This run aims to complete The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX in as little a time as possible while still collecting all 8 of the instruments from the dungeons. I achieved a time of 1h 0m 2.683s (216161 frames), which is 35235 frames (9m 47.25s) faster than the previous run, found here:
#1538: Chef Stef's GBC Links Awakening DX in 1:09:49.93
I started this run in July 2009, and what you see is the result of many months of hard work on it. It has been totally worth it, and I am very proud of the run and satisfied with my final time.
-Emulator used: VisualBoyAdvance Emulator Version 1.7.2 re-recording v19.3
Make sure you have Options -> Controls -> Allow Left+Right / Up+Down checked before watching.
Common Tricks and Glitches
-Jumping: In this game, jumping works in such a way that if you were to say, jump diagonally up/right, it would take as much time and cover the same distance in one direction, as if you were to just jump directly right. Meaning, you can clear a screen diagonally in the same amount of time you can clear it in one direction (left, right, up, or down). This is used constantly in the run as it saves tons of time.
-Jumping while carrying items: If we hold combinations of up/down/left/right and use the feather while holding an item (such as pots and rocks), we can actually jump while holding the item, and upon landing, he will hold it in his hands normally again. This speeds up a few areas quite a lot, most notably, Eagle's Tower.
-Cornerboosting: If we push Link into a corner for a few frames, he will get a small boost. This is used all over the place, but it becomes very hard to notice after I get the feather (although it still works while jumping). Because it's used so frequently, I will not point out every single place that I did it at. Just know that it was done at every feasible place.
-Save & Quit: The S&Q screen (activated by pressing A, B, Start, and Select at the same time) is used to skip many pieces of text in the game. It doesn't work on all of them, but it always works after opening a chest (but oddly, not with items you pick up from the ground, such as the golden leaves). It is also frequently used to take us back to a previous area to avoid backtracking.
-Up/down/left/right sword attacks: If we hold combinations of up/down/left/right and slash the sword, we can sometimes hit enemies from a distance. This isn't nearly as useful as you might think, and is generally only handy during spinattacks, and even then, it's pretty useless. It does look cool, though, to see Link all pixelated and messed up for a few seconds during the spinattack.
-Shieldboosting: If we hold combinations of up/down/left/right and use the shield, we can shield enemies that are at other parts of the screen. This has limited use as the shield isn't used much past the start of the game, but it does speed up the start of the game a bit. It can also be used to pick up items from a distance, but this only has one use (picking up the sword without going down to it at the beach).
-Damage boosting: When taking damage, Link will get pushed forward a few spaces at a high speed. This usually saves 4-5 frames when done effectively.
-Superdash/superjump: If we hold combinations of up/down/left/right immediately before dashing with the Pegasus Boots, we can cause Link to shoot off in various directions. These directions include up and slightly to the right, up and slightly to the left, up and left, and down and right. No other dashing direction is possible. If we jump during one of these highspeed dashes (superjump), we can go either straight down, up and slightly to the left, or straight left. It's also possible to go straight right but it isn't any faster than a normal dash jump. This is used constantly after getting the boots, as it saves so much time all over the place.
-Superdashing through objects: I found this awesome glitch when TASing the fourth dungeon. If there's an object above us, and to out left, but nothing diagonally up and to our left, if we charge up a left/down/right superdash, we can glitch through the vertex and skip lots of stuff. This can also be used to get through small fences and the like, which are along the very top of a screen. It can therefore also be used to bypass loading points on doors that are against the top of the screen, such as the one shortly before the Eagle's Tower entrance.
-Awesomebombs: If we hold combinations of up/down/left/right while using bombs, we can plant them at different parts of the screen without actually going to those parts manually. We can also use it to have multiple bombs out at once. While it's possible to get more than two bombs out at once, two is the optimal number to have, as after that, it takes too long to pull out more bombs for it to be worth it. This is used to kill dodongos and the Face Shrine boss very quickly.
-Aquaslide: If we hold combinations of up/down/left/right before moving into a body of water, Link will move through the water at high speeds. This has very limited use in the run, but some areas where it's very noticable include the water after exiting Catfish's Maw, and the water in Angler's Tunnel in the room two rooms before the boss key door.
Getting the Sword
-Use of cornerboosting and better use of shieldboosting. Damage boosting used at the beach.
