Kokiri Forest

When you first start up the game, you’ll be treated to a dream sequence where you learn that all is not well in the world. Afterward, Navi the Fairy is asked by the Great Deku Tree to find us and bring us to see him. When Link finally wakes up and you gain control of him, make your way out of the house.

Once you’re outside, a childhood friend of Link’s called Saria will ambush you. She’ll reaffirm that we should go see the Deku Tree. If we head there directly from here though, we’ll be stopped by another Kokiri, called Mido, who is blocking the path. He won’t allow us to pass unless we have a Sword and Shield.

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Kokiri Sword and Deku Shield

The Shield is easy enough to find, it only costs 40 Rupees, and can be purchased from the shop. The shop is the building with the young girl sitting on top of its roof, she’ll call out to you as you pass.

You can find Rupees scattered throughout the Forest by; smashing pots, cutting grass, running through the grass, and climbing on top of buildings. You’ll also find one of the buildings has a number of small chests you can open inside of it. You’ll find Rupees in these chests, exiting and re-entering will also reset the chests for you to pillage again.

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Once you’ve got 40 Rupees head over to the shop, speak to the shopkeeper, and purchase the Deku Shield.

Next up we need to get our hands on a Sword.

To find the Kokiri Sword you’ll need to crawl through a small gap in the wall in the southwest of the Forest. Approach it and wait for the Action button to change to allow you to crawl through. Here you’ll need to dodge a boulder that is rolling around and make your way to the southeastern portion of this small area. You’ll find the Kokiri Sword in the Large Chest resting here.

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Meeting the Deku Tree

Now that we have both of the pieces of gear we needed, be sure to jump into your menu and equip them both. Now make your way to the east, where Mido is blocking the path. Speak to him this time and he’ll move, allowing us to continue east toward the Great Deku Tree.

Along the way, you’ll run into some plant enemies. Defeat them to earn two new weapons, the Deku Stick and the Deku Nuts. Deku Sticks are quite important for puzzles so keep them safe for now, while the Nuts can be thrown at enemies to stun them.

Approach the Deku Tree to trigger some scenes before it will open its mouth and allow us to enter the first dungeon of the game.

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Inside the Deku Tree

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Main Chamber

Once you enter the Deku Tree you’ll be on the ground level. Here on the ground floor if you circle the room you’ll encounter three Deku Baba’s, these are plants that will lunge at you as you pass them. Hit them twice with your sword to defeat them and you’ll obtain Deku Sticks and Deku Nuts for your trouble. Take note of the Giant Spiderweb in the center of the room, we’ll be interacting with this later.

To the left of where you entered the Main Chamber, you’ll find a ladder leading up, take it to the second floor, and follow the path sloping upwards until you find a chest.

Inside the chest, you’ll find the Dungeon Map for the Deku Tree. These are very useful, and you’ll find a Dungeon Map in every Dungeon in the game. After grabbing the map, ignore the climbable walls next to the chest for now, and instead continue along the path to the end where you’ll find a door. Navi will stop you briefly to explain how to get through. Approach it and use the action command.

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Deku Scrub Room

On the other side of the door, you’ll come face to face with your first Deku Scrub. These guys will hide in their nest if you get too close and spit nuts at you once you are further away. Target the Scrub and raise your shield, this will reflect its nuts back at it. Once it is hit, it will pop out and flee around the room. Simply stand on its nest and wait for it to come back and apologize to you.

After your brief interaction with the Scrub, the doors will unlock and you’ll be able to move onto the next room.

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Slingshot Room

Take a running jump onto the center platform here, and then continue and jump to the ledge on the other side. Link will grab the edge and pull himself up. Don’t spend too long on the platform as it will fall.

Here on the other side of the room, you’ll find another chest, this one containing the Fairy Slingshot. Equip your new Slingshot and turn around to face the door you entered from. You’ll notice a ladder caught in a spider web above it. Target it with your Slingshot and shoot a nut at it, to have it drop down and open a path back out the way we came.

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Main Chamber

Head out of the Slingshot Room, back through the Deku Scrub Room, and out into the main chamber.

Make your way to the right, back to the chest that contained the Dungeon Map. Here surrounding the chest is a climbable wall, if you approach Navi will give you a quick Tutorial on climbing.

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Before climbing the wall you’ll need to take out your Slingshot and shoot down the three Spiders that are on the vines. The first two can be targeted automatically while the third Spider will require you manually aim and shoot him down.

