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00:00Water dungeons in The Legend of Zelda have a reputation for being some of the hardest
00:12in their respective games.
00:14So we here at MojoPlays thought we'd rank them all by difficulty.
00:19First a bit of criteria.
00:20We're only including dungeons whose puzzles or traversal revolve around water.
00:25Just because a dungeon is found in a water-themed area doesn't mean it's a water dungeon.
00:31So as annoying as it is, you won't find inside Jabu Jabu's belly from Ocarina of Time here.
00:38In a similar fashion, we won't be including ice dungeons like the Temple of Droplets from
00:43the Minish Cap, since hardly anything you do there has to do with water.
00:59One more thing before we dive in, we publish new content all week long.
01:03So be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
01:09Number 13, Water Temple, The Legend of Zelda Triforce Heroes.
01:22In Triforce Heroes, each section is divided into levels.
01:26The final part of each section, the dungeon, is a fair bit shorter and easier when compared
01:31to other games.
01:33Also since this game's Water Temple is only the second dungeon, it's by far the easiest
01:38on our list.
01:46Most of what you'll be doing is stacking links on top of each other to hit switches
01:50that change the water level.
01:51But one of them also uses the water rod to create geysers that act as platforms so the
01:56group can progress.
01:58It can be a little tedious, especially when playing solo, but it really isn't all that
02:03challenging.
02:04Neither is the boss, Argus, who surrounds itself with eyeballs that can be pulled off
02:09with the grip shot and easily dealt with.
02:21Number 12, Water Temple, The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
02:35Some players were disappointed by the Water Temple in Tears of the Kingdom, and we can
02:38see why.
02:39Its underwhelming design aside, it's also the shortest and easiest.
02:44It's essentially only four puzzles connected by sky islands, two of which involve using
02:49Ultra Hand to move different sized orbs to the right location.
03:01We love any island that uses the low gravity effect, but that also does make solving its
03:07puzzles and dealing with its enemies easier as well.
03:11Only one of its puzzles, involving a switch Link must hit in the middle of a quick spinning
03:15chamber, might give you pause.
03:18Before you know it, it'll be time for the boss, Muktarak.
03:21It's certainly trickier than other bosses on our list, but not challenging enough to
03:26bump this Water Temple any higher.
03:33Number 11, Angler's Tunnel, The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening.
03:44The first half of Angler's Tunnel mostly takes place on solid ground, since Link can't swim
03:50until getting the dungeon's item, the flippers.
03:53But that actually makes figuring out what to do and where to go fairly easy.
03:57There are only so many options to choose from.
04:00It's pretty standard dungeon stuff, although some rooms of enemies can be a bit irritating.
04:05However, when you do get the flippers, you'll have to go backwards, taking paths you couldn't
04:10before.
04:18That's when the difficulty goes up a notch, but still not to a level to truly overwhelm
04:23you.
04:24Plus, the dungeon's boss, the Angler Fish, is embarrassingly easy to kill.
04:33Number 10, Jabul Ruins, The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom.
04:44Most of Jabul Ruins centers around a central room's geyser.
04:47Hidden doors on either side, Zelda must solve puzzles and survive combat encounters to reach
04:53a switch, each of which causes the geyser to rise towards the boss.
05:00You can actually skip a lot of this, depending on which echoes you've unlocked, since many
05:05of them can be used to move upward without the need of the geyser.
05:09Even still, most of what's in these rooms should be easy to manage.
05:13A few of the underwater fights can be annoying at first, but the Chompfin Echo can pretty
05:18much deal with anything the dungeon throws at you.
05:21The puzzles aren't bad, they just aren't hard to figure out either.
05:25And once again, a water dungeon ends with an easy boss, Vocavore, who doesn't have
05:30a lot of attacks and whose weak point can easily be swarmed with the right echoes.
05:42Number 9, Ancient Cistern, The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword
05:57Although it's lower on the list, the Ancient Cistern is one of the best dungeons across
06:01the whole series, but we're focusing on difficulty today.