Time saved: 34 frames (0.57 seconds)
Going to the First Dungeon
-Use of damage boosting on the way to the cave. In the cave, I cut the plant to Link's top right with a glitched slash, and then the the next one while opening the chest, which cancels the cutting animation.
-I shieldboost over the gap outside, rather than damage boosting across. Much faster as there's no waiting time.
-Lots of shieldboosting was used in the village off of the animals. More S&Qs were also used after getting items to skip the text after getting them.
Time saved: 726 frames (12.1 seconds)
Tail Cave
-A new route was taken. This involves getting what was previously the second key last. This is way faster and makes much more sense as if we get it last, we can just jump over the gap to the switch, then back over the gap to the chest.
-I charge up the sword as the door shuts behind me in the room with the bats. This allows me to charge up the sword without losing a single frame, as Link is frozen for a split second as the door shuts anyway.
-I shieldboost off the moldrom, and later shieldboost off a gel in the next room as well as damage boosting off the sparks. I take the upper path, which turned out to be faster.
-In the room with the spiky turtles, I flip them both over with a glitched shield attack, then kill them both at once with a glitched sword attack. This was faster than pushing them into the pit, as they take forever to die that way.
-Underground, I use a new trick (found by LinksDarkArrows) to get over the gaps using the shield, which sped this section up considerably. I'm basically boosting off of them from a distance, and it elevates me. It has no other use in the run and only works in sidescrolling areas.
-My damage boost before the Roc's Feather chest was much better and landed me way closer to the chest.
-After S&Qing, I kill the moldrom from before and get the chest with 20 rupees in it. Previously, these rupees would've been gotten from enemies around the overworld, but I deemed that slower as I damage boost off said enemies more in this run, and my movement in general is much faster. Therefore, waiting around for them to drop rupees would've been slower overall.
-After getting the boss key and S&Qing, I get the key that I skipped earlier, much quicker than the previous run did.
-At the boss, I used two spinattacks instead of one spinattack and two normal attacks. This was faster. I also manipulated him to die right next to the door.
Time saved: 1324 frames (22.07 seconds)
Rescuing Bow Wow and Going to the Second Dungeon
-I S&Q after getting the bananas to skip the text.
-Better/more use of damage boosting in the woods.
-Moblin battle was way faster. More spinattacks were used, and I manipulated him to be right next to the wall before dashing into it, which minimised the waiting time.
-S&Q used after collecting bow wow, which saved many seconds.
-In the swamp, I damage boost off some of the plants and use jumping more efficiently to minimise the time spent walking on the shallow water (Link moves slower than normal when walking on that). The 50 rupee chest is gotten as before.
Time saved: 2237 frames (37.28 seconds)
Bottle Grotto
Note: Normally, we would have the Piece of Power in this dungeon. It's in fact slower to get it, as it would mean avoiding the S&Q after collecting bow wow, and several damage boosts. The reason for this is because the PoP only appears when you've killed a certain number of enemies, and this number is reset when you S&Q. This was tested thoroughly.
-Better use of glitched magic powder to light the torches quicker.
-The next few rooms were much faster than before, particularly the room with the second key, as a more direct path to the chest is taken.
-Glitched powder used to light the torch in the Power Bracelet room quicker.
-Less item switches were done in the next section. In order to get across the pit, I damage boosted from the turtle.
-In the room with the boss key, I charge the sword up as I pick up the pot, which cancels the slashing animation. I also manipulated the enemies to be in much better positions.
-In the next enemy room, it was faster to kill all three of them with pots.
-Underground, I use a trick while climbing the ladder at the end to send Link up much more rapidly. This is done by starting as far to the right as possible on the ladder, and moving him in towards the wall at certain points. It boosts him up quite significantly each time it's done, and it's done a few times throughout the run.
-The boss was largely the same, but manipulated to die as close to the door as possible.
Time saved: 2320 frames (38.67 seconds)
Collecting the Golden Leaves and Going to the Third Dungeon
-When heading to the warp to the east (which we go to now so we can quickly warp back here later), I take a different and more direct path than before.
-After S&Qing and heading south, I manipulate a bomb from the buzz blob, which helps contribute later in skipping the second bomb pack from the shop.
-It was a little faster to return bow wow before going to the shop.
