Any% NMG No S&Q

Any% NMG, No S&Q is the main category of A Link to the Past speedrunning. It uses the No Major Glitches ruleset, and it bans the use of save and quit.

The absolute source of truth for the category's rules and submission requirements can be found on the ⁠Any% NMG speedrun.com page.

Route

For reading this route document, not every little detail can be fully captured. This is meant to be more of an overview of where to go and what to do. You can (and should!) adjust the route depending on your skill and comfort level with different mechanics and tricks. This route guide is modeled on the subjectively determined "average" decisions an advanced player would make. Beginner players should frequently make different decisions, and WR contenders should also make different decisions. Watch runs, experiment, time things for yourself, explore the safety options if you're dying everywhere. This document can't be everything to everyone.

When a bullet point consumes or gains a resource (rupees, arrows, or bombs) the delta and the new total count will appear in a new nested bullet point in this format:

* Thing that changes arrow count
   * <arrow count delta> (<new total arrow count>)

When Link's currently equipped item should change, the item to equip will be in a new nested bullet point along with a bracketed number that indicates the minimum number of cursor moves the player should use on the equip. This will look like:

* Light the torches
   * Equip <torch lighting item> [<minimum taps to reach that item>]

It's still important to know that equips and resource routing can easily vary based on your specific strats, routing decisions, and emergent factors in the run itself. Once again, it's impossible to capture every one of these nuances without making this outline a mile long.

Hyrule Castle

• Wake up and exit Link's house.
  • Skip lamp, it's faster to get in Zelda's cell.
• Use the secret passage.
• Talk to Uncle and get the Fighter Sword.
• Enter Hyrule Castle.
• Collect the blue boomerang in the castle dungeons on the way to the prison.
  • This item is technically optional. It's convenient to have in a few places, but most importantly: having it in your inventory will fill the brewery chest with 300 rupees, which is crucial for this run's rupee route.
  • Because it's your first item, boomerang will be auto-equipped.
• Defeat Ball 'n Chain for the castle big key and rescue Zelda.
  • Get the lamp from the chest in her cell. The lamp is hard required in this category. Zelda will not help you push the ornamental shelf in the throne room if you don't have it in your inventory.
• Take Zelda to the castle's throne room and push the shelf to access the Sewers.
• Take Zelda to the Sanctuary
• Exit the Sanctuary
  • At the cost of just ~4 seconds, you can get the heart container in the Sanctuary. For more information on this, see the section on safeties.

Eastern Palace

• Walk to the Eastern Ruins screen.
  • Sometime over the course of the first two segments, you want to try to collect at least 5 and preferably 14 or more rupees from enemy drops. It's not backbreaking if this doesn't happen, and there are backups. For more information about this, check the rupee route section. This guide will assume the player gets to around this point with 20 rupees.
  • +20 rupees (20)
• Enter Eastern Palace.
• On the way to big key while in the big chest room, lift the top pot on the east side of the room to collect 5 arrows.
  • +5 arrows (5)
  • This pot is optional, but most players should get it. See more info in the section on the arrow route
• Get the big key via damage boost.
• In the big chest room, lift the two pots on the west side of the room to collect 10 arrows.
  • +10 arrows (15)
• Get the bow from the big chest.
• In the gifted with greenies room, use the bow on the right green eyegore to collect a small key for proceeding.
  • Equip bow [1]
  • -1 arrow (14)
• In the antifairy pots room, lift the two pots at the top of the room and collect 10 arrows.
  • +10 arrows (24)
• In the Zeldagamer room, use an arrow on one stalfos, throw the right pot at the other stalfos, and use 2 arrows on the red eyegore.
  • The right pot in this room has 5 arrows to collect under. So you get +5 from that and -3 from arrows on the enemies.
  • +2 arrows (26)
  • On certain stalfos RNGs, it can be smart to arrow them both. This requires some judgement and experience.
• In the double red eyegore room, use 4 arrows to defeat the red eyegores.
  • -4 arrows (22)
• Collect a single arrow drop from one of the red eyegores.
  • This route document assumes the player gets 1 arrow drop from the red eyegore in this room. It's possible to get 2 arrow drops or no arrow drops. Or get a single arrow drop from the red eyegore in the previous room. For understanding more about how this can impact your decisions, see the arrow route section. This route is just assuming the most common scenario.
  • +5 arrows (27)
• Defeat the Armos Knights.
  • -18 arrows (9)
• Collect the Pendant of Courage.

