ref: 72b193d52b4b7ff4af182cb8f004f6308c03c2a8
dir: /other/glitches_faq.txt/
###########################################################
# #
# The Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past #
# #
# Glitches FAQ v0.97, by Zanapher #
#(September 2003) #
###########################################################
*********************
* Table of Contents *
*********************
To go to the specified paragraph, perform a search 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]
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. Hyrule Castle first method (PBEG) .... [PBEG]
3.c. The (Up + Down) combo (UDEG) ......... [UDEG]
3.d. "Jump and Save" method (JSEG) ........ [JSEG]
4. Super Bunny .................................. [SBU]
4.a. Lake Hylia ........................... [LHSB]
4.b. In a hole ............................ [HOSB]
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]
III. Glitch quests and things to try .................. [QUE]
1. 15 minutes speed-run ......................... [15MI]
2. 3 minutes speed-run .......................... [3MIN]
3. No Master Sword .............................. [NOMS]
4. No sword quest ............................... [SWOR]
5. Pink Bunny meets Ganon ....................... [PBGA]
6. No MS, no MP quest ........................... [MSMP]
7. Rainy day .................................... [RAIN]
7.a. Entering the Desert Palace ........... [DEPA]
7.b. The Power Gloves ..................... [PWGL]
7.c. The Magic Mirror and the Dark World .. [RAMM]
7.d. Rescuing the Smithy's Partner ........ [SMIT]
8. Others ....................................... [OTHE]
8.a. The Chris Houlihan's room ............ [HOUL]
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]
V. Conclusion ......................................... [CON]
1. How to contact me ............................ [CME]
2. Thanks ....................................... [THX]
{INS}
**************************************
* Section I : Introduction and stuff *
**************************************
{UPD}
Subsection I.1 : Version Updates
********************************
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 (earlier 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...). 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 all glitches except the PBEG on my SNES).
{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 understanding 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
in making 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 is just for fun however as there's absolutely nothing to do in
there.
- 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.
Side effects:
Frost King from the GameFAQs board sent me a few weirdnesses related to the DMD.
Here they are directly quoted from his posts.
\begin{quote}
Infinite Pit:
1. Get onto the lava void
2. Walk to where the hole in the bridge in the lightworld is
3. Warp to the lightworld
You will now fall. After you fall, you reappear where you originally warped
from and you then fall again. You will now be falling until you die, save and
quit, hit the reset button, or hit the power button.
Odd Wall:
1. Get onto the lava void
2. Walk as far north as you can
3. Warp to the lightworld
4. Walk further North than you could in the darkworld
You will see a strange looking wall. If you run into it you will jump, but
instead of jumping over the wall, you actually jump and end up a bit below of
where you jumped from.
Mountain Plains:
1. Get onto the lava void
2. Walk as far southeast as you can without switching to the waterfall
screen.
3. Switch to the waterfall screen
You should now be on top of the wall above the river in the darkworld. If you
are stuck in a waterfall you didn't walk far enough east and you must start
over.
4. Warp to the lightworld
5. Walk back to the mountain screen
Now all the mountain terrain will be the terrain of the land outside the
mountain. It wont look like the normal mountain at all, aside from it being
different terrain. You will see a cave northwest of you, but if you get to it
you cannot enter it.
6. Get to the cave you see. You will have to wander past all the invisible
walls. You will probably have to walk west for a while, then go a bit north,
then back east to get to it.
7. East of the cave is a particular wall. If you walk into it you will jump,
but you will fly upward onto the hill.
8. Walk northeast until you get to another cave. Do not enter it.
9. Walk west. The "glitch hill" will crawl away as you walk. Eventually the
entire mountain will be normal accept it will be the different terrain. Warping
to the darkworld or entering a cave will end this.
Dark Mountain Plains:
1. Get onto the lava void
2. Walk as far southeast as you can without switching to the waterfall screen
3. Switch to the waterfall screen
4. Warp to the lightworld
5. Walk back into the mountain screen
6. Walk back into the waterfall screen, enter the portal
7. Walk back into the mountain screen
Everything will be the same as if you did the mountain plains trick, but you
will be in the dark world. There appears to be no way to "normalize it" because
there are a lot more invisible walls. If you warp into the lightworld it will
be the mountain plains.
