Quick Links
The Hyrule Castle dungeon inEchoes of Wisdomcomes out of nowhere. Moments after you have wrapped up theZoraandGerudotemples, the land descends into chaos once again as yet another vast rift opens up right in the middle of Castle Town. you’re able to ignore it and take on a litany of side quests, but you’re best to progress the narrative right away instead.
Much of the dungeon resembles the prison you escaped from hours earlier, now covered in a dark purple rift and deadly monsters desperate to stop Zelda from reaching the throne and freeing her father. With an abundance of combat encounters and puzzles to conquer, here is how to make your way through the Hyrule Castle dungeon.
How To Reach The Hyrule Castle Dungeon
Hyrule Castle will become enveloped in a rift after you have paid a visit to Lueberry’s Hut as the Zora and Gerudo temples are squared away. Once this takes place,head over to Castle Town and jump down a well located on the right side of the town. The normal entrance sits in a spot of bother right now, so you need to find an alternate way around.
Hop down the well, andyou will notice a rift entrance where a solid wall used to be. Enter this with Tri’s help, and you’ll now be at the beginning of the dungeon.
Stilled Hyrule Castle Town
You will emerge inthe barracks, where a bunch of Hylian soldiers now sit suspended in the air.
Head outside and begin navigating your way through the rift, jumping past familiar shops and citizens until you arrive at a body of water with afast-travel markerto your right. Activate this before moving forward.Grab the treasure chest buried undergroundwith Tri as well.
All the buildings can be entered within the rift, but they don’t contain much aside from a handful of rupees and enemies to defeat. It isn’t really worth wasting your energy on them.
Continue heading northfrom the fast travel icon by using aWater Block echoto navigate up the vertical body of water until you arrive at the edge of a cliff face.
Keep doing this until you reach the top and arrive at the castle entrance. A red rupee can be picked up on the way, so keep an eye out for that.
Floor 1F
The dungeon proper begins in the foyer, which is now bereft of guards. Walk into the next room, take out theLevel 2 Darknut, and learn their echo if you haven’t done so already.
You can take a detour to visit Zelda’s room before going down to the basement, but it seems that most of it has been sucked up by a rift with only a few jars to break inside.
Once in the throne room, you will find your father suspended in the air asking for help. But he can’t be saved until the rift is vanquished, somove past him and use Zelda’s powers to move the throne and reveal a ladderleading down to the basement.
Floor B1
Climb down a series of ladders until you arrive at yet another fast-travel markerlocated in the basement, activate this, and then use Zelda’s powers to move a shifting wall to the right. Walk into the room that awaits behind it.
You will now find yourself in thelibrarywhere Zelda needed to escape from in the game’s opening moments, except this time there are significantly more guards and all of them are impostors brought forth by the rift.
The first two guards are easy enough to sneak past, simplywait until they are facing away from Zelda and sprint past them, using the movable crates for cover if needed. But if you’re fast enough, these shouldn’t be needed. Alternatively,you’re able to pick them up and throw them as a potential distraction, but this mechanic will come into play a little later on.
Do the same for the next two guards, who will offer a big enough window when facing away from Zelda for you to run right past.You will then find yourself blocked by a row of three new crates and four just above you, with a guard waiting on top that can spot you in seconds.
Make a clearing in the row of crates, wait until the guard turns his back, and thenquickly climb the ladder so you are now on top of the bookcases. More crates will shield you safely from the guard we mentioned earlier.
When he’s facing away,run out and along the bookcase until you have no choice but to jump down. Soon you will stumble across two guards walking around a rectangular bookcase in a predictable pattern.
Watch them for a bit before making moves. Follow one of them from behind,move one of the four trees, and rush into a safe area before being spotted. Now you have a short moment to compose yourself.
Thenuse a water block echo or similar means of traversal to jump atop the final bookcase, hop past a guard, and then head through into the next room. You will be greeted by a giant rift that has eaten into the prison cells, and afrozen Impawho has been caught up in the rift.
Stop and read Impa’s diary, which is located next to her lifeless body, to gain some insight into what happened at Hyrule Castle for it to fall into such disarray.
Zelda can’t do anything for Impa right now, so keep moving forward and head down the ladder into the next part of the dungeon, activating afast-travel markeron the way.
Floor B2
You will now find yourself deeper into the basement andup against a Darknut next to a duo of ladders. Summon an echo to take care of him and then climb down a ladder.
A couple more enemies will greet you on the way down, but they are trivial enough to defeat, so you’re able to unlock the nearby exit.After the door is open, head on through to the next room.
