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Cave of Ordeals Walkthrough Guide
Guide by Tai exclusively for Hyrule.net
The Cave of Ordeals is a massive series of rooms underground in which you must kill all monsters in each room to gain access to the next. Making it all the way through the 50 floors is difficult, rewarding, and long. I personally also find it fun but that could just be me...
This guide is made with the Wii version of Twilight Princess. This mainly means that some directions, such as East and West, might be mirrored. Just something to keep in mind.
The entrance is located in the Southeast of the Gerudo Desert on top of a mesa. At first the entrance is blocked but story events make it so that a portal opens above the mesa removing the obstacle. This also allows you to directly teleport to the cave's entrance. Throughout the adventure you will meet the Great Fairy at every tenth level. Each time she offers you your only way of leaving the cave besides dying. Talking to her will also release fairies in different spirit springs as well as her letting you know which item will be needed to continue on deeper into the cave. Getting to the end will net you free refills of Great Fairy Tears from any spirit spring. A very nice concoction that FULLY restores health and gives a temporary boost of strength. It's too bad that you can only have one bottle of it at a time though.
For this extremely long test of endurance it is best to assume, and recommended, that you have:
* The more hearts the better, like 15 or more
* Multiple Bottles
* Blue Potion and good healing stuff in said bottles (Great Fairy Tears and Rare Chu Jelly are REALLY nice)
* A large and full quiver of arrows
* At least two bomb bags full of bombs (only normal bombs are actually needed)
* Have the Spinner, Ball and Chain, Dominion Rod, and Double Clawshot to get to their respective levels of the cave
* The time and patience to try to go all the way since if you leave or die you have to start over from the beginning
* Do not ever wear the Zora Armor. There are many fire and ice enemies in the Cave of Ordeals. If you want to take double damage or like a challenge then go right ahead...
I did not know that some rooms have more enemies in it after you have beaten the Cave of Ordeals for the first time when I at first went through it. As such, in some rooms there actually may be a monster or two LESS if it is your first time through. People that know what actual quantities of monsters are in the rooms that do change on subsequent Cave of Ordeals trials are encouraged to let me know so that I may update this list of floors.
Floors 1 to 10
Floor 1
Enemies: 1x Bokoblin (Looks like a purple goblin)
Tactics: Just jump down and attack him. Not much to this one.
Floor 2Enemies: 3x Keese (Normal Bats)
3x Rats
Tactics: Again, another one where you just jump down to the middle and kill the Keese that will then rush you. After that
comes some quick and simple rat hunting/chasing.
Floor 3
Enemies: 4x Deku Babas (3 of which are on the ceiling)
Tactics: Can Clawshot the ones on the ceiling to make them fall on the ground. After that you will have to jump down and hack
your way through the rest of them.
Useful Hint: When the Deku Babas clamp on to you one good way to get them off is to do the spin attack. It also hurts them
at the same time.
Wolf Sense: One dig spot under the Deku Baba sprout in the middle of the room. Contains 1 heart!
Floor 4Enemies: 3x Skulltulas (Giant Spiders with skull image on their back)
Tactics: The Skulltulas like to block your attack with their front legs so you can wait until they raise their forelegs and then
start charging you to get pass their blocking.
-OR-
You can just lock and use the Ball & Chain. It will hit them once on the way out and again when pulling it back thus killing them.  They don't block that.
Floor 5Enemies: 3x Moblin Archers (Moblin Archers always have flaming arrows)
Tactics: I tend to jump down with Hyrulian shield raised up so it deflects their shots. Rolling sometimes helps for dodging.
Useful Hint: -The three are in the back of the room. One to the back left, one back center, another back right.
-They can shoot at you when you are near the edge of the balcony.
Floor 6Enemies: 5x Lava Slugs on the ceiling
4x Lava Slugs on the floor.
Tactics: For the ones on the ceiling, you can clawshot all of them before jumping down. This knocks them down and kills them.
Floor 7Enemies: 5x Fire Keese (They are on fire)
2x Dodongos
Tactics: Jump down, generally avoiding the Dodongos, kill the Fire Keese however you wish, such as with the sword. Then go
after the Dodongos.
Useful Hint: You can wait until the Dodongos charge up then run behind them without locking on and use mortal draw for
a 1-hit KO.
