Submission #8267: SwordlessLink's N64 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "glitchless, all main quests" in 3:26:38.63

This run aims to beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as quickly as possible whilst completing all the main story quests without performing any glitches.

The definition of “Glitchless” here is stricter than the one used in the Any% run, found here: https://tasvideos.org/5178M – this run is probably more what people tend to think of when they imagine a glitch-free playthrough of the game. In addition to the tighter restrictions on what techniques you can do, another rule is that all main quests must be completed.

- Emulator used: BizHawk Version 2.8 (x64)

- Plugin settings: (with game running) N64 -> Plugins -> Global -> Core Type: Pure Interpreter, Active Video Plugin: GLideN64, Video Resolution: 320 x 240

- Display settings: Config -> Display Configuration -> Display Method: OpenGL

- Sound settings: Config -> Sound -> Output Method: OpenAL

Since there is such a gray area in defining what is or is not a "glitch" in this game, a group of OoT players voted to define a set of rules that they would all abide by. It is important that all players use the same rules, since it allows them to compare times with each other. These rules are not perfect, but they are the current standard. This category aims to create a speedrunning experience which feels like a glitchless category. This is accomplished by requiring intermediate goals in addition to simply beating the game, and by allowing a narrower set of techniques than Glitchless Any%.

• Complete all eight main dungeons by defeating their miniboss(es) and boss, and collecting the spiritual stone or medallion from their blue warps. • Collect the Goron Bracelet before entering Dodongo’s Cavern • Feed Jabu-Jabu a fish before entering his belly • Complete Ice Cavern by getting iron boots before entering Water Temple • Complete Gerudo Fortress by freeing the carpenters and opening the wasteland gate before entering the Haunted Wasteland or Spirit Temple • Use Nocturne of Shadow to get to Shadow Temple • Open the Door of Time with the Song of Time • Defeat Ganondorf and Ganon • Dispel all of the trials barriers with light arrows

• Power Crouch Stabbing • Roll invincibility • Using post-damage invincibility to avoid further damage, unless you skip a puzzle • Jumpslashing while mid-air for more distance • Shield-dropping held objects • Using broken deku stick • Momentary Antigravity (e.g. b1 skip) • Hookshot Extension • Rolling from the blue switch in Jabu Jabu's Belly to open the door without holding down the switch • Damage boosting • Damage Buffering • Damaging Volvagia's second hitbox with an explosion while it is underground • Passing through the back side of a one-sided collision (e.g. bridge clip, darunia's door, forest's falling ceiling) • Attacking to collect or hit an object on the other side of a collision • Twisted sidehops or backflips via siderolls or standing ESS shuffle • Backflipping over Mido in the Lost Woods as adult • Remote Wall Interactions (touching a wall to interact with another wall sooner, e.g. jump to Volvagia) • Swimming laterally while wearing Iron Boots. • Climbing ladders or vines during cutscenes.

