Shadow Nightmares

"We were born of nightmares... To take over this world, we made the Wind Fish sleep endlessly! If the Wind Fish doesn't wake up, this island will never disappear! We would have been the masters of this place... But you had to come here and disrupt our plans! Heh heh! You can never defeat us!!! Let's rumble!"

— Nightmare

Nightmare is the final boss in Link's Awakening. He is found after navigating through the many rooms in the Wind Fish's Egg and is reached by falling down a hole at the end of the maze of rooms. He takes on six forms with the first five resembling bosses from both Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past.

Nightmare's Forms

Shadow of Giant Bot

Nightmare's first form resembles that of a Giant Bot. In this fight, he acts in a similar way to that of the Giant Buzz Blob in the Color Dungeon of Link's Awakening. The weakest of the five forms, he takes away a half a heart from contact and can easily be dispatched by sprinkling Magic Powder on him three times make him change forms to...

Shadow of Agahnim

Nightmare's second form resembles that of Agahnim, one of the antagonists in Link to the Past. In similar manner to the battle in that game, he can only be defeated by bouncing his own magic back at him in a game of Dead Man's Volley. To do this Link must wait until he powers up his magical spell and then slash the magic back when launched at him. This form has two different attacks. One is a larger fireball, which is the one that damages the form, while the other is an X-shaped fireball that cannot be deflected and can only be dodged. Both fireballs inflict one heart's worth of damage on Link. After being hit a few times by his own magic, Nightmare will change forms once again, this time to...

Shadow of Moldorm

File:Nightmare (Moldorm).gif

Nightmare's third form resembles that of Moldorm, the first boss fought in Link's Awakening. The fight behaves very similar to the first time you fought him, albeit without the hazardous pits that had surrounded the arena in the first battle. He can only be damaged by slashing his tail with a sword. He takes eight hits to kill with the Lv. 2 sword and inflicts one heart's worth of damage upon contact with him. After defeating this form Nightmare will change for a third time, this time to...

Shadow of Ganon

File:Nightmare (Ganon).gif

Nightmare's fourth form resembles that of Ganon, the main villain of the Legend of Zelda series, specifically the appearance from Link to the Past. This fight is similar to the first phase of the Ganon fight in Link to the Past. He attacks by twirling his Trident and summoning a flock of Blazing Bats to aid him as he moves across the room. All of his attacks take one heart's worth of damage. To defeat him have Link either equip his Pegasus Boots and charge at him with his sword, or avoid the attacks and use the Spin Attack. After six hits with the Lv. 2 Sword, Nightmare will change forms once again, this time to...

Shadow of Lanmola

Nightmare's fifth form resembles that of a Lanmola, a boss from Link to the Past and a mini-boss in Link's Awakening. He moves quickly around the room taking one heart for everytime he makes contact with Link. He can easily be defeated by almost any weapon in Link's arsenal, requiring only one hit to defeat. After defeating this form, Nightmare will change one last time, this time to...

Shadow of Dethl

Nightmare's final form is that of an original design consisting of two long, muscular arms, and a central eye, which is his only weak point. He proceeds this battle by swinging his arms about the stage, which take out one and a half hearts if hit. This can easily be avoided though by using the Roc's Feather and jumping over them when the time is right. The only way to damage this form is to wait for Nightmare to open his eye, which can then be damaged by using the Bow. It takes a healthy 16 arrows to bring down this beast once and for all.

There is also a quicker means of dispatching Dethl by using the Boomerang if Link aquired it earlier. If so, he only needs to be hit once to bring down this beast tiresome final boss.

Story

Nightmare is the antagonist of Link's Awakening and as such is responsible for the Wind Fish's slumber throughout the game. Throughout the game all the other bosses allude to the existance of Nightmare, ultimately cummilating in the final battle between him and Link.

After defeating Nightmare, Link will be led up to the now awakened Wind Fish, who explains that the world of Koholint Island and all of its people are nothing more than a dream. After this the Wind Fish disappears along with the rest of the island, where Link finds himself awake in the middle of the sea, in his ship wreaked boat. As he continues to wake up he looks up at the sky to see the Wind Fish flying above him, with Koholint only a part of his memories now.

Trivia

• Another interesting way to fight the Agahnim form is to use the Shovel to deflect the magic fireballs, similar to how Link could use the Bug Net to deflect Agahnim's fireballs in Link to the Past.

Gallery

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  Artwork of DethI