-OR-
You can use the Ball & Chain locked on them for 1-hit KO if they are angled straight at you since the kill comes from hitting their tail. Their head, however; can block hits so sometimes the Ball and Chain won't end up hitting their tail after hitting their head.
Wolf Sense: Near East wall can dig for 3 hearts!
Floor 8Enemies: 4x Red Tektites (They look like giant jumping spiders)
2x Blue Tektites
Tactics: Jump down and use spin attack when they all get close.
Useful Hint: If you don't like for them to come at you from all sides then jump down and let them chase you around the
parameter of the room. This will make it where they are all clumped together making hitting them all with the spin attack much easier.
Floor 9Enemies: On your first Cave of Ordeals play through:
2x Lizalfos (center of room
2x Moblin Archers (right below you)
-OR-
On subsequent playthroughs:
3x Lizalfos (center of room)
4x Moblin Archers (right below you)
Tactics: You can try to pick off two of the archers with arrows if you are fast enough. If not then can always jump down and
let yourself be chased and then spin attack the Lizalfos. With shield in hand can then dispose of the archers.
Floor 10
Great pool of water with the Great Fairy in it. Talk to her to continue on or go back to surface. She will release fairies from the Ordon Spring for now on.
She will also let you know that you need to have the Spinner if you wish to get past the next room.
Warning: Going back to the surface means you have to start back over.
Floors 11 to 20
Floor 11Enemies: 3x Helmasaurs (Hog sounding creatures with perforated metal masks
12x Rats (which appear charging you when you jump down)
Tactics: Since Rats are the main threat when fighting just jump down with sword already unsheathed. Then when the clump of rats
get to you Spin Attack to deal with all of them. Then individually take out the Helmasaurs. Use the spinner on its track in the wall to get to the door.
Useful Hint: Can simply dodge their charge and swipe them in the soft backside a few times. But this proves a little difficult
when there is multiples.
-OR-
You can clawshot their metal helmet and hack away at all of their soft flesh. Also of note right after you clawshot their helmet you can even toss it back at them for some sweet and painful, for them, irony.
Floor 12Enemies: 1x Giant Purple Chu Jelly
Tactics: Jump down and begin the hack and slash because with each hit the Purple Chu Jelly will break into more pieces that
are smaller. I prefer to go it as Wolf Link and constantly use my jump bite attack. I seem to get hit less that way.
Useful Hint: You can shoot a giant one with a bomb arrow to have it seperate into all of its indivual smaller jellies.
Warning: Drinking purple chu jelly can have some very negative results. Such as losing all hearts except for a quarter. It can heal
you sometimes but the risk usually isn't worth it.
Floor 13Enemies: 4x Green Bugs in Water Bubble
Tactics: Simply shoot one of them with a bomb arrow to destroy the bubble. Then hack the exposed bug, which will cowardly
run from you, to death. Repeat for the rest.
Useful Hint: -Do not stand too close to your target when shooting them. The bomb can hurt you too.
-You can also clawshot the green bug out of his little bubble.
Note: You cannot jump inside the bubble if you Clawshot the bug out. Trust me I have tried  The water bubble just takes a
little while to disappear.
Floor 14Enemies: 15x Bubbles (Flying skulls)
Tactics: Jump down, spin attack when they swarm you. Run around hacking at the survivors.
Useful Hint: Sometimes the first hit on one will just not its wings off, which it will eventually regrow. Hit it again when it is on
the ground to finish it off.
Wolf Sense: In front of the door is a dig spot for 100 rupees! xD
Floor 15
Enemies: 10x Moblin Infantry
Tactics: Jump down and begin the slaughterfest.
Floor 16
Enemies: 6x Keese
6x Rats
Tactics: Jump down and simple cut them up. The Keese still charge you when you get close to them.
Useful Hint: If the door doesn't open after you have supposedly killed everything then there is probably a rat still left in some
dark corner since this room is not very well lit.
Floor 17Enemies: 1x Poe (only until you kill it, not there after you take its soul)
10x-ish Zombie Wolfos
Tactics: Kill the Zombie Wolfos with spin attack or whatever while avoiding the Poe. Then calmly take out the Poe in wolf form
and gets its soul.
Wolf Sense: Some people say you can dig in here for 3 hearts. I personally have not found any dig places regardless of
how much I've looked for them.
