The game begins on Link's home island, Outset Island, on a special day.
Get the Hero's Clothes
After watching the opening scenes, go to your house (the one Aryll came out of). Inside, climb the ladder and walk up to your grandma to get the Hero's Clothes.
Get the Telescope
Go back to the lookout tower where you started, and talk to Aryll to get the telescope. Equip it, and stand next to Aryll. Use the telescope and center on your house. Then look down until you're looking at the postbox. Zoom in, centering on the bird guy.
When your sister shouts, look up into the sky, and there will be a cutscene.
Get a Sword
Go through the bottom door of the two story house. Talk to Orca to start the fighting lesson. If you do any of it incorrectly, Orca will knock you back, but you won't take damage.
- Use B (without touching the control stick or the targeting button) to hit him. Repeat.
- Hold down the targeting button, and use B (without touching the control stick) to hit him. Repeat.
- Hold down the targeting button, press the control stick so you are walking toward Orca, and use B to hit him. Repeat.
- Stand back from Orca, press and hold B until Link has his sword behind him, then walk up to Orca and release B. Repeat.
- Hold the targeting button and wait for your controller to vibrate. You will hear a noise, your sword will turn green, and the A button in the top right corner will light up. Press A. Repeat.
- Hold the targeting button and press A (don't wait for controller to vibrate) to hit him. Repeat.
Go outside, and go to the east side of the island, then go south up the slope. Use your sword to cut the trees at the top, and continue until you reach the top. To the left will be a suspension bridge. Run across it so you jump over the gap in the bridge, and keep going, into the cave.
Go into the Cave
After the cutscene, go up the slope that you can see up ahead on the right. Follow the path and you will drop down to a lower area. Go to the log that is lying on the ground, then put your sword away if you are holding it, then hold the R button to crouch, and crawl into the log to get 20 rupees.
As you go farther along, you will see a bokoblin. Defeat it with your sword, then climb up onto the tree stump, and jump to the ledge with the grass.
There is a fallen log up ahead. Climb onto it and walk along it to reach the next area. Walk forward, and two bokoblins will attack. Defeat them, and then there will be a cutscene.
Get a Shield
After the cutscene, go back to your house and climb the ladder to look for the shield. After you see that it's not there, go back down to the ground floor. Grandma gives you the shield. You can raise it when you have a weapon in hand.
Gather Rupees
You might want to get some rupees before you leave. At the start of the game, you can carry a maximum of 200 rupees in the original Wind Waker, or a maximum of 500 rupees in Wind Waker HD, so be sure to stop collecting rupees if you don't have room for more.
First, crawl into the space under the deck in front of your house. Follow the path into a little room. The chest contains 100 rupees.
There is a rectangle of trees near your house next to the water well. If you cut them down, you can reach a yellow rupee.
Wild Pigs
There are some wild pigs wandering around the island, and if you catch them and put them into the pen by the house behind Orca's house, the woman there gives you 20 rupees each time. One pig is behind the house of the guy cutting the grass, one is behind the grass to the side of the house where you fought Orca, and one on the path behind Orca's house. To catch them, either scatter some bait, which you can buy from the boat by the pier (see the next section for more information), or crawl near the pigs by holding down the crouch button when you aren't holding a weapon. When you are standing close to the pig, press A when it says "Lift" to pick it up.
More Rupees
There is a rupee under the deck of the grass-cutting guy's house, and inside his house you can crawl under his bed for another rupee, then through that crawlspace to reach a chest with 20 rupees in it.
If you go to the rock between the two water-level bridges in the middle of the island, you can jump to some other rocks with rupees on them.
Buy Bait and Pears
If you haven't bought any bait, swim to the boat by the pier (being careful not to stay in the water too long, or you will drown), climb onto a barrel on the side of the boat, and go inside. Buy the pig's-head bait bag, then buy three hyoi pears, and fill the rest of your bag with as much all-purpose bait as you can afford. You can carry up to eight things in the bait bag, so if you got three hyoi pears, you can buy five all-purpose bait.
Board the Pirate Ship
Now you are ready to go with Tetra and the pirates. Talk to Tetra and watch the cutscene.
On the ship, turn around and go into the door below. Walk down the stairs to meet Niko. He will explain the task that you need to do.
When you are ready, start by stepping on the raised switch to reset the platforms so you won't run out of time. When the platforms are down, step on the other switch to raise them back up again. To go from platform to rope to platform, make a running start each time. When you are on a rope, press the control stick up and down to keep swinging. Press A to let go when you are near the next platform. You will not need to change directions on the ropes here, but for future reference, if you are playing the original GameCube version, you can hold the R to stop swinging, then keep holding R while pressing the D-stick left or right to change direction. In Wind Waker HD, you can change direction on the rope while swinging. In both versions, you can hold the button that is marked "stop" to make the rope stop swinging, then you can climb up and down the rope while it is stopped.
If you do not succeed, you can try as many times you need to. Once you succeed, Niko gives you the Spoils Bag. This will hold special items that you win from certain enemies.
Now go back up above decks, and climb up the ladder on the mast to reach Tetra. Watch the cutscene.