Fire Temple
Requirements: Goron Tunic, Bombs, Bow, Hookshot, Song of Time, Shield
Hints
ONE HOT TEMPLE
No matter what the situation, keep the Goron Tunic on at all times. This will not only protect you from hot rooms, but minimise the damage from fire attacks and allow you to walk on lava undamaged for limited periods.
Enter the temple and climb up the stairs, turning left and going through the door. Be sure to make this quick to avoid fighting the Fire Keese. In this room, you'll meet with Darunia; he'll ask you to find the imprisoned Gorons throughout the temple. When Darunia enters the Boss Arena, jump along the pillars to the left of the room. You'll see a Goron imprisoned, so step on the Floor Switch to let him go. Talk to the Goron for a hint on how to reach the Boss Arena, then recover the Key from the chest in his cell.
Return to the first room, and head straight for the locked door opposite you to enter the lava room. Jump off the bridge to the left, working your way to the stable platform at the room's perimeter. You'll come to a door, which leads to another Goron cell. Free him and get the Key, then work your way to the exact opposite of the room. Part of the floor and wall is paved here; Bomb it and free the Goron inside, getting the Key from his cell. Return to the bridge along the centre of this room, going through the locked door.
Slide down the wooden board directly in front of you in this next room, then turn right and climb up the chainwire. When you reach the top, carefully inch your way along the top of the fence to a chainwire floor. Knock out the bats with the Hookshot and jump to the platform. Push the block onto the ground, then jump down after it. After a minute, the flame jet spray will fire and you'll have an instant elevator to the next floor.
After going through the locked door, turn left and climb up the platform. Get rid of the Torch Slugs as you go, climbing up and to the back of the room. Jump over to the other raised portion of this room, but ignore the Crystal Switch (for now). Push the block down to the lower floor, then keep pushing it along as far as it'll go. Use the block to reach the chainwire so you can reach the highest point of this room. Using a Bomb, activate the Crystal Switch to lower the flames guarding the chainwire leading to the next floor.
You'll find yourself in the boulder maze, and the view will switch to an ariel perspective; turn left and hug the perimeter as much as possible. When the view goes back to normal, a captive Goron is in sight. There are two Gorons to be found using this method, and when both are freed you should look for the locked door along the room's perimeter and enter it.
In this room, be careful of the narrow floor. There is a locked door and a blocked door here; hit the Eye Switch in the wall to remove the bars from one door, going along its passage to get the Map. Once you have the Map return to the previous room, going through the locked door. In this next room, you must jump along the metal bar platforms to reach the other side of the room (with hearts) before the wall of flames catches you.
You will now be on top of the boulder maze (there's a hidden spot here). Work your way to the platform with a Torch Slug, and Navi will tell you of the Goron voices coming from the cracked floor. Bomb the floor and climb down the chainwire to reach a Floor Switch to free the Goron; talk to him and get the key. Return to the boulder maze and look around the room for another Floor Switch, which releases another Goron. After freeing both Gorons and getting the keys from their cells, return to the room with the wall of flames. Look along the right wall of the room for a locked door. You will be able to jump over the lava and reach this door, so go through it to find the firewall maze.
In the firewall maze, you'll encounter rolling boulders, fake doors and walls of flame which only appear when Link gets close. From the entrance, turn right and hug the perimeter to find the small room containing the Compass. Return to the firewall maze, turning left and going past firewall room's door. You'll eventually come to a locked door; in this short passage is a captive Goron, but he'll be freed later. Emerge on the far side of the passage to another part of the firewall maze.
You'll see a giant firewall blocking off another small part of the room; look around for a Floor Switch. Before stepping on the switch, work out the safest route from the switch to the giant firewall. Once you have your route, step on the switch and reach the far side of the firewall before the switch resets. The only door you can see is fake, so Bomb it for access to the real door. Shatter the pots for Bombs and hearts.
You must now battle it out with a Flare Dancer. When it jumps out of the flames, lock onto it with Z-Targeting and before it can launch its flame attack, throw a Bomb at it or fire the Hookshot. The central orb of the FD will now run circles around the room; if Link gets close, it'll come to a stop and turn around. Lock onto the orb and attack it with the sword. After enough damage, the Flare Dancer will jump into the centre of the room and get its flame suit back, so fire the Hookshot or use a Bomb to nail its defences and attack the orb again.
Once the Flare Dancer is out of comission for good, get away from its corpse because it'll explode. Grab the goodies from the room, then jump onto the central platform for an elevator ride up. Climb up the chainwire, use a Bomb to activate the Crystal Switch, then climb up the now-accessible chainwire to reach a large circular room.
