Link has many different ways to defeat enemies in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, with the majority of them being simply offensive with your sword or other items. However, sometimes he had to pull out some other tricks to take down certain enemies, like we saw with the Shielded Moblins. The first dungeon, Tail Cave, will also introduce the Spiked Beetle into the mix, which requires a special tactic to take down that this guide will go over.
You will find the Spiked Beetles a little bit into Tail Cave, with it being possible that you got hints on how to defeat them. If you made your way into the room on the right side of the dungeon with what are known as Three-of-a-King. These enemies look like playing cards and you have to time your hits to match all three. For defeating them, you’ll get a chest that you can open with a beak that you can attach to the Owl statue in the room that reveals that you can flip the spiny enemies over with your shield.
So now you should be prepared when you run across the enemies that are in the image above. You must wait for them to charge at you and bring out your shield with R to have them bounce off of you. Once they do and end up upside down, slash them with your sword and they will be taken down in one hit.
