The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Ganon's Castle

Ganon's Castle
(use light arrows to destroy barriers) The final dungeon of the game is imposing at first, but rather simple. A series of Temple-Themed challenges awaits you, along with a few new items. March straight through the ascending stairs and the two Beamos and enter the main hall. You'll see that there are six separate mini-dungeons that require disabling, to disable the large barrier in front of you. There is no specific order as to how to complete, however, you must obtain the Gold Gauntlets from the Shadow region before you can complete the Fire region.

If you are low on health, faeries, or magic, simply back flip to the bottom of the tower, and directly below the entrance is a hidden alcove. Use the Lens of Truth if you can't find it, it's on the ground floor. If you enter, several faeries and deku shrubs await. You can stock up here if need be. The recommended travel companions are three faeries, and a green or blue potion. You'll find that you'll want to be able to readily replenish magic later on.

From the entrance, to the right lay the first temple.

The Forest Barrier
Move a little bit forward and you'll hit a wolfos. Easy battle, stab it up the back. Afterwards, light the torches however you fancy, then continue.

This room, unfortunately, is a bit more complicated. Yes, it's another silver-rupee gathering fest. You'll notice several platforms, and a jump won't be enough to get you to first one. Hover boots? Fans. So how do you get around? Well, start by playing the Song of Time to make a block materialize under the rupee on your left. From there, you can hover with the wind and then drop onto the other platform. From there, try to kill the beamos in the middle, which will net you another rupee. Then jump (or float) down towards the fan to the left of the exit door to find a switch which, when pressed, will make a hookshot target appear on the platform you came from. Use that target to get another rupee, then gather the remaining rupees keeping in mind that the fans will kill you if you wear hover boots carelessly.

In this last room, fire a light arrow and finish the forest barrier. Head to the right once more to find the water (ice, really) barrier.

The Water Barrier
Start by killing off those annoying Freezards. Then fill a bottle with blue fire, melt the ice over the door, then refill your bottle with fire. You'll need it for this next part.

If you are having trouble with the ice maze simply get an empty bottle and fill it with blue fire to destroy the walls, then with the little block challenge. Push the closest to the hole in the hole, then push the other block up to the ice block. After that push it too the other ice block and then push it towards the wall. Then climb up on the block and use your blue fire. The just simply walk into the room and shoot the barrier with your light arrows. Then, return to the entrance, except go one further to the spirit barrier.

The Spirit Barrier
Alas! Another of these rupee-collecting things! Luckily, there are no pitfalls for you, just spike traps. Yay for spikes!

First things first, blow away that stupid beamos. Once that's done, latch onto the target above where he used to be and get his rupee. Then to get the others, slide the statues around until you can collect them easily. If you feel the need, play the Song of the Sun where the beamos was to pick up a big fairy.

Kill the torch slugs, then look up at the bars. You'll notice a hole at the top. Hopefully you played for or bought some bombchus, because you'll need to put one through that hole and hit the switch. Afterwards, look up in the room with the suns and fire a fire arrow up into the webbing to expose light. Shine some light on the sun tot the right of the doorway you just came through. Get the wrong one, and a wall master will come to collect you. Finish off this barrier and go back to Water, continuing one more to the Shadow Barrier.

The Shadow Barrier
This barrier gets irritating if you have to restart it. Rule #1: Do not fall. Ever. You will be as annoyed as if you hadn't pulled that first block in the Water Temple. Having said that, let's do this dungeon.

Shoot the brazier on the right (it might be hard to see, but it's there) with a fire arrow. Then run to cross to the main platform, and kill the like like, but be careful not to hit it so that you'll recoil. There's another brazier by the door, so shoot it as well. Then head downwards to the right to find another switch. If there's enough time after hitting the switch, head back to the platform on the ice platforms. Otherwise, longshot to the chest that appeared. You'll find the ever-important Golden Gauntlets. Then use the Lens of Truth that will reveal the path to the switch to the exit, and another path to the exit itself. Destroy the barrier, then exit the castle.

The Last Great Fairy
Cross the bridge, then turn left. You'll see a bunch of rocks and a pillar on top of the Great Fairy Fountain where you received Din's Fire in the past. With your new gauntlets, toss that pillar like a tennis ball over your shoulder and enter. In this fountain, do the usual thing and you'll receive borders around your hearts, meaning that you now take half damage from any attack. Yes, a very nice bonus for the last couple of bosses.

Once you're done out here, head back inside and head left, passing the pillar you see. Don't worry, we'll get it soon enough. Go past the pillar to the Fire Barrier.

The Fire Barrier
If you got the feeling that the Shadow Barrier was annoying and the Forest Barrier was a pain, you might as well quit now. This one requires the use of the Hover Boots nearly all the time, so be careful where you step.

Head to the left to the rotating wheel of fire. Take your time here, get the rupee, and get back. Grab the next rupee on the brown platform, but don't slack off because this one isn't as nice as the platform in the middle. Now, see the big pillar? We're gonna heave that aside to get the rupee under it. After you've done that, hookshot to the door and kill that slug, then hookshot to the platform behind you and to the right. What do you know? It's our old friend, the pillar. Jump (that's right, jump) onto the pillar and onto the platform, then hurry back and hookshot back to the exit. Kill off the Fire Barrier, and then we can move on to the ridiculously easy Time Barrier.

