0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 TODO: Mirror Jump Ghost Tempered sword w/o Titan's Mitt Unreachable areas ########################################################### # # # The Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past # # # # Glitches FAQ v1.00, by Zanapher # #(February 2006) # ########################################################### *** *** This is not the completed version 1.00, I'm still working on it. It has not yet been submitted to GameFAQs.*** *** ********************* * Table of Contents * ********************* To go to the specified paragraph, perform a search (Ctrl+F with most Windows browsers and editors) of the [.] string but replacing the "[" and "]" by "{" and "}". In the documents, the keywords will be referenced under squared brackets "[" and "]" so that the search is not affected by the references. If you see a reference of the form "[BLABLA]" search the string "{BLABLA}" to go directly to the referenced section. I. Introduction and Stuff ............................. [INS] = 1. Version Updates .............................. [UPD] = 2. Introduction ................................. [INT] = 3. Vocabulary and Abbreviations ................. [VOC] = II. The Glitches ...................................... [GLI] = 1. Death Mountain Descent (DMD).................. [DMD] = 2. The Levitation Trick ......................... [LEV] = 3. The Exploration Glitches (EG) ................ [EXG] = 3.a. Skull Dungeon Method (SDEG) .......... [SDEG] = 3.b. Pegasus Boots Method (PBEG) .......... [PBEG] = 3.c. The (Up + Down) Combo (UDEG) ......... [UDEG] = 3.d. Going Under the Stairs (STEG) ........ [STEG] = 3.e. "Jump and Save" Method (JSEG) ........ [JSEG] = 3.f. Pros and Cons of Every Version ....... [PRCO] = 4. Super Bunny .................................. [SBU] = 4.a. Lake Hylia ........................... [LHSB] = 4.b. In a Hole ............................ [HOSB] = 4.c. Teleportation ........................ [TESB] = 5. Moon Pearl Emulation ......................... [MPE] = 5.a. The Surfing Bunny .................... [SUBU] = 5.b. Surfing Bunny Goes to Misery Mire .... [SBMM] = 5.c. Life After Death? .................... [DEAT] = 5.d. Could You Give Me a Hand? ............ [CEHA] = 5.e. Fat Faery's Power .................... [FFPO] = 6. The Ether Medallion Glitch ................... [ETH] = 7. The Multi-Directional Glitch ................. [MDR] = 7.a. Fun with the Map ..................... [MDMP] = 7.b. Princess? What Princess? ............. [MDPR] = 7.c. Take the Princess for a Walk ......... [PRIN] = 8. Skip the Sword and Shield .................... [SSW] = 9. The "Final Save" Glitch ...................... [FIN] = 10. The Fire Pants Glitch ........................ [FPA] = III. Glitch Quests and Things to Try .................. [QUE] = 1. Speed-Running with Glitches .................. [SPEE] = 1.a. 15 Minutes ........................... [15MI] = 1.b. 7 Minutes ............................ [7MIN] = 1.c. 3 Minutes ............................ [3MIN] = 2. No Sword Quests .............................. [SWOR] = 2.a. No Master Sword ...................... [NOMS] = 2.b. No Master Sword, No Moon Pearl ....... [MSMP] = 2.c. Almost No Sword (w/o Glitches) ....... [ANSW] = 2.d. No Sword ............................. [NOSW] = 3. Pink Bunny Meets Ganon ....................... [PBGA] = 4. Rainy Day .................................... [RAIN] = 4.a. Entering the Desert Palace ........... [DEPA] = 4.b. The Power Gloves ..................... [PWGL] = 4.c. The Magic Mirror and the Dark World .. [RAMM] = 4.d. Rescuing the Smithy's Partner ........ [SMIT] = IV. Technical Stuff You Might Want to Know ............ [TEC] = 1. The Three Phases of the Game ................. [3PHA] = 2. The Underworld Map ........................... [UDRW] = 2.a. What is a Room in this Game? ......... [ROOM] = 2.b. The Two Underworld Zones ............. [ZONE] = 2.c. Some Useful Addresses ................ [ADDR] = 3. What Dungeon Am I In ? ....................... [DUNG] = 3.a. Changing Dungeons on the Fly ......... [CHDG] = V. The Chris Houlihan's Room Mystery Solved ........... [CHR] = 1. What is the Chris Houlihan's room ? .......... [WHCH] = 2. How to Get There ............................. [HOCH] = VI. Conclusion ........................................ [CON] = 1. How to Contact Me ............................ [CME] = 2. Thanks ....................................... [THX] = {INS} ************************************** * Section I : Introduction and Stuff * ************************************** {UPD} Subsection I.1 : Version Updates ******************************** Version 1.00 - Added the section "What Dungeon Am I In ?" - Added the Vocabulary and Abbreviations section - Added the Chris Houlihan's room section (and removed the previous one) - Added information in the "Useful Addresses" section - Corrected an error in the Version Updates section :) - Changed the Table of Contents and the order of some sections - Added the STEG and the "Skip the Sword and Shield" glitch - Added (finally!) the "3 Phases of the Game" section - Added the "Final Save" glitch - Wrote the Super Bunny in Lake Hylia section (and teleportation section) - Capitalized a lot of titles - Added a comparison of the Exploration Glitches - Corrected or updated a lot of sections - Re-read the whole FAQ to check if it was up to date - Added a few names in the Thanks section (because I had a lot of new help) - Corrected a room number error in section [ETH] - Changed my e-mail address - Many other small (or maybe big) updates that I forgot Version 0.97 - Added the JSEG - Added the Undeworld Map section Version 0.93b - Corrected the Rainy Day section Version 0.93 - Completed the Rainy Day section with ccexplore's techniques - Fixed some index problems - Corrected some typos - Added the "Others" section with directions to the Houlihan's room Version 0.92 - Corrected some minor mistakes here and there - Added the Skull Dungeon glitch - Reversed the order of updates (most recent first) Version 0.9 - Added all missing "why it happens" sections - Added a short (and boring) introduction - Corrected a few typos Version 0.82 (no v0.81 because of a stupid error when sending the FAQ...) - modified the DMD notes by Frost King Version 0.8 - Why it happens sections written for some glitches - Rearranged the glitches so the Levitation glitch comes earlier - Added complement info about DMD - Added the version updates section - Some referencing errors have been corrected Version 0.7 - First version of the FAQ. {INT} Subsection I.2 : Introduction ***************************** This FAQ is intended for players who have already finished this game (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, for the SNES) and want to try new things. It contains major spoilers and I consider that the player is already familiar with most names and normal game events. If you haven't finished the game yet or do not really remember it, it might be hard to understand my explanations (and it can spoil you the pleasure of completing this awesome game normally). This glitches FAQ does not reference all known glitches for this game. This would be too long and I'm not interested in most of the minor glitches of this game (so if you know how to have a blue shield or see a purple soldier, I'm not interested...). The glitches I talk about in this FAQ are the "useful" ones meaning that they let you do things that you weren't supposed to do (or at least not at the moment you do them). I particularly like to use the glitches I know (the ones I talk about in this FAQ) to achieve special "glitch" quests such as speed runs (finish the game as fast as possible, I can now do it in less than 3 minutes and 30 seconds...), complete as much of the game as you can without taking the Moon Pearl etc. The main reason why I have written this FAQ was to talk about the Exploration Glitches (see [EXG]). These glitches are the most powerful ones IMO of this game. These glitches can freeze your game or even might damage your saved games (it only happens with one of them, and can be avoided if you follow my instructions). I highly recommend that you first experiment most of the glitches that I present here on an emulator (ZSNES is by far the best one) so you take no risks, and can use savestates to make the experimentation easier. Then, if you know what you are doing go and do it on your real SNES if you like (I tried most of the glitches on my SNES). {VOC} Subsection I.3 : Vocabulary and Abbreviations ********************************************* Here's a short list of the abbreviations that I use sometimes in the FAQ, and quick definitions (or a reference to the paragraph that defines it) of some of the terms I use. I also included some names of elements (places, items, etc.) of the game that might not be so well known. Blind's Hideout: Blind the Thief is the boss of the fourth Dark World dungeon. Blind's Hideout is naturally the dungeon where you fight him... And it's the one located in the Village of Outcasts. Chris Houlihan's room: It's a secret room in the game (see [CHR]) Dark Palace: The first Dark World dungeon where you get the Hammer. It's the Dark World version of the Eastern Palace. Desert Palace: The second Light World dungeon. The one that is... in the desert! DMD: Death Mountain Descent. It's a glicth that lets you go down of Death Moutain (Dark World) without going through the caves. It lets you explore the Dark World very soon in the game. See [DMD] Eastern Palace: The first Light World dungeon. The one where you get the Bow, that is conveniently located on the East of Hyrule... Exploration Zone: The collection of all rooms of the game (inside of a dungeon/cave/house) where you can move almost freely with the help of Exploration Glitches. See [EXG] Exploration Glitch: These are the glitches that let you explore the Exploration Zone. See [EXG] Hop: (verb) Action of jumping back onto the floor of a room from the exploration zone. Hyrule: Hyrule is the land where the action occurs. Hyrule is all that you see when you look at the Outworld map. Technically, the Dark World is not in Hyrule... It's the Golden Land, but to me it's the Dark version of Hyrule so I never talk about the Golden Land. Hyrule Castle: The main castle of Hyrule. The one where you go at the beginning of the game to rescue Princess Zelda. Then you go there again when you want to fight Agahnim after you go the Master Sword. JSEG: Jump and Save Exploration Glitch. One particular Exploration Glitch. See [JSEG] Kakariko Village: It's the main village of Hyrule. The one that is on the West side, and South of the woods. Magic Mirror: It's the item given to you by the Old Man in Death Mountain. It lets you go back from the Dark World to the Light World. I sometimes use the verb "to Mirror" that means to use the Mirror... Master Sword: The Master Sword is the legendary sword of Hyrule. You get in in the woods. Then you can upgrade it twice (into the Tempered and Golden Sword). Notice that when I say "the" Master Sword, it means the Lv. 2 sword that you find in the woods, but when I say "a" Master Sword it means any sword of level 2 or more (the one from the woods, the Tempered Sword and the Golden Sword). Misery Mire: It denotes both the swamp in the Dark World that's where the desert was in the Light World (the place where it rains until you use the Ether Medallion) and the dungeon that's there. Moon Pearl: It's the item that's in the Big Chest of the Tower of Hera. It lets you keep your original shape when in the Dark World. It's supposedly required, but there are plenty of ways to do stuff without it (plus it's so much funnier to be a Pink Bunny). PBEG: Pegasus Boots Exploration Glitch. Another Exploration Glitch. See [PBEG] Pegasus Boots: These are given to you by Sahasrahla. They let you dash and bump into objects. Pyramid of Power: It's the big pyramid on top of which you respawn in the Dark World. It's where the final fight against Ganon takes place. STEG: Stairs Exploration Glitch. Yet another one. See [STEG] Tower of Hera: It's the third Light World dungeon. The one in the Mountain where you get the Moon Pearl. Turtle Rock: The seventh Dark World dungeon. The one that's shaped like a Turtle, and that is located in the Dark Death Mountain (gee, that's creepy). UDEG: Up/Down Exploration Glitch. [UDEG] Village of Outcasts: It's the Dark World version of Kakariko Village. {GLI} ***************************** * Section II : The Glitches * ***************************** In this section I will describe the most important glitches of this game that I know. For each one, I'll explain as clearly as possible what it does, how to perform it, what are the possible uses, why it happens (programming stuff) and some other interesting things you might want to know. {DMD} Subsection II.1 : Death Mountain Descent **************************************** Description: The Death Mountain Descent (aka. DMD) is a very interesting glitch. It lets you get down from Death Mountain in the Dark World (you arrive in the cemetery). It can be executed as soon as you have the Magic Mirror. Thanks to David Wonn for this glitch that I found on his site. Requirements: You'll need the Magic Mirror and the ability to reach the first portal to the Dark World (the one in Death Mountain that leads to the Tower of Hera). Having the Moon Pearl could be a good idea if you want to explore the Dark World without trouble but it is not necessary. How to: - Go to the portal in Death Mountain (in the Light World) that you use to reach the Tower of Hera. Enter the portal. - In the Dark World, jump to the foot of the mountain and then move one screen east. You should see two plots indicating the place of the broken bridge in the Light World. - Go between the two plots and move as much to the right as you can (until you're against the ledge) and use the mirror. - (*) Now this part is tricky: you must move ONE pixel to the right (no more, no less). Then wait for the portal to take you back to the Dark World. - If the transition to the Dark World doesn't work (ie. you're taken back to the Light World) it's because you moved too much to the right. Try agin. If it works (and that you actually moved to the right) then proceed to the next step. - Use the mirror again. When you reach the Light World, move to the right so you're not standing on the portal anymore. - Wait for Link to stop blinking. While facing east, charge your sword so you can walk to the left while facing right. Move slowly to the left so you enter the portal (facing east) as soon as you touch it. - If you did this correctly you should now be standing on the ledge between the ground and the void. Move right so Link jumps into the void. (if you can't move east or if the transition to the Dark World failed, start over from (*)). - You are now walking on the void (groovy isn't it ?). Find your way to the southern screen. Be careful not to go too much to the right or it will make the game enter an infinite scrolling loop. - If you changed screen at the right place, you should now be on the top of a wall. Jump down. - You can now explore this part of the Dark World (including the village, the cemetery, the Skull Woods...). If the graphics are buggy (which should be the case) simply warp to the Light World and back to the Dark World. Why it happens: The following illustration will help understand why this weird glitch happens. (1) ====================================== (Light World) (2) =================={!}================= (Dark World) (3) [--Link--] (Dark) (4) **[--Link--]** (Light) (5) ***[--Link--]* (Light) (6) [--Link--] (Dark) (7) **[--Link--]** (Light) (8) ************** [--Link--] (Light) (9) *************[--Link--] (Light) (10) [--Link--] (Dark) In this illustration, each column represents a pixel of the game (for example I have here supposed that Link's sprite was 10 pixels wide, and the ledge was 3 pixels wide). The symbols have the following significations: = -> Solid floor {!} -> The ledge. I have supposed that it was 3 pixels wide. [--Link--] -> Link's sprite. I have supposed that it was 10 pixels wide. * -> Pixels of the magic portal created by the magic mirror. Some points have to be explained. - First, I don't know exactly what are the widths of Link's sprite (S), the ledge (L) and the portal (P). In the illustration I have chosen arbitrarily S = 10, L = 3 and P = 14. This is not capital information, however we need to have the relation (P - S) = 2(L - 2). (If you try to reproduce the illustration with other values you'll easily see why). - A key point when understanding why this glitch works is to understand that the ledge's borders ("{" and "}") are considered "solid" when walking but not when warping from one world to the other. This means that when we try to walk towards the ledge the game stops Link in the position [--Link--]{!} because if he went further to the right he would be standing on a solid object. However when warping to the Dark World from the Light World, the position [--Link--|!} is accepted because here the border of the ledge is not solid (but if Link's sprite touches the center of the ledge "!" then the warp is not valid and we are taken back to the Light World so only the borders are not solid when warping). This is a very weird programming inconsistency (solid objects are not the same when warping and when walking). I think that this has been done voluntarily by the programmers to make warping easier since transitions are considered valid more easily this way (a location error of one pixel is accepted). However it is the key to this glitch since when walking one step to the right in the Light World and back to the Dark World we can be one pixel more to the right than what the programmers expected. Therefore we can put our portal one pixel more to the right than what they thought was possible and this way we can use the portal on the rightmost point and not cover the rightmost pixel of the solid part of the ledge "!". - Another thing might seem strange. When performing the glitch, we jump on the void and we can walk on it. This is very easy to understand since the default state of a floor is "solid" and when designing a level, the programmers have to specify explicitely where the holes are. In this case, they didn't consider that it was possible to walk on the void part east of the ledge so they didn't bother to make it a hole. - Also, keep in mind that all screens of the outworld are stored in the game the ones next to the others. This means that when we go out of bounds of a screen, the game scrolls to the next screen (this is what happens every time you change screens in the outworld). The Death Mountain part seems isolated since it is normally impossible to reach it from another screen of the outworld (we have to use the bird or come from a cave). However it is located next to the other screens (north of the cemetery and east of the Lost Woods), so when we exit the Death Mountain screen from the south we are taken naturally to the cemetery screen. Of course the programmers never thought that this transition was possible but since they programmed a general scrolling instruction, this default action is done by the game. Notes: - You can use the same technique to enter the weird rectangle area that is in the village of outcasts at the location where the bottle seller is in the Light World. This can be useful in a Phase I quest if you want the Bottle from the Bottle Seller, who will only appear in the Dark World, and will be inside the rectangle area [RAIN] - DMD lets you reach the Dark World as soon as you've got the mirror. This means that you don't need the pendants (except for the first one as you need the Pegasus Boots). Therefore you don't need the hearts in dungeons #2 and #3 of the Light World. If you have the Flippers and the Moon Pearl (get in in the Tower of Hera and exit) you can reach dungeon #1 of the Dark World (Dark Palace) and get the Hammer. From there, you can reach "normally" the portal that is north of Kakariko and the one in the swamp and therefore complete all the Dark World dungeons without having the Master Sword. It is possible with this to finish the game with only 11 hearts (see [NOMS] for more info). - You can also perform this glitch from the other side of the broken bridge (thanks to Frost King for this note). However I find it not very interesting since it's more complicated to go to the other side and that it can only be done later in the game (not before you get the Hammer). It was worth mentioning it however. {LEV} Subsection II.2 : The Levitation Trick ************************************** Description: The levitation trick, as the name says, is a trick that lets you walk over pits as if Link was levitating. It also makes Link move slowly without actually moving his feet (the sprite is still but you can move in the room). It cannot be done on a real SNES with a normal controller (unless you're some kind of robot that can press the A button with a perfectly regular rate of 30 or 60 presses per second...). However, people have told me that they could do it with some turbo controllers (it doesn't seem to work with all turbo controllers however). Requirements: For this glitch you need the Pegasus Boots. You'll also need either an emulator with a good turbo controller emulation (ZSNES works wonders) or a turbo controller that allows this glitch. How to: This is very easy to do. When you have the Pegasus Boots, simply use the auto fire on the A button and use the directional pad to move. You'll see that Link moves slowly but without moving his feet (like levitating). Now if you try to go over a pit, you'll be able to walk over the void. Why it happens: I can't enter too much in the details here. However I'll try to give an idea. This whole glitch is a priority conflict (at least I think it's the explanation). When Link is standing on the void, the game should notice it when making a test that compares Link's position with the position of all obstacles on the screen (holes are here considered obstacles). If the test concludes that Link is on a hole, then the falling animation is triggered. However, on another side, when the A button is pressed and if the player has already found the Pegasus Boots, the boots animation should start. Now when Link is standing on a hole and at the moment of the test the A button is pressed then the game gives the priority to the Pegasus Boots animation (this is a programming error in my opinion and this is what leads to this glitch), and at the next frame, normally the animation should be stopped because the game should see that Link is on a hole but if the A button is again pressed at the moment of the test (or right before) then a new Boots animation is started. As the Boots animation can be started translated to one pixel in any direction (depending on the direction that is pressed on the pad) this enables Link to move slowly in a given direction without ever letting the game see that we are on the hole (in fact the test is never actually done since the Boots animation takes the priority). As only the first image of the Boots animation is done each time (since we have to start a new animation each time in order for the glitch to work) it seems that Link is standing still. Also note that the programming error is not really an error since on a real SNES it is impossible to obtain a perfect synchronisation so the test happens eventually (1 or 2 frames later) and Link falls in the hole. Besides giving the priority to the input (buttons pressed) over the game tests is generally a good programming choice since it avoids some freezing situations in which the game enters a loop and never considers the player's choices. Notes: - This trick is required to perform the [PBEG]. - This is also very useful in most places where you need the Hookshot as you won't need it