-In the shop, I buy the shovel, and then quickly buy the bombs, and S&Q. This cancels the rupee counter and also skips some text. I don't need to buy a second pack of bombs anymore, but 200 rupees are required to be able to buy the shovel at all, and it's still faster to get those rupees than to steal the shovel as well as the bow (as it would mean an unavoidable death, which takes forever). Therefore, for the rest of the run, I still have leftover rupees. This was the fastest way.
-At the first screen with a mushroom enemy, I use his bomb to boost myself across the entire screen in one jump.
-The raccoon with the first gold leaf is killed before he even appears. This is because, even though he isn't visible right away, he's actually always on the map. Chef Stef discovered this.
-Inside the castle, a more direct path was taken. Damage boosts were also used all over the place.
-To get the third leaf, I used a glitched bombarrow to blow open the wall right away, then a glitched arrow to kill the enemy right away. This minimised the waiting time.
-After getting the fourth leaf, I S&Q. This was surprisingly quite a bit faster than manually leaving the place.
-After picking up the rock to hit the crow for the fifth leaf, I jump while holding the rock. This is possible with up/down/left/right, and seems to have been overlooked in the previous run. It saves a lot of time in many places throughout the run.
-While heading to Richard's house, I do another massive bomb-boosted jump across the screen.
-In Richard's house, it was 17 frames faster to S&Q after his first bit of text, then walk up to him a second time, than to listen to it all at once, because it skipped part of it if I S&Qed.
-A much more direct route was taken in the grass maze. This was made possible because I entered the second screen of the maze much higher up, which means I could basically move through one of the plants without cutting it first.
-Rather than S&Qing after getting the Slime Key, I go back through the maze and use a glitch to get outside of it. This involves entering the screen at a part where there's a plant in your way right away. When this happens, the game pushes you to the top of the screen, as if you had just jumped into it, and it puts you below the grass maze. This was found by mokesmoe.
-I open the dungeon from the right side of the keylock, rather than the left side as was done in the previous run.
Time saved: 4614 frames (1 minute 16.8 seconds)
Key Cavern
-Jumping while carring things is used to speed up the first room.
-The strat used to kill the enemies in the second room is different, and much faster.
-In the room with the dodongos, it was faster to kill them both than to kill one then exit and re-enter. This is only faster because of a new strat for killing them that I found, which involves using another bomb one frame before the dodongo eats the first bomb. This causes the dodongo to move while eating the bomb, and means we can use another one on it right away, so there's very little waiting time. It's seen again in Face Shrine.
-Better superdashing and superjumps are used to speed up the next area.
-A bomb is picked up from the room with three clockbombs and two gels. This is necessary as the previous dodongo glitch takes so many bombs to do.
-The room with the three bomb enemies is done much quicker, as the first bomb hit takes a quicker path to the second, which is right next to the third.
-In the underground, I use a trick to get down the ladder at the end without climbing on it at all first. This saves quite a bit of time.
-I use superdashes to kill the bird enemies quickly. This annoyingly made Link invisible, which made the boss hard to TAS.
-At the boss, I use a new strategy to cut out a lot of waiting time. This involves dashing into the wall as he falls before I deliver the final hit, which avoids the time where Link would normally be knocked out and on the ground for a few seconds before being able to attack again. It saved a lot of time.
-I superdash to the instrument. Not sure why this wasn't used in the previous run.
Time saved: 5219 frames (1 minute 27 seconds)
Getting the Ocarina, Marin, and Going to the Fourth Dungeon
-Better superdashing and superjumping is used to clear this next section more quickly.
-A new trick is used to clear the river gap, which avoids an item switch, and having to go underground. It's done by being boosted across by the mushroom enemy's bomb while in midair.
-Better use of superdashing and superjumping going to and in the Animal Village.
-When heading to the Dream House, I use a technique I found (details above) to glitch through certain objects. This lets us skip lifting up one of the rocks, and is used again right outside the Dream House to skip lifting up that rock too.
-In the Dream House, superjumps are used to navigate the screens quickly, and superdashes are used to quickly reach the chest with the Ocarina in it.
-While going to get Marin, normal dashing is used a lot of the time. The reason for this is explained above (it's because we can't superdash down/left).
-At the desert, better superdashing is used to get to the boss more quickly.
-At the boss, two glitched arrows are used to kill it before it even appears. This boss works the same way the raccoon did at the castle while collecting the gold leaves.
