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The Legend of Zelda
Speed Run
FAQ/Walkthrough V 1.0
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By Mariner, 2005
Latest Addition - 8/21/04
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Table of Contents
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I. The Legalese Stuff
II. Updates
III. FAQ
IV. Walkthrough
V. Contact Information
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I. The Legalese Stuff
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You know the drill...
This FAQ is written by Mariner for
http://www.gamefaqs.com and
http://www.honestgamers.com ONLY.
Do NOT place this on your own website without permission or steal from it in
any way.
If you would like to use this FAQ in any way, email me first
Email:
[email protected]
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II. Updates
************
Version Sections Description Date
------- -------- ----------- ----
V 1.0 I-VI Complete FAQ/Walkthrough 8 - 21 - 03
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III. FAQ
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What is a speed run?
Exactly what it says. The goal is to finish the game as fast as possible, in
one sitting, without cheating.
Without cheating?
Emulation, basically. Many emulators allow you to change the speed of the
game, thus foregoing quick reflexes and timing. If you advance frame by frame,
you can be sure that you are always doing exactly what you want to do, and
there will be no mistakes whatsoever. You record it at normal speed, and it
looks like you're the greatest videogame player known to man. And that just
takes all the fun out of it. So if you see any videos on the internet of
people performing amazing tricks, chances are they're cheating. Any speed run
is going to have some sort of errors in them.
Does anything else fall under cheating?
Well, using a Game Genie would. Also, taking advantage of glitches is
generally frowned upon. In the case of Zelda, there is only one glitch that
falls under this category. If you enter Level 1, immediately exit, and
immediately reenter, the locked door will magically become unlocked. That's
cheating. Don't do it.
What about Up+A?
If you press Up+A on the second controller after pressing Start, the game will
go to the Continue, Retry, End screen. If you press continue, you will either
start out in the normal spot on the overworld or at the beginning of the
labyrinth you're in. Thus, people can use it for instantly warping to various
places (for instance, after getting the recorder in level 5, using Up+A warping
is faster than going all the way back to the beginning). This is considered
legal, although I personally don't like it. It's using something outside the
game world to improve your time, which just doesn't seem right. So this speed
walkthrough will not take it into account.
Any other tricks you won't use?
Luck does play a role in speed running, and I'd like to minimize its impact.
Thus, I will not use the Money Making Game in this walkthrough to quickly get
rupees. Also, an alternative (faster) route requires grabbing bombs from the
first enemy you find that can carry them, which is also pure luck. In both
cases, if you don't get what you need immediately, you need to reset if you
want a good time. Personally, I think it's best if a speed run can be done at
any time in one playthrough. Thus, having to reset 5 times before you get the
start you want kind of defeats the purpose. Thus, this walkthrough is not
going to be the fastest possible way to beat Zelda, but it is pretty much the
fastest (non Up+A) route that is guaranteed to work every time.
Who came up with this walkthrough?
I did. It will probably have many similar aspects as other people's routes
(particularly the labyrinths), but that's because there's simply one route
that's the best. But the order in which things are done and the items obtained
at particular times was finalized by me after doing this multiple times. There
might be better routes out there, but with the two restrictions I placed above
I can't think of a faster way to do it.
All right, so what's required of me in a speed run?
You have to be good at this game. You have to basically have it memorized and
have the reflexes of a cat. You can't simply pause to consult this walkthrough
when you're working on your time, so make sure you know where everything is.
Likewise, you have to be darn good. There is simply no time to gather up the
funds needed to buy the blue ring (not to mention no good time to go grab it),
so you HAVE to do without it. It's also good to ignore the red ring, water of
life, magical shield, and two heart containers as well, although I'll include
optional sections for each of these. Beating the game without these items can
get pretty tough, so you have to know what you're doing.
So what times can I expect?
With a good run, you should easily break an hour. 45-50 minutes seems pretty
likely, depending upon how many of the extra items you end up getting. If you
do this perfectly? My guess is that you can get below 42 minutes, but below 40
might be pushing it. Personally, I did 45 min, 2 sec, although I know I can do
much better than that.
Is that good?
I think so. The world record, according to Twin Galaxies is 33 minutes, 51
seconds. Of course, this uses Up+A warping as well as random luck, so
following this walkthrough obviously won't get you that far. If you want to
try to go for the record, you'll have to figure that out on your own.