Once you’ve taken care of the Spiders you’re safe to climb the vines up to the next level of the Deku Tree.

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Up on the next level of the Deku Tree, you can follow the passage around to the next door. Be careful up here as you’ll encounter the Big Skulltula enemy that will drop down from the shadows you’ll see on the ground. These enemies have a hard outer shell, you’ll need to slowly approach them so that they spin around. Target the back of these large Spiders to deal damage to them, either with your sword or slingshot.

Head through the door into the next area.

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Compass Room

Here in this room, you’ll find a switch on the ground to your right. Stand on it to raise the platforms in the room, creating a path to the chest on the far side. Jump across and open the chest to claim the Compass. The Compass allows you to see the locations of chests in a dungeon as well as where you are on the map and which exit you just came through. They are very useful.

Jump down to the lower level and approach the sidewall with the alcove above it, a large Skulltula will drop down for you to defeat. Once you’ve gotten rid of him, you can head back to the switch, hit it, and cross the raised platforms to reach the alcove off to the left-hand side.

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Gold Skulltula #1 – Great Deku Tree Compass Room

Up here, behind the small chest containing a recovery heart, is a Gold Skulltula spider on the wall. Hit it to defeat it and collect the Golden Token it leaves behind. This relates to one of the side-quests in Ocarina of Time. There is a family in a village later on that have all been cursed, they require 100 of these Gold Skulltula Tokens to restore the entire family. This is the first of them. Every 10 Tokens you hand in, a new member of the family will be restored and will give Link a reward for your efforts.

Once you’ve got the Gold Skulltula, climb back up to the door we used to enter this area. You’ll notice that the bars on the door have not been raised yet. You’ll also find a lit torch nearby, and an unlit torch as well. Equip your Deku Stick and let the end of it go into the lit torch, it will catch fire. Use the now-lit Deku Stick to light the other nearby torch. This will raise the bars on the locked door and allow us to leave the area. Lit Deku Sticks eventually burn down to nothing and are destroyed. In order to save your Deku Stick, slash with your sword as soon as you no longer need the fire on the stick. This will put the Deku Stick away and if you’ve done it quickly enough it won’t use up the Deku Stick.

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Main Chamber

Exit back out the way you came, back out into the Main Chamber of the Deku Tree. Out here you’ll need to defeat one of the Large Skulltula enemies that are blocking the large openings towards the center of the area. Once you’ve defeated one, you’ll notice that the Large Web at the bottom of the Deku Tree is directly below you. From this upper level, jump down and land in the center of the webbing. This will cause it to break and allow you to fall down into the caverns below the Deku Tree.

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Gold Skulltula #2 & #3 – Great Deku Tree Lower Level

Down here, the first thing you’ll want to do is collect the two nearby Golden Skulltulas. The first is on the Vines that lead back up the hole you just fell down, shoot it with the Slingshot and then climb up and collect it.

For the next Golden Skulltula, you’ll find it on the grating at the northern end of the room. Shoot it with your Slingshot and then climb up onto the higher platform nearby. From here you can jump and collect the Golden Skulltula Token it leaves behind in the air.

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Main Chamber – Basement

You can climb up onto the northeastern raised platform to find a switch on the floor. Stand on it to light a nearby torch, which will also burn away a section of Spiderweb on the wall.

Light one of your Deku Sticks on the now-lit torch and jump into the shallow section of the water. From here you can run and jump across to the slightly raised area to the southeast. Take your lit Deku Stick to the Webbing that is covering the doorway on this platform to burn it away and gain access to the door. Head through when you’re ready.

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Deku Scrub Room – Lower Floor

Once you enter this room, you’ll find another Deku Scrub, reflect its nut back with your shield again and wait for it on its patch of leaves. This time when it comes back it’ll give you a hint instead of a reward. It’ll let you know that up ahead you’ll face three of its brothers, in order to get past them you’ll need to stun them in a particular order. The order is 2, 3, and then 1.

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The Deku Scrub will vanish and the door will remain locked. Take out your Slingshot and shoot the Silver Eye symbol above the door. This is a switch that you will find in many dungeons throughout the game. This will open the door and allow us to continue.

Spiked Log Puzzle Room

Once you enter Navi will give you instructions on how to dive underwater. Jump into the water here, and on the left-hand side of the room, you’ll find a switch underwater. Dive under to touch it and temporarily lower the water level in the room.

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Swim back up to the platform you started on and jump across to the moving platform in the water when it is close to you. Let it carry you under the Spiked Log safely now, and then jump for the ledge on the opposite side.