\end{quote}
{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) but this is
not really useful...
It seems that it cannot be done on a real SNES because it requires a turbo
controller that would be prefectly synchronised with the timer of the console. I
haven't been able to verify this as I have no turbo controller on my SNES so I
only do it on the emulator. If you have a turbo controller and are able to
perform this glitch please tell me!
Requirements:
For this glitch you need the Pegasus Boots. You'll also need either an emulator
with a good turbo controller emulation or a turbo controller that allows this
glitch (but so far it seems that no real turbo controller for the SNES
works...).
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).
This can only be done on an emulator since the pressing on the A button must be
perfectly synchronised with the tests of the game (1 per frame I think, which is
60 per second) and that no turbo controller on a real SNES can be perfectly
synchronised with the console (the console doesn't exchange timing information
with the controller). At the first synchronisation error the test will show that
Link is on a hole and the game will trigger the falling animation. The emulator
has no such problem since the Turbo button is defined to be one per frame (the
emulator can do this).
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 enables you 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).
{EXG}
Subsection II.3 : The Exploration Glitches
******************************************
Description:
Exploration glitches are the most powerful glitches that I know of 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 can't obviously 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.
{SDEG}
Paragraph II.3.A : Skull Dungeon Method (SDEG)
----------------------------------------------
Description:
This is the version I like less. It's harder to perform than the two others,
must be done later in the game and is very hard to use correctly (it's much more
"bugged" than the other ones). I nearly never use it.
Its only real good point is that it can be done on a real SNES (no need for an
emulator) without having to open your controller or use a particular Turbo
controller (the next ones require such things...).
Thanks to dvdmth for this glitch.
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 with 4 bumpers, 3 zombies 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.
{PBEG}
Paragraph II.3.B : Hyrule Castle First Method (PBEG)
----------------------------------------------------
Description:
This one is the most useful version of the exploration glitch. It lets you
easily explore all the 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 the Pegasus Boots, a turbo controller that works with the Levitation
Trick [LEV] (an emulator does this perfectly) and the possibility to enter
Hyrule Castle (so can't be done after defeating Agahnim).
How to:
- Go to Hyrule Castle's underground (where you rescued Princess Zelda).
- In the second underground (blue) room, there is an infinite pit that has no
right limit (ie. there's no east wall at some point). Perform the levitation
trick there (see [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 can not enter them properly (hop into). Even so,
don't think that all rooms with a lower level are hoppable... Very few are in
fact.
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.
- 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 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 Hyrule 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 Method (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 (see [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
(the soonest possible) but there are probably other places where it can be done
correctly.
Requirements:
To perform it you have to be able to enter Hyrule Castle. This means that you
only need the sword and shield (I haven't been able to skip these yet...) and
that's it. It also means that you mustn't defeat Agahnim as Hyrule Castle is
closed after the fight. However, as I said before, there must be other places
where it works correctly so you might still be able to use this method later in
the game. I'll discuss more in depth the possibility of other places where to do
it in the "Why it happens" paragraph.
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... 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 (ground entrance, not the upper one). 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 Links 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 the earliest glitch 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 subsection
IV.1 [3PHA])
- You can use it to see the "secret" Chris Houlihan's room. To see the
Houlihan's room, start like for the 3 minutes speed run [3MIN] until you reach
the room with Ganon (meaning, you do the glitch, go to the room with the blue
archers and the spearman, go along the wall and head up a few rooms). When you
reach the room (the music changes to the final battle music) you first see the
top half of the room only (weird glitch). Keep going up and you'll start seeing
the full room (try it and you'll understand what I mean). Keep going up until
you start seeing the top wall of the full room. When you see the top wall stop
going up (if you continue you'll reach the Triforce room...). Now head right and
do 3 room transitions (you might be stuck when going right, if this happens,
simply move a few pixels to the up and try to move to the right again). You
should now be in the room that's one right to the room with the rats (you should
have seen rats when you were going right). Move to the South (without any room
transition) to have the camera scroll down and reveal the Chris Houlihan's room
(but the colors won't be the right ones). If you want correct colors do one
scrolling to the lower room and come back.
