The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker/Tower of the Gods

With all three Goddess Pearls, you have the keys to a new location. Travel to the each of the Triangle islands and face each of the three statues. They will ask you to place the pearls in their hands. When all three are placed, the statues change shape into Din, Farore, and Nayru, exploding out of their rock shapes, and Link happens to get caught in the middle of an explosion (Poor Link gets too close to a statue and goes flying!)

With all three statues activated, beams of light shoot from each of the pearls and connect to form a large triangle, where the image of the Triforce suddenly appears and breaks the seal in the middle of the islands. Then, in golden flash of light, a collosal tower raises out from the sea (which Link crashes into). After recovering from the staute explosion, Link is greeted by The King of Red Lions. He explains that this is a tower used by the Gods to test the courage of potential heroes.

With the trials of the tower awaiting you, sail on in and see if you are meant to be a true hero.

The Tower of the Gods
Upon entering the great Tower of the Gods, the innerworkings are very majestic, and the first floor is flooded with water, which raises and lowers periodically. There are several places in this tower to visit, and each holds a different puzzle.

Statues, Switches, and Bridges
Right to the left are a few large, bombable walls as you come in to the tower. Blow them open to find a few items, and a path to enter later. From here, sail to the southeast corner of the floor. Wait for the water level to lower, and then go to the down to the door below and into the room.

Dungeon Map
Straight ahead in the next room is a Yellow ChuChu. It's electrified, so don't attempt striking it with your sword. Instead, smack it with the boomerang to discharge it and then kill it quickly. When the water raises, go to the southwest alcove to bomb it. Break the pots for some items. When the water lowers, pull the crate in the southeast corner of the gap west so it lines up with the cracked wall above. Once the water rises, bomb the wall to get some items and the Dungeon Map, which you'll need for the complex tower. After that, 4 Yellow ChuChus drop from the ceiling. If you wish, wait for the water to drain and use your boomerang to stun them and defeat all of them. If you want, you can bomb the other alcoves for more items. Go back to the first room.

Pressure Switch Door
With the Dungeon Map in hand, board the King of Red Lions again and sail to the northeast corner of the tower and hop onto the nearby ledge when the water raises level with it. There is a door here, but it's barred shut. However, a strange statue resides by the door, and an odd-looking pressure switch is nearby. Simply pick up the statue and place it on the switch to unlock the door.

A Magic Bridge
As you enter this room, a Yellow Chuchu will appear, but you can quickly kill it now that you know what to do. Below, there are several crates and a pressure switch. Drop a crate on the switch, and you'll cause a magical bridge to cross the gap above. However, it only stays activated when the crate stays on the switch, and the rising water pushes the crate off the switch. Wait for the water to rise, and then climb up the nearby ladder. Fly across the gap with the Deku Leaf, and you'll discover a statue on the altar ahead. Pick up the statue and carry it out of the room when the bridge reactivates. Doing this causes the door's symbol to glow.

More Statue Puzzles
When you return outside to the first room, don't drop down into the water. To your left is an altar just like the one in the last room where you got the statue. Plant the statue in the center of this altar, and you'll open a nearby watergate. Sail or swim through the newly-opened area until you come to a wall on the right. From here, wait for the water to raise you up to another ledge with a second barred door. This time there are two pressure switches and two statues. Place them accordingly, and move on.

Building a Crate Bridge
This room has a rather tricky puzzle to solve. In here, drop into the gap below to find several crates. Some are aligned in the middle of the gap. Push a few more in place to create a path to the platform on the other side. When the water rises, you can cross the crates to it, but there are two unlit torches you need to light. Go back to the lit torch nearby and smash the pots near it. You'll discover a few Boko Sticks. Pick up one, light it with the torch, and cross over to the unlit torches when the water rises. Lighting both torches causes a chest to appear, and you'll find a Small Key inside. Unfortunately, several Yellow Chuchus will drop into the room. Get rid of as many as you need to, and head out of the room.

Joy Pendant and the Compass
Outside, you'll find the King of Red Lions awaiting you. Hop in and sail to the northwest area of the room where you blew up the walls. Let the water raise and hop over the wall. Go from here to a staircase on the right. There are a couple of Yellow Chuchus, but nothing serious. If you want a Joy Pendant, smash open the pots up ahead to find a Boko Stick. Light it and then carry it down to the torches by the locked door below before the water raises. After lighting both, you can snag a Joy Pendant from the chest that appears. Once you have the Joy Pendant, go into the door at the top of the stairs.

