Upon entering the Palace of Darkness, the first thing Link notices is that there are three doors like in the Eastern Palace.
"Huh, this again? I bet they think I'm going to fall for it!" Link says with a laugh.
He enters the middle door, but as he looks to the left and to the right, he suddenly realizes that any of the three doors would have been okay to enter. However, the door forward from the middle of the room is locked and Link does not yet have a key.
"Oh... Well, that was a sneaky trick!" Link says.
Blocking each segment of the big room is a small stony boarder with a statue on both sides. Where there would have been clay pots in the Light World, there are tiny skulls instead. On the left side of the room and on the right side of the room are little orange creatures with a green mask called Mini Helmasaurs. Curious, Link pushes the statue aside and enters the left most side of the room. As soon as Link does this, the Mini Helmasaur charged and crashes into him.
"Ouch!" Link yelps.
He tries to slash it, but the helmet it is wearing blocks the attack, making a clinking noise.
"Huh, that's dumb..." Link grumbles.
The Mini Helmasaur charges at him again and he just barely gets out of the way in time. Quickly, he slashes the back end of the monster, finding it to be easier to damage. The Mini Helmasaur dies after a few swings.
"That was a close one... I sure hope this palace isn't loaded with these guys!" Link says out loud, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
After that, he goes through the open doorway and down some steps. When Link descends the stairs and enters the room as the bottom, he is greeted by laser beam balls from two annoying looking statues.
Link blocks the laser balls with his shield as he examines what appears to be an otherwise empty room.
"Hmmm, you've got to be hiding something down here..." Link says.
He picks up the skulls and finds a button under one of them. He steps on the button and a treasure chest appears.
"Ah-hah! I knew something had to have been hiding in here!" Link says.
He dodges electric beams and makes his way over to the new treasure chest. As it turns out, it is the small key he needs to unlock the middle door.
"Progress... Don't worry, Zelda, I'll have your sister out of here in no time!" Link says.
Having nothing else to do on this floor, Link heads back up the stairs as the annoying looking statues continue shooting electrical orbs at him. Now that he has the key, Link decides to completely disregard the other side of the dungeon and head right through the middle door that once was locked.
"What do we have here?" Link wonders out loud.
To answer his question, a group of heavily armored enemies known as Terrorpins begin to move towards him. Instinctively, Link slashes at them, but his sword clinks uselessly off of their shells.
"Oh no! The Master Sword isn't strong enough to defeat these things!" Link exclaims, just barely jumping out of the way before the Terrorpins can hurt him.
Link gives up trying to harm the Terrorpins and defeats a Blue Bari instead. After this, though, he is halted by two heavy blocks blocking his path.
"Well, I suppose I'll have to move one of these to get by..." Link says.
When he presses on one of the blocks, however, the railing gives way and both the block and Link fall down to the lower floor.
"AHHH!" Link yells as he is falling.
Link lands right next to the fallen block.
"Oh, I guess that wasn't so bad after all..." Link says.
There are, however, two Terrorpins in the room he fell into and they shuffle towards him to attack.
"Oh no! More of these guys!" Link yelps.
In his panic, Link trips over a skull and lands on a button. A treasure chest spawns between the Terrorpins and him.
"Oh!" Link says and laughs, but then the Terrorpins walk around the chest and start attacking again.
He barely dodges the Terrorpins and opens up the chest to find a key. After that, the Terrorpins ram their spiky bodies into him, causing him to yelp.
"How do I get out of here?! Do I take the stairs or the portal?!" Link asks.
"Link, take the stairs; they will get you to your destination quicker!" the voice in Link's head says.
"Alright, sounds good. I would like to save some time," Link says.
He just barely gets away from the Terrorpins again and climbs the stairs out of the pit. The entire palace circles back around itself and Link finds himself in the main room again.
"I guess I'll go this way, now..." Link says, pointing the opposite direction of how he went last time.
This time, Link encounters a section of the bridge that looks like it could crumble at any moment.
"Huh, I better not stand there too long..." Link decides, stepping away from the fragile ground.
"Link, bomb it," the voice in Link's head whispers.
"Why, though?" Link inquires.
"Just do it," the voice whispers.
"Okay, if you say so..." Link says.
He places a bomb on the delicate cracked floor and steps back, allowing the bomb to explode. The explosion takes out the entire cracked section of the floor.
"Oh, now I cannot get passed..." Link says.
"Try jumping down there, then," the voice says.
"First you tell me to blow up the floor, now you say I should jump down a pit?" Link questions.
The voice becomes silent and Link sighs before jumping into the pit. Link lands on a ledge in the lower room.
"Oh, this room again...but there is this door..." Link says.
He pulls out his small key and unlocks the door which leads to a staircase back up. At first, Link hesitates, holding his head in confusion.
"So... I went upstairs so I could break the floor to get downstairs so I could get upstairs...?" Link asks.
The voice is still silent so Link heads up the new staircase to find a treasure chest he couldn't previously reach.
"Oh! Now I get it! This must be important!" Link says.
