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BECOME A LOW- TO MID-TIER ALTTP SPEEDRUNNER (ON EMULATOR) LIKE ME IN A FEW EASY STEPS
General overview:
1. Watch runs.
2. Learn to run Master Sword.
3. Pick a route for Any% (No OoB, No S+Q) (hereafter, I'll just call it "Any%").
4. Learn to run that route.
5. Appendix: Strat deviations and some notable pots and drops.
1. WATCH RUNS
I recommend watching several runners of different tiers during the Sunday weekly, or the PBs of same, side-by-side. This will give you a sense of what separates runners of different tiers, what decisions have to be made in constructing a route, and what decisions have to be made on the spot during gameplay: when to pick up safety hearts, when and where to stock up on arrows and bombs and rupees, etc. If you can only watch one or a few at once due to time constraints, low bandwidth, or a bad computer, opt (of course) for the best runners first.
2. LEARN TO RUN MASTER SWORD
First, watch the PBs of several top runners side-by-side, making note of when to save and quit and what dash routes are used. Then do a "walk" - with savestates - through the route. You should make the following eight or nine savestates during the "walk":
- Right before the first blue guard in Escape, when you walk down the stairs. There are two strats for this room; watch (for example) Acmlm for one and (for example) neoh11 for the other. You might also make a savestate for the second blue guard if you really want to practice your pokespin. But three slashes will work fine.
- Right before the room with two to four skeletons in Eastern, where you must kill the skeletons to open the door.
- Right before the Big Key room in Eastern. You will have to watch runs to see how this skip works.
- Right before the room up the stairs from where you get the Bow in Eastern, where you get the key from the green eyegore. There are a few strats for this room; watch (for example) Acmlm for one and (for example) neoh11 for the other. Don't use the Kryssstal strat ("gifted with greenies"), but feel free to watch and wonder at it.
- Right before the room with two skeletons and one red eyegore. Use this savestate to practice this room (there are different patterns you'll have to deal with), the next one (watch my runs for a baby strat to kill both red eyegores before either falls asleep; watch more or less anyone else for the real strat), and Armos. For Armos, again, don't use the Kryssstal strat; learn either bottom right (watch Acmlm or rambly), top right (watch ChristosOwen, neoh11, revolver005, or me; I recommend this one), or top left (watch sol1dus or chaosknight373).
- Right before Lanmolas in Desert. Yes, there is nothing else in Desert worth practicing. Practice arrow-only strats (i.e., no bombs) for Lanmolas. Watch old Acmlm PBs for a sense of arrow timing. This really does need to be drilled.
- The big room right before Moldorm, right as you enter, to practice the bumper skip.
- Moldorm. Watch ineb_tfm or darklink85 for a no-dash strat or anyone else for either dash strats or mixed strats.
And another tiny thing: in the very last room of Escape, hold right as you enter it to skip Zelda's first text.
Also take careful note of where runners pick up arrows. There should be ten or eleven pots you get arrows from during an MS run:
- The top pot to the far right of the Bow room in Eastern, before you have the Big Key. Some people skip this, but you shouldn't. Really.
- Both pots to the far left of the Bow room in Eastern, after you have the Big Key.
- The top two pots in the first room of 2F in Eastern.
- One of the two pots in the red eyegore/two skeleton room in Eastern.
- A pot right near the beginning of Desert.
- The middle pot at the top right of Desert after you get the Big Key.
- Two pots in the laser room right before the Power Glove.
- If necessary, the top left pot in the lamp room right before Lanmolas.
In addition, you will want to start practicing optimal movement as soon as you can. There are a few small movement tricks you will want to be aware of:
- Stairwell lag: hold left or right, not down, as you are exiting a stairwell.
- "Pumping": when you are walking north or west, mash (hit repeatedly) diagonals (west or east for north, north or south for west) in order to optimize your speed. (Kryssstal's notesmash explains the mechanics of this.) You can do this walking up stairs ("stairpumping"), walking against walls ("wallpumping"), or just moving straight and a little diagonally ("airpumping"). This is especially important in Escape.
- Quickjumps: once you have the Pegasus Boots, if you are jumping west, south, or east off of a ledge, press A right as you get there to jump more quickly.
- Quickwarps: you can warp more quickly if you warp from certain spots. See Kryssstal's notesmash for images of all the quickwarp locations.
- Keydashes: without getting into details, there are two reliable methods for dashing through key doors (west, south, or east): begin the pre-dash animation in another direction and then switch to the direction you want before the dash actually begins, or brush up against an object and it'll do the aligning for you. You'll see examples of these in the run.
And there is a big new movement trick you will want to be aware of. If (after you have the Boots) you charge your sword on stairs, then press A exactly one frame after you release and spin, you will have "superspeed" (which before this was found was only possible with certain item dashes).
Drill these savestates as much as you want; some people prefer a lot of drilling and some people prefer a lot of runs. When you feel ready, download Llanfair (and OBS if you want to stream), set up some splits, and get running. Master Sword is a pretty dumb category, to be honest, and you should stop doing this whenever you feel up to the challenge of Any%.
3. PICK A ROUTE...
You will have to decide what route you want to use. Here are the decisions you will have to make:
A) Will you use bottles to store fairies? If so, one or two? When will you get them?
B) Will you attempt the "fake flippers" glitch?
C) Will you attempt the "hammeryump" trick? If so, will it be the "top" or "bottom" jump?
D) Will you get the Magic Powder?
E) Will you attempt the Ice Palace bombjump?
F) Will you get the silver arrows and the level 4 golden sword (hereafter "buttersword")?
G) Will you get the red mail?
H) Will you get the 1/2 magic upgrade?
J) Will you get the Mirror Shield?
You should not answer these questions in isolation; they need to be answered together as you construct the route. For example, if you are getting the buttersword and silver arrows and want to do hammeryump, you should do the bottom "yump", since the rupees downstairs in the Palace of Darkness won't be necessary (you'll need 720 over the course of the run - 110 for Kiki, 10 for tempered sword, 500 for flippers, and 100 for the superbomb). You should get buttersword unless you feel completely comfortable with the tempered Ganon fight.
My recommendation for a starting set of decisions is the following:
- In Eastern, go left instead of up after the bubble room, then go down and to the right to get 100 rupees.
- After Desert, skip fakeflips and go up through Kakariko. Grab the bottle from behind the bar, then go get the net, then buy the second bottle. Dash into the tree and use the net to get a first fairy. Right after you enter the Dark World, dash into the left tree right under the Golden Pyramid to get a second fairy. (If Lanmolas scare you, you can grab the bottles and net before Desert instead and get fairies either near your house or near the middle of Desert, and either go up through Kakariko anyway or attempt fakeflips.)
- Get the mushroom as you're leaving the Lost Woods.
- Use bottom hammeryump. Pause buffer the hell out of it if you need to.
- Fly to 2 right after you get the bird (between Darkness and Thieves') and exchange the mushroom for the powder.
- Get both rupee chests from Dark Kakariko.