Desert Palace

• Enter Sahasrahla's hut and speak with him to receive the Pegasus boots.
• Exit Sahasrahla's hut and run to the Library in South Kakariko.
• Bonk the book shelf to get the Book of Mudora.
• Run to the Desert Palace entrance.
  • Equip book [1]
• Use the book on the tablet to move the Desert monuments and open the dungeon entrance.
• Enter Desert Palace.
• Collect 5 arrows in the lobby from the bottom pot in the northwest hall.
  • +5 arrows (14)
• Get the small key from the torch.
• Get the big key
• While backtracking through the cannon audio room, lift the middle pot and collect 5 arrows.
  • +5 arrows (19)
• In the beamos circle of pots room, lift the rightmost pot to collect 5 arrows and the top-left pot to collect another 5.
  • +10 arrows (29)
• Get the power glove.
• Exit to Desert ledge.
• Use the gloves to lift the rocks blocking the second half of Desert Palace and enter.
  • Equip lamp [1]
  • You can choose to equip lamp later if you're not using it for the Desert ledge superspeed.
• Light the four torches to move the wall blocking the boss door.
• Defeat Lanmolas.
  • Equip bow [1]
  • Arrow count becomes extremely volatile here as there's only so much control you have. This route doc will assume a 15 arrow fight.
  • -15 arrows (14)
• Collect the Pendant of Power.

Tower of Hera

• Run to the Lake Hylia screen.
• Do fake flippers to access the whirlpool on the Hylia waterfall screen and warp to the pond screen
  • This trick requires running on the Japanese 1.0 version. If you're not on the JP 1.0 version, you'll have to do the west side breeze route.
• Lift the boulder blocking the cave to Death Mountain and enter.
• Meet the lost Old Man and lead him out of the cave.
• Return the Old Man to his grotto and collect the magic mirror.
• Climb Death Mountain and use the portal to the Dark World.
• Use the mirror to warp back to the Light World while standing on Spectacle Rock
  • Equip mirror [1]
• Enter Tower of Hera
• Get the basement small key and mirror back to the entrance
• Go to the tile room
  • Equip boomerang [2]
  • Boomerang strats save less than a second, so you can choose to not equip boomerang if you're uncomfortable with them.
• Light the four torches and get the big key
  • Equip lamp [1]
• Mirror to the dungeon entrance
  • Equip mirror
• Do beetle room and grab a bomb from the left pot
  • +1 bombs (1)
• Do Hera bomb jump and collect the moon pearl
  • Equip bombs [3]
  • -1 bombs (0)
  • Equip bow [1]
    • This will be a 1 tap menu because running out of bombs in this context auto-equips the lamp.
  • If you're not doing the early jump, you can do this equip later.
• Collect a bomb from the middle pot on the west side of the moon pearl chest room.
  • +1 bombs (1)
• Defeat Moldorm
• Collect the Pendant of Wisdom.

