Turtle Rock (Disambiguation)

Turtle Rock is a dungeon found in both A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. In its first appearance in A Link to the Past, it was the next-to-last dungeon of the game, and housed the final crystal containing Princess Zelda. In Link's Awakening, it is the eighth and final dungeon of the game and houses the Thunder Drum.

A Link to the Past
In A Link to the Past, Turtle Rock is the seventh dungeon of the Dark World, and eleventh in the main game. It can only be accessed by using a warp point on the eastern peak of Death Mountain. This will warp Link to the roof of the dungeon, where he must use the Quake Medallion to open the entrance.

This dungeon is unique in that its interior looks more like an incredibly extended cavern, instead of having a man-made architecture; likewise, the Cane of Somaria (previously won in Misery Mire) shows a new function here: it creates platforms that can travel across floating rails, which help Link to fully explore this dungeon, as well as to find torches that must be lit; this also means that a lot of magic power is required (in fact, that's an advice given to Link by Sahasrahla at the start of the dungeon).

Some interesting references to the Mario series occur here as well: Chain Chomps make their debut, and warp pipes carry Link from spot to spot. Similar to the Skull Woods, there are multiple exits, one of them even leads Link to an apparently empty dead end, but guards a Piece of Heart in the Light World. But there's more: this is the only location in the game with lava, and it's harmless since Link cannot fall into it. This dungeon houses the Mirror Shield, useful to repel more powerful projectiles, and the final crystal (containing Princess Zelda) is guarded by Trinexx.

After Link clears this tough dungeon, he can access the final dungeon, which is only a few steps west (where the Tower of Hera would be in the Light World).

Link's Awakening
Turtle Rock is the eighth and last of the main dungeons in Link's Awakening. The entrance to the dungeon is located on the far west of Koholint Island's Tal Tal Mountain Range. Its entrance is a cave guarded by two Takkuri and a stone head of a turtle, which also has stone arms sticking out of the mountain walls. To reach the dungeon, Link had to travel through a few caves from the center of Tal Tal Heights and would eventually encounter a cannon spewing out an endless supply of fireballs, preventing Link from going any further. However by using the Mirror Shield that he had obtained from the seventh dungeon, Eagle's Tower, Link managed to get passed the fireballs unharmed and could continue his journey, where he eventually managed to reach Turtle Rock's entrance.

Since Link can get the Mirror Shield from Eagle's Tower before beating its boss, it's possible for him to enter Turtle Rock before clearing the Eagle's Tower dungeon. There was however a stone head blocking the way, but by playing the Frog's Song of Soul on his ocarina that he had learned from Mamu, the stone head suddenly sprang with life and became the dangerous Turtle Head who attacked Link. After Link had defeated the Turtle Head, the entrance to the inside of the dungeon was finally unblocked forever. The interior of this dungeon appears to be a volcano, as there are many lava pits scattered throughout certain rooms. The walls are red and the floors are yellow. There is also a back room in the dungeon, which takes Link to the peak of western Tal Tal Heights and to the room with the Dodongo Snakes. The side rooms are the complete opposite, as they seem to be frozen and have normally indestructible ice blocks.

This dungeon is notable for the fact that it features many previously encountered mini-bosses as enemies, many which have to be defeated for a small key or to move on. Some of these include Vire, Hinox, Smasher, Dodongo Snakes and Rolling Bones. These mini-bosses however act like normal enemies, as they will reappear at a later time. The true mini-bosses of this dungeon are Fire Cephalopod and Blaino, who will never reappear again once they've been defeated.

The main tool of this dungeon is the Magic Rod, which is necessary to burn away the ice blocks and to defeat the dungeon's boss, Hot Head, who guards the eighth and final Instrument of the Siren, the Thunder Drum.

When viewed on a map, the dungeon is in the shape of a turtle with a shell, which obviously fits the theme of the exterior of this dungeon. As with A Link to the Past, this dungeon's name is a reference that the outside mountain walls has two feet sticking out, giving it the impression of a turtle. However unlike A Link to the Past, Turtle Rock in Link's Awakening actually has a turtle head.

Trivia

 * In the Game Boy Advance remake of A Link to the Past, Link can warp to the Light World equivalent of the dungeon's entrance. Thanks to this, he can backtrack from Turtle Rock or even Ganon's Tower without having to traverse the body of Death Mountain again.
 * The Link's Awakening version of this dungeon, makes it the only dungeon in the Zelda series that has a boss directly guarding its entrance.
 * The Strategy-game Warcraft III - The Frozen Throne featured a map for multi-player matches called Turtle Rock, though it is never stated officially that this is a reference to the dungeons.
 * Hackers believe that the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time was originally intended to be Turtle Rock.