- Do Mire before Swamp. Get the superbomb right after Swamp, then get the buttersword and silver arrows.
- Get the red mail in Ganon's Tower.
Half magic I could take or leave. It allows a lot of sloppiness and makes Kholdstare much easier (tip: you can use the Fire Rod on the eyes even after they are out of the ice), but the magic route is fairly safe with buttersword. Skip the Mirror Shield; just learn laser skip in Turtle Rock. Learn the Ice Palace bombjump.
This would result in the following route:
* Escape
* Eastern (incl. 100 rupees)
- Pegasus boots, 3 bombs, 50 rupees x2
* Desert
- Bottle, net, bottle
* Hera
* Master Sword
* Agahnim's Tower
* Palace of Darkness
- Shovel
- Flute
- Bird
- Magic Powder
* Thieves' Town
- 300 rupees in bottom left hut (requires bomb)
- Frog and tempered sword (plus half 1/2 magic if desirable)
- 300 rupees in top right house
* Skull Woods
- Quake
- Flippers
* Ice Palace
- Ether
* Mire
* Swamp Palace
- Buttersword and silver arrows
- Ice Rod
* Turtle Rock
* Ganon's Tower
* Ganon
4. ... AND LEARN TO RUN IT
Do another "walk" with savestates, remembering to keep an eye on optimal dash routes and such. In addition to the savestates from your Master Sword "walk", you'll want the following (you might need to copy your ROM several times, as I did):
- The screen before the bridge after Eastern. That bridge can waste a lot of time and cause a lot of damage.
- Right after exiting Desert. "Desert escape", as I've seen it called, is worth learning, and you can also practice fakeflips from here.
- Hera bombjump.
- Any number of rooms in the upper reaches of Hyrule Castle ("Agahnim's Tower").
- Entering Palace of Darkness.
- Hammeryump.
- Turtle room.
- Helmaking.
- Exiting Palace of Darkness.
- Entering Thieves' Town.
- Blind.
- Entering Skull Woods.
- Skull Woods bombjump.
- Entering the final building of Skull Woods.
- Mothula.
- Entering Ice Palace.
- Ice Palace bombjump.
- Kholdstare.
- Entering Mire.
- Right before the Cane of Somaria room in Mire.
- Vitreous.
- Roller room in Turtle Rock.
- Chomps in Turtle Rock.
- The room in Turtle Rock with the antifairies, key-pokey, laser, and floating heads.
- Laser skip in Turtle Rock.
- Trinexx.
- Any number of rooms in Ganon's Tower. I especially recommend Mimics 1, the beginning of Gauntlet, Wizrobes 1, and Agahnim 2.
- Ganon.
And now comes the meat of this guide. Here are notes for more or less every room (again, see Kryssstal's notesmash for more detail and better information).
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ESCAPE
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ESCAPE 1: LINK'S HOUSE
Optimal text-mashing will get you out of bed a little under 27.3 seconds in (which is why we give a rough estimate of a 27-second difference between SRL timing and SDA timing). If just hitting one button isn't working to get you through the text that quickly, try hitting all the buttons.
ESCAPE 2: OUTSIDE LINK'S HOUSE
Start wallpumping right here as you walk up the left side of the house towards the bridge. The next screen transition should occur before the 37-second mark.
ESCAPE 3: BRIDGE TOWARDS BUSH
Learn the optimal route through the bushes here and remember to wallpump and airpump on the bridge and walking towards the bush (only going north and west; it's anti-pumping to do it going east and south!). It's great if you pick up the bush sub-52 and it's solid as long as you fall sub-53.
ESCAPE 4: YOUR UNCLE
ESCAPE 5: CORRIDOR
ESCAPE 6: CASTLE DOOR
After slashing, going left and down, then slashing a few more bushes, your main goal will be avoiding guards. Airpump towards the door if you can.
ESCAPE 7: CASTLE ENTRANCE
Airpump on the lamps. You can either go all the way up past the fourth or walk through the gap between the third and fourth. Note: a couple runners use a route where they go right instead of left here (e.g. jeanclaude and I think TIDA2012). Don't worry about that.
ESCAPE 8: CORRIDOR
Wallpump and airpump here.
ESCAPE 9: CORRIDOR
Wallpump if you get good RNG; otherwise focus on evasion.
ESCAPE 10: CORRIDOR
ESCAPE 11: BLUE GUARD 1
Watch for stairwell lag coming down. As I said above, there are two strats here.
ESCAPE 12: THE PITS
Copy movement precisely here: when you walk straight, when you walk diagonally, etc.
ESCAPE 13: GREEN GUARDS
To avoid the first guard noticing you, make sure you're a little north of him as you walk west. Airpumping can do this and get you back to where you wanted to be. Watch this on other people's videos if you need to. Make sure to slash before you enter the next room so you're charging your sword. (Note that Acmlm does a different strat here. You can too, if you'd like.)
ESCAPE 14: ANOTHER GREEN GUARD
And release to kill. Bad RNG if he goes left.
ESCAPE 15: THE BOOM ROOM / BLUE GUARD 2
To get the pokespin, you want to walk through the guard a little bit with your sword before releasing. The timing can be a little tricky. I did three slashes for quite a while. It loses about a quarter of a second to pokespin.
ESCAPE 16: BACK HERE AGAIN
ESCAPE 17: SOME STAIRS
ESCAPE 18: MORE STAIRS
ESCAPE 19: BIG KEY
There are several strats for this room. First, you want to make sure to boom (to hit with the boomerang) the green guard; if he walks down as you walk in, throw the boomerang down, and it'll hit him on its way back. The four strats, in order of efficiency (and difficulty), are:
- Eight slashes. You can see Kryssstal, Jadin, neoh11, and ChristosOwen do this. They work the guard around until he's positioned right in front of the door, too.
- One pot, four slashes. This is what I do now, and so do Acmlm, waffle42, rambly, and most other runners. You have to time the slashes rather precisely, but it's not as hard as all eight. You boom the key after he's dead.
- One pot, boom, four slashes. I did this for a while and you can find it in most of my old PB videos. It's rather safe; you can basically spam slash, as you get two or three hits for free from the boom freeze.
- Two pots. Not recommended, but definitely easy. I did it a few times when I was very new.
If you can get the big key around three minutes in, that's very solid. Kryssstal will get it at 2:55; other top runners will generally get it at 2:56 or 2:57. I have just a few 2:58s to my name.
ESCAPE 20: MORE STAIRS REDUX
ESCAPE 21: SOME STAIRS REDUX
Watch for stairwell lag here.
ESCAPE 22: BACK HERE AGAIN REDUX
ESCAPE 23: GREEN GUARDS REDUX
ESCAPE 24: THE PITS REDUX
Some wallpumping to do here. Make sure to jump down in the right direction.
ESCAPE 25: BLUE GUARD 1 REDUX
Don't get hit!