What about the second quest?
Red bubbles and an overabundance of wizrobes scare me; I ain't that good. And
in all honesty, I don't really know how many people are interested in it. One
could probably come up with a theoretical walkthrough without much of a
problem, but actually playing it would probably be a pain. I'm sticking with
the first quest.
What equipment do I need to finish the game? While we're at it, what else can
I pick up that will make my life easier?
Well...
ACQUIRED ITEMS
Bow
Bombs
Raft
Ladder
Recorder
Silver Arrows
White Sword
Magical Sword
Blue Candle (60 rupees)
Enemy Bait (60 rupees)
Arrows (80 rupees)
3 heart containers
OPTIONAL ITEMS
Wooden Boomerang ****
Magical Shield (90 rupees) *
Letter **
Blue/Red Water of Life (40/68 rupees) **
2 heart containers *
Red Ring ***
The stars refer to their relative importance and ease of acquisition. In other
words, the boomerang is the "best" optional item to get whereas the hear
containers are the "worst"
UNNECESSARY ITEMS
Magical Boomerang
Magic Wand
Red Candle
Magic Book
Skeleton Key
Bracelet
Blue Ring
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
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IV. Walkthrough
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From the start, grab your sword, and then go straight to level 1 (up, right,
up 3, left). Make sure you kill the blue octorok in the screen to the right of
the level 1 entrance, as he may drop some bombs (this will lower your time by
about 30s). Other than that, kill only the octoroks that are in your way. The
leevers do tend to give out lots of rupees however, so you may want to stop and
kill them if you're going for some of the optional items.
LEVEL 1
-------
Go right, kill the stalfos with the key, grab it and then leave. If you do not
have bombs, go left and kill all the keese to get another key. Now, go back to
the entrance and go up. Go up again, and make sure you grab the key in this
room by killing all the stalfos. If you have bombs, simply bomb upwards. If
not, move left, up, and right, ignoring the enemies in all three rooms. Go up,
grab the key, and then up again. Kill the goriyas quickly to grab another key,
and then go left to grab the bow. Return to the room with the map, and then
move right.
[OPTIONAL: Kill the goriyas to get the boomerang. I'm not sure why I bother
saying this is optional, since it only takes a few seconds. Personally, I only
use the boomerang once - against Digdogger in level 7. I think the time saved
by freezing the little Digdoggers is about the same as the time needed to kill
these guys, so nothing's really wasted here. Besides, goriyas have a tendency
to drop bombs, and you're going to need them real soon.]
In any case, move right again, grab the key, and then go up. Wallmasters give
lots of rupees, but they appear so slowly that it's not worth killing. So
ignore them.
BOSS: Aquamentus. What a wuss, 6 hits and he's dead. Avoid his beams and
slash away as quickly as possible, and the first Triforce piece is yours. Yay!
Keys: 0
Time: ~4 minutes
Now, moving onward. You'll need to grab the heart container by the southern
seashore now, so you better have bombs. From level 1, go right, down 2, right,
down, right 2, and then down. You should be at the seashore. Bomb the wall to
your left to get that heart container, ignoring the leevers. Now go straight
to level 2 (up 2, right 2, up, left, up). You shouldn't have to bother killing
anyone, unless they're in your way or you don't have bombs yet.
LEVEL 2
-------
Man, this is like the easiest level to write a walkthrough for. The gist of it
is that you are going to go right 1, and then straight up. However, make sure
you pick up all the keys along the way. There are three of them: immediately
after you go right, the room with tons of ropes in them (4 rooms up), and the
moldorm (the enemies that look like 4 fireballs scrunched together that come
out of the sand) room. Ropes give you a lot of rupees (and hearts, if needed)
and are fairly easy to kill, so you might want to take the time to kill them
when you see them. Also, the room right before Dodongo is filled with goriyas
you must kill. One bomb will do one in, which is quicker than your puny little
sword. If you use all but 2 bombs on them, you should still exit this level
with a full supply of them, so fire away liberally. Once they're all dead,
grab the bombs that appear and go up.