anymore. Note however that it only works on "continuous" transitions between the floor and the void. This means that it'll work in all places where Link can normally fall in a hole without "jumping" into it. - If you are levitating and that you touch a wall the levitation will stop and you'll fall if you're over a pit (due to the fact that Link will try to "grab" the wall when pressing A on the wall). - Places where this glitch is most useful are: * Hyrule Castle so you perform the PBEG * All places where you have to walk on invisible tiles (you don't worry about the tiles anymore) * Some rooms in Ice Palace, Ganon's Tower and Misery Mire (maybe even others I don't remember) where you're supposed to use the Hookshot in case you don't have it yet (or don't want to use it). * Turtle Rock, since you can now do the whole dungeon without ever creating a Somaria platform. {EXG} Subsection II.3 : The Exploration Glitches ****************************************** Description: Exploration glitches are the most powerful glitches that I know in this game. It is like a kind of "no-clipping mode" in the sense that it lets you see almost any room of any dungeon in the game. However they are quite hard to use (not really hard to perform, but hard to manipulate correctly to do what you want to do) at first because you easily get lost and the game might freeze quite often if you go to the wrong places. The main idea of these glitches is that they take you "under" the floor of most rooms and this way you can walk either under or "outside" of the rooms (be on the other side of the walls). As all rooms of the dungeons are in the same place in the program (see [UDRW]), if you don't use the usual connections (doors, staircases etc.) you can go from a dungeon to another without problems... These glitches are the main reason why I decided to write this FAQ because the possible uses are nearly unlimited! Notes: - As I said before, after performing an exploration glitch you are under the floor or out of the rooms. This means that you obviously can't interact correctly with what's inside the dungeons. The key point when using these glitches is to find particular rooms where you can "hop" back to the normal floor (from now on "hop" will be the word that I'll use for such action). This means that in these rooms you can go back from the outside of the room into the room (on the normal floor). Normally this "hopping" action will consist in Link jumping from outside of the room on the floor of the room. There are not so many "hoppable" rooms (not even one in each dungeon) but still enough to do what we want most of the time. - The Exploration Glitches are quite unstable... First of all, they don't all work exactly in the same way, meaning that some things might be possible to do with one but not with another. Also, it seems that the more you stay in the "Exploration Zone" and the more transitions you do between rooms before you hop back inside a dungeon, the more likely it will go wrong when you try to hop. Sometimes (for reasons that no one fully understands yet) everything starts to go wrong and you can't hop back anymore, or if you can, you can't interact with anything when inside the dungeon. Some EG are more stable than others. The stability will be discussed later when comparing the different glitches. - If you have Hyrule Magic on your computer and the US version of the ROM, you can use the room editor to see how the rooms are located the ones with respect to the others. This can help you a lot when exploring. If not, check the Underworld Map section [UDRW] to understand how it works, and find your way to the most important rooms. {SDEG} Paragraph II.3.A : Skull Dungeon Method (SDEG) ---------------------------------------------- Thanks to dvdmth for this glitch Description: This is the version I like less. It's harder to perform than the others, must be done later in the game and is very hard to use correctly (it's much more unstable than the other ones). I nearly never use it. Its only real good point is that it can be done on a real SNES without doing anything special. Also it's the first EG that was discovered. Requirements: Reach Skull Dungeon (#3). Can be done as soon as you can perform the DMD as you can reach Skull Dungeon from there. How to: - Go to Skull Dungeon, in the room 104, the one with 4 bumpers, 3 mummies and spikes (the south-east most room) - Kill all zombies so they won't bother later - Now head to the two upper bumpers and position yourself right between the two (remove the skull pot before) - When you're correctly placed, move right so you bounce against the first bumper and are sent back to the other one - If you were correctly placed you should start bouncing back and forth between the bumpers. If you are sent away then you weren't correctly aligned with them. Try again. - When bouncing back and forth, charge your sword so that you can unleash a spin attack on the ceiling hand when it falls on you - After bouncing long enough (I think that you need to do it around 1 minute) exit the bumpers area and go to the room to the north - You should see a bumper, a red octopus-like creature and star tiles - Approach the door immediately to your left - You'll see that the scrolling is weird because the camera will go out of bounds letting you see part of the next room even before you enter the door - Now enter the door. Two things might happen: (1) * Most of the times the camera will scroll two rooms to the left * From there you'll see a room with 3 zombies and a red skeletton and you'll be stuck in the door. There's nothing more to do, the glitch failed. Use your magic mirror. (2) * The other possibility is that you go into the left door but the screen only scrolls once and so you see the Fire Rod chest * From there go back to your left (return to the room you just came from) and try finding your way (it's a little hard because the camera won't be correctly placed) * After some moves you should see that you are under the floor (for example you'll see yourself walk under the holes in the ground) * From there you're in the exploration zone and can see almost any room of any dungeon. Find a hoppable room and go to another dungeon this way. Why it happens: I think that some parameter (used when defining the scrolling of the camera) is calculated with an error of one pixel (or so) each time you bounce back and forth between the bumpers. This means that if you bounce for long enough this parameter has a value that is one screen wrong and so the glitch happens. This explanation might not be really clear (in fact I never use this glitch so I know very little about it) but it would explain why two different things can happen when doing the glitch (I think that if you don't bounce enough times nothing happens, if you bounce the correct ammount of times (2) happens and if you bounce too many times (1) happens). However I have not tested this enough to conclude. Notes: - As you might have noticed it, I don't really like this method and therefore I nearly never use it, so I don't have much to say about it. - I think that in order for it to worlk correctly (for the option (2) to happen instead of (1)) you need to bounce enough but not too much. - This exploration glitch is quite hard to use because even when you do it correctly you are never in the room that you actually see, so the obstacles are not really the ones you see on the screen and it's quite hard to navigate. {PBEG} Paragraph II.3.B : Pegasus Boots Method (PBEG) ---------------------------------------------- Description: This one is a very good version of the exploration glitch. It lets you easily explore all the Primary Underworld (rooms of the dungeons and some caves) very soon. The bad point is that it requires an auto-fire controller (or an emulator). It seems also that not all turbo controller work (so I recommend you do it with ZSNES). Requirements: You need to be able to enter Hyrule Castle (so it can't be done after defeating Agahnim unless you use another EG to enter the castle) and perform the Levitation Trick [LEV], so you need the Pegasus Boots and a turbo controller that works with the Levitation Trick (an emulator does this perfectly). How to: - Go to Hyrule Castle's underground (where you rescued Princess Zelda) - In the second underground blue room (114S), there is an infinite pit that has no right limit (ie. there's no east wall at some point). Perform the levitation trick there [LEV] and exit to the right - You shouldn't see yourself anymore and be in a room from the Desert Dungeon (but with messed up colors) - Congratulations, you have reached the exploration zone... You can now walk around and explore the dungeons (see later sections for more info on what you can do with this glitch) Why it happens: This glitch is very simple to understand. All we do is exit the room from a point where the programmers didn't think we could. As they didn't consider that walking on the void was possible, they didn't consider necessary to close the room on the right wall. If we walk on the void (with the levitation glitch) we can exit the room to the right. When doing so the game handles it as it does normally when going from one room into the next one (most transitions are like this, each time the screen scrolls) and takes us to the room that is stored east of the current one in the ROM. This room happens to be a room from another dungeon since all dungeon rooms are stored together (see [UDRW] for more details). Moreover as we were on a lower level in the previous room (remember that the entrance door of the room is higher than the floor from which we did the levitation trick) the game considers we are in the lower level of the rooms we visit. This is both a good and a bad point. The good side is that the game doesn't freeze when entering a room (most of the time) since we are under the walls and not inside the walls (because the walls are most of the time in the upper level, since the default level is up). However it happens that we enter a room with a lower level out wall (some rooms of the Water Palace are like this for example) and in this case we're stuck in the wall. The bad side is that we cannot interact with the rooms that don't have a lower level (which is most of them) so even if we can see the rooms we cannot enter them properly (hop into). Even so, don't think that all rooms with a lower level are hoppable... Notes: - There's so much to say about this glitch that I'm not entering into the details right now. Check the later sections [QUE] to see how you can use it to do interesting things. - This EG is very stable (possibly the most stable of all). If you use this glitch and hop into a dungeon, most of the times (depending on where you enter the dungeon) everything will act correctly (the pots and items will be there, the enemies will see you and attack you etc.). - A very interesting thing is that when you perform this glitch and go see other rooms of other dungeons the game doesn't realize that you change the current dungeon so you're still considered to be in Hyrule Castle. The main consequence of this is that if you have the Big Key from the castle (which you should have if you have the Pegasus Boots) then you'll be able to open all "big doors" (and the big chests) in the dungeons you'll hop into. Also the small keys will be counted as keys in Hyrule Castle. This means that with the Exploration Glitches you can use keys that you found in a dungeon in another one, but be careful when doing so since you might run out of keys in some dungeons. {UDEG} Paragraph II.3.C : The (Up + Down) Combo (UDEG) ----------------------------------------------- Description: This is another method to perform the exploration glitch. The good point is that everybody can perform it with a real SNES (no need for an emulator), but the bad point is you'll have to open your controller for it. It is a strong use of the more general multi-directional glitch [MDR]. I'll explain here how to perform it in the place where I found it works the best and it's the most useful (as soon as possible) but there are a lot of other places where it can be done too. This glitch is quite similar to the [STEG] to perform, but the two have quite different properties, and are used in different places. Requirements: This glitch can be performed as soon as you enter Hyrule Castle for the first time. It also requires that you open your controller if you're playing on a real SNES as you'll have to press simultaneously Up and Down (this is it's main bad point)... Refer to the multi-directional glitch [MDR] subsection for more info. How to: - Go to Hyrule Castle, enter from the main entrance and go to the room to the left (room 96E). It' a vertical room that has an exit from the top (that leads to another vertical room). - Go to the north exit but don't enter. Now press (Up + Down) and go through the door while facing downwards (again refer to the multi-directional glitch [MDR] for more details... -am I repeating myself?-) - This should make the game glitch (the transition should be erroneous). Wait until the transition is finished and press again (Up + Down) until another weird transition happens. - If you did it correctly you should now see a completely closed and empty room but not see Link anymore: you're in the exploration zone... Why it happens: This glitch is very weird. I'm not sure that I correctly understand what happens. For now, I think that the game is very confused when we press both directions (Up and Down for example) and that it acts in some ways as if we were pressing Up and in some other ways as if we were pressing Down. For example Link faces down but moves Up. When entering a door, the game loads the southern room instead of the northern one and Link's location is messed up (I haven't really understood which location is chosen and why). However in the particular case that I have explained here (in Hyrule Castle if you make two transitions) the location is corrected the second time and Link is considered really in the southern room. From there it is possible to explore as for the previous glitch, and once again we are in a lower level since we performed the glitch from a lower level (see [PBEG] explanation). Notes: - Again, there's lots to say about this glitch. It's very useful and some of its possible uses will be discussed in the later sections [QUE]. - This is one of the earliest glitches you can perform in the game. It requires nearly nothing and enables you to do a lot of things (including completing the game) without even rescuing Zelda from her cell. - If you perform this glitch at the very beginning (ie. before rescuing Zelda) keep in mind that you are still in phase I of the game. This will affect lots of things in the outworld and even some things inside the dungeons (see [3PHA]) - Note that here I explained how to do it in one particular room. This room is the one that I found it the easiest to do it and where you can do it the earliest. However there are other rooms where you can. There's another room in Hyrule Castle where you can do it on the Left exit (pressing Left+Right). And also ccexplore found that you can do it in a room in Misery Mire. Doing it in Misery Mire is only useful if you want the game to think that you are in the Dark World. See section [SMIT] for more details on the UDEG in Misery Mire. {STEG} Paragraph II.3.D : Going Under the Stairs (STEG) ------------------------------------------------ Thanks to The Night Hunter for pointing what I should have seen months before Description: This glitch seems very similar to the UDEG but has a different behaviour. It's more stable and can be used in different places (so it's complementary). As the name implies, it consists in going through some stairs and under the floor. Requirements: Not much is required game-wise. As with the UDEG, it can be performed in Hyrule Castle when you enter for the first time. It can be done in many other places (where there are stairs, but not all the stairs). It also requires that you open your controller if you play on a real SNES since you'll have to press all four directions at the same time (see [MDR]). How to: - Go to some place with stairs (inside a room, not stairs connecting two different floors of a dungeon). If it's a vertically oriented stair, stand on the South side, if it's horizontally oriented, stand on the East side. A good place to try the glitch is Hyrule Castle. It doesn't work in the main entrance, but it works with the stairs in either the west room (96E), and the room with the Ornamental Shield (with these two rooms you can see how it works when climbing and descending the stairs) - Press all four directions at the same time [MDR], Link will start walking to the North West (hence your starting location next to the stair) - If you were correctly located initially, Link will start climbing or descending the stairs (keep pressing all the directions) - If the stairs are "glitcheable", you'll be in the Exploration Zone when Link stops being on the stairs: if you were climbing the stairs, Link will have disappeared under the floor, and if you were descending you might not notice anything but when you try moving to a wall you'll be able to hop through it and be under the floor too (or try climibing the stairs normally and if the glitch worked, you'll go through). Why it happens: That's pretty hard to tell... Again, it has something to do with the Multi-Directional Glitch [MDR] and the game doesn't know if you're moving up or down, or left or right. What's puzzling is that it doesn't work if you only press two directions... I don't really understand it, but I guess that when Link is on the stairs the fact that you're pressing one directions makes the game think you're going up and the other direction makes it think you go down. In the end, you're at some point on the screen with an incorrect level (the game thinks you're on the lower level when you should be on the top one). Notes: - When I discovered the Multi-Directional glitch [MDR], I started playing with it and found the [UDEG]... The UDEG was so great (in terms of new possibilities) that I almost stopped toying around with the Multi-Directional Glitch. Only once, I did find that it was useful to press all four directions to go through a stair and that it had an interesting side effect, to avoid saving Zelda and enter the sewers without her (and without the Lantern too). This is explained in [MDPR]. Months later, when we ran out of ideas to use the UDEG, and had even discovered another EG (the [JSEG]), The Night Hunter (a GameFAQs user) explained to me that if you press all four directions in front of stairs, you can go through them and enter the Exploration Zone. I didn't pay attention to it at first because I thought it was exactly like the UDEG, but after some days I re-read his posts and understood that what he explained was in fact a different kind of EG, that I had already used long ago without even noticing it had a great potential. - This glitch can be very stable (more than the [UDEG]) but it seems that if you stay for too long (and do too many transitions) in the Exploration Zone it becomes unstable. Moreover it has a unique (so far, when compared to the other EG) side effect that seems to send you to a "third" level that would be under the normal lower level. When in this level, you can hop into the hoppable rooms but are still under the floor when you do. In this case, you can either try climbing stairs to see if that solves the problem or use the Magic Mirror (or reset) and try again if it doesn't work. - I don't know why some stairs work with this glitch and why some don't. Just try it on all the stairs you find :) - This is the only glitch that I know so far that can let you go under the floor in the pipe rooms of Turtle Rock. All other glitches seem to freeze when entering these rooms, this one doesn't (another example of it's stability). - This glitch can be performed in caves (the Kakariko cave, or the Faery cave next to the Cemetery both have stairs that work). When doing so, if you hop into a dungeon you'll have unlimited keys! The number of keys is not shown until you open one door (and then it shows 4, then it decreases and when it shows 0 and you use yet another one it'll show 9 etc.) I think you start with 255 keys, which should be more than enough :). Also when you pick up a key inside the dungeon it shows 9 (no matter how many you had when you picked the key). You can also open doors and chests that require the Big Key if you already had the one from Hyrule Castle! {JSEG} Paragraph II.3.E : "Jump and Save" method (JSEG) ------------------------------------------------ Thanks to Sergio Villicana Description: A very simple to do EG, that has very weird side effects and uses. It was found by Sergio Villicana who used a more complicated version of the glitch involving the use of the Magic Mirror (see notes). Here, I'll explain a simpler version that has the same results. Mainly, the JSEG lets you enter both the Primary and the Secondary Exploration Zones (see the Underworld Map section [UDRW]) very soon and with very little equipment. It can also let you go through sprites in the Outworld (you seem to be under the floor too but can't really go through obstacles). Requirements: To perform the glitch, you'll need one or two save slots (it might be better to do it with 2 but if you don't have them free then deal with only one). From here I'll call them game A and game B. *** WARNING: If you perform this glitch, you'll most likely destroy one of your saved games (game B). Be warned and proceed at your own risks. If you're using an emulator, copy your saved games before or use saved states to recover a lost game. If you're playing on the actual console, then either accept the risk of losing your saves or don't try it at all (or try it when you have no other game of interest saved on your cartridge). *** How to: - Start playing game A. Reach a room inside a dungeon with a ledge where you can jump from the upper floor to the lower. Note that all rooms don't work for this but most do. For a start, I recommend going to Hyrule Castle's room 96E that is left of the main entrance (I haven't yet managed to do it in the main entrance). - Go to the top level and jump down. - While Link is still in the air, press SELECT. Choose "save and quit". - Start game B. From here, the glitch is already in effect (let's say it's "armed" to use dvdmth's terminology). Several things can now happen depending on where you start game B: a) if you start a new game, after your uncle leaves the house, jump out of your bed and you'll go right through the floor! You can now explore the Secondary Exploration Zone corresponding to Link's House (see notes for further details). b) if you start in a room that doesn't have a lower level (Link's House or Sanctuary work but not the Mountain Cave for example) you can walk around and keep the glitch armed. To use the glitch, either be hurt by an enemy (or a bomb) or dash into a wall with the Pegasus Boots (some other things might work too). This will make you go through the floor wherever you are (no matter if you're inside or outside). Keep in mind that whenever you enter a room with a lower level, you disarm the glitch (this is a general idea, it seems that it's more complicated since some rooms with lower levels actually don't disarm it... the best thing to do is try it in the room you'd like to enter the Exploration Zone). Why it happens: This glitch has many side effects that I really don't understand (see the notes below). However the main glitch is quite understandable. When you're playing game A and jump down, Link enters a temporary "jumping" state while he's in the air. Programming-wise this special state is useful to solve weird problems that could occur with enemies or other things while he jumps, so setting his state to "jumping" solves everything (he can't be hurt and such things). Of course, his state has to be stored somewhere in the memory and supposedly when he reaches the floor, the game will change his state back to "not jumping". However, if you save and quit while in this state, the game never resets the value (and that's probably a programming mistake since they should reset all such values to the defaults when quitting) so when you start a new game, you're still in this state. Now I think that dashing into a wall or being hurt causes Link to be into another special "hurt" state (again you're invincible while in this state to make things simpler to program). This means that at this time you're in both states "hurt" and "jumping". However at the end of the "hurting" animation, the game wants to reset your state back to normal so it checks your status and applies the corresponding changes... Normally, after being in state "jumping" you should always be in the lower floor, so it is understandable to consider that the game automatically puts you in the lower floor whenever you leave the "jumping" state. So when the game resets your status, it takes you to the lower floor at the same time and so takes you under the floor. Also remember that there's no lower floor in the Outworld, so setting you to the lower floor always takes you under your normal level. The last thing to understand is why entering a room with a lower floor causes the glitch to disarm... I think this is simply because when you enter a room with a lower floor the game knows that you might have a change of level and so prepares the "jumping" state by initialising it to it's default value (which would be "not jumping"). Why it doesn't do it in all rooms even if there's no lower floor you might ask? Simply because it saves one operation in the rooms where it seems "useless"... In other words this is a typical example of a "lazy" implementation (not that the programmers are lazy but that they want their program to do as little operations as possible) that creates a bug because they didn't realise that you could be in the state "jumping" in a "single level" room. Notes: - If you have already played either with the other EG or with the ROM editor Hyrule Magic (or even read the section [UDRW] about the Underworld Map), you might have noticed that even using an exploration glitch, some rooms can't be reached from a normal dungeon room. These rooms include Link's house, most houses and shops and some caves. In fact the rooms of the game are divided into two zones: the Primary Exploration Zone (rooms numbered from 0 to 255 in Hyrule Magic) and the Secondary Zone (rooms numbered from 256 to 295). So far, all the EG that we knew led to the Primary Zone (all dungeon rooms and the Triforce Room). However this glitch is more flexible and can let us explore the Secondary Zone. Although this is an important novelty, I haven't found any "useful" way to exploit this since I can't do much in this zone... (The [STEG] can also enter the Secondary Zone) - About the saved games, what seems to happen most of the time is that after leaving game A with the glitch armed and loading game B, if you save and quit while in game B the contents of game A are copied into game B's slot and so you lose game B... This means that I think that having a third game in a slot that you don't mess with could be safe (but I'm not 100% sure about this). I really don't understand why it happens though. - Going through the floor while in the Outworld isn't really useful. You can't go through obstacles such as mountain walls, trees or water. All you can do in fact is go through sprites (mostly enemies). The very only use that I have found was to enter the Desert's Dungeon without using the Book of Mudora since you can walk through the green stones. The effects of the glitch disappear if you enter a house/cave/dungeon. - Sergio's original method used the Magic Mirror. What he found was that if you were in Blind's Hideout entrance, jumped to the lower side and immediately when Link leaves the ground used the mirror you were taken to the entrance and got stuck in the entrance. From there, save and quit and the glitch is armed. The bad points were that for one it required that you already had the mirror in game A, and also the timing was quite hard to get because you had a 2-frames time where you had to use the mirror... - Apparently this glitch doesn't work on the GBA version if you save and quit while jumping, but Sergio Villicana's method (with the Magic Mirror at the right moment) does. {PRCO} Paragraph II.3.F : Pros and Cons of Every Version ------------------------------------------------- So far, we know 5 different versions of the Exploration Glitches ([SDEG], [PBEG], [UDEG], [STEG] and [JSEG]). Each of them has advantages and disadvantages categorized as follows: Overall: If I like the glitch or not, if it's useful, easy etc. Simplicity: If it requires special and complicated things, or if it can be done easily on a SNES. Availability: How soon it can be done in the game. Range: In how many places it can be done, how many places can be reached with this method. Historical: If it was good when it was discovered (compared to the other known versions at the time). Use: If many interesting glitch quests can be done with it. Stability: How do things work when we hop into a dungeon after performing the glitch, how do things behave while in the Exploration Zone etc. Skull Dungeon ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .Overall (*) .Simplicity (****) : No special requirement .Availability (*) : Very late. [DMD] makes it more available though. .Range (*) : Only one place .Historical (*****) : The first known method .Use () : Almost useless .Stability () : The most unstable of all the known versions Pegasus Boots ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .Overall (***) .Simplicity (**) : Requires an emulator or Turbo controller .Availability (***) : Available when you get the Pegasus Boots .Range (*) : Only one place .Historical (*****) : The second known method, the first I used, and the first to give an astonishingly fast speed-run technique (15 minutes) .Use (***) : Because it's stable, and can be done soon enough, it has many uses. I used it as my main EG for quite a long time .Stability (*****) : Probably the most stable version. Very good to start exploring the Exploration Zone Up+Down ^^^^^^^ .Overall (***) .Simplicity (***) : Can be done on a SNES but requires to open a controller .Availability (*****) : Available when entering Hyrule Castle .Range (***) : Works on several places. It can't reach the Secondary Zone however .Historical (****) : After the PBEG was extensively worked on, this one became a great version because it can be done almost at the start (when first entering Hyrule Castle). It enabled the fastest speed run in 3 minutes .Stability (**) : Not so stable. Most of the time you have to exit and re-enter the dungeon you hopped into to fix it Stairs ^^^^^^ .Overall (****) : This might be the best of all on an emulator .Simplicity (***) : Same as UDEG .Availability (*****) : Same as UDEG .Range (****) : Can be performed in a lot of places (almost any dungeon, and many caves). Can enter the Secondary Zone and Turtle Rock .Historical (**) : I did a huge mistake in not noticing this glitch's potential when I started playing with the [MDR]. When The Night Hunter rediscovered it it didn't have that many new uses... .Stability (****) : Can be very stable (should be possible to hop into any dungeon except Watergate Dungeon) but sometimes leads to the "third level" problem Jump and Save ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ credit goes to Amazing Ampharos for supporting this glitch and convincing me that it was the best choice for players on a real SNES .Overall (****) : Your best choice if you're playing on the SNES and don't want to open your controller .Simplicity (*****) : Easy to do, no special requirement .Availability (****) : Can be done when you reach the Sanctuary .Range (*****) : Can be armed and triggered in many places. Is the only one to work in the Outworld (but it's useless). Can reach the Secondary Zone .Historical (***) : Came too late, so not that much of a revolution. Was the first to reach the Secondary Zone but nothing can be done with it. Also enables the only easy-to-do on SNES speed-run (about 7 minutes) .Stability (****) : Pretty good when you learn to use it {SBU} Subsection II.4 : Super Bunny ***************************** Description: The Super Bunny is a weird glitch that lets you use your sword as a Pink Bunny. It is only useful of course if you plan on not getting the Moon Pearl... Although it gives you the ability to use your sword, you are still very helpless as you can't use any of the other items (except bottles). The Super Bunny reverts to a normal bunny when hit. {LHSB} Paragraph II.4.A : Lake Hylia ----------------------------- Thanks to David Wonn Description: This method lets you become a Super Bunny in Lake Hylia (in the Dark World). While a Super Bunny, you can walk or slide on water, use your sword to defeat enemies. It also enables a few other side effects (see [TELE]) Requirements: You'll need the flippers, the Magic Mirror, the ability to reach the Dark World version of Lake Hylia and not having the Moon Pearl for this glitch. How to: Having both the Flippers and the Magic Mirror, go to the Dark Lake Hylia from the North East angle (if you come from the Pyramid of Power, it's the path that doesn't require you to use the Hammer). You should be on a piece of land that goes South to a ladder and a platform that lets you come out of the water. Something like this : | * | * Wall water | * | * |2 * S : Stairs (or ladder) / * P : Platform / * / * / * | * | Ground * | * | * \ 3 * Wall ----SSS-. * SSS `. * Water PPP `.* PP1 - Go to the South-East corner of the Platform ([1] in the figure) - Mirror back to the Light World so you have a portal right in this angle of the Platform - Now, in the Light World go to the location marked [2] on the figure (it's against the ledge) - From here walk directly South (you can dash if you have the Pegasus Boots), when you hit the border, jump into the water - If you did it correctly, you should have hit the border where it's diagonal [3] so you should jump diagonally (to the South West) and hit the angle of the portal you created earlier - When doing so, you'll be taken back to the Dark World (so you'll be a Bunny again) but you'll be standing on water! - From here, you'll see that you can "slide" on the water (like what happens in the Surfing Bunny glitch [SUBU]) - Now walk to the shallow water surrounding the Ice Palace (notice that if you walk on the ice, you cannot go back in the deep water, which is not a problem here, so you can do it if you want to) - When in the shallow water, Mirror back to the Light World. Make sure you appear in deep water once in the Light World (which should be the case if you warped from any shallow water spot that is on the North side of the Ice Palace) - Now you're swimming in the Light World, and have a portal that leads to a shallow water spot in the Dark World (is that right?). Use the portal - You should now be standing as a Bunny in shallow water (in the Dark World). If you try to use your sword, you'll hear the normal "sword sound" (but you won't see the sword)! You're now a Super Bunny! Why it happens: There are two abnormal things to explain here (and I don't really understand them in details so I won't really explain them). The first one is why you slide on the water after jumping on your portal. Obviously what happens here is that the Bunny "appears" on deep water, and that should not happen ever. So the game doesn't really handle this correctly: for one part the warp is supposed to be correct (deep water is a correct target so the warp is accepted), then since you're in the Dark World with no Moon Pearl you're a Bunny, but then that means that you're supposed to be a Bunny standing on deep water (which shouldn't be possible). I think that what the programmers should have done is simply don't accept the warping into deep water if you don't have the Moon Pearl, but apparently they didn't expect this to be possible. From there, I don't really see why the "sliding" effect occurs, but it's clearly for the same reason as in the Surfing Bunny glitch [SUBU] (in this other glitch what happens is that you manage to change screens while on deep water, so you "appear" on deep water too. The second thing to explain is why when warping from deep water (Light World) into shallow water (Dark World) you become a Super Bunny... This again I don't really understand. Here there isn't even any apparent problem since the Bunny is supposed to be able to walk on shallow water (so warping and becoming a normal Bunny would be perfectly understandable). I think that the key element is that when you warp you're in the "swimming" state and that's what triggers the Super Bunny, but I don't have any explanation why it happens... Notes: - As a Super Bunny you can use your sword but you won't see it (you can attack normally, charge it and do the spin attack and even use the special projectile attack of the Master Sword if you have it and have all your hearts). You can also dash with the Pegasus Boots if you have them - The Super Bunny cannot use items (except for bottles, but the regular Bunny could already...) - As long as you don't touch real ground, you can walk on both shallow and deep water. If you go to normal ground however (ice counts as normal ground) you won't be able to walk on deep water anymore (you'll have to create a portal from deep (Light) to shallow (Dark) water again if you want to). - The Super Bunny state remains for as long as you do "smooth" ground changes, meaning for example going from normal ground to shallow water, but disappears if you "hop" from one ground to the other (like for example if you try to hop onto a platform next to stairs that lead you to the main ground). For this reason you can't go very far as a Super Bunny. You can change screens however (when walking on Deep Water) and use the traveling whirlpools. - If you're hit by an enemy (or anything that damages you) you'll revert to a normal Bunny. - For a weird side effect of this glitch, see the "teleportation" section [TELE] {HOSB} Paragraph II.4.B : In a Hole ---------------------------- Description: You can turn into a Super Bunny if you enter the Dark Underworld from a hole without having the Moon Pearl. Requirements: You must be able to reach the Dark Underworld from a hole without having the Moon Pearl. How to: There's nothing much to do for this glitch. Simply enter the hole as a Bunny. As soon as you enter the room you'll be a Super Bunny. The "only" difficulty is to reach a hole without the Moon Pearl... Some places where you can do it: - Skull Dungeon - the final battle with Ganon in the Pyramid of Power - some caves. Why it happens: I don't know why this happens since I never really understood what internal error in the game could lead to the "Super Bunny" state. However as I said before it's due to the fact that the bunny state is so particular and still the programmers didn't expect the player to skip the Moon Pearl. Notes: - I accidentally discovered this glitch when trying (and succeeding) to meet Ganon as a Pink Bunny (because some Bunny fan at the GameFAQs board asked if it was possible). The methods I used (there are two in fact, depending if you want or not to be able to defeat Ganon) are explained in the section glitch quests ([PBGA] and [MSMP]). - At first I thought it worked only with the final battle against Ganon but Frost King told me that it also works when entering Skull Dungeon from a hole so I assume it's a general glitch when you fall down a hole. - Note that as the Super Bunny reverts to a regular Pink Bunny when hit, you'll have to hit Ganon with your sword without ever being hit by him if you want to challenge him as a Bunny. Also as the Super bunny cannot use items you won't be able to defeat Ganon but still you can make it to the point where he turns the lights off. {TESB} Paragraph II.4.C : Teleportation -------------------------------- Description: As a Super Bunny (with the Lake Hylia method) you can travel a few screens on the Outworld. If you're damaged while in a different screen than the one where you did the Super Bunny trick, you'll be teleported to another location, and can hence reach some points of the Outworlds that cannot reached by normal means (nothing too great though, as it mostly takes you to places where you're stuck) Requirements: Being able to do the Super Bunny in Lake Hylia trick [LHSB] How to: - Perform the [LHSB] trick so you're a Super Bunny walking on Dark Lake Hylia's deep water - Change screens either by walking on the water to the next screen or by using a whirlpool warp (do not go on normal land to change screens, as you need to be a Super Bunny) - When on a new screen, be hit by an enemy... If you did everything correctly, you should be teleported to another location on the screen you are (the screen will scroll to your new location). You might either be on a normal place (that you could already reach by normal means) or on an "unreachable" spot (most of the times you'll be stuck on some part of the Overworld where you cannot move). See the next paragraph (why it happens) for a better understanding of the spots you can reach (because it's not random, so you can control where you're going). Why it happens: This is a somewhat amusing glitch, but not very hard to understand (in fact it's a very natural behavior, if you admit that you can be a Super Bunny that's walking on deep water, which is part of another glitch, so it won't be explained here). It's simply due to the fact that when you fall into deep water when you're not supposed to (either as a bunny or as Link if you don't have the flippers) the game will take you back to the last point where you were standing on land. However, since you're not supposed to have changed screens between the moment you left the land and the moment you hit the water, the game simply changes your coordinates on the current screen you're in. In this glitch, we leave solid ground as a bunny but the game doesn't really notice we're in the water, but still memorizes the coordinates of the last point where we were standing on ground. When we change screen without touching solid ground, the coordinates of this "last land point" aren't changed. When hit by an enemy, the super bunny state is lost so we fall into the water, and the game takes us back to the coordinates it has stored, only now we go to these coordinates on the new screen, which can be an otherwise unreachable point. {MPE} Subsection II.5 : Moon Pearl Emulation ************************************** Description: This section covers different ways you can use to revert to a normal Link in the Dark World when you don't have the Moon Pearl. We'll see later [MSMP] that it is possible to use these methods to finish the game by defeating Ganon without ever having the Moon Pearl. {SUBU} Paragraph II.5.A : The Surfing Bunny ------------------------------------ Description: The Surfing Bunny glitch is a glitch that lets you revert into Link when in the Dark World with no Moon Pearl by having a faery revive you while on deep water... Strange, but definitely the most useful and easy to perform method to explore the Dark Outworld as Link. Requirements: You need to be able to reach the Dark Swamp (place where dungeon #2 is) as a bunny, the flippers, a faery in a bottle and no Moon Pearl of course. How to: - Go to the Dark Swamp in the screen that is one north and one east from the entrance of dungeon #2 (you should be as a bunny, or else there's no use in doing this glitch!). - On the left part of this screen you'll see deep water that continues to the western screen. - Make sure you have a faery in a bottle, and have enemies hurt you so you only have 1 heart left (maybe a little more, the point is that the flying bomber enemy should kill you in one hit later). - Now as a Bunny walk slowly into the deep water. - If you try to move to the left (more into the deep water) you'll see that the Bunny starts blinking and if you press repeatedly left (do not keep pressing, only go step by step) the Bunny moves slowly to the left more and more into the deep water. - Continue moving left until you change screens. - If everything worked as it should, you should now be on the left screen walking on deep water and sliding as if it was an icy floor (like surfing on the water). If not then simply go back to the right screen, and try again the transition until the surfing effect works. - Once you're surfing on the water, have an enemy kill you in one hit (there's a flying bomber around so he should kill you). - After it does, the faery will revive you as Link. Why it happens: A weird glitch indeed. For some reason, it seems that when you die in deep water, the game assumes automatically that you should be normal Link and doesn't change you into a bunny (in some sense it's understandable since the bunny should not be able to be in deep water). The weird thing is the surfing on water part (and also my explanation of why you revert to Link is dependent on the sliding part since you'll still be a bunny if you're killed while going in deep water but are not sliding). Notes: - You'll keep Link's form for as long as you're in the Outworld (you can change screens without trouble), and even if you enter a house/cave/dungeon. However you'll turn back into a Pink Bunny as soon as you go back to the Dark Outworld (also you'll obviously turn back into a bunny if you revert to the Light World and use a portal to the Dark World). - When you're in Link's form everything will work as if you had the Moon Pearl so you'll be able to use all your items. {SBMM} Paragraph II.5.B : Surfing Bunny Goes to Misery Mire ---------------------------------------------------- Description: This is a variant of the previous glitch that works in Misery Mire swamp (necessary if you want to open dungeon #6 with the Ether Medallion). Requirements: This glitch works similarly to the previous one. You'll need a faery in a bottle, the flippers, no Moon Pearl and the ability to reach the swamp of Misery Mire. How to: This glitch is very similar to the previous one so I'll assume that you know how to perform the normal Surfing Bunny glitch (as it's much harder to reach Misery Mire without the Moon Pearl you should be familiar with the previous one if you're trying this). - Go to the Misery Mire swamp. - Have a faery in a bottle and the enemies hurt you so that you'll die in one hit when something hurts you. - As a bunny, walk into a deep water spot as before, but this time there need not to be any change of screens (luckily, as there is none in Misery Mire swamp). - When you're in the middle of the deep water pond, use the mirror. - Once in the Desert (Light World), don't move and have the portal take you back to the Dark World. - If everything worked correctly you should now be surfing on the deep water (if not use the Magic Mirror again until it works). - As before, have an enemy kill you in one hit and the faery will revive you as Link. Why it happens: This glitch is nearly the same as the previous one. The only difference is how to make the bunny surf on the water. As you can't use any change of screens you'll have to find something else: in this case the warping between the two worlds will do it perfectly since it will take you directly on the deep water, as a fresh and normal bunny. Notes: - The only use of this method is to open Misery Mire (dungeon #6) without the Moon Pearl. I don't think there's more to do with it. It is used in the No Moon Pearl Quest [MSMP]. {DEAT} Paragraph II.5.C : Life After Death? ------------------------------------ Description: This glitch lets you turn into Link inside any Dark World dungeon that you can enter as a Bunny (thanks to Adam T. for this method). Requirements: You must be able to enter a dungeon of the Dark World as a Bunny. How to: Simply die in the dungeon. Then select save and continue or continue without save and you'll start the dungeon again as Link. Why it happens: Quite easy to understand. First, you have to know that the dungeons are not really considered as being in the Dark World. This is simply because all dungeon rooms (from both the Light and the Dark worlds) are stored the ones next to the others (to see clearly what I mean try doing the exploration glitches). Now when you die, you are taken back to the beginning of the dungeon in your normal form (because there is only one "resurrection" script). Since the dungeon is not in the Dark World it won't test whether or not you have the Moon Pearl in order to turn you into a bunny. This might seem an inconsistency in the programming but it is an understandable error since there should be no possible way to enter a Dark World dungeon as a bunny (you should need the hammer, and the only way to enter the 1st dungeon is by having Kiki open the door for you but Kiki doesn't show up if you're a bunny). This being said, you can check that if you die in the outworld (normally... not as a surfing bunny...) you are resurrected as Link and immediately changed into a bunny since the game checks if you have the Moon Pearl each time you "appear" in the Dark World. This is also why you turn back into a bunny when exitting a house/cave/dungeon (because at that time you go from a neutral zone, neither Light or Dark World to the Dark World so there is a test). Notes: - This trick is really helpful when trying to defeat Ganon without the Moon Pearl as you'll be able to complete correctly any dungeon that you can enter (except for the Water-Gate and Skull Woods dungeons that are special since you have to do stuff while out of the dungeon, but there are solutions) - The only problem is that you'll have to die so you won't be able to use it in a 000 quest (but if you're using glitches you'll most likely won't care about 000 finish and if you really want it then use the easy 000 finish trick: see notes of [3MIN]). {CEHA} Paragraph II.5.D : Could You Give Me a Hand? -------------------------------------------- Description: This trick gives an alternative way to turn back into Link in the Skull Dungeon (#3) (thanks again to Adam T. for this other method). Requirements: You must be able to enter a room of Skull Dungeon where the ceiling hand tries to grab you as a Bunny. How to: Well, as you could guess seeing the requirements, simply have the ceiling hand grab you. When it takes you back to the entrance of the dungeon you'll be in your original form. Why it happens: Nearly the same as the previous one. The "hand script" has been written only for Link's normal form so you are taken to the entrance of the dungeon as a normal Link. Since the dungeon isn't considered being in the Dark World you are not turned into a bunny. Notes: - This method only works in the Skull Dungeon so it's obviously less general and useful than the previous one. Still it doesn't make you die so it won't count in a 000 finish (but I don't see why you would use it if you don't want to enter the other dungeons as Link so you'll need the other method at some point). {FFPO} Paragraph II.5.E : Fat Faery's Power ------------------------------------ Description: This is not really a useful glitch but I thought I'd mention it. It's another way to revert to Links original form in the Dark World when not having the Moon Pearl. Requirements: Be able to enter the Fat Faery's pond without the Moon Pearl. How to: There's nothing really to do. Simply enter the pond and you'll be as Link. However you won't be able to use your items (well I couldn't... maybe sometimes you can) so it seems more like a graphical glitch since I think the game still considers that you're a Bunny. Why it happens: I'm not really sure why this one happens... The weirdest thing is that you appear as a normal Link but have no abilities, as if you were still a bunny. In other words only the visual sprite has been changed. I really don't know what's so special about this faery room, since this glitch doesn't happen in other rooms or caves. Notes: - This is really not useful at all (since it only works inside the pond and that there's nothing to do except throwing your items which I'm pretty sure even the Bunny could do). - If you're wondering how you can reach the Fat Faery's pond without the Moon Pearl check the glitch quests section [MSMP]. {ETH} Subsection II.6 : The Ether Medallion Glitch ******************************************** Description: This interesting glitch gives you the Ether Medallion without having a Master Sword. See [DUNG] for a more detailed explanation of how it works, and other uses of the same principle. Requirements: You must be able to perform an Exploration Glitch from Hyrule Castle. It seems that some unstable EG don't work for this trick. I recommend using the [PBEG] or [STEG]. How to: There are two ways, the original one, and the later (and simpler) one. * The original method is as follows - Make sure that there's a boss in a dungeon that you can reach (after hopping into the dungeon) that you have not killed yet (Lanmolas from the Desert Palace and Vitreous from Misery Mire are two such bosses) - Perform the EG from Hyrule Castle. - Now find your way so you can hop into a dungeon and be able to reach the final boss of the dungeon (I know that it's possible to hop into the room with flying tiles (67) that is 2 rooms before Lanmolas and as you have the Big Key from Hyrule Castle you'll be able to reach the boss, there's also a way to reach Vitreous if you prefer). See [ADDR] to find your way. - Defeat the boss. - After the boss dies, he'll give you a heart container and instead of the pendant/crystal you'll receive the Ether Medallion (yes... really !). * The other method is simpler - Perform an EG from Hyrule Castle. - Find your way in the Exploration Area to the room of a Boss that you have already defeated (while still under the floor this time) - Normally, when you enter the room, the Ether Medallion should fall to the floor. - Grab the medallion (you can take it even though you're under the floor) Why it happens: Weird... really weird... However I think that I know why it happens (well, at least I know why something weird happens!). Remember that we did the EG from Hyrule Castle right? Now since we never left the castle (meaning that we never exited and entered properly another dungeon) the game considers that we're still in the Castle. The Castle is like a real dungeon, it has a map, a compass and even a big key (and you can use it in the other dungeons!). However it has no pendant or crystal... Normally this is not a problem since the boss fight in Hyrule Castle triggers a special action (very special in fact because it switches from phase I to phase II in the game, see [3PHA]). However, if you go and fight some boss from another dungeon, after you defeat the boss, he dies and gives you his heart container (the heart container is not part of the dungeon, it's part of the boss since it appears where the boss died) and then triggers the pendant/crystal script. This is where the glitch happens! This script makes some object fall from the sky right in the middle of the room. For some obscure reason, when you are in Hyrule Castle and execute this script it's the ether medallion that falls from the sky. This is possibly a consequence of the fact that since there is no real pendant/crystal for Hyrule Castle the game points to some item in the ROM code and this item appears to be the medallion... It could have been any object, and even something that was not really an object from the inventory. Why it is specifically the medallion that falls remains a mystery to me but at least I'm nearly sure that the pendant/crystal doesn't fall because we're considered as being in Hyrule Castle. Also, when you grab the medallion nothing special happens (you are not taken back to the outworld) because the dialogue with the princess and the teleportation to the outworld is part of the crystal-grabbing script, so it is not executed in this case. Notes: - This glitch is by far the weirdest and most unexpected of all the glitches that I know in this game. In fact I discovered it totally by accident at a time when I was searching for a way to enter Misery Mire without the Ether Medallion since I didn't have a Master Sword... I was wandering in the Exploration Glitch and met a boss (it was Lanmolas first but then I also did it against Vitreous) and he gave me the Medallion! I was highly surprised but this appeared to be a real miracle since it's the only way that I know of to finish correctly Misery Mire without a Master Sword (since entering Misery Mire with the Exploration Glitch makes the game believe you have completed Hyrule Castle, not Misery Mire). - If you want the pendant/crystal that the boss you have just defeated should have given you, simply enter normally the dungeon and reach the boss room. When you'll enter, the boss won't be here and the pendant/crystal will fall on the floor. - Also, if you use the second method, you can go to the boss room, get the medallion, then walk to the next room and come back and you'll get another Ether Medallion! You can get as many as you want with this, but it doesn't really affect anything (you'll still have only one in your inventory). {MDR} Subsection II.7 : The Multi-Directional Glitch ********************************************** Description: This glitch is a very weird one (yet another). The idea is to press simultaneously two opposite directions (up and down for example), which you cannot do on a normal SNES controller, so that the game is very confused and many interesting things happen. The main (most useful) uses of this glitch are the (Up + Down) combo Exploration Glitch (see [UDEG]) and the Stairs Exploration Glitch [STEG] that have already been explained earlier. However there are other minor uses of this glitch that I will present here. Requirements: To perform this, as I said, you'll have to press simultaneously two opposite (or even the four) directions. This can easily be done with an emulator (if your computer doesn't act correctly when pressing multiple directional keys as it happens to mine simply use the key combos functions of the emulator), but it's not possible with a normal SNES controller. However, if you really want to try it on your console, you can open carefully your controller and take the "directional cross" part so you'll be able to press two or more directional buttons at the same time. If you do it carefully there's no risk for your controller. I did it and it worked perfectly without any damage. {MDMP} Paragraph II.7.A : Fun With the Map ----------------------------------- Requirements: Be able to do the Multi-Directional Glitch and see the World Map (with the X button). How to: - Go to the scrollable version of the Map (press X once while in the Outworld). - Move to the right border of it and press (Right + Left) or to the lower border and press (Up + Down). - You'll see that the map scrolls out of bounds. Why it happens: The game gets confused because you press multiple directions. On one hand it tests whether or not you can scroll left/up and sees that you can (because you are at the right/bottom border) and after the test is ok, it moves to the right/down because this direction is pressed. In fact as you press two directions, the first one is used for the test to see if you can scroll or not and the second is used for the scrolling. This is why you can go out of bounds. Once you are out of bounds, all scrollings are accepted (even if you press only one solution) since you are already out of the regular tested values. Notes: - This glitch gives you the answer to the so fundamental question: "what is behind the white clouds around Hyrule?". The answer is sadly very disappointing. As you'll see if you try it, outside of Hyrule is a glitched zone (graphics are all messed up) followed by a completely black area... - This also gives us information on the topology of the World Hyrule is in. Since when you scroll out of bounds to the east for long enough you reach the west part of the map, this means that Hyrule World is cyclic and without limits (the same applies if you scroll south, but you reach a "flat" version of the map... check it it's very weird...). In other words their world is either topologically equivalent to ours (a sphere) or is a torus (shaped like a donut)... Interesting isn't it? {MDPR} Paragraph II.7.B : Princess? What Princess? ------------------------------------------- *!* This glitch is now outdated *!* See the next paragraph [PRIN] for a better and simpler version *!* I keep this paragraph for "historical" reasons and because it might be *!* interesting. Description: This glitch lets you do funny things in the very beginning of the game, before bringing Princess Zelda to the Sanctuary. With it you can exit the castle without rescuing Princess Zelda and reach Kakariko village for example under the rain (as it's raining at the very beginning of the game). Requirements: Be able to do the Multi-Directional Glitch and reach the throne room of Hyrule Castle at the beginning of the game, before saving Princess Zelda from the castle's prison. How to: - Go to the entrance room of Hyrule Castle and go to the north staircase (the one that leads to the throne room) but don't go to the throne room. - Now use the (Up + Down + Left + Right) combo to go through the staircase (from the main hall to the throne room). You have to be right "in" the staircase because the combo will make Link go diagonally up/left. If you have trouble go to the throne room, go back to the main hall and you'll be correctly placed to do the key combo. - Now you should be in the Throne room. Go straight north. If all worked correctly the screen should scroll strangely (at some point you won't see Link anymore). Continue to go north until you change room. You'll see that you have gone through the ornamental shield (even if Link wasn't in the screen) and are now in the sewers (all dark and only the lantern light, if you have it). - Find your way through the sewers as you would normally do. Some rooms might have scrolling errors (I think that the 3 after the one where you enter do) but it's not very hard to go through (Link will be in the border of the screen instead of being in the center). - Exit the Sanctuary, the sage won't talk to you. You're now out under the rain... You can explore the Light world, Zelda still being held in the castle. Why it happens: Very similar to the UDEG and STEG (see explanations [UDEG] [STEG]). Since you press multiple directions, the game takes you to some room but loads another room's objects and sprites. The ornamental shield is such an object and it doesn't appear in the room you enter so you can go through the passage to the sewers without Princess Zelda. All scrolling errors while in the sewers result from the fact that your real position and the camera position have been messed up because of the incorrect scrolling (the camera moved in some direction while your position was shifted in some other direction). All the glitches that happen while you are outside are the consequences of being in the outworld during phase I of the game (see [3PHA]). Notes: - Once you have exited from the sanctuary you'll notice that the outworld is desert. It still rains and there is absolutely no sprite out there (in some particular places you can find one but it'll be all graphically glitched). - If you enter a cave/dungeon/house the inside will be totally normal. Therefore you can complete the Eastern Palace without problem. You can also complete the Desert Palace but it's much more complicated (see later for more explanations). - Once you're out of Hyrule Castle it's quite hard to go back to the Castle/Link's house perimeter (you know, the little zone you have access to at the beginning) because the guards that forbid you to exit at the beginning are now a problem to enter... - If you save/quit your game you'll restart inside the secret passage where you got the sword. From there you can either finish your game correctly or repeat the glitch to exit again without Zelda. - It is possible to do the escape without having the Lantern but in this case you'll have to go through the dark rooms without seeing anything... If you know them well then you have a chance and therefore the Lantern is not strictly necessary. If you use an emulator the save states will help greatly, if you play it on a real SNES then I strongly recommend you take the Lantern. {PRIN} Paragraph II.7.C : Take the Princess for a Walk ----------------------------------------------- Description: This glitch uses an EG ([UDEG] or [STEG]) to exit Hyrule Castle with Princess Zelda following you. Its effects are very similar to the ones of the previous glitch as you'll be able to explore the outworld under the rain (now with the the Princess). Requirements: You can only perform this glitch at the beginning of the game while Princess Zelda is following you. You'll also need to be able to perform the [UDEG] or the [STEG]. How to: (see [UDRW] for instructions on how to find your way in the Exploration Zone) - Start a new game and go see Zelda as you would normally do (note that the Lantern and the Boomerang are not necessary, you can skip them if you want to). - Now go to a room where you can perform either the UDEG or the STEG (the closest one is room 113NE, the first room with stairs that you reach after rescuing the princess). Perform the EG. - Find your way to room 47S (the Kakariko cave). Hop into the room. - Zelda might be invisible but don't worry, she's still following you. - Exit the cave normally. The game might seem to have frozen but it will not be. Wait for a long time and you'll see that the transition is being done very slowly (if you're doing this with an emulator use the fast forward key). After you've waited long enough (wait about one or two minutes before the transition starts at the screen...) you should appear in Kakariko village, under the rain, with Zelda behind you (the game will be at normal speed now). Why it happens: It is exactly the [UDEG] or [STEG] that has been discussed earlier. All other side effects while in the outworld are the consequence of being in the outworld while in phase I of the game (see [3PHA]). Notes: - Once you exit, almost everything happens like when you exit alone but without rescuing Zelda: the rain won't stop, there will be no one in the outworld. - You can use this way to exit alone without rescuing Zelda (instead of the (Up + Down + Right + Left) combo in the throne room). - If you go to Death Mountain with Zelda the old man won't show up in the cave. This is in fact a good point since the old man makes the game freeze if you haven't rescued Zelda as after giving you the mirror he tries to go back to his home but never actually enters so the game freezes. If you have Zelda you cannont have the mirror either but at least you can "visit" Death Mountain (but you can't see much of it as you can't use the mirror). You can still reach the Tower of Hera though, with an EG into the main entrance (119) and then exit and re-enter to load it correctly. - If you go to the sanctuary from the normal entrance (not the sewers) and go to the sage then the game will act as if you brought Zelda normally from the sewers (Zelda's position in the room will be weird but it'll work correctly) and everything will be back to normal (the rain will stop etc.). - If you save and quit with Zelda with you you'll always be taken back to her cell in Hyrule Castle. From there you can either rescue her (and continue your game "normally") or repeat the glitch to exit again. {SSW} Subsection II.8 : Skip the Sword and Shield ******************************************* Description: This is a very special glitch, that lets you go through the guards at the beginning of the game (before you enter the Secret Passage) thus skipping the part where your uncle hands you the Sword and Shield. It is "technically" doable on a real SNES but it would take a lot of time (and by a lot, I mean several hours of boring dialog skipping)... On an emulator with a speed-up function it can be done faster, and automatically. Requirements: Gamewise, you don't need anything since you're supposed to perform the trick right when you exit Link's house for the first time (so start a new game). Other than than, if you're planning on doing this on a real SNES you'll need several hours of patience (not kidding...) so I consider that it's only humanly possible to do with an emulator that can speed-up (apparently some GameFAQs user with no life did it on the real SNES while watching TV...) How to: - Start a new game, exit your house and go to the guards that are on the right side of the House screen (the glitch should work with any guard but I'll explain it for these ones). - Now press Right on the control pad, and you'll start talking to the guard. From now on keep pressing Right during the whole process. - When the dialog with the guard appears, press A to skip it, it'll disappear (sometimes you have to press A more than once because he has more than one page to say). Since you're still pressing Right (you are, aren't you?) another dialog will pop-up... - Keep skipping all the dialogs, and after you've skipped thousands of dialogs (the worst part is that I'm not even exagerating, see next why that many) you should reach the next screen and have gone through the guards (and don't forget to always keep pressing the Right direction). Why it happens: This glitch is very interesting because I have understood it fully even before I tried it (so when I tried it, I knew it would work). I was playing in the starting zone with the guards when I realized how these guys work: they are sprites, not overworld objects, so they aren't really obstacles. In fact when you are standing next to them and walk in their direction, it triggers a special event that cancels your step (in their direction) and makes the dialog box appear. Independently, in this area, Princess Zelda contacts you telepathically once every minute (we'll see later what can affect this one minute timer) and this event (the apparition of Zelda's message on screen) has a greater priority than the guards event. This means that if you are standing next to a guard, if you start walking into his direction at the exact frame when Zelda's message should appear, Zelda's message appears but the guard won't talk to you and, much more importantly, he won't stop you! However this will only last for one frame and on the next frame he'll not only stop you but also talk to you. Now let's talk a little bit more about the Princess message. When being perfectly idle in some neutral area, the message appears every 60 seconds, which means every 60x60=3600 frames (the frames are the only real time unit of the game). Therefore, there's a counter on the game that starts at 0, that is incremented every frame and when it reaches 3600 triggers the "message event". However, some things can freeze the counter or delay the apparition of the message: - if you're talking to a character (in our case it's one of the guards), Zelda's counter isn't incremented - if you're holding an item over your head (a bush or a pot for example) or if you're grabbing a wall, the counter keeps being incremented but the message event isn't triggered (if the counter reaches 3600) until you let go of the item or the wall (in that case, if the counter had reached 3600, the message appears as soon as you let go of the item or wall) Combinig this knowledge, you can do an