ESCAPE 26: CORRIDOR REDUX
ESCAPE 27: CORRIDOR REDUX
ESCAPE 28: CORRIDOR REDUX
ESCAPE 29: CASTLE ENTRANCE REDUX
I think it's faster not to walk between the columns, but just to go straight up and to the right after Zelda's text.
ESCAPE 30: THRONE ROOM
Wallpump as you're walking past the chairs towards whatever it is that you push. It may take some practice finding the early pixels to walk north. If you are using a timer, you can give yourself about four seconds from when you start pushing to when you first hit north.
ESCAPE 31: RAT, POT, HEART
Wallpump on your way up. I just take damage from the rat if it hits me, but you can probably react to it in time to boom it. If you need health, this is where to get it: pick up the pot and then walk north. If you want a sub-6 escape or thereabouts, you should be sub-4:50 or thereabouts, I think, when you hit the stairs.
ESCAPE 32: SNAKE PATTERNS
Hold left to avoid stairwell lag here. You may need to boom or slash these snakes; it just takes a bit of practice to know which. If you watch a lot of my videos you'll see that I slash too much. Boom is usually best, as you'll know from watching other people's videos. But the ideal is to have to do neither, so look for a path through the pattern and try for that first.
ESCAPE 33: SNAKES, BATS, KEYS, RATS
There are two strats for this room. Many top runners will walk up the left side and hope the snake isn't there, then boom it if it is and walk up and to the right. The safer strat is probably to walk up the right side and just boom that snake every time. You may need a couple extra booms or slashes for the bat or snake near the chest or if they somehow make it over near the door.
ESCAPE 34: SEWER 1
Walk left and airpump up the whole way. It should be just about perfect.
ESCAPE 35: SEWER 2
Same thing as last room. You can get pretty close to the bat.
ESCAPE 36: RATKEY/KEYRAT
Make sure you have the right rat. A few things to watch for:
- If you kill multiple rats and one of them drops money, your boomerang may catch the money instead.
- The rat may go up and to the left into the corner. It sucks, but that's RNG for you.
- Your boom may miss the key at first. This takes practice.
- As you walk toward the rat, it may scurry past you. Again, reacting to these patterns takes practice and experience.
ESCAPE 37: SNAKES, BATS, BLOCKS, RATS
The patterns in this room can be complicated. Watch for an early rat that may push you to the left when it damages you. You may need to slash a few rats along the way. Also watch for rats that damage you while you're trying to push the block.
ESCAPE 38: POTS, RATS
Hold left as you get out to avoid stairwell lag. Walk between the pots, then try and make sure to avoid rats on the way to the exit.
ESCAPE 39: LEVER ROOM
Hold right as you enter for the text skip.
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EASTERN
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EASTERN 1: SANCTUARY
It's tough to walk around the sage to get the sanctuary heart.
EASTERN 2: SANCTUARY PATH
EASTERN 3: PAST THE GRAVEYARD
You shouldn't have to boom the green guard - just hug the graveyard wall and he won't touch you.
EASTERN 4: TREES
EASTERN 5: WOODEN BRIDGE
EASTERN 6: OCTOROCKS PLS
There are a couple strats for this area. I prefer to just slash and kill octorocks if they're in my way; you may prefer the boomerang. Note that your sprites can overlap just a tiny bit without you actually getting hit. Some hits will result in damage boosts; don't worry about these, but try and figure out which they are (generally from behind). You can use the shield to block octorock shots.
EASTERN 7a: IMPOSING STATUES
EASTERN 7b: TREES OR WHATEVER
EASTERN 8: EASTERN ENTRANCE AREA
There's a lot of stuff going on here. Boom the octorock, then stairpump, then wallpump soon. neoh11 goes right between some of the small statues, but I pump all the way up. Use your shield against octorock fire; boom them if it's enough, but slash them if it won't be.
EASTERN 9: POT SWITCH 1
Don't hit left or right (or down) at all during this room.
EASTERN 10: POPO SWITCH 1
EASTERN 11: BUBBLES 1
If you want the 100 rupees for an early double bottle, take a left instead of walking straight up in this room, then go down, up the stairs, and to the right to open the chest. Apart from that, this room is just reacting to RNG.
EASTERN 12: POT SWITCH 2
It's (a couple frames?) faster to use the top pot to get to the switch, but some players use the bottom pot even if they haven't lost any health. Certainly if you have lost health at all you should use the bottom pot.
EASTERN 13: SKELETON CORRIDOR
Slash to make skeletons jump away from you.
EASTERN 14: SKELETON ROOM
Watch top runners' skelly rooms carefully. Evilash25 has a helpful image that shows the activation patterns for each skeleton. You want to walk straight up and pick up the pot, walk left, walk downwards basically in the middle of the room, throw the pot right, walk up-left, pick up the pot, throw the pot straight down, and then leave. Boom the top left heart if you need more health. It saves a couple frames to boom magic if a skeleton drops it, but I wouldn't worry about that. It's hard to get it right and, I mean, at our level, who cares?
EASTERN 15: MAP OR COMPASS OR WHATEVER
EASTERN 16: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 17: BOW ROOM
Get the arrows at the right of the room. Grab the heart in the pot below them if you need health.
EASTERN 18: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 19: POPO SWITCH 2
Walk quickly to avoid the antifairies and slash the popo so you can pick up the blue rupee if it drops it.
EASTERN 20: A DARK KEY ROOM
It's quicker to boom the key, but it's easy to boom a skeleton by accident, so maybe just pick it up as you're throwing the pot.
EASTERN 21: POPO SWITCH 2 REDUX
You can often walk above or below the popo. If it's kind of in the middle of the corridor, you'll have to slash it, but if it's against either wall, you can get around it.
EASTERN 22: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 23: BIG KEY SKIP
Damage boost off the bottom left corner of the popo, then hit A at the right moment to pick up the pot and hit the switch. This takes drilling. Note that some players - Kryssstal and rambly come to mind, as well as I think neoh11, and probably ChristosOwen and Jadin (apparentlypants) - hug the top of the stairs to save time, so that there's no chance of going southwest through the antifairies. I usually get damage-boosted upwards these days, so what I do is, I think, just as fast as what they do. Regardless, here your concern should be getting the skip right. If you miss it once, both pots have hearts. If you miss it twice, kill everything to move the antifairies.
EASTERN 24: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 25: BOW ROOM REDUX
Get the bow. Slash at the skeletons to make them jump, as usual. Switch to bow on the stairs or as you're unlocking the door.
EASTERN 26: GREENIES
There are three strats in this room: Kryssstal's "gifted with greenies" (don't do that), a strat where you shoot the key-greenie from the right (neoh11 does this), and a strat where you shoot the key-greenie from below (Acmlm does this). Just make sure if you hit a popo with an arrow that you shoot another one to hit the greenie. This room takes a little practice as well.
EASTERN 27: POTS
If you want the health from the bottom right pot, get it last - otherwise it'll mess up the pattern and you'll get hit by an antifairy. Besides that, it's top right, top left, bottom left.
EASTERN 28: GREENIE SWITCH
It's cool to pump towards the switch, but you can just walk diagonally towards it, too.
