Ocarina of Time Switch 2 Walkthrough: Deku Tree to Zelda

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, bringing the 1998 original back with rebuilt visuals, full voice acting and a reworked camera that finally lets you move the way three decades of 3D Zelda games have trained you to expect. Nintendo has pitched it as a standalone adventure that doesn't require any prior series knowledge, and the opening stretch — Kokiri Forest, the Great Deku Tree and your first look at Hyrule Field — is still the best way to learn how Link controls before the game opens up. If you're picking it up fresh off Nintendo's official product page, here's exactly what to do, in order, and what's actually different this time around.

01Getting the Kokiri Sword and Deku Shield

You wake up to Navi the fairy fluttering impatiently at your door, and a quick lap around the village makes it clear Mido, the self-appointed guard of the north path, won't let you near the Great Deku Tree without a sword and shield equipped. The Kokiri Sword is free: drop into the hollow log maze behind the village's training ground and follow the tunnels to a chest sitting in a small side room. The Deku Shield costs 40 rupees at the Kokiri Shop, and since you start with none, spend a few minutes cutting the tall grass around the village, smashing the pots near the houses, and digging at any dirt patch that looks disturbed. Most of it refunds a handful of rupees at a time, so it adds up faster than it feels like it should.

It's slow going the first time through, and it's also the only rupee grind the entire game asks of you before you're allowed to leave the forest — every other shield, sword and tunic upgrade for the rest of the adventure is either a dungeon reward or tied to a specific quest, not a shop you have to save up for from scratch. Treat these few minutes as the one bit of busywork standing between you and the story actually starting.

02Passing Mido and Entering the Great Deku Tree

Open the inventory screen and equip both the sword and shield to your action buttons — simply owning them in your pack isn't enough, Mido specifically checks what's in your hands before he'll step aside. Head back to the north gate once both are equipped, and he lets you through without a word of apology for the earlier runaround. The path beyond slopes down into a hollow between two massive roots, and the Great Deku Tree's mouth — quite literally, this remake renders the entrance as the tree's own face — opens into the dungeon proper the moment you approach.

03The Web Room and the Climb to the Upper Floor

Inside, the first real obstacle is a thick web sealing off the lower passage ahead of you. Light a Deku Stick on one of the room's wall torches and carry the flame over to the web to burn through it — any Deku Stick works, and you can always cut more grass outside if you walk in without one. Past the gap, a narrow corridor crawling with Deku Baba plants leads to a vine-covered wall; climbing it dumps you out on the dungeon's upper level, where the layout opens into a central compass room and, eventually, the corridor leading to the boss door.

Reports comparing the remake to the original describe retuned camera angles and a handful of adjusted puzzle details in this dungeon — a changed hookshot target above one of the entrances and a block puzzle that no longer runs on a strict timer have both come up in hands-on previews — but nothing reported so far changes the dungeon's basic route from the version players have known since 1998. If a room looks slightly different than you remember, or a puzzle feels a touch more forgiving, that's consistent with what's been said publicly about the remake rather than a sign you've wandered somewhere you shouldn't be.

Great Deku Tree Walkthrough Checklist

1. 1Cut grass, smash pots and dig at disturbed dirt patches near the houses — you need 40 rupees before the shop will sell you a shield.5-10 min
2. 2Buy the Deku Shield from the Kokiri Shop, then find the chest holding the Kokiri Sword in the hollow log maze behind the training ground.5 min
3. 3Equip both the sword and shield, then head to the village's north gate — Mido steps aside once he sees them equipped.2 min
4. 4Light a Deku Stick on a torch and burn through the web blocking the lower passage, then fight past the Deku Baba corridor to the vine climb.10 min
5. 5The chest in the compass room past the climb holds the Fairy Slingshot — your only ranged option for the boss fight ahead.10-15 min
6. 6Stun her glowing eye with a slingshot pellet whenever it opens, then rush in for two or three sword hits before she recovers.5-10 min
7. 7Saria gives you the Fairy Ocarina on the way out; head through Hyrule Field to Castle Town, where Zelda and Impa teach you the game's first song.15-20 min

