Deku Palace

Save Statue

As you enter the Deku Palace grounds, you’ll be close to a save statue. You can’t use these statues as warp points for the Song of Soaring, but you can use them to save your progress. You’ve accomplished quite a lot, so go ahead and save.

Guards at the Gate

Two tough-looking Dekus guard the entrance to their royal palace. Outsiders aren’t allowed in, so slap on the Deku Mask to transform Link into his Deku Scrub form. The disguise fools the guards, who allow Link to pass, but they order him to go straight to the royal chamber without entering any other areas. Yeah, sure!

The Deku King’s Court

Humor the Deku guards at the palace’s entrance and head directly for the royal chamber as instructed. Inside, the Deku King is holding court. Speak with the Deku King to learn that he is about to punish a foolish monkey that is believed to have kidnapped the Deku Princess.

Scale the nearby ramp to locate the poor monkey. He’s tied to a post and being held inside a cage. Lock on to the monkey, and then speak to him. He insists the he’s innocent and also indicates that the missing Deku Princess may be in grave danger.

The Monkey’s Plan

As you exit the royal chamber, the imprisoned monkey’s brother awaits you. He’s worried about his brother, but he hints that there’s a secret route in the palace’s garden that can help you reach his brother’s cage. It’s worth a look.

Deku Garden Detour

The guards warned you not to wander off, but it pays to do a little exploring around Deku Palace. First, go west and enter the Inner Palace Garden. Avoid the guards in the first area by making a big clockwise loop around the room. Collect a few Rupees as you head for the north doorway.

In the second area, slip past the first Deku guard, and then study the next two. They move in rectangular patterns. Wait until they’re both moving away from you, then follow behind them, grabbing the central Rupees.

Continue following one of the Deku guards around the garden, and collect a Piece of Heart from the far west wall. Allow the guards to spot you after you grab this precious prize, and you’ll be quickly returned to the palace’s entrance.

Piece of heart #12

You got a Piece of Heart! Collect four Pieces of Heart to assemble a new Heart Container. Each new container you put together increases the amount of life energy you can have.

Talk to the Deku guards at the palace’s entrance again, and they’ll let you back in. This time, enter the gardens to the east. Follow the first two Deku guards as they circle around boulders, keeping behind them to stay out of sight.

Once you’re past the two Deku guards that circle the boulders, the rest is fairly easy. Enter the next section of the gardens, where more Deku guards are on patrol. Avoid them as you make for a hole in the ground, and drop down to visit an underground cavern.

Free Bean

Down in the cavern, scale a slope to find a pudgy man sitting on a rug. Speak with him to learn about Magic Beans. The man sells such beans, and he gives you one as a free sample.

Magic Beans

You got Magic Beans! Find a patch of soft soil, then plant them. Who knows what will sprout up!

Bottled Bug

Before doing anything with your Magic Bean, equip your Empty Bottle and use it to catch the bug that’s running around near the salesman. Just keep swiping away with your bottle until you catch the bug.

Once you’ve bottled the bug, bring it to the patch of soft soil near the cavern’s pool (it’s close to the wooden sign by the pool). Release the bug there, and it burrows into the soil. Moments later, out pop some Rupees! Keep this neat little trick in mind whenever you see bugs and soft soil.

Magic Bean, Magic Lift

After releasing the bug, fill your Empty Bottle with Spring Water from the nearby pool. This special Spring Water is great for making things grow.

Take off your Deku Mask to return to human form, then approach the soft soil. Plant the Magic Bean that the stocky salesman gave you in the soil. The Magic Bean sprouts up a bit, but it needs water to fully grow. Empty your Bottle of Spring Water onto the soil to speed things along.

Whoa! The Spring Water does the trick, and the plant grows much larger, sprouting thick leaves. Step onto the leaves, and the plant magically begins to rise like an elevator.

Allow the leaf platform to ferry you over to a high ledge with a chest. Hop off, and then open the chest to claim a Red Rupee.

