rod, Roc's Feather When the fight begins, as soon as Hot Head jumps out of the lava, hit him as fast as you can with the Magic Rod. The hits you get on him must be_continous_, or otherwise when he jumps back into the lava he will rejuvinate. If he does go back into the lava, wait until he comes back out and hit him quickly. Don't let up on him even if it looks like he is going to bounce into you; if he touches you while he is in the air, you can't get hurt. When you hit him enough times, his 'lava shell' will break off. All you need to do is hit him a couple more times until he is toast (not that he isn't toasted enough as it is). During battle, always watch out for the lava that he splashes out when he jumps back in. If you get hit by just one drop of lava you will lose FOUR hearts. To avoid the lava that he splashes at you, quickly jump out of the way. Don't bother with your sheild because it can't protect you from lava. (The double star next to the bosses location indicates that I VERY strongly suggest you have some potion with you. This battle isn't easy, and without potion, you could die in less than four hits from the lava.) -Instrument: Thunder Drum -Level 1 Sword: - -Level 2 Sword: - -Magic Rod: 12 hits 9. Final Nightmare--Final Level~The Egg** The Final Nightmare has 6 forms. For each form I will tell you it's name, what items you need to defeat it, how many hits is takes to defeat it, and it's difficulty level. Always stay on your guard, because you fight these last 6 bosses one right after the other. a. Giant Blob Items Needed: Magic Powder When you start this battle, make sure you have magic powder equiped. When the Blob is hopping around the room, walk up to it and sprinkle some magic powder on it. Don't try to hit it with your Sword or anything else because nothing else works. -Magic Powder: 3 hits -Difficulty: 2.1 b. Agahnim Items Needed: Sword, Roc's Feather As soon as he is formed, go to the end of the room opposite of where he is and face him (For example: If he is at the top of the room, you move to the bottom of the room and face him). When he charges up his energy ball and throws it at you, swing your Sword when the ball is close enough to you to bat the magic back at him. Sometimes he throws some other object at you. When he throws it, jump out of the way as best as you can, because it will break apart and damage you. -Magic thrown back at Aghanim: 4 hits -Difficulty: 4 c. Moldorm Items Needed: Sword, Sheild This is a re-creation of the boss from Tail Cave. You attack him the same way; by hitting him in the tail. This time, though, you must hit him more times. He speeds up as before, and if you let him slow down, you will have to start him all over again. Use your sheild if you can't hit him and he is charging at you. -Level 1 Sword: 14 hits -Level 2 Sword: 7 hits -Difficulty: 4.3 d. Ganon Items Needed: Sword, Pegasus Boots Right when he forms, do the charging sword attack with your Pegasus Boots and Sword. Keep charging, even if you take a little damage. If you let up on Ganon, you will take heavy damage. Immediately after you start hitting him, he will throw six bats at you which will damage you if you let them start chasing you. After Ganon throws his bats, he will throw his staff at you and the charge. The staff and the charge both hurt you. If you keep hitting him from the start of the battle, you will take little damage. -Charges to Ganon: 6 -Difficulty: 6.5 e. Lanmola Items Needed: Hookshot/Magic Rod/Boomerang Lanmola isn't too hard to beat, but if you let it start chasing you, you will take heavy damage. To avoid taking any damage, line up with Lanmola before he is even fully formed and hit him with the Hookshot, or Magic Rod, or Boomerang. Trust me, if he chases you, you could take very heavy damage. -Hookshot/Magic Rod/Boomerang: 1 hit (you only need to hit him once with one of the weapons, not all three of them.) -Difficulty: 3.5 f. Dethl Items Needed: Arrows/Boomerang, Roc's Feather This is it. The final battle of the game, and it isn't all that easy. When Dethl forms, jump over it's swinging arms. You will _constantly_ be jumping in this battle. When it opens it's eye shoot an arrow into it, or throw the boomerang into it. After you hit it, it will speed up. It will continue to speed up every time you hit it, which can make this battle very difficult. Unlike Moldorm, Dethl does NOT slow down. When ever it's eye opens again, shoot it as fast as you can. Always stay below Dethl during battle, or else it's arms will deal heavy damage to you. If you have enough heart containers (not hearts, heart containers. I recommed you have at least 11) you should be fine. If you don't have enough have enough heart containers, but you still have a potion, then you should be fine too. If you don't have enought heart containers and you don't have any potion, then good luck. -Arrows: 16 hits -Boomerang: 1 hit (Using the Boomerang is obviously easier, but try using Arrows for a challenge. When you use the Boomerang, it must be a _direct_ hit into the center of the eye.) -Difficulty: 4.8 (with Boomerang), 9.7 (with Arrows) ****************** D. Mini-Boss Strategies ****************** In this section there is no recommendation for potion. Most of these