Ocarina of Time Remake Dungeon Changes: What's Different

Nintendo's own line on the Switch 2 Ocarina of Time is that the dungeons are the same puzzles with the furniture moved. "We basically retained the dungeon mechanisms from the original game," director HokWai Ng says in Nintendo's Ask the Developer interview, adding: "So if you look closely, you may notice areas where the layout differs slightly from the original game."

"Slightly" is doing a lot of work there. Five days after launch, Zelda Wiki documents a Water Temple Small Key that no longer exists, a Forest Temple door that is now locked, a Dark Link who takes no damage from Din's Fire, and a Lon Lon Ranch you can walk out of without the horse. Each of those can trip up someone following a walkthrough written for the N64 or 3DS, and the dungeon walkthroughs on this site were written for those versions.

This post goes dungeon by dungeon, then through the overworld routes, listing what changed and which step of an older guide it breaks. I have not played the remake. Everything here comes from Zelda Wiki's remake article and dungeon pages as they read on November 10, 2026, plus Nintendo's developer interview. Where neither source says anything, I list it as undocumented rather than guess. Wallets, Gold Skulltulas, bottles, Heart Pieces and Great Fairies are in our remake collectibles guide, and controls and release details are in our Switch 2 remake guide.

That is the Spirit Temple's entrance hall in the remake, and it is one of the documented changes: the two statues now sit in the middle, and the stairs run up both sides.

The short version

What Nintendo says it changed

The clearest statement is about the Water Temple, and it comes from the man who designed it. In part 3 of Nintendo's Ask the Developer interview on the remake, producer Eiji Aonuma says he had "some overdue homework" about the temple he made 28 years ago. His diagnosis: with a complex structure and a lot of item toggling, "you often had to open the menu screen repeatedly, making it hard to keep track of where you were." Ng adds that the team made item toggling easier and turned some disorienting walls into "lattice-style structures" so you can see the rooms beyond them.

The same interview gives one boss change. Program director Hiroki Taguchi says Gohma, the first boss, was hard to read because it was not obvious when its weak point could be hit, so in the remake Gohma guards its weak point with the two arms on its head whenever it is immune. Our boss guide times that fight for the N64; in the remake, attack when the arms are down.

The rest of this post is Zelda Wiki.

The child dungeons

Great Deku Tree (renamed from Inside the Deku Tree). Beyond Gohma's arms (from Nintendo's interview), Zelda Wiki's remake article records no layout change, so our Deku Tree walkthrough should still hold room for room. Two game-wide enemy changes apply here as everywhere: Big Deku Babas and Big Skulltulas are removed from the game and replaced with normal-sized ones, and Deku Baba tongues are now shaped like roots.

Dodongo Cavern (no apostrophe-s now). Zelda Wiki documents nothing beyond the name. Treat our Dodongo's Cavern walkthrough as N64 and 3DS information that has not been contradicted, not as confirmed.

Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly has the one documented child-dungeon layout change. Per the remake article, the rooms at the back of the first floor now all connect directly to the central corridor instead of branching into several smaller corridors. The rooms and what is in them are not described as changed, so the item and boss sections of our Jabu-Jabu's Belly walkthrough are the safer parts; the "which corridor leads where" directions on the first floor are the part to stop trusting.

Forest Temple

Three changes, and the first one hits on the first screen.

• The first door is locked. Zelda Wiki's Forest Temple page says it is there to make sure you notice the Small Key hidden in the first room. It does not name the key. Our Forest Temple walkthrough starts with Key 1, the chest on the tree in the entrance courtyard; if that is the key in question, following our guide in order still works, and the only difference is that you can no longer walk past it. Zelda Wiki does not say whether the total key count changed.
• Eye Switches are behind metal grates. In the remake, the Hookshot can trigger Eye Switches. The Forest Temple's are covered so only the Fairy Bow works, which the wiki says stops you sequence-breaking the temple with the Hookshot before you have the Bow. A player going in order should not notice; for anyone who learned a Hookshot trick from another dungeon, it is a dead end here.
• The frozen Eye Switch takes two arrows. Our walkthrough says a burning arrow shot through the torch flame "thaws and triggers" it. Per Zelda Wiki's Eye Switch page, melting a frozen Eye Switch no longer activates it in the remake. You shoot it again once the ice is gone.

The boss's lead-up changed too. Meg, the last Poe Sister, now has a different tell in each phase instead of only the real one spinning: first the real Meg's torch has a purple flame while the copies' flames are green, then the real one's torch is lit while theirs are not, and finally the real one has its eyes open while the copies squint.