-Superdashing is used to skip lifting up the rock before the cave, and inside the cave, the item switching is better, as I jump across the gap after charging up a dash.
-In the next part of the cave, I jump over the last crystal instead of charging up a dash to destroy it.
-Superjumps and normal dash jumps are used to clear the shallow water parts more quickly.
-I time my jump before the Angler's Tunnel entrance so that I land right in front of it, instead of one square to the left of it like in the previous run.
Time saved: 6621 frames (1 minute 50.4 seconds)
Angler's Tunnel Part I
Note: This dungeon has had a complete overhaul thanks to the superdashing glitch I found (detailed above), which allows us to pass through the fences near the entrance and access the later parts of the dungeon right away.
-The bombrefill near the entrance is taken.
-I superdash through the fence and get the boss key right away. I use superdashing and superjumping to speed up this section considerably. While underground, I use a glitch to push Link through the block above him, which avoids having to wait for the thwomp to move up.
-More superdashing is used to reach the miniboss quickly, and again to reach the Flippers quickly.
Time saved (Note: At this point, another 35 or so seconds are already guaranteed to be saved due to the differences in the dungeon when we revisit it at the end of the game, but I will not factor this time into the time saved until that point): 6364 frames (1 minute 46.2 seconds)
Going to the Fifth Dungeon
-A S&Q screen is used to skip part of Manbo's text, and a S&Q is used to quickly bring us back to land after learning the ocarina song. This song is very useful as it skips a lot of backtracking at several places later on.
-Superdashing and superjumping are used to get to the warp quickly, and again to quickly navigate through the Animal Village, learning the Ballad of the Windfish, and getting to the water.
-In the water, I use an up/down/left/right glitch to make Link look strange while swimming. This of course didn't cost any time.
-Underwater, I found that it was faster to constantly jump whenever possible, even if we weren't actually heading up.
Time saved: 6985 frames (1 minute 56.4 seconds)
Catfish's Maw
-Superjumping is used to clear the second room quickly.
-The enemies in the next room are killed more quickly, which gets rid of the waiting time seen in the previous run.
-The plants in the room with the blocks are cut more quickly and via a different strat (involving cutting the one to the left of the right block early), which allows me to push the blocks much more quickly.
-Superjumps and superdashes are used to clear the next few rooms very quickly.
-When fighting the Skeleton Master, the battle won't actually end until he gets back up. Therefore, the best way to deal with him is to attack him with the sword as quickly as possible, and after that, you can be less lenient with the bombs. I attack him before he even appears onscreen by using a glitched spinattack, and then bomb him to death.
-Superdashes are used to merge myself with the block in the next room so I can push it to the right instead of up, which skips going into an otherwise useless room.
-More superdashes and superjumps are used after the second Skeleton Master, and again after the third.
-When we hit the water, though it may be hard to see, I do the first aquaslide of the run (detailed above).
-Underwater, I found that it was fastest to jump out of the water on the second screen then let him slide down against the side of the wall, than to swim across, because swimming without jumping is incredibly slow.
-A superjump is used to get to the chest with the boss key more quickly.
-When fighting the final Skeleton Master, two bombs then a bombarrow are used. This was the quickest way to do it while conserving our arrows and bombs for later in the run. I leave one of the item slots blank so that the hookshot is automatically equipped. All feasible combinations of items were tested at this point and this was found to be the fastest by a long shot.
-The 200 rupee chest is skipped, as that money is no longer needed (detailed below).
-The enemies in the next part are quickly killed with superhookshot attacks.
-Underground, I charge up a dash before switching to the feather, which speeds up that screen a lot.
-The enemies are manipulated better in the next part to minimise waiting time.
-The boss is largely the same, but instead of 5 attacks on the first cycle, I do 6. This means only 2 are required on the second cycle. It was impossible to do more than 6 attacks. The heart is collected using the hookshot, and a superdash is used to reach the instrument quickly.
Time saved: 9441 frames (2 minutes 37.2 seconds)
Getting the Face Key and Going to the Sixth Dungeon
-An aquaslide is used right outside the dungeon, and again after resurfacing.
-Superdashes and superjumps are used to clear the next part quickly.
-A bomb-boosted jump is used to clear the screen with the owl very quickly.
-The item switching on the way to the South Shrine was much better and faster. For some reason, the boots weren't equipped at all during this section in the previous run, despite them saving lots of time here.
