Dungeons are as integral to The Legend of Zelda series as Link or the titular Princess Zelda. Since the first game in the series, players have been tasked with searching through these dungeons for special items and defeating powerful boss monsters. Each dungeon presents its own set of puzzles to solve and enemies to defeat, but not all of them are equally difficult.
Some dungeons from the Zelda franchise present challenging combat scenarios, while others include tricky mechanics that make just navigating the dungeon difficult. These more difficult dungeons are likely to stick out in players' minds and grant them a sense of accomplishment when they finally conquer the level.
Updated May 17th, 2023 by Casey Coates: Now that Tears of the Kingdom has officially released, now is the perfect time to review the hardest Legend of Zelda dungeons from previous games. This list has been updated to include gameplay clips for the included levels.
15 Eagle's Tower
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Link's first portable adventure deviated from the usual premise of saving Hyrule from the clutches of Ganon with a more offbeat and meta adventure. Link's Awakening was a great entry point for non-Zelda fans. It represented a massive shift in both hardware, setting, and mechanics as it incorporated new gameplay elements with the standard formula, such as platforming.
With its numerous floors, its crystal switch gimmick, and its sheer length, the seventh dungeon is easily the toughest section in the game. Eagle's Tower is a large and utterly confusing affair where players are tasked with destroying all four columns and locating the mirror shield. Acquiring the boomerang beforehand is highly recommended.
14 Maze Island Palace
The Legend Of Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link
Maze Island Palace serves as a showcase for Zelda II's most frustrating and idiosyncratic design choices. Just getting to the actual dungeon is already an ordeal thanks to the several encounters players will have to go through on the aforementioned island.
In addition, players are forced to locate a missing child and trek all the way back to Darunia in order to acquire a spell that's essential to beating the dungeon. Mercifully, the actual boss Carock is an absolute pushover. Players simply have to duck and throw the wizard's spells back at him.
13 Turtle Rock
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
The Dark World dungeons in Link to the Past are easily the most daunting sections in the entire adventure, and they'll test any player's mastery over the game's core mechanics. Its numerous spiked rollers, block switches, constant projectiles, and more make Turtle Rock one chore of a dungeon.
Link makes his way towards this area in Death Mountain to acquire both the mirror shield and the seventh crystal. Its maze-like design is not at all helped by the numerous tubes and the Helmasaurs that can fling unwary players towards pits. Woe upon thee to any player who stumbles upon this domain without first acquiring the Ice Rod.
12 The Shadow Temple
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Deep within the tranquil Kakariko Village lies the most foreboding location in the darker game, Ocarina of Time. Players must steel their courage and prepare to face several undead nightmares such as the Stalfos, the Redeads, and the dreaded Dead Hand. What's more, the original N64 version once again incorporates an annoying design choice.
Like the iron boots in the Water Temple, the hover boots must be tediously equipped and mapped to the c-buttons. At the end of this foreboding domain lies the dreaded Bongo Bongo. His silly name belies his frustrating nature, as players' attacks are constantly interrupted by the bouncing of his bongo-like arena.
11 Three-Eye Rock Palace
The Legend Of Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link
Once players level Link up and gain new magical spells, they might think that the rest of The Legend Of Zelda II will be a breeze. Three-Eye Rock Palace's fake floors, brutally tough enemies, and bottomless pits will humble any players who think they're in for a cakewalk.
Even if they find the right path, players still have to battle the formidable dragon Barba at the end. Not only does his size make him hard to hit, but falling into the fiery pit at any point means instant death. Once again, running out of lives means trekking all the way back to the dungeon from North Castle.
10 The Water Temple
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Water Temple has long been considered one of the most challenging dungeons in the Zelda franchise. The dungeon is filled with water, and players can change the water level using specific spots in the dungeon. Solving the dungeon requires figuring out which level to set the water in order to visit specific rooms.
Players will likely have to go through a lot of trial and error on their first run through the dungeon. On top of this, some keys are so difficult to find that many players mistakenly believe they need to restart the entire game if they use one on the wrong door.
9 The City In The Sky
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Players making their way through Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' City in the Sky are met with a seriously challenging dungeon layout. Thanks to the dungeon's introduction of the double clawshot, players must navigate a dungeon unlike any other in Zelda history.
