After you’ve made your way to Hyrule in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and witnessed the King getting sucked into a Rift only to be replaced by a much more nefarious version of himself, you’ll find yourself thrown into a cell. You need to get out, but how?
This is the part of EoW where you properly meet Tri for the first time, get your hands on the Tri Staff, and learn how to collect and use Echoes. Once you’ve done all that, you’re free to make your escape.
How to escape Hyrule Castle in Zelda Echoes of Wisdom
This is best broken down into stages, which I’ll do by room. There’s a lot to get through in this part, and also a lot of Echoes to be learned and used.
Room one: Getting out of the cell
To escape the cell, you’ll need to use your newfound Echo-collecting ability to learn how to summon a Table. To do this, approach the table at the bottom of the cell and press ZR. Once you’ve learned the Echo, hop onto the already existing table and then up onto the shelf to the left.
While on the shelf, you’ll need to summon another table next to the crumbling wall by pressing Y. Having done this, you’re free to hop over the wall and make your escape into the next room by following the corridor to the left.
Room two: Getting past the guards
You’ll need to use your table to build some makeshift stairs up onto the big crates, so build two tables on top of each other, then reverse back and build another one. This will allow you to jump on the crates without getting seen by the first guard.
After this, make sure to learn the Wooden Box Echo, then you can do one of two things:
- Use the crates already present, as well as those you can summon, to methodically trap the two guards who are circling the area
- Carefully walk behind one of the guards and hope that you don’t get seen
As you can see from this screenshot, I chose to trap the guards so that I could sneak past:
After this, two more guards will have a casual chat, neglecting their duties. Simply walk past them and make your way up the ladder to their left, then make your way around to where all the Pots are and remember to learn them as Echoes.
Your next roadblock is a guard that you’ll need to distract. To do this, you can either take one of the Hyrule Castle Pots from the top or summon one of your own. Either way, jump down and throw the pot towards the back wall of the room, causing the guard to walk in that direction and allowing you to sneak past him.
Repeat the same trick on the next guard, and then make your way through the door into the next room. You’ll trigger a cutscene featuring a surprisingly spry Impa and then be able to move on to the next part of your dastardly escape.
Room three: The bedroom
The first thing you need to do in this room is learn how to summon a Decorative Shrub Echo, which you can then use to make your way past yet more guards. Head up the ladder and cross over the two Shrubs along the back wall, then summon a couple more to bridge the next gap you come across.
Make your way down the ladder to learn the Old Bed Echo, then go back up the ladder and use the Old Bed to bridge the gaps you find there. Remember that beds can be slightly overlapped, so you can make a pretty lengthy bridge out of them.
When you get outside, spin around a bit using R to hopefully get some Rupees, then jump down the well on the left side of the area.
Room four: The cave
Inside the cave, learn the Boulder Echo, and then push the boulder to the left and into the water, allowing you to walk through and jump in. Collect the Rupees at the bottom and hop onto the box in the middle of the water.
It’s up to you whether you use Boxes or a Bed to get across the gap, but either way, you’ll be able to cross to the left and make your way out of this first bit of water.
The final blockade between you and freedom is a seemingly impenetrable row of boxes. While you’re not blessed with Mario’s ability to smash through boxes with your bottom, there is a way through this barrier. Just summon a boulder over one of the Boxes, and it will sink, taking the box with it.
All that’s left to do now is swim up and to freedom.