Castle Tower

• Use the mountain descent cave.
• At the mountain foot pull the first rupee tree and collect two blue rupees.
  • +10 rupees (30)
• Enter the Lost Woods.
• Get the Master Sword.
• Pull the second rupee tree in Lost Woods and collect four red rupees.
  • +80 rupees (110)
• Go to Hyrule Castle, slash the magic barrier, and enter Castle Tower.
• In the gold knights room, use 2 arrows to defeat them quickly (the pui strat)
  • -2 arrows (12)
• In the red spears room, use 4 arrows to defeat the red spear guards quickly
  • -4 arrows (8)
• In the circle of pots room, collect 6 rupees from the top middle pots and 5 arrows from the top right pot.
  • +6 rupees (116)
  • +5 arrows (13)
• Defeat Agahnim1

Palace of Darkness

• Go to the labyrinth screen and meet Kiki the monkey. Pay him 10 rupees to follow you.
  • -10 rupees (106)
• Take Kiki to Palace of Darkness and pay him to open it.
  • 6 rupees (-110)
• Get the medusa small key and mirror to the entrance.
  • Equip mirror [2]
• Get a bomb pot in the pickups room
  • +1 bomb (2)
• Get the turtle small key and mirror to the entrance
• Get another bomb pot in the pickups room
  • +1 bomb (3)
• Bomb the cracked floor in the junction room and fall to the ledge overlooking turtle key
  • Equip bombs [3]
  • -1 bomb (2)
• Get big key and mirror to the entrance
  • Equip mirror [3]
• Get another bomb pot in the pickups room
  • +1 bomb (3)
• Get the bridge key in the arena room.
• Get two bomb pot in the hammer bridge room.
  • +2 bombs (5)
• Hammerjump, using 1 bomb to bomb jump and 1 to blow open the cracked wall to the kodongo maze; get the hammer.
  • Equip bombs [3]
  • -2 bombs (3)
  • Equip mirror [3]
• Get the small key in the kodongo maze and mirror.
• Get one final bomb pot in the pickups room.
  • 4 bombs
• Use an arrow on the crystal switch in the arena room.
  • Equip bow [1]
  • 12 arrows (-1)
• Fill up on health in the sexy statue room so you can use sword beams in the eye statue.
• Grab two bomb pots for free while pushing the statue onto the switch.
  • 6 bombs (+2)
• Defeat the mimics using 4 arrows.
  • 8 arrows (-4)
• Use an arrow on the eye statue to move the wall and access the basement.
  • 7 arrows (-1)
• Do the basement rooms, using hammer for the pegs and turtles.
  • Equip hammer [2]
• Defeat King Helmasaur.
• Collect Crystal #1.

Thieves' Town

• Go see fluteboy and get the shovel.
• Mirror to Light World around the flute dig spot.
  • Equip mirror [3]
    • You can equip mirror before talking to fluteboy to make this a 2 tap menu. This is unpopular because it removes a pause that helps with checking quickwarp positioning, but it would be faster.
• Dig up the flute and collect it.
  • Equip shovel [2]
  • The flute will be auto-equipped over the shovel when you pick it up.
• Unlock the duck at the weathervane in Kakariko Village.
• Use the portal north of Kakariko.
• Enter Thieves' Town.
• Get the big key.
• Go to the attic.
• Bomb the cracked floor in the attic.
  • Equip bombs [2]
  • 5 bombs (-1)
• Go to the basement.
• Hammer the red zazak in the big block room.
  • Equip hammer [2]
• Rescue the false maiden and collect the small key in her cell.
• Get the titans' mitts.
• Collect arrows in the big block room.
  • 12 arrows (+5)
• Bring the false maiden to the boss arena.
• Defeat Blind.
• Collect Crystal #4.

