If you haven’t gone to Sanctuary yet, you must do so before beginning this. If you haven’t gained entrance to the Eastern Palace yet, that is in another guide. This page specifically pertains to A Link Between Worlds’ first dungeon: the Eastern Palace.
As soon as you enter the Eastern Palace, you will see a gap. Walk to the edge of it and look for a black orb. Shoot an arrow at it to drop two walkways for you to proceed to the next area.
When you enter the next area, look to your left. There will be an orb for you to shoot. Go back to the first room, but instead of going straight like you did originally, go to the left side of the screen. A door will have unlocked and it will lead you to the treasure chest next to the orb you shot. Open it and receive a red rupee.
Your first obstacle in the first dungeon of A Link Between Worlds is a series of black bowling balls that will come at you. You have to dodge between the small ones as they roll down. The pattern should be left, right, left, right, and then one big one that is undodgeable. When you need to, take cover in the openings shown in the pic above.
At the northernmost part of this room, there is a locked door. Go down the stairs on the left and look for the open entrance. Go into this room.
The door will close itself and you will be locked in. There will be three popo that you need to kill. After defeating them, four more will appear. Finish these off and a chest will spawn on the higher platform in the room. Go under the higher platform and continue down to enter a hidden room.
In this hidden room, you can step on a floor switch. This will spawn a treasure chest that contains a red rupee. Collect that then head back into the previous room with the unopened chest on the higher platform.
Head through the southwestern opening. Go through that room and you will finally be at the treasure chest on the higher platform. Open it up and collect the compass.
Go back through the southwestern entrance and, instead of going through the entrance at the top to get to the treasure chest, press the button. This will open a door that will take you to the main room with the black balls.
Collect the rupees between the first two Armos statues, then keep heading right. Go between the second set of statues, press the button on the floor, and fight the now live statues.
Go into the room that opened up from the button press and kill the popo. Get on the moving platform and shoot the orbs.
After obtaining the key, return to the main room and open the locked door.
Step into this room and hit the switch in the middle. This will make these Armos statues come to life. Each one takes three hits to kill.
After killing the statues, a green circle appears. You can go back to the dungeon’s entrance by stepping on this green circle. Each of the dungeons in A Link Between Worlds has this convenient feature when you are about 3/4 of the way through a dungeon.
If you go into the room on the left, you will enter the room pictured above. Avoid the small bowling balls and stand on the button on the left side of the room. This will cause a staircase to slowly come out. Wait for it to fully appear then run up it as quick as possible. Be careful of the large bowling balls that run across the platform. Run to the next staircase when it is safe to do so.
Avoid the smaller bowling balls that criss-cross in this part of the room. Go to the tile pictured above and stand on it. This will cause the staircase to move into the wall and reveal another tile to stand on. Do so and a treasure chest will appear with monster guts.
If you go back to the room with the statues and go through the entrance on the right, you will find a room with wall traps that shoot darts. You will also find some popos. Kill them all to get a treasure chest with more monster guts in it. Afterwards, navigate your way around until you get to the southwestern most corner of the room where another entrance is.
Shoot the lower orb on the left to cause a section of the floor to go up and down. Get on that and then shoot the higher up orb to cause a locked door to open. Go through this door.
Get on the floating platform in this room but beware of the dart shooting traps on the walls. Use your bow to shoot the orbs in the middle of the room. This will spawn a treasure chest. Open it up and get a small key and then return to the room you were in before.
Go to the boss door and shoot the orb on the left. This will cause another piece of the floor to rise and go down. Use that to go in through the locked door.
Defeat the three Stalfos in this room. Afterwards, open the large treasure chest to get the Big Key to open the boss door.
Go up the stairs on the left and enter the room on the right with the orb. Strike it then return to the main room. There will be one more orb that you can shoot with your arrow. This will cause the floor to spin, allowing you to enter the locked door.
A cinematic will play and you will then have to fight Yuga. Yuga will use magic to summon giant lightning bolts, fountains of fire, and soldiers to come out of the wall.
Lightning bolts are easily avoidable: do not stand in front of where they are coming out of. Stay to the side of them.
The fire that comes out of the wall is easily avoidable, too. It spreads along the wall, moving bit by bit, but it only can occupy one part of the wall at a time. If you are on the side that the fire is going towards, just run out of its way. If you can, get counter-clockwise of the fire to avoid it completely.
The soldiers are easily taken out with some swordwork.
To defeat Yuga himself, you must shoot him with an arrow. After this, he will be on the ground and open for some sword attacks.
After doing this, the wall attacks will double. Just follow the same strategy as before, but be more careful.
Keep fighting Yuga the same way and eventually you will win.
After beating Yuga in battle, he’ll manage to turn you into a portrait then run away. Luckily, Ravio gave you Ravio’s Bracelet, this item allows you to go from portrait form to real form quite easily. Link frees himself.
There is a crack in the wall at the top part of the screen. If you merge with the wall on the left, you will go to a platform right above where you need to be. You can collect some rupees here. Go back then merge with the wall on the right. This will lead you to an area with an energy potion. Consume it, then merge with the wall again and head to the other side.
Start heading down until you get to the part with the retracting stretch of floor. Walk along it, but be careful of the tabs that stick out. As the floor retracts, merge with the wall. You should be able to get across this with only merging once. Continue going down.
There will be a two pieces of wall that will flap back and forth. Get on it when you can, then, while merged, travel over to the other side. You will then come across a slit in the wall. Merge and go through it to bring yourself to the start of the dungeon.
After exiting the dungeon, Sahasrahla will greet you and a cut scene will occur. During this cut scene, you will find out something awful happened to the castle. The gist of it is: Zelda’s charm was actually the Pendant of Courage. You must go to the Tower of Hera and the House of Gales to get the other two pendants to retrieve the Master Sword.
Need help with the House of Gales and the Tower of Hera in your play through of A Link Between Worlds? Check back soon and the guide to both of these dungeons will be ready for you to read.
