This FAQ is best viewed on a 640x480 screen. -------------------------------------------------- ZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAA Z ZZEE ELL LLLLLLLDD DDAAAAA AAAA ZZZZZZ ZZZEE EEEEEEELL LLLLLLLDD DDD DAAAA AA AAA ZZZZZ ZZZZEE EEEEEEELL LLLLLLLDD DDDD DAAA A A AA ZZZZ ZZZZZEE ELL LLLLLLLDD DDDD DAAA AAAA AA ZZZ ZZZZZZEE EEEEEEELL LLLLLLLDD DDDD DAAA AA ZZ ZZZZZZZEE EEEEEEELL LLLLLLLDD DDD DDAAA AAAA AA Z ZZEE ELL LDD DDAAAA AAAA AA ZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAA 2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222 2222222222222222222222222 2222222222222222222222222 22222222222222222222222 22 22222222222222222222222 222222222222222222222222222 222222222222222222222222 22222222222222222222222222 2222222222222222222222222 2222222222222222222222222 22222222222222222222222222 222222222222222222222222 222222222222222222222222222 22222222222222222222222 22222222222222222222222 2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222 -------------------The Adventure of-------------------- LLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKK LL LLLLLLLLII INN NNNNNN NNKK KKKKKK KK LL LLLLLLLLIIIIIII IIIIIINN NNNNN NNKK KKKK KKK LL LLLLLLLLIIIIIII IIIIIINN N NNNN NNKK KKK KKKKK LL LLLLLLLLIIIIIII IIIIIINN NN NNN NNKK KKKKKK LL LLLLLLLLIIIIIII IIIIIINN NNN NN NNKK KKKKKK LL LLLLLLLLIIIIIII IIIIIINN NNNN N NNKK KKK KKKKK LL LLLLLLLLIIIIIII IIIIIINN NNNNN NNKK KKKK KKK LL LII INN NNNNNN NNKK KKKKKK KK LLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKK ------------------GAME CHALLENGES FAQ------------------ ----------------------VERSION 5.01--------------------- FAQ Written By: ` |_|_ ` /0 \ ` `~-_ o\ Aspie ` \ o\ Giraffe ` \o \____ ` | o o o \_/ ` |o_o_o_o| ` | | | \ ` \ \ \ \ Zelda 2 and it's instructions manual are property of Nintendo, (c) 1988, all rights reserved. This FAQ is property of Aspie Giraffe, Copyright 2/11/02, all rights reserved. Any relation to guide books or other websites dedicated to Zelda 2 are purely coincential, for this FAQ was put together by experience of playing the game without any form of manual or other FAQs. Feel free to distribute this FAQ or link this FAQ to your website. Just be sure to give the proper credit where it's due. I have removed my e-mail info, because I don't have time to answer questions about video games anymore. You may best consult another FAQ if you have questions regarding Zelda 2. Last Updated: 3/2/08 UPDATES (Version 5.01) No significant changes to this FAQ, other than changing my contributor info. The rest of the FAQ remains as-is. UPDATES (Version 5.0) My Zelda 2 Challenges FAQ gets more hits than any other FAQ I've written. I've grown tired of kids flooding my inbox with stupid comments, such as 'why can't I do this?' or 'this challenge is IMPOSSIBLE!' etc. To put it simply, I'm grown up, out of college, and making a living. I have better things to do. In fact, I haven't written a FAQ in 3 years. No disrespect to the hard core NES gamers out there or to newbies alike. I just don't have the patience or time to sort out e-mails anymore. So for that reason, ***I have removed my e-mail info.*** You can still find my e-mail by selecting my name on the GameFAQs site, but I can assure you I have filters in place. I literally don't have ANY time dedicated to video gaming anymore. At the most, I will be finishing a couple incomplete FAQs before the year is over, and then I'm pretty much done with FAQ writing for a long while. To make a long story short, if you truly have a problem with the more basic functions of Zelda 2, I recommend consulting another FAQ. The biggest update was to clean up the mess on the challenges section. It should be much more presentable now. Most older update additions that were related to changes that I've deleted have been removed, with exception of references to other users or FAQs. UPDATES (Version 4.0) Finally, there is an alternative Death Mountain path for the Time Trial FAQ, as well as the theory that Zelda 2 can be beat in under 90 minutes (not just 120). UPDATES (Version 3.0) Another large overhaul on this FAQ. This time, I have added more depth to the Attack Level challenge, by listing total hits to kill each monster by Attack Level. I have also figured out how to earn more exp in Death Mountain by taking a more dangerous route. In the long run, it resulted in faster level-up. More spelling corrections and errors corrected. UPDATES (Version 2.0) WALKTHOUGH ADDITION -- As promised, a Walkthough has been added to the Game Challenges FAQ. However, rather than the flawless low-stats strategy (which it more difficult than my skills can handle), I have decided to do a Time Trial FAQ. I have read on message boards that some are having a difficult time trying to beat Zelda 2 in under 2 hours. I have made a walkthrough that does just that. SPELLING CORRECTIONS -- This has to be my sloppiest FAQ to date. Now that I am older and wiser, I have gone back to correct the spelling and punctuation errors. I have also removed some of the clutter that really made this FAQ really lousy. Thus concludes the update section. UPDATES COMING IN THE DISTANT FUTURE, IF AT ALL (And I do mean that) I hope to overhaul the Time Trial FAQ. But when will my busy life allow it? I'd rather add a link to a better Time Trial FAQ, but one hasn't been written yet. ------------------------------------------------------- THE CHALLENGES SECTION...WHAT'S THE POINT? I can't emphasize just how deeply I enjoy playing Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. I've played it over and over repeatedly since the late 80's. Disappointed that there was no second quest, I opted to create my own replay value. To do this, I tried beating it in other ways: Low-Level Life. Low-Level Magic. Low-Level Attack. Skipping items. Time trials. A combination of all of the above. Doing these things, I realized just how much replay value I discovered on my own. 18 years later, the black sheep of the Zelda series has emerged as my #1 favorite NES game. Hey, I am an Aspie; it's better to be different than predictable. This FAQ was designed to give a general basis on the different challenges that you can present yourself if you feel beating Zelda 2 has become too easy. Trust me, it's never easy the first dozen times playing the normal way. So as you may of guessed, this is NOT for the novice Zelda 2 gamer. The assumption is that you have digested every move, every strategy, every aspect, and every secret of Zelda 2. It took me 16 years to master the challenges I'm listing, and even two years after that, I still have problems with Time Trials. Though I do have a few general strategies for each, I would suggest consulting other FAQs and start practicing. ------ Now before I start, there are now several formats of Zelda 2 available. But if you want the easiest time with the Challenges, I recommend an NES copy. The NES has a user-friendly controller, and you also get the benefit of a large picture tube image and no lag time. You can also do Game Boy Advance, but I have real difficulties timing my jumps on such a small screen. (what can I say? I'm used to the old-school.) Likewise, I DON'T recommend emulators of ANY kind. I've noticed an apparent lag time on some emulators, and Link also does some weird things if you press both Left and Right at the same time. Awkward controls will only hinder your performance, and the NES is the least awkward of them all. ------ CHALLENGES (Listed from Least to Most Difficult, based on my own experience.) --------------CHALLENGE I: LEVEL 1 LIFE----------------- -----------Not For the Weak At Heart (GROAN)------------ The lower Link's life level, the more damage he will take. A novice gamer will opt to raise Life first (as it is the easiest to build) and abuse the SHIELD & LIFE spells at every possible opportunity. Actually, doing this will help the novice gamer in the long run. When first starting out, you'll have difficulties figuring out Link's mechanics and how he performs his actions (this alone is a challenge in itself.) In addition, every monster has their own strengths and weaknesses. So building life and SHIELDing is an excellent way to practice against each type of monster. STRATEGY: It's very difficult to avoid damage in Zelda 2, but here's a general strategy to scrape by in the Level 1 Life challenge: ****1.) Take as few hits as possible. As mentioned, every ` monster has a pattern and strategy to defeat them. ` Many existing FAQs already have strategies for ` monsters and bosses. ****2.) Abuse the SHIELD spell. It will half all damage ` delivered to you. Not sure about your skills or ` the monsters that lie ahead? Throw up SHIELD and ` give yourself some breathing room. ****3.) Level-Up ATTACK. The fewer hits you deal to ` monsters, the less time you deal with them, and ` the less time they have to deal damage to you. ----- LINK'S WORDS: This section is done in the first person by Link himself. He has prevented the resurrection of Ganon many times, and in his own words, he will describe the challenges he faced with his various handicaps. Also, he's done it all. He knows all the secrets, all the items, etc. If he seems to be skipping the locations of many items that you already know about, it's assumed he's already picked them up on the way. ----- I will spend extra time building my ATTACK skill. The Skulls in the 1st Palace gives an early head-start on that. When my ATTACK is at Level 4 and my 'Next' is 2,000, I'm ready to fight Horsehead. This way, after the 1st Palace, my stats are 5 - 1 - 1. Between Palace 1 and Death Mountain, I will level MAGIC to 3 with the various encounters and Point Bags along the way. My stats are now 5 - 3 - 1. This for me is sufficient enough to last me until the 2nd Palace, which by then, I've already leveled, or am about to level, my ATTACK to 6. After my ATTACK is at 6, I get my 'Next' to that massive number for Level 7 ATTACK, and finish the 2nd Palace. My stats are now 7 - 3 - 1. See my strategy? I build my ATTACK power early, so that I can make short work out of every monster that crosses my path. In the 3rd Palace, EXP becomes less important, because I only need to skip my MAGIC level-up. So now, I can avoid fighting monsters that are not in my way. When I finish the 3rd Palace, I get the option of maxing ATTACK, or distributing all, or part, of your 8,000 exp to my lagging MAGIC level. That said, I level MAGIC 2 TIMES, which will leave me at 7 - 5 - 1 with 6,100 EXP left heading into the eastern continent. When I'm ready for the 4th Palace, I will only go there to get the BOOTS, level ATTACK to 8, then go straight to the 5th Palace. There's a ton of EXP to be found in the 5th Palace, and it won't take too long to max my Magic. By the time, or after I defeat Gooma, my stats are maxed for this challenge at 8 - 8 - 1. From there, I go back and finish the 4th Palace and blow through the rest of the game, all the while abusing my SHIELD spell and not fighing monsters I don't have to. Those who do will have the unfortunate experience of tasting my overly-powered sword. At this point of my heroic career of defeating bad buys, taking hits doesn't happen except by accident. And half the battle in all my adventures is not getting hit. ----- So how low can you go? Can you do it with Level 1 Life? Can you do it without SHIELD or LIFE? How about with fewer life containers? If you don't take hits at all, then the sky's the limit. To conclude, here is the old damage chart from my previous update. This tells you how much damage Link will take when touched by monsters or projectiles at a Level 1 Life (It is listed in BARS, not in POINTS.) Each bar of Life is equal to 16 points.) Area Legend W = Western Overworld E = Eastern Overworld C = Caves P = Palaces G = Great Palace | | Damage|Effect | | | if | From | Monster |Area|Touched|Touch | --------------------------------------- Ache | C | 1/2 | None | Ache |Town| 1 1/2 | None | Acheman |W/C | 1 1/2 | None | Bago-Bago | W | 1 |-10 exp| | E | 1 1/2 | None | Bot (Red) | W | 1/2 | None | Bot (Blue) | W | 1/2 | None | | P | 1 | None | | G | 3 | None | Daira (Orange) | C | 1 1/2 | None | Daira (Red) | C | 1 1/2 | None | Deeler (Red/Blue)|W/E | 1/2 | None | Dreadhawk (Red) | G | 4 1/2 | None | Fire Dragon | E | 3 | None | Geldarm | W | 1 | None | Ghost Wizard | P | 3 | None | Giant Bot | G | 3 | None | Giant Skull | G | 3 |-Magic | Goriya (Orange) | W | 1 | None | Goriya (Red) | C | 1 | None | Goriya (Blue) | C | 1 | None | Hammer Bro | P | 1 1/2 | None | Hawk Knight (Red)| G | 7 | None | HawkKnight (Blue)| G | 7 | None | Iron Knuckle (Or)| P | 1 1/2 | None | Iron Knuckle (Rd)| P | 3 | None | Iron Knuckle (Bl)| P | 3 | None | Killer Bee | E | 1 | None | Leever | E | 4 1/2 | None | Lizard Man (Or) | E | 3 | None | Lizard Man (Red) | E | 4 1/2 | None | Lizard Man (Blue)| E | 4 1/2 | None | Lowder | C | 1/2 | None | MegMat | W | 1 | None | Mini Horsehead | P | 1/2 |-10 exp| Moa (Red) | W | 1 1/2 |-20 exp| Moa (Shelled) | E | 4 1/2 | None | Moa (Town) | E | 3 | None | Moa (Blue) | E | 3 |-20 exp| Moa (Palace) | P | 3 |-10 exp| Moblin (Or Chrge)| W | 1/2 |-10 exp| Moblin (Or Throw)| W | 1/2 | None | Moblin (Red) | W | 1 | None | Moblin (Blue) | W | 1 | None | Moby | W | 1/2 |-10 exp| Myu |C/P | 1 | None | Myu (GreatPalace)| G | 3 | None | Octorok (Red) | W | 1 | None | Octorok (Blue) | E | 1 | None | Rope (Blue) | P | 1 | None | Rope (Red) | G | 4 1/2 | None | Scorpion | E | 4 1/2 | None | Skull | P | 1/2 |-Magic | Stalfos (RedSkel)| P | 1 | None | Stalfos (BlSkel) | P | 1 | None | Stalfos (RedKni) | P | 3 | None | Stalfos (BlKni) | P | 1 1/2 | None | Statue Head 1 | P | 1/2 |-10 exp| Statue Head 1(Or)| G | 3 |-10 exp| Statue Head 2 | P | 1/2 |-10 exp| Stone Warrior | P | 3 | None | Tektite | E | 1 1/2 | None | Wizzrobe | P | 3 | None | Here's the boss chart: | | Damage| | | if | Boss Monster |Palace|Touched| ------------------------------------ Horse Head | 1 | 1 1/2 | Helmet Head | 2 | 1 1/2 | Mounted Ironknuckle | 3, 6 | 3 | Carock | 4 | 3 | Gooma | 5 | 7 | Barba | 6 | 7 | Thunderbird | 7 | 0* | Evil Link | 7 | 4 1/2 | *Thunderbird only damages w/ fire. His body doesn't seem to damage Link upon physical contact. Now, here's the projectile damage chart. Projectile |Monster/Boss |Damage |Shield?| ---------------------------------------------------- Axe |Red Daria | 3 | No | Ball 'N Chain |GOOMA | 7 | NO* | Blue Projectile |Tektite | 3 | Yes | |Statue Head 1, 2 | 1/2 | Yes | |HELMET HEAD | 3 | Yes | Boomerang |Goriya All Types | 1 1/2 | Yes | Boulder Rock |Octorok | 1 | Yes | |Killer Bee | 1 | Yes | |Bago-Bago | 1 | Yes | Fire |Scorpion | 3 | No | |Palace Moa | 3 | No | |Wizzrobe | 3 | No | |Gr. Palace Rope | 1 | No | |Dreakhawk | 4 1/2 | No | |BARBA | 7 | No | |THUNDERBIRD | 7 | No | Hammer |Hammer Bro | 1 1/2 | No | Mace |Blue Lizardman | 4 1/2 | No | |Stone Warrior | 3 | No | Magic |Ghost Wizard | 3 | Yes# | |CAROCK | 3 | Yes# | Sword Projectile |Blue Ironknuckle | 3 | Yes | |MOUNTED IRONKNUCK| 3 | Yes | |Red HawkKnight | 3 | Yes | |Blue HawkKnight | 3 | Yes | *The Ball 'N Chain is the only weapon that can't be deflected with the shield, even with a Reflect spell. All other 'No' projectiles can be deflected with a Reflect spell. #Magic can be reflected back to the attacker with a Reflect spell. --------------CHALLENGE II : LEVEL 1 MAGIC------------- ------------*Fizzle* (A Wizardry reference)------------ Magic plays an important role in many parts of Zelda 2. There are certain areas where spellcasting becomes essential to continuing on your quest. So an inept spellcasting Link will end up taking extra time to complete. In addition, the spells you relied on so heavily to complete the Level 1 LIFE Challenge become less used in order to conserve Magic. In fact, before you even consider this challenge, I would suggest playing the Level 1 LIFE challenge until you can beat it without Magic, except for those few cases where you have no choice. Though spells give you a set number of Magic Points required for casting, I've opted to list the MP use in BARS. Like with LIFE, each bar is the equivilent to 16 points. Magic |Description | MP Use ------------------------------------------------- Shield |half-damage to Link | 2 Jump |double jumping height | 3 Life |+3 Bars of Life to Link |Close to 5 Fairy |Link turns into fairy | 5 Fire |Link's Sword shoots fire | 7 1/2 Reflect |Shield deflects projectile| 7 1/2 Spell |Monsters become Bots | 7 1/2 Thunder |Kill all monsters | 7 1/2 In one case, you may choose to skip an unnecessary spell altogether. For example, FIRE is useless, because you don't have 7 and 1/2 bars of Magic until near the end. If you find monsters that only die by fire, then your best choice is to run! Speaking of needed spells, I've chronologically ordered, by area, when spells become a necessity. 1.) Cave south of Ruto. You need the JUMP spell. You can replenish your Magic in Saria. 2.) FAIRY spell to get to the 3rd Palace. The entrance statue provides a red container. If it's an Ironknuckle, kill it for the EXP, exit, enter, and retry until you fill your magic. 3.) REFLECT for Carrock...wait, you'll only have 7 Bars of Magic, and you need 7 and 1/2. Get the Boots, skip the Boss, and come back when you have all 8 Bars of Magic. I usually save him for my 6th boss. 4.) Two rooms into the 5th Palace, you'll have to FAIRY to scale the wall. But you'll have ample opportunities to refill your Magic here. 5.) SPELL for the Magic Key. This is the only use for the SPELL spell, and shouldn't be used again. Use the old man to refill thereafter. 6.) Two FAIRY spells in the 6th Palace. This may require sacrificing a life to do. 7.) THUNDER for Thunderhawk. A hidden magic container to the left of the boss room provides the necessary refill. Strategies: Because you need all your magic, SKULLS JUST BECAME YOUR WORST ENEMY! They need but drain a little more than half a bar and you can no longer cast half your arsonal of magic. So if you intend to use them for EXP hoarding, just be a little more careful than usual. If you absolutely need extra Magic in a pinch, you can either fight monsters until they drop Magic Containers, or you can sacrifice a life, if assuming you have one to sacrifice. Killing Link replenishes his Magic bar. ----- LINK'S WORDS: ATTACK is still not off-limits, so I will spend extra time building my ATTACK skill. The Skulls in the 1st Palace gives an early head-start on that. Even though they're my worst enemy, I've grown used to not using SHIELD so early in the game. When my ATTACK is at Level 4 and my 'Next' is 2,000, I'm ready to fight Horsehead. When my EXP bar gets to 2,000 after placing the crystal, I Level LIFE 3 TIMES. This will leave me with 800 EXP, and I will make it to Death Mountain with stats of 4 - 1 - 4. By the time I'm half-way down Death Mountain, I'm close to my 2,000 Exp mark again, which then ATTACK gets leveled. Even if I get battered around a bit, there's still three red Magic Containers lying around (two in Death Mountain, one in the Hammer Cave.) So if I need a LIFE spell, I wait until I get to one of the Magic containers... but seriously, I should've used SHIELD when I had the chance. By the time I get the Hammer, the FAIRY spell, and my downstab, and everything else in-between, I should be reaching pretty close to Level 6 ATTACK by the time I get to the 2nd Palace. After my ATTACK is at 6, I get my 'Next' to that massive number for Level 7 ATTACK, and I can skip unnecessary monsters and finish the 2nd Palace. My stats are now 7 - 1 - 4 See my strategy? I build my ATTACK power early, so that I can make short work out of every monster that crosses my path. In the 3rd Palace, EXP becomes less important, because I only need to skip my LIFE level-up. So now, I can continue to avoid fighting monsters that are not in my way. When I finish the 3rd Palace, I get the option of maxing ATTACK, or distributing all, or part, of my 8,000 exp to my mediocre LIFE level. It might be needed if I'm having SHIELD withdrawal symptoms. But in most cases, I drop ALL the EXP to my LIFE level. This will give me the stats of 7 - 1 - 7 with 3,200 EXP remaining. I can max out my LIFE by getting two of the point bags on the Eastern Continent (the one south of the docking area, and the one in the cave.) One forest encounter later, LIFE is maxed out. When I'm ready for the 4th Palace, I will only go there to get the BOOTS, then go straight to the 5th Palace. Carrock is too powerful for me, as I don't have enough Magic to defeat him. (REFLECT cost 7 and 1/2 bars to cast at Level 1 MAGIC.) The 5th Palace has LOADS of EXP. I should be able to max out my Attack, even before I reach Gooma. With my stats maxed at 8 - 1 - 8, I do all the stuff I need to do after the 5th Palace (Magic Key, final Magic Container, 6th Palace, etc.) and then I will have to backtrack to the 4th Palace with a full 8 Bars of Magic (which can be a pain sometimes) to fight Carrock. Thanks to the Magic Key, it's a quick and painless route to the Boss. From there, it's on the way to the Final Palace with little Magic to save me. I know of the red magic containers on the way to, and inside, the Final Palace (including the one near Thunderhawk,) so between my sword of kill-everything and my beefy life bar, I get there with no problem. Thunderhawk, on the other hand... I found him very difficult without any Magic other than THUNDER for my aid. My JUMP is small, my SHIELD is missing, and without my REFLECT, I've noticed that fireballs that touch my shield also damage me. (with REFLECT, some fireballs that touch my shield go through me and don't do damage. A curious phenomenom...) But with nifty maneuvering and a quick sword, I still managed to beat him. As always, my evil shadow didn't put up much of a fight. Perhaps he should invest in some armor shin pads. ----- -------------CHALLENGE III: LEVEL 1 ATTACK------------- --------------I Shalt Smite Thee Later???-------------- Ever wondered if quantity was better than quality? I can tell you it's not. Even when the veteran Zelda 2 gamer goes out-of-practice for six or more months, this challenge becomes difficult. Your sword is weak throughout the game. Monsters take forever to kill. More time to make a mistake. More time for the monsters to deal damage. A Time Trial's worst nightmare. Why won't they just DIE!??? I remember wearing out many B-Buttons doing this. The fear of wearing out buttons is also the reason why I opted to save my Level 1 Attack challenges for my NES copy. NES controllers are cheaper to replace than Wii controllers or Game Boy Advances. But I degress. ----- LINK'S WORDS: Though I'm hindered with a weak attack, I still valiantly fight everything from the start, to the end of the 1st Palace. I concentrate on leveling my LIFE, as it's the easiest to build. When my 'Next' reaches 800, I'm ready for Horsehead. After placing the crystal, instead of Leveling LIFE, I then choose to bring MAGIC up by 1 level, leaving me with 700 EXP. At the end of the 1st Palace, my stats are 1 - 2 - 4. I easily level my LIFE to 5 before Death Mountain. But for safety's-sake, I will also add one more level to MAGIC through random battles. Man, I've done a LOT of fighting with this low Attack skill. But I still bite the bullet and kill everything I face. SHIELD and LIFE allows for more mistakes. ***Even my Projectile allows for the safe disposal of lesser enemies!