• Infinite Sword Glitch • Megaflip and megasidehop • Extended Antigravity (e.g. unloading lower gerudo fortress) • Ground jump • Hoverboost • All forms of superslide • Hovering • Going Out of Bounds (any area which is beyond the boundary walls of the map, or any area which is exposed to the lowest void plane in the map.) • Wall Walking (standing on walls due to them being treated as a floor. This includes seamwalking, for example) • Entrance point glitch (or other respawn point manipulation) • Clipping (note that this is well defined for both solid collision and soft/actor collision. contact a moderator if you aren't sure if something is a clip). • Cutscene diving to sink into water • Flame storage • Item Manipulation (BA, RBA, GIM) • Using collection delay to your advantage (e.g. early eyeball frog or gold scale. Delay happens naturally in many shops if you buy quickly, this is ok) • Something except for a sword on B (excluding normal circumstances like riding Epona) • Bottle Duplication • Wrong warp • Void warp • Walking While Talking • Causing a switch to remain pressed longer than it should • Ocarina Items • Z-slide • A-slide • Using restricted items (such as farore's wind in the overworld or ocarina in boss rooms) • Being in an unloaded area • Unloading an actor which clearly should be loaded (e.g. actor glitch, unloading KZ's ice, overloading the graveyard or trials to remove graves or Gold Gauntlet monoliths) • Using culling for any purpose other than to temporarily halt the normal behavior of an actor with which Link is not currently interacting (such as Schrödinger's Chains) • Abusing actors which have not had a chance to update after loading (such as 0,0,0 glitch and the deku b2 web) • Dying to achieve anything other than a deathwarp • Shielding damage midair to take Link out of a backflip or sidehop and into a normal airborne state. A.K.A. "Recoil Jump" • Skipping text triggers via weapon swapping (e.g. owl skips and vine text skips in deku tree) • Opening underwater chests while wearing the Iron Boots • Touching misplaced or accidentally exposed loading zones (e.g. Early Jabu or Trials Skip) • Skipping puzzles via damage invincibility • Opening flaming treasure chests • Skipping cutscenes by any means (e.g. voiding while the shadow bridge falls, exiting DC while exploding the wall, pulling ocarina to stop the tunic Goron from speaking) • Delaying a timer by pressing cutscene items midair. This includes internal timers such as those used for switches. • Stale Reference Manipulation • Arbitrary Code Execution • Quick Putaway

See https://www.speedrun.com/oot?h=Glitchless-All_Main_Quests&rules=category&x=zd35jnkn-7890o58w.gq79gxpl for more information.

By holding just outside the dead zone on the analogue stick and then holding Z, Link will shuffle in place. This is called ESS Position and lets you change your angle for one frame, after which Link will snap back to whatever way he was facing when you started holding Z.

This is the fastest form of movement as child, but not as adult. It is still used a lot as adult if the distance covered is short enough, as they reach their maximum speed much quicker than backwalking and allow for quick angle changes. There are certain situations in the game (typically after some cutscenes) where you can’t sidehop or roll immediately (an example is talking to Mido after Deku Tree). If you don’t hold Z on the first sidehop in a chain, Link’s angle will be slightly skewed when he lands. This can be used to change his angle a bit during a sidehop chain without stopping and allows for getting round some corners more smoothly.

This is done by holding ESS position and Z, and then tilting the control stick in one direction and performing a sidehop/backflip, all the while still holding Z. This causes Link to perform a sidehop/backflip at a certain angle, but because Z is still being held, the camera doesn't change and he rotates back to the direction he was facing previously while he's in the air.

This is the fastest form of movement as adult and is used as much as possible, particularly if the distances to cover are long, straight lines. It’s possible to start a backwalk “instantly” by changing the analogue stick angle on each frame that the camera moves as it centres behind Link.

Constant rolling is slow because Link’s speed drops so much so often, but these are useful in some places where a sidehop doesn’t quite cover the distance needed.

If you’re hit by damage in mid-air, you will gain some further distance. This is used a few times in the run to clear pits.

If you crouch by pressing R to shield, and stab your sword, the value of that attack will be the same as whatever the last “sword” attack you did was (it also applies to Deku Sticks and the Megaton Hammer). If your last attack was a jump slash, then the PCS will deal the same amount of damage as that. This is used on every boss fight.

Whenever you complete the puzzle or kill all the enemies in a room and a chest spawns or door opens, the position of the camera (how far away it is from Link) will affect how long you have to wait before regaining control of Link. Usually, the best way to manage this is to go into first person mode before the cutscene starts, which brings the camera close to Link and lets you regain control the quickest.

This run is largely movement-based, so most parts don’t really need commentary from me to understand what’s going on. Instead, I will provide some general commentary (if anything comes up in the discussion thread that is relevant, I will edit the submission text to include it).

