There are nearly infinite ways to approach Trial of the Sword’s Beginning Trials in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s The Master Trials DLC. In this guide, we’ll offer you strategies for clearing every Underground Floor, with several goals assumed throughout: It’s best to save your weapons, be stealthy and find every item before you leave.

Beginning Trials: Underground floor 1

Underground Floor 1 walkthrough

As you slowly approach the campfire, use the trees for cover to avoid being spotted. Grab a tree branch (or two) on your way just in case this trick doesn’t work perfectly.

Climb the large tree in the center of the room near the cooking fire. Pick up the bird eggs. Use your rune to create a remote bomb, then toss it straight at the fire. Wait until all three bokoblins notice it and move to investigate. A well-timed explosion will take them all out at once.

Collect the weapons and shield leaning against the log: a boko shield, a boko spear, a boko club and a woodcutter’s axe.

Use a remote bomb or tree branch as a torch to to light the large wooden crates on fire — this destroys them without damaging your weapons and cooks the food inside. Alternately, use the woodcutter’s axe to smash them — it’s got a high durability and can handle smashing crates.

Underground Floor 1 armor, weapons and food

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 1 armor and weapons

• Tree branch (on the path to the bokoblins)
• Woodcutter’s axe (on a log next to campfire)
• Boko shield (on a log next to campfire)
• Boko spear (on a log next to campfire)
• Boko club (on a log next to campfire)

Underground Floor 1 food

• Seared steak (on a spit above the fire)
• The wooden crates and barrels to the left of the fire contain food
• Bird eggs (up a large tree in center)

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 2

Underground Floor 2 walkthrough

The major difference this time is that you don’t get the chance to get the jump on the baddies. There isn’t a trick to this one, so you’re going to end up fighting. But you can fight smart. You’ve got a total of five enemies — four red bokoblins and a fire chuchu — to deal with.

As soon as you land on the portal, turn to the left and skirt around the outside of the room. When you come parallel to the main platform, head to the large tree between you and the platform (the fire chuchu is probably hanging out here). Climb up it, and you can paraglide down to the main platform.

We recommend this approach for a few reasons: The archer on the small platform won’t notice you right away, you get to start the fight on your terms by surprising the baddies and it leaves the chuchu wandering around creating updrafts.

Once all the bokoblins are handled, you can use a rock to take out the chuchu.

Underground Floor 2 armor, weapons and food

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 2 armor and weapons

• Arrows (in the barrels next to the archer — back right corner)
• Arrows (in crates on platform)
• Boko bow (bokoblin on small platform)
• Boko bat (bokoblin on main platform)
• Traveler’s sword (bokoblin on main platform)
• Traveler’s shield (bokoblin on main platform)
• Boko bow (bokoblin on main platform)

Underground Floor 2 food

• One of the large crates on the platform contains food

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 3

Underground Floor 3 walkthrough

This floor sees you fighting three waves of chuchus. The first wave is one small blue chuchu. The second wave is four small fire chuchus. The final wave is four medium fire chuchus.

There are a bunch of rocks scattered around. By picking up these rocks and throwing them, you can destroy every one of these chuchus without ever drawing your weapon. Just make sure you target a chuchu before you throw — this will help your rock find its mark. You can also just use your remote bombs, but there’s something a little more satisfying about throwing stones.

Underground Floor 3 treasure chests

There are two chests on wooden platforms high on the walls of this floor. One is behind where you start, and one on the far side. At some point while you’re fighting the fire chuchus, you want to capture some of their fire. You can just drop some firewood and start a campfire (this is the way we prefer to do it because it takes the time pressure off of you), or you can draw your bow and light an arrow on fire — and you should’ve gathered plenty of arrows on the second floor.

You have two choices for getting to the chests. You can shoot a flaming arrow (you won’t have any fire arrows yet) at the wooden platform. This worked most of the time for us. You can also use a tree branch to start a brushfire under the platform. This will create an updraft that you can ride up with your paraglider.

The chest behind where you start contains a boomerang. The other chest contains five fire arrows.

Underground Floor 3 armor, weapons and food

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 3 armor and weapons

• None

Underground Floor 3 food

• None (but you might find an acorn or two if you run around knocking down all the trees)

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 4

Once again, there’s not a lot of subtlety to this floor — there are just a four red and two blue bokoblins to fight. They’re relatively well-armed, but they’re pretty spread out.

Underground Floor 4 walkthrough

The layout of this floor means that sneaking around is difficult — you’re going to get spotted sooner rather than later. And when you add in the archer at the top of the tree fort with fire arrows, it gets to be a pain.

Luckily, the bokoblins are spaced out far enough that you can kite them back to you and handle them one at a time. This will let you handle the first two red and first blue bokoblins individually.

