Door

Door
A Door from Ocarina of Time
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda (1987)
Appearances	The Legend of Zelda The Adventure of Link A Link to the Past Link's Awakening Ocarina of Time Majora's Mask Oracle of Ages Oracle of Seasons Four Swords The Wind Waker Four Swords Adventures The Minish Cap Twilight Princess Phantom Hourglass Spirit Tracks Skyward Sword
Found	Throughout dungeons
Use	Entering new areas

Doors are recurring objects in The Legend of Zelda series. A door is a movable structure used to open and close off an entrance, typically consisting of a panel that swings on hinges or that slides or rotates inside a space. Some doors found in dungeons are barred or chained, and requires Link to complete a goal within the room in which he is stuck to 'unlock' the door and advance. Doors may lead to new rooms, some of which are not on the Dungeon Map until Link opens them.

Variations

Sliding Doors

Sliding doors are one of the most common types of doors. Usually only seen in dungeons, the sliding door slides open by an unseen force. In Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, the force is not used, as Link, in fact Midna when Link is in wolf form, manually moves the doors.

Knob Doors

The knob door is a regular door, one with a knob and hinges. This is most commonly seen outside of dungeons in villages and the like. In Twilight Princess, Midna cannot use her orange hand to open these doors, and transforms Link into a human instead.

Big Doors

Big Doors (sometimes referred to as Boss Doors) are primarily used to guard the lair of a dungeon's boss. In each game, Link must find a Boss Key (or, in specific dungeons, a Nightmare Key or the Bedroom Key) in a treasure chest and use it to unlock the boss's lair. Additionally, in The Minish Cap, multiple Big Doors can be found throughout dungeons. In Skyward Sword, these doors have special locks which require that Link maneuver the key into the correct orientation before it will fit and unlock the door. Once Link has entered the boss's lair, the door cannot be reopened, trapping him in the room until the boss is defeated.

Locked Doors

Locked Doors are doors in dungeons found usually chained shut with a keyhole in them. These doors can usually only be opened with a Small Key, which will disappear after opening a single door. The Magical Key from The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link can open an unlimited number of locked doors.

Barred Doors

Some doors will be barred or otherwise sealed shut. To unseal these and pass through, Link must achieve some goal, such as defeating all the enemies in the room, hitting a switch, pushing a block, or moving through the door while riding a Mine Cart. A few doors will always bar themselves on one side whenever Link enters the room, making them one way passages. This usually happens before a Mini-boss fight, especially in the 3D installments.

Others

Door Mimic

A Door Mimic is a monster or trap mechanism that pretends to be a door so, on approach, it can attack unwary adventurers. In Ocarina of Time, they can be destroyed with Bombs and the Megaton hammer.

Door of Time

The door of time is a gigantic stone door which, if opened, allows access to the Master Sword and the Sacred Realm. Princess Zelda details the process of opening the door in this quote:

"...in order to open the door, it is said that you need to collect three Spiritual Stones. And another thing you need... is the treasure that the Royal Family keeps along with this legend..."

— Princess Zelda

Appearances

The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Only sliding doors appear in The Legend of Zelda and The Adventures of Link, both locked and unlocked variations. Link can take Small Keys from one dungeon to another to unlock them, as well as buy keys from shops in the Overworld to simplify locating them. He can also use the Magical Key to unlock doors an unlimited number of times. There are no special Boss Doors and locks.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

In addition to sliding doors that open upwards when Link interacts with them, the door knob variation appears for houses in towns and villages. Also, Boss Doors debut in this series, with Link requiring a Boss Key to open one. The Boss Key also serve as a "master key" to open all other locked doors in the dungeon. Keys can no longer be used interchangeably between dungeons, nor can they be bought from Overworld shops.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The doors from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are the same, with sliding doors in dungeons and door knob ones in towns and villages. Locks are placed on certain ones as chain shackles, as well as Big Doors; the locks unshackle and shrink away when unlocked. Barred doors also make their debut. In the 3DS remakes, the Boss Doors are somewhat larger and their designs are much more detailed.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

The doors are basically the same as the ones that appear in A Link to the Past, except that the Boss Key no longer act as a "master key".

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

Both sliding and door knob doors are in Four Swords, with locked and unlocked variations. There are no Boss Doors.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Both sliding and door knob doors appear, with locks falling off and disappearing when unlocked. The barred variation also return. The Boss Doors are more extravagant in appearance, with golden and purple design.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

The doors are the same as the ones in Four Swords.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

The doors are the same as the ones in Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures, except there are Boss Doors in The Minish Cap.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The sliding and door knob doors appear, and Link now manually pushes the sliding doors back and then slides them upwards. If he approaches sliding doors in wolf form, Midna will push them open with her hair. In addition, there are heavy double doors that Link must manually push in order to enter Hyrule Castle. Locks also fall off when they are unlocked. The Boss Doors are larger than the normal ones. In the Forest Temple and the Goron Mines, normal doors are circular and roll sideways open and closed. The boss doors in both dungeons are double doors comprised of two large overlapping stones. The boss door in the Lakebed Temple is also different from the ones in subsequent dungeons in that it opens downwards, and automatically does so as soon as Link unlocks it; unlike in other dungeons, however, this boss door remains open for the remainder of the game, as it does not lead directly to the boss's lair.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Sliding doors are the main types that appear in Phantom Hourglass, and they slide down into the ground instead of upward as in previous series. A new type of magical double door appears in which the player has to draw a certain symbol on it (such as the Triforce in one stroke, without lifting the Nintendo DS pen) in order for the door to open to a certain floor, this is seen in the Temple Of The Ocean King.

Double doors also appear, which open automatically when Link achieves a certain feat. The locks are imbedded directly into the doors. Village and town buildings do not have doors for some reason. For Boss Doors, they appear as large blocks with the keyhole at the top, and Link throws the key into the hole to have the key magically twist and unlock it, causing it to sink into the ground, granting passage. When Link enters the boss' chamber, it is through a doorway on the ground, which would close up once he is through the threshold.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The doors are the same as the ones in Phantom Hourglass, except Link must now carry the Boss Key and throw it into the Boss Door. There are also certain double doors found in the Tower of Spirits that must be pushed open by both Link and a Phantom possessed by Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Normal doors are basically the same as the ones that appear in Twilight Princess, aside from designs. Also, Link slides the sliding doors sideways instead upwards. Locks also fall onto the ground, but do not disappear until Link leaves the area and returns. Boss doors, on the other hand, are completely different from any in the past, as they require a unique key each to open, which requires Link to align the key object with the keyhole and insert it before twisting the lock. Another unique feature is that Ghirahim re-locks one of the doors that Link unlocked in Skyview Temple, requiring him to relocate the key to unlock it once again.

See also

• Door of Friendship
• Door Mimic
• Door of Time
• Doors of Virtue
• Minish Door
• The Door That Does Not Open