10 Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Tips For The First-Time Player

A happy Zelda weekend to you all! While a lot of us are going into this latest Zelda release confident and comfortable in our ancient (or, in my case, recent) knowledge of how to play Ocarina of Time, this game is 28 whole years old and there are many, many people who have never played it, don’t remember it, or weren’t even alive when it came out. And whew, this is a very different Zelda game than some of the more recent ones! So I put together some tips for you all. Hopefully at least a few of them help you have a smoother adventure in Hyrule this weekend. Enjoy the ride, folks, this one’s a hell of a classic: Actually go do the tutorial In Kokiri Forest, when you first get control of Link, you can immediately head out of your house and down the path to the left to reach the Know-It-Alls. The characters inside the house will give you some useful tips, while the fellow outside will show you some basic combat moves including rolling and dodging. He’ll then point you in the direction of a sword, after which point you can return and learn how to do the mighty jump attack (more on that momentarily). These are (almost) all of the combat moves you’ll need to know for the whole game, so it’s good to master them early. © Nintendo Easier jump attack The jump attack is powerful, doing double the damage of a regular swing. It’s also a little tricky to execute, requiring two button inputs instead of just one…seemingly. You can actually also do this move by tilting forward on the control stick (while targeting) and just pressing A. I recommend doing the attack this way, and I recommend using this attack a lot. © Nintendo Don’t do what everyone tells you Everyone in Hyrule wants you to follow the main story path. They are, in fact, very worried you’ll miss it. So you’ll constantly hear NPCs directing you: go to the Great Deku Tree! Go to Hyrule Castle! Well…maybe don’t. At least, not right away. Ocarina of Time has tons of secrets, items, and just generally stuff to do that isn’t on the main path, so don’t feel obligated to stick to it. Even in Kokiri Forest, there are extra items you can obtain early if you just wander around for a while. You also can (and should!) backtrack to areas you’ve previously visited at just about any time! © Nintendo Minigames carnival Once you reach Castle Town, you’ll start to run into minigames. Ocarina of Time has a lot of them, and many are located in shops off the square. In some Zelda games, you don’t really need to do the minigames on offer, and technically that’s true in this one. But I recommend you at least give them a whirl. Some of them have great rewards, like bigger storage bags for certain items, or empty bottles. Don’t be afraid to goof off a little on your adventure! © Nintendo Bottles, bottles Which, speaking of empty bottles. these are by far your most precious resource. Get as many as you can as soon as you can. If someone’s got a bottle for you, drop everything and do what they say. Empty bottles are used to hold all sorts of things: items you need for quests and to unlock secret paths, potions to refill your health, and fairies that can revive you automatically if you die. There are a total of five empty bottles in the game: try to get them all! You have more than just a sword It can be tempting to just hack and slash your way to victory in Ocarina of Time, but some enemies aren’t so easily taken down. If you’re struggling, it’s good to test out some of your other items on enemies and see which, if any, have an effect. You might be surprised what a well-placed hookshot or boomerang can do, or what you can accomplish with some Deku Nuts. A lot of enemies can be stunned, knocked away, or even killed from a distance, no close combat required. © Nintendo Talk to everyone (including Navi) I mean, really, you should just do this anyway. The writing in Ocarina of Time is often silly and worth reading on its own, but characters you speak to will also frequently give you hints about what to do next, or even about secrets you may not have found otherwise. Characters will also adjust their dialogue over time depending on what is going on in the game, so circle back with folks even if you think you’ve heard all they have to say. And yes, Navi can help, too. She can be a bit grating, but her tips on fighting monsters are a huge help. Look around Again, this one seems pretty basic, but sometimes you’ll be stuck in a dungeon and have no idea how to solve a puzzle to proceed. I cannot emphasize enough how often the answer is just to look, really look around you. Look for weird symbols on the walls, or bits of floor that look funny. Look for fire, or places to light things on fire. Look for switches, or platforms directly below you that you didn’t see before. Look at how things connect to one another. Look underwater. Most of the time if you’re stuck, it’s because you’re not seeing some key element you need to move forward…and often, those things are hidden for a reason. © Nintendo Look for glowy symbols New to the remake of Ocarina of Time are fairy symbols, odd glowing runes you’ll find inscribed on walls or pillars or other out-of-the-way surfaces as you explore. You can use Navi to examine them. They’ll often give you hints about secrets, or other little bonuses, for interacting with them properly. Again, looking around pays off! © Nintendo Gold Skulltulas Finally, gold skulltulas. You won’t necessarily know these are important when you first start the game, but they absolutely are. There are 100 of these in the game total, and you get rewards for reaching certain milestones of collecting them. Many of these rewards are very, very good. You’ll want to listen for a scritchy-scratching noise as you explore, that indicates there’s one nearby. You can also find them by rolling into trees that seem to be shedding their leaves. In towns, you’ll only ever find them at night (in dungeons, they’re around all the time). Grab as many as you can! Do not attack the Cuccos The Cuccos are the chickens. Don’t attack them. You can pick them up, carry them around, and throw them. But don’t HIT them.