Chapter 21

⚔️ Cave of Ordeals

An optional 50-floor combat gauntlet in the Gerudo Desert. Not required for story completion but rewards Great Fairy upgrades (Fairies refill your bottles at fountains) at floors 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. One of the most challenging optional sequences in the game.

Roadmap for this chapter

This page condenses spoiler-light planning: skim it before a session when you want to remember pacing, dungeon loot, or Dusk quirks without rereading an hour-long retrospective.

Rough session length for story beats sits around 3–5 hours (varies by skill); doubling that is normal if you're multitasking Poe souls, bugs, heart pieces, or recording footage.

Objectives mirror the designers' gating—you can zig-zag earlier for collectibles once you recognize backtracking costs in Gerudo Desert, but quests won't hard-block you with surprise flags as often when you stick to the order below.

At a glance

Chapter 21 — Cave of Ordeals
Region highlight Gerudo Desert
Estimated story pacing 3–5 hours (varies by skill)
Boss spotlight Story or overworld pacing — see objectives
Tone tags Optional, Challenge dungeon, 50 floors, Darknut encounters

Major beats (first objectives)

High-level checkpoints before you dive into the full ordered list:

  • Find the Cave of Ordeals entrance behind a bombable wall in the Gerudo Desert
  • Complete all 50 floors of increasingly difficult combat encounters
  • Survive floors 1–10 (basic enemies) to unlock Faron Woods Great Fairy
  • Survive floors 11–20 (mid-game enemies) to unlock Eldin Province Great Fairy
  • Survive floors 21–30 (dungeon enemies) to unlock Lanayru Province Great Fairy
  • Survive floors 31–40 (boss-tier enemies, Darknuts appear at floor 33) to unlock Gerudo Great Fairy

The checklist below resumes the authoritative sequence—including steps trimmed here for readability.

Regional focus

Gerudo Desert

Featured items & abilities

  • All dungeon items required for various floor encounters

Goals checklist

  1. Find the Cave of Ordeals entrance behind a bombable wall in the Gerudo Desert
  2. Complete all 50 floors of increasingly difficult combat encounters
  3. Survive floors 1–10 (basic enemies) to unlock Faron Woods Great Fairy
  4. Survive floors 11–20 (mid-game enemies) to unlock Eldin Province Great Fairy
  5. Survive floors 21–30 (dungeon enemies) to unlock Lanayru Province Great Fairy
  6. Survive floors 31–40 (boss-tier enemies, Darknuts appear at floor 33) to unlock Gerudo Great Fairy
  7. Survive floors 41–50 (multiple Darknuts, Iron Knuckles, Aeralfos) to unlock all Great Fairy fountain upgrades
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Dusk tip: Cave of Ordeals is the best use case for Dusk's Instant Save — save before every 5th floor. Floor 33 (first Darknut) and Floor 45 (three simultaneous Darknuts) are the hardest checkpoints. Mortal Draw is essential for Darknuts — learn it from the Hero's Shade before attempting floor 33+. Stock 3 Red Potions and 2 Fairy bottles before entering.

Typical pacing: 3–5 hours (varies by skill)