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| | | | | |  __/ | |  __/ (_| |  __/ | | | (_| | | (_) | |
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/ ___   )(  ____ \( \      (  __  \ (  ___  )
\/   )  || (    \/| (      | (  \  )| (   ) |
/   )| (__    | |      | |   ) || (___) |
/   / |  __)   | |      | |   | ||  ___  |
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/   (_/\| (____/\| (____/\| (__/  )| )   ( |
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THE SWORDLESS CHALLENGE
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Copyright Nintendo 1986
Written By: Magnus de Laval
E-mail: delaval@gmail.com
Version 1.0
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ASCII fonts thanks to http://www.network-science.de/ascii/
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/\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/\
/  \                                                                 /  \
/    \                     I - TABLE OF CONTENTS                     /    \
/      \                                                             /      \
/________\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/________\
INTRODUCTION
I-General Gameplay
A-Controls
B-Items
C-Enemies
II-Tips N' Tricks
Midgame saving
Starting with full life
Unlock the first door
Start with second quest
Upgrade blue potion
Less enemies
Easier enemies
Bombing darknuts
III-The First Quest
Owerworld Map
Getting Started
First Dungeon - The Eagle
Second Dungeon - The Moon
Third Dungeon - The Manji
Fourth Dungeon - The Snake
Fifth Dungeon - The Lizard
Sixth Dungeon - The Dragon
Seventh Dungeon - The Demon
Eight Dungeon - The Lion
Ninth Dungeon - Death Mountain
IV-The Second Quest
Owerworld Map
Getting Started
First Dungeon - The E
Second Dungeon - The A
Sixth Dungeon - The Fiddler's Elbow
Eight Dungeon - The Circlemaster
Third Dungeon - The L
Fourth Dungeon - The D
Fifth Dungeon - The Z
Seventh Dungeon - The Black Wych
Ninth Dungeon - Death Mountain II
V-Appendixes
A.    Legal Stuff
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* /___/_//_/\__/_/  \___/\_,_/\_,_/\__/\__/_/\___/_//_/ *
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Legend of Zelda, the game that started it all. I don't think anyone who grew up
in the 80s have missed Link's first epic struggle through Hyrule, and over 20
years later it's still very enjoyable. It's really a game that you come back to
play over and over again. The only problem, compared with todays standards, is
that it is a relatively small game, and after a few times playing it you will
run through the game in a few hours. This guide is for the oldschool players who
want a new challenge in an old favourite; The swordless challenge.
Basically, you just don't pick up the sword. Ever. It can be mind numbingly
frustrating from time to time, and it's EXTREMELY more difficult. Actually, you
can't finish the game without the sword, but it IS possible to get  all the
items and face Ganon, and that's what this guide will be about.
Again, this is not easy. Before you attempt the swordless challenge you should
be able to beat the first and second quest easily with the sword. Ok, dust off
your old golden carton and get ready to kill Goriyas with the Blue Candle.
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* / (_ / -_) _ \/ -_) __/ _ `/ / / (_ / _ `/  ' \/ -_) _ \/ / _ `/ // / *
* \___/\__/_//_/\__/_/  \_,_/_/  \___/\_,_/_/_/_/\__/ .__/_/\_,_/\_, /  *
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/  \                                                                 /  \
/    \                          A - CONTROLS                         /    \
/      \                                                             /      \
/________\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/________\
Ok, you know the controls. Just wanted to draw an ASCII-control myself. Once
you've started, you'll never use the A-button (except on control 2 for midgame
saving, if that's you pleasure). Thus, feel free to take out all your
frustration and anger on the A-button.
| |
________|_|_____________________
|                                |
|    _              Nintendo     |
|  _| |_                         |
| |_ O _|                        |
|   |_|    Select Start (B) (X)  |
|                                |
|________________________________|
A = Nothing
B = Selected item
Start = Go to menu
Select = Pause
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/\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/\
/  \                                                                 /  \
/    \                            B - ITEMS                          /    \
/      \                                                             /      \
/________\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/________\
Wooden Sword, White Sword, Magical Sword: Random useless items :)
Magical Shield: An important item, since you often have to just run through
rooms not being able to kill all the enemies. Especially  important in level 6
when you're trying tom bomb your way past Wizrobs.
Rupees: Oh, you'll wanna fight for these. If you though collecting money was
annoying with the sword, try collecting 250 rupies for the blue ring with only a
candle. There are tricks though.
Heart, Fairy: Fills up your life. Not really that important, it's more common to
die due to lack of bombs than to lack of life in mid- and lategame ;)
Heart Container: Gives you an extra heart container. Good  times, obviously.
Key: Collect them and use them carefully. In this  walkthrough, you'll have to
have some extra keys when you enter certain dungeons.
Magical Key: The "lion key" opens every door. Saves you a lot  of trouble in
dungeon 9, and basically makes everything easier.
Ladder: Makes you able to go over short rivers and water passages.
Raft: Lets you travel over water at the two piers.
Map: Shows you the general architect of the dungeon you found it in.