06:05With the newly acquired Water Dragon Scale, swimming through the dungeon's pools is
06:10a breeze thanks to some of the smoother underwater navigation in the franchise.
06:20You'll also use its item, the Whip, to activate geysers, flip over giant lily pads, and open
06:26up new paths to swim through and reach new areas.
06:30Part of what makes it so enjoyable is that it doesn't overdo it on the water elements.
06:35That and its supreme design, with a pristine golden aesthetic on top and a creepy, zombie-filled
06:41cavern underneath.
06:42However, its enemies, like the well-balanced, endlessly fun boss Koloktos, will give you
06:48more trouble than its puzzles, layout, or traversal.
07:01Number 8, Divine Beast Va-Ruta, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
07:16Of the four Divine Beasts in Breath of the Wild, Va-Ruta is definitely the easiest.
07:21Like the others, Link must find and activate five terminals to reach the boss.
07:26While two are done with his Sheikah Slate abilities, the others require changing the
07:31position of Va-Ruta's trunk, which is constantly spraying water.
07:44Not only do these require a little outside-of-the-box thinking, but also a decent amount of trial
07:48and error, since you won't know if you've selected the right position until after the
07:53trunk has moved.
07:54These puzzles might stump you for a moment, but they're still manageable without causing
07:58too much frustration.
08:00Also similar to other Divine Beasts, there aren't many enemies to be found.
08:04Water Blight Ganon can be a bit of a nuisance in its second phase, though, since most of
08:09the floor becomes water.
08:18Number 7, Swamp Palace, The Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds
08:31Here's where we start to see the confusion water dungeons can truly cause.
08:35While the Swamp Palace is by no means the most difficult dungeon in A Link Between Worlds,
08:40it does have some infamous staples, like changing water levels and currents.
08:45Much of the gameplay revolves around the hookshot, which Link uses to either pull himself
08:49across pools or activate switches to flood rooms with water.
09:00Because of the dungeon's layers and directional currents that he rides to different places,
09:05it's possible to go the wrong direction and get turned around.
09:08It's not an unforgiving level of difficulty, but there are many moving parts to take into
09:13account.
09:14Vargas acts as the boss here as well, but the small arena makes this fight a bit harder
09:19than its appearance in Triforce Heroes.
09:30Number 6, Swamp Palace, The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
09:44It may sound like a cop-out to say the Swamp Palace of A Link to the Past is harder than
09:48its successor because it's in an older game, but it's still true.
09:52The first water dungeon in the series doesn't feature as heavy a focus on water-centric
09:56traversal as later ones would.
09:58Many of its puzzles revolve around activating switches to fill pits with water that allows
10:03Link to swim to new areas.
10:05The challenge lies with all the enemies and traps that lie in between.
10:19It can be frustrating when enemies swarm you, especially while swimming when you can't
10:24defend yourself.
10:25There's also the challenge of knowing which direction you're meant to go in, something
10:29that's a bit more obscure in the older games.
10:32Vargas makes its first appearance as this dungeon's boss, though it thankfully isn't
10:36much harder than in other games.
10:46Number 5, Lakebed Temple, The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
11:00Taking a page out of Ocarina of Time's book is the Lakebed Temple from Twilight Princess.
11:05Like the Water Temple in that game, this temple features a central room with many offshoots.
11:11In this room is a staircase which must be turned to reach new areas.
11:15Link has to track down specific rooms to cause water currents to flow, but they have different
11:20effects in different rooms, adding more spinning plates for you to balance, so to speak.
11:33As you can probably tell, that makes it easy to get turned around and have to backtrack.
11:38However, while the dungeon's layout is intimidating, traversal is at least never a problem here
11:44since Link can freely move about underwater.
11:47And several puzzles make good use of the claw shot.
11:50The boss, Morpheel, is also one of the easiest in the game.