That clears out everything through the first level of the fort. There are two metal crates waiting for you on the landing that you can then use to take on the remaining two bokoblins. Just make sure the blue one doesn’t sneak up on you. The final bokoblin is at the top of the very tall platform. It’s only armed with a spear, though, so you’re safe to ignore it for as long as you need to.

The only extra thing to grab on this floor are the bird eggs in the large tree in the back left corner. Everything else in in the wooden and metal crates and the barrels in the main tree fort. Push them off of high platforms or smash (or burn) them to get the goodies inside.

A quick final note: It’s tempting to climb the very tall platform and try to toss bombs down on the bokoblins. We don’t recommend this. You’re exposed while climbing. When you reach the top, you’re surrounded by explosive barrels. And you can really only reach one or two (if you’re lucky) enemies.

Underground Floor 4 armor, weapons and food

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 4 armor and weapons

• Traveler’s spear (red bokoblin on tall platform)
• Boko spear (red bokoblin)
• Boko club (red bokoblin)
• Spiked Boko bat (blue bokoblin)
• Soldier’s shield (blue bokoblin)
• Soldier’s broadsword (blue bokoblin)
• Traveler’s bow (red bokoblin)
• Arrows (metal crate)
• Fire arrows (wooden crate at top of fort)

Underground Floor 4 food

• Bird eggs (large tree in back left corner)
• Wooden crates about halfway up the bokoblin fort

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 5

The fifth floor of the Beginning Trials puts you up against another set of tough enemies. There are two moblins patrolling the woods around the skull-cave and three blue bokoblins inside. Luckily, this floor doesn’t require a head-on approach.

Underground Floor 5 walkthrough

This is another floor that you can handle with only your bombs. Start by slowly making your way toward either of the patrolling moblins. Climb one of the large trees near them and start throwing bombs. Try to throw them toward the right or left wall — this will prevent the bokoblins from getting interested and leaving the skull-cave. Take out the other moblin the same way.

Carefully crouch and move up close to the mouth of the cave from either the left or right sides. Toss a bomb so that it rolls down into the mouth of the cave, then detonate it. The cave is full of explosives, so you’ll take out the bokoblins all at once.

Underground Floor 5 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 5 armor and weapons

• Moblin spear (patrolling moblin on right)
• Moblin club (patrolling moblin on left)
• Spiked boko bat (bokoblin in cave)
• Spiked boko spear (bokoblin in cave)
• Spiked boko club (bokoblin in cave)
• Spiked boko shield (bokoblin in cave)

Underground Floor 5 food

• There is food in crates in the cave — detonating a bomb (and the explosives) inside will roast and scatter it

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 6

The first sub-boss that you’ll face in the Beginning Trials shows up on this floor. There’s nothing here except a stone talus and some things to help you fight it.

Underground Floor 6 walkthrough

To start the fight, run to the right of the room. You’ll find two explosive barrels behind a tree. These will deal a fair amount of damage to the talus and might knock it down.

There’s one more explosive barrel behind the next tree you come to traveling counterclockwise. After that, the next tree has two metal crates you can magnesis and turn into weapons. You’re probably not going to defeat the talus this way.

Now’s the time to pull out your strongest two-handed weapon — like the spiked boko bat from Floor 5. Climb up on top of the talus, then lock onto the talus’ ore deposit and hold down Y. Just keep spinning and hitting until it drops.

Underground Floor 6 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. This one doesn’t, though.

Underground Floor 6 armor and weapons

• None

Underground Floor 6 food

• None

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 7

At the midway point through the beginning trials, you get a reprieve. There are no enemies to fight, you get a bunch of free food and much better weapons.

Underground Floor 7 walkthrough

First, take a deep breath. You’ve earned it. Now, grab the weapons and the shield out of the chests on your right. Before you run around smashing, burning or cooking things, crouch and walk slowly to toward the back left corner to collect the fairy. You have to be careful here because fairies are very skittish. (You can see the fairy in the image above.)

Now you can grab everything you can get your hands on. There’s a full list below, but make sure you grab the ironshrooms and the armored carp. Cook them all together — three armored carp and two ironshrooms — to make yourself a tough fish and mushroom skewer that will dramatically raise your defense for four minutes. Cook the razorshrooms (and three other items) for a meal that will increase your attack for three and a half minutes.

You can add the fairy to one of your meals for extra hearts, but we don’t recommend it. Keeping it in your inventory gives you a free five hearts if you ever get killed.