Floor 18Enemies: 9x-ish Dessert Cactus Spin Monsters
Tactics: Jump down towards the center and don't move. Once they circle you and all start to close in really close you can simply spin attack and kill them all at once.
Wolf Sense: Dig spot right under balcony for 1 heart.
Floor 19
Enemies: 21x-ish Purple Chu Jellies
1x to 2x Red Chu Jelly
1x to 2x Blue Chu Jellies
1x Rare Chu Jelly (if not sparkly then is just yellow, not rare)
Tactics: You may only see one Purple Chu Jelly on the floor but when you jump down all the rest fall from the ceiling.
Useful Hint: Amongst the Purple Chu Jelly army is a Blue, Red, and a Rare Chu Jelly (if you don't already have one in a bottle).
The purples will eat them if you are not quick so if you want their corpse in your bottles kill the colored ones fast.
Floor 20
Great Fairy is here to open the door to continue on as well as offer to send you back to the surface. Talking to her the first time
will make it so she releases fairies in the Faron Spring.
You need the Ball and Chain to continue deeper.
Warning: Going back to the surface will make you start the cave over again.
Floors 21 to 30
Floor 21
Enemies: 5x Ice Keese
5x Bokoblins
Tactics: Jump down, dispose of Ice Keese, dispose of Bokoblins, proceed to next room by breaking the wall of ice.
Warning: If the Ice Keese hit you then you get frozen for a little bit. Not Fun.
Floor 22
Enemies: 5x Keese
7x Rats
10x-ish Twilight Rats
Tactics: Jump down and run around killing everything visible. Change into a wolf and use sense to kill the Twilight Rats. Make
sure you got all of them.
Useful Hint: The spin attack kills the Twilight Rats that are on you.
Wolf Sense: Center of room has dig spot for 3 hearts! <3
Floor 23Enemies: 25x Pygmy Skeletons (they appear after you jump down)
Tactics: Jump and and run along the wall for a while. Turn around and run close to the now small army of midgets, spin attack to
kill vast majority if it not all. Stab survivors with your sword.
Floor 24Enemies: 5x Redeads
Tactics: Jump to the side of the balcony hopefully only waking up one of them. Dispose of them one at a time using the Ball
and Chain, which takes two hits. First hit is throwing, second hit is when you pull it back. Thus a semi 1-hit KO.
Warning: If you get too close they will scream which is so frightening it stuns you while they slowly begin to swing their
sword down upon your startled little head.
Floor 25Enemies: 3x Moblin Archers
7x Moblin Infantry
Tactics: If you don't kill the archer standing on the watchtower before jumping down then go ahead and jump down and run
around killing everything. Then you can use the Ball and Chain to knock down the watchtower and kill the archer.
Useful Hint: -BEFORE you go to this room, while in the previous room you can use the Hawkeye and Hero's Bow to kill him out of
his flaming arrows range. You can't see him but you can see where he is holding his arrows so shoot at that.
-Two of the archers are near the back wall. Only one is up on the watchtower.
Floor 26Enemies: 5x Stalfos
Tactics: Jump down, hit them until they crumble on the ground, BOMB their crumbled remains or they will regenerate. Spin
attack useful for breaking their shields and them even when they all attack you.
Useful Hint: If a standing Stalfos gets hit by a bomb it will die right away and skip the crumbling step.
Floor 27Enemies: 3x Skulltulas (hanging from ceiling)
5x Bubbles (flying skulls)
Tactics: Use Clawshot to break the spider thread. You wouldn't want one of them suddenly jumping onto your head now would
you? You can now either run around avoiding Skulltulas and killing Bubbles and then killing Skulltulas with Ball and Chain. Or simply reverse the order.
Wolf Sense: East wall has a dig spot for 1 heart.
Floor 28Enemies: 2x Lizalfos
6x Bokoblins
Tactics: Jump down and hack away. You can also run along and let them clump while chasing you to which you suddenly turn
around and spin attack them.
Useful Hint: These are the Bokoblins that have a large amount of health. You will probably knock them down
a few times before they die.
Floor 29Enemies: 4x Flaming Bubbles
2x Stalfos
13x Pygmy Skeletons
Tactics: Jump down and hack away at everything that moves. Drop bombs on the Stalfos as they crumble.
