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Key Cavern
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Key Cavern

Your step-by-step guide to navigating the Key Cavern in Link's Awakening. Find all the secrets and defeat the mini-bosses with our walkthrough!

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Your step-by-step guide to navigating the Key Cavern in Link's Awakening. Find all the secrets and defeat the mini-bosses with our walkthrough!

Alright, so you've made it to the Key Cavern! This one's a bit of a maze, but don't worry, I'll walk you through it. It's pretty much a long dungeon, but the good news is you can actually skip some parts in the middle if you're just trying to get through it quickly. But if you're going for that 100% completion, we'll grab everything!

The Long Hall

As soon as you enter, grab one of those pots nearby and chuck it at the top door. That'll break the seal, so head on through. You're gonna run into a Shield Stalfos, a Red Slime, and a couple of new little guys called Bombites.

New Enemy: Bombite – 1 HP
There are two versions of the Bombite that are differentiated based on their feet. The Red Bombites (which have red feet) waddle around their environment. When struck, they are flung backward. If you hit them again or they strike an enemy, they can self-destruct. If not, they will bounce around the environment in a straight line from their initial hit before eventually blowing up after a set period.
The best thing you can do to defeat a Red Bombite is to hit it in a relatively enclosed space and then retreat to an area that it would be hard for the Bombite to bounce into.
Green Bombites only appear in a single location in the entire game. They waddle around just the same as other Bombites, but when struck, a countdown timer appears on their face. At this point, they will begin walking directly towards you. If you hit them while they do this, it will bounce them back, but they walk quickly, so this isn’t an effective deterrent on its own. You’ll want to hit the Bombite when it gets close to detonating and then run away to give a bit of a buffer.

Okay, for these first Bombites, head to the left. Try to hit that first Red Bombite so it gets flung backward. Then, bail out to the left side of the room and let it bounce around that hallway. Once it blows up, hit the Red Bombite on the right side. As soon as you hit it, retreat back to that left hallway. If those bombs didn't take out the other monsters, finish them off now. A chest should pop up with a Small Key inside!

Now, take the path to the right and go through the door above. You'll need to defeat four Green Slimes here. Once they're gone, the doors will open and a chest will appear. You can open it if you want to be thorough, but it's just another monster inside. Your call!

Keep going north through the next door. There are two Stalfos in here. You might notice some tiles that look like they should spawn a chest, but you won't get it to appear until you also defeat the Red Slime on the other side of the wall. You can't reach it yet, so don't bother with the Stalfos right now. Just follow the hallway north.

You'll see four Green Slimes pop up around some stairs leading down. You can clear them out to make the stairs easier to get to, but it's not strictly necessary. Head down into the basement.

The Basement

In the first basement room, you'll have four Green Slimes and a Red Slime appear. Again, none of these are mandatory, so feel free to skip them and just head through a door if you want.

Of the four doors here, all of them are optional except for the door on the right. If you’d like to skip them, take the door to the right. Make sure to read the “New Enemy” description just below this, and then you can skip to this section. If you’d like to know how to get your key back from each room, read the explanation below.
Not doing the top room will prevent you from getting the Map and the Stone Beak.

Let's take the door on the left first.

This room has these conveyor belts that go around a pit. They'll push you or enemies into it. You'll find a Green Slime and two Pairodds in here.

New Enemy: Pairodd – 2 HP
Pairodds don’t do a whole lot, but they can be mighty frustrating.
Until you get close to a Pairodd, it will sit still and look around furtively. If you get close, it will teleport away to a particular location and hurl a (blockable) projectile at you once, before returning to its nervous inactivity. You’ll either need to hit it with some kind of projectile or use the Pegasus Boots to reach it before it can teleport. They only detect you as a threat, so throwing a bomb at them is also effective.
Pairodds each have a point A spot and a point B spot. If you hit them at point A and knock them back without killing them, they’ll teleport to point B. If they go to teleport back to point A, they will NOT go to the original location but rather the location that you bumped them to.

As soon as you step into this room, both Pairodds will teleport across the room. Block their projectiles and then take out the Green Slime. It looks like they teleported straight across, but they actually went diagonally. If you have the Bow, just shoot them both. Otherwise, bombs are your best bet. Hop across the pit on one side, and one of the Pairodds will teleport away. Block its next attack. Head into the little nook on the left and stand in a corner (watch out for the Green Slime). Toss a bomb into the other corner and let it explode to take out one of the Pairodds. Hop back across the pit and toss another bomb to get the other one. Trying to toss a bomb across the gap will likely land it on a conveyor and into the pit.

