A Link to the Past
Pendants and Crystals
Pendants and crystals are items that drop at the end of most of the game's dungeons. They are sometimes collectively called dungeon prizes.
Dungeons that drop
The three pendant dungeons are:
- Eastern Palace, which holds the green pendant or pendant of courage
- Desert Palace, which holds the blue pendant or pendant of power
- Tower of Hera, which holds the red pendant or pendant of wisdom
The seven crystal dungeons are:
Crystals are only identified by their number 1-7.
With all of the prize dungeons, Link will be rewarded with the prize after he's defeated the dungeon's boss and grabbed the heart container.
These dungeons don't drop a prize:
- Hyrule Castle (including the Sewers)
- Castle Tower
- Ganon's Tower
Events gated by dungeon prizes
After Link has the green pendant, he can speak to Sahasrahla and receive the boots.
With all three of the pendants, the Master sword can be pulled from its pedestal in Lost Woods.
Crystals #5 and #6 are required for getting the super bomb up for sale in the bomb shop. The super bomb is the intended way to access the Pyramid Fairy. All 7 crystals are required for opening the stairs to Ganon's Tower.
Catching pendants
Link will catch pendants faster if he's positioned low under them. You want to aim to have Link's head below the shadow of the pendant as it's dropping.
After the pendant catch, a fanfare will play, and Link will have to clear a single text box. All of the pendants are the same for this, and the fanfare + text takes around 13 seconds if Link has full hearts and magic. This can vary due to refill frames.
Pendant glitches
Fanfare skip
With misslotting, the fanfare that plays after grabbing a pendant can be skipped.
Catching crystals
Link will catch crystals faster if Link stands low under them, just like with pendants. However, this isn't the end of the story with crystals. After you catch a crystal, a short fanfare plays, and then the crystal rises up out of Link's hand until it's within 48 pixels of the value indicated by the vertical camera scroll position (the coordinate at the top of the screen). By catching crystals with the camera scrolled high in the boss's chamber, the crystal will rise to its necessary position more quickly. This introduces two contradictory ideas:
- The lower Link is when catching the crystal, the faster it will be caught (the same as pendants).
- The higher Link is relative to the top of the screen (not necessarily top of the room), the crystal's rise animation will be shorter.
It's more important to optimize for the 2nd thing.
When you grab the heart container after the boss kill, the crystal's drop position will be set to the center of the screen (not necessarily the center of the room). This means if the screen is scrolled upwards as you grab the heart container, the crystal will drop onto a higher position in the room than if the screen were scrolled more downwards on heart grab. It's better to grab the heart high if you can, which tends to naturally occur on the following bosses with normal strats:
- King Helmasaur
- Mothula
- Blind
- Kholdstare
- Vitreous
This leaves Arrghus and Trinexx, which have to approach the crystal catch a bit differently.
Duping prizes
TODO