In this room is, you will encounter a Red Bubble. Use your Deku Leaf on it to blow out its flames, and then kill it. Then, open the chest in the room for the Compass. Once you have the Compass, go back outside and open the locked door when the water drains.

Magic Staircase
When you head into this room, several Yellow Chuchus will try to bother you. You can stun them all at once with a well-placed bomb, and then kill them all. This will cause a magic staircase to appear. Use it to climb to the altar above and grab another statue like the one you got before. Wait for the room to drain, and take it outside like the one last time. Carry it over to the altar on the right of the floor above. This statue will trigger the water fountain in the water chamber to stop flowing, revealing a secret passageway. At high tide, swim over to the passageway. You'll find it nearby from where you entered the corridor. It leads to a new room that doesn't flood.

Pressure Switch Trifecta
In here, there are now three pressure switches to activated, but only two statues. Don't even think about messing with the statue-like creature in the middle of the room. That is a Beamos, and it will try to zap you with its eye laser. Instead, take the two statues that you do have and put them on two switches while avoiding the Beamos and a couple of Rats. Then, get on the last switch yourself. You'll trigger several platforms to start moving. Ride the platforms up (don't fall!), and you'll reach the main room of the temple.

The Second Floor
Upon reaching the second floor, the environment of the tower takes a drastic change. Instead of water-based puzzles, there are now more perilous puzzles to go through. The toughest of these puzzles involves the main room. Right now, only the door in the east corner of the room is open. Enter it and head forward.

Dangerous Heights
As you head into this room, you'll encounter yet more Yellow Chuchus. Get rid of the one that blocks the narrow path ahead, and hop onto the moving platform and let it take you to the other side of the large pit.

The Command Statue
When you head into the next room, simply take the magic path over the narrow path to the other side of the room. Here is an altar with a statue on top. Next to it is a tablet that explains the statue will do as you command. Press R to call it over to you. It will lower down to you and will follow you as you move. However, you must take it across the narrow pathway below this time, and carefully, or else you'll lose the statue and have to try again. When you reach the end of the path, pick the statue up and take hop over to the door.

On the way back through the narrow pit, kill the Yellow Chuchus before carrying the statue onto the platform with you and riding it to the other side.

The Command Melody
When you enter the main room, the statue will act of its own accord and hop onto one of the four places on the large altar. When the altar raises into place, a tablet appears, and written on it is a new song. Go up onto the altar and read the tablet. You will learn the Command Melody, which allows you to control objects, and sometimes other people.

As soon as you learn the Command Melody, the door in the west corner of the room opens and, the statue you just placed tells you to control and bring the other statues to their altars. After speaking, the statue goes dormant and the song tablet vanishes. With a new door open, head on through it.

The Abyss Statue
When you enter this room, you will have to cross a big pit. There will also be two Red Bubbles in your way. Take both of them out to make things easier. Then, use your grappling hook on the nearby pole above and swing across to the other side. When you enter the next room, do the same as before to cross. Now, you'll come across the second command statue. Call it down, but don't cross the gap. You need to bring the statue over to the other side, too. Instead, get on the pressure switch nearby to make a magic bridge appear. However, you have to stay on the switch to keep the bridge up, so how do you get the statue across? Try conducting the Command Melody. You'll gain control of the command statue and be able to guide it across the bridge. Be careful about guiding it over, and swing back over yourself once you've succeded.

When you head back to the last room, carry the statue over to the pressure switch to the left of the door. You'll make a new door open by doing so. Soon after you do this, the King of Red Lions will contact you and say you cannot bring the statue with you right now, but if you leave it behind, it will await your return. Now, you must go retrieve an item that can fix this, and you're about to face the enemy that guards it. Latch onto the pole above with the grappling hook again, turn yourself in the door's direction, and swing over to it. It will take a big swing to make it over. When you reach the door, go in to find the guardian of the item you need.

Miniboss: Darknut
When Link enters the room, he will come face-to-face with a fierce-looking enemy, clad in armor, wielding a huge broadsword, and very anxious to battle. This intimidating knight is a Darknut, miniboss of the Tower of the Gods.