- 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
HC 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.
{JSEG}
Paragraph II.3.D : "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 Secundary 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 (normally game B but other games might disappear too). 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 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 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 PB (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...
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 Secundary 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 Secundary
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...
- 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). In fact 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. In fact, 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 go 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...
{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. The Super Bunny reverts to a normal
bunny when hit.
{LHSB}
Paragraph II.4.A : Lake Hylia
-----------------------------
Description:
This method lets you become a Super Bunny in Lake Hylia (in the Dark World). It
seems to have many powerful side effects, including recovery of deleted
savegames and teleportation (some sort of exploration glitch but in the
outworld). Thanks to David Wonn and his glitch site for this one.
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:
Check David Wonn's site (I can't give the url because it changes all the time.
Just search for David Wonn in any good search engine).
I'll probably experiment this glitch a lot more before I write something of my
own because it seems very interesting but I have nearly not used it yet.
Why it happens:
The game gets confused during the incorrect warps between the two worlds. I
don't know much more about it for now, but it is very similar to all other
bunny-related glitches: the bunny state is a very particular state, but the
programmers never imagined that we could try and do interesting stuff in this
state so they didn't program any error catching system. This is why doing some
weird things like messing up with the deep water and the world warps has such
interesting and unexpected consequences.
Notes:
Not much to say for the moment. I'll experiment it further and tell you what
there is to know.
{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.
{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 leftern 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. I can't really explain it but it works very well :)
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.
- 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 mostly 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 the Master
Sword. It uses the PBEG.
Requirements:
You must be able to perform the Pegasus Boots Exploration Glitch so you'll need
both the Pegasus Boots and the ability to enter Hyrule Castle. Also you'll need
not to have defeated one of the bosses that you can reach with the PBEG
(Lanmolas from the second Light World dungeon is perfect for this, Arrghus from
dungeon #6 in the Dark World is also good but harder). As said before, this
glitch may only be possible on an emulator.
How to:
- Perform the PBEG.
- 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 in the second Light World dungeon and
as you have the Big Key from Hyrule Castle you'll be able to reach the boss).
See [UDRW] and [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 !).
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 PBEG 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 HC. 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 Master Sword
since I couldn't get the Ether Medallion... I was wandering in the Exploration
Glitch and met a boss (it was Lanmolas first but then I also did it against
Arrghus) 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 the 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.
{MDR}
Subsection II.7 : The Multi-Directional Glitch
**********************************************
Description:
This glitch is a very weird glitch. The idea is to press simultaneously two
opposide 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) use of this glitch is the (Up + Down) combo Exploration
Glitch (see [UDEG]) that has 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 completed 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?
-------------------------------------------
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 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 (see explanations [UDEG]). 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 the UDEG 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.
How to:
- 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).
- Go back to where you performed the 3 minutes speed run (cf. [3MIN]) and
perform it until you reach the room with the 2 archers and the spearman.
- When you reach this room, don't head to the east as when you tried to reach
the triforce room. Instead go west one room. You should now see a throne in a
very small room with also a staircase. If so then go one room north (until the
screen scrolls to show you've entered a new room).
- The new room you see should be the inside of the cave that is in the north
west of Kakariko village (the colors should be blue like in the Ice palace but
this is not important. What you'll try to do now is hop inside the cave. To do
so walk to your left (you should normally still be in the lower side of the
screen because you should have stopped moving right after the screen scrolling)
until the two water rectangles are in the middle of the screen.
- Now walk up until Link appears (he'll hop into the room from the lower wall).
Zelda will be invisible but don't worry, she's still following you.