interesting experience (which is what I did by accident, and in the process of understanding what happened I realized that I could completely go through the guards). Go next to the guard until he talks to you (there you know that you're as far to the right as you supposedly can). Now move down and grab the wall (with A). From there, wait a minute (still grabbing the wall). By waiting a minute while grabbing the wall, you know that Zelda's counter is full, and that she'll contact Link when he lets go of the wall. Start pressing Right, and let go of the wall. At that point what will happen is that Link will move one pixel to the Right and Zelda's message will appear. However, since you moved one pixel Right, as soon as Zelda's message is over, the guard event will be triggered and a dialog will appear. When this dialog is over, you'll still be in the guard's zone (still one pixel too far to the right) the guards event will be triggered again and another dialog will appear at the next frame! It'll seem as if Link was trapped in an infinite dialog with the guard! However, if you press Left, when a dialog ends, Link will move one pixel left and be free... Now let's go back to the main glitch. The idea is that, between two dialogs from the guard, Zelda's counter is incremented (I don't exactly know by how much but I'd say only one or two, since there's not more than one or two frames of "idle" time in between). So every 3600 or 1800 dialogs (yes... that's a lot) the message will appear again, and for the same reason as before, you'll be able to move some pixels to the right (you can move 2 pixels if you do it right, I'll explain that in a moment)! If you move enough (roughly about 28 pixels It seems) you'll reach the end of the screen and scroll to the next screen where you'll be free to do what you like (see [NOSW] for more details of what you can do). To move that many pixels, you'll have to skip roughly 28*1800/2 = 25200 dialogs, which takes a lot of hours to do... (and that's a very rough estimate, it could be even more) Now, here's a trick to make Link move 2 pixels every time the message appears. As you might know, when moving right or down, Link moves one pixel the first frame, then 2 the next one, then 1, 2 etc. (see [FPA] for more on this). When moving left or up, he moves 2 pixels first then 1, 2, etc. The message from the princess will appear every 3600 frames (maybe 1800 but it's the same) which is an even number... This means that if Link was trying to move 1 pixel when the message first appears, he will always be trying to move 1 pixel every time the message appears (since he should move 1 pixel every two frames...). What you want to do is make sure that he moves two pixels to the right the first time the message appears. To do so, grab a bush and go to the guards. Move as much to the right as possible (until you talk to them), then skip the dialog and wait for about a minute with the bush over your head (but not talking to the guard anymore). This will fill the message counter. Now throw the bush, and this will trigger the princess message. Now start pressing right and skip the message, this way as soon as the message ends Link will try to move to the right, meaning that he'll try to move 1 pixel to the right the frame following the appearing of the message, and this ensures that when the message appears next, it will be at a frame when Link moves two pixels to the right, and he'll keep on moving 2 pixels every time (which saves half the time, but it's still several hours long). Notes: - I know I'm repeating myself but the glitch is too long to be performed on a real SNES (but at least it's doable, only we'll never have the patience to, except for that GameFAQs user who had no life apparently). However, with an emulator (with speed-up functionality) on a standard computer (about 800 Mhz processor on the one I tried) it took me only 2 hours to do it, and since it only requires to press Right and repeatedly A you can bind some keys to do it automatically and keep them pressed while you're doing something else (you don't seriously think I stayed reading what the guard had to say to me during 2 hours :)). - With this glitch, we can at last (I've been looking for this glitch for more than 2 years) complete the game with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (not even a rupee or a small key). To do so, exit the Castle area, enter another dungeon (Eastern Palace) and perform an EG ([UDEG] or [STEG] come to mind) and reach the Triforce Room from there. When doing so, you get the Fighter's Sword and the Blue Shield automatically for the ending (when standing next to your uncle in front of the house). - This glitch is in no way a time saver (skipping the sword takes several hours... You could complete the game normally a lot of times in that much time!) - You can use the same trick to go through some other sprites, but it will be much faster (since you won't have dialogs to skip). For example, you can enter the sewers from the Sanctuary by walking through the ornamental shield (you can do it from Hyrule Castle too, but you'll have to use an Exploration Glitch [EXG] to enter). To do so, simply keep pressing up while in front of the shield. Every minute, you'll walk a few pixels (one or two) through the shield, and eventually you'll be through (this is long, but only a few minutes, nothing like skipping thousands of dialogs). - If you go and rescue Princess Zelda without ever getting the Sword (using Exploration Glitches to enter the castle) she'll stop contacting you telepathically as soon as she joins you. If you go see your uncle with Zelda following you, she'll disappear when you get the Sword and Shield. You have to get her back in her cell, and the Ball and Chain Trooper will respawn too. - If you don't talk to your uncle, the Old Man will not appear in the mountain, unless you trigger Phase II by bringing the Princess to the Sanctuary. - You can get the Master Sword "normally" by getting all 3 pendants (you'll probably need the hammer, that you can get by EGing into the Dark Palace, to defeat Moldorm), and you can also have your sword tempered even if you have no sword at all ! - If you go forward into the game and later come back into the secret passage and talk to your uncle, the outworld will revert back to phase II and your sword and shield will revert to the lv1 ones. This means that you can lose the Mirror Shield forever (the chest will be empty but you will have a lv1 shield). Also all the items that appear in the outworld when phase II starts will reappear, meaning that you can get twice some of the heart pieces that are outside (there are 5 that you can get twice, but having more than 20 hearts doesn't do anything at all). {FIN} Subsection II.9 : The "Final Save" Glitch ***************************************** Description: This is more of a side effect to the Exploration Glitches than a glitch in itself. What it does is that it puts you on top of the Pyramid of Power as a bunny and with all enemies being the Light World enemies with messed sprites. Requirements: You must be able to finish the game while still in Phase I. The only way I know to do this is by using an EG. See [5MIN] and [3MIN] for examples to trigger this glitch. How To: Finish the game (enter the Triforce room) while still in Phase I (see [3PHA]). This can be done with some exploration glitches ([UDEG], [STEG] and [JSEG]). The fastest ways of doing it are described in [5MIN] and [3MIN]. Why it Happens: Well, when you finish the game, an automatic save is made that sets your location to the top of the Pyramid of Power. If you were still in Phase I when the save is done, the sprites of the Dark World aren't set yet (see [3PHA]) so instead the game loads the Light World ones, but with the sprites set of the Dark World (you'll easily see that the glitchy thing next to you when you appear is supposed to be the electric bat barrier on top of Hyrule Castle). Notes: - To fix this glitch, simply save and quit. This will make a normal save, and since you're still in Phase I your location will be set in the Light World (usually Link's House, the Secret Passage or Zelda's cell). - There isn't much to do when you start on top of the Pyramid of Power if you're a Bunny. You can only go to 3 different screens. - Note that this glitch is not the GBA version 000 game glitch (which for some strange reason, that has to do with the final automatic save too, makes you start the game from the beginning as a Bunny) {FPA} Subsection II.10 : The Fire Pants Glitch **************************************** Thanks to flagitoius Description: More than a real glitch, this is an exploit of the game's way of making Link move (well it's also linked to the multi-directional glitch [MDR]). It lets you walk at 4/3 of the normal speed when going up or left. It's very tedious to do though and can only be done on an emulator (so not really useful but interesting nontheless). Requirements: An emulator that lets you go frame by frame, or a device that lets you program your key input frame by frame. How To: It's pretty simple, all you have to do, if you want to walk to the north, is pressing alternatively Up and (Up + Down) changing every frame. If you want to move to the west, alternate Left and (Left + Right). The best way to do it is by having an emulator that can slow down the speed of the game enough so that you can change the input at every frame, or by recording a key combo that alternates every frame... Why it happens: Well, normally, when moving in any of the four main directions, Link is supposed to move 3 pixels every two frames. To do so, the game makes him move alternatively one or two pixels each frame. When moving Left or Up, the first frame he moves 2 pixels, then 1, then 2 etc. When going Right or Down, he moves 1 pixel the first time and then 2,1,2 etc. The fact that Up and Left are handled slightly differently than Down and Right might be an explanation to the Multi-Directional glitch [MDR], and it could be the reason why, when pressing Up and Down at the same time, Link moves Up (since Up is "stronger" than down) and the same priority is applied when pressing Left and Right (and when pressing all four directions, he moves Up/Left). However, this doesn't completely explain everything since, for one it doesn't explain why he looks the other way in the Multi-Directional glitch, and second, when you press two opposite directions, he moves at normal speed... This means that when pressing Up+Down, he move 2 pixels during the first frame, then 1, 2 etc. And this is precisely the reason why the "fire pants" glitch works: when you press Up, he moves 2 pixels Up, then you press (Up+Down) and he moves again 2 pixels Up because the game considers that he starts a new move (he somehow changed directions)... then you press Up and he moves 2 pixels again and so on. Bottom line is: he moves 2 pixels at every frame, meaning 4 pixels every 2 frames, instead of the normal 3. Notes: - When you do this trick, Link changes the direction he's facing every frame (because when you press Up he faces up, but when you press (Up+Down) he faces down while moving up...). This looks very weird and is the reason why OmnipotentEntity called it the "HolySh*tMyPantsAreOnFire" trick when he used it for one of his emulator-assisted speed runs. - Again, this trick is very tedious to do, but it's technically the fastest way to walk when going North or West (well, it's not that useful after you get the Pegasus Boots, since these make Link move 4 pixels each frame). {QUE} ************************************************* * Section III : Glitch Quests and Things to Try * ************************************************* {SPEE} Subsection III.1 : Speed-Running with Glitches ********************************************** This section will explain in details how to complete the game very quickly with the help of Exploration Glitches. The idea is always to go as quickly as possible to the first point where you can perform the EG and then making your way to the Triforce room (entering the Triforce room will trigger the ending). {15MI} Paragraph III.1.A : 15 minutes ------------------------------ Description: This was my first "very quick method" to finish the game using glitches. It lets you complete the game (trigger the ending credits) in about 15 minutes. Glitches used: - [PBEG] How to: (see [UDRW] and [ADDR] for instructions to find your way in the exploration zone, and follow the paths given) - Start a new game. - Do all the beginning normally until you get the Pegasus Boots. - Go to Hyrule Castle and perform the [PBEG]. - You're now in room 115SW - Go to the final battle room (room 0) (you can use the path 115-99-98-97-96-80-64-48-32-16-0) - From there keep moving North and you'll reach the Triforce room and trigger the ending. - Congratulations you finished the game, if you do it quickly it shouldn't take you more than 3 minutes. Notes: - This method was the first one I found that let me finish the game very quickly using an EG. - It is not as good as the next one since it requires the PBEG that needs to be done on an emulator, and it is longer (as you'll have to go through the sewers and the first Light World dungeon before performing it). - You can quite easily get a 000 save with this method. {5MIN} Paragraph III.2.B : 5 Minutes ----------------------------- Description: Yet another method to complete the game very quickly. This one uses the JSEG as soon as possible. It is the fastest method that can be done easily on a real SNES (without opening the controller). Glitches used: - JSEG How to: (see [UDRW] and [ADDR] for instructions to find your way in the exploration zone, and follow the paths given) - Start a new game - Go to the Secret Passage (you don't need the Lantern) - Enter Hyrule Castle, go to Zelda's cell and rescue her - Go back to the first room where you have a ledge you can jump from (the one that's right after the room with the green soldier that you must kill to open the door and right before the room with infinite pits, room 129) - Jump from the ledge, save and quit while in the air [JSEG] - Reload your game, you'll start in Zelda's cell (room 128N). Be hurt by a guard (or the ball and chain trooper) - From there, find your way to the Triforce room (you can go 128-112-96-80-64-48-32-16-0 and one more North) Notes: - This method is very easy to do on a real SNES. Probably the best one to use if you want to impress your friends on a real SNES. - This does not give you a 000 game since you have to save and quit once to arm the glitch (a problem that's inherent to the JSEG). - You'll trigger the Final Save Glitch [FIN]. - You have to reach Zelda's cell before arming the glitch or else it would reload inside the Secret Passage, which unarms the glitch because it's low leveled. {3MIN} Paragraph III.2.C : 3 Minutes ----------------------------- Description: This is a method that lets you finish the game (trigger the ending credits) in less than 3 minutes. It is the fastest method I know. Glitches used: - [STEG] (works with the [UDEG] as well but it's slightly longer, by a few seconds) How to: (see [UDRW] and [ADDR] for instructions to find your way in the exploration zone, and follow the paths given) - Start a new game, skip the beginning speech as quickly as possible (it's horribly long though...). - Go directly to the secret passage (don't take the Lantern, you won't need it), get the Sword and Shield (I couldn't avoid it) and enter Hyrule Castle. Go to the room west of the main entrance (room 96E) and perform the [STEG] (or [UDEG] if you want). - From there, find your way to the Triforce room (you can go always north 96-80-64-48-32-16-0 and one more North) - Congratulations you finished the game, if you do it quickly it shouldn't take you more than 3 minutes. Notes: - This is for now the shortest path I have found to finish the game. I'm quite sure that it's the quickest possible method (however I thought for several months that the method in 15 minutes was the best that could be done so I might be wrong again...). - It's also almost the shortest equipment you'll need: 3 hearts, a sword and a shield, NOTHING ELSE (if you want to skip the Sword and Shield, see [SSW] and [NOSW] but that's much more complicated, and much longer too) - If you try it you'll see that the end is a little messed up: it still rains on the outworld during the ending scene, and some graphics will be weird (see the sanctuary walls that scroll with the camera for example...). Also the very end (ending credits) will be weird because the rain will hide the mountains in the background. - This method triggers the Final Save Glitch. Save and quit after your reload your game to fix it. - After the credits end you can reset your system and you'll have a 000 finish (with only 3 hearts !). This is the simplest way to get a 000 game. After this reload your game and you can start from the Secret Passage, and do the whole game without worrying about the number of games since it's now stuck 000. - A few tricks can make this run even faster (carefully finding the quickest way in the Exploration Area, and using the Pants-on-Fire trick [HSPF] to move faster to the North) {SWOR} Subsection III.2 : No Sword Quests ********************************** No Sword Quests are a recurrent obsession in the LttP communities. Countless attempts have been made to avoid as much as possible to use the Sword, or to get rid of it. In this section, I will describe a few variants of No Sword quests, meaning that for each I'll say which are the limitations that are set and how it is possible to do a big part of the game according to these limitations. There are 4 different swords in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The one you get from your uncle at the beginning is the Fighter's Sword (Lv1), the one in the Lost Woods is the regular Master Sword (Lv2), the one that the Smithies temper for you is the Tempered Sword (Lv3) and finally the one given by the Fat Faery is the Golden Sword (Lv4). Note that the 3 last swords are 3 different version of the Master Sword (so when I say "a Master Sword" it means one of these 3, not necessarily the Lv2 one). In a natural game, it is not possible to avoid getting the Fighter's Sword and the regular Master Sword. However the Lv3 and Lv4 swords can be skipped (you have to rescue the Smithy's partner to get the Big Bomb that'll let you have the Silver arrows though, but you don't have to give him your sword to temper). Here are the main points in the game (a natural game) where a sword is specifically needed: - Secret Passage in Hyrule Castle: You must take the Sword and Shield from your uncle - Hyrule Castle's lower level: You need a weapon to kill some soldiers in order to get keys/open doors - Tower of Hera: Moldorm can only be hurt with a sword or the Hammer. The Hammer is out of reach at this point in the game - Hyrule Castle's upper level: You need a Master Sword to destroy the electric barrier leading to Agahnim and to open the curtain (you don't need a sword to kill Agahnim though, the Bug Catching Net can reflect his attacks) - Skull Woods dungeon (#3): You need a sword to cut the plant on the wall that reveals a door leading to Mothula - Misery Mire (#6): You need a Master Sword to get the Ether Medallion, and any sword to use it to open the dungeon - Turtle Rock (#7): A sword is needed to use the Quake Medallion that opens the dungeon - Ending Battle: Ganon can only be hurt by a Master Sword. These are the main problems when doing a No Sword quests. We will now see how these can be solved in different situations. {NOMS} Paragraph III.2.A : No Master Sword ----------------------------------- Description: My objective when doing this quest was to go as far as I could in the game without ever getting a Master Sword. I also made it with as little equipment as possible (ie. no pieces of heart, useless items etc.). This quest is very hard (as the initial Fighter's Sword is very weak) so I recommend you only try it if you're a very good player (or do it on an emulator so you can use savestates). You can of course make it a bit easier by taking more than the bare essential items. This quest doesn't use any Exploration Glitch. Constraints: - Never get a sword other than the Fighter's Sword - Take as little equipment and power-ups as possible Result: - It's possible to do almost everything (get all 3 Pendants and all 7 Crystals and Complete Ganon's Tower) in the game except defeating Ganon Glitches used: - Death Mountain Descent [DMD] - Ether Medallion glitch [ETH] How to: - Start a new game, take the Lantern, rescue Zelda. Do not take the Boomerang or the heart in the Sanctuary. - Go to the Eastern Palace, take the Bow. Defeat the Armos Knights, get the Boots from Sarahsrala and the Book of Mudora in Kakariko Village (the Book of Mudora is not really necessary as we'll see later that you can enter the Desert Palace and get the two useful medallions by other means (see [RAIN]). However these methods are quite complex and are not really interesting in a no Master Sword quest so I chose to get the Book of Mudora). - Go to the Desert Palace, take the Power Gloves and exit as soon as you can - Go buy Zora's flippers (they are not absolutely necessary now but it'll save time for later...) - Go to Death Mountain, get the Mirror from the Old Man, enter the Tower of Hera, get the Moon Pearl and exit. (You should now have some bombs, found in the Tower of Hera) - Use the teleporter in the mountain and do the DMD. Have your Shield eaten by the pikits (small plant-like creatures that steal items). You can find pikits in the swamp in the Dark World (having your shield eaten is just for fun, since you'll have even less equipment this way, it doesn't really serve any other purpose). - Complete dungeons #1 and #4, getting the Hammer and the Titan's Mitt. - Complete dungeons #3 and #2 (take the Fire Rod and the Hookshot). - Go to the Ice Palace. Complete it without taking the Blue Mail (because it's useless). You should now have 9 hearts and no other item than the ones listed before. - Perform the Ether Medallion glitch to get it [ETH] (use the second method, don't kill Lanmolas since this would give you another heart and you don't want that, do you?) - Now go get the Flute (or Ocarina, whatever) from the boy in the Dark World, free the Bird in the village, call him and go to Misery Mire. Open Misery Mire with your new medallion (it works with the Fighter's Sword!) and complete the dungeon (take the Cane of Somaria inside). - Go take the Ice Rod (needed for Turtle Rock's Boss), return to the Dark World and get the Quake Medallion from the fish North East from the Witch's house but in the Dark World. Go to Turtle Rock, open it with your new medallion (it also works with the Fighter's Sword) and complete Turtle Rock (don't take the Mirror Shield). Be careful when fighting Trinexx because you have very little magic so don't miss him with the rods and hit him with the Hammer twice each time you've frozen/burned him... Get the heart and the crystal. You should now have all crystals and 12 hearts. However you can't see your crystals because you haven't fought Agahnim yet... - Go to the Tower of Ganon, let the princesses open it. Complete the Tower of Ganon without taking the Red Mail. To fight Agahnim, you can use your Fighter's Sword or the Hammer. If you are using an auto-fire controller or an emulator, you can avoid fighting Moldorm by doing the Levitation Glitch [LEV]. - You have finished your quest : It is impossible to defeat Ganon without the Master Sword :( Notes: - Sadly this quest isn't complete since you can't defeat Ganon. However you'll see that many other bosses of the Dark World are quite hard without a Master Sword (most of the time the Fighter Sword won't hurt them except with a spin attack and I recommend you use the Hammer as