Ice Ruins

The 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. The Hookshot and the Fire Rod are required to access the Ice Ruins, and its boss is Dharkstare.

Entrance to the Ruins
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.

After defeating Dharkstare, Link acquires a Heart Container and frees Sage Rosso.

Items
The Big Key can be acquired early on. Floor B5 contains only the chest with the Big Key inside; Link can take the main elevator from the dungeon entrance all the way down to get it. The Compass is in the southeast area of floor B1 in a chest that can be immediately accessed.

The Ice Ruins also contains a Stamina Scroll. It is located on the east platform of the southern room on floor B3. The only way to access it is from floor B2; a lever must be pulled in the central room of B2 that removes a platform above the chest.