Gold Skultullas In Zelda: Ocarina of Time Are Only 50% Pointless

Collecting tokens from Gold Skulltulas in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the game’s biggest side quests, but only half of them are worth finding. While the player will receive rewards for finding all 100, the reward for 50 tokens is the last one worth earning. Past that point, the side quest feels like a waste of time.

In Ocarina of Time, there are 100 Gold Skulltulas scattered around the world of Hyrule. Each one slain will provide Link with a Gold Skulltula Token. A rich family who was cursed due to their greed requests Link’s help, as their curse can only be broken if all 100 Gold Skulltulas are defeated. They offer rewards at certain milestones, with the final one coming once Link has killed every Gold Skulltula in Hyrule. Naturally, inquisitive players will naturally want to see what rewards are available.

The first few rewards from the Skulltulas are quite good. The Adult Wallet for 10 Tokens lets Link carry 200 Rupees at a time rather than the starting 99, and the Giant’s Wallet for 30 Tokens raises this limit further to 500 Rupees. For 20 Tokens, the Stone of Agony on the Nintendo 64 will shake the controller to detect hidden objects, and the 3DS’s Shard of Agony does the same with a musical chime. 40 Tokens will grant the player Bombchus, which are situational, but still useful. However, 50 Tokens will grant a Piece of Heart to increase Link’s life total. All of these gifts are well worth the effort required. Unlike Ocarina of Time‘s pointless ice arrows, all of these prizes are quite useful for Link’s journey.

The Piece of Heart Is The Last Good Skulltula Reward In Ocarina Of Time

However, after 50 Tokens, the Gold Skulltula rewards fall off badly. For one, there are no further rewards granted for collecting Gold Skulltula Tokens until the player has obtained all 100. Upon returning to the House of Skulltula, the curse will be broken, and the rich man will offer Link a Huge Rupee, worth 200 Rupees. In addition, Link can receive another Huge Rupee every time he revisits the house. 200 Rupees is a lot, and Huge Rupees are very rare. However, the fact that the top prize for such a long side quest is money that could be acquired through a number of other ways makes it easy to see how players could think that Ocarina of Time‘s Skulltula hunt is disappointing.

There are a few ways that the Gold Skulltula sidequest could have been made more fulfilling. For one, there is far too long of a gap without rewards between 50 and 100 Skulltulas. Instead, doling out rewards for every 20 Skulltulas would have been more reasonable. In addition, the final reward is rather disappointing. Even though it is essentially infinite Rupees, the player will collect Rupees at a steady rate during normal gameplay anyway, so it doesn’t feel too impressive. Instead, a better (and rarer) reward would have been something such as a full Heart Container, or another item of equal value. This side quest required the player to explore the world and defeat 100 unique enemies, and it requires a large investment of time to complete. However, unlike mastering Ocarina of Time‘s swordless Link glitch, the Gold Skulltula hunt is ultimately disappointing.

The Gold Skulltula side quest in Ocarina of Time is actually quite rewarding for the first half. However, the rewards for slaying any more than 50 Gold Skulltulas are unfortunately mediocre at best. Despite being one of the biggest side quests in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, it’s probably best to leave the Gold Skulltula quest half-finished.