Hyrule Castle (Twilight Princess)

Hyrule Castle is the final dungeon featured in Twilight Princess.

Entrance to the Dungeon

In order to enter the castle, Link and Midna need the power of the three Fused Shadows. Midna then uses them to obliterate the crystal surrounding the castle, granting them access to the castle's courtyard.

Themes and Navigation

Hyrule Castle's main hall

In one of the courtyard's areas, the west area, the young hero is forced to have his last fight with King Bulblin who, after his defeat, gives Link the key that opens the main door to the interior of the castle. In the east route, a longer track houses various enemies and puzzles, leading to another key.

The main hall of the castle consists of a large room with various chandeliers that Link must Clawshot to in order to access the rest of the castle's chambers. Once he enters one of the rooms of the main hall, the young hero will encounter a Darknut and, after his defeat, Link will have the option of either taking the left or right path of the castle. Both paths lead back out to the balcony of Hyrule Castle, where in the east side Link battles against an Aeralfos to retrieve a Small Key. Just as the young hero walks over to the west side of the castle, a group of enemies springs an ambush against Link; however, the Resistance, which consists of Shad, Ashei, Auru, and Rusl, come in to save Link from a seemingly fatal attack. The Boss Key is then available for its collection.

In the middle of the balcony is another door that leads to the final area of the dungeon, making way to the third and fourth floors. As Link progresses through these last two floors, he must use his abilities as Wolf Link to make it safely across various traps; moreover, since the stairs leading to the upper floors have been destroyed, Link will have to use both the Double Clawshots and the Spinner to successfully reach the fourth floor. The door on the fourth floor, which leads to the outside of Hyrule Castle and eventually to the throne room, is blocked off by a Darknut, whom Link easily defeats.

At the throne room, Link and Midna come face-to-face with Ganondorf, who uses Princess Zelda as his puppet in an attempt to defeat the young hero. Link, equipped with the Master Sword, promptly defeats Puppet Zelda, and Midna uses her powers to extract Ganondorf's evil influence from the princess. It is here that Ganondorf transforms into the Dark Beast Ganon. After defeating Ganondorf's beast form, Midna will attempt to finish him off, warping Link and Zelda to Hyrule Field. The two witness a giant explosion which seemingly destroys the castle, but Hyrule Castle later appears intact during the credits sequence.

Minor Enemies and Traps

Trivia

While regular enemies can be found in the grounds outside the castle and they will eventually respawn, practically all enemies Link encounters inside the castle proper are part of scripted events of some kind, whether one-time multi-enemy battles or mini-boss fights. For this reason, practically all enemies inside the castle itself will never respawn once defeated, and therefore in a file saved at the last possible opportunity the interior of the castle will contain no enemies. The sole exception is a single Rat found in a suit of armor.
Hyrule Castle contains one more Small Key than is necessary to complete it. Finding the extra key allows Link to unlock a door next to the boss door. This door leads into a stockroom filled with treasure chests containing large amounts of money and consumable items such as Bombs and Arrows. This room contains every type of non-bottled consumable item in the game, including every type of Rupee.