often as possible). - If you really want to kill Ganon, either get the two missing pendants from the dungeons in the Light World or have your Fighter's Sword tempered by the dwarves brothers. Then buy the Big Bomb and get the silver arrows. You can now kill Ganon... - With this quest you can complete the game with only 11 hearts (the minimum without glitches being 13). The two hearts that you didn't get are the ones from dungeons 2 and 3 in the Light World. {MSMP} Paragraph III.2.B : No Master Sword, no Moon Pearl -------------------------------------------------- Description: In this quest, the objective was to reach the final battle without the Moon Pearl (as I had already done in [PBGA]) but this time being able to defeat Ganon. I thought for a long time that this was not possible since we'll need the Silver Arrows to kill Ganon (and therefore the big bomb that requires to finish the Ice Dungeon and Misery Mire). However Adam T. (aka. mister yummy) from the GameFAQs LttP board gave me some methods that let me complete this quest. Initially, we also wanted not to take the Master Sword. As it is impossible to hurt Ganon without a Master Sword, we had to take one and so I decided never to get the one from the Lost Woods but to have the Fighter's Sword tempered at the last moment right before defeating Ganon. This quest is a little outdated now because we have better ways of doing some of the things here, but I keep it because it was very interesting. Constraints: - Never get the Moon Pearl - Don't get any Master Sword until right before the fight against Ganon Result: - Almost every dungeon can be completed (not the Watergate Palace though) - It is possible to enter Ganon's Tower (without all crystals) and complete it - Ganon can be killed if you have your sword tempered Glitches used: - [DMD] - Moon Pearl emulation glitches: * Life after death? [DEATH] * Could you give me a hand? (optional) [CEHA] * Surfing Bunny [SUBU] * Surfing Bunny goes to Misery Mire [SBMM] - [PBEG] (some other EG might work too) - Levitation Trick [LEV] How to: - Start a new game, rescue Zelda, complete the Eastern Palace and get the Pegasus Boots. - Get the Book of Mudora, at least one Bottle and the Bug Catching Net. Go to the Desert Palace, get the Power Gloves and exit. - Get the Flippers (you can get them later if you don't have enough money but you'll need them at some point). - Go to Death Mountain, get the Mirror and do the [DMD]. - Now head to the Skull Woods. Enter from the East and make your way to enter Skull Dungeon (as a Bunny). When inside, either die, save and continue [DEATH] or have the ceiling hand grab you [CEHA] (Moon Pearl emulation glitches). Both methods will turn you back into Link. Now find the Fire Rod and exit the dungeon. - Go to the swamp in the Dark World to turn into Link using the Surfing Bunny glitch [SUBU] (you might have to perform DMD again to reach the Dark World as exitting Skull Dungeon after dying there should bring you back to the Light World). - As Link, go to the Dark Palace (#1), have Kiki open the door and get the Hammer. - Go to Hyrule Castle, perform the [PBEG] and reach Blind's Hideout's entrance room. You can jump into this room. Do it and exit the dungeon (Some other EG could work here but with some unstable versions you won't be able to open the dungeon, try a [STEG] for a better chance if you can't do the PBEG). - As soon as you exit, open the dungeon and enter again. Get the Titan's Mitt inside. - Using the Surfing Bunny glitch [SUBU], find the Flute and rescue the Smithy's partner. - You can have your sword tempered now if you want as you'll need it in the end to defeat Ganon. For a bigger challenge you can wait until the very last moment and continue with your Fighter's Sword. - Do the Ether Medallion glitch [ETH] to get it. - Have a Faery in a Bottle, use the Flute, go to location 6 (Desert). Use the portal and jump into Misery Mire. Perform the Surfing Bunny in Misery Mire glitch [SBMM] to turn into Link. Open dungeon #6 with the medallion, enter and complete the dungeon (you'll need to use the Levitation Trick [LEV] since you can't get the Hookshot). In Misery Mire, there is a big room with a color changing switch, blue blocks (the ones activated by the color switch), a fireball turning around a "comb-shaped" wall and at the very far west of the room there is a key under a pot... I recommend you complete Misery Mire without taking this key as you might need it later when completing Ganon's Tower. It is very possible to complete Misery Mire without using this key, but you must be careful which doors you open not to waste too many keys (but this dungeon has so many useless keys that you should be able to do it quite easily). - After defeating the boss the crystal should fall. Grab it and go back to the Light World. - Now use the methods explained in [PBGA] to complete Ganon's Tower and defeat Agahnim in Ganon's Tower to have Ganon open the hole in the Pyramid of Power. You will need an extra key to do so. If you left the one I talked about in Misery Mire then go get it, if not find another one somewhere... There is an alternate method that I haven't tested which is to complete all of Ganon's Tower normally as you now have all the necessary items for it (I think). If you want to do this simply enter the Tower with the [PBEG], exit and re-enter. Complete the Tower normally. - After opening the hole in the Pyramid, go back to the Light World, use the [PBEG] to reach Agahnim in Hyrule Castle (enter the room with two blue archers and a red spearman) and defeat him. This will trigger the phase III of the game (and activate the portal in Hyrule Castle). - Now go to Lake Hylia, use the portal on the island that takes you to the Ice Palace, enter the Ice Palace, die, save and continue [DEATH]. Now as Link complete the dungeon (you'll need the Levitation Trick [LEV] again). Grab the crystal. You have now matched all requirements for the Big Bomb. - Go to the bomb shop, enter as a Bunny if you want, buy the Big Bomb and exit. Warp to the Light World, go to Hyrule Castle, use the portal and blow the wall open in the Pyramid. - Enter, throw your bow and arrows in the pond and get the silver arrows. If you haven't already have your sword tempered by the Smithies. - You can now use the Surfing Bunny glitch [SUBU] and go defeat Ganon. Congratulations, you defeated Ganon without the Moon Pearl and never got the Lost Woods Master Sword. Notes: - If you want you can jump into the hole as a bunny. As you reach the floor you'll turn into a Super Bunny [HOSB] meaning that you'll be able to use your sword (and dash with the boots but it's useless here) until you're hit once. If you do well, you can reach the part where Ganon turns the lights off as a Bunny... This is as far as I can go since the Bunny cannot use the Fire Rod or the Lantern (and can't throw arrows either...). {ANSW} Paragraph III.2.C : Almost No Sword (w/o Glitches) -------------------------------------------------- Description: Here I wanted to do as much as I could in the game without having a sword at all, but without using any glitch. As the only way to get rid of your sword is to give it to the smithies, you'll have to find the smithies as soon as you can. Also some specific actions in the game require that you have a sword so you'll have to do all these actions before you give your sword, then give the sword and complete as much as possible without the sword. I also made it a bare essential quest since it's more fun. This makes it very hard so once again I recommend that you only attempt it if you know what you're doing! Constraints: - Bare essential equipment and power-ups - Give your sword when you can and complete as much of the game as possible Result: - All bosses in the Dark World can be defeated with no Sword (except for Ganon) - Most dungeons can be done after giving your sword (some require that you enter and do some actions with a sword before giving the sword) Glitches used: none How to: - Sart a new game, complete all dungeons normally until you reach the Dark World (don't take useless items such as the boomerang, bottles etc. nor pieces of hearts if you want to combine it with a bare essential). - Once in the Dark World, Get the Hammer (don't kill the boss, it'll be more fun later without a sword) and get the Titan's Mitt (again, don't kill Blind now). - If you haven't already, get both Ether and Quake medallions. - Find the Flute, call the bird and go to Misery Mire. Open the dungeon while you have a sword (you can't use medallions without a sword). - Go to Death Mountain, reach Turtle Rock and open the dungeon. - Now go to the Skull Dungeon (#3), take the Fire Rod, go to the second part of the dungeon (after burning open the giant skull) and reach the room where there's a "secret" door hidden behind plants. Open the secret door with the sword and exit the dungeon (while you're in the Skull Woods, have a pikit eat your shield, it's more fun). - You now have done all that required a sword. Go save the smithy's partner and give them your sword. - Now complete all dungeons without a sword and reach the fight against Ganon. - You can't go any further as you need a sword to hurt Ganon... Go get your sword back and the silver arrows if you want to finish the game. Notes: - As soon as you don't have your sword remember that the Hammer and the arrows will be your main weapons. {NOSW} Paragraph III.2.D : No Sword ---------------------------- Description: By using the [SSW] glitch to skip the sword and shield at the beginning of the game, do as much as you can without having a sword at all. It's really easy to just trigger the ending so the objective here would be to get as many pendants/crystals and doing as many other things as possible. Constraints: - You should never have any sword at all (it's quite easy to go and get the tempered sword, and from there everything would become trivial) Glitches used: - Skip the sword and shield [SSW] - Many other available glitches (EG, DMD, etc) if you want to do as much as possible How to: I won't list all you can do here, just some points that I think are interesting - Start the game and skip the sword and shield - When you're out do an EG (I usually do an [STEG] from the Kakariko cave or the faery cave (east of the cemetery)) and hop into HC to rescue the Princess. This will trigger phase II and make things easier. - Grab some bombs that you can use as a weapon and EG into the Dark Palace. You can get the Hammer, which will be your main weapon. - All 3 pendants can be gotten easily. - You can kill Agahnim with the bug catching net if you want (EG into the castle because of the electric barrier). - Most of the crystals from the DW dungeons can be gotten but you'll need to use the "magic door" trick [CHDG] for some of them (Misery Mire and Turtle Rock, because you cannot use medallions without the sword). - Most objects can be gotten (not the two medallions that you get from the stones though). - Ganon cannot be killed without a sword though. {PBGA} Subsection III.3 : Pink Bunny meets Ganon ***************************************** Description: This weird quest was inspired by a Pink Bunny fan at the GameFAQs message board. The main idea was to be able to bring Link in his Pink Bunny form (so without a Moon Pearl) in the final battle against Ganon. Glitches used: - [PBEG] (some other EG might work too, but I'm not sure) - Levitation trick [LEV] How to: - Start a new game, play a normal game until you get the Lantern, the Bow and the Pegasus Boots. - Now go back to Hyrule Castle and perform the [PBEG]. As soon as you're in the glitchy area head down until you are in rooms of Misery Mire. There go left and try to hop on the floor of the room where there is a door closed by the big key (room 178N, see [ADDR]). - Once inside Misery Mire, find a small key (it's not very hard as this dungeon has so many...). When you have the key, save and quit. - Restart the game from Link's house, and go back to Hyrule Castle. Perform the [PBEG] once again. - Now go to Ganon's Tower's main entrance room (room 12, the rough direction is North then West when you are in the room under Ganon's fight room) and hop in the room. - Once inside the Tower (as Link) don't exit. Head to the lower floor (lefternmost staircase) and get a key under a pot in the second room. You'll notice there are no enemies in the rooms... (this will make the first go through the tower much easier). - Now go back to the main entrance room. Remember that in Hyrule Castle you had the big key? Remember that when you went to Misery Mire to get the extra small key you didn't properly exit the castle? So now you should be inside Ganon's Tower with the Big Key, two small keys (1 from Misery Mire and the one from the lower level). Head to the lower stair (middle staircase) and follow the path to the end of the Tower. - As there are no enemies in the tower this part will be a piece of cake. Open the switches normally, remember that you can walk over pits at any time (you'll need it in some rooms) and as you have two extra small keys and the lantern to light torches you won't have any problem until you reach the boss room. Open the boss room (with the big key of Hyrule Castle) and enter. You'll see that the boss isn't there... - Save and quit and restart from Link's house. Go to Hyrule Castle and perform the [PBEG] once again (last time). Go back to Ganon's Tower and exit the Tower. - You'll be on the stairs leading to the Tower. You won't turn back into a bunny because you haven't yet "unlocked" correctly the Dark World by defeating Agahnim. Go back into the Tower. Now you'll see that you don't have the big key anymore (and the enemies will be back in the Tower). However this is not a problem as you have already opened all the doors leading to the boss room. - Go to the central staircase (leading up) and go all the way back to the boss. Don't bother taking any of the small keys. - Enter the boss room, defeat him (you'll notice that it's Agahnim's first form. There's only one, not 3). After you defeat him you'll be taken to the Pyramid of Power using the Flute (even if you don't have it...). If you want, you can go and fight Ganon as Link, but you won't be able to kill him. Instead you might want to become a Bunny and fight him (you won't kill him either as a Bunny but it's funnier). To do so you have to activate correctly the Dark World by defeating Agahnim (in Hyrule Castle). - Save and quit, restart from Link's house. Here you have a choice. Either you complete normally the Light world and defeat Agahnim so he sends you to the Dark World as a Bunny (don't take the Moon Pearl if you do so) or you can perform the [PBEG] one last time and hop into room 64SE. From there you can go and fight Agahnim. - When Agahnim takes you to the Dark World enter the hole and fight Ganon as a bunny... Notes: - This is only for fun. You obviously won't be able to kill Ganon as a Pink Bunny. However, note that when you fall into the final battle room, even though you're a bunny you can use your sword (you are a Super Bunny when you enter the room, see [HOSB]). This is of no use whatsoever since you don't have the Silver Arrows and can't use the Fire Rod or the Lantern. {RAIN} Subsection III.7 : Rainy day **************************** Description: This section gives some details about what you can do using the glitches that let you explore the underworld under the rain in the beginning ([MDPR] and [PRIN]). This section is very technical and might be quite hard to understand. I recommend that you use an emulator (for the savestates) and Hyrule Magic (for finding your way in the exploration area, else refer to [UDRW] and [ADDR] for finding your way) if you want to explore what can be done. However, I find this part very interesting and very challenging in terms of "glitch exploration" because when you try to do something many problems arise that you didn't think of and you have to find new ways to solve them... This section is mainly a summary of some solutions found so far. When I first explored this glitch, I was stuck because I couldn't get the Magic Mirror (so I couldn't go to the Dark World). A few months later, ccexplore sent me an e-mail telling that he had found a way to get the mirror, and that he had explored a lot of the Dark World but he still had some problems with a few dungeons and items. We started working on this and after one week we were able to finally defeat Ganon in Phase I. Here are the solutions to the main problems you might encounter in Phase I. In all this section, I consider that you have already performed one of the glitches that let you explore the outworld under the rain (ie. in phase I of the game). (Note: the first phase of the game (Phase I) goes from the beginning to the moment when you bring Zelda to the sanctuary for the first time, see [3PHA] for more on this) Also, some of the explanations given in this section might be outdated now because we might know of other methods to do some things. However, I don't plan on keeping it up to date, if you're interested in the Phase I quest, use this as a starting basis, and then explore by yourself, and of course if you have problems, questions or want to share your findings, go to the GameFAQs board... {DEPA} Paragraph III.7.A : Entering the Desert Palace ---------------------------------------------- Description: If you try to go to the Desert Palace you'll soon see that there is a problem. The first step to reach it is to enter the swamp. There are 3 ways to enter the swamp. If you try from Lake Hylia then you'll need the flippers, to get the flippers you'll need the power gloves and the gloves are... in the desert. If you try from the south of Kakariko, and then east you'll see that you need the gloves to lift a rock. The last way is from Link's house but those damn guards are still there to bother you. Follow these steps to avoid them. Glitches used: - One of the two that lets you explore the Outworld under the rain How to: - Go to the bridge that is east from Link's house. From there go west to the screen with Link's house. - The transition will fail and the guards will talk to you. Skip the dialogue and go west. You should immediately be taken to another glitched screen. - Now go south to change screens once more. You're almost in the swamp, except it looks all glitchy (you're between 2 screens). - Go to the south-east as much as you can and move around to the south (sometimes you'll have to go a little to the west also to unstuck Link) and to the east until you don't see the west screen anymore (the west side of your screen should be water and not discontinuous). When it's done (be sure you haven't changed screens vertically). Go west as much as you can (move up/down if you're stuck against an invisible obstacle) until Link reaches the left limit of the screen. Cross the limit and you'll appear at the right side of the screen (weird isn't it ?). If you did it correctly you should now be in the swamp and the obstacles should be correct again. - Head to the Desert Palace. Don't worry about the book of Mudora as the entrance will be cleared because the strange stones are considered as sprites and they don't appear under the rain. You're in... Notes: - This can be done with or without Princess Zelda following you. - It seems that fro some strange reason this technique doesn't work on the GBA version. {PWGL} Paragraph III.7.B : The Power Gloves ------------------------------------ Description: If you've come directly to the Desert Dungeon by using the method explained previously without bothering with the Eastern Palace then you probably don't have the Pegasus Boots (and if you have them then tell me how you did it without completing the Eastern Palace!). In this case you'll see that it seems impossible to get the Big Key of the Dungeon because you need to dash into a lamp to get a small key that'll open a door that leads to the Big key. "Impossible" did you say? Nothing (or nearly) is impossible when you know how to manipulate correctly the glitches. Glitches used: - One of the two that lets you explore the Outworld under the rain - The previous techniques that let you enter the Desert Dungeon - The Multi-directional glitch How to: - As you enter the dungeon (Desert Dungeon), head to the northern wall of the entrance room. This wall is huge and has 4 doors. Enter the easternmost one. - Inside the room kill the enemies and exit (you need to clear the room before proceeding with the next step). - Once back in the main entrance room stay in front of the door and press (Up+Down). You'll enter the same door again but backwards this time. The screen will scroll incorrectly again. - From now on don't bother with the enemies as they can't hurt you (you can walk through them). You'll be now in the middle of the screen. If you try to go up, you'll see that you can't because of an invisible obstacle. Go a few steps to the left until you can go north. Go north until you cross the top border of the screen. When you do so you should appear in the lower side of the screen (like what happened in the swamp). - See the locked door on the right side? It's the door that leads to the Big key. Now see the door that is under the locked door? That's the door from which we'll go to the Big key (I love this game's glitches, don't you ?). Enter the lower door. - You're now in a room with a laser-eye (that can't hurt you either). Go to the south exit of the room. The screen will scroll over a room with a chest and stop scrolling in another room (with 2 statues). Now be careful with the next part as it can make the whole manipulation fail and you'll probably have to save/quit and restart from the secret passage in Hyrule Castle if it fails (so if you're playing on an emulator, a savestate might be useful now). - When you entered the room, you should have heard the "opening jingle" (the one that plays for example when you kill all enemies in a room and the doors open). If so then walk to the south until Link appears on the screen. Keep pressing down until he is stuck against an invisible obstacle (this should happen very quickly as you're still at the top of the screen). - Now go back north. New scrolling. You should now be in the room with the chest and the "opening jingle" should play, and the north door should be open. If so you're almost done. If the door doesn't open you probably didn't make Link appear in the previous room by pressing down, and if you're not in the room with the chest then you've probably lost track of the manipulation a while ago.. - Assuming that the north door is open, go to it (avoid the chest, it only contains a compass and you don't need that). You'll be in a long vertical room. - As soon as you enter head south (as if you wanted to cross back the door) and you'll appear in the upper part of the screen (again like in the swamp). - Now head north and get the Big key in the chest. Congratulations, you've done one of the most complicated manipulations so far. After getting the big key, chances are you won't be able to go back to the entrance of the dungeon (you can try it but you might get stuck which would be sad...). What you should do is save and quit and restart. You'll be in the secret passage again. Exit without Zelda (or with her if you want) as you did once, go back to the Desert as you also already did and enter the dungeon. You now have the big key. You can head directly to the Power Gloves' room. Notes: - Once you have the gloves, traveling through Hyrule is easier because new paths are possible. You can now access the Castle/Link's House perimeter easily from the east side (lift a stone), and also go to the swamp from the south of Kakariko (and head east then). - Be careful if you try to reach Death Mountain: if you're alone (ie. you left Zelda in her cell) then the old man will come with you and it's possible that you won't