Useful Hint: -Bomb Arrows DO NOT WORK on the Stalfos pile while you are up on the balcony. So no need to waste arrows
and bombs trying.
-The Ball and Chain also kills the Stalfos crumbled pile.
Floor 30
Great Fairy room. Talk to her to open the door to go deeper into the cave. Also gives the option to return to the surface, and lets you know that she now releases fairies into the Eldin Spring.
You will need the Dominion Rod to get past the next room.
Warning: Going back to surface means you have to restart cave.
Floors 31 to 40
Floor 31
Enemies: 5x Beamos
7x Keese
Tactics: Shoot three of the Beamos in the red eye before jumping down from the balcony. Then jump down and run to the back
wall. Kill the Keese that follow you. Shoot out the red eye of the two remaining Beamos. Now use the Dominion Rod to make the two statues get OFF of the switches they are respectively standing on and continue to the next room.
Floor 32Enemies: 6x Lava Slugs (located on the ceiling)
6x Fire Keese
6x Flaming Bubbles
2x Dodongos
Tactics: -Shoot down the Lava Slugs from the ceiling with the Clawshot (which kills those ones).
-Jump down and hack away at all the Fire Keese and Flaming Bubbles that are charging at you.
-Dispose of the two Dodongos individually however you should choose.
Floor 33Enemies: 1x Poe (will be here until you kill it and take its soul)
4x Redeads
Tactics: Jump down off the side of the balcony. Kill redeads one at a time the best you can. Kill Poe as a wolf if you haven't
already collected him on previous visits to the Cave of Ordeals.
Warning: If you get too close to the Redeads then their shriek will make you stand there scared for a little bit leaving you open to
be attacked.
Floor 34Enemies: 8x Purple Chu Jellies
1x Red Chu Jelly
1x Yellow Chu Jelly
11x Twilight Rats
Tactics: Jump down and then the Chu Jellies will appear. Dispose of them, I still prefer the Wolf's jump attack, then as wolf kill
the Twilight Rats.
Wolf Sense: Southeast wall has a dig spot for 1 heart near it.
Floor 35Enemies: 6x Ice Keese
1x Freezard (Giant Ice-Wind Blowing Ice Monster from the Frozen Levels of Hell)
4x Mini-Freezards (comes out of the Freezard after you kill it)
Tactics: Jump down and start running in a big circle around the Freezard in the middle of the room. Then while it is trying to catch
up to you hit it with the Ball and Chain. Then QUICKLY hit it again killing it. 4 Mini-Freezards will now be heading at you. Kill them and if any Ice Keese managed to live your Freezard killing then hunt them down and kill them.
-OR-
Jump down and kill the Ice Keese. Then stand outside the Freezard's Ice Breath and right after it stops you have a change to rush in and attack it with the Ball and Chain.
Useful Hint: -If you hit the Freezard with the Ball and Chain it sort of stuns it giving you the time to hit it again if you didn't
get frozen at first.
-If you are not under danger of being attacked by anything else right when you kill the Freezard, then let the mini Freezards run into your Ball and Chain that you are holding. This acts as a shield and sends them sliding away and gives you time to kill them at leisure.
Floor 36Enemies: 4x Ice Knights (On first playthrough)
7x Ice Knights (On subsequent playthroughs)
Tactics: If you have the bomb arrows to spare then you can shoot them from the balcony. The first hit will break their spear then
while they are backing away hit them again before they regrow a new spear. You can kill multiples at a time this way.
-OR-
Jump down and use a complex combination of Ball and Chain along with your sword to dispose of them. They die with one hit using the Ball and Chain.
Floor 37Enemies: 4x Ice Bubbles
4x Bubbles
10x-ish Dessert Cactus Spinning Plants
Tactics: Jump down into the middle. Once you get very surrounded do the spin attack. Chase down and survivors.
Warning: Yes, the Ice Bubbles can freeze you into a block of ice.
Floor 38Enemies: 3x Ice Bubbles
3x Ice Keese
4x Ice Knights
2x Freezards (one on the east and west walls)
8x Mini-Freezards (4x from each dead Freezard)
Tactics: Kill the Ice Knights with bomb arrows before jumping down. Jump down and rush to the side of one of the Freezards.
Attack it until it dies with Ball and Chain then dispose of its Mini-Freezards. Kill any flying monsters that are still alive then charge last Freezard as you did with the first or stand just outside its range and attack once it stops to catch its breath.