The Time Barrier
Easy to find. You passed it earlier.

In the first room, pull out your lens and bow and kill all of the enemies who think that being invisible gives them an evolutionary advantage. Hit the chest in the middle, but no others, as they're mostly traps. Continue to the next room, which is easy, given the number of Triforce symbols we've seen so far. In the next room, hookshot to the ceiling and survey your surroundings. Plan and time your path, as getting hit by boulders is not fun. There are some rupees in the middle and on the outside. Once you're done here, pat yourself on the back. No more silver rupees! Ever! The next room looks like a dead end, but you can prove you're better than the average Link and walk right into the wall. You know what do do from here. Continue into Ganon's Tower.

Ganon's Tower
This is the final gambit that Ganon throws at you to delay your arrival. Kill everything in your path, except those first Keese. When you reach the Iron Knuckles, unload all of your remaining bombchus on them, because they won't be very useful from here on out. As you get higher, you'll notice some creepy organ music. When you reach the room with nothing but a bunch of jars in it, go through the door on your right. You'll then be at the base of another staircase after which you've reached Ganondorf's Room and are near the end of the game.

Boss: Ganondorf
Navi is held back by Ganon's evilness so you cannot use Z-targeting during this battle. Make sure you have the hover boots on. Simply stand on any of the outer blocks in the corners and let Ganon shoot at you. If you remember the fight with Phantom Ganon, you'll know what to do. Use your sword and deflect Ganondorf's magic back at him. After a few volleys, he'll get hit by his own magic and will be stunned. At this point hit him with a light arrow, then jump (err... hover) onto the platform in the center and slash him to pieces. Don't use Nayru's Love to protect you though since you can't shoot the light arrows when being protected by the Love. Jump back to the squares and repeat. Sometimes (when he's low on health) he'll shoot a large blast of magic at you. You can't deflect this one, so just avoid it. It'll make pieces of the floor crumble away, making the battle trickier. You have a choice of either keeping the hover boots on or changing over to your regular boots in order to run faster to avoid the blast of magic. Either way, as you run from the bolts of magic, rolling at the last second helps you to avoid getting hit.

If you need health or magic drop down to the bottom area where the pots are.

Alternately, you may not have to equip the hover boots. If you have the Biggoron's sword, equip it, and have the hookshot ready as well. After stunning Ganon, and firing the light arrow, line up a direct path with him. You can jump/hookshot yourself into Ganon, either way as soon as you land, you can jump slash him. Since one jump slash with the Biggoron's sword is the equivalent of four Master Sword strikes, this initial blow will speed up the process. Stabbing gives you quicker attack rates, and less lag time after the swing. Once you see him recover, hookshot the windows and fly away. When Ganon begins charging up his large sphere that can't be reflected, fire a light arrow into his body. This will prevent the charge from ever happening.

Eventually you'll kill Ganon. Unfortunately with his dying breath he tries to bring the castle down around him, intending to bury you alive!

Escaping the Castle
Follow Zelda down through the different levels of the castle. Be sure to stand right in front of each grille in order to trigger her to open it. Most of the time you can second-guess her and run on ahead. However if you get hit by falling debris Zelda will gasp and remain where she is, so you'll need to go back for her.

At one point Zelda will be encircled with flames and two Stalfos appear. Destroy them quickly or a third will appear! The flames will then vanish and Zelda will moult hearts. Go up to her and get them if you need them, then continue on your way.

Eventually you'll come down the stairs and reach a doorway with bright white light outside. Go through and you're back outside. You'll now see the castle slowly crumble down into a pile of rubble.

Zelda now goes on about how everything will get back to normal when suddenly there comes a noise from the rubble. She sends you to investigate.

Walk over and Ganondorf will emerge from the rubble and somehow transform into his super-form, Ganon. Ganon knocks the Master Sword out of Link's hands, leaving him without his most effective boss-killing weapon.

Boss: Ganon
This time you've got your trusty Z-targeting back. Strike Ganon between the eyes with the light arrows leaving him stunned. This makes his vulnerable tail drop down within reach. Quickly target it and rush in behind him to slash it to pieces. If you don't have the Biggoron Sword the Megaton Hammer will also work. If you need a magic refill just head to one of the crumbled walls and let Ganon strike at it, revealing the bottles. Also, if you're running low on arrows or magic, you can simply hit him once with a light arrow, then go around behind him to strike the tail. Keep the Z-Target on the tail and stay near the tail. He will try to turn around and hit you but just keep following the tail and hitting it. After about 10 hits he will go down hard.

Once he's down rush over and get the Master Sword, and equip it, then go and hit him quickly before he gets up (the more blows the better). If you want an easy win, just roll between his legs to get to his tail, real fast. Either way, repeat the same basic process until he's down yet again.

This time however Zelda will hold him still with her powers and tell you to deliver the final blow. Simply walk up to him and slash, and it's all over.