04Finding the Fairy Slingshot

The chest in the compass room holds the Fairy Slingshot, and skipping it is the single most common way new players get stuck on the boss ahead — it's the only ranged weapon anywhere in the dungeon, and the fight is built entirely around having it. Grab it, stock up on a few Deku Seeds from the surrounding grass patches if your ammo counter looks low, and only then continue toward the door at the top of the climb. There's no way to sequence-break past this item on a first visit, so there's no harm in backtracking through the floor if you pushed ahead without checking every chest.

05How to Beat Gohma, the Great Deku Tree's Boss

Gohma is a giant parasitic spider that spends most of the fight clinging to the ceiling, dropping smaller Deku Baba-style hatchlings into the arena and occasionally charging blindly across the floor when she loses track of you. Her single glowing red eye only opens to track your movement or right after a charge finishes — that split second is your entire window to act. Fire a slingshot pellet the instant the eye opens to stun her, then immediately close the distance and land two or three sword hits before she recovers and seals the eye back up.

Keep circling rather than standing still between openings; a charge can clip you even from the side if you're planted in one spot waiting for the next shot. Clearing the hatchlings with a sword swing as they spawn keeps the arena from getting crowded, but they're optional kills — prioritize the eye window every time one opens, even if a hatchling is still crawling around.

Beating her drops the Kokiri's Emerald, the first of the three Spiritual Stones Ganondorf needs to reach the Sacred Realm, and the dungeon starts collapsing behind you the moment the fight ends — sprint for the exit rather than lingering to explore rooms you skipped.

06Meeting Zelda and Learning Zelda's Lullaby

Back outside in the daylight, Saria hands you the Fairy Ocarina, and the Great Deku Tree explains with its last breath that Ganondorf cursed it long before you ever set foot inside. From here the path out of the forest opens onto Hyrule Field for the first time in the entire game — head toward Hyrule Castle Town, where sneaking past the gate guards and working your way to the rear wall of the castle courtyard triggers your first real scene with Princess Zelda and her nursemaid Impa.

Impa teaches you Zelda's Lullaby on the spot, the first of the ocarina songs you'll end up using constantly for the rest of the adventure, and learning it closes out the opening chapter cleanly before the story sends you off to find the other two Spiritual Stones.

07What's Actually New in the Switch 2 Remake

Beyond the visual overhaul, Nintendo's own product listing confirms a handful of control changes worth knowing before you're deep in a dungeon. Link can now jump and sprint on command instead of relying purely on context-sensitive ledge grabs and auto-run, ranged weapons like the Fairy Slingshot and Hookshot support motion aiming as an alternative to stick aiming that you can toggle in the Options menu, and the ocarina itself can be played by humming or playing a real instrument into the Switch 2's built-in microphone instead of only tapping face buttons. None of that changes the Deku Tree walkthrough above, but it does mean a Gohma stun that feels sluggish with stick aiming is worth testing with motion controls instead before you assume the fight is just harder than you remember.

In the second Ask the Developer interview Nintendo published ahead of launch, series producer Eiji Aonuma talked about how deliberately hands-off he tried to be with the remake's younger development team, even when he disagreed with a choice they made along the way.

“I wanted the team to make The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time their own, and to follow through on their own ideas about what the game should be.”Eiji Aonuma, producer of the Legend of Zelda series

That hands-off approach is consistent with what's actually in the opening hours: the Great Deku Tree's layout, Mido's gate check and Gohma's attack pattern all play the way longtime fans remember, with the confirmed changes concentrated in how the game feels to control rather than what it asks you to do. Nintendo's own overview trailer runs through most of these systems back to back if you want a fuller picture before your next session.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Overview Trailer, posted to Nintendo of America's YouTube channel on October 14, 2026, ahead of the game's November 5 launch.

A moment of calm before the adventure begins... #Zelda #OcarinaOfTime

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) on X