*** Who would've thought that little dinky thing could be useful after all? ...After Death Mountain, the Hammer, Fairy spell & Downstab, etc., my stats are 1 - 3 - 6 entering the 2nd Palace. I once again make an effort to defeat all monsters, and I should be able to level LIFE once more to make my stats 1 - 3 - 7. When I've skipped my MAGIC level-up and my 'Next' reads 4,000, I'm ready for Helmet Head. This is where the low attack really starts to show it's ugly rear. I always have SHIELD and LIFE ready, while as JUMP allows for downstabbing power as well. After more Jump-Slash mayhem, I place the 2nd Crystal, and my LIFE is now maxed out. See my strategy? With LIFE maxed out, I can now take a serious beating. EXP becomes unimportant. I need only to skip my Magic level-up, and my 'Next' becomes 9,000! I can now skip monsters that are not in my way, and it makes getting through the Palaces easier. You'll need that saved time for the bosses. In the 3rd Palace, I merely skip my Level-Ups until my 'Next' is 9,000, and now I don't need to fight as much anymore. I can even skip keys with the FAIRY spell if I want to get the Palace Item and get to the boss more quickly. The Mounted Ironknuckle will take a lot of hits to dismount, and even more to defeat. I've been aggressive before, but now I must refrain and take my time. Too easy to make a mistake. Instead, I SHIELD and wait for the charge, downstabbing as he swoops by, and repeat this tedious task of denting his helmet with my corrodded sword until he dismounts. After that, he becomes like any other Ironknuckle. Jump-Slash always seems to work well, but I always thought these guys were more proficient with shields...Oh well. 3rd Crystal's placed, and my EXP is 9,000. I don't mess around here, as it ALL gets dumped into my lagging MAGIC level. I can level MAGIC 4 TIMES and have 1,300 EXP remaining. My stats are now 1 - 7 - 8. The 4th Palace & Carrock is gonna be my easiest trip. REFLECT cost very little at Level 7, and Carrock croaks just as quickly. The boss will provide enough EXP to skip my low ATTACK level, so fighting unnecessary monsters is fully essential. After the 4th Palace, my Challenge stats are maxed at 1 - 8 - 8. From here, it's all about the bosses. There's no point in dealing with the lesser minions of Ganon. There are bigger fish to fry. Gooma (5th Palace boss) is extremely tricky. It takes 72 hits to kill him. Hitting his belly while avoiding his Ball & Chain is extremely difficult. I don't want to mess up a jump while avoiding his weapon, as I may sometimes bounce off his head. So I just use the same timing pattern I've used to defeat him before, only I stab him a LOT more than usual. After collecting everything between the 5th and 6th Palaces, I have to face Barba and two more Mounted Ironknuckles. I've dealt with the Ironknuckles before, so their slow and agonizing defeat is second nature. the fight with Barba tends to Drag-On (I'm a hero, not a comedian!) Oh, he's not difficult to defeat, but still, 96 strikes later, I'm thankful it's finally over. The trek to the Final Palace all revolves around running away! Everything takes in the uppers of 16 or more hits. All fights between random battles and Thunderbird are more than unnecessary. The real challenge is the Thunderbird himself. So I ready all my spells (SHIELD, JUMP, REFLECT, and THUNDER when he's on the screen,) and chip away. His fireballs drop randomly and are very difficult to dodge, especially when he reaches the half way point. If I can strike Thunderbird 96 times while only taking 5 or fewer hits myself, then I can pat myself on the back and know that I still got it in me. And wouldn't you know it, my corrodded sword of no-damage still defeats Dark Link in just 8 hits! ------ To conclude, I've left the old damage chart from my previous update. It might prove useful in letting you know just how much B-Button mashing you'll end up doing If you opt for lower ATTACK level challenges. HOW TO READ THE ATTACK CHARTS: Area: Where you can find these monsters: ------C: In Caves ------W: Western Continent ------E: Eastern Continent ------T: In Towns ------P: Palace ------G: Great Palace Lvl 1: Hits to kill monster with a level 1 attack. Lvl 2: Hits to kill monster with a level 2 attack. Lvl 3: Hits to kill monster with a level 3 attack. Lvl 4: Hits to kill monster with a level 4 attack. Lvl 5: Hits to kill monster with a level 5 attack. Lvl 6: Hits to kill monster with a level 6 attack. Lvl 7: Hits to kill monster with a level 7 attack. Lvl 8: Hits to kill monster with a level 8 attack. Pro: Is the monster susceptable to the projectile? (Y for Yes, N for No) Power: Special powers of the monster: -------EXP: steals experience on contact -------MAG: steals magic on contact -------IMM: sword immunity. -------WPN1: uses a non-throwing weapon that can be blocked with the shield. | (mostly swords and spears) -------WPN2: uses a non-throwing weapon that can only be blocked with REFLECT. | (axes, maces) -------WPN3: uses a non-throwing weapon that can't be blocked by any means. -------PRJ1: fires projectiles that can be blocked by the shield. | (includes swords, boomerangs, rocks, etc.) -------PRJ2: fires projectiles that can only be blocked with REFLECT. | (includes axes, maces, fire, etc.) -------N/A: Not Applicable LITTLE MONSTERS About 90% of the little enemies are susceptable to the projectile attack, and will occassionally leave a blue magic container or a 50 Point Bag. Most can be disposed of quickly. UPDATE: The orange Moblin that charges does occassionally drop a blue magic container or 50-Point bag, even though it doesn't provide exp otherwise. I have moved it to the Little Monsters section. | |Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl| | | Monster |Area| l | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |Pro| Power | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ache | C | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Ache | T | 2*| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Acheman |W/C | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y |PRJ2 | Bago-Bago | W | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y |PRJ1,EXP | | E | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y |PRJ1,EXP | Bot (Red) | W | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Bot (Blue) | W | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | | P | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | | G |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Y | N/A | Deeler (Red/Blue) | W |2/2|1/2|1/1|1/1|1/1|1/1|1/1|1/1| Y | N/A | | E | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Geldarm | W | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Goriya (Orange) | W | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | N | PRJ1 | Goriya (Red) | C | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | N | PRJ1 | Leever | E | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Lowder | C | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | MegMat | W | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Moa (Red) | W | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | EXP | Moa (Shelled) | E | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Y | EXP | Moa (Town)^ | T |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Y | EXP | Moa (Blue)^ | E |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Y | EXP | Moblin (Or Chrge) | W | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y |WPN1, EXP| Moblin (Or Throw) | W | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | PRJ1 | Moblin (Red) | W | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | WPN1 | Moblin (Blue) | W | 9 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Y |WPN1,PRJ1| Moby | W | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | EXP | Myu |C/P | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | N/A | Myu (GreatPalace)!| G |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Y | N/A | Octorok (Red) !| W | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | PRJ1 | Octorok (Blue) | E | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | PRJ1 | Rope (Blue) | P | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | PRJ1 | Rope (Red) | G | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | PRJ2 | Statue Head 1 | P |28 |19 |14 |10 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | Y | EXP | Statue Head 1(Or) | G |48 |32 |24 |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | Y | EXP | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Some Aches in towns will be almost as strong as a skull. Better off avoiding them than fighting. ! You CAN damage a Myu without the downstab! Perform a Jump-Slash attack as you would an Ironknuckle, but hold DOWN + B Button just before you land next to him. ^ These monsters are invisible without the cross. LARGE MONSTERS Most can deliver a pounding, take a beating, and most are immune to the projectile. They will also occassionally leave a red magic jar or a 200 point bag. UPDATE: The palace Moa has been moved to the Large Monster family, as it can drop a red container or 200-Point Bag. | |Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl| | | Monster |Area| l | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |Pro| Power | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Daira (Orange) | C | 9 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | N | WPN2 | Daira (Red) | C |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | N | PRJ2 | Fire Dragon# | E |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | N |PRJ1, IMM| Ghost Wizard@ | P | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | N |PRJ1, IMM| Goriya (Blue) | C | 9 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | N | PRJ1 | Hammer Bro | P | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | N | PRJ2 | HawkKnight (Red) | G |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | N | PRJ1 | HawkKnight (Blue) | G |48 |32 |24 |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | N | PRJ1 | Iron Knuckle (Or) | P | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | N | WPN1 | Iron Knuckle (Rd) | P |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | N | WPN1 | Iron Knuckle (Bl) | P |28 |19 |14 |10 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | N | PRJ1 | Killer Bee | E | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | PRJ2 | Lizard Man (Or) | E |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | N | WPN1 | Lizard Man (Red) | E |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | N | WPN2 | Lizard Man (Blue) | E |28 |19 |14 |10 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | N | PRJ2 | Moa (Palace) | P | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Y |PRJ2, EXP| Scorpion | E |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | N | PRJ2 | Stalfos (RedSkel) | P | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | N | WPN1 | Stalfos (BlSkel) | P | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | N | WPN1 | Stalfos (RedKni) | P |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | N | WPN1 | Stalfos (BlKni) | P |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | N | WPN1 | Stone Warrior | P |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | N | PRJ2 | Tektite# | E |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | N |PRJ1, IMM| # You need Fire spell to damage these monsters @ Can only be killed with a Reflect spell. EVIL MONSTERS I call them Evil monsters because they do not give up point bags or magic containers at all. | |Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl| | | Monster |Area| l | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |Pro| Power | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dreadhawk (Red) | G |72 |48 |36 |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | N | PRJ2 | Giant Bot% | G | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | N | N/A | Giant Skull | G |130|85 |64 |43 |29 |22 |14 |11 | N | MAJ | Mini Horsehead | P | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y | EXP | Skull | P |125|84 |63 |42 |28 |22 |14 |11 | Y | MAJ | Statue Head 2 | P | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Y |PRJ1, EXP| Wizzrobe | P |16 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | N | PRJ2 | % The Giant Bot splits into many little bots that are almost as powerful as skulls. BOSSES Be assurred, your projectile is ineffective against any of the bosses. | |Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl|Lvl| | | Boss Monster |Palace| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |Pro|Power| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Horse Head | 1 | 16|11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | N |WPN3 | Helmet Head | 2 | 24|16 |12 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | N |PRJ1 | Mounted Ironknuckle | 3, 6 | 38|28 |22 |12 |11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | N |PRJ1 | Carock@ | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | N |PRJ1 | Gooma | 5 | 72|42 |35 |24 |16 |12 | 8 | 6 | N |WPN3 | Barba | 6 | 96|72 |48 |32 |22 |16 |12 | 8 | N |PRJ2 | Thunderbird | 7 | 96|72 |48 |32 |22 |16 |12 | 8 | N |PRJ2 | Dark Link | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | N |WPN1 | @ Can only be killed with a Reflect spell. -------CHALLENGE IV: FEWEST ITEMS/SPELLS/SKILLS-------- -------------I Should've Brought A Backpack------------ After practice, this challenge isn't as difficult as the Level 1 Challenges, but should still not be attempted unless you've memorized every aspect of Zelda 2. Some items are completely unessential to finishing the game, but skipping them will make life more difficult. Let's take a look at the Spell List: SHIELD: Halfs damage delivered to link. Not needed to complete the game. JUMP: Needed for the cave south of Ruto. LIFE: Increases Link's life by 3 bars. Not necessary. FAIRY: Used on several occassions. Unless cheating with the game genie, it is very much needed. FIRE: Used to kill 2 sword-proof enemies. Not needed. REFLECT: Used to kill Caraok, the 4th boss. You tell me if it's needed... SPELL: You need Spell to get the Magic Key. But you don't really need the Magic Key for the 6th palace; a few Fairy spells will cure that. THUNDER: Needed to make the Thunderbird vulnerable. That said, there are only 4 spells you really need: Jump, Fairy, Reflect, and Thunder. Next up is the item list. There are three items that are not essential towards completing Zelda 2, but skipping any of those three will make the game much more difficult. CANDLE: Without light, you'll have to rely on watching the floor for possible footing. As for monsters that float around or hang on the ceiling, you'll have to rely on memory as to where they are, and where they'll land. STRATEGY: When you strike a creature, they will flash and reveal where they are. If you can land a continuous volley of blows, especially for those tougher monsters like Darias and Lizardmen, you can essentially fight them in the dark and know just when to dodge to their attacks. Your projectile is especially useful for revealing smaller creatures. GLITCH: The orange-colored versions of the large monsters (Darias, Goriyas, and Lizardmen) are still bright-as-day, even in the dark. Also, without the Candle, the path to the Final Palace is also pitch black, defeating any use the Cross may of had. Speaking of... CROSS: You need this to reveal invisible moas that appear in Old Kasuto and the path to the Final Palace. Without that seeing eye, getting through is near-impossible. However... STRATEGY: If you're about to enter the path to the Final Palace, and you end up in a random or forced battle, just cast a FAIRY spell and exit. You can't be knocked around while in fairy-mode. So even though you may still take a hit or two, you can get to the Final Palace safely. If you run out of Magic, sacrifice a life to refill your bar, and FAIRY some more. In addition, you don't REALLY need the Cross to get the THUNDER spell, as you're only dealing with, at most, two invisible moas coming and going. MAGIC KEY: Possibly the least-essential of all. The 6th Palace has more locked doors then it has keys, then you don't ever see a locked door again. STRATEGY: These extra doors can be bypassed with a FAIRY spell. Like with the Cross strategy, if you need more Magic, you can kill off Link and refill his Magic bar. ATTACK SKILLS: Finally, there is downstab and upstab. The downstab is essential everywhere you go, and there is a point in the Final Palace where you have to use downstab. However, the UPSTAB can be skipped, as it's only useful in getting a key in the 4th Palace. Nothing a FAIRY spell can't cure. So with all that said, this challenge is about winning: -- With only the Jump, Fairy, Reflect, and Thunder spells -- Without the Candle, Cross, and Magic Key -- Without the Upstab. ----------CHALLENGE V: DUEL LEVEL 1 QUESTING----------- -------------What Have I Got Myself Into?-------------- This is where the real challenge begins: Duel-Level 1 Questing. Regardless of which one you do, each will be extremely difficult, even if you are a veteran master of the game. I've opted to remove any in-depth info on beating the Duel Level 1 Challenges. Basically, all I'd be doing is combining the hints and strategies of the individual Level 1 Challenges, and that would only waste space. So if you need info on the Duel Level 1 Challenges, just consult both individual Level 1 Challenges for the one you plan to do, and practice practice practice. I've ranked the Duel Challenges easiest to most difficult: LEVEL 1 ATTACK & LIFE -- At first I felt this was very difficult. However, after doing the other Duel Challenges, I felt this was the easiest, as I never realized just how much I was abusing my Magic. Since you're able to level Magic, you don't have to back-track to defeat Carrock. The SHIELD spell essentially doubles your Life bar, so Level 1 LIFE seems more like a Level 4 LIFE. If you've mastered the aspects of Zelda 2, getting hit shouldn't happen very often. So the best way to handle this one, is to treat it like a Level 1 ATTACK quest, but don't get hit often, and abuse your MAGIC much more than usual. Treat your MAGIC like a credit card in a shopping mall! The difference between This Duel Challange and the Level 1 ATTACK challenge, is the difference of taking fewer hits. LEVEL 1 MAGIC & LIFE -- In a way, this one is almost on-par with the Duel ATTACK/LIFE challenge. You can max your ATTACK after the 3rd Palace, and the faster you kill your foes, the less time they have to defeat you. However, you still have to back-track to the 4th Palace, because you need REFLECT for Carrock, and REFLECT requires 7 and 1/2 bars of Magic to cast at Level 1. In addition, you have no extra Magic to help you against Thunderbird (including the REFLECT glitch which I love to abuse.) Just zap with THUNDER, and be a very good dodger. LEVEL 1 ATTACK & MAGIC -- By far, this is the most difficult Duel-Challenge. Yes, LIFE gets maxed out, and as early as the end of the 2nd Palace. However, in the 18 years I've played Zelda 2, I have always relied heavily on either ATTACK, or MAGIC. Usually when one falters, the other saves the day. But without both, even I have real difficulties. Everything takes forever to kill. I can't rely on Magic when I make mistakes. I can't rely on Magic to defeat bosses or to SHIELD or LIFE as often as I want to. Even back-tracking to Carrock can cost me a life or two if I'm not especially careful. Thunderbird always throws me fits. But hey, at least Dark Link is still the easiest final boss in gaming history. ----- General Strategies: First and foremost, DON'T try ANY of the Duel-Challenges until you can comfortably beat all the Single Level 1 Challenges without getting a Game Over. Only try these if you seek a more difficult challenge. EXP is almost worthless. Acquire EXP until you max your one stat to Level 8, and from there, skip ALL unnecessary battles. Stick only to getting the items, killing the Boss, and moving on. Other than that, you can consult the Single Level 1 Challenges for the ones you want to combine, and then practice practice practice. There isn't anything here that I can type that can make you better without practicing. ----- -------------CHALLENGE VI: THE TIME TRIAL-------------- Originally, I intended to tweak the Time Trial FAQ, including making more efficient use of the EXP you receive, as well as hints to avoiding forced battles. However, reality snagged my life, and that was that. I have decided to keep the old Time Trial Walkthrough. However, I'm my own critic, and I'm not satisfied with what I've written, nor do I have the time to describe the latest short-cuts I've done to finish faster (I can now do a Time Trial in under 80 minutes. The old walkthrough is for 90 minutes.) One of those changes, I wanted to describe how I avoid random encounters. But this is impossible to write into text. When you've played the game for 18 years, dodging encounters becomes second nature. But even split-second changes in movement completely changes how or when monsters appear and move for the rest of the game. If anything, I encourage other young FAQ writers to read my Time Trial, and write one of their own, perfecting further what I've done already. When I've seen a posted Time Trial FAQ that I like, I'll contact you, and with permission, I'd be more than happy to replace the CHALLENGE VI section with a link to your FAQ. So what I've done is kept my original walkthrough, errors and all, but tweaked a few sections that were nothing more than filler. (including a nifty JUMPing maneuver. It was sad to see it go.) -----TIME'S A WASTIN'!