-The boss was killed with dash attacks rather than spinattacks. This is way faster as it means we can attack him twice per dash, so we're essentially doing two spinattacks in one dash. This speeds the battle up considerably. It takes fives dash attacks to kill him. He was manipulated to die right at the exit, so I pick up the Face Key right as I leave.
-The boots were used again to make going back through this section way faster. The shield was no longer needed as we can simply walk over the top of many of the statues thanks to clipping walls.
-The section with lots of rocks and plants is way faster than before due to superdashing through some of the rocks, and using the mushroom enemy's bomb to blow up many of the plants very quickly.
-On the screen with the stairs to the undeground, a superdash is used to merge Link with the statue as soon as he starts moving, which means that when he begins attacking, we can instantly access the underground, rather than getting knocked back first.
-Superjumps are used to get through the next part really quickly. It looks particularly cool seeing him do a superjump right after opening the dungeon.
Time saved: 10977 frames (3 minutes 2.94 seconds)
Face Shrine
-A superdash is used to get through the statue in the first room.
-More superdashes and superjumps are used to clear the next section very quickly.
-In the room with the pots, I superdash as close as is possible before jumping. A superjump would be impractical here due to the limited directions that superjumps have. I pick up the pot, stand on the switch, then jump down while still carrying the pot, and use a superhookshot to pull myself to the pot in the lower left quickly, and walk out. This was faster than walking/jumping the rest of the way by about 15 frames.
-A superhookshot is used to hit the crystal here, but it's done as close to the crystal as possible. This reduces the time taken for it to retract after hitting it. The arrowrefill is taken.
-A superhookshot is used to pull me to the pot.
-A superhookshot is used to quickly hit the crystal in the next section. I then damage boost off the enemy to quickly get up the stairs. I then pick up the bombrefill, and switch to the boots and bombs.
-In the room with the enemies, I kill them both at the same time, and a lot faster than the previous run, but superdashing closer to them before throwing the bomb.
-I use a superhookshot to get down to the place with the horseheads before we would normally be able to.
-In the underground, I avoid taking damage from the blocks by delaying when I get off the ladder a bit. This seemed obvious to me and I'm not sure how it was overlooked before.
-In the room with the rabbits, the bomb is taken out as early as possible, and the rabbits are then manipulated and moved (with the hookshot) into a place where they will all be killed instantly when the bomb explodes. There is no waiting time in this room because of this.
-At the dodongos, I use the same strat used in Key Cavern (see that section of the text to see how it's done). I then take one of the fairies from the dodongos because I have a little bit of waiting time before the door opens.
-I hookshot across the gap and superdash through the block, skipping the need for one of the keys that were previously collected, and then dash up to the chest to get the boss key, where I S&Q (previously, we went back down to get the key from the chest in the shallow water area below).
-Everything is the same until the room with the pots, where I superdash to the topright, and go up the stairs.
-I use another superhookshot to get into the area with the horseheads again.
-The next enemy room was done a lot quicker.
-The room before the boss can be done in several ways. There's waiting time, as we need to wait for the enemy to appear anyway, but I took the most direct path as I felt it looked more professional. I superdash into the boss room after equipping the boots and bombs.
-Four awesomebombs and a regular bomb are used to kill the boss before he even talks. Superdashes are then used to reach the instrument quickly.
Time saved: 12527 frames (3 minutes 28.8 seconds)
Getting the Bird Key and Going to the Eighth Dungeon
Note: At this point in the previous run, we went to the sign maze southeast of the village to learn the frog's song. This is skipped in my run, thanks to a trick Tompa found, which involves using the hookshot to get out of bounds on the screen before the Turtle Rock entrance. This will be detailed below.
-I play the ocarina and head to the moutains, superdashing all over the place as I go.
-More superdashing and superjumping is done to get through the mountains very quickly.
-The cave is significantly faster now that we can superdash through the blocks.
-In the room with the large pit that we normally would need the rooster to clear, a superjump and a hookshot glitch is used to get over it quickly. This it's possible to clear this room with just one hookshot glitch, the position you end up in is terrible, and it involves walking on the pit for a while before jumping, so it's slower anyway.
-A superdash is used to grab the Bird Key quickly, and a S&Q is then used to bring us to the entrance.
-More superjumping and superdashing is used to reach the next cave.