Grab the Small Key before it falls into the pit, and then head back through the door. In the room with the stairs, take the door leading north. Defeat the Stalfos and Spear Stalfos, then grab the Small Key to the left of the Stone Owl. Hit the crystal, then return to the previous room and go through the door leading south.

This next room is mostly conveyors. Take out the two Green Slimes on the left and grab a pot from the back. Stand to the left of the Pairodd and throw the pot at it to defeat it instantly. Finish off the Spear Stalfos and the Green Slime on the right. This will cause a Small Key to spawn in the NW corner. Head back to the previous room and take the door on the right.

Pegasus Boots

You'll enter a room with a conveyor belt that circles some pillars in the middle, leading to stairs that go back up out of the basement. There's a Pairodd on the belt, but its attacks are blocked by the pillars unless you're right next to it. So, focus on taking out the two Keese first. Once they're down, head for the stairs. The Pairodd will teleport away, leaving you a clear path.

In the next room, walk clockwise around the edge and defeat the Green Slimes as they appear. Taking out the last couple in the NW corner will cause a Small Key to appear. Grab it and follow the hallway north.

As soon as you enter the next room, defeat the two Spear Stalfos. Move over to the right wall and drop a bomb between the two torches. This will blow a hole in the wall. Head through, take out the two more Spear Stalfos at the bottom, and blow open the crack in the wall to the north. Don't go through that hole just yet; we're using it as a shortcut. Go back to the previous room and head to the west side.

You'll run into five Red Slimes, and the two nearby doors will slam shut. They'll reopen once you defeat the Slimes. Take the door on the left when you're ready.

This room has two Pairodds and a few Green Slimes. Force the closer Pairodd to teleport, block its attack, and then clear out the Green Slimes. Head to the NE corner of the room, under the brazier. Turn left and either shoot the two Pairodds with arrows or toss bombs at them. Grab the Small Key that drops from the sky and go through the door to the north.

In the next room, defeat the Red Slimes and the Stalfos. This will cause a chest to spawn on the upper walkway. Head through the northern door into the next room.

You'll find two Bombites in this room, along with a Shield Stalfos. Grab a pot and toss it at the first Bombite. Take cover within the circle of pots and let the Bombite bounce around. Do the same for the next Bombite. If the Stalfos is still standing after both explosions, take it out yourself. Make sure to grab the 10 Bombs before heading down the stairs on the right.

At the top of the stairs, go right one screen. Look into the pit to your north. The right wall of the pit has a crack. Toss a bomb into the pit so it blows up that cracked wall.

Head back left one screen, then down one screen. Open the chest that spawned earlier when you defeated the Stalfos and Slimes to get 50 Rupees. Keep going south along this path and push the wooden block out of your way. You can either destroy the slimes or ignore them as you go through the door to the north.

Mini-Boss: Dodongos – 3 Bombs Each
You’ll come across this mini-boss a couple more times, and they always come in pairs. The only way to harm them is by putting a bomb in front of them, so they eat it. After they eat a bomb, it will explode, damaging them. From there, they won’t open their mouths for a little bit. They will complete four moves before they open their mouths again. Once they do, feed them another bomb.
They generally move in straight lines, but not always. They can sometimes decide to turn unprovoked. They also tend to turn when they reach a wall. When they reach a corner, this means they usually have to go the other direction. On occasion, they will hit a wall and flip over rather than turning just to mess with you.
They seem to have even odds of turning each direction or flipping over, meaning that at best, you have 50/50 odds of getting them to turn the way you want even if they are in a corner. I recommend trying to stick a bomb in their path as they move through open space as they are less likely to turn unprovoked.
Since there are two Dodongos, I recommend alternating between them. Bomb one, and while that one is invulnerable, bomb the other. Alternating back and forth, it shouldn’t take you long to deal with them. Just be careful that you only drop bombs when you’re pretty sure they are going to come your way. If you run out of bombs, you’ll need to leave and return with more bombs to defeat them, causing this fight to start over.

Each of these Dodongos will drop a Fairy when defeated, so make sure to fill up your bottle and top off your hearts! Head through the door on the right when you're ready.

Wrap around the wooden blocks so you're approaching the chest from the right. Go as far down as you can, then push the wooden block to the left. From there, push the wooden block above you up. This will let you get to the chest and claim the Pegasus Boots! Nice!

The Compass

Now, go to the wall below the chest and hold down the L button to sprint to the right. This will pop those two balloons. Push the wooden block just past them to the right, then head down into the next screen.

Just below, you should see the hole you blasted in the wall earlier. Go through it to get back into the room with the large pit. Defeat the two Spear Stalfos. Stand on one side of the pit, then sprint towards it. Just before you reach the edge, hit jump to cross over!

On the other side of the pit, head up the stairs. On this upper walkway, sprint jump across the next pit and open the c

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