Ice Ruins

The Ice Ruins is a dungeon in. It is the remains of a hall that was buried and destroyed by the ice resulting from the perpetual winter conditions in Lorule's Death Mountain. Theme-wise, it is the counterpart of the Ice Palace in the Dark World but location-wise it is the counterpart of the Dark World's Turtle Rock.

Location
To reach the dungeon, Link must traverse both Hyrule's and Lorule's Death Mountains. He must first use the Hookshot to cross a broken bridge east from the Tower of Hera and then descend through a volcanic cavern to reach Rosso's Ore Mine. Link must then pass through a Fissure outside to access that region of Lorule's Death Mountain, then ascend through an icy cavern to reach the Ice Ruins entrance area.

Themes and Navigation
Entering and exploring the depths of the Ice Ruins relies heavily on the use of the Fire Rod. It is full of frozen blocks and enemies, as well as slippery floors. It also contains platforms of very thin ice that crack the longer Link stays on them and eventually shatter causing Link to fall through. Using the Ice Rod when these platforms crack repairs them whereas using the Fire Rod destroys them. If they shatter from Link's weight or are melted with the Fire Rod, they will crystallize and reintegrate to their original form in a matter of seconds. The dungeon has a large number of floors and its layout is based around a central column with a long cyclic chain of floating blocks acting as an elevator system. Areas peripheral to this central column are mostly a network of walkways and platforms over a deep chasm. Although there are cubical blocks of ice that Link can Wall Merge into and walk around, there are also more naturally shaped ice crystals that can be destroyed with the Fire Rod and may contain various objects. The central puzzle theme of the Ice Ruins is moving the central column from floor to floor by pulling the tongues of certain gargoyle statues.

The miniboss of the Ice Ruins is a Big Pengator accompanied by a horde of normal-sized Pengators. Defeating them produces a portal linking their room, on one of the lower floors, to the dungeon entrance. The boss of the Ice Ruins is Dharkstare.