The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Forest Temple walkthrough

Before you make your way to the Forest Temple, make sure you visit Lon Lon Ranch as an adult to obtain Epona. You’ll need to beat Ingo at two races first, but Epona is well worth the effort. To enter the Forest Temple, you’ll need the Hookshot, which is located inside the Kakariko graveyard. Find Dampe’s tombstone and pull it back to reveal his floating, race-crazy ghost; beat his challenge and he’ll reward you with the Hookshot – how specific!

Now head to the Lost Woods, follow the usual musical cues and you’ll find yourself at the Forest Temple. Sheik will teach you the Minuet of Forest, which, when played, will warp you directly to the temple. These temple songs, along with the Prelude of Light, are helpful later in the game when you want to zip around the map. For now, use the Hookshot to enter the temple and begin the quest.

Get: Fairy Bow, Gold Skulltulas x4, Heart Container

The central idea here is to ignite the four torches in the center room. Each torch represents a Poe ghost that’s flown off into different areas of the temple; light them by finding and destroying their portraits, and then the ghost itself.


Above: Use your newly acquired Hookshot to get around the temple. Look for these target symbols to latch onto, or vines/fences on the walls


Above: This switch twists and untwists the corridor behind it. Once you have the Fairy Bow, explore both the straight and twisted versions


Above: You can’t hurt the Poes while they’re invisible; dodge their attack and then counter with a jumping slash


Above: Arrows can carry fire from a torch to another object – line up this shot to melt ice

Fighting Phantom Ganon: No, this isn’t Ganon – merely a ghostly shell posing as him. His first tactic is to gallop out of the portraits and zap you with energy; to fight back, have your bow drawn, ignore any decoy Ganons that retreat back into the paintings and fire an arrow into the real Ganon as he flies out. He’ll eventually ditch the horse, at which point you must knock his energy balls back at him.

Next stop, Goron City and the Fire Temple!

DUNGEONS
Deku | Dodongo | Jabu Jabu
Forest | Fire | Water | Shadow | Spirit | Ganon's Castle
ITEMS
Heart Pieces | Bottles | Skulltulas | Equipment
Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.