- Exit the cave normally. The game will 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 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). I'll explain later (see
[RAIN]) how you can reach Hera's Tower if you don't rescue Zelda (wether she's
with you or not).
- 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.
{QUE}
*************************************************
* Section III : Glitch quests and things to try *
*************************************************
{15MI}
Subsection III.1 : 15 minutes speed-run
***************************************
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:
- Start a new game.
- Do all the beginning normally until you get the Pegasus Boots.
- Go to Hyrule Castle and perform the PBEG [PBEG].
- You're now in a room with a laser eye. Go north until the screen scrolls (you
should see the Desert Dungeon big chest and then the screen scrolls and you'll
see another laser eye).
- Immediately after the screen has finished scrolling go west (you mustn't walk
north after the screen has scrolled). The screen will now scroll west.
- Walk west across this new room until the screen scrolls once again.
- You'll be in Hyrule Castle's main entrance room. Walk west until you can't
move (you'll see that the camera stops moving).
- Now walk a few steps south so you can continue walking west. Be very careful:
if you go to the southern room (ie. if the screen scrolls) you'll have to start
over from the beginning! Try moving one step at a time to the south and then
press left. If the camera moves to the left this means that you're moving (it's
good). If not then you'll have to move a few steps more to the south and try
again. The point of all this is to reach the room that is west to the entrance
room (so as soon as the camera follows Link to the left, keep walking until the
screen scrolls to the western room).
- Now that you are in the western room, walk west until the camera moves to
follow you (not a screen scrolling, only a camera following effect). When the
camera starts moving, head north.
- From now on, follow the instructions given for the next method [3MIN] from (*)
(that'll lead you to the Triforce room).
Notes:
- This method was the first one I found that let me finish the game very
quickly.
- 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).
{3MIN}
Subsection III.2 : 3 minutes speed-run
**************************************
Description:
This is a method that lets you finish the game (trigger the ending credits) in
less than 3 minutes. It is much better than the previous one since it is way
faster and can be performed on a real SNES.
Glitches used:
- UDEG
How to:
- 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 of the UDEG and perform the glitch [UDEG].
- Now that you see the empty closed room (and don't see Link anymore) go up
until the screen scrolls (it should scroll quite correctly). Immediately after
this go to the left until the screen starts scrolling to follow you (not a
room-change scroll, only a camera-following effect). The point of this is to go
enough to the left so that you can avoid the obstacles when you don't see where
you are. If you are using ZSNES simply press "2" on your keyboard to disable the
background layer that hides your character, this should make it easier!
- (*) Head north 2 rooms until you see a small room with 3 soldiers (2 blue
archers and a red spearman).
- Go to the right border of the room and north along the wall (don't do any room
transition while going east). If you did it correctly you should be able to see
where Link is while going east because the top of his head will appear in the
southern wall of the room.
- Now keep going North for a few rooms (something like 5 transitions) and
eventually you'll be in a room where Ganon is (but you'll be under the ground).
Continue to go up and you'll reach the room with the Triforce.
- 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 my previous method in 15 minutes was the best that could be done so
I might be wrong again...).
- It's also the shortest equipment you'll need: 3 hearts, a sword and a shield,
NOTHING ELSE. The previous minimal equipment was 4 hearts, the pegasus boots,
the sword, the shield, the pendant of courage and a few other things like keys
for dungeons etc. And most people still believe that even with glitches you
can't finish the game with less than 11 hearts (they only know about DMD).
- 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.
- After the credits end you can reset your system and you'll have a 000 finish
(with only 3 hearts !). If you try to load this game you'll see that something
really strange happens. You'll start on the top of the pyramid of power (so in
the Dark World) but the rain will still be there and the sprites (enemies and
so) will be the sprites from the Light World but with Dark world graphics (all
messed up of course...). Also you'll be a pink bunny and start being hurt by the
electric barrier of Hyrule Castle (you'll understand when you try it). You can
try to explore this strange hybrid world for a short time but you won't be able
to do much. To restore your game to a normal state simply save and quit (as you
already finished the game it won't count as a death anymore :)). When you load
it again you'll be in the secret passage of Hyrule Castle and you'll be able to
finish your game normally (but in the end you'll have a very simple 000 finish).
