Walkthrough:The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Crazyswordsman/Part 6

Hey all. It's me again. That guy Crazyswordsman. This walkthrough part is actually gonna be pretty interesting, because I read the Link to the Past manga in Nintendo Power some time ago. And of course the translation was dubious. It had Link taunting the Lanmolas that they were "playing with the Pendant of Power." I love bad translations. Because accurate translations wind up botched a lot. Ever play the DS version of Chrono Trigger? The Chef character is now called "Master of Kitchens." This is a poster child for accurate translations being bad. Anyway enough about Chrono, back to Zelda!

The Desert Palace
When we last left our hero, Link, we were standing outside a newly opened way to the Desert Palace. Well, why not walk through it? There's no quicksand inside, don't worry. The first room is a giant room and you'll find Leevers, REAL ones this time, unlike those nasty blobs Top Secrets says are Leevers. You'll find both green and purple Leevers here, but keep in mind that outside of color there's no difference whatsoever. They randomly pop out of the sand and go back in, so if you want to kill them you'll have to be quick. Keep heading north to the center of this room, and you'll encounter the biggest fit-inducer in this dungeon, and one of the biggest fit-inducers in the game. This is the Beamos, a green statue with a rotating eye. If they eye spots you, it'll fire a laser at you. The laser is fast and hurts a LOT. You can't kill the Beamos and touching it hurts as well for some reason. So you'll just have to walk around it taking care not to get in the path of its eye. Anyway, go to the left and pick up the pots in your way, then head north. There's an antlion-looking thing that's blocking your path and spewing fireballs at you. You'll just have to kill it and try to avoid the fireballs. I think the Boomerang works, but if not you'll have to get up close and stick your Sword in it. Anyway, when you're done killing it, go into the door you see north of you.

You'll be in a wide room. Here you'll find some Leevers and two green Rocklopses. You can use your Bow to kill the Rocklopses if you want, but you can be more efficient with your arrows by throwing pots at them. One of the pots has a switch under it Step on the switch to make a chest with the Map appear. Grab it and you now can see that there is a big center room in this dungeon with small rooms on the perimeter. You're in the north central room. Go back into the center room and head one screen to the west, and go north through the north door. Here you'll find a Beamos, which you should avoid (it helps to let the eye go first and then follow it as it rotates so it doesn't wind up chasing you) and a Telepathy Tile where you can contact Sahasrahla who will become captain obvious "you should never fail to find all the treasures in each dungeon." LOL. I think that should be common knowledge. Anyway, the important thing in this room is that torch with the Small Key sitting on top of it. According to the Video Game Chemistry Laws the only things that are flammable are the things that actually need to be. So you can defy all real world logic and dash into that torch to knock the key loose, and grab it.

Now leave this room and head all the way to the east. When you get to the northeast corner of the room do NOT go into the room to the north; this is a trap room where you'll have to beat a lot of Leevers and an antlion thing to get out. Just go south instead and kill any Leevers in your path. Try to avoid the antlion things though. Anyway, you want to head into the northernmost door that leads you east (the one with the lock on it; your Small Key will take care of that). In the next room, there's a Beamos, three of those nasty blob things, and a chest with the Compass. Grab the Compass and kill the nasty blob things while avoiding the Beamos to open the door to the north. Here, you'll have to dodge some cannons. They'll shoot anywhere from 2-4 cannonballs in rapid succession, so you'll just have to hope for the best. If you survive, you'll find the chest with the Big Key!

Now head all the way back to the northwest corner of the center room. Here, go through the door to the west. Be careful here. There is a Beamos surrounded by pots. One of the pots in the northwest corner holds the switch to open the doors in this room, so be careful when opening it; you do NOT want to get hit with that laser. Once you open the doors go north into the room with the Big Treasure Chest. Open it to get the Power Glove! Now you can FINALLY pick up and carry rocks.