EASTERN 29: BUBBLE SWITCH
Again, it's cool to pump, but you don't have to.
EASTERN 30: RED EYEGORE AND SKELETONS
Most of us try to hit at least one of the skeletons with an arrow. Acmlm uses pots for each - pretty effectively. Fsjuicyj charges sword and spins to kill the lower skeleton. This room takes practice because of the different patterns that can ensue. There are arrows in the right pot and a heart in the left pot.
EASTERN 31: RED EYEGORES
Arrows and hearts in the pots if you need them. Watch me for the slow strat; watch anybody else for the good strat.
EASTERN 32: ARMOS
See description above. Again, I recommend top right.
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DESERT
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DESERT 1: EASTERN ENTRANCE AREA REDUX 1
DESERT 2: THE OLD MAN AND THE BOOTS
In any%, remember to get the 100 rupees and, if you like, the bombs. I'm not very good at talking to him at the right time, but from watching good runners you can see around where you should be positioned to be able to walk directly north after the discussion.
DESERT 3: EASTERN ENTRANCE AREA REDUX 2
This is one place to use the new superspeed, if you can do it.
DESERT 4: TREES OR WHATEVER
DESERT 5: LIGHT WORLD BRIDGE
This is very tough and, perhaps, ought to be practiced. The better strat is to walk up and to the left for just a second so you can dash past the green guard. Most of the top runners will do that. I can't quite do this and just try and hit dash as quickly as possible and then dash down at the far left of the bridge. It messes me up sometimes.
DESERT 6: IN FRONT OF LINK'S HOUSE
DESERT 7: SOME BUSHES AND STUFF
DESERT 8: A TREE AND STUFF
DESERT 9: IN FRONT OF THE GROVE
You want to dash through the two bushes and up the edge of the desert hill a little bit, then turn upwards and dash again.
DESERT 10: SMALL PLACE
DESERT 11: LIBRARY AREA
DESERT 12: IN THE LIBRARY
DESERT 13: LIBRARY AREA REDUX
- Some people try to do superspeed again here.
- Now that you have the boots, dash routes are the essence of overworld movement, so keep an eye out for those - especially here in the Desert segment.
- If you are going for super early bottles (which you should do if you sometimes die on Lanmolas and can do fakeflips), you want to go up to Kakariko after this and grab the stuff. If you lose health in this overworld, you can grab fairies behind Link's house (dash into 5-rock formation); otherwise, grab them in the dungeon.
DESERT 14: SMALL PLACE REDUX
DESERT 15: IN FRONT OF THE GROVE REDUX
DESERT 16: A TREE AND STUFF REDUX
DESERT 17: SOME BUSHES AND STUFF REDUX
DESERT 18: IN FRONT OF LINK'S HOUSE REDUX
DESERT 19: CUTTING GRASS 1
You want to walk down, dash left with the hill, then try and dash right next to the statue so that you don't bonk but also don't go through the water (which is slower).
DESERT 20: CUTTING GRASS 2
DESERT 21: CUTTING GRASS 3
Dash routes are important here, as grass (and being hit by enemies) will slow you down.
DESERT 22: INTO DESERT 1
DESERT 23: INTO DESERT 2
I like to mash B (sword) during the Mudora cutscene; mashing other stuff can result in rereading the text.
DESERT 24: LOBBY
Grab those arrows (lower pot). I like to throw the pot at the little guy if I'm low on hearts, since he sometimes drops one and it's safe, but the faster strat is to dash past him.
DESERT 25: CORRIDOR 1
There are two strats for this guy: spinning with the charge from the dash (which I do) and doing a double-hit during a dash (see most of the top runners, like Kryssstal, Jadin, or neoh11 for this).
DESERT 26: STUFF
DESERT 27: KEYBONK
Some people (Acmlm, Rambly) walk over to the statue and bonk from its left, but the preferred strat is to dash through it (hitting the side but going through) and then bonking the wall. Best practice is to start another dash as the key is falling, but it's safer to start walking instead, which is what I did in most of my older runs.
DESERT 28: STUFF REDUX
DESERT 29: CORRIDOR 1 REDUX
DESERT 30: POTS
DESERT 31: CORRIDOR 2
DESERT 32: POPOS 1
Slash up for the first, dash through the second, then either slash (a little easier/safer) or dash through (a little faster) the third.
DESERT 33: BIG KEY
It's great if you get good RNG on the bubbles here. Being able to react quickly to the bad RNG takes time; I'm still working on it.
DESERT 34: POPOS 1 REDUX
DESERT 35: CORRIDOR 2 REDUX
DESERT 36: POTS REDUX
Get these arrows (middle pot).
DESERT 37: CORRIDOR 1 REDUX REDUX
DESERT 38: STUFF REDUX REDUX
DESERT 39: LOTS OF POTS
Required: middle-right (3:00) for arrows, middle-top-left (10:00) for switch, top left (11:00) for arrows. Optional and not recommended: middle-bottom-right (4:00) for heart, middle-left (9:00) for heart.
DESERT 40: CHEST
DESERT 41: LOTS OF POTS REDUX
Just step on the switch, go a little bit down, and dash through.
DESERT 42: STUFF REDUX REDUX REDUX
Dashing is slower here, I think, than just walking. For a tiny bit of risk (well, relative to skill), hug the left wall as you are about to hit the screen transition; safer (but loses a few frames) is hugging the right wall.
DESERT 43: CORRIDOR 3
Begin dashing immediately to get past the big dude.
DESERT 44: SILLY ROOM
If you have early bottle(s), fairies are north from this room - push the third block from the left to open the door. Lighting the lamp, which I do for "swag" or something ridiculous, is stupid and wastes frames.
DESERT 45: LET'S DO THIS OR SOMETHING
DESERT 46: ANOTHER LOBBY
Pump up instead of dashing; it's faster.
DESERT 47: TILES 1
Do not walk up or down at all in this room; walk left immediately upon entering, then walk right after you get the key, and hit Dash. Switch to facing upwards after the dash animation has begun and you will have the keydash.
DESERT 48: CORRIDOR 4
DESERT 49: POPOS 2
RNG can be a little time-consuming in this room. You want to dash through the top-left popo, then slash left for the second. The third and fourth you just have to react to.
DESERT 50: LASERS
Dash to kill a popo, then dash upwards towards the pots. If you need hearts, the leftmost and rightmost pots have them, but be careful of the lasers.
DESERT 51: TILES 2
DESERT 52: LAMPS
Bottom pots: hearts; top-left pot: arrows. Watch closely to see how to light the lamps quickly without getting hit. (I still don't always get it.)
DESERT 53: LANMOLAS
Some things to note: the point of bombs is to get early hits, ideally on all three Lanmolas (watch Jadin, Kryssstal, etc. for bomb placement strats); it's better, when you can, to fire from the side rather than above or below; you can't have multiple arrows in the air at one time, so you have to stay close; with no bombs, it's fastest to start in the middle, but I'm bad at that and don't do it. Each lanmola takes 4 arrow/bomb hits or 8 slashes, or some combination.