be able to get rid of him because when you'll reach Death Mountain (in the Outworld) it will be all messed up since the programmers didn't really consider that it could rain in Death Mountain. When all is messed up, if you bring the old man to his house, he'll give you the mirror but then he won't enter correctly the cave and instead he'll start "climbing" the mountain walls (he misses the entrance to the cave). Therefore he'll never enter the cave and you won't be able to move anymore (see the next paragraph for a possible solution). If you go to Death Mountain with Zelda then the old man won't appear (as there can only be one character following you at a time) and so you'll be able to explore Death Mountain. However as you won't have the Magic Mirror if you enter the Dark World you won't be able to go back (except by saving and quitting). {RAMM} Paragraph III.7.C : The Magic Mirror and the Dark World ------------------------------------------------------- (thanks to ccexplore) Description: To explore the Dark World correctly, you'll need the Magic Mirror to travel back to the Light World (and also do the DMD). Since you can't have it normally because of the "old man bug" (see notes of previous paragraph) you'll have to use a specific path. From there you can travel in the Dark World in Phase I, but you'll see that the sprites are all messed up... Glitches used: - Exploration glitches [EXG] (for some things, the [PBEG] is specifically required) - Death Mountain Descent [DMD] - Ether Medallion trick [ETH] - Levitation trick (you can do stuff without but you'll need it to reach the Silver Arrows and defeat Ganon) How to: As I said in the previous paragraph notes, you cannot get the Magic Mirror simply by entering Death Mountain and rescuing the old man, since the game will glitch and enter an infinite loop when the old man tries to enter his house. However it is possible to enter the Tower of Hera using an EG before you meet the old man. To do so, perform either a PBEG or an UDEG and find your way to the main entrance of the Tower (room 119). This room of the dungeon is hoppable but you have to be careful because of the red/blue switches. If you did a PBEG, then most likely the switches will act correctly so you won't be stuck, but if you did it on a real SNES and used an UDEG or STEG the switches won't work so if you hop into the hall too far from the door you'll be stuck inside. To solve this problem, try to move right next to the main door and hop into the room next to the door so you're inside the little perimeter delimited by the red blocks and can exit the Tower from there (this might not be very clear but I'm sure you'll understand if you try and go there). From there exit and re-enter the Tower so you can complete it correctly. It's now time to get the Magic Mirror. The detail I was missing and that cceplore discovered is that if you exit the Tower of Hera and then head back to the cave where you should meet the old man, he will still be there and follow you, and for some mysterious reasons, if you take him home from there he'll give you the mirror and enter correctly in his house! (you don't have to complete the Tower of Hera, simply entering with an EG and exitting is enough, also it seems that this method doesn't really always work... If you it doesn't work for you, try using another EG or going to the Tower of Hera using another route in the Exploration Area) With this technique, you now have the Magic Mirror. This means that you can now perform the DMD to explore the Dark World! As soon as you'll reach the Dark World, you'll notice something very weird: all sprites (meaning, enemies, characters, heart pieces etc.) are in fact the Light World sprites from Phase II. For example as soon as you use the portal in Death Mountain and enter the Dark World Phase I, you'll be attacked by boulders falling down and small glitchy creatures that move quickly on the ground and can be petrified when hit... These small creatures are in fact the little "winged-squirrels" from the Light World! After you did the DMD, you'll keep recognizing Light World sprite all around you. Why this happens remains quite a mystery to me (well, it's obvious that the Dark World shouldn't exist at all in Phase I but still I don't understand why the game loads the Light World sprites as a default, it would have been more logical if the Dark World was empty as the Light World is in Phase I). This "sprite" transposition has both good and bad sides (but compared with an "empty" Dark World it only has good sides). The good side is that we will now be able to interact with some of the Light World sprites since they can be found in the Dark World. The bad side is that the Dark World sprites have completely disappeared and are nowhere to be found (we'll see some very special examples however where they are not completely lost). The first thing you might want to do now is find the Hammer since it'll make your exploration around the Dark World easier (and let you use some of the portals so you don't have to go to Death Mountain every time). Kiki the monkey will obviously not appear so you have to enter with an EG. The PBEG works fine, but it seems that it is much harder with an UDEG or a STEG... What you want to do is hop into the dungeon (you can try to hop into the room with the mimics (room 27) that is one north of the room where you have to push a statue on a switch, the room with the statue and the switch (room 43) sometimes works too but some other times the red/blue switches won't work so you'll be stuck). Once inside the dungeon, if you only want to go for the Hammer then find your way to the big chest and get the Hammer (remember that you won't need the Big Key if you did an EG from Hyrule Castle and don't exit since you already have the one from there). If you want to complete the dungeon correctly (meaning that you want the Crystal) you'll have to exit the dungeon. When you reach the outside, the game will still think you're in the Light World (if you did your EG from the Light World, which should be the case most likely). When you're outside it should be raining. Use the Magic Mirror and it'll take you to the Dark World but without the rain. Now since Kiki the monkey never opened the door to the dungeon you can't enter pressing Up... However pressing down will solve your problem and you'll enter the dungeon correctly from the Dark World (Yes, you read it right... You have to press Down). Note that if you use the Mirror twice, you'll be taken to the Light World, and if you stand on the same place you won't be able to return to the Dark World because since the door to the dungeon isn't open the game considers that the world switch is invalid. In that case simply move up while in the Light World to take your portal from the upper side and you'll be taken to the Dark World and enter the dungeon automatically. You should now be able to reach the Hammer without trouble. Remember that each time you hop into a dungeon from another dungeon (or cave or whatever) and want to get the Crystal of the dungeon you have to exit and re-enter. Also if you came from the Light World, you need to use the mirror to be considered as being in the Dark World before re-entering. With similar methods (not very complicated) you can find the Titan's Mitt, but you won't be able to enter Blind's hideout normally because the grid that you have to pull to enter the dungeon is a Dark World sprite so it can't be opened in Phase I, so enter with an EG. The exit/mirror/enter technique doesn't work here since you won't be able to re-enter so you can't get the crystal (well... at least I don't know how. But don't worry about the crystals, because you won't need them for Ganon's Tower anyway). Also the Skull Dungeon can be completed totally without trouble. You can also get the flute. Interestingly enough, the flute boy sprite is the same in the Dark World and in the Light World, only that it doesn't act the same depending on the World you're in. This means that if you go to the Dark grove, you'll see the "tree-like" flute boy and he'll give you the shovel. This "tree-like" flute boy is in fact the Light World flute boy sprite that acts like the tree since the game knows that you're in the Dark World (luckily for us since we can therefore find the flute). The flute is located in the Light World as normal (it's strange since it's a sprite, but somehow this sprite still appears in the Light World in Phase I). When you have the flute, you can use the Ether Medallion trick [ETH] to find the Ether Medallion, and then enter Misery Mire. Complete the dungeon if you want to (you'll need the Levitation Trick [LEV] because you can't have the Hookshot so it cannot be done on a real SNES). You can also hop into the Ice Palace with an EG (into the room with a moving floor, spikes, blue electric jellyfishes and black creatures coming from the walls (room 62S)), find your way to the entrance, exit, mirror, re-enter and complete the dungeon (again you'll need the levitation trick). Notes: - So far we are now able to complete 4 Dark World dungeons correctly (Dark Palace, Skull Dungeon, Ice Palace and Misery Mire) and do all the work in Blind's Hideout (including killing Blind) but since we can't enter it correctly we can't get the crystal. The last two dungeons (Watergate Dungeon and Turtle Rock) are a complete problem since they are not hoppable (the Watergate dungeon is but then you are stuck inside the dungeon) and that we can't find the Quake Medallion (the big fish doesn't appear) nor the flippers (King Zora doesn't appear). I think it might be possible to hop into Turtle Rock from a STEG in room 21 (I think all other EG freeze when entering this room), the one with pipes but no lava. From there, it could be possible to exit to the small ledge (not the main entrance since it's still closed) and re-enter to get the crystal. I haven't tried it though. - Ganon's Tower can be completed quite easily (hop into the main entrance (room 12), exit and re-enter, you don't even need to use the mirror to trigger Ganon opening the hole in the Pyramid of Power) so it's possible to reach the fight against Ganon. Also you can use techniques explained in the "Pink Bunny meets Ganon" section [PBGA] to complete Ganon's Tower really soon (skipping most of the items). However, since we have no Master Sword and don't have the Silver Arrows, it seems impossible to kill him (see next paragraph for the solution :))... {SMIT} Paragraph III.7.D : Rescuing the Smithy's Partner ------------------------------------------------- (thanks to ccexplore) Description: It seems impossible to rescue the Smithy's Partner in Phase I of the game since the frog sprite doesn't appear in the Dark World... However, there's a solution! (due to a brilliant observation by ccexplore) Glitches used: - [UDEG] from a Dark World dungeon room How to: There could be 3 ways to get a Master Sword. The first one would be to take it in the Lost Woods with the three pendants but the Master Sword sprite doesn't appear in the Woods. The second one would be to rescue the smithy's partner but the smithy/frog sprite doesn't appear where it should in the Dark World (since it's a Dark World sprite). The third way would be to reach the Fat Faery's pond and get the Golden Sword (I seem to rememeber that throwing the Fighter's Sword in the pond works but I'm not positively sure). Moreover we'll need the Silver Arrows so it seems that we must reach the Fat Faery's pond. This would require the Big Bomb, but the Big Bomb only appears after having recued the Smithy's Partner and completed Misery Mire and the Ice Palace. Our only chance seems to be the smithy. ccexplore noticed that the smithy's sprite inside the Light World house and the smithy/frog's sprite in the Dark World were the same... So his idea was to enter the smithies' house when the game thinks we're in the Dark World so the smithy's sprite will act as if it was the frog in the Dark World (the same that happened with the flute boy's sprite). And guess what? It worked! Here are ccexplore's instructions on how to do it, directly quoted from one of his e-mails: \begin{quote} I've now found a fairly easy and reliable way to get to room 227. Here we go: 1) head to swamp palace until you reach the upper-left quarter of room 179. 2) exit to the left by left+right. you'd see that the screen scrolls incorrectly, to the right. 3) immediately head left to scroll yourself back to the room 179 screen you just scroll off from. 4) now head down 3 screens (causing 3 vertical screen scrolls). You'd notice that the vertical scrolling is pretty normal. after the 3rd scroll, you'll see that you've reach room 227. 5) now head to the vertical center of the room, and then head right, you'd find the screen scroll to the right incorrectly again. Basically, the display has been off by half a screen horizontally ever since you did the left+right, so it looks like you're now on the lower-right quarter of room 227. 6) however, looks can be deceiving! the game actually considers you to be in the lower-left corner of room 227. So now, using your visual memory (or just have Hyrule Magic open in front of you), hop into the room, climb up that invisible stairs and then head to the invisible exit. You're now in the Outworld right outside Smithy's house, with Dark World music! If you enter Smithy's house, you'd get the frog. And you'd get his frog dialog and him following you and all! (you might have to be a non-rabbit to do this, I haven't tried this as rabbit...) Now, in the outworld you'd find that you can't seem to use your mirror, because your in the Light World outworld (it seems like when using the mirror they check your map location rather than the "actual" state of the world). No problem, because as soon as you induce a screen-scroll, you'd immediately be placed back into the Dark World, since that's where the game thinks you're at anyway. Now use the mirror to properly head back to the Light World, and head to Smithy's house and smile. :) \end{quote} When the smithy is rescued, you can buy the Big Bomb and ask the Silver Arrows and the Golden Sword to the Fat Faery and kill Ganon. Congratulations, you have finished the game in Phase I. Notes: - Room 227 is the cave that is next to the Smithies' house and where there's an altar where you should use your Magic Powder to get the 1/2 magic upgrade. - Room 179 is in Misery Mire dungeon. To reach it, go to the central dungeon's room (the big room with two levels that you enter normally from the South and has 2 North exits, 3 east exits, 2 west exits and a top-level floor that you can see through on the left part of the room). From there, take the right exit on the North Wall. You'll be in a room with two candles that shoot fireballs at you and a block you can push to go North. Go east from there and you'll reach a room with a laser-eye and spikes (this is the lower left quarter of room 179). Go North (you'll need a key but this room has 2) and you'll be in a small room with an upper level North exit and a lower level West exit. This is the Top Left quarter of room 179 where you want to do an UDEG (pressing Left+Right) on the West exit. {TEC} ******************************************************* * Section IV : Technical stuff you might want to know * ******************************************************* {3PHA} Subsection IV.1 : The three phases of the game ********************************************** As you probably noticed it, there are some important key events in this game that can reshape completely the Outworld. The most noticeable change is probably the rain at the beginning that stops when you bring Princess Zelda to the Sanctuary, but there are others. Depending on what you have already done in the game, some important things will behave differently. In a normal game (no glitches), all should be smooth and happen correctly because you can't really break the order of the key events. But if you start using all the glitches, you'll see that you can do a lot of things out of sequence. When doing so, things might behave in radically different ways depending on the key events that you have already triggered (and possibly the order in which you did trigger them). The game can basically be divided in 3 parts (that I call phase I, phase II and phase III because I don't want to find original and pretty names). The phase you're in has mainly an importance on the sprites of the Outworld, and the respawn points (where you start when you reload a game). There seems to be no incidence on what happens inside the dungeons (or caves, houses etc.) Here's a short description of each of the 3 phases. Phase I: Beginning of the game -> Bringing Zelda to the Sanctuary Key events: - Jumping out of the bed - Getting the Sword and Shield - Rescuing Princess Zelda - Bringing Zelda to the Sanctuary Respawn points: - Hyrule Castle secret passage - Zelda's cell Notes: You're not supposed to be able to exit the Castle/Link's House area (because of the guards blocking your way) It rains in the Outworld, there are no sprites in the Light Outworld except in the Castle/Link's House area. The Dark Outworld contains the Light World sprites (I'll never understand why) but they're graphics are glitchy because the game loads the Dark World tiles. Death Mountain is very messy (because the rain was never supposed to occur there probably). Phase II: Key events: - Bringing the Old Man to the Mountain Cave - Getting the Master Sword - Defeating Agahnim Respawn points: - Link's house - Sanctuary - Mountain Cave - any dungeon Notes: Bringing Zelda to the Sanctuary -> Defeating Agahnim in Hyrule Castle During this Phase, you're not supposed to go in the Dark World except the Death Mountain part (so the Dark World isn't really "unlocked" yet). The sprites in the Light Outworld are not exactly the same as the ones in Phase III (some harder enemies appear in Phase III for example). Phase III: Defeating Agahnim in Hyrule Castle -> End of the game Key events: - Opening Misery Mire - Defeating Agahnim in the Tower of Ganon - Defeating Ganon (entering the Triforce room) Respawn points: - Link's house - Sanctuary - Mountain cave - Pyramid of Power - any dungeon Notes: This is the final phase of the game. The Light World sprites change a little, and the Dark World is correctly activated (the portal in Hyrule Castle courtyard appears and the castle doors are locked). {UDRW} Subsection IV.2 : The Underworld Map ************************************ First of all this section is not intended to be a real "map" of the Underworld area, but an explanation of how the Underworld rooms are coded in the game ROM. By Underworld, I refer to all parts of the game that are not the Outworld, which include the houses, the caves and the dungeons. This part might only be interesting to you if you use the Exploration Glitches. *** I HIGHLY recommend that you download and use the ROM editor Hyrule Magic if you are interested in these kinds of details since all I'm about to explain here can be understood very simply using it. *** {ROOM} Paragraph IV.2.A : What is a Room in this game? ----------------------------------------------- While you play through the game (without glitching like mad), you get the impression that the Underworld room in LttP can be of very different sizes and shapes. This is only an illusion. In fact the way the game sees it is very simple: all rooms have the same size (quite big in fact) and are square-shaped. However, some of them can be filled with walls in such ways that they become either very small (if most of the room is a very thick wall then the room seems small from the inside) or are divided into a number of smaller rooms (2, 3 or 4 only as we'll see). The maximum size of a room is the size of Hyrule Castle's main entrance (I'm sure you've noticed how big this room is). This huge room can then be divided in two, three or four parts using only divisions from the middle of the sides as shown below (I suck at ASCII art so be gentle): --------- | | | | This is the maximal size of the room | | --------- --------- --------- | | | | | | | | |-------| The two ways of cutting a room in two samller ones | | | | | --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- | | | | | | | | | | | How to cut the room in 3 |---| | | |---| |-------| |-------| smaller ones | | | | | | | | | | | --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- | | | |---|---| Four small rooms | | | --------- For your information, Link's house is the size of a quarter of a room and the vertical rooms next to Hyrule Castle main entry are the size of half a room. Now that you know that, you might have wondered why you never had this impression of a big room cut in four parts when you were in Link's House for example. Well, it's simply because of the camera effect, that is programmed to stay inside of a quarter of a room when asked to (in some rooms you can scroll out and in some you can't) and that gives the impression that there's nothing out of the bounds of the screen when in fact there's more! Have in mind that different "small in-game rooms" can in fact be in the same "big coded room". For example, the two fortune tellers' houses (that are both only one quarter of a room) are two parts of a same big room. This means that if you could walk through the walls inside their houses, you'd go directly from one to the other... and that's precisely what we do when using the exploration glitches! (Again, use Hyrule Magic and see for yourself, it's better than any explanation I could give!) It's now time to talk about the general disposition of the rooms... {ZONE} Paragraph IV.2.B : The Two Underworld Zones ------------------------------------------- Now that you know what a room really is, know that there are a total of 296 rooms in the game. For these rooms, only a few are completely used in the game, many of the 4-parts ones have 2 or more empty quarters and there are even rooms completely empty (for some strange reason there's no 1-part empty room, all empty rooms are divided into at least 2 sections). These 296 rooms are divided into 2 groups (for other strange reasons...). The first group contains 256 rooms (which is very understandable since it's a power of 2, so it's easier to address) and the second group contains the last 40 rooms (that's more unusual, I would have expected at least 64 remaining rooms...). The 256 first rooms (numbered from 0 to 255) are what I'll call the Primary Exploration Zone. They are distributed on a 16x16 square as follows: 0 1 2 3 4 5 ... 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ... 30 31 . . . . . . . . . 240 241 242 243 244 245 ... 