BOSS: Dodongo. The easiest way to kill him is just to let him swallow two
bombs, but there's a better option. Drop one bomb in his mouth, but while he's
swallowing it drop another one right in front of him. If timed right, it will
explode on him, and he'll be stunned. Then, just smack him with your sword to
kill him. Not only is this slightly faster, but he will ALWAYS drop bombs if
killed in this manner. You'll be needing a lot of them, so you might as well
do it this way. That 1 second could be important anyway.
Keys: 3
Time: ~9 minutes
Alright, time to take a break. From level 2, go down, right, and up. Touch
the rightmost armos statue to reveal a cave, and grab the 30 rupees inside.
Then go up again.
[OPTIONAL: If you need to get water of life, take the time now to grab the
letter. Just move up, right, and then up again to get it. Also, if you're
planning on grabbing the magical shield or will need to buy multiple waters,
you're going to need more rupees. So, from the letter room, go down, right,
and then up the hidden staircase to get 100 more rupees. Both of these are a
bit time consuming, but can be very important if you're not incredibly skilled
at the game. The water of life is probably more important than the shield, but
grab both if you think you'll need them. In any case, go back to the area you
were in (the room just north of the armos statue) when you're done.]
Now, go left one and bomb the right side of the giant rock for another heart
container. Then go up, left 2, and up to get the white sword. Just keep
zapping the blue lynel with your sword until he moves out of the way or dies,
or stun him with your boomerang and run past him if you don't have full health.
Once you have the sword, go down, follow the river left, and then down the
eastern shore of the lake. Move all the way south until you're one square
above the bottom of the map, and then left. You should be in the room
immediately above the starting point. Bomb the wall here to get 30 more
rupees, and then move left to buy the candle. Go left again and cross the
bridge.
Now, if you have 140 rupees left (basically, if you got that 100 rupees in the
top corner), go up 2. Buy the arrows from the cave there, and then move up
again to buy the enemy bait. Go back down three rooms.
Move left two rooms here, and you should be in a room with a vertical wall of
trees on your left. Burn the topmost single tree to grab 100 rupees, and then
move back to the right (you can cross the wall of trees thanks to the burnt
one). Now go down and right to enter level 3.
LEVEL 3
-------
Take a left and kill all the Zols you see (those big jelly guys). These guys
are great; they're slow moving and give you lots of rupees and hearts. Grab
the key and go up. Killing the Zols is optional here, since the key appears
outright and the constrained layout makes it more difficult to track them down.
In any case, go up again and take a left. Go left again through the locked
door to a room full of red darknuts. Yes, you'll have to kill them to open the
door, so do it as quickly as possible. Once they're all dead, move down to the
room with the raft. If you move immediately to the right and down, getting
into the passageway as fast as possible, you shouldn't get hit. You may have
to smack one of the darknuts though and run through him while he's flashing -
make the most of the slowdown to pull this off correctly. Go back up and right
two so you're back in the room with three darknuts. Bomb the wall, and kill
the darknuts if you need more bombs (you'll need at least 4 at this point).
In any case, go through the bombed wall, head up, and then bomb to the right
again.
BOSS: Manhandla. He'll be moving rather slowly to begin with. Drop a bomb so
that he'll be right on top of it when it explodes. If done correctly, it'll
kill him completely, but it may only take off a few of his arms. If there's
only one arm left, just hit it twice with your sword (harder than it sounds,
since he'll be going quite fast at this point) to kill him. If there's more
arms left, you'll probably want to try the bombs again. This can be either the
easiest or hardest boss depending on where you place that first bomb, so aim
carefully.
Benchmark:
Keys: 4
Time: ~15 minutes
Take a left, up, and right to exit the dead forest. Now, if you haven't
grabbed the arrows and enemy bait yet, do so now (requires going straight up to
two different shops) and come back to this screen. Head right, cross the
bridge, go up, and then sail from the dock to reach level 4.
LEVEL 4
-------
Since there's no way to get the Magical Sword before entering here (well, not
in a speed run at least), these Vires are going to be quite annoying. Remember
that they'll fly backward and break apart when they hit an obstacle, whether it
be block, wall, or water. So your best bet to kill them quickly is to smack
them when they're near an obstacle and then slice the two keese in one hit as
soon as they appear. Likewise, many of the rooms will be dark, but going to
your inventory, selecting the candle, and lighting a fire just takes up too
much time. So try to have all of the rooms memorized here so you can just
navigate in the dark. With that in mind, let's start.
