Face Shrine

"...SHRINE... An island secret in the shrine..."

- Link's Awakening

Face Shrine is the sixth dungeon in Link's Awakening and the location of the Coral Triangle. The entrance, located in Koholint Island's river area which is also referred to as 'Face Shrine' in-game, is settled on a piece of land next to the cliffs separating it from the Rapids Ride. It is surrounded by some Armos Statues, much like the area with the Southern Face Shrine, but to a lesser extent. The item hidden in this dungeon is the L-2 Power Bracelet, while the mini-boss is a beast called Smasher. The boss, who may give the dungeon its name, is Facade, a giant face in the floor of the room.

Entrance to the Shrine
Before going to the Face Shrine, Link is directed to the Southern Face Shrine by the Owl

Inside the Southern Face Shrine is a large Armos Knight that Link has to defeat. After obtaining the Face Key inside and reading the inscriptions on the wall, travels to the larger northern Face Shrine. In the river next to the Face Shrine, Link finds a much smaller island that he can access. An Armos Statue is blocking a stairway, which leads to the piece of land where the Face Shrine stands. After putting the key into its face-shaped keyhole, the shrine rises from the ground and become accessible.

Themes and Navigation
The interior of the dungeon is mostly brown flooring with pink walls. One region is flooded by swallow water. An important obstacle in this dungeon is large Elephant Statues, which are too heavy to be lifted with the L-1 Power Bracelet, but can be lifted with the L-2 Bracelet.

Smasher, the mini-boss, attacks exclusively by throwing a large ball at Link, and is invulnerable to conventional attacks. Link must throw the ball at the creature after dodging its attacks. The mini-boss room is located in a secret room that is not on the dungeon map; it is in the "eye" of the "face" that the dungeon forms. It can only be accessed by bombing the wall in the room to the south of it. The other eye also hides a room.

Many of the puzzles of the dungeon revolve around orange crystals that can be raised and lowered by striking orbs. Another puzzle is just past the mini-boss room, where a normal looking room is located. This room has an exit to the north, however it warps Link back to another room to the south of it. The correct exit to this room is a stairway beneath an elephant statue.

The boss of the dungeon is Facade, a giant face in the floor. He makes the tiles of the floor and the pots in the room attack Link, then attacks by creating holes. His weak point is his face, which can be hurt when it appears.

As previously mentioned, when looked on a map, the dungeon is in the shape of what could be a face, with the leftmost and rightmost rooms possibly being in the shape of ears. Faces are a reoccurring theme in this dungeon, as evident by the shape of the dungeon, the boss being a face on a floor, and the keyhole outside in the shape of a green face. There are also a few rooms that have blocks inside which make up the likeness of a face.

Trivia

 * Because the only thing the L-2 Power Bracelet allows Link to pick up that he couldn't before is the elephant statues, the upgrade is completely irrelevant to gameplay outside of this dungeon.
 * The map of the Face Shrine looks like the face of Link's sprite in the original Legend of Zelda for the NES.