Daily Debate: What is the Most Clever Puzzle in the Zelda Series?

After the latest release in the Zelda series with Echoes of Wisdom, I’ve found myself reflecting on its puzzles and ones from the previous games, and I asked myself “what is the best puzzle in the series to date?” It’s an interesting question, and one that can be reconsidered often after new releases in the series come forward.

To start, puzzles from all of the mainline titles are on the table. Although puzzles are presented differently in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom compared to other titles in the series, that doesn’t change the fact that they are still puzzles. This is necessary for me to address, because the puzzles in these games should absolutely be in consideration. With that noted, let’s present some frontrunners for the best puzzle.

Interestingly, some of the first puzzles that often come to mind tend to be from older Zelda games. Figuring out where all the keys are in Ocarina of Time‘s Water Temple, specifically the notorious key under the red block in the central-most room when raising the water level, comes to mind. The Stone Guardians puzzle in the Sacred Grove from Twilight Princess is another that is often brought up. These are just a couple of the puzzles that will likely be frontrunners in the discussion – there are of course many others.

Getting to the newer games, one of the most talked about puzzles in Breath of the Wild was solving the Dueling Peaks shrines, and also figuring out how to get to the shrine underneath Hebra Peak. For Tears of the Kingdom, there was a lot of talk about “Pluck of Courage” in Jochi-iu shrine, featuring a Jenga style puzzle. As for Echoes of Wisdom, I saw a lot of people talk about a particular puzzle in the Faron region’s dungeon involving some Armos and floor switches (I personally don’t think it was that difficult to solve. I wouldn’t say it’s in the running for the best designed puzzle, but I could be wrong).

Outside of popular consensus or recency bias, here are some puzzles that should be mentioned, but aren’t often brought up enough. I always loved the Poe puzzle to get through the Lost Woods while on the quest to obtaining the Master Sword in A Link Between Worlds. The solution of the final section of that puzzle is to go out the same doorway Link entered from. I remember spending over 10 minutes trying to track the movement of the poes, even resorting to recording the game screen with my phone so I could slow down the video – I was convinced I was somehow not keeping track of them correctly! When it finally clicked to me that the only path the three poes had not gone through was the one Link entered from, I was so impressed that the solution was something that in principle seems counterproductive.

One of my personal favorite puzzles in Breath of the Wild was in Rucco Maag shrine, featuring the “Five Flames” puzzles. It fascinated me because you have to rotate torches on a cube to light them, but there is water that will put them out if maneuvered incorrectly. Truthfully, I didn’t even solve this one legitimately, I used fire arrows after many failed attempts to solve it by rotating the torches. Regardless, I can appreciate that it was a well designed puzzle.

There are tons of other puzzles that I hope will be presented for consideration even if just a few puzzles end up being agreed upon as the overall best designed. So, what puzzle do you think is the most clever in the series? An additional point worth discussing is whether the extremely open ended nature of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom‘s puzzles diminish the value of their design, or if it’s beneficial by virtue of rewarding out of the box thinking? We’re interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Charles Xavier

Charles is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. He is a Visual Development artist focused on enviroments and pitch paintings. Check out his Instagram and Twitter to see his latest artworks, a lot of which is Zelda fan art! His favorite candy is Skittles – he feels the world should know this.