Head up, ignore the Vires, and up again. Grab the key and hang a left. The
room, composed of blocks in the diagonal pattern, will go dark. Avoid as many
of the Vires as you can (killing the ones you can't obviously), and just
maneuver around to move up. Kill the Zols in this room to make the key appear
(the room looks like [-], with those brackets and dash mark being water);
grab it and move up. Take a right and kill all the Vires here. Move right
again and go down the secret passage to grab the ladder. Head left two more
spaces (you won't have to kill all those Vires this time, just avoid them as
best as you can) and then up. Move right and you'll end up in a dark room with
little gels roaming around. Hug the wall to move to the top and bomb up. You
shouldn't need any more rupees if you're not collecting the optional stuff, but
grab them if you need them and bomb right. Kill the Vires, move the block, and
head right again.
BOSS: 2 Headed Gleeok. If you have lots of hearts left, just run up and start
swinging away at the heads. If you need to play more conservatively, do the
same thing but remember to evade between swings. Either way, 4 hits per head
will kill him.
Keys: 4
Time: ~19 minutes
We have a long route to level 5 here. Sail down, head right, and then back up.
[OPTIONAL: If you plan on having the magical shield, burn the corner tree here
to buy it. You should have enough cash for that. /OPTIONAL] Move right and
burn the fifth tree from the right to grab the piece of heart. Move right
again. [OPTIONAL: If you want to buy water of life but don't think you'll have
enough money after finishing level 5 (say, needing at least 15 more rupees at
this point), burn the tree in the corner here to grab 30 rupees. /OPTIONAL]
[OPTIONAL: If you need the extra two heart containers, and need them before
level 9, you'll need to take an alternate (and rather lengthy) route. Head
down and then right 5 screens. You should be within the woods, in the screen
in which the paths look like a malformed H. Move down to the screen with
level 8, and burn the bush here to open it up (since you should have the blue
candle equipped at this time, you might as well burn it now to save an extra
second or two). Head right two and then up one to grab the first Heart
container. Move up two more screens and then sail north to get the other one
as well. Sail back down, and then follow the shoreline left, up, and left
again. Head left, up, and left to enter the lost hills. Then just keep moving
up until you reach level 5.]
The preferred method of getting to level 5, however, is to move up two spaces
and then right into the desert. Keep moving right until you hit the screen
with the giant rock that held the heart container. Move up and left to reach
the lost hills, and then keep moving up to hit level 5.
LEVEL 5
-------
With any luck, you'll have at least two bombs to start this level. Go up and
bomb left, then bomb left again. Yay, blue darknuts. Kill them as quickly as
possible (I'd give strategies, but in all honesty it's mostly practice. You
just have to learn when's the best time to attack based on where they are.
Fortunately, they drop lots of hearts). Then go through the passage, move
left, and kill more darknuts to grab the recorder. Don't worry, that's all of
them until level 8. Anywho, go back to the room right above the starting point
(kill that one Gibdos with bombs first if you haven't already). Kill the
Gibdos in here, grab the key, and move up and right. Kill the Zols only if
you're desperately in need of hearts or cash, and then move up again. Kill the
Gibdos in here to get the key. Now move up twice, grab the key, and move left
two more. If you still need rupees (you shouldn't), kill the Pol's voices in
here with your arrows and then head left again.
BOSS: Digdogger. Get as close as you can to him and use the recorder to force
him to shrink. You can then pull out the boomerang to stun him before
unleashing your might, but I don't bother. The time it takes to bring up the
subscreen, select the boomerang, unpause, and then do it all again when you're
done to get your recorder again just seems too long to me. It's faster just to
follow him and swinging your sword. 4 hits and he's down.
Keys: 4
Time: ~26 minutes
[OPTIONAL: If you're getting water of life, now's the time to do it. While
facing down, blow the recorder TWICE (blow once to summon the whirlwind, and
then again before said whirlwind gets to you). You'll end up at level 4. Sail
down, move down again, and head left and enter the cave. Show the old lady the
letter immediately and then walk over to the water you want while she's
blabbing away to save you a second or two. Now exit the cave and head left,
up, left, and up. Blow the recorder and enter level 7]
Otherwise, face up and blow the recorder twice. This will take you to level 3.
