Palace of Darkness

The Palace of Darkness, also known as the Dark Palace or simply Level 1, is the first dungeon of the Dark World in A Link to the Past, and the fifth dungeon overall.

Entrance to the Palace
It is located in the east, in the area were first stood the Eastern Palace. Access to the dungeon is granted by walking through the maze. Eventually, a monkey named Kiki follows Link and asks for ten rupees. Link gives him the requested amount and continues towards the dungeon. There, the monkey will offer to reveal the dungeon's entrance for one hundred more rupees. Link gives him these as well and the monkey opens the dungeon for Link by hopping onto an otherwise inaccessible switch.

Themes and Navigation
This dungeon introduces a greater level of danger than those found in the Light World. Link will encounter special ledges that allow him to perform an auto-jump when he runs off of them. In addition, some objects can push Link if he touches them, as will some enemies. Certain creatures mimic Link's moves (much like the statues controlled by the Dominion Rod in Twilight Princess,) and should one of these enemies face Link directly, it will fire a beam at him. This dungeon's treasure is the Magic Hammer, which is used to remove hardened obstacles. The boss is the Helmasaur King, an enlarged Helmasaur After defeating him Link receives a Heart Container and the first crystal.

A Link to the Past comic
The Palace of Darkness is also featured in the A Link to the Past comic. After being told by Zora that a Maiden is imprisoned in the nearby palace, Link decides to go and rescue the maiden. Before leaving, Zora allows Link to take Epheremelda as a guide and grants him the Zora's Mask to disguise himself and not look so conspicuous as he is sneaking around the palace.

The duo arrive to the Palace of Darkness and eventually reach the storeroom with the firecorn explosives, and although Link had been able to sneak around with the Zora's Mask without being noticed, he is discovered by a Rocklops. The Rocklops warns Link of what could happen if he set off the firecorns in the palace, but the young hero disregards his warning and takes a Hinox's bomb belt that was wrapped around it. Link then stumbles into the imprisoned crystal, but is attacked by a Gleeock  that was called upon by the Rocklops. Although he defeats it easily  with the Master Sword, soon more Hinoxs riding Gleeocks begin to head   towards him. Link gives Epheremelda ones of the bombs from the Hinox's belt, which  eventually denotes the firecorn stockpile and destroys the entire   palace. This allows the maiden to be freed from the crystal, who thanks  Link and grants him a relic called the Comm-Fork.