{NOMS}
Subsection III.3 : No Master Sword quest
****************************************
Description:
My objective when doing this quest was to go as far as I could in the game
without ever getting the 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.
Glitches used:
- DMD [DMD]
- Ether Medallion glitch [ETH]
How to:
- Start a new game, take the lamp, 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
(DON'T KILL LANMOLAS NOW !!!)
- 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.
- 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.
You should now have 9 hearts and no other item than the ones listed before.
- Perform the Ether Medallion glitch to get it [ETH].
- 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.
- 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 (you won't have to fight Lanmolas again, the pendant
will be waiting for you in the room) 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.
{SWOR}
Subsection III.4 : No Sword quest
*********************************
Description:
Here I wanted to do as much as I could in the game without having a sword at
all. 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!
Note that this quest doesn't use any glitch but I find it interesting so I put
it in my FAQ.
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 medallion.
- 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 witout a sword and reach the fight against Ganon.
- You can't go any further as you need a sword to hurt Ganon... As for the
previous quest, 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.
{PBGA}
Subsection III.5 : 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
- Levitation trick
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 HC and perform the PBEG [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
(use Hyrule Magic to find your way in the glitchy area if you have trouble).
- 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 (again, you can find your way
with Hyrule Magic, the rough direction is North then West when you are in the
room under Ganon's fight room -you know, the room with a telepatic tile and a
big square infinite pit that you can't fall into-) 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 exit Hyrule 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
(it's a little bit complicated to explain, see section about the three phases of
the game [3PHA] if you want more info). 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
defeat him. 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 enter in the room with 2 blue archers and a red spearman
that I described in the 15 minutes speed run [15MI] (and 3 minutes speed run
[3MIN]). 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.
{MSMP}
Subsection III.6 : No MS, no MP quest
*************************************
Description:
In this quest, the objective was to reach the final battle without the Moon
Pearl (as done previously) 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.
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
- Levitation trick
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 might 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 (I think that an
UDEG should work here but I'm not sure that you'll be able to open the dungeon
this way).
- As soon as you exit, open the dungeon and enter again. Get the Titan's Mitt
inside.
- Using the surfing bunny glitch, 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.
- Use the mirror to exit (you might have to select the mirror before the end of
the fight or else you won't be able to change the current item and be stuck).
- 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]).
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 earlier to complete Ganon's Tower and defeat
Agahnim in Ganon's Tower (see [PBGA]) 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 that I talked about in the speed runs subsections [15MI] and
[3MIN]) 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 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 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...).
{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) 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)
{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.
{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-dirctional 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 (U+D).
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
across 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.
- 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 Hyrule 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 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. 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).
- As soon as you have the Power Gloves, you can go back to the cemetery, open
the secret passage in the top left grave, fall down and exit to the Sanctuary.
Why would you want to do that? Simply because if you do so, the game will record
the Sanctuary as your new restart location, so if you decide to save/quit for
any reason (and keep in mind that it's one of the best ways to get out when you
think you are stuck) then you won't have to exit HC again.
{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:
- PBEG or UDEG
- 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. 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 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! (note that you don't
have to complete the Tower of Hera, simply entering with an EG and exitting is
enough)
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. PBEG works fine, and
I believe an UDEG should also be okay. What you want to do is hop into the
dungeon (you can try to hop into the room with the mimics 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 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 don't exit since you already have the one from HC). 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. 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 a Light World EG and want to
get the Crystal of the dungeon you have to exit, use the mirror to be considered
as being in the Dark World and re-enter.
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). 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), 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).
- Ganon's Tower can be completed quite easily (hop into the main entrance, 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!
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 (but I think that I already tried throwing the
Fighter's Sword in the pond in another quest and it doesn't work). 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 (the room number correspond to the Hyrule Magic room numbers):
\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.