In this room, there is a rather large hole in the centre and falling down means ending up at the firewall maze again. Along the enclosed pits are rolling boulders, and patrolling the rooms are bats which can become Fire Keese. I strongly recommend you knock out all of the bats before proceeding. In this room, you must step on the Floor Switch to lower the flames around the chest, then run along the edge of the looong drop to open the chest before the switch resets. I don't recommend using the Hookshot to reach the chest quickly, and inside the chest is the Hammer.
Once you have the Hammer, look for a smiley face not far from the entrance of the room. Stand on it and hit it with the Hammer to enter a room guarded by Fire Keese. Knock out all of the Keese, then hit the smiley face with the Hammer to reveal some stairs. Grab one of the wooden crates, then proceed down the steps and use the crate to hold down the switch. Go through the door, hitting the smiley face with the Hammer to return to the firewall maze.
You'll come to a Floor Switch, but as Navi says it's rusted over. Hit it with the Hammer to open the door, go through and you'll find yourself on top of the narrow passage with the captive Goron we missed earlier. Play the Song of Time to move the Time Block, then jump accross to the other side of the room. Use the Hammer to activate the rusted switch, then jump down again to free the Goron and get the Key. Exit the passage the way you came in, then jump accross to the other large platform ahead of you. Stand on the smiley face and hit it with the Hammer to return to Darunia's room.
Exit Darunia's room to find yourself in the first room. Go down the steps and turn left to find a statue. Hit the statue from the side with the Hammer until it desintergrates completely and enter the door. Destroy all the Fire Keese and Torch Slugs in this room to proceed, then go through the door. Put your back to one corner of the room and raise your Shield until no more tiles fly at you. Ignore the Like Like and go through the door to face another Flare Dancer; simply use the same tactics which worked before.
After cooling off the Flare Dancer, grab your rewards and go through the now unbarred door. Activate the rusted Floor Switch to free the final Goron and grab the Boss Key. There's a door in this room that'll take you directly to the first room, so take it and return to Darunia's room. Explore this room a bit and you'll be able to find some pots with fairies, so consider bottling them before going through the boss door.
The Boss Arena is hot and without the Goron Tunic you'll never survive. Play leapfrog along the platforms until you get to the large block with lots of little lava puddles. Once you reach it, your stepping stones will get swallowed by the lava and the ground will shake. You'll now come face-to-face with....
VOLVAGIA: Subterranean Lava Dragon
Navi doesn't know his weak point, but people who really know how to take down their bosses will have no trouble formulating an attack pattern!
Volly's attacks takes turns; first, he'll emerge from the ground and perform a flying attack. Volly has two flying attacks, which he uses randomly: the first one is that he flies around, following Link and breathing fire at him. During this attack, keep moving and raise the Shield to avoid taking damage if you knock Volly's body. If you get an opening, a single Arrow to Volly's head will cause him to abrubtly end the attack.
Volly's second flying attack is to fly up high into the roof to send a monsoon of boulders onto the battlefield. Stand in the centre of the battlefield and raise the Shield high to avoid the boulders. If you get pushed off the platform, Link can climb up the side to rejoin the fight. Another helpful thing to remember is that with the Goron Tunic on, Link can walk undamaged over lava for limited periods.
After he performs a flying attack, Volly will just stick his head out from the ground. He'll be off daydreaming for a few seconds, then he'll breathe fire at Link before disappearing into the ground again. When he next emerges Volly will perform a flying attack, and so the pattern repeats. Oh, and another helpful hint: a flicker of yellow shows which lava puddle Volly will emerge from, but be careful as he often feints the flickers later on in the battle.
Anyway, weren't we supposed to be fighting Volvagia? Well, when Volly sticks his head up from the ground, hit him once with the Hammer to stun him before he has a chance to attack. When he's down, hit him with the sword or Hammer and Volly will return into the ground for his air attack. Defend yourself from the air attack and wait until Volly sticks his neck in again. Repeat the process until Volly goes down for good, then wait for his skull to dissolve into a Heart Container before stepping into the warp.
HIDDEN SPOT
Requirements: Scarecrow's Song, Longshot
When you enter the top of the boulder maze from the firewall room, play the Scarecrow's Song to reveal Pierre. Grapple him with the Longshot, then turn around and grapple the target to an elevator platform. Ride it up to a room which is empty save for the chainwire, which is on the other side of the door. Climb up the chainwire and go into the next room.
You'll be in a room similar to the one where you found the Hammer. Step on the timed Floor Switch, grapple the target with the Longshot, then run as fast as you can to the chest: do not use the Longshot to reach it. The reward for your trouble is 200 Rupees.