-In the cave, the same trick as before is used to get onto the ledge that we should normally never be able to reach. However, it's done much faster here, as I slash the sword during a jump, rather than just standing in place and slashing it.
-The next section is skipped almost entirely by glitching out of bounds using superdashing. This also lets us skip the Fire Cave (which also saves a bomb).
-Here, I skip having to wake up the turtle outside Turtle Rock (which is why we're able to skip the 200 rupee chest in Catfish's Maw, and getting the frog song after Face Shrine). I do this by hookshotting the treestumps at the top of the screen while taking damage, or picking up an item. For some reason, doing this forces Link into the object a bit. It only works when you're going up, and if the thing that's in your way is something that can normally be hookshotted. Because of this, this is the only use for it in the run. I dig up an item, and then use the enemy and the item he drops to get the rest of the way through, then superdash onto the next screen. Three times is the minimum required to be close enough to superdash through.
-After reaching the screen with the warp, I play the ocarina song, and head to another warp. I can now access the warp outside Turtle Rock's backdoor, as I was just on the screen with it a moment ago.
Time saved: 21073 frames (5 minutes 51 seconds)
Turtle Rock
-As I enter through a different door, the order of things in this dungeon changes.
-I first do superjumps down to pick up the bombrefill and arrowrefill, and then get the small keys from the statue and chest.
-I then superdash through the block to my left, and through the fence at the top of the screen. This takes me directly to the miniboss.
-The miniboss is defeated much more quickly by using four glitched spinattacks, rather than trying to get him to stay in the corner. I do a massive superjump into the next room after killing the miniboss.
-The next room is much the same, but I tried to make it look as interesting as possible by dashing and jumping as the thing moved. I S&Q after getting the boss key to go "back" to the entrance.
-Superdashes and superjumps are used to quickly reach the room with the crystal. My movements while pushing the thing here are a lot more efficient than in the previous run.
-I hit the crystal from above with a glitched arrow. This was faster than going below it and hitting it with a normal arrow. I time the item switch to take place during the crystal activating animation, as Link is temporarily stunned during this animated, and pausing gets rid of that wait.
-Another superdash is used to get through a block, then superhookshotting is used to get onto the ledge in such a position that I can jump down and become merged with the block, then superdash my way out of it to the other side.
-I superjump into the wall in the next screen before blowing open the bombable wall. The reason I didn't simply superjump right into the opening is that there wasn't enough time to blow open the wall before he would hit the lava.
-Superhookshots are used to quickly clear this next room.
-In the room with the Magic Rod chest, hookshots and superhookshots are used to get through it all very quickly, and at one point, avoid having to climb up stairs. I S&Q after getting the rod.
-At the underground, I take the optimal path through the icicles. There is a small waiting time after firing the rod before you can fire again. In the second screen, I jump right over the ladder and once again avoid having to climb on it at all. While falling, I use a glitched rod shot to melt many of the icicles. This of course didn't cost any time.
-The boss was done much more quickly than before. It only took me nine hits to kill it (as opposed to fifteen in the previous run). This is because Tompa discovered how damaging this boss actually works (it involves what frame you hit him on, and how many frames you leave between hits), so it should definitely be optimal.
-The text after the boss dies can be skipped by bringing up the S&Q menu. For some reason, this doesn't work on any other boss that has text after they die (this was thoroughly tested).
Time saved: 24699 frames (6 minutes 51.6 seconds)
Going to the Seventh Dungeon
-It was faster to travel through the swamp than to play the ocarina song and head north from there.
-The mountains are the same until the screen with the large set of stairs, at which the path changes.
-Superdashes are used to navigate the cave here very quickly.
-A superjump is used to get up the stairs outside very quickly, and a superdash is then used to glitch out of bounds, which instantly brings us to the Eagle's Tower entrance. Another superdash is used to get us out of the wall, and the dungeon is unlocked from the right side of the keylock by pressing Link against the side of it.
Time saved: 27226 frames (7 minutes 33.6 seconds)
Eagle's Tower
-A hookshot is used to get over the second room really quickly.
-The enemies in the next room are quickly killed with the hookshot, which is then used to grab the key as it falls.
-While this next part with hookshotting the blocks might look odd, it's actually strategically the fastest way to get through this room.
-The blocks are disabled by only touching the handle for one frame, and the ball is picked up and I jump off the side and into the next room.