Now head left, up 2, left, and up. Blow the recorder to enter level 7.
LEVEL 7
-------
Yes, we're skipping 6 for now. Don't worry, this level's actually easier. One
thing to note right up front is that there are no keys to grab in here, so you
don't have to worry about killing anyone unless there's a barred door in front
of you (and those are quite rare as well). Unfortunately, you'll need a ton of
bombs (5 of them, to be exact). There are red goriyas here to kill who will
hopefully drop some for you, but other than that you're mostly out of luck.
With that in mind, let us begin.
From the start, go up. If you're very low on bombs, kill these goriyas, and
then bomb up. Head up again and kill the keese and goriyas here to open the
door. Ignore Digdogger, head left, and then up. Use your enemy bait here and
go up again. This room's dark, and you'll have to move up to the center of the
room before heading right in order to get across the water here. In any case,
move through the locked door and then bomb right. Ignore the passageway (it's
just the red candle; who needs that?), and then bomb right again. If you kill
all the goriyas in here you'll get some bombs, but that takes forever. Head
ight again and kill the Digdogger. This time, do use your boomerang, as three
little diggers will appear after you use the recorder (and they can wreak havoc
very quickly if you're not careful). Head up and bomb right. You'll have to
avoid the bubbles and kill the 5 Wall Masters - I recommend taking your arrows
out. It's almost impossible to avoid the bubbles entirely while staying near
the walls, and you DEFINITELY don't want to be grabbed by the hands. Once
they're all dead, move the block and enter the passageway. Bomb right once you
get out.
BOSS: Aquamentus. I'm not going to dignify this with a strategy.
Keys: 1
Time: ~31 minutes
Time for level 6. Head down, left, and down again to enter the lost woods.
So go up, left, down, left to get out. Now head up, right, and up 2 to get in
the upper right corner of the graveyard. Push the grave to grab the Magical
Sword (yay!), and then head down, right, and up to enter the next labyrinth.
LEVEL 6
-------
Ick, Wizrobes; I hope you have full health. Anywho, head left, killing the
wizrobes if you want. Head up, and kill the Zols if you need hearts
(otherwise, ignore them). Move up again, kill the keese to open the door, and
grab the key. Head up again (just go straight up in here; the traps won't hurt
you) and the real fun begins. Kill all the enemies here as quickly as possible
(I find it easiest to knock out the yellow Wizrobes first and then focus on the
blue ones, but whatever works for you), push the block, and go up yet again.
Bomb right, grab the key in that room, and move down. Kill the Vire, move the
block, and move right. Kill everyone in here to open the secret passage. When
you get out, kill the Zols to get hearts (hopefully) and head down. Kill the
Vire to grab the key, move left, switch to arrows, and then go up.
BOSS: Gohma. Approximate time to kill him: 1 second. See, his eye is open as
soon as you enter the room. So if you just move a little bit to the right and
shoot upwards with an arrow as soon as you enter the room, he should die. Yep,
that's it. If you miss, you'll have to wait for him to open his eye again,
which wastes precious time. So make that first shot count.
Keys: 2
Time: ~36 minutes
Take out your recorder. Now, if you warped to level 3 after level 5, then face
upward and blow the recorder once. If you warped to level 4, then face up and
blow it twice. Either way, you should be taken to level 2. Move down, right,
and down twice. Burn the tree in the middle of the path if you haven't already
and then enter level 8.
LEVEL 8
-------
Ah, level 8. Easy to write the walkthrough, hard to play. From the entrance,
move up, ignoring the Manhandla, and bomb up to enter the next room. Here you
have to kill all the blue darknuts as quickly as possible while avoiding blasts
from the statues. Do your best to kill them quickly, grab the key, and head up
twice. Now you get to kill even more darknuts. Once they're all dead, hang a
right. If you're running low on bombs (you'll need at least 7 more), you may
want to kill everyone in this room so that some will appear, as this is the
last sure-fire place to grab them unless you want to face Patra. Either way,
head down the passage. Kill the Pol's Voice with your arrows when you head out
and then bomb up (ignore the key in here; it takes too long to get and you
don't need it).
