Eastern Palace

The Eastern Palace, also known as the East Palace, is the first full dungeon of both The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It also appears in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures where it is referred to as the Eastern Temple. True to its name, it is located in the eastern region of Hyrule, surrounded by Armos-filled ruins. In the Dark World and Lorule, the Dark Palace is located in place of the Eastern Palace, with the ruins being replaced by a hedge maze. Inside, its first room always features three different doors leading north, and later a room with a path where balls roll down.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Link travels to the East Palace in order to find the Pendant of Courage, with Sahasrahla hiding in the ruins surrounding it to advise him. The dungeon introduces many common dungeon enemies in the game, such as Snake Bushels, Stalfos, Bubbles, and Rocklops. Inanimate statues of Rocklops are also present throughout. The dungeon item is the bow, allowing him to fire arrows. The boss of the palace is a group of six Armos Knights.

Enemies and obstacles

 * Ball
 * Bubble
 * Gargantuan Ball
 * Rocklops (green and red)
 * Shūdan Bubble
 * Snake Bushel
 * Stalfos (indigo, red, and yellow)
 * Armos Knights (boss)

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, the Eastern Temple appears as the third stage of the second level, Eastern Hyrule, in order to save the yellow Shrine Maiden from Vaati's curse. It is arrived at in the rain, and once again features many inanimate Eyegore statues, despite not having any normal Eyegores. This dungeon features access points to the Dark World along with various puzzle elements. While most of it has the music from A Link to the Past's Light World dungeons, some hidden side-scrolling areas instead use the Dark World dungeon theme. On the west side, the slingshot can be used to eventually reach the bow and arrow (itself in a room resembling the sidescrolling item rooms in The Legend of Zelda) in order to shoot at some eye switches in the center room, creating a bridge. On the east side, bombs are made use of to destroy many cracked walls, and several vines cover other passages, creating a maze throughout the basement. Once this maze is navigated, a lamp becomes available, allowing the Links to light torches, including some in the center room across the bridge created from shooting the eye switches, which opens another door. Through this door, the Links are attacked by Flying Tiles and several other flying piece of scenery, such as treasure chests and even Eyegore statues. Following this is a room with Shadow Links and Bomb Flowers, allowing the Links to reach the Big Key, soon leading to the boss, Stone Arrghus, who is fought with a boomerang.

Enemies and obstacles

 * Ball
 * Big Bomb
 * Bubble
 * Flying Tile
 * Keese (blue)
 * Rat
 * Rope
 * Shadow Link
 * Stalfos
 * Trap
 * Wizzrobe (fire and Force Gem thief)
 * Stone Arrghus (boss)
 * Arrghi

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Link, with Ravio's bow, travels to the Eastern Palace at the behest of Sahasrahla to find his pupil, Osfala, and warn him of Yuga's plan to capture all of the seven sages, due to him being one. However, Osfala brushes Link off at the entrance due to the former's ego, and Link must travel through it after him. Despite Osfala having just gone through, all of the puzzles remain unsolved for Link. The dungeons itself acts as an abridged version of the A Link to the Past dungeon. Once Link reaches the boss room, Yuga turns Osfala into a painting, and then battles Link. After Link defeats him, Yuga decides to flee, but turns Link into a painting against the wall first. However, due to Link having Ravio's Bracelet, he is able to escape by moving along the walls and through the barred windows. As such, this is one of the few main dungeons in the franchise where Link needs to exit via the front door, instead of being warped out after defeating the boss.

The dungeon has no plot item gained as a reward for completing it; the reward is instead the ability to merge into walls. The Pendant of Courage is instead given to Link by Princess Zelda beforehand, with him only discovering that it is the Pendant of Courage a short while after completing the dungeon.

Enemies and obstacles

 * Armos
 * Ball
 * Gargantuan Ball
 * Popo
 * Stalfos (white)
 * Yuga (boss)

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (comic)
In the comic adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Shotaro Ishinomori, the Eastern Palace is shown in Chapter 2, where it is depicted as solely a hideout for Sahasrahla. To reach it, Link much travel across a deep wood, a rocky cliffside, and a lake inhabiting at least one giant fish. The palace itself is depicted as a large ziggurat with the hideout in the temple at the top, with a staircase lined with statues of horned bird-men, and a similar pyramid shown in the background. When Link reaches the top and tells Sahasrahla of his plight, Link is given the Pendant of Courage from him. However, he is then cornered by a group of soldiers led by a Ball and Chain Trooper, whom he had previously escaped. With the pendant's help, Link defeats them and continues on to find the other Pendants of Virtue. In Chapter 8, Sahasrahla is revealed to have traveled back to his house due to an earthquake nearly destroying the palace, an event caused by Link destroying the Palace of Darkness in the Dark World.

BS Zelda no Densetsu Inishie no Sekiban
In BS Zelda no Densetsu Inishie no Sekiban, the Eastern Palace is the first dungeon. Its layout is similar to in A Link to the Past, though some parts of it are navigated in reverse (notably coming out of the north door into the room with the big chest) and having several bombable walls. The dungeon item is again the bow, though the Bug-Catching Net and the Pegasus Boots can also be found. Near the end, a friendly thief can be found in a side room, and sells Link an arrow upgrade for 50 Rupees. The boss is again six Armos Knights. After defeating them, the player gets the first stone tablet.

Enemies and obstacles

 * Eyegore (green and red)
 * Popo
 * Stalfos (blue and red)
 * Armos Knights (boss)