-At this point, the route in this dungeon changes drastically compared to how it was in the previous run. It avoids the S&Q that was previously seen and does things in a much more efficient order.
-After tossing it at the first pillar, I pick it up again during the pillar-falling animation. I then jump with it onto the next screen, and do the same thing again.
-I equip the boots and hookshot, and superdash through the block here, and then superhookshot myself into the block, and superdash my way out of it, to the other side, where I destroy the third pillar.
-I then head south, across the gap (using the hookshot glitch), and destroy the fourth pillar.
-After this, I use a superhookshot to pull myself through the block, and head each to the miniboss.
-In the room after the miniboss, I found that it was fastest to push the right block first, although that might seem unlikely at first. The reason I'm able to walk through the sparks without taking damage is because I used the hookshot while pushing the block (which didn't cost any time), so the game, for some reason, thought I was in a permanent state of hookshotting. This glitch is used a few times in the run, and stays active until the hookshot is used again, or until the room is left. I pick up the boss key and dash out of here.
-I superhookshot my way to the stairs leading to the boss quickly.
-I superdash through the stairs, which allows me to bypass the loading point and land right in the room with the instrument. Very convenient. :)
Time saved: 32663 frames (9 minutes 4.38 seconds)
Going Back to the Fourth Dungeon
-I delay the dash after reappearing on the overworld by a few frames so that Link will head south as soon as he lands in the cave after falling down the pit. This is based on what frame you enter the cave at, and it's much faster to have him head south as soon as he hits the water (the previous run had him move east a bit, which was very slow and awful looking).
-I use a (somewhat difficult to notice) aquaslide to get a boost in the water after leaving the cave.
-I use a superdash to run right into the dungeon's entrance.
Time saved: 32755 frames (9 minutes 5.94 seconds)
Angler's Tunnel Part II
-All this consists of is going directly to the boss, as I got the boss key the last time I was in here.
-I superdash through the fence again, and then aquaslide through the water, followed by a damage boost from a peahat.
-I superjump up to the boss door, then superdash to the stairs in the next room.
-In the boss room, I use a new technique I found which allows us to simply fall through the water, instead of having to slowly swim down through it. This is done by jumping across the room so that Link touches the other side before hitting the water. For some reason, it causes him to just fall through it.
-At the boss, the text was cancelled using the pause screen where I equipped the bow and bombs. For some reason, the last run used a S&Q screen to skip the text, as well as pausing to equip the items. I kill the boss very quickly with three glitched bombarrows, then jump my way back out of the water while collecting the heart.
-More superdashes are done when heading to the instrument.
Time saved: 34576 frames (9 minutes 36.24 seconds)
Going to the Egg
Note: The reason we do Angler's Tunnel in two parts is because normally, after beating that dungeon, you have a ghost following you. He only actually follows you if you enter certain areas, and the route I take to the egg isn't one of those areas. However, it is still best to do it in two parts, and for the second part to be the last dungeon completed, as it is right on the path from exiting Eagle's Tower, and if we finished Angler's Tunnel in one go, it we WOULD end up with the ghost (who doesn't let you enter any dungeons until you take him home, then to his grave) following up, as to get to the fifth and sixth dungeons, we need to go through areas which trigger the ghost following you.
-It was faster to go through the underground than to play the ocarina song and head north from there.
-On the screen with the egg, it was faster to play the song right away, rather than going right up to the egg and playing it. This is because if we play it right away, we can do one continuous dash to the egg, rather than stopping it before the egg as the previous run did.
Time saved: 34624 frrames (9 minutes 37.2 seconds)
The Egg
-The sword is equipped instead of the Magic Powder. This is explained below.
-A superdash is used to get to the second room, and in the second room, I go into the pit to Link's left. This is much faster as it takes less time to reach the pit, and also puts him closer to the exit of the next room when we appear in it.
-Many superdashes are used to navigate the maze quickly.
Time saved: 34706 frames (9 minutes 38.4 seconds)
Nightmare
-First phase: It's possible to kill this phase with the sword if the attacks are time such that it hits him right as he lands from a jump. Only one jump is required, and the other two attacks can he delivered while he's stunned and about to jump a second time.
-Second phase: Not much has changed here other than better manipulation to keep him in the centre at all times. This means less distance for him to travel after I attack him each time.