General overview:
1. Watch runs.
2. Learn to run Master Sword.
3. Pick a route for Any% (No OoB, No S+Q) (hereafter, I'll just call it "Any%").
4. Learn to run that route.
5. Appendix: Strat deviations and some notable pots and drops.
1. WATCH RUNS
I recommend watching several runners of different tiers during the Sunday weekly, or the PBs of same, side-by-side. This will give you a sense of what separates runners of different tiers, what decisions have to be made in constructing a route, and what decisions have to be made on the spot during gameplay: when to pick up safety hearts, when and where to stock up on arrows and bombs and rupees, etc. If you can only watch one or a few at once due to time constraints, low bandwidth, or a bad computer, opt (of course) for the best runners first.
2. LEARN TO RUN MASTER SWORD
First, watch the PBs of several top runners side-by-side, making note of when to save and quit and what dash routes are used. Then do a "walk" - with savestates - through the route. You should make the following eight or nine savestates during the "walk":
- Right before the first blue guard in Escape, when you walk down the stairs. There are two strats for this room; watch (for example) Acmlm for one and (for example) neoh11 for the other. You might also make a savestate for the second blue guard if you really want to practice your pokespin. But three slashes will work fine.
- Right before the room with two to four skeletons in Eastern, where you must kill the skeletons to open the door.
- Right before the Big Key room in Eastern. You will have to watch runs to see how this skip works.
- Right before the room up the stairs from where you get the Bow in Eastern, where you get the key from the green eyegore. There are a few strats for this room; watch (for example) Acmlm for one and (for example) neoh11 for the other. Don't use the Kryssstal strat ("gifted with greenies"), but feel free to watch and wonder at it.
- Right before the room with two skeletons and one red eyegore. Use this savestate to practice this room (there are different patterns you'll have to deal with), the next one (watch my runs for a baby strat to kill both red eyegores before either falls asleep; watch more or less anyone else for the real strat), and Armos. For Armos, again, don't use the Kryssstal strat; learn either bottom right (watch Acmlm or rambly), top right (watch ChristosOwen, neoh11, revolver005, or me; I recommend this one), or top left (watch sol1dus or chaosknight373).
- Right before Lanmolas in Desert. Yes, there is nothing else in Desert worth practicing. Practice arrow-only strats (i.e., no bombs) for Lanmolas. Watch old Acmlm PBs for a sense of arrow timing. This really does need to be drilled.
- The big room right before Moldorm, right as you enter, to practice the bumper skip.
- Moldorm. Watch ineb_tfm or darklink85 for a no-dash strat or anyone else for either dash strats or mixed strats.
And another tiny thing: in the very last room of Escape, hold right as you enter it to skip Zelda's first text.
Also take careful note of where runners pick up arrows. There should be ten or eleven pots you get arrows from during an MS run:
- The top pot to the far right of the Bow room in Eastern, before you have the Big Key. Some people skip this, but you shouldn't. Really.
- Both pots to the far left of the Bow room in Eastern, after you have the Big Key.
- The top two pots in the first room of 2F in Eastern.
- One of the two pots in the red eyegore/two skeleton room in Eastern.
- A pot right near the beginning of Desert.
- The middle pot at the top right of Desert after you get the Big Key.
- Two pots in the laser room right before the Power Glove.
- If necessary, the top left pot in the lamp room right before Lanmolas.
In addition, you will want to start practicing optimal movement as soon as you can. There are a few small movement tricks you will want to be aware of:
- Stairwell lag: hold left or right, not down, as you are exiting a stairwell.
- "Pumping": when you are walking north or west, mash (hit repeatedly) diagonals (west or east for north, north or south for west) in order to optimize your speed. (Kryssstal's notesmash explains the mechanics of this.) You can do this walking up stairs ("stairpumping"), walking against walls ("wallpumping"), or just moving straight and a little diagonally ("airpumping"). This is especially important in Escape.
- Quickjumps: once you have the Pegasus Boots, if you are jumping west, south, or east off of a ledge, press A right as you get there to jump more quickly.
- Quickwarps: you can warp more quickly if you warp from certain spots. See Kryssstal's notesmash for images of all the quickwarp locations.
- Keydashes: without getting into details, there are two reliable methods for dashing through key doors (west, south, or east): begin the pre-dash animation in another direction and then switch to the direction you want before the dash actually begins, or brush up against an object and it'll do the aligning for you. You'll see examples of these in the run.
And there is a big new movement trick you will want to be aware of. If (after you have the Boots) you charge your sword on stairs, then press A exactly one frame after you release and spin, you will have "superspeed" (which before this was found was only possible with certain item dashes).
Drill these savestates as much as you want; some people prefer a lot of drilling and some people prefer a lot of runs. When you feel ready, download Llanfair (and OBS if you want to stream), set up some splits, and get running. Master Sword is a pretty dumb category, to be honest, and you should stop doing this whenever you feel up to the challenge of Any%.
3. PICK A ROUTE...
You will have to decide what route you want to use. Here are the decisions you will have to make:
A) Will you use bottles to store fairies? If so, one or two? When will you get them?
B) Will you attempt the "fake flippers" glitch?
C) Will you attempt the "hammeryump" trick? If so, will it be the "top" or "bottom" jump?
D) Will you get the Magic Powder?
E) Will you attempt the Ice Palace bombjump?
F) Will you get the silver arrows and the level 4 golden sword (hereafter "buttersword")?
G) Will you get the red mail?
H) Will you get the 1/2 magic upgrade?
J) Will you get the Mirror Shield?
You should not answer these questions in isolation; they need to be answered together as you construct the route. For example, if you are getting the buttersword and silver arrows and want to do hammeryump, you should do the bottom "yump", since the rupees downstairs in the Palace of Darkness won't be necessary (you'll need 720 over the course of the run - 110 for Kiki, 10 for tempered sword, 500 for flippers, and 100 for the superbomb). You should get buttersword unless you feel completely comfortable with the tempered Ganon fight.
My recommendation for a starting set of decisions is the following:
- In Eastern, go left instead of up after the bubble room, then go down and to the right to get 100 rupees.
- After Desert, skip fakeflips and go up through Kakariko. Grab the bottle from behind the bar, then go get the net, then buy the second bottle. Dash into the tree and use the net to get a first fairy. Right after you enter the Dark World, dash into the left tree right under the Golden Pyramid to get a second fairy. (If Lanmolas scare you, you can grab the bottles and net before Desert instead and get fairies either near your house or near the middle of Desert, and either go up through Kakariko anyway or attempt fakeflips.)
- Get the mushroom as you're leaving the Lost Woods.
- Use bottom hammeryump. Pause buffer the hell out of it if you need to.
- Fly to 2 right after you get the bird (between Darkness and Thieves') and exchange the mushroom for the powder.
- Get both rupee chests from Dark Kakariko.
- Do Mire before Swamp. Get the superbomb right after Swamp, then get the buttersword and silver arrows.