A few floating orbs will populate this area, and if startled, will spawn into enemies. But with no door to open, it’s easy enough to avoid them entirely if you don’t fancy a scrap.
You will note a number of treasure chests in this area too.One can be found by climbing a ladder over to the left, while two are waiting on the right. Unfortunately, all they contain are minor smoothie ingredients.
So keep on moving down the ladders until you come across a new puzzle.
Hereyou will need to light up a series of lamps to open a locked door, but they are trapped behind grates of metal, so Zelda can’t access them. Except she can by summoning echoes at a distance.
For the torch on the left,equip the Ignizol echoand hold ‘Y’ so it will summon through the bars and onto the platform where the torch awaits. Aim it right and it will light up.
Two more torches sit in the centre of the roomabove the door itself, one of which you’ll be able to reach using a ladder, while the other requires some echo-based platform. Light the two braziers, and then head to the right side of the room where the final torch awaits.
This one isn’t as straightforward. Summon an Ignizol on the other side of the metal fence and then lift it up using Zelda’s powers. Now climb the ladder just ahead of you, which will carry the Ignizol across the gap until it lands on the torch and lights it.
In the next room,you will be greeted by a number of winding pathwayssurrounded by a black void that is very easy to fall into.
New creatures that spout forth powerful gusts that push Zelda off the edge with ease are also present.Take these out with ranged echoes or your swordfighter form’s bowand move on through. you’re able to also learn a new echo here.
Eventually, you will arrive at a square arena occupied by three Ignizols, with an open door on the right that leads into a small collection of sand piles.
Before going straight ahead, pop into this room anduse a Wind Cannon echo to blow away the sand to reveal a treasure chest.
All the shadow guards in this dungeon can be distracted by spawning echoes or throwing objects in their vicinity, so don’t be afraid to use this tactic while sneaking by.
Pull the chest from the ground andopen it to receive adungeon map. Head back out and go right past the Ignizol arena. Here you will need to deal with some shadow slimes before you build a bridge of beds to reach the upper platform, leaving this room behind.
In the coming room, there will sit afast-travel point right next to a tightly locked boss door.
You will now have two doors to head through —one on the right, and one on the left.Both are home to puzzles required toobtain the big key, so start by going left where you’ll meet more monsters and a huge body of flowing water.
Now you will need tonavigate an underwater passage covered in darkness and filled with carnivorous plants.
Try to get through this area as quickly as possible, making sure totap nearby crystals for a brief light sourceandsuck up oxygen bubbleswhenever they appear.
The layout of this room is winding and confusing, butkeep following the natural path until you encounter two rift webs, which need to be taken out with Zelda’s swordfighter form. It reveals two new paths.
The left route will eventually lead you out of the room, and the other leads to some optional treasure that is worth picking up.Swim out of the water area and climb the ladder, where you will find yourself in yet another stealth section.
If caught by the guards, you will be transported to the shadow realm and forced to fight a bunch of monsters. This is a serious drain on your resources, so don’t get caught.
It’s a doozy, and you will be caught in seconds if you run straight in, which will force a full restart of the section. After stepping past the threshold, immediatelygo left and hide just behind the pillar closest to the wall.
Now, wait until the guards are looking away from you and slowly but surely edge across the room, thenuse a Water Block echo to climb up the higher platform and press the white button that awaits atop it. This will spawn a chest that contains asilver key.
Head back to the atrium and head through the door on the right. This will lead you to yet another place filled with sand, but avoid this and immediately head south. Climbing down here will reveal a door you’re able to use the previously acquired silver key on.
Inside awaits a Gustmaster echothat will blow Zelda back and prevent her from progressing. Dispose of them and keep moving forward.
You cantake a brief detour to the bottom of this room and hop aboard some spider webs to find a fairy trapped in a jar, but otherwise there isn’t too much treasure to be found.
Keep moving to the right and climb a ladder out of the room.You will emerge into a battle with two Darknuts and a new enemy that throws a deadly ball and chainaround the place.
The Darknuts can be taken out in a few hits, but this new enemy is no pushover. Summon some offensive echoes of your own, take on Zelda’s swordfighter form, and wait for an opening to strike.
Keep up this pattern and you’ll emerge victorious. You’ll be able toclaim a Ball-and-Chain Trooper echo for yourself.
Enter the newly unlocked door to your left to find three chests, one of which is massive and obviouslycontains thebig key.
The other two have a Golden Egg and the Frog Ring itemthat, when equipped, allows Zelda to jump higher. Now you have the key, so head back to the centre of the dungeon, enter the door, and get ready for a showdown withGanon.
