Tips and tricks for the Dungeon Creator in Link's Awakening

One of the few entirely new features in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake on Nintendo Switch is the Dungeon Creator, which lets you create custom dungeons out of rooms you've already visited in the in-game dungeons. You will get more and more ways to customize these dungeons the more you play of the game, until by the end you're a dungeon creating master making your own challenges even tougher than those already in-game!

This is mostly entirely for fun, though there are some benefits for engaging with the feature, such as a way to get more rupees and a way to share fun creations with friends. Here are some tips and tricks for making the most of the Dungeon Creator in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Completing Dampe's tasks

As you play through the Dungeon Creator mode, Dampe will give you a series of templates to make dungeons from that include specific challenges, such as requiring you to use staircases or to put treasure chests in certain configurations behind locked doors. When doing these, you'll have to first build the dungeon, and then defeat it in order to pass the challenge.

Dampe will never assign you a task you don't have the pieces to complete, and when you exhaust his tasks you'll have to go clear another dungeon to unlock more. The reward for finishing these is more dungeon chambers to use on future challenges or on your own creations.

If you're struggling with one of Dampe's tasks, a good way to tackle them is to start designing your dungeon by placing the rooms he's requiring you to place first -- for instance, if you need to have two treasure rooms, put those down first. Then build an entrance and a Nightmare room, and then use the rest of your rooms to connect them.

If you're finding you keep running into roadblocks, try making sure the rooms you're putting down don't have a ton of locked doors or staircases, as these often can trip you up. Lots of treasure chests is fine, though!

How to get more Dungeon Chambers

There are several ways to get more Dungeon Chambers for the creator, most of which are doable through normal gameplay.

The Dungeon Creator unlocks when you reach Dampe's hut after completing the game's second dungeon, and you'll automatically receive all the rooms from both the first two dungeons for getting there. After that, any time you finish a new dungeon, you can visit Dampe to tell him of your adventures and get those chambers added. This also applies to the secret hidden Color Dungeon, so be sure to seek that out as well!

Beyond that, you can get additional new chambers by tapping Legend of Zelda amiibo (up to five unique chambers) and finishing dungeon creator tasks for Dampe, which will net you a new one for each you complete.

More challenge...

Playing the Dungeon Creator mode is mostly for fun and not any particular reward. If you're playing it, you may be there just because you want a challenge, either to beat your own time (as the dungeons are timed) or just to test your own skills.

If you're designing dungeons for challenge, consider getting deeper into Link's Awakening to unlock new "Plus" effects for the dungeon, which can add tricky obstacles such as Wallmasters or other enemies. You can also design dungeons that are very enemy-heavy to test your stamina, or create challenges for yourself such as beating a dungeon with only arrows or bombs.

You can also tap a Link's Awakening amiibo to summon a shadow Link to chase you through the dungeon, which makes things more frantic as well as more dangerous.

...or more loot

One actual advantage to doing the Dungeon Creator is that Dampe lets you keep any rupees you win in the created dungeons. You don't get to keep items like bombs, but it does work as a good get-rich-quick scheme.

To facilitate this, try designing dungeons with very few locked doors and lots of chests. After you collect all necessary small keys, all treasure chests you open after will contain rupees, so you can collect piles of rupees and then take them out of the dungeon to spend on expensive items like the Bow and Arrow set.

Sharing with friends

The Dungeon Creator isn't Mario Maker -- there isn't an online community where you can share with friends. But you can still pass on levels you've made to other through amiibo.

If you have a Legend of Zelda amiibo, select "amiibo" when talking to Dampe and then select "Store a Dungeon" to tap an amiibo and save a dungeon you've made to an amiibo. Then, if your friend taps that in their game, they'll be able to play the dungeon you've made, and vice versa. Try making dungeons to challenge your friends, and asking them for their own challenges.

Other tips and tricks

• If you're stuck and can't figure out why the game won't accept your dungeon, press the Y button in the creator. You'll see a list of reasons why the dungeon you created isn't working, so you can fix them
• Remember, you need at least as many treasure chests as locked doors, including the final Nightmare door
• When opening chests in a Dungeon Creator dungeon, Link will acquire all necessary Small Keys first. Then, all chest up to the last one will contain Rupees. The final chest he opens will always contain the Nightmare Key. That means Link will always need to open every chest to finish a Chamber Dungeon
• If you have two staircases, they will automatically connect to one another. If you have more than two, you can select which connect to which
• Don't worry about not having enough Bombs or Arrows to tackle a challenge. Dampe will always fill you up for the dungeon