- Get the red mail in Ganon's Tower.
Half magic I could take or leave. It allows a lot of sloppiness and makes Kholdstare much easier (tip: you can use the Fire Rod on the eyes even after they are out of the ice), but the magic route is fairly safe with buttersword. Skip the Mirror Shield; just learn laser skip in Turtle Rock. Learn the Ice Palace bombjump.
This would result in the following route:
* Escape
* Eastern (incl. 100 rupees)
- Pegasus boots, 3 bombs, 50 rupees x2
* Desert
- Bottle, net, bottle
* Hera
* Master Sword
* Agahnim's Tower
* Palace of Darkness
- Shovel
- Flute
- Bird
- Magic Powder
* Thieves' Town
- 300 rupees in bottom left hut (requires bomb)
- Frog and tempered sword (plus half 1/2 magic if desirable)
- 300 rupees in top right house
* Skull Woods
- Quake
- Flippers
* Ice Palace
- Ether
* Mire
* Swamp Palace
- Buttersword and silver arrows
- Ice Rod
* Turtle Rock
* Ganon's Tower
* Ganon
4. ... AND LEARN TO RUN IT
Do another "walk" with savestates, remembering to keep an eye on optimal dash routes and such. In addition to the savestates from your Master Sword "walk", you'll want the following (you might need to copy your ROM several times, as I did):
- The screen before the bridge after Eastern. That bridge can waste a lot of time and cause a lot of damage.
- Right after exiting Desert. "Desert escape", as I've seen it called, is worth learning, and you can also practice fakeflips from here.
- Hera bombjump.
- Any number of rooms in the upper reaches of Hyrule Castle ("Agahnim's Tower").
- Entering Palace of Darkness.
- Hammeryump.
- Turtle room.
- Helmaking.
- Exiting Palace of Darkness.
- Entering Thieves' Town.
- Blind.
- Entering Skull Woods.
- Skull Woods bombjump.
- Entering the final building of Skull Woods.
- Mothula.
- Entering Ice Palace.
- Ice Palace bombjump.
- Kholdstare.
- Entering Mire.
- Right before the Cane of Somaria room in Mire.
- Vitreous.
- Roller room in Turtle Rock.
- Chomps in Turtle Rock.
- The room in Turtle Rock with the antifairies, key-pokey, laser, and floating heads.
- Laser skip in Turtle Rock.
- Trinexx.
- Any number of rooms in Ganon's Tower. I especially recommend Mimics 1, the beginning of Gauntlet, Wizrobes 1, and Agahnim 2.
- Ganon.
And now comes the meat of this guide. Here are notes for more or less every room (again, see Kryssstal's notesmash for more detail and better information).
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ESCAPE
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ESCAPE 1: LINK'S HOUSE
Optimal text-mashing will get you out of bed a little under 27.3 seconds in (which is why we give a rough estimate of a 27-second difference between SRL timing and SDA timing). If just hitting one button isn't working to get you through the text that quickly, try hitting all the buttons.
ESCAPE 2: OUTSIDE LINK'S HOUSE
Start wallpumping right here as you walk up the left side of the house towards the bridge. The next screen transition should occur before the 37-second mark.
ESCAPE 3: BRIDGE TOWARDS BUSH
Learn the optimal route through the bushes here and remember to wallpump and airpump on the bridge and walking towards the bush (only going north and west; it's anti-pumping to do it going east and south!). It's great if you pick up the bush sub-52 and it's solid as long as you fall sub-53.
ESCAPE 4: YOUR UNCLE
ESCAPE 5: CORRIDOR
ESCAPE 6: CASTLE DOOR
After slashing, going left and down, then slashing a few more bushes, your main goal will be avoiding guards. Airpump towards the door if you can.
ESCAPE 7: CASTLE ENTRANCE
Airpump on the lamps. You can either go all the way up past the fourth or walk through the gap between the third and fourth. Note: a couple runners use a route where they go right instead of left here (e.g. jeanclaude and I think TIDA2012). Don't worry about that.
ESCAPE 8: CORRIDOR
Wallpump and airpump here.
ESCAPE 9: CORRIDOR
Wallpump if you get good RNG; otherwise focus on evasion.
ESCAPE 10: CORRIDOR
ESCAPE 11: BLUE GUARD 1
Watch for stairwell lag coming down. As I said above, there are two strats here.
ESCAPE 12: THE PITS
Copy movement precisely here: when you walk straight, when you walk diagonally, etc.
ESCAPE 13: GREEN GUARDS
To avoid the first guard noticing you, make sure you're a little north of him as you walk west. Airpumping can do this and get you back to where you wanted to be. Watch this on other people's videos if you need to. Make sure to slash before you enter the next room so you're charging your sword. (Note that Acmlm does a different strat here. You can too, if you'd like.)
ESCAPE 14: ANOTHER GREEN GUARD
And release to kill. Bad RNG if he goes left.
ESCAPE 15: THE BOOM ROOM / BLUE GUARD 2
To get the pokespin, you want to walk through the guard a little bit with your sword before releasing. The timing can be a little tricky. I did three slashes for quite a while. It loses about a quarter of a second to pokespin.
ESCAPE 16: BACK HERE AGAIN
ESCAPE 17: SOME STAIRS
ESCAPE 18: MORE STAIRS
ESCAPE 19: BIG KEY
There are several strats for this room. First, you want to make sure to boom (to hit with the boomerang) the green guard; if he walks down as you walk in, throw the boomerang down, and it'll hit him on its way back. The four strats, in order of efficiency (and difficulty), are:
- Eight slashes. You can see Kryssstal, Jadin, neoh11, and ChristosOwen do this. They work the guard around until he's positioned right in front of the door, too.
- One pot, four slashes. This is what I do now, and so do Acmlm, waffle42, rambly, and most other runners. You have to time the slashes rather precisely, but it's not as hard as all eight. You boom the key after he's dead.
- One pot, boom, four slashes. I did this for a while and you can find it in most of my old PB videos. It's rather safe; you can basically spam slash, as you get two or three hits for free from the boom freeze.
- Two pots. Not recommended, but definitely easy. I did it a few times when I was very new.
If you can get the big key around three minutes in, that's very solid. Kryssstal will get it at 2:55; other top runners will generally get it at 2:56 or 2:57. I have just a few 2:58s to my name.
ESCAPE 20: MORE STAIRS REDUX
ESCAPE 21: SOME STAIRS REDUX
Watch for stairwell lag here.
ESCAPE 22: BACK HERE AGAIN REDUX
ESCAPE 23: GREEN GUARDS REDUX
ESCAPE 24: THE PITS REDUX
Some wallpumping to do here. Make sure to jump down in the right direction.
ESCAPE 25: BLUE GUARD 1 REDUX
Don't get hit!
ESCAPE 26: CORRIDOR REDUX
ESCAPE 27: CORRIDOR REDUX
ESCAPE 28: CORRIDOR REDUX
ESCAPE 29: CASTLE ENTRANCE REDUX
I think it's faster not to walk between the columns, but just to go straight up and to the right after Zelda's text.