When Link opens the chest, he finds a sheet of paper that says, "Big key goes here." When he lifts the sheet of paper, he finds that the big key was under the sheet of paper.
"Hah, so I guess that whoever locked up this key left the page of the instruction manual in the chest!" Link says and laughs.
To get out of the dead end, Link leaps back over the side after claiming the big key. Then, he takes the same stairs he did last time to get to the bomb-able floor room.
'Link, the other way,' the voice in Link's head says.
"If I go back down the other path, won't I just end up downstairs again?" Link asks.
'Not if you push the block carefully,' the voice says.
Link turns and goes down the path with the two blocks on it. Nervously, he moves the block a little at a time until it falls below and he's still on the path.
"Oh! Silly me! So there must be something in this next room!" Link says.
Link walks carefully across the bridge and enters another doorway. He emerges on a short walk way with a treasure chest. Painted at the edge of the floor by the drop off is an arrow. As it turns out, the small chest contains a small key.
"Nice. Now...it seems this arrow wants me to head forward... I bet I can jump that!" Link says.
Link takes a few steps back and runs, leaping over the edge. He lands safely on the other side between two rows of blue blocks.
"Yay, I made it!" Link says, "Now I wonder what's up here..."
Link goes up a set of stairs and down a short hall to a locked door. Using the key he just got, he goes through and finds a very long hallway. Blocking the path, however, is two skulls.
"Oh, umm... I guess I'll just move those..." Link says.
As Link lifts a skull to move it out of the way, the pathway trembles violently!
"Oh no! This can't be good!" Link exclaims.
He tosses the skull as he runs and it just happens to hit a mini Helmasaur. As he glances behind himself, he realizes that the path is quickly crumbling and falling into the abyss! Lifting a skull on the other end, Link just barely makes it before the rest of the pathway falls away.
"That... That was frightening... I don't think I can even escape now!" Link says, glancing at where the path once stood, "Well, maybe there is a backdoor somewhere..."
Looking around, Link finds two doors, one on either side of him. The first door is locked, but the other one isn't, so Link heads to the unlocked room first. Upon entering the unlocked room, four Terrorpins charge at Link at once.
"Oh no! Not more of these guys!" Link cries out, just barely making it past them.
In the center of the room is another treasure chest so Link goes to open that before the Terrorpins can turn around and advance on him again. From this one room, there are three new passages. Two of the passages are stairwells leading downstairs, while the third is another locked door.
"Well, that's two locked doors... I'm going to assume that a key or a way out is down these stairs," Link comments, still avoiding getting hit by Terrorpins as he thinks.
There isn't really much to decide on as the clear path is to take one of the stairwells.
"Alright, I'll check down the left stairwell first," Link decides.
Link walks around the Terrorpins and enters the basement. It is very dark down there so he takes out his lantern and attaches it to his belt.
"Good thing I have a lantern," Link comments.
It still is pretty dark, but the lantern allows Link to see a little bit of his surroundings. The light of the lantern glistens off of many objects strewn across the floor. Meanwhile, Antifairies are bouncing around.
"Oh, that's a lot of Blue Rupees!" Link exclaims.
He goes and picks up as many as he can before finding a treasure chest at the end of the room.
"Is this a key?" Link asks.
It is, in deed, a key in that chest. Link takes the key and turns, heading back up the stairs.
"Now I wonder what is down the right stairwell..." Link wonders out loud.
'It leads to the same area,' the voice in Link's head says.
"Oh, I guess I could have gone through either door, then..." Link says.
'The quickest way to make progress is through the door on the other side of the room with the disappearing walkway.'
"But what about this door?" Link asks, pointing to the middle door.
'That one isn't actually important, but if you really want to, I guess you can. It's just that you will not be able to go into the other room.'
"Oh, that is a fair point," Link says.
He returns to the room with the disappearing walkway, but the walkway has returned.
"Oh! I guess I could get out of here," Link says.
He unlocks the next door across the hall from the Terrorpins room and enters. Like the basement, this room is incredibly dark.
"Another dark room... I can barely see anything..." Link says.
As Link says this, however, some Green Kodongos shoot fire, lighting up the room temporarily in some spots.
"Ah! Fire!" Link yelps, almost getting hit by one of the fire balls.
Nearly blind to his surroundings with just a small ring of light and the occasional glow of Kodongo flames, Link feels his way around. As it turns out, this room is a giant maze!
"Ouch!" Link groans as a Kodongo manages to torch him.
Link slashes and hits the Kodongo that struck him with fire. It dies from a single slash and vanishes.
"They aren't very strong in defense," Link states out loud, "But they sure do hurt offensively!"
There are two treasure chests in the southern half of the maze. Link finds them while feeling around and opens them up. The first chest contains bombs, but the second chest contains another small key.
"Now that's useful... And is that a little bit of light I see up ahead?" Link wonders, moving about the maze.
As Link suspected, the wall is a bit cracked in one spot and a little bit of light is shining through. Link places a bomb in front of the crack and backs up, hands on his ears. The bomb takes down the whole weakened section of the wall, revealing the big chest that was visible from the crumbling bridge.