12:02Number 4, Water Temple, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
12:17And so we've come to the dungeon whose placement everyone was likely most curious about.
12:22The Water Temple in Ocarina of Time has a reputation for being utterly confusing and
12:27the hardest in the game.
12:29The layout and the need to change between water levels caused many players to get lost
12:33here.
12:34And if you missed something, you had to backtrack to specific spots to change the water level
12:39back.
12:48This was amplified by every path leading away from the central room looking exactly the
12:53same and having to pause every time you needed to equip or unequip the iron boots so that
12:59Link would sink or float.
13:01It also didn't help that underwater movement was much slower or that you could really only
13:07use the hook shot to deal with enemies.
13:09In hindsight, a big part of the challenge came from frustrating mechanics and the dungeon
13:14was made much more manageable in the 3DS remake.
13:17Morphe continues the trend of easy water dungeon bosses and is far less interesting than the
13:24mini boss, Dark Link.
13:34Number 3, Mermaid's Cave, The Legend of Zelda, Oracle of Ages.
13:46Oracle of Ages is one of the harder Zelda games, so you can bet this water dungeon is
13:51going to be a pain.
13:53The biggest source of frustration is that Link must travel back and forth between two
13:58points in time to progress through it.
14:01The problem is that you don't do it in the dungeon.
14:04You have to step outside in order to do so.
14:07Naturally, having to exit makes it harder when trying to keep track of what you're
14:11doing and where you're going.
14:13There are also tough enemies like wizzrobes and bubbles swarming about.
14:18And swimming plays a big part in traversal, especially once you get the dungeon's item,
14:23the mermaid suit.
14:29The boss, Octogon, is another one that isn't too bad, though does require shooting it underwater
14:35to deal damage.
14:44Number 2, Great Bay Temple, The Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask.
14:57Zora Link has incredible movement mechanics, gliding along at great speeds and leaping
15:02through the air like a dolphin.
15:04That being said, the Great Bay Temple from Majora's Mask is still a baffling puzzle
15:09to overcome.
15:21It combines two of the most frustrating elements of water dungeons, a confusing layout and
15:27the need to change the flow of water.
15:29There are multiple tunnels leading to and from its main room.
15:33While underwater, it's too hard to tell which tunnels you've already gone down until
15:37it's too late, forcing you to go through rooms you've already been in.
15:40Oh, and changing the dungeon's water flow opens up certain paths from this room while
15:46closing others.
15:47So if you missed something before changing the flow, that just means more backtracking
15:52to fix it.
15:53All this confusion on top of the game's three day time limit, which just adds to your
15:58stress.
15:59Gyorg is a fine enough boss fight, but the dungeon overall is easily the worst in the
16:05game.
16:17Number 1, Jabu Jabu's Belly, The Legend of Zelda, Oracle of Ages.
16:30Unfortunately for everyone, Oracle of Ages has two water dungeons.
16:35And annoyingly enough, they're encountered back to back.
16:39After the Mermaid's Cave, you have to deal with Jabu Jabu's Belly.
16:43Since you just got the mermaid suit, there's a lot more swimming around here than in the
16:48previous dungeon, the controls of which are maddening.
16:59From the start, it's confusing what you're meant to do.
17:02This is increased tenfold by a single room, which houses three switches that change the
17:08water levels.
17:09You'll get very comfortable seeing this room, as you'll have to backtrack to it over and
17:14over again while trying to figure out where to go next.
17:17Although not as popular as Ocarina of Time, those who have played Oracle of Ages recognize
17:23this as one of the toughest dungeons in the series, and by no means in a fun or rewarding
17:29way.
17:30It's a demanding, tedious hassle.
17:33And wouldn't you know it, this time you get an actual hard boss fight in Plasmarine, which
17:38is fought underwater and electrocutes you just to make you angrier.
17:53What water dungeon makes you dread entering it?
17:56Share your thoughts in the comments, and if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe
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18:08Thanks for watching.
18:12If you enjoyed the video, there's more where that came from.