Compass: Shows were the triforce is in the dungeon you found it.
Letter: Show it to the old lady to be able to buy life restoring potions.
Rings: The blue ring reduces the damage you take from enemies to 1/2, the red
ring reduces it to 1/4.
Power Bracelet: Makes you move stones and boulders outside the dungeons.
Clock: Freezes all enemies in the screen and makes you invulnerable to their
attacks.
Boomerang: Freezes some enemies (not darknuts or wizrobs for example) and makes
them unable to hurt you.
Bombs: Detonates about a second after dropped and deals as much damage as the
magical sword. You can also use them to bomb open hidden passages. You can carry
8 bombs at most in the beginning of the game.
Bow and arrow: If you buy the arrow, you can use the bow o shoot arrows at the
cost of one rupie per shot. Very useful, especially against Pols Voices and
before you get the magical wand.
Silver Arrow: The only weapon, that in combination with a sword can kill Ganon.
Blue Candle: Lights up dark rooms with a flame. The flame itself deals an amount
of damage equal to the wooded sword. You can only use the blue candle once per
screen.
Red Candle: Same as the blue candle but you can use it as many times as you wish
in each screen.
Recorder: Can be used to open passages at certain screens. If there are no
secrets at the screen you use it, it creates a wind that usually takes you to
dungeon 1 or dungeon 2.
Food: "Enemy bait". All enemies at the screen you drop it will gather around it.
It can also be used to remove grumbling Goriyas in certain castles.
Medicine: Fills up your life. The blue medicine can be used once, the red
medicine can be used twice.
Magic Wand: Best weapon in the game (at least as long you don't have the sword).
Basically a white sword that shoots magic beams.
Book Of Magic: Makes the beams from the wand turn into flames when the hit
something.
Triforce: In order to get to enter death mountain and face Ganon, you'll have to
collect the eight pieces of the triforce scattered in the other dungeons.
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/\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/\
/  \                                                                 /  \
/    \                          A - ENEMIES                          /    \
/      \                                                             /      \
/________\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/________\
+-----------+
| OVERWORLD |
+-----------+
Octorok: Red and blue stonespitters. The blue ones occasionally drops bombs.
Preferred weapon : Magic wand (1 hit). Early game: Candle (1 hit red, 2 hits
blue).
Tektike: Yellow and blue jumping spiders. Preferred weapon: Magical wand (1
hit). Early game: Candle (1 hit) or stun them with the boomerang.
Peahat: Looks like flying caps. You can only hit them when they are still.
Preferred weapon: Just ignore them (1 hit with the wand if you really wanna kill
them).
Leever: Blue and red creatures that hides under the ground and pops up where
you're about to walk. Preferred weapon: Magical wand (1 hit red, 2 hits blue).
Early game: Candle or dodging (red: 2 hits, blue: 4 hits (almost impossible with
blue candle)).
Moblin: Yellow or green arrowshooting goblinlike creatures. Lives in the
forests. Preferred weapon: Magical wand (yellow: 1 hit, green: 2 hits). Early
game: Candle (2 hits yellow, 3 hits green) or stun with boomerang.
Armos Knight: Statues that starts moving once you touch them. Since they are
paralysed until you touch them you can almost always just ignore them. They
never drops anything when you kill them anyway. Preferred weapon: Ignore.
Zola: Fishlike monsters that comes out of the water for a short second to shoot
a fireball at you. Preferred weapon: Ignore or magical wand (1 hit).
Lynel: Yellow or blue centaurlike creatures that shoots sword. Preferred weapon:
Magical wand (2 hits yellow, 3 hits blue). Early game: Block the swords with
your magical shield, stun them with your boomerang and walk past them.
Ghini: Ghost at the cemetery. If you touch a tombstone another one will appear.
Only the one that's originally on the screen can be killed and when you kill it
all other on the screen will die too. Preferred weapon: Ignore or magical wand
(5 hits).
Rock: Falls down from the mountain. Can't be killed.
+----------+
| DUNGEONS |
+----------+
Gel: Small black jellylike dots. Never drops anything when killed. Preferred
weapon: boomerang.
Zol: Big black jellylike monsters. If you hit them with a weak weapon they'll
become two gels. Preferred weapon: Magical wand (kills in 1 hit). Early game:
Bow (kills in 1 hit), candle (divides in 1 hit).
Rope: Snakes that starts running towards you when they're at the same row or
column as you. Preferred weapon: Magical wand (1 hit). Early game: Candle (1
hit).
Keese: Small bats. Never drops anything when killed. Preferred weapon:
Boomerang.
Stalfos: Skeletons. In the second quest they shoot swords. Preferred weapon:
Magical wand (1 hit). Early game: Candle (2 hits).
Vire: Fat jumping batlike creatures. If you hit them with a weak weapon they'll
divide into two Keese. Preferred weapon: Magical wand (1 hit divides). Early
game: Bow (1 hit divides) or boomerang (stuns).
Wall Master: Big blue hands that comes out of the walls. If they grab you
they'll take you to the entrance of the palace. Preferred weapon: Magical wand
(1 hit). Early game: Candle (2 hits).
