The Forsaken Fortress is the first area (arguably a dungeon on a technicality, but not really) you’ll go to in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. For many, it’s a terrible memory. You’re forced to use stealth with no actual weapon in hand, making it a painful process if you don’t know what to do and where to go.
Luckily for you, I’ve replayed The Wind Waker to help you out. (And honestly, the good news is that this dungeon isn’t nearly as bad as I remembered it being, so… hopefully that’s the same for you.)
Below we’ll give you a walkthrough on how to get through the first visit of The Forsaken Fortress in The Wind Waker, how to turn off all three spotlights, and where to go to climb the fortress.
> Note that this walkthrough is for the Nintendo GameCube version of the game, also playable on the Nintendo Switch 2, if you have a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. While this walkthrough may work for the remastered version (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD for the Wii U), there may be differences between the two versions, so keep that in mind if you’re using it for the latter. We wrote this guide using the original GameCube version on the actual GameCube, so if there are differences between this version and the NSO version, we’re working it out — and we’ll update this guide if it needs it.
Table of Contents
The Forsaken Fortress, explained
You get launched over to this horrifying island full of monsters and home to the most evil being in Hyrule — and your sword goes flying off into the distance. Great! This situation forces you to use stealth techniques to navigate to the end of this area. Rather than running in with three hearts and swords a-blazin’, you’ll need to sneak around, turn off the three spotlights, and climb up the fortress to find your sister.
All of that said, note that our walkthrough will detail how to get the compass, treasure map, and some other loot along the way, but we do not go into expansive detail about out-of-the-way treasure. You will come back here later and you’ll be able to freely explore with sword in hand, so don’t worry too much about missing out on anything on your first visit.
You can tackle the Forsaken Fortress spotlights in any order really, but we’ve listed them in the order we found it most convenient.
[Ed. note: This guide is missing a Piece of Heart. I’m sorry, I have failed you. Note that if you don’t get it on your first visit here, you can return to get it later, but I am going to update this guide once I replay on the Switch 2 to include the Piece of Heart.]
Forsaken Fortress spotlight #1
Right off the boat, follow the path straight up until you see the flat area with red rupees and spotlights. If you’re a fiend for rupees, you can use the nearby barrels to hide from the spotlights and grab the rupees — but you can also just wait until you turn all the spotlights off and come back for them later.
If you’re not grabbing the rupees, turn right and go up the path further, ignoring the huge doors in the flat area.
Keep following the path upwards, ignoring the hallway that allows you to go indoors. You’ll see a ladder leading up to the first set of spotlights at the top. Head up there and be prepared to take out a bokoblin.
As instructed by Tetra, you’ll want to use your shield to block the Bokoblins attacks, which will eventually make them drop their weapon. Then you can pick it up and use it against them. There will also be a vase full of sticks nearby that you can wield. (Break the vase open and use one of the many sticks to take out the Bokoblin.) After doing this, your first spotlight will be taken care of.
Forsaken Fortress spotlight #2
For the second spotlight, you’ll want to strategically drop on to a ledge from the above spotlight. Here’s a redux of the image above but with a new location in mind:
Drop down to those huge doors and head inside. Once you’re inside, you’ll be chased down by lasers, so quickly roll forward to open a chest with a yellow rupee (worth 10 rupees) inside.
Climb up the beds on the left side of the room using the ladders and head into the door on your right (though don’t jump across the platform).
You’ll now be back outside in one of the outdoor hallways. Head out of the opening on the right side and climb up the ladder to get to the second spotlight.
You know the drill: block the attacks, pick up the enemy’s stick, and beat them down with it.
At this point, we recommend getting caught by enemies and thrown into jail. You can do this quickly by either getting caught by a spotlight or going into the big doors at the flat area (the ones we initially told you to ignore), and running into a moblin, who will take you away to jail. Most of the indoor hallways of this area have these moblins around, so it shouldn’t take too long to get thrown into prison.
Forsaken Fortress spotlight #3
Now that you’re in jail, you’ll have a pretty straight shot to the remainder of the spotlights and the final area of the Forsaken Fortress with no need to find ladders and get confused.
From jail, jump up on the table and then the bookshelf. Break open the vase to show an exit. (Wow, classic Zelda move.) Crouch down using R and crawl through the hole.
Head down the only open path and you’ll find a chest with the dungeon map inside. Yay!
Use the skills you learned on the pirate ship to jump on to the nearby hanging lantern and swing across. Enter the door on the right and run straight — you already got the two spotlights outside, so you can just keep going.
In this room, there’s a chest behind some barrels straight ahead. Crack that open to get the compass.
Jump using the lantern to swing across the way and enter the door. You’ll be outside again!
Turn left to the opening in the outdoor hallway and walk up the ramped path to get to your third spotlight. There will be another ladder with a gap between the ladder and the floor that you can ignore for now.
Yep, yep. Climb up that latter, smack down the bokoblin using its own weapon and now the third spotlight will be deactivated.
Once you’re done here, jump back down to the outdoor hallway you came from and keep heading north back inside.
Climbing the Forsaken Fortress
You should be back in yet another room that looks like the previous ones. As usual, swing across the gap with the hanging light and enter the door on the other side.
Turn left and push the crate down, which will give you a shortcut back to the starting flat area. If you wanted those red rupees from before but were too lazy to stealth through it, you can grab them now.
After grabbing the rupees (or not) just keep heading straight through the outdoor hallway you came out of. A short cutscene will play showing roaming moblins and a huge door.
With patience, you’ll need to use the barrel to the left of you to sneak by the moblins. Walk when their backs are turned towards you and stop moving when they’re looking at you. If they catch you, you’ll go back to jail, so you’ll want to be pretty careful here.
Once you’re by the door, you can take the barrel off and head through. You’ll be back outside. Climb up the stairs and use the barrel directly at the top of the stairs to pass another moblin that’s sniffing around. Once you get far enough from the moblin, take the barrel off and just run up the pathway.
You’ll eventually hit this gap:
Jump down and push the crate down by the ladder to create another shortcut back up here. Climb the ladder back up to the gap. Face the wall and hold down A to sidle along the wall, carefully crossing the gap using the tiny ledge.
You’ll eventually hit another ledge with hearts on it. Sidle across the same as before. Head up the stairs and across the ominous holes in the ground to get your sword back — and fight a green moblin. With your sword in hand, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Take it out and head into the big doors for the finale to play.
With that, you’re done with this visit to the Forsaken Fortress! You’ll be back (a couple times, actually), so don’t miss it too much.
For the first “real” dungeon, check out our Dragon Roost Cavern walkthrough.