{OTHE}
Subsection III.8 : Others
*************************
I'll add in this section some little things that you can do using glitches that
are of some interest, and that some people ask me to add to the FAQ.
{HOUL}
Paragraph III.8.A : The Houlihan's Room
---------------------------------------
Some users at the GameFAQs board asked me to give some directions that lead to
the Chris Houlihan's room using an exploration glitch. I won't give the "normal"
methods to reach this room since you can find a good FAQ about it in the LttP
FAQs section at www.gamefaqs.com
Here's how to see this room (in case you don't believe it exists and can't enter
it with the usual methods):
- Start like for the 3 minutes speed run [3MIN] until you reach the room with
Ganon (meaning, you do the glitch, go to the room with the blue archers and the
spearman, go along the wall and head up a few rooms).
- When you reach the room (the music changes to the final battle music) you
first see the top half of the room only (weird glitch). Keep going up and you'll
start seeing the full room (try it and you'll understand what I mean).
- Keep going up until you start seeing the top wall of the full room. When you
see the top wall stop going up (if you continue you'll reach the Triforce
room...).
- Now head right and do 3 room transitions.
- You should now be in the room that's one right to the room with the rats (you
should have seen rats when you were going right). Move to the south (without any
room transition) to have the camera scroll down and reveal the Chris Houlihan's
room (but the colors won't be the right ones).
Notes: You might be stuck when going right after seeing Ganon. If this happens,
simply move a few pixels to the up and try to move to the right again.
If you want correct colors in the Houlihan's room, do one scrolling to the lower
room and come back.
{TEC}
*******************************************************
* Section IV : Technical stuff you might want to know *
*******************************************************
{3PHA}
Subsection IV.1 : The three phases of the game
**********************************************
[coming soon, or maybe not so soon...]
{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 scoll
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) 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 an 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:
256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 ... 271
272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 ... 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 Secundary Exploration Zone. It contains mainly
houses, shops and caves.
So far, there's only one exploration glitch that can let you explore this zone,
and it's the "Jump and Save" EG [JSEG].
{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 finding 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.
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:
0 NE - Final Battle With Ganon (trigger the ending by moving one room up)
3 SW - Chris Houlihan's room
12 - Ganon's Tower main hall (hoppable)
18 - Sanctuary (hoppable)
20& 21 - Pipe rooms in Turtle Rock. Don't enter while exploring because it'll
freeze the game.
43 W - A useful hoppable room of the Palace of Darkness
47 S - A useful hoppable room. It's the cave that's NW of Kakariko
64 SE - A very useful hoppable room in HC. 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 HC that's west of the main entrance. It's the room where
I recommend you do the UDEG and the JSEG.
97 - HC main hall
112 NE - It's the room where you start if you do the UDEG from room 96
114 S - This is where you should do the PBEG
115 SW - This is where the PBEG should lead you
119 - Tower of Hera main room. Hoppable but hop near the door in order not
to get trapped by the blue blocks.
178 N - A hoppable room in Misery Mire
179 NW - Another hoppable room in Misery Mire (but the previous one is easier)
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 Secundary 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 most likely be stuck outside.
289 SW - Smithies shop
290 SW& SE - Fortune tellers' shops
295 - Last room of the Secundary zone. Don't move to the right or the game
will freeze!
{CON}
**************************
* Section V : Conclusion *
**************************
{CME}
Subsection V.1 : How to contact me
**********************************
You can either send me a mail at zanapher@yahoo.fr 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 intersting challenges with someone (all credit will be given
where due of course).
If you see a spelling mistake (even the slightest) 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).
{THX}
Subsection V.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, and finding the
necessary techniques to complete the "Rainy Day" quest [RAIN].
- 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.
- most of the people at the GameFAQs board for liking this game as much as I do.
- David Wonn, and the people who posted glitches on his site (particularly
dvdmth) for the Death Mountain Descent, the Skull Dungeon Exploration Glitch and
the Super Bunny at Lake Hylia glitches.
- Water Gemini for giving me the will to explore the game even more in depth to
prove him wrong each time he was.
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