Goriya: Yellow or blue boomerang throwing goblins. Preferred weapon: Magical
wand (2 hit yellow, 3 hit blue). Early game: Candle (3 hit yellow, 5 hit blue)
or bombs (1 hit yellow, 2 hit blue)
Pols Voice: Jumping yellow rabbit heads? Preferred weapon: Bow (1 hit, arrows
continue through). Alternatively magical wand (5 hits, only wand itself deals
damage, not the beams).
Wizrobe: Yellow or blue wizards who makes your life hard. Only weapon that hurts
them are bombs (1 hit yellow, 3 hits blue).
Darknut: Yellow or blue knights. Hard to kill and easy to get killed by.
Preferred weapon: Magical wand (2 hits yellow, 4 hits blue, only wand itself
deals damage, not the beams). Early game: Bombs (1 hit yellow, 2 hits blue.
Unless you're standing I a position where you could hurt the knights with your
sword they won't take damage due to a glitch).
Like Like: Big cakes that will eat you if they hit you. If you get eaten you
lose your magical shield and get stuck. The only way to get out of them is to
drop 3 bombs or beat yourself out with the wand. Preferred weapon: Magical wand
4 hits. Early game: Bow (4 hits).
Gibdo: Mummies. They drift around and deal a lot of damage if you hit them.
Preferred weapon: Magical wand (3 hits). Early game: Bow (4 hits)
Lanmola: A one-eyed larva. They lose segments whenever you hit them until they
disappear. Preferred weapon: Magical wand. Early game: Ignore, or do your best
with the candle and bombs.
Moldorm: Wormlike creature that reminds of the lanomola, but much slower.
Preferred weapon: Magical wand. Early game: Ignore, or do your best with the
candle and bombs.
Bubble: Small suns. If a blinking hits you, you won't be able to use your sword
for a moment. If a red one hits you, you won't be able to use your sword until
you hit a blue one. Since you don't have the sword, you can pretty much ignore
them. Preferred weapon: Cannot be killed.
Patra: A miniboss consisting of a blue bug with a lot of small yellow bugs
circling around it. Preferred weapon: Magical wand is the only thing that hurts
it (not the beams though). Beat it senseless and eventually it will die (2 hits
per small bug and 4-5 more on the big blue).
Trap: Blue spiky things that rush towards you when you pass them. Cannot be
killed.
Stone Statue: Statues that spits fireball towards you. Cannot be killed.
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* /_  __(_)__  ___   |___    / /_____(_)___/ /__ ___ *
*  / / / / _ \(_-<   / _ \  / __/ __/ / __/  '_/(_-< *
* /_/ /_/ .__/___/  /_//_/  \__/_/ /_/\__/_/\_\/___/ *
*      /_/                                           *
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+----------------+
| MIDGAME SAVING |
+----------------+
Press start to enter the menu, then press up and a simultaneous to enter the
same menu you see when you die. This means that you could save the game or retry
whenever you want, you could also use this inside dungeons to get to the
entrance with three hearts.
This trick is especially valuable if you want to cheat in the moneymaking game
instead of collecting rupies in more conventional ways.
+-------------------------+
| STARTING WITH FULL LIFE |
+-------------------------+
Go to an fairy to fill up your life, enter the midgame saving menu as your life
is being filled up and save. When you start the game next time, your life will
be filling up as if your were still with the fairy.
+-----------------------+
| UNLOCK THE FIRST DOOR |
+-----------------------+
As soon as you enter the first dungeon, exit and go back in. The upper door will
be magically unlocked.
+---------------------+
| UPGRADE BLUE POTION |
+---------------------+
If you have a blue potion and want to upgrade to a red before a hard dungeon,
instead of buying a red potion you can simply buy another blue potion and you
will end up with a red. Voila, you saved 28 rupies.
+-------------------------+
| START WITH SECOND QUEST |
+-------------------------+
If there's still anyone out there who doesn't know this; if you type 'ZELDA' as
your character's name you'll start with the second quest.
+--------------+
| LESS ENEMIES |
+--------------+
At each screen of the game, including dungeons, if you don't kill all enemies
the other won't respawn. For example, if you're in a room with 4 wizrobs, you
could kill 2 of them and the leave and get more bombs before killing the rest.
This makes the game a lot easier, so don't overdo it if you want the real
challenge.
+----------------+
| EASIER ENEMIES |
+----------------+
If you are in a screen with similar enemies of different colors (for example
blue and yellow wizrobs or blue and yellow darknuts) you can kill the easy ones,
leave the room and go back. Now some of the hard ones will change color and be
much less of a hassle.
+------------------+
| BOMBING DARKNUTS |
+------------------+
The darknuts are the masters of glitching. If you're facing them as the bomb
explodes they wont take damage (the game think they blocked it with their
shield). The best way is to stand next to them facing away from their side, but
it feels random. Avoid fighting darknuts as often as you can before getting the
wand.
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*  / / / _ \/ -_) / _// / __(_-