Zelda Ocarina of Time Switch 2 Remake Beginner Guide: 10 Tips for Your First Trip Through Hyrule

Ocarina of Time Remake Guide: Start With the New Controls

This Ocarina of Time remake guide starts with the one thing returning players keep getting wrong: the controls are not the ones you remember. The Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched on November 6 with voice acting, a jump button, a sprint, and a modern camera, and around 10 percent of the game's puzzles and locations have changed from the 1998 original. Veterans who play on muscle memory will miss things. Newcomers who learn the remake on its own terms will have a much smoother first trip through Hyrule.

The game scored a 96 on Metacritic at launch, and the praise is deserved. It is the same adventure, rebuilt for a console that did not exist when the original shipped. These ten tips focus on the remake's new features and the habits that keep a first playthrough moving. There are no dungeon solutions and no story spoilers here, just the practical stuff that saves time and frustration.

1. Learn the New Movement Before You Rush Anywhere

The remake adds a jump button (X by default, remappable to B) and a sprint: press A once and hold it, and Link rolls before breaking into a dash. Spend your first minutes in Kokiri Forest just moving around. Try the jump, try the sprint, swing the camera while you travel. The Switch 2 version changes how movement feels, and the on-screen control prompts are the authority, not your memory of the N64 controller.

Jump attacks deal double damage, so the jump button is a combat tool as well as a traversal one. Get comfortable with it early and it will pay off in every dungeon.

2. Z-Target Everything That Moves

Z-targeting was one of the original game's great inventions, and it still runs combat here. Press ZL to lock onto an enemy, which centres the camera and lets you circle-strafe while you fight. Do not button-mash your way through encounters. Lock on, watch the enemy, wait for the opening, then strike.

Read an enemy before committing to an attack. Most enemies telegraph their moves clearly, and a blocked or sidestepped attack leaves them open. Patience wins more fights in Hyrule than aggression does.

3. Treat Every Ocarina Song as a Tool

The ocarina is not a gimmick. Every melody you learn is a tool with a real function, from changing the time of day with Sun's Song to opening new paths and calling for help. Learn every song you are offered, and keep a mental note of what each one does. The remake even adds an optional microphone feature that can recognise humming for melodies Link has already learned, which is a neat party trick but no substitute for knowing the songs yourself.

Songs are also the answer to one of the remake's quiet changes: time now flows in towns as well as in the field. In the original, time stopped in towns and dungeons. Here it keeps moving, so the day-and-night cycle matters more, and Sun's Song matters with it.

4. Check Threads of Time When You Feel Lost

The remake's Threads of Time feature shows your story progress and your next objective. It is the single best addition for new players. When you have wandered Hyrule Field for twenty minutes and cannot remember who you were supposed to talk to, open Threads of Time before you start guessing. It gives you direction without solving the game for you.

Zelda Notes, the companion feature in the Nintendo Switch App, goes further, with play records and image-based hints for the Gossip Quest side content. It is genuinely useful for completionists, but be warned that the app can show spoilers, so consider finishing the story first if this is your first run.

5. Talk to Everyone, Then Talk to Them Again

Hyrule is full of people with useful information, and many NPCs change what they say as the story advances. Talk to everyone you meet, and revisit them after major story beats. Navi deserves the same attention. When she flies over to an enemy, press Right on the D-pad and she will tell you what you are facing. That advice is free, and it is often the difference between a fair fight and a confusing one.

6. Break Pots, Open Chests, Spend Your Rupees

The classic Zelda economy rules apply. Break pots for hearts and rupees, open every chest, and do not hoard your money. Most of the items you need to progress are found in the world rather than bought in shops, so rupees are best spent when you see something useful, not saved for a purchase that never comes.

Pieces of Heart are the long game. Collect four and Link gains a full heart container. They are scattered across Hyrule in places that reward exploration, so check behind waterfalls, on rooftops, and at the end of side paths. A fifth bottle was added in the remake through a new side quest, so bottle-hunting veterans have one more thing to chase.

7. Do Not Play Like a Veteran

This tip is for the returning players. The remake is substantially the same game, but it is not an exact clone. Items have moved, puzzles have changed, and around a tenth of the locations are different. If you walk in assuming you know where every Piece of Heart sits and how every boss dies, the game will happily prove you wrong. Treat it like a new game and you will enjoy it more.

Explore every dungeon thoroughly. The remake rewards players who check side rooms and backtrack with new tools, and rushing the critical path means missing upgrades that make later dungeons far more forgiving.

8. Keep a Bottle Filled at All Times

Bottles are your safety net. Fairies, potions, and bugs all have uses, and an empty bottle is a wasted slot. Keep something in every bottle you own, and restock whenever you pass a fairy fountain or a shop that sells what you need. Do not save your items for a perfect moment that never arrives. Use them when they help, and refill after.

9. Adjust the Settings to Fit You

Before your first real session, open the settings and tune them. Camera speed, motion-control aiming on or off, jump mapped to X or B, HUD density: the remake lets you shape the experience, and the defaults are not right for everyone. A few minutes in the settings menu at the start saves hours of mild irritation later.

10. Save Often and Use Fairy Thoughts

Save regularly through the menu's System tab. The remake autosaves in places, but a manual save before a tough dungeon or a long session is cheap insurance.

While you explore, watch for Fairy Thoughts, the little notes scribbled on walls and trees around Hyrule. They are easy to miss and often point at something worth finding. They are the game's quiet way of rewarding players who actually look around.

Hyrule has waited nearly thirty years for this version, and it holds up. Go in with the new controls learned, the ocarina ready, and Threads of Time in your back pocket, and the first trip will feel like the classic it is. For more on the launch itself, read our Zelda Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake launch story, and if you want another Switch 2 game to queue up next, Minecraft's native Switch 2 version is a free upgrade worth grabbing. The Game8 beginner's guide and Nintendo Life's full walkthrough are solid references to keep open while you play.