Chapter 4: The Woods of Winter

1. 4.1 Return to the overworld
2. 4.2 Explore the wintry woods
3. 4.3 Pretend to be Santa Claus
4. 4.4 Use the Shovel to get Mystery Seeds
5. 4.5 Enter the Snake’s Remains

4.1 Return to the overworld

Once you have the ability to turn the world into a wintry wonderland, you’re officially done with Subrosia… at least for now. As a result, it’s time to return to the surface world of Holodrum. If you haven’t explored yet, feel free to take time to do so, but there’ll be so much more to explore on your subsequent visits, so don’t feel the pressure yet.

You still only have access to the portal that you came in from, so you’ll need to head back there. From the Tower of Winter, head west once, then south once. Go west four more screens, and then north three more. You’ll see the portal high on a hill. Enter the portal, and you’ll be back above ground.

Once you head east, you’ll run into Sokra at the edge of Horon Village on your most recent trip. He’ll explain that the stumps — once of which just happens to helpfully be here — are what you need to change seasons. You can’t just do it anywhere; you have to find these stumps to stand on. Hop up onto the stump and turn the world into winter.

And then you’ll see why winter is the right season for here (at least for now). You’ll notice that, during the wintertime, the lake on this screen completely freezes over. Before, you couldn’t cross because of the deep water. But now you can just skate to the other side.

4.2 Explore the wintry woods

The Woods of Winter is a little maze-like, but they’re straightforward if you know where to go. You might have seen Moblins before entering the Woods of Winter, but this forest is rife with them. Many of them will take more than one sword hit unless you charge up your sword for a Spin Attack. These guys also throw spears, so be very wary of them as you travel.

Once you cross the frozen lake, head east one more screen. This will force you to head southward, and then you should be able to go east one more screen. This will lead you to yet another tree stump, but you don’t need to do anything here as it’s still winter. However, you will notice the two hollowed-out logs just to the left of the stump; during every other season, these logs will be fully-fledged trees, thus blocking off access from this part of the woods. Thus, you can only enter this area while it’s wintertime.

Head east and then north. More Moblins will greet you as you continue to proceed, but defeat them and head north twice until you reach a house in addition to a seasonal transition.

4.3 Pretend to be Santa Claus

Almost always, you will want the season to be winter here.

First, it’s a small problem that it’s no longer wintertime, but that problem is easily fixed. A slightly bigger problem is that you can’t enter the house on screen. The signpost says that the person inside is waiting for Santa. Well, perhaps you can fulfill the young girl’s hopes and dreams, even if you aren’t wearing red.

Head west one screen, and there you’ll find the solution to all your woes: yet another tree stump. Clear out the screen of Moblins, and then stand up proud atop the stump. Swing your Rod of Seasons and turn the world back to winter. Then immediately walk up the series of steps up the cliffside and head back east.

Now that it’s wintertime again, you’ll see that there’s a huge snowdrift that leads towards the top of the house you passed earlier. Interestingly, it leads straight to the chimney. Santa Claus, indeed. Hop off the cliff, and follow the pathway so you can literally fall down the chimney. The girl inside will be fooled for a moment, but even she can realize you’re not wearing the right clothing. She’ll just brush it aside and ask you to do the favor of clearing out her front step by shoveling snow away. But as a result of her request, she’ll give you the Shovel for keeps.

Hop down the chimney, pretending to be Santa for a little girl. She won’t be happy you tricked her, but she’ll “reward” you anyway.

4.4 Use the Shovel to get Mystery Seeds

With the shovel in hand, head south. The season will once again change away from winter, but that’s fine as there’s a stump just ahead. Defeat the Moblins again if they’ve respawned, and head south twice more, followed by a west. The path back west will be blocked off, but you can reopen it by standing on the stump and returning the woods to winter. Head west once more.

There are now two passageways that lead north from here, and this you’ll want to take the eastern one. This path, in winter, is blocked by a whole heap of snowfall. Before you wouldn’t have made it through, but now you have a secret weapon: the Shovel! Clear out the snow in front of you, and then head off to the east.

You’ll see a tree in the center of the screen, and this one is holding green seeds. These are Mystery Seeds, and what they do is… well, a Mystery! However, you can use these on Owl Statues, like the one here, to make them talk and give you a hint. Collect the seeds so that you activate the future teleportation waypoint here as well.

4.5 Enter the Snake’s Remains

As you head north, the season will change again, this time becoming summertime. In summer, the vines will allow you to head up the cliffside to the tree stump, but you only need to do so if you want to enter the western cavern now. Head west, and you’ll see a much more majestic cave there. That’s Level Two, the Snake’s Remains. Head inside.

The season doesn’t need to be winter to enter the dungeon, but the theme fits.

David Johnson

David Johnson, a.k.a. "The Missing Link," was once the webmaster of both Zelda: The Grand Adventures and ZeldaBlog. He works as a software engineer in the games industry. David also pontificates about Zelda, writes features and guides for ZU, and obsesses about CD-i.

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