BOSS: 4 Headed Gleeok. Same strategy as before, only there's more of them
flying around. The sooner you kill him, the less chance that the flying heads
will kill you, so stay up close to him and swing away. Just don't panic.
Keys: 2
Time: ~41 minutes
[OPTIONAL: If you want those two final heart containers and didn't grab them
yet, now's the time. Head right two and then up one to grab the first Heart
container. Move up two more screens and then sail north to get the other one
as well. Point upward and blow the whistle once to warp to level 1. It's
faster to get the two heart containers now then it was before level 5, but that
means they're only useful for one level. And it's still faster to ignore them
completely.]
Woohoo, time for the showdown. Point upward and blow the recorder once to head
to level 1. From there, move right, up, and left. [OPTIONAL: Bomb the wall
by the trees here to reveal a place to buy water of life if you need it.
/OPTIONAL] In any case, move up and cross the river to go up again. Head left
two spaces to find Spectacle Rock; bomb the left one to enter level 9.
LEVEL 9
-------
Don't panic. This can get pretty tough, but you've come all this way and it'd
be a shame to die now. Keep calm and you should make it through ok. Head up
and then up again. Kill the Zols and Like-Likes to get a key, and then bomb
left. If you don't have full health, switch to arrows to kill the lanmolas
from a distance; otherwise just use your sword. Go through the secret
passageway and then make your way right, avoiding the Like-Likes as best as you
can (if you stun them with the boomerang or hit them to make them flash, you
can walk through them). This next room will be dark with 3 blue darknuts
roaming around; just head straight to the right and you will never be hit. If
you have less than 4 bombs (or less than 7 if you plan on getting the red
ring), kill the patra in here. It takes a while, but you don't have much of a
choice at this point.
[OPTIONAL: From here, head down and bomb right. Ignore the patra as best as
you can and bomb up. Bomb up yet again to get in the top right corner of the
dungeon. Kill everyone in here so that you can move down the secret passageway
and grab the red ring. Then head down 2, left, and up to get back to that room
with the patra. Also, yellow wizrobes occasionally drop bombs. Between the 3
or so you have to kill in the room with the red ring and the ones right below
that room, you may get some extra bombs. Thus, you may want to hold off on
killing patra until after you get the ring, just in case it turns out to be
unneccessary.]
Head up through the locked door, and follow the old man's advice by bombing
left. Kill the wizrobes and push the block to enter another passage. Kill the
Zols if you need hearts, and then head left twice. Kill the patra in here and
head through the passageway (you can ignore the key; there's no more locked
doors). Bomb up, kill all the enemies, and go down the passage to get the
silver arrows. Head back down and kill all the enemies here to go back through
the passage. You'll only need 2 more bombs at this point, so if you have any
extras you might as well use them to help clear away these wizrobes, seeing as
they are as strong as your sword. In any case, after returning to that room
with the patra and the key, head up. Ignore the Like-Likes in here and head up
again. Once again, ignore the Like-Likes, head up to a room filled with gray
sand, and bomb left. Kill the wizrobes in here, push a block, and go through
the passageway. When you get out, bomb left, and kill the Zols and Like-Likes
(no more wizrobes!) Head down the passage in this room to appear in a room
with patra. Kill it, take a deep breath, and move up.
BOSS: Ganon. Without the red ring, getting hit by this guy will take off THREE
hearts. And he's invisible too. In other words, you had better know exactly
what you're doing in here. You'll need to smack him 4 times with your sword so
that he'll turn brown, and then hit him with the silver arrow. He moves around
in a sort of figure eight pattern, which should help you both to dodge him and
kill him quickly. Just watch where his fireballs come from and watch his
pattern. Just for the record, getting hit by the fireballs causes less damage
than getting hit by him, so if you have to dodge something... In any case, if
you have the red ring and a reasonable number of hearts you should be fine. If
you don't have it and don't have a reasonable number of hearts, I hope you're
good. Good luck.
FINAL TIME: ~49 minutes
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V. Contact Information
***********************
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Suggestions? Errors? Anything else?
Email me at
[email protected] Thanks.
There's a good chance you will get a reply, even if it may take a while.