"Ah! Okay, this must be something very useful!" Link says.
He opens the chest and pulls out a large hammer.
"A big hammer!" Link exclaims, "...What can I do with this...?"
'Link, this is the Magic Hammer. You can use it to break down barriers and defeat enemies that once were too tough to beat,' Sahasrahla says, psychically.
"Oh, like those turtles?" Link asks.
'Exactly. Also, if you wish to return to the start of the dungeon quickly, just gaze into the Magic Mirror!' Sahasrahla says.
"Oh, sounds like a good idea. Thanks, Sahasrahla!" Link says.
A Kodongo shoots fire at Link and burns him.
"Ouch! Yeah, I better get out of here as soon as possible!" Link says.
He takes out his Magic Mirror and teleports back to the start of the dungeon. Link then proceeds to exploring around the palace, testing out the Magic Hammer on various enemies. The Terrorpins no longer stand a chance against Link!
"Whoo! This is fun!" Link exclaims, knocking three Terrorpins over at once.
Next, he defeats a bunch of hardhat beetles with the hammer in the room he went through previously to reach the collapsing bridge.
"I don't think I took this path yet..." Link comments, looking at yet another door, "I guess I'll give it a looksie!"
The next room is empty of enemies. Instead, there is a heavy door blocking the way forward, four statues, and six skulls. Link climbs the stairs to the door and knocks on it. Nothing happens.
"The door won't open... And it is much too heavy to lift... Maybe my hammer can solve this problem!" Link decides.
He slams his hammer into the door, but all that happens is a shock wave is sent up his arm, causing him to yelp.
"AGH! THAT HURTS!" Link wails.
Frustrated, Link picks up the skulls and tosses them, watching them shatter onto the floor. Much to his surprise, under one of the skulls is a switch!
"A switch!" Link exclaims.
Link steps on the switch and the door opens, but the moment he gets off of the switch, the door closes again.
"Oh darn... It's a weighted switch..." Link groans and holds his head, "Maybe my hammer can help!"
Link sets his hammer on the switch and it weighs it down, allowing him to enter the next room.
'Link, you might not want to leave your hammer on that switch...' the mysterious voice in Link's head warns him.
"Then how else am I supposed to weigh down the switch?" Link asks in confusion.
Meanwhile, a red Gorriyah shoots a fire ball at him.
"Ouch! Cut it out! I'm trying to talk to the voice in my head!" Link yells.
'Don't forget that your power gloves allow you to move heavy objects,' the voice says.
Link walks out of the Gorriyah room and back into the room with the statues. He reclaims his hammer and the door shuts again. After a lot of thinking and trial and error, Link finally figures out that he needs to use one of the four statues to hold down the switch.
"I did it! That took forever!" Link exclaims.
'Great job,' the voice says.
From there, Link defeats the three Gorryiahs and battles many Terrorpins on his way down the narrow winding path to the basement.
"Okay! That's the last Terrorpin!" Link announces as he strikes one last Terrorpin at the door to the boss room.
Link unlocks the door and steps in. As the fox from earlier said, there is a huge scorpion living in the basement!
"Alright, I hear your name is Helmasaur King? Well, today is the day you will be defeated!" Link cries out.
Helmasaur King screeches at Link and starts attacking him with his claws.
'You'll need more than just a sword to get past his armor!' the words of the fox echo through Link's mind.
"Maybe my hammer can help!" Link decides.
Link takes out his hammer and runs at Helmasaur King, surprising him. Unsure of what to do, Helmasaur King attempts to strike Link with his tail. Link narrowly dodges that attack and slams his hammer into the plated mask over Helmasaur King's face. A bit of the mask chips off.
"Ah-hah! So the hammer is the key to winning!" Link proclaims.
He keeps on chipping away at the mask with his hammer while Helmasaur King continues trying to injure him. As Link keeps slamming his hammer into the mask, it grows weaker and weaker.
"One more hit should do it!" Link says.
Helmasaur manages to strike Link again, injuring him pretty badly.
"OOOOOUCH!" Link wails.
'Come on, strike Helmasaur again,' the voice in Link's head encourages.
"He's so strong..." Link moans, trying to get back up.
Helmasaur strikes Link again, causing him to fly and hit the back wall. His cap falls over his eyes as he lands.
'He's almost defeated... Get back up,' the voice says.
"I don't have enough strength left..." Link moans, "I can't even lift the hammer..."
Helmasaur King approaches to strike Link again. The vibrations caused by his heavy foot steps jiggle the hammer closer to Link. Link takes a deep breath, grabs the hammer, and strikes Helmasaur again. The helmet completely shatters and falls to the ground, exposing a soft emerald green bubble.
'There's the weak spot!' the voice calls out.
Link draws The Master Sword and slashes at the green bubble. Helmasaur roars, but doesn't move out of the way, so Link keeps on slashing over and over again until the entire scorpion breaks apart in purple smoke.