Floor 39Enemies: 2x Darknuts (first time through the cave of ordeals)
-OR-
3x Darknuts (every other time through the cave of ordeals)
Tactics: Jump down and stay just out of their attack range. Then step into it and back out dodging their attack. Now start
hacking wildly watching pieces of armor fly. Once they all lose their armor then jump back really far from them and charge up the jump attack hidden skill. Once they get closer hit them with that and it will stun them and start hacking some more until they die.
Useful Hint: You can shoot bomb arrows (or use a well placed bomb) at their feet to take off huge amounts of armor.
Warning: -Once they lose their armor and switch to using their long sword they will THROW their previous weapon at you!
-In both stages they block VERY well. Especially in the second stage.
Wolf Sense: Dig spot in center of room containing a 200 rupee.
Floor 40
Great Fairy again. Talk to her and she will tell you that you need the Double Clawshot to get past the next room. She can also
return you to the surface if you so choose. Either way you have to talk to her to get the door open at least. Talking to her will have her release fairies into the Lanyaru Spring
You will need the Double Clawshot to be able to get past the next room.
Warning: If you go back to the surface you will have to start over from the first room. No shortcuts here.
Floors 41 to 50
Floor 41
Enemies: 9x Armos
Tactics: -Jump down to the side so that only one, if not any at all, will awaken and start attacking. Fight one at a time. 3 hits to
their back will kill them. The Back Slice rolling attack or just running behind them as you fight them works nice. Can even run behind them while they are turning on and hit them three times.
-After killing everything use the Double Clawshot on the targets on the walls to get to the door.
Useful Hint: -Do NOT activate them all at once. Trust me.
-After it is hit 3 times it will go crazy chopping everywhere and eventually blow up.
Floor 42Enemies: 6x Bokoblins
6x Deku Babas
Tactics: Jump down and let the chaos begin.
Useful Hint: -When the Deku Babas are clamped down on you use the spin attack to hit and get them off at the same time. The
spin attack is your friend on multiple enemies.
-These are again the bad and long to kill Bokoblins
-Focusing on one side of the room seems to help. Kill the Bokoblins that come after you and probably at least two near by Deku Babas and the rest of the room becomes a lot easier, especially with some new room to move a bit and not have to worry about constantly having plants clamp down on you.
Floor 43Enemies: 3x Lizalfos
6x Moblin Archers
Tactics: If you are fast enough you can pick off 5 of the Moblin Archers. Three are located near the back wall. The other three are
pretty much right under you. I just jump down and run around more or less going for archers and whenever the Lizalfos got close to me I would spin attack.
Floor 44Enemies: 1x Poe (until you collect its soul then doesn't appear anymore)
4x Armored Lizalfos
Tactics: Kill the Armored Lizalfos then collect the Poe's Soul.
Useful Hint: -The spin attack and Helm Splitter can help here a good amount.
-From the balcony BEFORE you jump down you can shot all four of the Armored Lizalfos with bomb arrows to kill them. They notice their brethren dying and will run underneath you if you do not shoot them fast enough.
Floor 45Enemies: On first playthrough:
5x Redeads
2x Moblin Archers (On 2 separate watchtowers)
8x Purple Chu Jellies
1x Red Chu Jelly
1x Blue Chu Jelly
1x Rare Chu Jelly (Will be yellow if already have a rare)
-OR-
On subsequent playthroughs:
5x Redeads
3x Moblin Archers (On 3 watchtowers)
Tactics: -On first time through: Snipe Moblin Archers from previous room with the Hawkeye.
Then jump down and take out the Redeads one at a time with the Ball and Chain. Finish off by taking out the Chu Jellies however you wish.
-On subsequent visits: snipe the Moblin Archers one at a time from the previous room. Then jump down to the side of the room and take out the Redeads one at a time with the Ball and Chain.
Warning: With the Redead's shrieks, the Rare Chu Jelly will probably be very hard to get.
Wolf Sense: Under balcony near east wall is a dig spot for 3 hearts!
