Ice Cavern in Ocarina of Time 3D: Blue Fire, Sliding Block and Iron Boots

Ice Cavern at a glance

The Ice Cavern is the short frozen dungeon reached from Zora’s Fountain that adult Link has to clear before the Water Temple. You go in for three things: the Iron Boots, a bottle of Blue Fire and the Serenade of Water. There is no boss and no Small Key. The fight at the end is a White Wolfos, and the hard parts are two Silver Rupee rooms and a sliding ice block that looks like part of the floor.

Before you go in

Bring at least one empty bottle. Red ice seals the Map, the Compass, the Piece of Heart and both side passages, and only Blue Fire melts it. The other doors open when you beat the enemies or collect five Silver Rupees. With two or three bottles you make fewer trips back to the flames.

To get there as adult Link, go up Zora’s River and play Zelda’s Lullaby (X, A, Y, X, A, Y) at the waterfall. Zora’s Domain is frozen and the Zoras are gone. Navi can warn you that “An arctic wind is blowing from Zora’s River...” Walk past King Zora, who is frozen on his throne, into Zora’s Fountain, and jump across the ice floes to the cave on the far side of the lake.

The Hookshot gets you the three Gold Skulltulas. You don’t need it to finish the dungeon.

Ice Cavern walkthrough

1. The Freezard hall

Past the entrance tunnel, the first big room has Freezards. Their freezing breath encases you in ice, so attack from the side. The enemy note reads: “Destroy it completely before it revives.” Some Freezards vanish and reappear while still alive, so keep attacking until each one is completely destroyed. The door on the far side opens when they are all gone. There is a Blue Rupee inside red ice in this room; come back for it once you have Blue Fire.

2. The spinning-scythe room: first five Silver Rupees

A huge blade of ice spins around the middle of this room. Five Silver Rupees are placed around it, and one sits higher up, so you have to jump to it from a ledge. Jump over the blade or time your run between passes.

When you have all five, a high door opens. It leads to the Map room through a corridor where icicles drop from the ceiling. The two side exits here are walls of red ice; you open them later with Blue Fire.

3. The Map room: your first Blue Fire

This room is a set of ice pillars over a pit. Find the blue flame, stand next to it and use an empty bottle: “You put a Blue Fire into the bottle!” Then go to the Map chest, which is frozen in red ice, and use the bottle beside it. The ice melts and the chest is free. Refill the bottle before you leave. Three Recovery Hearts are here too, if you need them.

4. The Compass room: Piece of Heart

Back in the scythe room, pour Blue Fire on the east red-ice wall. The room behind it has falling icicles, a blue flame of its own and three things to get:

• The Compass, in a chest inside red ice.
• A Piece of Heart, inside red ice on the other side of the room.
• A Gold Skulltula on the wall.

Refill at the flame here after each pour. Then go back to the scythe room and melt the west red-ice wall. That way leads through an S-shaped corridor with icicles to the sliding-block room.

5. The sliding-block room: second five Silver Rupees

This is where most people get stuck, because the block is easy to miss. The square block of ice by the entrance looks like a piece of the floor. Walk up to it until the action button says Grab, then push. It slides until it hits a wall or a pillar.

1. Clear the Ice Keese first so they don’t freeze you while you line up the block.
2. One Silver Rupee is on a low platform you can climb straight onto.
3. For the ones on the tall stone pillars, push the block until it stops next to a pillar, climb onto the block and step across to the rupee.
4. One Silver Rupee is in red ice in the alcove on the north wall. First slide the block into the line below the alcove, then push it north so it stops underneath. Climb up and pour Blue Fire on the ice.
5. If the block ends up somewhere useless, push it off an edge. A new block appears where it started.

A blue flame sits on a ledge on the west side, so you can refill here. In front of it are three floating Red Rupees. Play the Song of Time to bring up three Time Blocks and climb to them. The Song of Time page lists the other Time Blocks.

The Gold Skulltula here is high on the east wall, near where you come in. When the fifth Silver Rupee is in, the door on the south side opens. It is up a ledge, so slide the block under it and climb up.

6. The White Wolfos and the Iron Boots

The next corridor has more Freezards and red ice at the end, so bring Blue Fire. The last room is a crystal cave where a White Wolfos attacks. It guards against attacks from the front, so wait for it to lunge, side-step and hit it from the side or behind. Once it is gone, open the big chest: “You got the Iron Boots! So heavy, you can’t run. So heavy, you can’t float.”

On 3DS the Iron Boots are an item, not an equipment-screen swap. Put them on X, Y or one of the touch-screen item buttons and press it to put them on or take them off. They make you sink in water, which is how you walk the floor of Zora’s Fountain and the Water Temple.

7. Sheik and the Serenade of Water

Sheik appears as you leave the chest and teaches the Serenade of Water: L, R, Y, Y, X on 3DS (A, C-Down, C-Right, C-Right, C-Left on N64). It warps you to Lake Hylia, next to the Water Temple. Fill your bottles with Blue Fire before you leave: you need one for King Zora.

Thaw King Zora for the Zora Tunic

Take a bottle of Blue Fire back to Zora’s Domain, stand in front of King Zora and use it. He thaws out. Talk to him, and if you don’t already have one he gives you the Zora Tunic, which lets you breathe underwater. With the Iron Boots, that is the kit for the Water Temple.

If you ran out of Blue Fire, go back into the Ice Cavern and fill a bottle at the Map room flame, or buy it at the Potion Shop in Kakariko Village for 300 Rupees. That is more than the Adult’s Wallet holds (200), so you need the Giant’s Wallet and an empty bottle.

Stuck in the Ice Cavern?

• Blue Fire does nothing. Stand right next to the red ice and face it when you use the bottle. Normal fire, Din’s Fire and Fire Arrows don’t melt red ice.
• You can’t scoop the flame. You need an empty bottle. A bottle with a fairy or a potion in it won’t take the Blue Fire.
• The block won’t move. Walk into it until the action button changes to Grab. If it is jammed against a wall, push it off an edge to reset it.
• A door won’t open. Count the Silver Rupees: the Freezard hall needs every Freezard gone, and the two rupee rooms need all five.
• You keep freezing. Freezard breath freezes you and costs health. Stay out of the line of their breath and hit them from the side.

The Sheikah Stone hint videos “Gathering the Silver Rupees”, “Blue Fire, Red Ice” and “Sliding Puzzle” show each puzzle; see the Ice Cavern hint list.

Gold Skulltulas and Piece of Heart

The Gold Skulltulas in the sliding-block and Compass rooms only need Blue Fire to reach the room. The Zora’s Fountain iceberg Piece of Heart and the one on the floor of the fountain are outside the cavern; the floor one needs the Iron Boots. Both are on the Zora’s Fountain map, and the cavern’s own pins are under Ice Cavern on the map.

Master Quest Ice Cavern

Master Quest uses the same rooms, mirrored left to right on 3DS, with different puzzles:

• The Map and Compass swap: the Compass is in the Map room and the Map is in the room that holds the Compass in the normal game.
• The mini-boss in the last room is a Stalfos instead of the White Wolfos. The Iron Boots chest stays in that room.
• The Piece of Heart moves to the room that holds the Map in the original quest (the Compass room in Master Quest) and needs explosives.
• The three Gold Skulltulas are two in the room that is the sliding-block room in the original quest and one in the original quest’s Map room.

Ice Cavern FAQ