The Great Deku Tree is the first dungeon of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This guide provides tips for reaching the Great Deku Tree, completing its puzzles, where to find all Golden Skulltulas, and provides an interactive map to help you navigate.
Use the Table of Contents, located in the left panel (top left button on the mobile menu) to navigate through this long guide more easily and quickly.
Kokiri Forest
At the start of the adventure, the Great Deku Tree sends out Navi to bring Link to him. Playing as Link, you’ll need to get past Mido who’s blocking the path to the Great Deku Tree.
You’ll need to find and equip a Sword and Shield. Deku Shields are sold at the shop for 40 rupees. You can find rupees by exploring Kokiri forest. Throw some rocks, dive in the pond, or look for hidden locations such as the room to the right inside the shop.
As for a sword, you’ll need to go to the southwest area of Kokiri Forest at the Training Grounds. Crawl through the tunnel and you’ll find a platform being circled by a boulder.
Look for a stone ladder on the path of the boulder, climb up, jump to the platform, and open the chest to get the Kokiri Sword.
Map of the Great Deku Tree
After gaining access to the Great Deku Tree, you’ll be able to go inside him to purge the death curse put upon him. The following map features all the floors, items, and order of events for the Great Deku Tree.
You can gain the Map for the Great Deku tree very early on. Simply climb up to 2F and you’ll find a large chest containing the Map. Until you gain the Compass, you won’t know what secrets the rooms may hold.
1. Deku Scrub
One of your first enemy encounters is with a Deku Scrub. He’ll shoot nuts at you that you can reflect with your Deku Shield. When he starts running, hit him with your sword.
2. Collapsing Bridge
You’ll find an old wooden bridge leading to a chest. Walking across this will have it crumble, possibly with you joining it in the fall. If you fall down, there are some vines on the walls you can climb up to reach the chest
Open the chest to get the Slingshot. To exit the room, shoot the eye switch on the wall above the door with your slingshot to lower a stone ladder.
You can find more Deku Seeds for your Slingshot by cutting grass or rolling into trees!
3. Three Platforms
Entering this room on 3F will present you with a pit in front of you, and a floor switch to your right. You’ll need to reach that chest on the other side of the room.
Step on the floor switch to raise three platforms then jump across to the chest. This chest contains the Compass! This item will point out where in a dungeon’s map you can find treasure chests, keys, and where the boss is located at.
Before leaving, you should access the alcove on the side of the room guarded by a Big Skulltula. Behind it is a Gold Skulltula, defeating it will have it drop a Gold Skulltula Token.
Collecting Gold Skulltula Tokens is an important side activity as you can unlock helpful items and upgrades by collecting enough of them!
4. Leap of Faith
Return to the central chamber on 3F and defeat a Big Skulltula protecting a ledge. Center yourself and jump off the ledge and onto the web on 1F below. Hitting the center of the web will have you break through and reach B1.
5. A Trail to Blaze
Press the floor switch to activate a nearby torch, this will also burn the webs blocking it. Light a Deku Stick and light the webs blocking the door on the south side of the room.
6. The Traitorous Scrub
You’ll encounter another Deku Scrub, deal with him like last time and you’ll get some useful information. To get past the Deku Scrub Triplets, you’ll need to know their secret code: 2-3-1 (23 is number 1).
To unlock the door to the next room, shoot the eye switch above the locked door with your slingshot.
7. Floating Platform Room
In this room, there’s a floating platform going back and forth on the pool. If you attempt to cross the pool with this platform, the spike trap will hit you as the water is too high.
Dive into the switch on the bottom of the pool, swim your way to the front of the room, and ride the platform across to the other side.
Defeat the Big Skulltula in front of the block, then push the block to reach the next room with the four torches.
8. Four Torches
A single lit torch is surrounded by three unlit torches. Pull out a Deku Stick and use it to light the three unlit torches to unlock the door.
9. Gohma Larvae
This room appears to be empty, but if you look above you’ll see a Big Skulltula and some eggs. If you walk underneath the eggs, they’ll fall down and hatch, releasing a Gohma Larva.
While they’re weak, dealing with three at the same time can hurt if you’re still brushing up on your swordplay. You can use the slingshot to shoot the eggs on the ceiling!
10. Shortcut Block
On the north side of the room is a block you can push down. This lets you create a shortcut in case you fall down, but more importantly, it lets you carry fire to the other web on the floor. Light a Deku Stick and burn the web blocking access to the floor below.
11. The Deku Scrub Triplets
At the bottom of the Great Deku Tree are three Deku Scrubs. Reflecting a nut at one can stun them. But if you don’t reflect their nuts in the right order, they’ll reset and start attacking again.
Reflect the second one in the middle, the third one on the right, then the first one on the left. Catch the last Deku Scrub to unlock the door to Gohma.
Gohma
The boss of the Great Deku Tree is the Parasitic Armored Arachnid, Gohma. While we offer a more in-depth guide for fighting Gohma, here’s a hint for defeating her: Often times, defeating a boss in a Zelda dungeon requires using the item you’ve acquired in said dungeon.
Great Deku Tree Summary
Here is a brief recap of what you’ll need to do in what order to complete the Great Deku Tree:
- Climb up wall of vines to 2F and get past the Deku Scrub
- Obtain the Slingshot
- Climb up the vines to 3F and acquire the Compass
- Jump down from the ledges on 3F onto the web in 1F
- Activate the torch with the floor switch and burn the web to access the next area
- Defeat the traitorous Deku Scrub
- Get past the floating platform room
- Light the three unlit torches
- Go through the Gohma Larvae room
- Push down the block and burn the web leading to B2
- Reflect the Deku Scrub nuts back at them in the order of 2, 3, and 1 to access the final room
- Defeat Gohma
Meeting the Princess of Hyrule
After acquiring the Kokiri’s Emerald, it’s time to leave the Kokiri Forest and venture out into Hyrule to meet the Princess of Hyrule! You can exit Kokiri Forest through the west path that was previously blocked off.