Fire Temple

The remake article records one layout change: a room on the third floor now has a pit of lava where it used to be open to the main chamber on the first floor. Zelda Wiki says the point is to stop you falling several floors if you slip off the narrow path there. The wiki does not name the room, so I cannot map it to a specific step of our Fire Temple walkthrough; that guide's "do not fall" warning is about the rolling boulder room, which is a different space from the main chamber. The wiki also does not say how much the lava costs you or where it puts you back, and I am not going to guess.

One general change matters more here than anywhere else. The timer that ran when adult Link entered an extremely hot area without the Goron Tunic is gone, but per the remake article he now loses health rapidly instead. The tunic is still the answer; there is just no countdown telling you how long you have.

Water Temple

The temple Aonuma apologised for in a 2009 interview (per Zelda Wiki's Water Temple page) has these documented changes:

• The pagoda key and its door are gone. Zelda Wiki's remake article says the Small Key hidden under the central pagoda has been removed, along with the locked door that needed it. Our Water Temple guide counts six Small Keys in the original and has a whole section on the one players miss in the central tower. Zelda Wiki does not give the remake's key total, and it does not say whether the removed pagoda key is the same one the 3DS camera pan pointed at. What is safe to say is that one key and one key door are gone, so a key-by-key checklist from the N64 will not line up.
• Lattice walls. Several solid walls are now lattice-style structures, so you can see the rooms behind them. That is in Zelda Wiki and in Nintendo's interview.
• The 3DS fixes stay. Zelda Wiki's Water Temple page says the 3DS version's changes (glowing wall markings leading to the water-level switches, and a camera scene pointing at an easily missed key in the central tower) are "largely retained" in the remake.
• Fewer trips to the menu. Boots now live on the D-pad: you pick which footwear is assigned to Down in the Equipment menu, then press Down to use it. That covers the Iron Boots swap that made the N64 temple a chore.

Dark Link is a different fight

Our Water Temple guide calls Din's Fire "the fastest clear in the game" against Dark Link. Not in the remake. Per Zelda Wiki's Dark Link page:

• He is fully opaque from the start, carries a black and silver Hylian Shield that he uses more often, and only appears once you approach the door at the far end of the room. Heavy fog now hangs over the water.
• He attacks on his own from the start, instead of only mirroring you until he turns solid.
• Din's Fire no longer damages him. It stuns him for one free hit, and he backflips away whenever you cast it. Stuns are much shorter overall, so you cannot chain follow-ups.
• After losing a certain amount of health he dissolves, reforms with a smoky aura and brighter eyes, and gets more aggressive.
• He has a new counter to sword thrusts that knocks Link far back, and he can use the magic-upgraded Spin Attack.

The wiki's recommended approach is to let him attack first and counter immediately. On N64 a sword thrust just made him hop onto your blade; in the remake it gets you knocked far back.

Shadow Temple and Bottom of the Well

Zelda Wiki records no layout change in either. The changes are to things you fight there:

• Dead Hand (the mini-boss in both) can now be forced to surface by destroying all the Hands in the room. The Hands respawn once it does. Our Bottom of the Well guide and Shadow Temple walkthrough describe the N64 fight.
• Wallmasters now cast a highly visible round purple glow over Link before they drop.
• The Lens of Truth is now the Lenses of Truth, redesigned as a pair of goggles.
• Beamos lasers can be reflected with the Mirror Shield, and a Beamos you blow up with a Bomb now launches its eye at Link.

Spirit Temple

The entrance hall is re-laid out: the single central staircase is now two sets of stairs along the sides of the room, and the two statues that flanked it have moved to the middle (that is the hero image above). Zelda Wiki does not say the statues' inscriptions changed; in our Spirit Temple walkthrough they are the two hints about the Silver Gauntlets.

Two more changes:

• Kaepora Gaebora's last meeting moved. On N64 and 3DS he appears on the ledge after the Silver Gauntlets. In the remake, per Zelda Wiki's Spirit Temple page, you meet him outside the Temple of Time when you return there after Nabooru is abducted.
• Iron Knuckle axe swings can be blocked with the shield, per the remake article.

Ice Cavern, Proving Grounds and Ganondorf's Castle

Ice Cavern. The dungeon itself has no documented change. Getting there does: its entrance is visibly caved in during the child era, and in the adult era a solid ice bridge runs from Zora Fountain's altar to the cavern instead of a chain of icebergs. Our Zora's Domain guide covers the fountain in detail, and our Ice Cavern walkthrough is otherwise uncontradicted.