Underground Floor 7 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 7 armor and weapons

• Shield of the Mind’s Eye (chest)
• Eightfold Blade (chest)
• Serpentine Spear (chest)
• Arrows and fire arrows (wooden crates on right)

Underground Floor 7 food

• Torch (next to cooking fire)
• Fairy (back left corner)
• Ironshrooms (back left corner)
• Apples (tree on left)
• Razorshrooms (left side next to cooking fire)
• Armored carp (water on left side)
• Food in the crates on the right

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 8

Underground Floor 8 has a few spread out enemies — four lizalfos and a large electric chuchu — and a lot of water to navigate. There’s not a lot of opportunity for stealth, so you’re in for a fight.

Underground Floor 8 walkthrough

Pick a direction to sweep the floor — either clockwise or counterclockwise. This will let you handle each of the baddies in turn, rather than let them all notice you at once. We recommend turning left first because it gets the toughest fight out of the way first.

Climb up the tall rock between you and the left wall. There are two lizalfos and an electric chuchu waiting for you. Get their attention with an arrow. When they’re all grouped together, shoot the next arrow into the chuchu — when it explodes, it’ll shock the two lizalfos. It won’t deal much damage, but it’ll give you a chance to get close.

Jump over to them and take them out. Smash or burn the crates, then turn to the right and grab the underwater chest. Continue to the back of the room.

Handle the lizalfos on the rock in the middle of the wall, then continue to the island in the back right corner. There’s a metal crate underwater that you can reach from here. If the lizalfos hasn’t noticed you yet, drop it on its head to take it out.

Underground Floor 8 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 8 armor and weapons

• 3 boko spears (holding up the roasted bass around the fire)
• Boko spear (lizalfos on left)
• Throwing spear (lizalfos on left)
• Lizal bow (lizalfos in back center)
• Lizal boomerang (lizalfos in back right)

Underground Floor 8 food

• 3 roasted bass (to the left around the campfire)
• Food in crates next to campfire on the left

Underground Floor 8 treasure chest

There is a chest underwater on the left side of the room. It’s right in the middle of the four small rocks. Magnesis it out for 10 arrows.

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 9

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 9 is made much easier with a bow and a handful of arrows. You’re up against a few enemies with ranged attacks, so it’s best to fight back the same way.

Underground Floor 9 walkthrough

The octorok on your right is going to notice you pretty much immediately and start spitting rocks your way. The quickest way to take it out is with a couple quick arrows or a block with your shield to shoot its projectile back at it. There’s also a metal crate under the water right ahead of you that you can use instead.

Swim over to the small ring of rocks in the front left corner of the room. Use cryonis to lift up the chest there and open it for 10 more arrows.

Stick to the left side, and make your way to the tall rock in the center of the room. Your goal here is to take out the room’s other octorok before the wizzrobe notices you — this will just make dealing with each of them easier.

Keep shooting the wizzrobe in the face until it drops to the ground, then hit it with whatever’s handy. Make sure you grab its lightning rod. If you haven’t yet, destroy the metal crate for anything inside. Now you can move on to the next floor.

Underground Floor 9 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 9 armor and weapons

• Lightning rod (wizzrobe)

Underground Floor 9 food

• None

Underground Floor 9 treasure chest

• 10 arrows (use cryonis in front left corner)

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 10

There are only three lizalfos to deal with on Trial of the Sword: Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 10, but the layout means you’re not going to have a lot of room to maneuver. There’s a little help to be found in this level of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s The Master Trials DLC, but no matter what you do, you’re in for a fight.

Underground Floor 10 walkthrough

The best way to fight on your own terms is to immediately turn around and jump off the bridge. You’re going to be doing a lot of swimming, so unequip everything you’ve got on at the moment — you’ll swim faster. You can swim along underneath the bridge without being noticed.

At the other end of the bridge, you can turn left or right, or climb up and start the fight right away. To the right, there’s a platform with two exploding barrels. We recommend going to the right because there’s exploding barrels.

Climb up one of the posts on the far side of the platform, pick up a barrel and throw a barrel at a nearby lizalfos to start the fight. You’re not going to want to hang around up here for long, though, because at least one of the lizalfos will start spitting at you. Without your armor, that spit can do a lot of damage.

If you can get to the other side, there are a couple of metal crates on the left platform that can deal some damage. Your best bet in this fight is just to knock the lizalfos into the water. Use your remote bombs and something two-handed to keep them off-balance. Knocking them into the water will let you catch your breath and fight them one-on-one.

Keep your distance, keep your guard up and keep tossing bombs. When you get them in the water, consider using that lightning rod you picked up on Underground Floor 9.

Once they’re all dead, make sure you check the water with your magnesis to make sure you’re not leaving behind any weapons.

Underground Floor 10 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 10 armor and weapons

• Lizal shield (lizalfos)
• Lizal boomerang (lizalfos)
• Lizal spear (lizalfos)
• Lizal bow (lizalfos)
• Arrows (metal crates on left side platform)

Underground Floor 10 food

• None (but maybe we’re just really unlucky and there’s some in the barrels at the end of the bridge)

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 11

Trial of the Sword: Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 11 is your last fight against multiple enemies — blue bokoblins, red bokoblins, a black bokoblin and a black moblin. You’ll want to save some healing food for your final battle, but it’s a good idea to heal up if you need it.