Floor 46Enemies: 3x Ice Knights
2x Freezards (back wall and right under balcony)
8x Mini-Freezards (from killing the 2 main Freezards)
12x Twilight Rats
Tactics: Bomb Arrow the 3 Ice Knights before you jump down if you still got any bombs and arrows. Then jump down and rush
down to the back wall's Freezard and kill it before too many Twilight Rats get on you. Now kill all the Twilight Rats as a wolf. After that go kill the other one.
Floor 47Enemies: 1x Bokoblins
15x Rats (appear after you jump down)
15x Pygmy Skeletons (appears after you jump down)
Tactics: From the balcony all you can see is a single Bokoblin. IT'S A TRAP! All you can do is jump down and get ready for
the spin attack and crazy slashing of the sword.
Floor 48Enemies: 2x Flying Lizalfos
1x Darknut
Tactics: Jump down and begin the dance. I like to lock onto one of the Flying Lizalfos while slowly avoiding the Darknut until I
can Clawshot one out of the air and hack at it and then lock onto whichever one is now in the air. Once those two things are dead you can focus on the lone Darknut. With there only being one this should be VERY easy. Laughably easy. I like to play around with him and get revenge from all that pain and anguish his brothers that attack in packs like to cause.
Useful Hint: -If one of the Flying Lizalfos are diving at you jump sideways to avoid getting hit.
-When fighting the Darknut in its "fencer" form and if you get caught doing a sword combo on it and it is blocking everything then when you finish jump away. They like to do a thrust attack right after the onslaught.
-Also in its fencer form you can hit it once with the sword, thus putting it in a blocking mood, and follow that with a quick normal jump attack. This will stun it making him easy pickings and not having to worry about how far away to get for the charge jump attack.
Floor 49Enemies: 3x Darknuts (if this is first time through Cave of Ordeals)
-OR-
4x Darknuts (every time after first though the Cave of Ordeals)
Tactics: -I love this room as long as locking doesn't screw me over. With one of the Darknuts being below the balcony you
cannot really focus on one at a time. They tend to clump together when fighting you so lock on the closest one and taunt it to attack and hack away at its armor immediately after. Do this to all of them. You can also use bomb arrows to take off big chunks of armor. Remember to aim for the feet.
-As fencers use the same tactics as before. The jump charge attack works nice if you move far away from them.
Useful Hint: Personally I like to lock onto the closest one and stand a medium distance away circling around their little group until
he jumps forward and does two horizontal slashes. That is your opening to start hacking away at him once you nimbly walk backwards a few steps to dodge the slashes. Do this until all but one is left. Then I usually just hit him once with sword to make him block then quickly do a normal jump attack to stun and begin doing my best to make him see the error of his ways!
Floor 50
Congratulations you just beat the Cave of Ordeals!! Talk to the Great Fairy and she will give you her blessings and all that. She now releases fairies in all the springs as well as goes to each of them herself to fill one of your bottles with Great Fairy Tears, which is a very nice item to have in a dire time of need. She will also return you to the surface. She even walks over and talks to you face to face for once too!
You can get the Great Fairy Tears as many times as you need. Just as long as you currently do not have any in a bottle with you then she will fill one with them for you.
Useful Hint: -The Postman is up on the balcony of the 50th floor if this isn't your first playthrough of the Cave of Ordeals. Lol, if you are like
me when you were running to jump off the ledge you saw a flash of color and once you landed you glanced up and saw him there and you can't get back up there except by replaying the whole freaking Cave of Ordeals again. Don't worry I won't tell you what he says.
How to fight Darknuts
There are a lot of different methods for fighting against the Darknuts. All of which are useful in their own way. There are different strategies depending on if there are 1 Darknut or multiples of them. There are even more strategies depending on if they are in their first (heavy armor style) or their second (fencer or long sword style).
In ALL stages they block like it is nobody's business, not to mention pretty good at dodging your items. Regardless of what strategy works for one person, another person's playing style can be very different thus different strategies may actually work better for one person while another strategy is the only obvious choice. So whatever you choose to do.
FIRST STAGE:
In this stage the Darknut is quite easy to take out. He is covered from head to toe in thick and heavy armor. With this it naturally moves pretty slow around, except for attacking a bit. When you are noticeably far away from it he will stand up right and simply walk towards you. Which is the fastest it can move. When you are closer it will stand in a fighting stance with its freaking huge sword or mace held at the ready. Both of these strategies work for when you have one or multiple Darknuts.