This is the first time you must engage in battle with your first Darknut. It may seem like the knight is rather powerful, but this particular Darknut is low-ranked and has no shield. However, he has several lethal attacks he can perform with its sword. He also knows several different techniques, one being the Counterspin Attack,meaning, if you try to strike him with a spin attack, he can counter it. Even though this Darknut can be formidable, there are a few chinks in his armor. When you are in a standoff between the Darknut, you can execute a parry attack on him to sever his helmet, revealing the dog-like beast underneath. Now, you can stun him with your boomerang. His second weakness is the seam on the back of his armor. One sword slice will cut the seam and destroy the Darknut's armor. When you get him completely unarmored, you can stun him with a boomerang strike and then deliver several hits to him. He may fall and drop his sword, but he can still attack with punches and kicks. He can also smash the pillars in this room apart to reveal items if lured to them. However, before you take him down, use the grappling hook on the Darknut to snag his Knight's Crest, then defeat him. You can even use his sword against him if he drops it. When you finally defeat the Darknut, the item he was guarding appears. Open the chest, and you'll get the Hero's Bow.

New Item: Hero's Bow
With this special bow in your arsenal, you can now shoot arrows at enemies and hit unreachable switches. Keep in mind that the quiver you have can only hold 30 right arrows right now, but you can upgrade it later.

The Eye Switch
Right now, you need to go back and get the statue. When you return to the last room, the Red Bubbles will have returned. This time, use your newly-aquired Hero's Bow to kill them, and then focus your attention on the eye straight in front of you. Hit it with an arrow, and it will cause two platforms to come out and start moving between the abyss. Hook onto the pole above with the grappling hook, turn to face the ledge, and swing to back to the statue. You can also use a big swing to get back, but it's risky. From here, pick the statue up and hop onto the first platform. Cross onto the second when it gets close enough, and then return to the main room through the door. However, two Armos are nearby on your way back. You can strike their eyes with an arrow to disable them, then slash their backs to defeat them, but they get a little erratic after being defeated, and finally, explode.

Now that you've brought another statue to the main room, it will go to its altar like the other one did. This time, the door on the north end will open. When you enter this room, jump to your right on the scale and head into the door on the right.

Platforms of Danger
In here, a few Red Bubbles are present. Take them out with arrows, and hop onto one of the first platform as it comes to you. This puzzle involves several moving platforms. If you fall, you get sent back to the main room. Wait until it comes over to the second platform and jump. Nearby is an eye switch. Face it as the platform passes it and strike it with an arrow. Doing this causes the platform to move towards another one. If you want, ride this one over to the one with a pot on the left that isn't moving. You can restock on arrows by breaking the pot. If not, jump onto the platform behind the eye switch platform to grab a Small Key from the chest. Once you have the key, turn around. There is an eye switch up above that you can hit with an arrow to get its platform to start moving. Once you get it moving, hop onto the platform on your right and then hop onto the one that comes over as this one rises. From there take out the Red Bubble with an arrow to avoid disaster later. Once it's gone, wait for the eye switch platform to get in range with this one and jump. Look for a third eye switch just above the door you came in and shoot an arrow at it to make a chest appear. Jump on that ledge with the new chest to find a Joy Pendant inside. Either fall down into the pit below or work your way back from platform to platform and then go through the door you came in from.

Tipping the Scale
Now, you must take care of this room's puzzle. There is a scale in this room that you must balance to a locked door nearby with statues. Kill the Keese here first, and then drop 4 statues onto one scale to raise the other up to locked door. Unlock it, and go in. If you want another Treasure Chart, don't do the puzzle yet. Take out a bomb and hold onto it for about 5 seconds, just a second before it explodes and when the 5 seconds (or around there) is up, throw the bomb at the cracked wall to destroy it. Jump into the new room and then go through the door to the west.

Armos Treasure Chart
In here, stand on the blue insignia and then conduct the Wind Requiem to make a chest appear. Before you can get to the chest, two Armos Knights comes to life. They will hop three times and then they open their mouth to roar. Make sure you have bombs. When one of the Armoses stop to roar, go up to it and throw a bomb in its mouth. The Armos will spin around uncontrollably and explode. After you destroy both Armoses, open the chest to find the Treasure Chart. Now, go back and solve the scale puzzle, and then go through the locked door.

The Laser Statue
When you enter this room, you'll find the third statue, but a laser grid protects it. You must hop onto the platform as you come in, and ride over the lasers with the Deku Leaf. Call down the statue, and the conduct the Command Melody. Unlike, Link, the statue has nothing to fear woth the lasers. Guide it on through them and leave it on the pressure switch to get out. Pick up the statue on your way out, and then go on out.