More Beans, Please

Refill your Empty Bottle with Spring Water, then spend your newfound Rupees to buy two Magic Beans. You notice that this cavern has two exits; use the one that’s farthest from the bean salesman to return to the surface.

Eastern Elevator

After leaving the bean salesman’s cavern, you find yourself on Deku Palace’s east side. Slay the Mini Baba on the nearby stump for some Deku Nuts, then locate a patch of soft soil and plant a Magic Bean there. If it’s raining, the Magic Bean’s leaf platform automatically grows. If not, simply pour your Spring Water on the soil to grow the leaf platform as you did before.

Hop aboard the leaf platform and ride up to a high passage. Hop off, and navigate the passage to reach a high ledge back in the Deku Palace gardens.

Gliding through the Gardens

The ledge features a Deku Flower. You know what to do! Don the Deku Mask and dive into the flower, then launch out and glide over to the nearby platform, which also features a Deku Flower.

Once you land on the platform, it starts moving. Quickly dive into its Deku Flower to avoid being struck by the Deku Nuts that the nearby Mad Scrub shoots at you from atop his tower. When the time is right, launch from the Deku Flower and glide directly past the Mad Scrub, aiming to land on the Deku Flower platform beyond him, which lies on the other side of the wall.

Mad Scrub

Damage: 1/4 Heart

These dangerous Dekus emerge from their flowers and spit Deku Nuts at Link from afar. Avoid them, or block their nutty projectiles and look for a chance to close in and defeat them. If you prefer to keep your distance, try locking on to a Mad Scrub from afar and defeating it with Deku Link’s bubbles. However, it’s best to simply avoid the Mad Scrubs that you face here in the Deku Palace gardens.

Again, the platform begins to move when you land on it. Burrow into its Deku Flower, and launch out after the platform slides all the way to the right. Aim to land on the ledge with the Deku Flower in the garden’s far corner. Hurry into the passage beyond.

Cross a bridge to reach the west gardens, then burrow into another Deku Flower. Launch and glide over to the distant platform, which features another Deku Flower.

You guessed it: the platform starts to move after you land. Dive into the platform’s Deku Flower and launch out, aiming to glide over the wall and land on the final platform.

Ride the final platform until it rises, delivering you close to a high ledge. Launch out of its flower and glide onto the ledge, then enter the nearby passage. Nice gliding!

The Monkey’s Melody

The passage leads back into the royal chamber. Drop from its end to land in the monkey’s holding cell. Take off the Deku Mask and speak to the monkey, who asks you to cut his ropes.

Try as you might, you can’t cut the monkey’s ropes. There must be another way. The monkey asks if you happen to have a loud instrument on hand, but the Ocarina of Time isn’t loud enough. Put the Deku Mask back on, and then bust out the Deku Pipes. Those should do the trick.

Before Link plays the pipes, the monkey explains that he was trying to find out about the poison in the swamp. He and the Deku Princess went to Woodfall Temple, which lies above the Southern Swamp’s waterfall, only to discover that the temple has become a terrible monster’s lair. This very fiend has captured the Deku Princess!

The monkey asks Link to return to the temple and save the Deku Princess. Agree, and he’ll teach you the Sonata of Awakening, a special melody that’s needed to open the temple’s door.

Hearing his royal melody being played aloud, the Deku King is quick to identify Link as an intruder and throw him out of the palace. The poor monkey prisoner is still in peril, and it seems that only the Deku Princess can convince the Deku King of the truth. You must hurry and save her!

Woodfall Temple Pathway

Back outside the palace, save your progress, and then hop across the poisoned water as Deku Link, heading east as if you were looping back around to the leaf platform that you grew. This time, however, hop over to the south ledge, which features a Deku Flower and a sign that reads “Woodfall Temple Pathway.”

Dive into the flower, and launch out to reach a small passage high up on the wall. Go through to return to the Southern Swamp.