----- The little errands and action sequences can add time to your game without realizing it. Getting spells you don't really need increases your time. Finding every little key in every Palace increases your time. Fighting monsters increases your time. It's all about effeciency. Random encounters that take you to action scenes can also add time to your adventure. (on average, it takes about 6 seconds to leave an action scene that resulted from a monster encounter). Taking too long to fight some of the stronger monsters will hinder your speedy adventure. The whole point is to show that it does not take long to beat Zelda 2, even if it means skipping items and places to get it done. ----------FIRST, STRATEGIES YOU MUST KNOW---------- To beat Zelda 2 quickly, you must master destroying the enemies that block your path. Brian Sulpher (briansulpher@hotmai.com) has given me permission to use some of his strategies for battling some of the tougher monsters and bosses of this game, as he has described these strategies better than I could. Also mixed in the bunch are some of my own personal strategies that have helped me slaughter my enemies in seconds. ----------LITTLE ENEMIES---------- These include Aches, Bits and Bots, Moblins, Goriyas, Bagu-Bagus, Magmats, etc. Most of these monsters are easy to defeat and don't require a strategy. Just kill them quickly and be on your way. When you acquire downstab, destroying the little enemy becomes second nature. ----------STRONGER ENEMIES---------- Here are some strategies that you must master when fighting the stronger enemies (listed in alphabetical order). BIRDMAN (Blue and Red Types) Strategy By: Brian Sulpher Try to stab them when they come close, and an Upward Thrust as they leap overhead can finish them off, but I suggest running away if it is a possibility. CRAZYLAZ NOTES: When they are on the ground, they act like ironknuckles, so treat them as such. But don't get too aggressive as they can jump without warning. CYCLOPS (Hammer Brother) Strategy By: Brian Sulpher Wait for the opening in the arcing hammers, and then charge in to stab the enemy unmercifully. (from this point on, I refer to them as Hammer Brothers). DARIA (Orange and Red Types) Strategy By: Brian Sulpher To deal with the Orange Dairas, charge right at them, hit your sword stroke, and keep walking forward to slash it each time it comes into your sword range (you might get hit once, but it works quite well). The red Dairas can be fought more conservatively, so wait till it throws a hatchet, jump forward over it, and stab the Daira till it starts to chuck another hatchet (just repeat the pattern). CRAZYLAZ NOTES: For Orange Darias, I treat them like Scalfos, stabbing them at the feet (a crouching slash is faster than the standing slash). For Red Darias, a liberal aggressive fighter can get 3 jump-or-crouching slashes in-between hatchet throws. FIRE DRAGONS and TEKTITES Strategy By: Crazylaz In this walkthrough, I skipped the FIRE spell to shave 1 minute off my overall time. If you find these monsters, RUN from them! It saves time this way. FIRE DROPPER (I call them FIRE WIZZROBES) Strategy By: Crazylaz We're playing for shortest time, and waiting around for these creatures to appear out of nowhere takes too long. Attack when they are in the way if you think you can kill them, but don't doddle. Just go on your way. FIRE HAWK Strategy By: Crazylaz Once again, we're going for the best time. Wait for a break in the fire throwing, then jump-downstab through the opening and continue on your way. IRONKNUCKLE (Pink, Red, and Blue-types) Strategy By: Brian Sulpher If you jump at an Ironknuckle and time your sword swing as you descend so it will hit the upper body as the Ironknuckle starts to defend against Link landing (in a crouch). Much easier to do on Orange and Red Ironknuckles as they do hot have throwing knives like their Blue brethren. CRAZYLAZ NOTES: Amen to that. A hyper-aggressive jump-attacker can take down a Blue Ironknuckle before he can go knife-crazy. But it takes a lot of practice. LIZARDMAN (Pink, Red, and Blue-types) Strategy By: Brian Sulpher These are like the overworld child of a Daira and an Ironknuckle, and they do come in the same three colours as Ironknuckles. Orange attack with a spear, red with a handheld mace, and blue with throwing maces. They have shields, but they are poor on defense, so rush them to finish them off quickly. CRAZYLAZ NOTES: Their poor defense also makes them susceptable to the downstab. Crouch-stab to lower their shield, then quickly jump towards them and apply the downstab. If you're lucky, they will die quickly. SCORPION Strategy By: Crazylaz You should encounter only one or two while on your quest. Avoid all together, as we are going for best time. TYPE 1 AND 2 SCALFOS (Blue and Red Types) Strategy By: Brian Sulpher These animated skeletons have a shield and sword to fight you with, but they are too frail to be able to move their shield. The white skeletons can only walk and stab, but the red and blue (stronger than red) can walk, stab, and Downward Thrust as well. Stick their bony legs with the sharp end of your sword till the bones return to the dust they once were. CRAZYLAZ NOTES: The red of both types cannot downstab, the blue ones can. STONE WARRIOR Strategy By: Brian Sulpher These blue coloured baddies throw maces that fly back and forth across the screen. jump the maces and stab away for the victory. CRAZYLAZ NOTES: I assume he is referring to downstabbing. Makes short work of them, that's for sure! WIZZROBE Strategy By: Brian Sulpher These white-cloaked magician appear out of thin air, and throw an energy wave at you. The only way to kill them is to use your Reflect spell so the energy waves get sent back to kill them. BOSS STRATEGIES HORSEHEAD Strategy By: Brian Sulpher You need to be able to gauge your jump accurately, as you will be hopping at Horsehead, strike him as you come towards him, and once landing, move out of the range of his club. I feel this strategy has too much risk involved in using it, but it does work well if you can control Link well. PELIVOR'S NOTES: Yes, it is very risky. but you will reap the rewards on your overall time. HELMETHEAD Strategy By: Brian Sulpher Knock his first head off with a jumping slash, do the same for his second head, and then use the Downward Thrust to bounce on the Bosses head. You will quickly make Helmethead submit. RIDING IRONKNUCKLE Strategy By: Crazylaz Move to about three-quarters to the right of the screen (almost under the piller-type background). When the Riding Ironknuckle charges, get a quick downstab in. He should stop about three- quarters to the left side of the screen. Now that he is exposed, Downstab the living heck out of him for a quick and easy dismount. Follow Brian Sulpher's Ironknuckle strategy thereafter. CAROCK Strategy By: Brian Sulpher With the Reflect spell cast upon yourself, you will be able to "reflect" the energy waves of Carock back at him (this is how you hit and hurt the otherwise invincible foe). As soon as the fight is joined, walk into one of the corners of the screen (either side will do nicely), face towards the opposite side of the room, and crouch. Then all you have to do is continue to hold DOWN until the boss eventually wipes himself out with his own energy waves. He may appear on top of you, but if he does so, just go back into the closest corner, and resume your crouch till Carock has met his demise. Definitely one of the easier Bosses in the game, possibly THE easiest as he only requires ONE spell, and for you to hold DOWN the whole time! CRAZYLAZ NOTES: Unfortunately, the time to kill Carock varies, as his pattern is random. Carock could commit suicide in as little as 9 seconds, to as long as 30 seconds. Not much you can do about this. GOOMA Strategy by: Brian Sulpher Gooma will enter from the right in a slow, methodical fashion. Approach slowly, wait for him to start whirling his Mace, wait for one second of the weapon rotation (this is the hardest part), jump his strike, and then land a blow on Gooma's lower body (head shots will not help as they do NO damage). Then you need to repeat the pattern until he is finished (that is easier said than done). Just be ready on that Life spell as he can put a huge hurt on you in such a short amount of time! Gooma ranks up there with the Riding Blue Ironknuckle for overall difficulty of the Bosses. CRAZYLAZ NOTES: I recommend using the JUMP spell so that you have more room for error when timing your jumps. You can hit Gooma's body even when he is twirling his ball 'n chain, but if you stab him any closer than the tip of your sword, you will take damage. I also recommend crouch-stabbing, as it is faster than slashing while standing. BARBA Strategy By: Crazylaz You don't need spells to defeat Barba, although they do help. Regardless of where Barba sticks his head out of the lava, you want to be positioned on the center of the middle-right platform facing the middle lavapit. When Barba emerges: FROM THE LEFT PIT: Just before Barba opens his mouth, get a walking start and jump to the left, over the lavapit (at the same time, you should be albe to dodge his fireballs). You have enough time to get two or three quick hits in before he disappears again. NOTE: After Barba submerges, ALWAYS reposition yourself on the same middle-right platform! FROM THE MIDDLE PIT: As soon as Barbe reemerges, you can get two or three quick upstabs. Back off to the other edge, jump over his fireballs, then get two more upstabs followed by another slash as Barba submerges. FROM THE RIGHT PIT: Same strategy as the middle pit, but there is more risk of missing the upstab and falling into the lavapit. Repeat said patterns until Barba bites the dust. OTHER NOTES: With the JUMP spell, you could also attempt down- stabbing, but it is extremely high-risk and not recommended. THUNDERBIRD Strategy By: Brian Sulpher As he floats into the screen, he will be red, and you will be unable to damage the behemoth. As soon as he is on the screen, cast the spell Thunder to cause a flash of light to make Thunderbird reveal it's weakness (his face!). Now all you have to do is jump up and stab away at his face while he continues to rain fiery death upon you (he speeds up every time that you hit him), and once he has gone down, you have done it! DARK LINK Strategy By: Brian Sulpher As soon as the battle is joined, run to the left side of the screen, turn around, and then just stand there swinging your sword rapidly. Now Dark Link will try to stab you in your chest (since he is defending your swings at him), and after a bit of this, he will usually try to jump in to attack you. Unfortunately for him, since you are still swinging, you will hit him to knock him backwards! Now he will come back again and again to commit the same mistake again and again! The one thing that he can do to counter this is to Downward Thrust into you, but he rarely gets close enough to do so. Have you master every single strategy listed here? Then you are ready to move on. Thanks again for Brian Sulpher for the use of his monster strategies. Credit given where credit was due, as promised. ---------------OTHER NOTES--------------- Where you move on the overworld does affect where monsters will show up, and which direction they will move in. I cannot tell you how to avoid most action sequences, but with practice, you will find out most yourself. I have listed the ones that I know for sure in the walkthrough. Basically, if you repeat the same actions the same way you did in previous games, you'll get the same results. Case and point: If you head straight right at the beginning of the game without stopping, you'll almost-always spawn two slimes and a fairy, none of which will touch you. Try it for yourself. THE BEST POSSIBLE TIME "IN THEORY" NOTE: I used an original NES cartridge version of "Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link" to conduct this theory and walkthrough. If you are using an emulator, your time results will vary, as some are slower or faster than the original cartridge. Before actually going through the game as fast as possible, I conducted a theory as to how fast Zelda 2 could possibly be finished, by timing each part of the game as I traveled along. Here were the time theories in mind: Start of game to the end of 1st Palace: 6 mins, 19 secs NOTES: Skipped SHIELD spell and 1st Life containers. End of 1st Palace to Start of 2nd Palace: 20 mins, 27 secs NOTES: Got 1st and 2nd Magic containers, 2nd life container, JUMP and LIFE spells, the HAMMER, as well as the FAIRY spell and an Extra Life 2nd Palace: 6 mins, 3 secs NOTES: Substituted 2 keys for FAIRY spells. Shaved time considerably. End of 2nd Palace to End of 3rd Palace: 7 mins, 39 secs NOTES: All stops done beforehand. Went straight to 3rd Palace. End of 3rd Palace to Start of Palace 4: 7 mins, 57 secs NOTES: Got REFLECT spell and 3rd Magic container. Palace 4: 8 mins, 4 secs NOTES: Substituted 2 keys for FAIRY spells. Died once, exited Palace after acquiring MAGIC BOOTS to replenish Magic. End of 4th Palace to End of Palace 5: 10 mins, 7 secs NOTES: Substituted 2 Keys for FAIRY spells. Spent extra time raising levels long neglected. Got 3rd Life Container and Extra Life. End of 5th Palace to Start of 6th Palace: 7 mins, 50 secs NOTES: Got SPELL spell, 4th Magic and Life containers, got MAGIC KEY, got THUNDER spell (Not recommended before the Cross). 