A New Balancing Act
When you return to the scale room, the Keese will have returned, along with a Wizrobe. Take out the Keese first, then take out the Wizrobe with arrows. You may think that you can simply go back the same way you balanced the scale before, but with the command statue, you have to tinker around a bit with the scale. Put THREE statues on one scale this time. After you put three statues on one scale, go back to where you left the statue and then pick it up and carry it across the scale back into the main room.

The Statue Gateway
When you return the third and final command statute to its altar, all three will shoot triangle-shaped beams out of their chests, forming the shape of the Triforce and opening a portal where the Command Melody tablet was. Enter the portal to reach the third floor of the tower.

Big Key Puzzle
The south side of this room has three glowing pressure switches. Pick up the two statues and place them on two of the three floor switches. Like before, place yourself on the last switch. This will deactivate the laser beams. Open the chest behind to to find the Big Key! After you pick up the Big Key, though, the two statues will awake, because they happen to be Armos. The ones you faced earlier you didn't have to destroy, but these keep a door shut. Focus on them and then shoot an arrow at their eyes to stun them. Run around to the back of the Armos and hit the flashing red gem to destroy them. After you destroy the two Armos, the door to the north will open.

The Top of the Tower
You will be outside of the temple. Kill the Kargarocs along the way with your Hero's Bow. Before you go up the stairs, a Beamos will shoot a laser down at you, keeping you from going up any further. Focus on the Beamos and shoot an arrow at it to destroy it when its eye is firing. Keep going up the stairs while destroying the Beamoses except for the ones at the end that have eyes going in a circle. Run past in between the last two Beamoses to reach the Boss's door. If you have an empty bottle, one of the pots in front of the boss's door hides a fairy for you to catch with the bottle. When you are ready, confront your final task.

The Gods' Final Test
Upon reaching the last room of the tower, Link is greeted by a voice, commending him on finding his way to the top of the tower. However, his journey has one last test. With that being said, a hand rises out of the wall, then another. Finally, a head. Your final test is to defeat Gohdan, the guardian of the tower.

Gohdan is a rather tough creature, and has several tricks he can perform in battle. First, you must tackle his hands. Keep an eye on them as they hover around the room. You'll see that they can keep an eye on you as well, which happens to be their weak point. Now is the time to make use of the Hero's Bow. Target a hand and fire an arrow into the its eyeball quickly, as Gohdan will try to knock you back with his hands. If you're not quick on the draw, you'll be knocked into the electric pit surrounding the perimeter of the room, and you do NOT want to stay there if you value your life. Gohdan will also clap his hands and pound them into the ground to catch you off guard. If you can strike a hand's eyeball once, hit it again. Each hand flips over after it has been hit twice, signalling that it is no longer a threat. Then, target the other hand and shoot arrows into its eyeball. Once both hands have flipped over, the face begins putting up a tougher fight. It will open its mouth and quickly spit fire right at you. Be evasive and roll to dodge its attack, and fire arrows into each of its red eyes twice. Gohdan will fall to the floor, mouth wide open. Just like an Armos Knight, grab a bomb and toss it into the beast's mouth as soon as it opens. You must do this quickly, however, or his face and its accompanying hands recover. Keep up the attacks by constantly L-targeting the yellow eyes on Gohdan's hands, and the red eyes on Gohdan's face. This helps you be more accurate with the Hero's Bow, and also helps you sidesqipe his projectile attacks, that become more and more frequent as the battle rages on. If you run out of arrows, Gohdan will actually sneeze out some more. To succeed in the battle, you must detonate three Bombs in Gohdan's mouth.

With the final hit made to Gohdan, his head suddenly glows and the voice returns to mention that a path can be opened with Gohdan's defeat, and that the events that will happen now are tied to Link's fate. It warns Link to go forward with caution, and with its last words said, a portal suddenly shoots down into the room and opens the path ahead. Now, having admitted defeat, Gohdan returns to his slumber, and his last act is to reward you with a Heart Container.

Now that you've succeeded in passing the trials of the Tower of the Gods, the true trial is to begin. Grab the Heart Container and step into the portal to be transported to the very top of the tower.

The Bell Tower
Upon reaching the top of the tower, you shall find another one, a large bell tower situated in the middle. Climb the ladder in front of you up to the tower, pull out your Grappling Hook, latch onto the bell clapper, and start swinging. When you do this, you will start ringing the bell, signaling you have completed the Tower of the Gods, and opening a mysterious portal outside of the tower entrance. The King of Red Lions sees that the gods acknowledge Link for true heroism, and have opened the portal to the true test.

You are now allowed into a place only where the chosen are permitted to enter…Hyrule Castle.