The double clawshot allows players to hang from a point on the wall and grapple their way over to another without touching the ground. The creators built The City in the Sky around this mechanic, forcing players to keep their bearings while hanging on to spinning obstacles. This is definitely a dungeon players will want to find the map and compass for.
8 The Sand Ship
The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
When Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was first released, many players were swept up by the revolutionary nature of the Wii's controls to examine them critically. As motion controls have improved, players have realized just how clunky and frustrating the old Skyward Sword mechanics really were.
The Sand Ship dungeon is far from Zelda's most complicated in terms of puzzles, but the Wii's lackluster controls make combat needlessly difficult. Because Sand Ship involves several combat scenarios that require precise control of Link's sword, these factors unintentionally make the dungeons one of the most difficult in the series.
7 The Great Palace
Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a unique game in the series, seemingly taking more inspiration from Castlevania than from the first Legend of Zelda. Zelda II also stands out for being a bit more difficult than other games in the series, forcing players to start from the beginning if they run out of lives.
Zelda II's punishing life system means that its final dungeon, The Great Palace, proves to be even more difficult as players are likely running low on lives when they finally reach the dungeon. The dungeon itself is also tricky to navigate and includes two of the game's toughest bosses: Thunderbird and Dark Link.
6 The Stone Tower Temple
The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Stone Tower Temple in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask tells players it's going to be a real obstacle right away. Just getting to the front door requires players to play the Elegy of Emptiness a frustrating amount of times, and things only get worse inside.
The dungeon uses a mechanic that has players flipping the map on its head. To navigate Stone Tower Temple, players must consistently flip the dungeon's orientation back and forth, meaning each room needs to be examined from two different angles to solve puzzles.
5 The Spirit Temple
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest
Back in 2003, as a pre-order bonus for Wind Waker, Nintendo released a two-game disc for the GameCube that included Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its more difficult version Master Quest. This version completely redesigned the dungeons from the game to make them more challenging, and on the 3DS version, it mirrored the game world to add an extra layer of disorientation.
Unfortunately, redesigning an existing game with the sole purpose of making it more difficult led to Master Quest feeling more needlessly complicated than a well-designed challenge. The worst offender of this was the Spirit Temple, featuring a variety of puzzle elements that felt disconnected. This made completing the dungeon tedious, frustrating, more difficult than the original stream-lined version.
4 The Ice Palace
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
2D Zelda games like A Link to the Past require players to have precise timing when navigating Link through dangerous situations. What makes the Ice Palace dungeon so challenging is that it robs players of the tight controls they've become accustomed to.
Most rooms in the ice palace have icy floors that cause Link to slide around, making his movement much more slippery than players are used to. This makes navigating around enemies and through traps much more challenging than in other dungeons.
3 The Great Bay Temple
The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Just like how Majora's Mask is a sequel to Ocarina of Time, the Great Bay Temple is a spiritual sequel to the Water Temple. There's water manipulation, a tricky layout, and lots of backtracking before players realize they've missed something important.
What makes the Great Bay Temple even harder than the Water Temple is Majora's Mask's time mechanic. Players will have to navigate the entire dungeon within the three-day time limit or else they'll have to go back to the beginning.
2 Palace Of The Winds
The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Zelda players are familiar with dungeons introducing new items that change the way they traverse the game world. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap gives players the Roc's Cape in the Palace of the Winds, which allows players to jump and glide through the air.
This cool new mechanic leads to some pretty difficult platforming challenges involving several far drops and some annoying giant fans. Even though this dungeon is difficult, it's also a lot of fun, which makes it more manageable to play through.
1 Level 9 In Second Quest
The Legend Of Zelda (NES)
Despite having 36 years to top it, The Legend of Zelda for the NES still boasts the most difficult dungeon in Zelda history. After beating the game, gamers can play through on a more difficult mode known as Second Quest, which makes the already difficult dungeons even worse.
The final dungeon, Level 9, becomes the ultimate test of skill for Zelda players during Second Quest. There are tons of rooms full of some of the game's most challenging enemies. Players will have to make their way through up to 48 rooms without dying and then defeat Ganon in order to conquer Second Quest.