6th Palace: 7 mins, 32 secs NOTES: Did not take shortcut. (explained later) End of 6th Palace to Start of 7th Palace: 10 mins, 12 secs NOTES: Spent extra time to raise levels in forest. Great Palace: 7 mins, 32 secs NOTES: None. Little to do during the goal at hand. Theoretical Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes, 38 Seconds I had 27 unintentional action sequences along the way. It takes, on average, 6 seconds to leave an action sequence without fighting monsters. So that said, if assuming I could avoid all unintentional action sequences, then: 6 secs x 27 = 162 seconds, = 3 minutes, 2 seconds shaved off the journey. Theoritical Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes, 36 Seconds Other factors to take into consideration is the effeciency of leveling up, which I failed to do during this first trial run. I have reason to believe I can beat this time if I knew what to level-up first. ---THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE WALKTHROUGH--- This walkthrough was created for elite masters of Zelda 2. You will not see any real details during this walkthrough. I have already discussed the strategies and skills you will need to master before even thinking about tackling the game start to finish in such a short amount of time. You will not get a good time if you are using a slow emulator or by reading this walkthrough step-by-step. In addition, I wouldn't recommend any other format or port of Zelda 2 at that matter. I always got the best results with an NES cartridge. WITHOUT HESITATION -- I use this term alot, as it will help you avoid most random encounters. When I mean without hesitation, it means not ever letting go of the directional pad for any purpose. A split second hesitation will completely change the way monsters appear and move. Trust my directions, and ignore how the monsters are moving. This is the key to reducing the number of unnecessary action sequences that you face. Also note that some cartridges and emulators may vary when it comes to where random monsters show up when moving on the overview map. From this point on, WITHOUT HESITATION will be abbreviated W/O HES. -----THE TIME TRIAL WALKTHROUGH----- Watch Time: 0:00:00 From the start, follow the road east, then northeast and go for the lone patch of forest. Enter it, kill the Aches, and take the 50 points (a quick and easy way to raise your life level to 2). From here, follow the road east until you get to Rauru. Get the SHIELD spell while you are here at Rauru. This will add 1 minute minimum to your quest. NOTE: I did the stupid thing and skipped the SHIELD spell. This is not recommended if you take a lot of hits. When you exit the town, go to the cave in the northeast. Because monsters appear close to you in forests, chances are you won't be able to avoid an action sequence. Go left through the cave, and destroy the Lowder on the way. NOTE: Unless stated otherwise, you kill only the monsters that block your path. Finding monsters to kill will slow down your adventure. As you exit, W/O HES, go 4 north, go as far east as you can, then straight north to the 1st Palace. The monsters start so far apart that if they get in the way, you should be able to dodge them. NOTE: I skipped the 1st Heart Container, because it adds 2 minutes to your quest. If you need the extra Life points, use the SHIELD spell to half the damage you take. THE 1ST PALACE Watch Time: 0:02:08 Minimap: --------- --%--FG-- -BACDE--- --JIHKLM- --------- I list the rooms by letters, starting from A and working my way up to Z, if necessary, to note where you need to go. % marks the starting point. Rooms marked with a # are rooms that are not necessary to complete the Palace. NOTE: Regardless of how you level your stats, your goal is to have a Level 3 Attack at the end of the 1st Palace. A high attack means fewer hits to kill monsters, thus shaving your game time considerably. If you got lucky and the monsters dropped point bags, it is possible to leave the 1st Palace with a Level 3 Attack, Level 2 Magic, and Level 3 Life. Level in this order: Attack Attack Life (if exp allows) Magic (if exp allows) A. Go left. Kill mini-horseheads in narrow coridoors, and jump over the others. Slashing adds a 1/4 second to your time. B. Go left, ignore the Bits, go all the way left to get the key. Kill the red scalfo on the way back to the right. Head right until room C. C. Go right, jump over mini-horseheads, slashing only if you face one in a narrow coridoor. You can avoid the skull all-together if you just keep going right. D. Go right. Kill both red scalfos. E. Avoid the skull, and kill the bit and red scalfo. Go up the elevator. F. Go right, kill the two mini-horseheads. Grab the key on the way. G. Go right, kill the bit and mini-horseheads, and destroy the hammer brother at the dead end and get the key. Backtrack to room H. H. Go left and avoid all skulls. If they get in the way. Slash once, and proceed. (they cannot hurt you if they are stopped). I. Kill the two bits, and proceed left. Get the point bag along the way, and jump over the two bits on the other side and continue left to Room J. J. Kill the Hammer Brother and the Ironknuckle. Get the Candle and exit. Go back to the direction you came, killing all bits and avoiding all skulls. Take the elevator in Room E down to Room K. K. Proceed right. Kill the Ironknuckle and both Red Scalfos. L. Proceed right. Kill the Hammer Brother and the Ironknuckle. M. Horsehead Boss. It took me 13 seconds to kill Horsehead. Place crystal in the stone, and raise attack level to 3. STUFF TO DO Watch Time: 0:08:27 When you exit the 1st Palace, W/O HES, hug the northern coast heading west until you are directly north of the cave, then head South. The monsters here start so spread out that you should be able to dodge them if they get in the way of your path. When you get to the other end of the cave, W/O HES move 8 west, onto the road, then head south until you are 1 space north of Rauru, then head west, regardless of where the monsters appear. Sometimes, you'll avoid action sequences, sometimes not. Head to the cave with the 1st Magic Container. Kill all monsters in the cave on the way. Upon exiting the cave, W/O HES, move 10 north, 2 east, and straight north (85% chance of avoiding action sequence). When you reach the road, go east until you are directly south of the trophy cave, and go straight north to enter the cave. Again, kill all monsters in your path, and snag the trophy. When you exit the cave, go 8 south, and due west following the road to Ruto. If you get caught up in an action sequence, you're on the road anyway, and that only takes a sec to exit. Your only goal in Ruto is to get the JUMP spell. This should only take you a minute. Now that you have your JUMP spell, head south or Ruto to get to a cave. MORE STUFF TO DO Watch Time: 0:11:36 Head right in the cave, and kill all monsters. Octoroks, Aches, Lowders, and Goriyas stand in the way. You will need the JUMP spell to make the jump at the end of the cave. If you didn't earn enough exp to raise your Magic level to 2, you will have by the end of this cave. You will notice that your level 3 attack destroys smaller monsters with a single hit, allowing you to kill at full jumping stride. (no time lost). If you need healing at this point, get the fairy in the lone forest square 2 south and 4 east from the cave. From here, W/O HES, Go all the way west, 1 south, 1 west, all the way south, and then due east. If you get an action sequence or two, it's not a problem because you want to have your Magic Level at 3 before the start of Death Mountain (or just on the verge of getting to Level 3). Look for Bagu in the forest in the north (you know where it is). From Bagu's place, head 1 east, 3 south, and follow the road west until you get to the bridge with the action sequence. This is a bit tricky because Bagu-Bagus can steal your exp. Upon leaving the bridge, go 4 south and 4 east in the lone forest square. Kill any magmats and snag the 100 point bag. Upon exiting, go straight west to get back on the road and go to Saria to the south. If you think you'll need it, take the time to get the LIFE spell, as this takes only about 30 seconds. After that, head left, talk the guard to make the bridge, and head towards Death Mountain. DEATH MOUNTAIN Watch Time: 0:15:31 3:18 947 (1 P-Bag) 747 3:17 907 (2 P-Bags) 650 Your levels goal is to have your Attack Level at 4, and you should get enough exp from here to Palace 2 to be half-way to Attack level 5. At this point, I have neglected the Life Level, leaving Link a lamb to the slaughter. That is why you have the SHIELD spell. Life levels are easy to level-up. Keeping Link weak allows you to concentrate all exp on the harder-to-level-up Attack and Magic levels. The correct path is easy. take the eastern caves when you have more than one choice. The rest of the way is one path. You will face a variety of monsters: Aches, bits, Goriyas, and Darias. (refer to strategies for killing them). Kill everything in you path. UPDATE: I have discovered a new, more exp-bound path that takes no longer than the path I've listed. But it is recommended only for expert gamers, because it is easy to get killed on a Level 3 life. By taking it, you face more Dairas, have a higher chance of getting some Point Bags, and even have the chance to reach an Attack Level of 4 before hitting the Hammer Cave! On average, I've earned 95 more exp when I take the expert route. In the long run, a lucky gamer who gets tons of Point Bags can get their Attack Level to 6 by the end of the 2nd Palace, but this is very rare. Go to the left cave from the start. At the next two-cave choice, go east, ignoring the elevator within. Then go to the cave to the south, take the elevator and go right, then take the east cave. The rest is a one-way path. Good luck, fellow gamers. YOU NEED THIS HAMMER Watch Time: 0:18:48 Minimap: ------ -AB#-- -#CDE- ------ A. Kill the Darias and Red Aches. Proceed right. B. Proceed right and destroy the magmats and Daria. Go down the elavator. C. Proceed right. Destroy the Red Daria on the way. D. Jump each lava pit. You may not be able to kill the myu, but you can either jump over it or wait for it to get out of the way. Continue to proceed right. E. Two Darias block you from getting your Hammer. Kill them, and get your cracking tool. C. Backtrack to C and proceed left past the elavator. Kill the Red Daria you missed, and then backtrack out of the cave. THE LAST THINGS TO DO BEFORE 2ND PALACE Watch Time: 0:21:10 Crack the rock next to the Hammer Cave, step on it, and get the 2nd Magic Container. Exit due left, and head to the cave to the east. You will most likely get an Action Sequence, but you probably need the experience at this point. The cave to the east is straight-forward; just jump over the lava pits and kill the Octoroks. At the end of cave, follow the road north. The cave at the end of road takes you a few steps from a bridge. Upon entering the bridge, proceed right. Kill everything in your path. At the end of the bridge, your next errand is to get the medicine. Follow the road east, then north. Follow the mountainline until you get to the roadblock north. Break it, and head west (at this point, don't worry about action sequences). Keep going west past the road, and head north to the swamp with the roadblocked cave. Break the rock and enter. Proceed right. Kill anything that gets in your way. The next screen holds 3 Darias. Kill'em all! The medicine is at the end of the tunnel. After you exit the cave, W/O HES, go 2 south then 1 west, and get the extra life. Then W/O HES, go south out of the swamp, and proceed east on the road and go to Mito. Your only goals