ESCAPE 30: THRONE ROOM
Wallpump as you're walking past the chairs towards whatever it is that you push. It may take some practice finding the early pixels to walk north. If you are using a timer, you can give yourself about four seconds from when you start pushing to when you first hit north.
ESCAPE 31: RAT, POT, HEART
Wallpump on your way up. I just take damage from the rat if it hits me, but you can probably react to it in time to boom it. If you need health, this is where to get it: pick up the pot and then walk north. If you want a sub-6 escape or thereabouts, you should be sub-4:50 or thereabouts, I think, when you hit the stairs.
ESCAPE 32: SNAKE PATTERNS
Hold left to avoid stairwell lag here. You may need to boom or slash these snakes; it just takes a bit of practice to know which. If you watch a lot of my videos you'll see that I slash too much. Boom is usually best, as you'll know from watching other people's videos. But the ideal is to have to do neither, so look for a path through the pattern and try for that first.
ESCAPE 33: SNAKES, BATS, KEYS, RATS
There are two strats for this room. Many top runners will walk up the left side and hope the snake isn't there, then boom it if it is and walk up and to the right. The safer strat is probably to walk up the right side and just boom that snake every time. You may need a couple extra booms or slashes for the bat or snake near the chest or if they somehow make it over near the door.
ESCAPE 34: SEWER 1
Walk left and airpump up the whole way. It should be just about perfect.
ESCAPE 35: SEWER 2
Same thing as last room. You can get pretty close to the bat.
ESCAPE 36: RATKEY/KEYRAT
Make sure you have the right rat. A few things to watch for:
- If you kill multiple rats and one of them drops money, your boomerang may catch the money instead.
- The rat may go up and to the left into the corner. It sucks, but that's RNG for you.
- Your boom may miss the key at first. This takes practice.
- As you walk toward the rat, it may scurry past you. Again, reacting to these patterns takes practice and experience.
ESCAPE 37: SNAKES, BATS, BLOCKS, RATS
The patterns in this room can be complicated. Watch for an early rat that may push you to the left when it damages you. You may need to slash a few rats along the way. Also watch for rats that damage you while you're trying to push the block.
ESCAPE 38: POTS, RATS
Hold left as you get out to avoid stairwell lag. Walk between the pots, then try and make sure to avoid rats on the way to the exit.
ESCAPE 39: LEVER ROOM
Hold right as you enter for the text skip.
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EASTERN
=======
EASTERN 1: SANCTUARY
It's tough to walk around the sage to get the sanctuary heart.
EASTERN 2: SANCTUARY PATH
EASTERN 3: PAST THE GRAVEYARD
You shouldn't have to boom the green guard - just hug the graveyard wall and he won't touch you.
EASTERN 4: TREES
EASTERN 5: WOODEN BRIDGE
EASTERN 6: OCTOROCKS PLS
There are a couple strats for this area. I prefer to just slash and kill octorocks if they're in my way; you may prefer the boomerang. Note that your sprites can overlap just a tiny bit without you actually getting hit. Some hits will result in damage boosts; don't worry about these, but try and figure out which they are (generally from behind). You can use the shield to block octorock shots.
EASTERN 7a: IMPOSING STATUES
EASTERN 7b: TREES OR WHATEVER
EASTERN 8: EASTERN ENTRANCE AREA
There's a lot of stuff going on here. Boom the octorock, then stairpump, then wallpump soon. neoh11 goes right between some of the small statues, but I pump all the way up. Use your shield against octorock fire; boom them if it's enough, but slash them if it won't be.
EASTERN 9: POT SWITCH 1
Don't hit left or right (or down) at all during this room.
EASTERN 10: POPO SWITCH 1
EASTERN 11: BUBBLES 1
If you want the 100 rupees for an early double bottle, take a left instead of walking straight up in this room, then go down, up the stairs, and to the right to open the chest. Apart from that, this room is just reacting to RNG.
EASTERN 12: POT SWITCH 2
It's (a couple frames?) faster to use the top pot to get to the switch, but some players use the bottom pot even if they haven't lost any health. Certainly if you have lost health at all you should use the bottom pot.
EASTERN 13: SKELETON CORRIDOR
Slash to make skeletons jump away from you.
EASTERN 14: SKELETON ROOM
Watch top runners' skelly rooms carefully. Evilash25 has a helpful image that shows the activation patterns for each skeleton. You want to walk straight up and pick up the pot, walk left, walk downwards basically in the middle of the room, throw the pot right, walk up-left, pick up the pot, throw the pot straight down, and then leave. Boom the top left heart if you need more health. It saves a couple frames to boom magic if a skeleton drops it, but I wouldn't worry about that. It's hard to get it right and, I mean, at our level, who cares?
EASTERN 15: MAP OR COMPASS OR WHATEVER
EASTERN 16: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 17: BOW ROOM
Get the arrows at the right of the room. Grab the heart in the pot below them if you need health.
EASTERN 18: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 19: POPO SWITCH 2
Walk quickly to avoid the antifairies and slash the popo so you can pick up the blue rupee if it drops it.
EASTERN 20: A DARK KEY ROOM
It's quicker to boom the key, but it's easy to boom a skeleton by accident, so maybe just pick it up as you're throwing the pot.
EASTERN 21: POPO SWITCH 2 REDUX
You can often walk above or below the popo. If it's kind of in the middle of the corridor, you'll have to slash it, but if it's against either wall, you can get around it.
EASTERN 22: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 23: BIG KEY SKIP
Damage boost off the bottom left corner of the popo, then hit A at the right moment to pick up the pot and hit the switch. This takes drilling. Note that some players - Kryssstal and rambly come to mind, as well as I think neoh11, and probably ChristosOwen and Jadin (apparentlypants) - hug the top of the stairs to save time, so that there's no chance of going southwest through the antifairies. I usually get damage-boosted upwards these days, so what I do is, I think, just as fast as what they do. Regardless, here your concern should be getting the skip right. If you miss it once, both pots have hearts. If you miss it twice, kill everything to move the antifairies.
EASTERN 24: CORRIDOR
EASTERN 25: BOW ROOM REDUX
Get the bow. Slash at the skeletons to make them jump, as usual. Switch to bow on the stairs or as you're unlocking the door.
EASTERN 26: GREENIES
There are three strats in this room: Kryssstal's "gifted with greenies" (don't do that), a strat where you shoot the key-greenie from the right (neoh11 does this), and a strat where you shoot the key-greenie from below (Acmlm does this). Just make sure if you hit a popo with an arrow that you shoot another one to hit the greenie. This room takes a little practice as well.
EASTERN 27: POTS
If you want the health from the bottom right pot, get it last - otherwise it'll mess up the pattern and you'll get hit by an antifairy. Besides that, it's top right, top left, bottom left.
EASTERN 28: GREENIE SWITCH
It's cool to pump towards the switch, but you can just walk diagonally towards it, too.
EASTERN 29: BUBBLE SWITCH
Again, it's cool to pump, but you don't have to.