-Third phase: This was done faster than the previous run by timing my slashes better. I take 9 frame gaps between each slash, as opposed to 8 in the previous run. I tested many numbers here, and 9 came out the fastest.
-Fourth phase: A spinattack is charged before he appears, and released as soon as possible. This was 1 frame faster than doing an extra dash attack. Dash attacks (some of which are glitched to avoid the bats) are then done until he dies. This part of the battle looks a lot smoother than it did before as there are no real delays between the hits.
-Fifth phase: A spinattack was used to kill him before, but I used a dash attack. Doesn't make a difference one way or the other.
-Sixth phase: This phase was done a lot faster. Previously, it was killed in four cycles, but I was able to kill it in three, because it's possible to hit him with six arrows per cycle if he's at the top of the screen and Link is at the bottom, and you keep shooting as you move towards him. The eye was manipulated to open as quickly as I could get it.
-Though it makes no difference one way or the other, I superdash onto the stairs at the end. I thought that would be a nice last movement. :)
Time saved: 35235 frames (9 minutes 47.25 seconds)
With thanks to...
There's no way I could've done this totally by myself. Many people's help has been absolutely invaluable to me while making this run.
-Tompa: I actually don't know what to say here. He is quite possibly the most helpful person I've ever known in my life. He constantly checked my progress, always put me and my run before his own projects, and found many things with his handy "frame eye" and came up with several new strategies for areas in the game. On top of this, he was consistently enthusiastic about the run, even when I was really upset about having to redo parts of it, and was always able to motivate me to just deal with it and redo. There aren't nearly enough words of gratitude in the English language for me to thank him in a way that he really deserves, so I'll just say this: Tack själv mycket.
-Chef Stef: He's the author of the previous two incarnations of this run, the first of which is one of the reasons I got into TASing in the first place. Throughout my run, he was very supportive and not at all bitter that I was obsoleting his run. He offered several useful tips about the game that he knew from experience, and he was the one who figured out how to swim optimally, which saves more time than you'd think. As well as this, he checked my WIPs fairly regularly and provided useful criticism with each one. His V2 TAS was amazing when it came out, and I'm honoured to be the one to obsolete it.
-LinksDarkArrows: He regularly checked my WIPs and constructively criticised them from both a technical and entertainment standpoint. He found several neat things in the game that sped up the start of the run a bit. Aside from this, he was always very eager to know how the run was going and regularly reminded me that my work was really enjoyable to him as a viewer, which motivated me to continue to work hard on the run.
-Bloobiebla: He's awesome to talk to, and despite having next to no knowledge of the game, he was always happy to hear how my progress was going and loved watching my WIPs.
-Slowi: He regularly checked my WIPs, particularly in the latter half of the run, and constructively criticised them. Aside from this, he helped keep my spirits up as he was really enjoyable to chat with and made me laugh a lot.
-petrie911: He also regularly checked my WIPs and showed enthusiasm from the start of the run. He thoroughly tested a glitch that we thought might have been beneficial to us involving Link's tunic (it ended up costing too much time to be useful), which saved me a lot of headaches.
-TheUnreal: He showed enthusiasm all the time about my run. Whenever I mentioned that I had completed another section, we would always want to see it, and always provided useful comments on it afterwards.
-pirohiko & hogehoge61: They've made a few short runs of LADX using a glitch to get to the end boss very quickly. During these runs, they discovered many useful tactics on the boss that weren't previously known, such as being able to kill the first form with the sword. My final boss battle would've been significantly less cool without this knowledge.
-mokesmoe: For finding the trick to quickly get out of the grass maze before Key Cavern (detailed above).
-The entire #zelda channel. While not really as involved with the making of the run as those listed above, they were all very supportive whenever I mentioned that I had been making progress in the run, and all seemed very eager to see the final product. On top of that, they're pretty cool people who I enjoy chatting with.
-All of my subscribers on YouTube: You watched every WIP I put up of this run, even if you weren't familiar with the game. It's nice to know that people enjoy your work enough that they'll actually subscribe and will watch anything you upload. Thanks for the support. :)
P.S. Thanks again, Tompa. No, seriously, I mean it. You're awesome.
Nach: Truly amazing improvement to an already great run. Accepting.
I keep getting that message like 5 seconds after save and quit.
Even without the VLC WTFery, why was this encoded so strangely?