--Once you knock off his heavy armor he switches to his second stage. You will definitely be able to tell graphically when this happens and because the Darknut will suddenly jump backwards and THROW his giant weapon at you. So be ready to block or dodge the incoming missile of pain.
Strategy 1
Get a ways from them and shoot at their feet with bomb arrows. Normally if you just shoot them dead on then they will block it with their shield. Getting a bomb hit in makes them lose pretty good amounts of armor at a time. I have yet to extensively test how to get bomb arrows past their defenses. Either way it is shooting at their feet or just below that is the sweet point. Normal bombs can also be used but these require some complicated bomb placing and timing.
Strategy 2 After you fight them a little their attack range becomes extremely obvious (the general length of the their weapon maybe?). So all you really do is lock on one of them, probably the closest one to you and, with the knowledge of their attack range, stand just barely in said range. Once it starts making motions of attacking step outside of its attack range, this dodges its attack and leaves it open to attack immediately after to use an entire sword combo on it. This really is not difficult at all and you do not have to worry about the others interrupting you too much. That is because while you are attacking the unguarded Darknut the others are doing their best to block your attack. True sometimes one might not block and hit you once but this for me never seems to happen really much at all.
SECOND STAGE:
It is in this stage that the real difficulty of fighting Darknuts is present. Here they are no longer burdened down by heavy armor but instead can more swiftly move around and fights with a long sword, its reach is longer than your Master Sword's. With this long sword they can, and will, easily both block and parry attacks. They also add to their list a kicking attack that as far as I have seen doesn't deal damage but can break your guard if you are currently blocking, thus leaving you open to attack. Their kick is by far a very bad thing for them to have since they really like to use it when you get really close to them.
Strategy 1
This strategy works for whether you have one or more Darknuts in the second stage. With this method you will have to know the hidden skill Jump Charge Attack. You cannot simply jump away from him and begin charging because if you are not far enough way then it will make a sudden jumping thrust and hit you. You instead must get very far from the Darknuts to be able to charge the attack. Hitting them with this attack will break their guard allowing you to use a sword combo on them.
I personally do not like this method because if you do not time when to execute this attack properly then you will either get stabbed from their jumping thrust or you will pound the ground right in front of them leaving yourself open to attacks. Also for me there was a locking issue. If I jumped back, charged up, and then locked on to them when they got close enough it seemed to, very often, end up missing somehow. Sometimes the attack would flat out miss and I would pound the ground or the attack wouldn't connect right and it would not break their guard. I don't know, it was kind of odd. This was also followed with plenty of kicking and slashing of their swords.
Strategy 2
When there is ONLY ONE Darknut in the second stage I like to do a variation of the Jump Charge Attack. With this I will hit the Darknut ONCE with the sword and IMMEDIATELY follow that with the normal jump attack. What this does is the first small strike will force them into a blocking stance. The normal jump attack breaks their blocking just as the Jump Charge Attack does but doesn't require the charge time.
Strategy 3
Here is a very good method for when you have multiple Darknuts in the second stage or even just one. This works for either having only one Darknut or multiples. This strategy is more or less the same as strategy 2 from their first stage. You stand a medium distance from the Darknuts locking onto the one that is either closest to you or the one you believe is going to attack next. What you are wanting is for the one you are locked onto to jump forward and use their horizontal slash attacks. With this they jump forward and make two horizontal slashes which you dodge by taking a step or two backwards. Immediately after the second sword swipe you will step forward and attack them since they will not be able to block. The other Darknuts again seem to have a tendency to want to block your attacks during this.
Make sure they are doing the horizontal slash attack. They also can do a stabbing thrust which if it hits your shield will break your block. Thankfully they then don't follow that with more attacks but you won't have time to get a counterattack in before they are ready to block again. Personally I do this rather than the Charge Jump Attack because it is consistently worked very well for me.
Strategy 4
This one is mostly for when you are fighting only one Darknut. Either way it is pretty simple. Just do the rolling Back Slice on the Darknut. This breaks its guard and leaves it open for you to attack a little bit. Against multiple Darknuts that are in the second stage you will find yourself, while you are trying to do the Back Slice, getting plenty of kicks from the other Darknuts. Their kick attack stuns you and more or less makes you stop your attack.
Guide by Taigoro for Hyrule.net. Please give credit if using it anywhere. -
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