are to get the Downstab and the FAIRY spell (should take about 1 minute, 30 seconds). Also take the time to recover life and magic if needed. We missed the 1st Life Container, so to make up for it, we will go after Life Container #2. Go west, crack the rock again, then go north. To the east is another blocked cave. (again, don't worry about action sequences). Break the rock and enter. This is a straight-forward cave. Kill everything and proceed right until you get the Life Container. Then exit. Easy as that. Go west, bordering the swampline until you run out of grasslands. Then walk in the swamp and work your way west to the 2nd Palace. Once again, if you get action sequences, no prob; you need the exp anyway. After many time trials, my exp total before the 2nd Palace varied between 850 and 1200. Your total all varies depending on how many point bags monsters dropped for you. THE 2ND PALACE Watch Time: 0:28:13 Minimap: ----------- -------%--- -- EDCBA--- -HGF--##--- -- IJK###-- -----LMNO-- ----------- A. Go left on the first floor. Kill the blue scalfo. B. Proceed left. Kill the flying ropes and bits. Use a FAIRY spell to pass through the lock. C. Proceed left again. Get the key and kill bits that get in your way. Downstabs are quick and efficient. D. Proceed left, yet again. Kill ironknuckles and ignore skulls. E. The head statue has a magic container. Get it to refill your magic. Two skulls block the elavator. Hit them once to stun them, (the can't harm you if they are stunned) and go down the elevator. F. Go left. Kill both monsters on the way. G. No choice but to go left. Get the point bag if the boulders don't fall on top of it. If the boulders pile up before you can get by, you'll have no choice but to exit the screen and try again. H. Kill the red ironknuckes first (sometimes, there will only be one, but most of time, there are two). Afterward, use the FAIRY spell to get through the lock and acquire the Handy Glove. Backtrack to Room F and get the Point Bag in Room G if you didn't the first time. F. Go down the elevator. I. Proceed right and kill the ironknuckles. You can't reach the moa dropping fire on you so don't bother trying to kill it. J. The head statues fire ball projectiles at you, and the blue scalfos go after you as well. Kill the scalfos, and do the best you can to dodge the projectiles. It takes practice, but it can be done. K. Get to the elevator and go down. Ignore the skulls. L. Go right and kill the Hammer Brother. Hidden in the blocks is a red magic container. Find it to refill your magic. Dig yourself out and continue to go right. M. With the downstab you acquired, you can get the point bag a lot easier. Go right afterward and kill the red ironknuckle. At this point, you should have raised your attack level to 5. N. Kill the blue scalfo. Cast the FAIRY spell to pass through the lock. Dodge the ironknuckles. When you exit the room, backtrack and destroy the ironknuckles. If they don't do something stupid (like giving you a red magic container) you should have enough exp to raise your Life level to 4. If not, don't worry about it, because the boss should give enough exp to do so. O. HelmetHead's Room. A player who's mastered the downstab and has a Level 5 Attack and dispatch this boss in 6 seconds. Place crystal in statue, and raise Magic level to 4. PATH TO 3RD PALACE Watch Time: 0:33:32 Upon exiting the 2nd Palace. W/O HES, move 1 south, all the way east, 1 south, and east until you can move onto grasslands (lucky adventurers will get only one action sequence along the way). Head for the road, and follow it south, and destroy the roadblock. Move due east until you are directly north of King's Tomb. Go due south, through King's Tomb, and continue south until you find the hidden tunnel. Kill the lowders before casting your FAIRY spell and proceeding right. Keep going right and kill all monsters in your path. Upon exiting the cave, W/O HES, move 4 east, 5 north, 1 west, 1 north, 4 west, and south to the 3rd Palace. THE 3RD PALACE Watch Time: 0:34:59 Minimap: ---------- -%-------- -ABCDEF--- ---#JGHI-- ----KLM--- ---------- Your levels goal is to raise magic and life level to 5 and to be ready to level up magic to 6. %. Make up to 5 attempts on the statue. Kill 2 ironknuckles, and use red magic containers to refill your magic. Exit and reenter the Palace after each attempt. After your 5th, continue on, as time's a 'wastin. A. Your first encounter with Stone Warriors and Type 2 Scalfos. (at a meager Level 4 Life, they pack a punch!). Kill them and move on. B. Straight-forward path. Downstab mini-horseheads and myus, as this is the quickest method. C. Another straight-forward path. Ignore the moa and blocks falling from up top. D. Kill all myus and the Stone Warrior. Also take the time to grab the key and Point Bag. E. Kill the two red ironknuckles trapped within' the blocks; you need the experience. An expert jumper can jump over the long hole without the need of a JUMP spell (if you miss, use a JUMP spell). F. Kill the red ironknuckle and get the key. (you should have enough exp to Raise Life level to 5). Backtrack. E. Go down below and kill the scalfo. Go down the elevator. G. Proceed right. Kill any flying statues and bits that get in your way. H. Keep going right. Kill bits and the red ironknuckle along the way. Jump over lava pits, and also get the key in the process. I. Kill the ironknuckles. First encounter with the blue ironknuckle. Kill him quickly! Get the RAFT. Backtrack to Room F. F. Proceed left, killing any flying statues and bits that get in your way. J. Kill the ironknuckle. Go down the elavator. K. Use a FAIRY spell to get through the keyhole. Proceed right, and don't bother to backtrack. (or you will get a mace in the face). L. Kill all ironknuckles and get the point bag. Hope they don't drop a red magic container. Yes, it's time-consuming, but you want enough experience so that defeating the Mounted Ironknuckle will level your Magic up to 5. (and you've probably needed it up to this point). M. Mounted Ironknuckle's Room. Watch how fast your Level 5 Attack wastes this opponent! (if you follow the strategy mentioned in the strategy section, Mounted Ironknuckle will fall in 15 seconds). Place crystal in statue, but skip your next Life level up (you want to go for Level 6 Magic instead). BACKTRACK TO DOCK Watch Time: 0:41:04 Backtrack to the graveyard (kill all monsters in your path). Go straight north to King's Tomb, then north to the road. If you were fast enough, you'll avoid action sequences. Use the Raft to cross the sea to the east. ERRANDS BEFORE 4TH PALACE Watch Time: 0:41:45 Upon crossing the sea, W/O HES, move 1 east, 1 south, 1 east, 1 south, 1 east, and straight south to the lone forest patch. Get the Point Bag, but don't wait around fighting the Type 2 Moas. Leave the screen, and Go due east until you reach the road around Nabooku. Head for the cave up north (skip Nabooku. You don't need FIRE spell to complete the game, and skipping it shaves 1 minute, 17 seconds from your quest). The cave is straight-forward. Proceed right, and kill the Red Aches. You'll have to jump over the Fire Dragon as you don't have the FIRE spell needed to defeat it. (use Downstab to jump over it). At this point, you'll get so many action sequences that there is no point dodging them. Just go east, and avoid grasslands (as they only hold swordproof monsters). Cross the bridge in the east. On the island, follow the road south, all the way east, then north to the dead end near the 4th Palace. You'll find the hidden cave where you have to kill a Lizardman and save a child. Do so, then backtrack off the Island. Proceed west, going by way of forest. After several action sequences (avoid all monsters), you'll get to a desert. Take the path to Daurnia (two action scenes. Fight your way through the first, FAIRY the second). Your only goals in Daurnia is to get the Upstab and the REFLECT spell. Do so, get your magic refilled, and leave. Head back to the Island. All action scenes done by way of desert and of forest. You'll lose time, but it's safer than dealing with swordproof monsters that you can't dodge easily. On the island, all I know is the longest path around holds the fewest action scenes, and takes the least amount of time. You should also get the 3rd Magic Container while here. The one action scene doesn't have much in the way of monsters that you can kill, so just jump over or dodge them and continue on your way. You will eventually get to the 4th Palace. THE 4TH PALACE Watch Time: 0:48:57 Minimap: ---------- ----%----- --KJAB---- --ML#CD#-- --NOP#FG-- ----#IH#-- ---------- Defeating The 4th Palace in the most efficient fashion will require exiting the Palace a few times. DO NOT waste your time killing wizzrobes! Just do what you need to do and get outta here. Your only levels goal is to get your Life Level to 6. A. Proceed left. Use a FAIRY spell to get through the keyhole. J. Use a JUMP spell and the Upstab to get the Key. Kill the red ironknuckle to the left, and use the key to unlock the door. Backtrack to the start of the Palace (you'll need to cast FAIRY again) and exit. %. Keep making attempts at the statue until you get a red magic container (kill any red ironknuckles). When you've refilled your magic, continue on. A. Proceed right this time. Don't bother wasting your magic killing the wizzrobes; your only goal is to beat this Palace. B. Jump over the Scalfos for now. You'll get them on the way back. Go down the elavator. C. Proceed right. Kill the scalfo. D. Jump into the pit. E. Proceed right. Kill the stone warrior. F. Kill the scalfos and the blue ironknuckle. Cast a FAIRY spell to get the Boots. Backtrack to Room E and fall down the pit again. G. Go left. Nothing else to it. H. Use a FAIRY spell to get through the keyhole, and take the elevator back to Room B. B. Kill the scalfos and get the Point Bag if you haven't already. A. Go back up the elevator and exit the Palace. %. Reenter the Palace again! (keep trying for red magic containers until you refill your magic. Kill Red Ironknuckles), and continue on your way. A. Proceed left. Use a FAIRY spell to get through the keyhole. J. Go left all the way. Kill the red ironknuckle and the stone warrior. K. Kill the two stone warriors and get the Point Bags and Key, but ONLY if you haven't Raised your Life Level to 6. If not, just grab the key and go. Backtrack to Room J and take the elevator down. L. Proceed left. Nothing else to do. M. One way again. Get to the elevator and go down. Killing the myus is not necessary, as you will not get enough exp between now and the crystal for it to matter. N. Use a FAIRY spell to get through the keyhole and go right. Don't backtrack to kill monsters. O. Kill the two red ironknuckles and continue right. P. Carock's Room. You should have enough magic for a single REFLECT spell. Cast and kill away. (your time may vary, but for me, it took Carock 17 seconds to commit suicide). Place crystal in statue, and skip your Level-Up (next goal is Level 6 Attack). ERRANDS BEFORE 5TH PALACE Watch Time: 0:55:25 You can use the boots to take the river off the island. Upon leaving the island, head south into the ocean, as there are no monsters in the ocean. (get the extra life in the desert if you need it). Your only errands before the 5th Palace is getting the 3rd Life Container in the ocean. I'll leave it up to you to find it. After getting the 3rd Life Container, look for the 500 Point Bag in the desert south of the 5th Palace. This will raise your Attack Level to 6. Go back to the Ocean and head for the Palace. THE 5TH PALACE Watch Time: 0:56:46 Minimap: ---$------- ---ABCD---- --QRGFE#--- --PIH###--- -##JKLM#--- --##-ON---- Your