- I started this run immediately after finishing my Any% one, but before I submitted it to TASVideos. This means that I didn’t do optimised backwalking for the first child section of the run, as I wasn’t aware of it until it was pointed out in the discussion thread. It’s used all throughout the rest of the run after this point. It’s important to note that this saves, at most, 3 frames (1 visual frame) compared to the way I was backwalking before. Similarly, the idea of rolling after entering a new area at maximum speed before starting a sidehop chain is not used during the first child section, but is used whenever faster after becoming adult.

- Some parts of the first child section were copied directly from my Any% to avoid having to do them again. The start of the run until entering the Deku Tree is identical to my Any% run.

- If you see me waiting before doing something, it's for enemy manipulation purposes (e.g. the Green Bubble in child Spirit Temple) or because there are frame rules that don't let you hit the enemies any sooner (e.g., the Lizalfos in Dodongo's Cavern).

- I collect two heart containers in order to survive the Fire Temple without using a fairy or getting the Goron Tunic. It is technically possible to do this with four hearts (so only one extra heart container collected), but this ends up being slower because it means there are fewer places you can take damage to save time (the timer in each room in the Fire Temple is based on your health when you enter it, not the total number of hearts you have) and in the final room before the boss, it would mean that I couldn’t cross the room via the lava (as my health would be too low when entering the boss fight to survive it). That last part alone is enough to justify getting two heart containers, as the other path around the room before the boss is slow.

- Volvagia (Fire Temple boss) has a second hitbox that’s beneath one of the holes. Using bombs, I can damage it. The specific pattern of bombs used here is done to prevent the boss from flying around the room.

- Twinrova (Spirit Temple boss) is a largely luck-based fight. The quickest way to do it is to have the same one fire at you three times, from the edge platform she starts on (this reduces the amount of flying around she does before attacking), followed by the second one moving into position on the same platform and attacking you for the final hit. Their positions after taking damage just make this the fastest way to do it. For the second phase, if you fire a long-range weapon at her after she shoots the spell at you, she’ll spin in place and there is then a chance she will stay on that platform rather than flying to another one, which saves time.

- On the boat in the Shadow Temple, I look down for most of it because this saves quite a lot of time due to lag reduction (around two seconds).

- The following techniques are allowed in the Any% run, but not in this one (see https://tasvideos.org/5178M for more information): Hover Boost, Recoil Jump, Item Buffering. This means that areas where those were used (e.g., first room of Deku Tree and first half of Dodongo’s Cavern) are routed differently compared to the Any%.

TASVideos times from power on until last input required for the ending to play. Going by this timing method, the time of the run is 743918 frames, or 3 hours 26 minutes 38.63 seconds.

Console speedrunners time their runs differently, from first frame of Link’s movement until first frame of the Ganon death cutscene.

- First frame of Link's movement (11099): https://i.imgur.com/NlwkEzD.png

- First frame of Ganon's death scene (732901): https://i.imgur.com/BJGNcgG.png

Going by this timing method, the time of the run is 732901 – 11099 = 721802 frames, or 12030.033 seconds, or 3 hour 20 minutes 30.03 seconds.

I am requesting that if the run is published, both times be included in the video file (the second one could be called “RTA Time”). Otherwise, viewers will not be able to truly appreciate the difference in time between this run and unassisted runs. As of 07/05/2023, the unassisted world record in this category is 3:36:05 – found here: https://www.speedrun.com/oot/run/zn1l1d7m – meaning this TAS is roughly 15 minutes 35 seconds faster than it.

See https://www.speedrun.com/oot?h=Glitchless-All_Main_Quests&rules=game&x=zd35jnkn-7890o58w.gq79gxpl for more information on timing.

ViGadeomes: Claiming for judging.

ViGadeomes: Sorry again for the delay...

This submission presents the intended order of doing things in the game and is doing it fast ! This is super interesting to see this game played "normally" without any glitches. The category is clear and everyone seems to like it.

The route, and many other elements in this category are not present in the other publication so I think it's safe to say it is different enough.

Accepting to Alternative as a new branch.

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