Gold Skulltulas at Lon Lon Ranch are a night errand with one daytime exception. The original games hide four tokens. The Switch 2 remake’s ranch guides describe three. I print both lists. I do not reuse the #12 / #38 style indexes, because Zelda Dungeon, IGN, and Game8 number the full game differently.
N64 and 3DS: four tokens
| Place | When | Tool | What you do | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thin tree behind the house, left after you enter | Day or night | None, then sword or boomerang | Roll into the tree so it drops | 2 sources |
| Outside the corral, southeast, behind a board | Night | Sword or boomerang | Walk the outside of the fence | 1 source (Zelda Dungeon) |
| Window on the left house | Night | Boomerang | Knock it down, then pick up the token | 2 sources |
| High on the southwest side | Night | Boomerang | Look up along the shed side | 2 sources |
Switch 2: three tokens
| Place | When | Tool | What you do | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thin tree behind the house, in front of the wooden tower | Day or night | None | Roll the tree | 4 sources |
| Window or wall of the house on the left | Night | Boomerang | Same knock-down as before | 3 sources |
| High inside the ruined storage building | Night | Boomerang as child; some guides also list adult Hookshot | Step in and look up; see direction note below | 2 sources; direction conflict |
Direction note: Nintendo Insider and 100% Guides place the ruined storage building southwest, while VGC calls its ruined-building token northeast. Both descriptions are retained here. Match the ruined building’s interior and overhead vines rather than relying on VGC’s compass direction. VGC’s introduction also says all three are night-only, while Nintendo Insider omits a night condition for the tree.
Remake hints
- Remake tokens have 1 hit point. The original Gold Skulltula page says 2.
- Leaves fall when a token is in a tree. A crate shakes when a token is inside. A gold web shows a night-only spot during the day.
- The Echo Gem flashes when you are close. It replaces the Stone of Agony.
- The in-game map marks whether an area’s collectibles are done.
The whole game still has 100 tokens. The ranch is four of them, or three. For a full-game route, use the linked collectible guides; this list covers the ranch. Plan a child visit after obtaining the Boomerang for the complete three-token remake route. Nintendo Insider lists all three under Young Link. Other guides also describe adult retrieval of the window and ruin tokens with the Hookshot; those adult lists do not add extra tokens to the ranch total.
Questions
Why do guides disagree on the count?
They are describing different editions. Zelda Dungeon lists four tokens for the original. IGN, VGC, Game8, and GameRant list three for the remake.
Should I trust token numbers like #12 or #38?
No. Those indexes belong to different full-game lists and do not match each other. This page uses places, not numbers.
Sources
- Nintendo Insider: Remake Gold Skulltulas — checked 2026-11-13
- VGC: Lon Lon Ranch Gold Skulltulas — checked 2026-11-13
- Zelda Dungeon: Ocarina of Time Gold Skulltulas — checked 2026-11-13
- IGN: All Lon Lon Ranch Collectibles — checked 2026-11-13
- Zelda Wiki: Gold Skulltula — checked 2026-11-13
- GameWith: Lon Lon Ranch map guide — checked 2026-11-13