Gerudo Proving Grounds (the Gerudo Training Ground). It moved to the path between the fortress and the Horseback Archery Range, and its Silver Rupee puzzles now use silver gems. The fee and the rest are in the collectibles guide, so I will not repeat them. Zelda Wiki says the gems that replace Silver Rupees slot into the door lock as you collect them, and that applies wherever the original used Silver Rupees, not just here.

Ganondorf's Castle (renamed from Ganon's Castle). Zelda Wiki says the escape after the Ganondorf fight was significantly overhauled: at one point Zelda holds back a horde of approaching enemies with her powers, she uses the same power to freeze the ReDeads near the castle exit, and at one point you Hookshot across a gap outside the castle. Our Ganon's Castle guide describes a three-minute escape and a ring of fire around Zelda that two Stalfos have to die to clear. The wiki does not say whether either survives, so do not count on them.

Routes outside the dungeons

Hyrule Castle. The path to the Castle Courtyard now runs across the upper parts of the castle: per the remake article, you get in through a small sewer, cross a rooftop garden and sneak through an interior storage room. The grounds now have landscaped hedgerows, a large fountain and more guards. The guard-by-guard advice in our Hyrule Castle guide comes from N64 code and describes the old garden route. The window that showed Super Mario portraits in the courtyard now shows the Threads of Time tapestry.

Lon Lon Ranch. When Ingo locks you in after the race, you can now escape without Epona, and Ingo and Malon have new lines if you come back and talk to them. A small wooden tower behind the ranch house lets you jump over the fence and go back for her. Our Epona guide tells you to jump the ranch wall on Epona to get out; in the remake that is optional.

Dampé's grave. The race is still there, dressed up like a game show with purple cutouts of Dampé's face. The Song of Time block at the end has been removed. Instead, the path to the Kakariko Windmill has broken steps that you cross with the Hookshot. Our Kakariko Graveyard guide tells you to play the Song of Time by the blue block to leave; in the remake, use the Hookshot instead.

Gerudo Fortress. Grates above the cells now let you hear the prisoners below, and the cell you are thrown into when caught has a door and window connecting it to the fortress interior. Zelda Wiki does not describe how that changes the escape, so the cell routes in our Gerudo's Fortress guide are N64 and 3DS routes.

Castle Town, adult era. Many more ReDeads, including on the path between the Market and the drawbridge. Because the camera is no longer fixed there, they can now use their stun attack on you. In the remake their eyes glow red when they stun, and they rush you at close range.

Elsewhere. Lake Hylia is now part of the Hyrule Field map, Zora Domain thaws after Morpha, and Kakariko Village and Zora Fountain have new layouts. Our Lake Hylia guide and Zora's Domain guide cover the lake and the Zora areas.

What is still undocumented

• Small Key totals. Zelda Wiki's remake article and the dungeon pages I read do not give a remake key count. The Water Temple is down one key and one door; the rest is unknown.
• Dodongo Cavern, Shadow Temple, Bottom of the Well and the Ice Cavern layouts. No layout change is documented. That is not the same as confirmed unchanged.
• Ganondorf's Castle trials and the tower climb. Only the escape is documented as changed.
• Boss fights other than Gohma and Dark Link. The remake article says nothing yet on Volvagia, Morpha, Bongo Bongo, Twinrova or Ganondorf.
• Dungeon Gold Skulltula positions. See the collectibles guide; there is no remake list.
• Whether the jump button opens shortcuts. Neither Nintendo nor Zelda Wiki says.
• Master Quest. Neither source mentions it.

Quick Action Checklist

• Forest Temple: grab the first room's Small Key before anything else. The first door now needs it.
• Forest Temple: the frozen Eye Switch needs a second arrow after the ice melts. The Hookshot will not work on its Eye Switches.
• Fire Temple: no heat countdown without the Goron Tunic, just fast health loss. Wear it.
• Water Temple: expect one fewer key and one fewer key door than an N64 checklist; use the lattice walls to keep your bearings.
• Dark Link: do not plan on Din's Fire for damage. Let him swing first, then counter.
• Gohma: hit the eye when its two head-arms are not covering it.
• Spirit Temple: Kaepora's last talk is outside the Temple of Time now.
• Hyrule Castle: sewer, rooftop garden, storage room.
• Lon Lon Ranch: you can leave without Epona and come back via the wooden tower.
• Dampé's grave: Hookshot the broken steps to the windmill; no Song of Time.