Link's Awakening tips and tricks
DX Version

Even more Tips and Tricks

Index of Tips and Tricks  •  Complete Walkthrough

Here are some additional tricks and fun facts:

• Exploding arrows!
  While you carry bombs and arrows in your inventory, select these two weapons, then press simultaneously the two buttons to shoot an exploding arrow!
• Rabbit stew
  In some temples you may have seen rabbit-like enemies called Pols Voices. Play the Ballad of the Wind Fish to make them vanish!
• Rooster Attack
  As you have the Boomerang and the Flying Rooster is following you, you can throw the Boomerang, catch the Flying Rooster before the Boomerang comes back and then, you will fly with a whirling Boomerang around you which even hurts the enemies!
• Unlimited rupees!
  After you entered the Color Dungeon and found the hidden 140-rupee room (see the walkthrough), you will get another 140 rupees simply by leaving and getting back in the dungeon, as long as you wish!
• Save your money...
  This trick is not really respectable, but who cares! Just after buying the Bow to the Town Tool shopkeeper, save your game, turn off the console and turn it back on. The rupee withdrawal stopped at the moment you saved!
• ... and be called a thug!
  In the same shop, pick any item you want and try to go out without the shopkeeper seeing you. For instance, go around him for a short while then try your luck, retry otherwise. If you succeed, you will be called a thug in the whole village, and in case you want to go back to the crime scene, you will die!
• Change the music
  On the file screen, if you name your game "ZELDA" and press the Start button to come back, the music changes (only works with the black-and-white version).
• Goombas do have a kind heart!
  If you squash Goombas (for instance using the Roc's Feather), they will ALWAYS drop hearts!
• Jumping from the 5th to the 8th dungeon directly!
  Required items: Hookshot (5th dungeon's item), Frog's Song of Soul and a Secret Medicine.
  Onto the path leading to Turtle Rock, you will find a cave where a cannon shots fire. Normally, you should use the Mirror Shield to cross the flames, but there is another technique: to cross anyway. Because when you lose all your hearts, they will be replenished automatically by the Secret Medicine and you will be able to reach the other side. Afterwards you can easily go the 8th dungeon!
  This trick is very useful to get the Magic Rod earlier, which is far more practical than bombs and arrows to kill the Wizzrobes in the 6th dungeon!
• Have half of the enemies disappear!
  In the Key Cavern, kill one of the two Dodongo Snakes, then get out (by the bottom door) and come back. Both Dodongo Snakes vanished! This trick works also in the Face Shrine, but not in the Turtle Rock!
  It also works against the Water Tektites in the Catfish's Maw (at least in the black-and-white version).
• Another game ending
  When you talk with Marin on the beach, she reveals the wish she wants to make to the Windfish: becoming a seagull, flying far away and singing for people. If you end the game without being killed once, then her dream comes true: during the game ending you will see Marin with wings!
• Defeating the Giant Buzz Blob easily
  Get rid of your Magic Power, look for the Sleepy Toadstool in the Mysterious Woods, then go to the Color Dungeon. Waving the Sleepy Toadstool in front of the Giant Buzz Blob will be enough to get rid of it! (Yet, this trick implies to make at least one round-trip between the Color Dungeon and the Mysterious Woods...)
• Defeating the Wizzrobes, easy peasy
  In certain dungeons, there are wizards you can only hit with bombs or arrows. But if you use the Boomerang on them, they will be paralyzed and you'll be able to throw one at the others! The thrown one stays stunned while the hit one vanishes. Finally, when no more wizard remains but your "projectile", bomb it!
• Another way to defeat Hinox
  In the last dungeons, stand against a wall, facing him but far enough not to be hurt, then hit him four-five times with the Hookshot, or even just twice with the Magic Rod!
• Defeating Evil Eagle more easily
  The 7th dungeon's boss can be more easily overcome thanks to the Magic Rod, requiring 3 hits instead of 6. This allows you to avoid its feather throwing after being hit 3 times. To have the Magic Rod at this moment, exit the dungeon as soon as you get the Mirror Shield and seek the Magic Rod in Turtle Rock.
• Defeating Blaino, easy peasy
  In Turtle Rock, defeating Blaino is easier. Just stick to the wall right of the entrance and look right. (This way, you have time to store power in your blade without being hit by Blaino - see the picture). When Blaino is close enough, strike him with your sword.
• Defeating the Face Shrine region's guardian differently
  In Southern Face Shrine, if you don't have the Bow yet, you can beat the guardian which drops the Face Key by striking it 6 times with Spin Attacks (simple hits don't work).
• Rupees by the shovelful
  To earn rupees easily, go to the Trendy Game Shop and pay 10 rupees for a game. Then move the crane to the top left corner and wait for either rupee to be on the conveyor going to the top (try when it's in the middle of the conveyor) and - if you succeed - the crane will catch the rupee worth 30!
• Tree faeries
  Next to the Warp Hole closest to Mabe Village, the tree releases a Faerie if you dash into it with the Pegasus Boots! (Maybe you can find such other places elsewhere...)