bosses are simple to defeat. For their location, I will tell you which levels they are located in. 1. Rolling Bones--In Levels: 1, 8~Difficulty: 2 Items Needed: Sword, Roc's Feather Rolling Bones is one of the easiest mini-bosses in the game. All you have to do is jump over the rolling thing and hit Rolling Bones with your Sword. To damage him more, use the your swinging blade technique. -Level 1 Sword: 8 hits -Level 2 Sword: 4 hits 2. Hinox--In Levels: 2, 7, 8~Difficulty: 3.5 Items Needed: Sword/Hookshot/Magic Rod To defeat Hinox, all you have to do is hit him with one of the weapons listed above and dodge his bombs. Becareful though; sometimes he might come at you and pick you up, and then he throws you. If he throws you onto weak floor, then you might fall through. -Level 1 Sword: 8 hits -Level 2 Sword: 4 hits -Hookshot: 3 hits -Magic Rod: 2 hits 3. Dondogo Snakes--In Levels: 3, 6, 8~Difficulty: 3.8 Items Needed: Bombs Bombs are the only weapons that will harm the Dondogo Snakes. All you have to do is throw the bombs so that the Snakes eat them. An easy way to make sure they will eat the bombs is to wait until they are hudled into a corner, and then throw bombs at them. Becareful in Level 6 because there is always the possibility that you might throw bombs into the pits accidentaly. -Bombs: 6 bombs, 3 per Snake 4. Cue Ball--In Level: 4, 8~Difficulty: 3.2 Items Needed: Sword Yet another easy mini-boss. First of all, get to the left of the block (level 4), or the left side of the lava (level 8). When Cue Ball comes to the top or bottom left corner of the room, hit it in the abdomen (big round part of it's body). After you hit it, it will spin and turn around. Sometimes it will go all the way around the room, or it might just turn around and come back. To get more hits in on Cue Ball, use can use the swinging blade technique. Watch out for the lava in Level 8! -Level 1 Sword: 8 hits -Level 2 Sword: 4 hits 5. Grommas--In Level: 5~Difficulty: 3.9 Items Needed: Hookshot/Arrows To defeat these spider-like creatures, all you have to do is hit them in the eye (mouth?) when it opens. When they open up, they will shoot at you; so becareful. Sometimes they will speed up, and sometimes they will charge at you, so watch out! To make this battle easier, I suggest you concentrate on one Gromma at a time, preferably the one at the bottom first. -Hookshot: 12 hits, 6 per Spider -Arrows: 6 hits, 3 per Spider 6. Smasher--In Level: 6, 8~Difficulty: 4.3 Items Needed: Lv 2 Power Braclet This is one strange creature (It reminds me of a dog). As it hops around the room, it will throw it's ball at you. All you have to do is pick up the ball and throw it back at him. You must pick it up before Smasher does, or you will have to wait until he throws it again. Be sure not to get hit by the ball or Smasher! -Hits by the ball: 4 hits 7. Grim Creeper--In Level: 7~Difficulty: 5 Items Needed: Sword, Sheild I would say this is the hardest mini-boss, although some people would say it is the easiest. To defeat the Grim Creeper all you have to do is kill all six of the birds in one pass. It seems easy enough, but if you miss all six on the first pass, then they regroup in a different patern and it could become difficult. If you don't hit all the of the birds in one try, they will keep coming back until you do (all six come back). You can use your Sheild to block the birds if you want, but it really isn't neccesary. He will run away once you defeat all 6 birds in one pass. -Sword: Kill all 6 birds in one pass 8. Blaino--In Level: 8~Difficulty: 6.9 Items Needed: Sword, Roc's Feather I lied...this is the hardest mini-boss. The only place you can attack this guy is on the side, unless he is getting ready for a punch; then you can hit him on the front side. If you can get to the side of him (which is very hard to do), hit him with your sword as many times as you can. Or, you can just wait until he winds up for an uppercut and then hit him, but be careful!! If he uppercuts you (the punch where he winds up first), it will knock you all the way to the beginning of the dungeon!! Just avoid his front side and you should do just fine. -Level 1 Sword: 16 hits (Extremely difficult!) -Level 2 Sword: 8 hits ===== D. Credits ===== First of all I would like to thank GameFAQs for putting my guide on their site. Second, I would like to say that all of the information in the FAQ is mine, and you may not change it or modify it in_any_ way. You may use this FAQ on your site if you want, buy you must get my permission first. Other than using is on you site, you can not use this FAQ for any other reason. Thank You. I would also like to thank http://www.world-of-nintendo.com for the Game Genie code to get the Level 2 Sword. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and all other Zelda games are Copyright 1986-1998 Ninteno Inc. Copyright 1999 XSceptor@aol.com Thank You for reading my FAQ! *Technically you can't get the Level 2 Sword until you have collected 20 seashells. But there is a Game Genie code which allows you to get the Level 2 Sword at the beginning of the game (02C-745-E6E), so I have put the Level 2 Sword thing at the end of every boss for those of you who decided to use the code to get the Sword early.