Here you’ll find another Large Skulltula ahead, defeat it, and then Navi will explain how to push and pull large blocks. Push or pull the nearby large block until it is under the alcove above it and climb onto the block and head through the doorway.

Torch Room

In the next room, you’ll find three torches, one lit and two unlit. Use your Deku Stick to carry the flame from the lit torch to the other two. Doing this will open the next door.

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Egg Room

If you stick to the outside of the room you won’t have to deal with the enemy eggs currently attached to the roof. If you walk under one of these eggs the Larva they hold will hatch and drop down from the roof for you to fight. They are easy enough to defeat, however in a group, or if you don’t know they’re there they can cause some issues.

There is a lit torch in this area and two large Spiderwebs blocking the two passages here. Light your Deku Stick and burn both Webs. You won’t be able to do anything down one passage, and the other will have a small hole that Link can crawl through.

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Main Chamber – Basement

Once you crawl through the hole you’ll be back in the Main Chamber we dropped down into through the Spiderweb. You’ll be on the higher ledge that you couldn’t access before though. First of all, towards the north side of the room, you’ll find another block you can push. Push it straight off the edge to create a shortcut back up to this area, in case you need it later.

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You’ll find another Spiderweb on the floor of this upper area. To get rid of this you’ll need to light a Deku Stick. To do this you’ll need to jump off the block you pushed into the water, and cross over to the lower platform with the lit torch on it. Light a Deku Stick over here, and then jump from the lower platform back onto the top of the block in the water. Cross over to where the Webbing is and stand on the Webbing. Swing the Deku Stick so that the flaming end touches the web. The web will burn and you’ll drop down to another area.

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Three Deku Scrub Room

Here you’ll drop down into the water. You’ll find Recovery Hearts around the edge if you dive for them. Once you get out of the water you’ll find the three Deku Scrubs we were warned about earlier. You’ll want to target the middle one first and reflect a Nut back at him. Once he’s frozen, target the one on the right and reflect a Nut at him. Finally, target the one on the left and reflect a Nut at him as well. He’ll leave a heart behind and apologize to us. He’ll also offer a clue on how to defeat the Dungeon’s Boss before fleeing.

Head through the door here to face the Dungeon’s Boss.

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Deku Tree Dungeon Boss – Queen Gohma

Once you enter the room, look to the ceiling to trigger the Boss coming down.

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Target her and keep your shield up. She’ll move towards you and try to slam onto you, keeping your shield up will prevent taking damage from this attack. She’ll also crawl onto the ceiling, hang there and lay eggs, these eggs will drop down and if you don’t destroy them fast enough they’ll hatch and now you’ll have to deal with these smaller monsters before you can get back to focusing on the Boss again. Try to slash the eggs before they hatch, the Gohma Larvae take two hits once they hatch.

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In order to inflict damage on Queen Gohma, you need to stun her first. There are a few ways to do this.

• Hit her in the eye with your slingshot or a Deku Nut when her eye turns red. This happens just before she attacks, so you’ll need to bait her into an attack.
• When Queen Gohma climbs onto the ceiling her eye becomes red for a while before she starts to lay eggs. Hit her eye here with your slingshot to have her drop off the ceiling stunned.

Once you have her stunned, you need to hit her eye with your sword attacks, as much as possible. You’ll need to repeat this process at least three times in order to deal enough damage to defeat her.

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Once defeated she’ll disintegrate and a Blue Light will appear on the ground. Look around and grab the Heart Container that will be in the area. This will increase Link’s maximum number of hearts on the screen, allowing him to take an extra hit before feinting. Once you’ve got that, head into the Blue Glowing Circle to be teleported out of the Dungeon.

You’ll witness a bunch of scenes here with the general plot of the early portion of the game will be revealed. The Deku Tree will gift you with the Kokiri Emerald, an important stone that you need for future events. The Deku Tree will also let you know that your next stop should be to go and see the Princess in Hyrule Castle.

With all of that completed, you’ll regain control of Link and be able to leave the forest now.

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Leaving Kokiri Forest

Head back towards the Village to be stopped by Mido along the way. Continue past him, make your way over to the exit to the village at the opposite end of the map.

As you go to leave, you’ll be stopped by Saria, Link’s childhood friend. She’ll give us the Fairy Ocarina as a present before we leave. Link will run off in the opposite direction, terrified by the kind gift, and you’ll finally arrive in Hyrule Field.

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