Go back to the center room (you'll have to step on the switch in the Beamos room again) and head all the way to the southwest, fighting Leevers and the antlion thing. At the southwest corner, head west into the next room. There's another Beamos here. If you want to open the door to the north look at the four blocks lined up on the right hand side of the room, and push the block second from the left. Inside is a Faerie Fountain where you can replenish your health or catch a Faerie for later use. Now, in the room with the Beamos and the blocks, head south to....

...EXIT the Desert Palace? WTF? Well you're now on top of the cliff overlooking the desert. Do NOT jump down or else you'll have to get back up here the same way you came. Go south along the cliff until you see a Piece of Heart. Grab it, and if you've been following the Walkthrough you should now have SEVEN Heart Containers! Once you get it, go back to the north. In the cliff on the north, you'll see a door surrounded by rocks. Now that you have the Power Glove you can pick up the rocks. I strongly suggest you do so, because inside is the second half of the Desert Palace.

Now, this part of the Desert Palace is very linear. In the first room, you'll find (surprise, surprise) a Beamos waiting for you. Now don't get all pissed when you can't figure out a way to open the north door; I spend MONTHS trying to figure it out. Apparently it's as simple as pushing one of the blocks in the northeast corner of the room. Just do it (SWOOSH) and the door will open. In the next room you'll find a new trap: tiles will fly off the floor at you. You have no way of defending yourself other than holding your sword out in front of any tile that flies to you (hold the B button but be careful not to charge for a Spin Attack and you should be fine). There's no reward for letting all the tiles release, although for these tile puzzles the pattern is ALWAYS the same so you might want to try and rehearse for when you get these puzzles in the future. Anyway, one of the pots has a Small Key in it. Grab the Small Key and open the door. It's a stairwell up to the second floor.

In the first room on the second floor, just run south. There's nothing here. In the next room you'll find another three nasty blob things and a Beamos in the center. Defeat the nasty blob things and the doors will open. The next room is a VERY hard room; there are three Beamoses in the room: one at the southeast corner, one in the middle, and one in the northeast. There are also nasty blob things and four pots that block your way. One of the pots contains the key to the next room, so make sure you open that pot! It will be tough with two Beamoses firing their lasers at you constantly, and the Beamos won't fire and move on; they'll just keep firing at you nonstop. This is especially painful because if you get hit not only do you lose life, but you also can't move for a second or so.

Anyway once you get the key, head north into the next room. This room has another tile puzzle. Again, look inside one of the pots for a Small Key to open the door to the next room.

The only thing in here is a single Red Rocklops. Kill it with two arrows. But now what do we do? This is a dead end! We can't go any further! Actually you can. If you look at the room you'll see the tile decorations that surround the walls in the Desert Palace don't exist on the west side. It means there's a secret! The way you access the secret is by lighting the four torches in this room with your Lamp. This is a very common puzzle and later in the game you'll see lots of gimmicks with it, so make sure you learn it now! Once you light the torches, the wall will move and you'll see a door with a Big Lock on it. Your Big Key should open it. Inside, you'll find the boss lair!

The boss here is a set of three Lanmolas. The pull out map thing that comes with the game calls them "Sand Worms" but the Players Guide and Nintendo Power both call them Lanmolas. So Lanmolas they are. Now, the Lanmolas will hide in the sand and will come out to attack occasionally. You'll see where they're coming out by strange things that appear in the floor. You'll also want to be careful and stand in a cardinal direction relative to where the hole is because they toss rocks in the diagonal directions when they pop out. When they do so, hit their heads with your Sword, but you can also use Bombs or even Arrows if you're bold, but the Sword is the easiest way to do it.

Once you kill two of the Lanmolas, the third Lanmola will toss rocks in eight different directions when it pops out, so you'll want to make sure you're standing east by northeast or west by southwest or something like that to avoid the rocks. Once you kill it, you'll grab a Heart Container to increase your life again, and you'll win the Pendant of Power! You now have two Pendants of Virtue, and you just need one more! You'll warp to the exit.