The Last but Least Useful Tricks

• The Classical: Cucco's Suprême
  There are loads of cuccos in Mabe Village. Keep attacking one of them with your sword, until the cavalry comes!
• What is wrong with Marin?
  When Marin is following Link, you can take her to different places:
  - If you take her to the Trendy Game Shop (D12), she will ask to play (and you cannot refuse), and she will grab the shopkeeper instead of an item!
  - She crashes on you when you go in the underground tunnel under Mabe Village
  - When you play the Ballad of the Wind Fish and ask her what she thinks about it, she says: "You're hearing things..."
  - She's afraid when you enter a dungeon and waits outside. When you finally get out she worries about you!
  - If you hit a cucco with your Sword, she says: "Poor chicken. Stop that!"
  - And after this, if you keep hitting the cucco (from 20 to 30 times), she yells "Ha ha ha! Do it! Do it! Do it moooore! ... Hunh? No, it's nothing... I didn't mean it." The next hit, she resumes: Poor chicken. Stop that!"
• When you go out of the Bottle Grotto with BowWow, before going back to Madam MeowMeow, you can go and see Kiki the monkey. After telepathically insulting each other, they will engage a fight!
• Sprinkle a cucco with some Magic Powder, and... shazam! The cucco is burned medium rare and Link can enjoy his meal! (The Magic Rod works too.)
• If you visit Schule Donavitch (the alligator painter) in the Animal Village after you got the Magnifying Lens, you can press A near the picture to see it closely. But it's difficult to understand what it represents...
• In Mabe Village some foxes attack you when you hit them. You can easily defeat them using the same recipe as for the cuccos, sprinkling Magic Powder to burn them!

Differences between Black-and-White and DX versions

In the Japanese and European black-and-white version, the mermaid doesn't lose a Necklace, but a Pink Bra, and she flees when you dive near her, calling you a nasty boy. Then all the DX versions followed the less racy American one, replacing the Pink Bra with a Necklace.

If you use certain names...

You probably already know that on the file screen, if you type "ZELDA" as your name and press "start", the music changes. Indeed, there are other magic names:

You hear a remix of the main theme by typing:
* ZELDA (all black-and-white versions)
* LOLO (French DX version)
* ZELDA (other DX versions)

You hear a remix of Kazumi Totaka's theme by typing:
* MOYSE (German DX version) - For your information, Moyse is the German translator first name.
* Totakeke (Japanese versions)

And you can hear another theme by typing LOLO in the French b&w version, and even another one by typing MOYSE in the German b&w version!

Thanks to Michael Gonzalez, Florian, Nimajeis, Javaux, Violaine, Julien, Fil, Babeth, Linkorange, Morwen, Michaël Linkpa, Alexis, Siméon, Maitre incontesté de Ganondorf, Linkakro, Andrea, Simon, TiboQorl, Samuel, Ola, Robin, Lish, Samchi, Mat and SL for all these tricks!