Underground Floor 11 walkthrough

Before you head into the fight, turn to the left and go retrieve the treasure chest from the middle of the ring of stones.

Return to the dock where you started and cut the raft free. There’s nothing sneaky about this approach, but it saves you a lot of swimming and lets you fight your way up to the main fight.

Equip one of the lizal bows you’ve picked up lately and keep your eyes open. You’re going to be under fire soon, but the bokoblins are a bad shot so you’re pretty safe. You’ll have to aim high over their heads, but the lizal bow will take out even blue bokoblins with one headshot.

Take out the red bokoblin archers on the right and left, then the two blue bokoblins closer to the center. Turn around, and use magnesis to retrieve the chest from the tall platform on the lefthand side for 10 shock arrows. On the right, a chest on the tall platform has 10 fire arrows. Climb up to the next platform on the right, and smash the crates for more fire arrows.

Now you can turn your attention to the two red and one blue bokoblin on the main platform. You can shoot them from here if you aim carefully — and you want them out of the way before you get too close.

Continue to the main platform. Check around the base for any weapons the bokoblins dropped as you shot them, then start working your way up. You’ll run into a black bokoblin about halfway up. The important thing to remember is that bokoblins can’t swim, so you really just need to knock him into the water.

After that, you’ll have to face a black moblin. You’re in tight quarters and this is a tough enemy, so just try to keep your cool. Equip a strong weapon and a good shield. Flurry rushes are your friend. Good luck — this fight is arguably harder than the sub-boss on the next floor.

Before you depart this level, check around again for any food or weapons that might’ve gotten knocked off the platforms. You should also consider starting a fire and roasting anything you’re carrying. There’s only one more floor, so it’s safe to start using up everything you have.

Underground Floor 11 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 11 armor and weapons

• Fire arrows (chest on left)
• Fire arrows (crates on left)
• Spiked boko bow x 3 (archers)
• Spiked boko spear
• Spiked boko bat
• Soldier’s spear
• Soldier’s shield (black bokoblin)
• Soldier’s broadsword (black bokoblin)
• Dragonbone boko club (black moblin)
• Dragonbone boko shield (black moblin)

Underground Floor 11 food

• Crates on main platform

Underground Floor 11 treasure chests

There are three chests on this floor. The first is off to the left as soon as you start. The other two are on the tall platforms as you approach the main tower.

Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 12

Trial of the Sword: Beginning Trials: Underground Floor 12 — the final floor of the Beginning Trials — is another sub-boss fight. This time you’re up against a hinox. It’s time to use everything you’ve been hoarding because it’ll all disappear once you leave. There’s not a lot to know here — there’s a hinox and you should hit him.

Underground Floor 12 walkthrough

Before you wake up the hinox and start the fight, make sure you have one weapon, one bow and one shield slot available. If you’ve got an attack up meal — something you cooked back on Underground Floor 7 that involved the razorshrooms or some mighty bananas — now is the time to eat it. Equip your best bow and get ready to fight.

The only environmental weapon you have on this floor is a metal crate in the water on the right side of the room. You’re only going to get one shot with it and it doesn’t deal much damage, but every little bit helps. That metal crate is a good way to start the fight. And it has some arrows inside, so it’s good to get those early, too.

Your first task is to get the hinox to sit down just once. When it lands, run up between its legs and grab the knight’s shield, sword and bow from its necklace. These are much better than anything you’ve got.

This hinox is wearing armored greaves, so you can’t do much damage to it unless it’s sitting down. Just keep moving and watch for a clear shot on its eye — and use stasis to freeze him in place to line up an eye shot. Shooting the eye with your bow will make the hinox sit down, and then you can start dealing damage.

There’s another way you can get the hinox to sit down: run between its legs. It’s a dangerous strategy because of the damage it causes. That big butt landing on your head has the potential to be be a one-hit kill. Still, it’s a viable strategy. Watch the video above to see how it’s done.

And then it’s just lather, rinse and repeat. Stay out of reach, watch for a clear shot on its eye and hit it with your new knight’s sword as much as you can before it stands up again.

Underground Floor 12 armor and weapons

Nearly every underground floor in Trial of the Sword includes some combination of armor, weapons and food that you should collect before leaving and use in subsequent levels. Here’s what you can find in this underground floor.

Underground Floor 12 armor and weapons

• Knight’s sword (on hinox’s necklace)
• Knight’s shield (on hinox’s necklace)
• Knight’s bow (on hinox’s necklace)

Underground Floor 12 food

• None