EASTERN 30: RED EYEGORE AND SKELETONS
Most of us try to hit at least one of the skeletons with an arrow. Acmlm uses pots for each - pretty effectively. Fsjuicyj charges sword and spins to kill the lower skeleton. This room takes practice because of the different patterns that can ensue. There are arrows in the right pot and a heart in the left pot.
EASTERN 31: RED EYEGORES
Arrows and hearts in the pots if you need them. Watch me for the slow strat; watch anybody else for the good strat.
EASTERN 32: ARMOS
See description above. Again, I recommend top right.
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DESERT
======
DESERT 1: EASTERN ENTRANCE AREA REDUX 1
DESERT 2: THE OLD MAN AND THE BOOTS
In any%, remember to get the 100 rupees and, if you like, the bombs. I'm not very good at talking to him at the right time, but from watching good runners you can see around where you should be positioned to be able to walk directly north after the discussion.
DESERT 3: EASTERN ENTRANCE AREA REDUX 2
This is one place to use the new superspeed, if you can do it.
DESERT 4: TREES OR WHATEVER
DESERT 5: LIGHT WORLD BRIDGE
This is very tough and, perhaps, ought to be practiced. The better strat is to walk up and to the left for just a second so you can dash past the green guard. Most of the top runners will do that. I can't quite do this and just try and hit dash as quickly as possible and then dash down at the far left of the bridge. It messes me up sometimes.
DESERT 6: IN FRONT OF LINK'S HOUSE
DESERT 7: SOME BUSHES AND STUFF
DESERT 8: A TREE AND STUFF
DESERT 9: IN FRONT OF THE GROVE
You want to dash through the two bushes and up the edge of the desert hill a little bit, then turn upwards and dash again.
DESERT 10: SMALL PLACE
DESERT 11: LIBRARY AREA
DESERT 12: IN THE LIBRARY
DESERT 13: LIBRARY AREA REDUX
- Some people try to do superspeed again here.
- Now that you have the boots, dash routes are the essence of overworld movement, so keep an eye out for those - especially here in the Desert segment.
- If you are going for super early bottles (which you should do if you sometimes die on Lanmolas and can do fakeflips), you want to go up to Kakariko after this and grab the stuff. If you lose health in this overworld, you can grab fairies behind Link's house (dash into 5-rock formation); otherwise, grab them in the dungeon.
DESERT 14: SMALL PLACE REDUX
DESERT 15: IN FRONT OF THE GROVE REDUX
DESERT 16: A TREE AND STUFF REDUX
DESERT 17: SOME BUSHES AND STUFF REDUX
DESERT 18: IN FRONT OF LINK'S HOUSE REDUX
DESERT 19: CUTTING GRASS 1
You want to walk down, dash left with the hill, then try and dash right next to the statue so that you don't bonk but also don't go through the water (which is slower).
DESERT 20: CUTTING GRASS 2
DESERT 21: CUTTING GRASS 3
Dash routes are important here, as grass (and being hit by enemies) will slow you down.
DESERT 22: INTO DESERT 1
DESERT 23: INTO DESERT 2
I like to mash B (sword) during the Mudora cutscene; mashing other stuff can result in rereading the text.
DESERT 24: LOBBY
Grab those arrows (lower pot). I like to throw the pot at the little guy if I'm low on hearts, since he sometimes drops one and it's safe, but the faster strat is to dash past him.
DESERT 25: CORRIDOR 1
There are two strats for this guy: spinning with the charge from the dash (which I do) and doing a double-hit during a dash (see most of the top runners, like Kryssstal, Jadin, or neoh11 for this).
DESERT 26: STUFF
DESERT 27: KEYBONK
Some people (Acmlm, Rambly) walk over to the statue and bonk from its left, but the preferred strat is to dash through it (hitting the side but going through) and then bonking the wall. Best practice is to start another dash as the key is falling, but it's safer to start walking instead, which is what I did in most of my older runs.
DESERT 28: STUFF REDUX
DESERT 29: CORRIDOR 1 REDUX
DESERT 30: POTS
DESERT 31: CORRIDOR 2
DESERT 32: POPOS 1
Slash up for the first, dash through the second, then either slash (a little easier/safer) or dash through (a little faster) the third.
DESERT 33: BIG KEY
It's great if you get good RNG on the bubbles here. Being able to react quickly to the bad RNG takes time; I'm still working on it.
DESERT 34: POPOS 1 REDUX
DESERT 35: CORRIDOR 2 REDUX
DESERT 36: POTS REDUX
Get these arrows (middle pot).
DESERT 37: CORRIDOR 1 REDUX REDUX
DESERT 38: STUFF REDUX REDUX
DESERT 39: LOTS OF POTS
Required: middle-right (3:00) for arrows, middle-top-left (10:00) for switch, top left (11:00) for arrows. Optional and not recommended: middle-bottom-right (4:00) for heart, middle-left (9:00) for heart.
DESERT 40: CHEST
DESERT 41: LOTS OF POTS REDUX
Just step on the switch, go a little bit down, and dash through.
DESERT 42: STUFF REDUX REDUX REDUX
Dashing is slower here, I think, than just walking. For a tiny bit of risk (well, relative to skill), hug the left wall as you are about to hit the screen transition; safer (but loses a few frames) is hugging the right wall.
DESERT 43: CORRIDOR 3
Begin dashing immediately to get past the big dude.
DESERT 44: SILLY ROOM
If you have early bottle(s), fairies are north from this room - push the third block from the left to open the door. Lighting the lamp, which I do for "swag" or something ridiculous, is stupid and wastes frames.
DESERT 45: LET'S DO THIS OR SOMETHING
DESERT 46: ANOTHER LOBBY
Pump up instead of dashing; it's faster.
DESERT 47: TILES 1
Do not walk up or down at all in this room; walk left immediately upon entering, then walk right after you get the key, and hit Dash. Switch to facing upwards after the dash animation has begun and you will have the keydash.
DESERT 48: CORRIDOR 4
DESERT 49: POPOS 2
RNG can be a little time-consuming in this room. You want to dash through the top-left popo, then slash left for the second. The third and fourth you just have to react to.
DESERT 50: LASERS
Dash to kill a popo, then dash upwards towards the pots. If you need hearts, the leftmost and rightmost pots have them, but be careful of the lasers.
DESERT 51: TILES 2
DESERT 52: LAMPS
Bottom pots: hearts; top-left pot: arrows. Watch closely to see how to light the lamps quickly without getting hit. (I still don't always get it.)
DESERT 53: LANMOLAS
Some things to note: the point of bombs is to get early hits, ideally on all three Lanmolas (watch Jadin, Kryssstal, etc. for bomb placement strats); it's better, when you can, to fire from the side rather than above or below; you can't have multiple arrows in the air at one time, so you have to stay close; with no bombs, it's fastest to start in the middle, but I'm bad at that and don't do it. Each lanmola takes 4 arrow/bomb hits or 8 slashes, or some combination.
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