Hammer

The hammer, sometimes called the magic hammer, is a Y-item in the game that can deal damage to enemies and tamp down or destroy certain obstacles in Link's path.

Location

The hammer is found in the big chest in Palace of Darkness.

Description

The hammer can be used as a weapon, and the damage it deals to sprites is equivalent to level 3 sword damage (a Master Sword spin, a Tempered Sword slash, or a Gold Sword poke). Almost everything that's vulnerable to sword damage is also vulnerable to the hammer—a key exception being Ganon. If the player has access to the Tempered Sword or better, hammer is usually not a compelling damage option. This is because its hitbox is small and its animation length of 24 frames is significantly longer than a sword's. It can still be a useful weapon in speedruns though, especially in Low% or swordless contexts.

The other main use of the hammer is with tamping down stakes or pegs, which block Link's access to various places. There are pegs blocking:

• Progress in the basement in Palace of Darkness
• The peg bridge in the Dark World, which block Link's access to south Dark World from the east Dark World area
• The big chest in Thieves' Town
• The pit that falls to Kholdstare
• Access to the spike cave and the cane of byrna
• Access to marsh Dark World portal
• One of the routes accessing the Dark World portal north of Kakariko Village
• The door to the room containing the heart piece in mimic cave

Plus others. Some of these are inconvenient or even impossible to bypass without the hammer, even with the use of major glitches. This makes the hammer a valuable item.

The hammer can also be used to destroy pots. This can sometimes be a speedy option, especially if a hammer dash will allow the player to dash through multiple pots.

Hammer dashing

An item dash done with the hammer is known as a hammer dash. If Link is equipped with any sword, then hammer dashing will allow him to tamp down multiple pegs or destroy multiple pots in his dash route. This serves as the most impactful non-superspeed oriented item dash in the speedrun, and it can save multiple seconds on some screens.

If Link doesn't have a sword, the hammer won't work on pegs or pots while hammer dashing. Instead, Link will just bonk off the obstacle, the same as if he'd dashed at it without the hammer.

Expanded hammer hitbox

If the player has superspeed armed, the hammer will acquire the properties of Link's dash attack hitbox. This is more in the player's favor than the default hammer hitbox, especially when Link is facing north. This is most relevant with the King Helmasaur boss fight.