levels goal is to up your Life Level to 7 and your Magic Level to 7. Ignore all the wizzrobe-type monsters that shoot fire at you; they take too long to kill. However, if you are quick with your downstab, your attack level is high enough if you want to kill a few skulls. (but don't kill every last one of 'em. You'll just be wasting time). A. Proceed right. Kill the monsters. B. Go right. You'll need FAIRY to get up the ledge. After leaving Room B, backtrack and get the Key. C. Cross the bridge. The flying statue heads won't touch you if you walk across W/O HES or jumping. Get the Point Bag on the way, but be prepared to jump over the statue heads after. D. Kill the red ironknuckles and head right towards the elevator. E. Go left. You will encounter wizzrobe-type monsters that shoot fire at you. Skip them all unless they get in your way. We're going for shortest time, and it takes too long to defeat them. F. Get the key. It may take awhile, but aggressive players will try to get the key while the blocks are falling. Proceed left afterward. G. Kill the ironknuckles. Go left and down the elevator. H. Proceed left. Ignore all monsters. I. Go left and down the elevator. Ignore all monsters. J. Go left to get the Point Bag and to kill a Hammer Brother. Cast a JUMP spell and kill the red ironknuckle to the right and get the key. Proceed right thereafter. K. Just go right. Ignore all monsters. L. Kill the blue ironknuckle. Proceed right, through the illusionary wall. M. Ignore all monsters. Go down the elevator. N. Go left. Ignore all monsters. O. Kill the two ironknuckles. Get the Flute. Backtrack to Room I. Use a FAIRY spell to get through the keyhole to the left. P. Use a JUMP spell and kill the Hammer Brother above. Hit the statue for a red magic container. Go left past the elevator to kill a red ironknuckle and grab a Point Bag. Take the elevator up. At this point, you should have enough exp to have got your Life Level to 7, or at least enough exp to earn it after killing Gooma. Q. Cast a FAIRY spell and proceed right. You'll take damage as you pass the ironknuckles, but there is nothing you can do about that. R. Gooma's Room. It takes me about 30 seconds to destroy Gooma. (Raise Life Level to 7 if you haven't yet). Place crystal in stone, and Raise your Magic Level to 7. ERRANDS BEFORE 6TH PALACE Watch Time: 1:03:33 You know where the River Devil is. Proceed west, and then go south when you reach Nabooku. Down south is the River Devil. Play him a song, and then continue south on your journey. You have three unavoidable action sequences. Kill the two lizardmen on the way and do your best to dodge the boulders hurled at you from above. Take the forest route to get to the cave to New Kasuto. Welcome all action sequences; Orange Lizardmen rack in 300 exp per action sequence. Get to the cave to New Kasuto. It is straight-forward. Dodge the monsters you can't kill, and kill the lizardmen in the second screen. Cut down the forest outside the cave with your Hammer until you find New Kasuto. Your jobs here are to get SPELL, the final Magic Container, and the Magic Key. Backtrack to the other side of the cave. Run around the forest and look for the action scene that holds a 500 point bag. Then fight in the forest until you up your Life Level to 8. Next, head for the desert shore southeast until you find the 4th Life Container. UPDATE: It is not a necessity to max out your Life level. You can save time just by going to the 6th Palace and not bother with the Life level. It saves time in the long run, but the new time is not included in the FAQ. You are now ready for the 6th Palace. Use the Flute at the center of 3rd Eye Rock, and the 6th Palace should appear. THE 6TH PALACE Watch Time: 1:12:05 ' Pit Loop Minimap: ------------- ---%--------- --##'-------- ---ABEFGH---- ----C-#I----- ----JKLMNOP-- ----D--#-QR-- ----'--###--- ------------- Take the elevator straight down to A. A. Kill all monsters, including the Wizzrobes if they get in your way. B. Kill the blue ironknuckle and fall down the pit. C. Kill the two blue Ironknuckles and snag the Point Bag. Fall down to Room D. D. Get the Point Bag. Fall back to Room B. B. Hit the statue. If it's an ironknuckle, kill it. Proceed right and kill the blue ironknuckle and continue on. E. Use a REFLECT spell and kill the wizzrobes. Proceed right, dodging the shots the statues spit at you. F. Kill the blue ironknuckle, get the point bag, and kill the stone warrior. Proceed right. G. Use a REFLECT spell to kill the wizzrobes. The invisible pit is jumpable if you know where it is, but I recommend a JUMP spell for cautionary measures. Proceed right. H. Mounted Ironknuckle. Shouldn't take long to kill it. Get the Cross. Backtrack to the invisible pit and fall. I. Go right and kill the red ironknuckle, as well as grabbing the point bag. Cast a JUMP spell and destroy the 3 bottom and 3 top blocks. Jump to the top of the screen and exit due right. This will take you out of the Palace. Use the flute again and reenter. %. Keep trying the statue until you get 2 red magic containers. (the first to cast 2 LIFE spells, the second to refill your magic). Kill any red ironknuckles that appear. Keep exiting and reentering until you can furfill this. Again, go straight down the elevator to Room A. A. Ignore the wizzrobes this time. Proceed right, killing only the stone warrior. B. Kill the blue ironknuckle and fall down the pit again. C. Kill the two blue ironknuckles before falling down again. J. This time, you want to go right, rather than falling. Kill the blue ironknuckle and proceed right. K. The flying statues will be a neusence. Proceed right with caution. Kill the myus if you wish. L. Ignore the wizzrobes and kill the red ironknuckle. Proceed right. M. You'll need a FAIRY spell to cross the lava pit. Continue to go right while dodging skulls. N. Proceed right. You should have enough exp at this point, so it is not necessary to kill the scalfo. Keep going right. O. Mounted Ironknuckle. Defeat him, and continue right. P. Don't waste your time with the extra life if you don't need it. Just fall into the pit. Q. Use a FAIRY spell and enter the path to the right. R. Barba's Room. Time varies big time when fighting this boss. (from 13 seconds to as much as 1 minute!) If you killed everything you were supposed to kill, Barba should give you enough exp to raise your Attack Level to 7. Place crystal in stone, and raise Magic Level to 8. FINAL ERRANDS Watch Time: 1:20:56 It is not necessary to max out your attack level. Level 7 is sufficent enough. time to make our final runs and head for the Great Palace. Go west and cross the bridge (use a FAIRY spell). Enter Old Kasuto. Enter the first building and get the THUNDER spell. Then exit the town. Cross the bridge again (use FAIRY). Go north and cross another bridge (FAIRY). Go west through the graveyard, then head south. Get through the unavoidable action sequence on the single road. After that, go 2 south and 3 east for a red magic container. Then follow the path west, then north, and through the caves. The path is straight-forward. Exit all action sequences, and dodge all monsters that don't get in your way. Our only goal is to get to The Great Palace. THE GREAT PALACE Watch Time: 1:25:28 Unlike other FAQs, I have mapped out the Great Palace. But there is only one true path to Thunderbird, while as the other routes require an extremely difficult jumping maneuver which even I have problems performing. It requires using the JUMP spell and Downstab to bounce off a skull and get up that extra block of wall that your Jump can't quite reach. I have removed this trick, because none of the other 3 routes result in a faster time. Minimap: --------------- ----%---------- ---AA##-------- --2A11--------- --22!111------- --44|--1------- --4-|--1------- --44|-311------ ---&|-3311----- ---&|--3311---- ---&|---3-1---- ---&|---3@1---- ---4!222-|1---- -------22}1#--- ---------AA##-- ----------ABC-- --------------- A: Common route related to all 4 routes B: Thunderbird C: Dark Link (Final Boss) 1: Route 1 (the fastest route) 2: Route 2. 3: Route 3. 4: Route 4. !: Pit to the other room marked ! |: Connects the ! and @ Pit. &: Connects two rooms by elevator. @: Pit to the room marked }. Regardless of what route you take, each will eventually take you to the room marked }. It should be noted, that IF YOU DO NOT take Route 1, you will end up on the upper half of Room, which is not where you want to be. By taking the correct route, the time to Thunderbird is 4 minutes, 24 seconds. I'll leave it up to you to figure out this level. Exp doesn't matter, so avoid all monsters that don't stand in your way. Thunderbird and Dark Link took me a combined 1 minute, 9 seconds to defeat. Combined, the Great Palace takes 5 Minutes, 32 Seconds to beat. I stopped the watch as soon as the screen flashed after defeating Dark Link. TOTAL WATCH TIME: 1:30:00 CONGRATULATIONS! You beat Zelda 2 in 90 minutes! CAN ZELDA 2 BE DONE IN UNDER 90 MINUTES? My answer is YES! It certainly can! Take a look at what I got and could've skipped during my Time Trial: ----SHIELD Spell (1 minute) ----2nd and 3rd Heart Containers (1 minute, 30 seconds all | together. ----LIFE Spell (45 seconds) ----The Cross (Cuts 6th Palace time in half! 4 minutes, 20 seconds | saved!) -------If you doubt getting to the Great Palace without the Cross, | refer to my UPDATE on the Fewest Items challenge. Skip all these, and you save 8 minutes, 51 Seconds TOTAL WATCH TIME: 1:30:00 Saved Time: 0:08:51 POSSIBLE GAME TIME: 1:21:09!!! Even though it is possible to beat Zelda 2 in under 90 minutes, I don't even recommend it to Expert gamers. I skip quite a bit as it is just to comfortably get under 2 hours; but all it would take is skipping a few monsters and items, so under 80 minutes is a definite possibility. THE SECOND TIME AROUND Before I filtered my e-mails, I heard the fastest possible time was pretty close to 45 minutes. But when I did the second quest with the things I already picked up, it took me about 57 minutes. * Time only counts if you beat the game. You can lose lives, as this will add time to your adventure. So if you get the big GAME OVER, you mine as well start over. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME E-MAILS ABOUT YOUR BEST TIMES!!! OTHER FAQS WRITTEN BY ASPIE GIRAFFE If you need to see my other FAQs, then click on my name (which I guess is a new GameFAQs feature on FAQ pages,) and my FAQs should pop up. THE SPECIAL THANKS SECTION: Unlike my other FAQs, I have MANY people to thank this dedication to: All my friends (you know who you are) for helping me assemble the monster lists, and they thank Nintendo Power and the Instructions Manual for helping them so that they could help me. With that said, I should thank Nintendo Power and the instructions manual as well. LOL. Aside from that, I thank the usual suspects: Nintendo for making awesome RPGs, GameFaqs for they're website, Earthshaker for the inspiration, and The Red Barn Restaurant, for making killer milk shakes! Thank you again, Brian Sulpher, for the use of your monster strategies. Credit given where credit was due, as promised. DISCLAIMER NOTICE This FAQ is property of Aspie Giraffe, Copyright 2/11/02, all rights reserved. Any relation to guide books or other websites dedicated to Zelda 2 are purely coincential, for this FAQ was put together by experience of playing the game without any form of manual or other FAQs. Feel free to distribute this FAQ or link this FAQ to your website. Just be sure to give the proper credit where it's due. Last Updated: 3/2/08 ***I have removed my e-mail info. I no longer have time to help anyone who needs help with video gaming.***