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How to unlock the Color Dungeon in Link’s Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX for Game Boy Color rather fittingly introduced the Color Dungeon, an optional dungeon with color-themed puzzles. Along with the ocarina and the trading sequence, it makes a return in the Nintendo Switch version of Link’s Awakening. If you’ve never played Link’s Awakening or need a refresher, here’s what you need to enter the hidden Color Dungeon.

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How to unlock the Color Dungeon

1. Get the Power Bracelet

The Color Dungeon isn’t accessible without the Power Bracelet. Don’t worry, though. The Power Bracelet can be found in Bottle Grotto, the second main dungeon in Link’s Awakening.

2. Get the Pegasus Boots

While you don’t technically need the Pegasus Boots to enter the Color Dungeon, you miss some of the lore if you don’t have Link’s speedy boots. The Pegasus Boots are found in Key Cavern, the third main dungeon in Link’s Awakening.

3. Head to the library

Link's Awakening Library

If you don’t have the Pegasus Boots yet or don’t care about the full process, you can skip this step and just use our instructions in the cemetery section below.

The Village Library is located in the southwest corner of Mabe Village. Once inside, you’ll see a book perched precariously on the bookshelf along the back wall.

Use the Pegasus Boots to dash to the bookshelf to knock the mysterious volume to the floor. The book is titled The Hidden Power of Color. The tome tells of a world of color hidden in the graveyard. It also gives you the clue shown below.

Link's Awakening Clue

4. Go to the cemetery

Link's Awakening Cemetary

Head to the southeast corner of the cemetery (just north of Ukuku Prairie). You’ll see five headstones. Using the clues from the book as noted above, here’s what you need to do, in this order:

  1. Push the bottom-right grave down.
  2. Push the bottom-left grave left.
  3. Push the top-left grave up.
  4. Push the top-center grave right.
  5. Push the top-right grave up.

Tada! Cue that discovery music, because you just revealed a hidden staircase.

Welcome to the Color Dungeon

Link's Awakening Color Dungeon

The Color Dungeon isn’t large, but some of the rooms have tricky puzzles. The rooms with the multicolored blocks are the most challenging. In these rooms, you have to slash the blocks with your sword.

The end goal is to turn all of the orbs blue. When you slash one block, all adjacent blocks shift. So you have to tinker with it for a while, especially in the room with a 3-by-3 grid near the boss.

Don’t forget to grab your rupees

Link's Awakening Rupees

In the first room with an owl statue (the third room in the dungeon), you can bomb the south wall right in the center. Do so and you’ll reveal a room filled with blue rupees.

Red or blue mail

Link's Awakening Fairy Queen

After defeating the Color Dungeon main boss (just smack it with your sword a bunch of times), you’ll find the Fairy Queen. She’ll offer you a choice between red and blue mail.

You can’t go wrong with either one, but they provide polar opposite benefits. The red mail increases attack power, and the blue mail increases your defense.

Keep in mind that you can return to the Fairy Queen at any time to switch your current outfit and even go back to the classic green tunic. We don’t recommend returning to the green tunic, unless you simply like the look and don’t care about the buffs.

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Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
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