254 255 Moving into this square is to be considered as follows. Considering that you're in room x: - if you move left you go to room (x-1) - if you move right you go to room (x+1) - if you move up you go to room (x-16) - and if you move down you go to room (x+16). All coordinates should be read "modulo 256" meaning that if you are in room 245 and go down you reach room (245+16 = 261 = 5 + 256) which means that you reach room 5. All you have to understand now is that in the game, when you go through a door, you are either "teleported" to a given room (that's always what happens when you use stairs for example) or the game scrolls to the next room (corresponding to the previous explanation). Be careful, sometimes you think that you're changing rooms but you're only going from one part of a room to the other without really changing rooms! When you're playing you can tell what kind of transition the game is doing because if you see that the camera scrolls to the next room then you haven't "teleported" and if the screen changes completely then you have teleported. All rooms of all dungeons are somewhere in this huge 16x16 square of rooms. A dungeon is not necessarily represented as a connex set of rooms (and usually two levels of a given dungeon are placed at completely different locations in the square). When you perform an Exploration glitch, what you do is that since you go under the normal ground level, you can walk under the walls too. So in fact, in almost every room you can go to the next one (in any direction) and since you don't enter any door or use any staircase the game won't "teleport" you elsewhere and since you reach the limits of the room the game naturally scrolls to the next room. This is how you can move freely around all (or at least almost all) dungeon rooms. However, there's a second group of rooms in the game. The rooms numbered from 256 to 295 have a very different disposition, that is as follows (well not so different since it's again in lines of 16 rooms): 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 260 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 Again moving to the right and to the left adds or substracts 1 to your room number (so going from 271 to the right goes to 272) but this time every transition that would take you to a room numbered less than 256 or more than 296 will cause the game to crash. In other words, when you're in this zone you have to do only transitions that'll keep you inside the zone. Note that the zone isn't a complete rectangle (there's nothing under room 280). This zone will be called the Secondary Exploration Zone. It contains mainly houses, shops and caves. So far, only two exploration glitches let you explore this zone, and it's the "Jump and Save" EG [JSEG] when hopping out of Link's bed at the beginning and the [STEG] when doing it from a cave. {ADDR} Paragraph IV.2.C : Some useful addresses ---------------------------------------- In this section, I'll give you the numbers of some rooms that might be of interest so that it can help you find your way through one or the other of the Exploration Zones. All numbers correspond to the room numbers in Hyrule Magic, and also to the disposition of the rooms that I explained in the previous paragraph. One last thing... When you're exploring, sometimes the game goes into a loop while going in a given direction (meaning that going right while in room x takes back to room x for example). In this case do a few transitions in the opposite way (go to room (x-2)) and then go back to your initial direction, this should fix it. Next to the number of the room, I'll sometimes indicate a direction. This indicates in which quarter or half of the room is the specific part that I'm describing (for example, the final battle room is in the North East quarter of the room 0). Some rooms of the Primary Exploration Zone (rooms 0-255): 0 NE - Final Battle With Ganon (trigger the ending by moving one room up) 3 SW - Chris Houlihan's room 6 SW - Arrghus's room (Watergate Palace) 7 - Moldorm's room (Tower of Hera) 8 SE - Exit of the Faery hole cave (east of the cemetery) (hoppable) 12 - Ganon's Tower main hall (hoppable) 18 - Sanctuary (hoppable) 20 - Pipe rooms in Turtle Rock. Don't enter while exploring because it'll freeze the game. 21 - Another pipe room of Turtle Rock. This one might freeze the game too, but is sometimes hoppable. 27 SW - A hopppable room in the Palace of Darkness (even though it has no lower floor, you can hop in when coming from a PBEG, not sure about the other ones). It's a room where you fight 3 mimics. 41 SE - Mothula's room (Skull Dungeon) 43 W - A useful hoppable room of the Palace of Darkness (the one where you have to push a statue on a switch) 47 S - The Kakariko cave (NW of the village), it's a useful hoppable room. 62 S - A hoppable room in the Ice Palace (doesn't work very well, but it's the only one that I know in this dungeon). It's the room with a moving floor, spikes, black shadows coming from the top and blue electric jellies) 64 SE - A very useful hoppable room in Hyrule Castle. It's the room with two archers and a spearman that is two rooms before Agahnim. 67 SE - A hoppable room in the Desert Palace that lets you kill Lanmolas for the Ether Medallion (see [ETH]) 96 E - The room in Hyrule Castle that's west of the main entrance. It's the room where I recommend you do the [UDEG], [STEG] and [JSEG]. 97 - Hyrule Castle main hall 98 - This room is similar to 96E. It's the room east of Hyrule Castle main entrance. 104 - The room in Skull Dungeon with two bumpers very close to each other. This is the only room where you can do the [SDEG]. 112 NE - It's the room where you start if you do the [UDEG] from room 96 113 NE - This room is hoppable and you can perform the [STEG] from it. It's the staircase that's right after the Boomerang (the Boomerang is in 113SE) and just before Princess Zelda's cell. 114 S - This is where you should do the [PBEG] 115 SW - This is where the PBEG should lead you (it's the room before the Power Gloves in the Desert Palace) 119 - Tower of Hera main entrance. Hoppable but hop near the door in order not to get trapped by the blue blocks in case the red/blue switches don't work correctly. 128 N - Princess Zelda's cell (not hoppable though) 144 SW - Vitreous's room (Misery Mire) 152 S - Misery Mire entrance (you can levitate over the pit [LEV]) 178 N - A hoppable room in Misery Mire 179 NW - Another hoppable room in Misery Mire (but the previous one is easier). You can do an UDEG from here (well, it's a (Left+Right)EG actually). 194 - Central Hall of Misery Mire (hoppable) 195 W - Another hoppable room in Misery Mire that leads to the central hall 203, 204, 219& 220 - Hoppable rooms in Blind's hideout (the four entrance rooms). The main entrance is number 219. 228 W - The Mountain Cave (hoppable) Some rooms of the Secondary Exploration Zone: (the whole zone can easily be explored by going to the right from Link's house) 260 SE - Link's House 263 SE - Hoppable house of Kakariko (but doesn't take you out of the Exploration Zone) 278 SE - Fat Faery's pond 283 SW - Very interesting hoppable room. You can exit to the outworld from here but will be stuck outside if you reached it by hopping out of Link's bed at the very beginning. 289 SW - Smithies shop 290 SW& SE - Fortune tellers' shops 295 - Last room of the Secondary zone. Don't move to the right or the game will freeze! {DUNG} Subsection IV.3 : What Dungeon Am I In ? **************************************** Thanks to MathOnNapkins for most of the information here, and to assassin17 for some useful things too. In some instances, it is important to understand how the game keeps track of the dungeon we are currently in. The game considers that there are 14 different dungeons, that go by pairs (we'll see why later): - The Sewers - Hyrule Castle (first part) - Eastern Palace (LW1) - Desert Palace (LW2) - Hyrule Castle (second part) - Watergate Dungeon (DW2) - Dark Palace (DW1) - Misery Mire (DW6) - Skull Woods (DW3) - Ice Palace (DW5) - Tower of Hera (LW3) - Blind's Hideout (DW4) - Turtle Rock (DW7) - Ganon's Tower The rest of the underworld is considered not to be in any dungeon (I'll refer to that as a "cave"). When played normally (ie. without glitching) the player moves in the outworld, then sometimes enters a dungeon/cave/house. Since the dungeons don't communicate directly (except one exception that we'll mention later) we aren't supposed to be able to change the dungeon we're in without going back to the outworld. This is why the game will keep considering we are in the same dungeon as the one we entered first while we don't go back to the outworld. This is particularly useful when using exploration glitches since these can let us go from one dungeon to the other "without the game noticing the change". One useful consequence of this is the fact that we can use keys from a dungeon on doors of another one: performing an EG from HC after getting the big key lets you open all big doors in the other dungeons for instance, and performing an EG from a cave gives you infinite small keys in the dungeons you go. Another use of this is what was first known as the Ether Medallion glitch, and more generally all possible ways of confusing the game when fighting bosses. Bosses are handled in a very special way by the game: when you kill a boss, it triggers some special events depending on the dungeon you're in. In most dungeons, when the boss dies a heart appears where he was, and when you grab the heart the pendant/crystal corresponding to the dungeon falls down. However there are some special dungeons. Hyrule Castle 1 for instance doesn't have a pendant/crystal (nor do HC2, Ganon's Tower and the sewers for that matter). So when you enter HC1, do an EG and go fight a boss from another dungeon (or even simply enter a boss room if you've already killed the boss) the game gives you "the pendant corresponding to HC1", which isn't supposed to exist, and for some reason (consequence of how the game was programmed) it's the Ether Medallion that falls. This is very useful in some special quests since it lets us have the Ether Medallion when it would otherwise be unreachable (phase I quests mainly). There is another very intersting use of this: Ganon's Tower has the three Light World bosses inside. When they are defeated, a special exception is raised because we are in Ganon's Tower, and for this reason the bosses don't give any heart container. But if you start from another (regular) dungeon, and hop into Ganon's Tower, when you go and fight these bosses they will work as normal ones and give a full heart container when they die ! This means that you can reach 20 hearts without getting all heart pieces. Sadly, getting more than 20 hearts has absolutely no effect (the extra hearts don't appear on screen and aren't taken into account when being damaged). Now, a last interesting thing that can be done with this is to get pendants/crystals from other dungeons. If you start from a given dungeon and EG into another one and defeat the boss there you'll be rewarded with the pendant/crystal of the initial dungeon you came from. This might not seem too useful by itself (except if for some reason you really don't want to fight a given boss but want to get the pendant/crystal he's supposed to be protecting) but it's were the exception mentioned earlier is of the utmost importance... {CHDG} Paragraph IV.3.A : Changing Dungeons "on the Fly" ------------------------------------------------- If you have read carefully the list of dungeons above, you might have noticed something strange: the sewers and HC1 are two separate dungeons ! (also you may notice that HC1 and HC2 are also two separate dungeons, even though they share the same map... but that's not so important here) However when playing a normal game, you're not supposed to go back to the outworld in between the two. This means that the game is able to change the dungeon you're in, while you're still in the underworld... And indeed, it is what happens when going through the ornamental shield (the one Zelda helps you push) door. This door is completely unique, because walking through it changes the dungeon you're in. Now, you could think that simply going through the door sets the dungeon you're in either to "the sewers" or "Hyrule Castle 1" depending on the way you're going. But that's not how it works. As said earlier, the dungeons go by pairs (pairs are represented on the same line in the list above). And going through the shield door simply switches from the dungeon you were in previously to its corresponding dungeon (this is why in a normal game it takes you from HC1 to the sewers). This means that this same door can be used to reach other dungeons as well. Take for example Turtle Rock (DW7). Turtle Rock is a very annoying dungeon when glitching because first it requires the use of the Quake Medallion to be opened (which is a problem both in a no sword quest and a Phase I quest) and besides it is hard to hop into with exploration glitches (it often freezes the game because of the pipe rooms). So the crystal is often very hard to get... On the other hand, Ganon's Tower is very convenient. It's very easy to hop into the main entrance then exit and re-enter the dungeon to load it correctly (at this point the game considers you really are in Ganon's Tower). From there you can EG out and go to the magic door (the shield door), go through the door and EG again. At that point the game thinks you're in Turtle Rock. Now find any boss room that you can reach and you'll be rewarded with the seventh crystal ! Misery Mire (DW6) and the Watergate Dungeon (DW2) can also be a problem but both of their corresponding dungeons (DW1 and HC2) are very convenient to glitch (remember that you can hop into DW1, exit and reenter even if it has not been open by the monkey if you press down as soon as you exit the dungeon). {CHR} ******************************************************** * Section V : The Chris Houlihan's Room Mystery Solved * ******************************************************** {WHCH} Subsection V.1 : What is the Chris Houlihan's Room ? **************************************************** If you've played this game a lot, or if you were very lucky, you might have accidentally found yourself in a room where you shouldn't have been. A room full of blue rupees with a telepathic tile that says "My name is Chris Houlihan. This is my top secret room. Keep it between us, OK?". On the other hand, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, keep reading as I'm about to explain how to get there on purpose. But, first things first... Chris Houlihan is an american kid who won a Nintendo Power (the Nintendo magazine) contest some years ago (before the game came out that is). The main prize was to have the privilege of having his name in the new upcoming Zelda game. It seems that at first the "secret" room wasn't supposed to be that secret, and it should have been accessible from a crack in the Pyramid of Power (what is now the entrance to the Palace of the Four Swords in the GBA version). However, for some reason, this entrance was removed and the secret room was supposed to be left inaccessible (but those lazy programmers didn't take it out of the ROM). This is the story as I have heard it, it might not be perfectly accurate but you get the main idea (I still have doubts about the fact that the room was supposedly left inaccessible and yet we can enter it). The room itself can only be entered from a hole (or so it seems since no one has yet entered it from a normal door). The Hyrule Castle secret passage hole and the hole on top of the Pyramid of Power are two confirmed possible entrances, others might work too of course (I know that these holes lead somewhere else, it just happens that *sometimes* they lead to the room, and we'll see in a moment when this happens). When you enter it, you fall in the middle. The room has a blue floor (like plenty of other "rupee rooms" inside the dungeons) and 45 blue rupees (placed in 5 sets of 9 rupees each (since blue rupees are worth 5 rupees, there's a total of 225). The exit door in in the middle of the South wall, and the telepathic tile with Chris's message is in the middle of the top wall. The whole room looks like that: XXXXXXXXXXX T XXXXXXXXXXX T: Telepathic tile X X L: Link when you enter the room X B B B B B B B B B X B: Blue rupees X B B B B B B B B B X X B B B B B B B B B X X X X B B B B B B X X B B B L B B B X X B B B B B B X X X XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX When you exit, you always appear in front of Link's house (no matter if you entered the room from the Light or Dark World). Moreover, if you don't touch any of the rupees and exit, the next time you enter the room, the rupees will still be there. But if you take at least one, then they'll all be gone when you come back (so you can't use the room to get 999 rupees quickly, but if you take some, you'd better take them all). {HCH} Subsection V.2 : How to Get There ********************************* Here's the simplest known method to enter the Chris Houlihan's room. First I'll give precise instructions for this particular method (that enters from the Hyrule Castle hole), and then I'll explain why this triggers it and how you can enter it from other holes or after doing some steps differently. So, here's how you can see it: - Have a game with the Pegasus Boots, at least one bomb and the Power Gloves. Save in the Light World - Start from the Sanctuary - Exit the Sanctuary, and go one screen East (the cemetery) then one more East (the screen with the faery hole) - From there, go one South and cross the bridge (East) - Now go to the bottom of the screen but don't change screens - When you're close to the lower border of the screen, face up and drop a Bomb - The Bomb blast should send you South but you won't change screens, and if you were close enough to the lower border, you'll be standing on the southest possible pixel (or maybe one up of this but it's not a problem) - From there, start charging a dash with the Boots (while still facing up), and while it's charging, press Down to turn around and face down (this is to turn around without moving down) - Keep charging until the dash starts and takes you to the next screen (to the South) - From this screen, go to the West (towards Hyrule Castle) and change screen one last time - When you enter the Hyrule Castle screen, lift the rock, and head to the Secret Passage hole - Cut the bush, and jump in the hole (from the South, which should be what you do naturally) - Tadaaaaa ! You should be in the Chris Houlihan's room. Now, let's explain why this method works... Apparently (thanks to euclid, flagitoius and dvdmth for these explanations) what triggers the room is a misalignement of your vertical position. What this means is that for some reason, the game thinks that you are somewhere (some Y coordinate) when in fact you're somewhere else (for example, it displays you on the screen at some height, but thinks in some other register that you're somewhere else). Why the game has different coordinates for Link's location remains a mystery to me but we have already seen weird such things when playing with exploration glitches (for example the game thinks you're in some room but loads another one so you are hitting the walls of the first, but interacting with the sprites of the second). Anyway, at some point you're "misaligned" and this is a problem for the game when it has to determine which hole you're entering and where you fall. And it seems that when you're misaligned the way we make it, it loads the Chris Houlihan's room (some people consider it's a bug handling technique that will load the room when some coordinates are not right). Now, let's see what causes this misalignement. Normally, when Link walks, he can move either one or two pixels in a given direction every frame (see the explanation of [FPA] for more on this). For this reason, it seems that the programmers only thought that you could exit a screen from one of the two first lines that will trigger the screen change. For example, if the screen change occurs every time Link's Y coordinate is superior to a constant s, then they assumed that when changing screens you were either at s or (s+1) (Y coordinates increase when moving South, since I consider that the (0,0) pixel is the North-West one). It's possible that for this reason, after the screen change, the game considers that you're either at t or (t+1) if t is the top most pixel where you can appear (where you appear if you changed screens from s). So all they have to do when changing screens is remember if you come from s (and have you appear at t) or (s+1) and have you appear at (t+1). But, when dashing with the Pegasus Boots, you move 4 pixels each frame! This means that if at some frame your Y coordinate was (s-1) or (s-2) and you're dashing South, then the next frame you're at (s+3) or (s+2)! From there, after the screen transition you'll be at (t+3) or (t+2) but the game will think that you're at t or (t+1) (since these are supposedly the only possible locations after the screen change). This is where the misalignement is supposed to come from. When following the steps that I gave earlier, the bomb ensures that you're either at (s-1) or (s-2), and then when you dash you're sure to cause the misalignement. When the glitch is armed, it seems that any North or South transition will disarm it (when considering when to make the change it probably take into account the "real" on screen coordinates, and so it corrects the error after the change) unless of course you dash once again from (s-1) or (s-2). However Left/Right transitions don't seem to affect it (which is why the explained steps let you enter the room even if after arming the glitch you change screens to the west). It seems (thanks to dvdmth for experimenting all that) that the room is only loaded when you enter the hole from the South. Also the only known way to arm the glitch is with a South transition. Other holes than the Hyrule Castle one work too, but you must be able to access the screen from another one after doing one transition South and then only East/West ones (the Faery hole next to the cemetery works when coming either from the screen with the birds and the entrance of the cave leading to Death Mountain, or more amusingly when performing the Death Mountain Descent [DMD] if you do the last South transition correctly). {CON} *************************** * Section VI : Conclusion * *************************** {CME} Subsection VI.1 : How to contact me *********************************** You can either send me a mail at zanapher@gmail.com or try to see me at the GameFAQs Zelda:LttP message board. All comments about this FAQ are welcome (good and bad) but I don't guarantee that I'll answer to all. If you think something should be added to this FAQ feel free to tell me because I'd be glad to discuss new glitches or new interesting challenges with someone (all credit will be given where due of course). If you see a spelling mistake (even the slightest) or some sentence that doesn't make sense (I'm french so my english might be weird from time to time) send me an e-mail so I can correct it (even if it's a mail with only one minor spelling mistake, don't hesitate). Also, it might take a lot of time before I do the next update of the FAQ... So don't be too impatient if you send me something to update and it's not changed in the following days. {THX} Subsection VI.2 : Thanks ************************ I would like to thank - nephalim and DogDaySunrise at the GameFAQs board for some advices and interesting discussions that led to this FAQ and for supporting me while writing it. - mister yummy (aka Adam T.) for a very interesting quest (and some methods to solve problems that I couldn't solve about it). - ccexplore for solving the Magic Mirror in Phase I problem, finding the necessary techniques to complete the "Rainy Day" quest [RAIN], and some useful posts on other various things later. - Frost King for his complement information about the DMD and the Super Bunny in a hole glitch [HOSB]. - Sergio Villicana for telling me about the "Jump and Save" EG. - dvdmth for a lot of useful technical information every now and then. - flagitoius for the "Fire Pants" glitch, the Chris Houlihan's room and lots of other things. - Euclid for solving the Chris Houlihan's room mystery. - most of the people at the GameFAQs board for liking this game as much as I do. - CJayC for creating and administrating GameFAQs where I could find so much information, help and have plenty of interesting discussions about the game. - David Wonn, and the people who posted glitches on his site for the Death Mountain Descent, the Skull Dungeon Exploration Glitch and the Super Bunny at Lake Hylia glitches. - Amazing Ampharos from the GameFAQs board for rebelling against the underrating of the STEG and actively militating for its rehabilitation. - Water Gemini for giving me the will to explore the game even more in depth to prove him wrong each time he was.