Congratulations! You’ve finished The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and earned the right to see the weirdest ending in the series. Like with any Zelda game, however, there’s probably some leftover tasks that you skipped either out of frustration or a desire to see the story done quickly. So let’s take a look at what exactly you can do after beating Link’s Awakening.
Collect All The Shells And Heart Pieces
One task that anyone can forgive you for skipping is collecting all the Pieces of Heart and Secret Seashells. Once you’re used to Link’s Awakening’s simple combat, you don’t really need too many hearts. Since Secret Seashells are used to get you more heart pieces, you also might feel like abandoning the search at some point. Now that you’re done with the game, though, it might be time to complete the collection for collection’s sake.
There’s an interesting thing to note about Secret Seashells. The original Link’s Awakening only had 20 shells to collect. The Nintendo Switch remake, however, added more. So even if Link’s Awakening is your childhood game that you’ve played many times, there’s still something new to experience in the Switch version.
Be The One Person Actually Making Chamber Dungeons
The reviews for Link’s Awakening are in and are almost unanimously positive. One aspect of the remake that isn’t so beloved, however, is the new Chamber Dungeons function. This mode lets you make top-down Zelda dungeons of your own design. You can then store them in the Link’s Awakening Link amiibo to show them to friends. That sounds like a recipe for success, especially when you consider that Nintendo fans have been asking for a Zelda answer to Super Mario Maker for years. The problem is that Chamber Dungeons is very limited.
Most of the dungeon rooms you can use are copy-pastes of ones from the actual main game. More unique materials seem to be locked to amiibo. That said, the mode might be your jam if you don’t mind tinkering with relatively few options. Or if you have a large amiibo collection. If “Zelda Maker” is ever going to be a thing, a community has to start somewhere.
Finish The Trading Quest
Link’s Awakening might not have the wealth of content that Breath of the Wild has, but there is still one major side quest. You may have actually finished the whole item trading quest to get the Magnifying Glass. Or you may have skipped using the Magnifying Glass to get directions to the Wind Fish and just worked it out through trial and error. If you did skip it, now’s your chance to load up an old save and see it through.
Play Again On Harder Difficulty
Link’s Awakening released alongside the Nintendo Switch Lite, a budget-minded handled version of the console. This move seems planned by Nintendo, as Link’s Awakening was originally a handheld game. It’s also shorter than most Zelda games and has a cuter aesthetic. It’s a great first Zelda. Taking that into consideration, many might have played on Normal difficulty the first time through. And there’s no shame in that! But now that you’ve beaten it, you’re probably ready to go big. Take on Hard mode. You’ve got this.
Try A Different Zelda Game
The Legend of Zelda got its start in 1986. That makes it 30 years old. There’s a good chance that you might not have played every game in the series, even if Link’s Awakening is far from your first quest. If you’ve still got the itch to cut down grass and bomb some Dodongos, perhaps it’s time to try one of the other Zelda games.
We recommend the Oracle duo, two amazing-but-overlooked games. They’re available on the 3DS via the virtual console. If you want more of Link’s Awakening’s offbeat vibes, you could always give Majora’s Mask another playthrough. For those who appreciated the retro gameplay, both the original Legend of Zelda and Link to the Past are part of the free NES/SNES games given to to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. The Legend of Zelda a wonderfully varied series, so there’s sure to be another game that will strike your fancy.