Skull Woods

• Open the brewery door
  • Equip bombs [2]
  • 4 bombs (-1)
• Get 300 rupees from the brewery chest
  • 306 rupees (+300)
• Talk to the frog
  • Equip mirror [3]
• Use the mirror on the Smiths' house screen to warp to Light World
• Return the lost Smith to his home.
• Exit and reenter the Smiths' house.
• Pay the Smiths 10 rupees to temper your sword.
  • 296 rupees (-10)
• Exit the Smiths' house and transition to Kakariko Village and back again.
  • You need to leave the Smiths' house screen in order for them to complete tempering your sword.
• Reenter the Smiths' house and pick up your sword.
• Reenter your mirror portal on the Smiths' house screen to warp back to Dark World.
• Enter the C-shaped house and get the 300 rupees there.
  • 596 rupees (+300)
• Enter the Skeleton Forest.
• Use the mummy statue entrance to Skull Woods.
• Get the big key and mirror back to the entrance. Exit to Skeleton Forest.
• Use the big chest entrance to Skull Woods.
• Get the fire rod via Skull Woods bomb jump
  • Equip bombs [3]
  • 3 bombs (-1)
• Fall into a void around the big chest, and exit the dungeon.
• Use the mummy statue Skull Woods entrance.
• In the key pot room (west two rooms from mummy statue), get the small key under the room's northwest pot. Take the south overworld entrance in this room.
  • Equip fire rod [1]
• Use the fire rod on the proboscis and enter the second half of Skull Woods.
• Defeat Mothula.
  • Equip mirror [2]
  • Equipping mirror before defeating Mothula helps mitigate human error frames on using an item immediately out of the pause menu.
• Collect Crystal #3.

Ice Palace

• Use the mirror to warp to the Light World.
• Flute to Link's house (#4 flute spot).
  • Equip flute [2]
• Use the castle warp to enter Dark World on the pyramid screen.
• Go to catfish and get the Quake Medallion.
  • Equip mirror [2]
• Mirror to the Light World.
• Talk to King Zora and buy the flippers.
  • 96 rupees (-500)
• Use the whirlpool on the waterfall of wishing screen screen to warp to Lake Hylia.
  • Equip fire rod [2]
• Enter the Lake Hylia Dark World portal.
• Enter Ice Palace.
• Fire rod the freezor in the first room.
• Use two bombs to complete the jelly bombfloor room.
  • 1 bomb (-2)
• Use a bomb to defeat the stalfos knights, and collect a bomb under the room's top left pot.
  • 1 bomb (--)
• Use Ice Palace bomb jump to cross the firebar room after the ice conveyor room with the orange pegs down.
  • 0 bombs (-1)
  • Equip hammer [2]
    • This will be the same equip whether you run out of bombs doing the trick or not.
• Fill magic in the statue room before Kholdstare.
  • Equip fire rod [2]
• Defeat Kholdstare.
  • Equip mirror [2]
• Collect Crystal #5.

Swamp Palace

• Use the mirror to warp to the Light World.
• Flute to Death Mountain (#1 flute spot)
  • Equip flute [2]
  • This doc is using the most common shopping route in the game today among advanced and intermediate players. Ether is gotten during the Swamp Palace segment, and ice rod is gotten during the Turtle Rock segment. This isn't the only way to route these though. For more information, see the shopping route section.
• Use the portal on Death Mountain to warp to the Dark World.
  • Equip mirror [2]
• Use the mirror on Spectacle Rock to warp to the Light World.
• Use the book on the Ether tablet to collect the Ether medallion.
  • Equip book [1]
• Flute to Link's house (#4 flute spot).
  • Equip flute [1]
• Go to the marshlands portal and warp to the Dark World.
  • Equip hammer [1]
• Go to the entrance of Swamp Palace, but mirror to the Light World instead of entering it.
  • Equip mirror [3]
• Open the floodgate
• Go back into your mirror portal to warp back to the Dark World.
• Enter Swamp Palace
• Use the hammer peg lever
  • Equip hammer [3]
• Use the crystal switch lever
  • Be sure to leave the room with the blue pegs up
• Get the big key
• Get the hookshot
  • Equip hookshot [2]
• Get arrows in Swamp statue room.
  • 17 arrows (+5)
• Get arrows and bomb in Swamp restock room.
  • 22 arrows (+5)
  • 1 bomb (+1)
• Defeat Arrghus.
  • Equip fire rod [2]
• Collect Crystal #2.

Misery Mire

• Mirror to Light World.
  • Equip mirror [2]
• Flute to Desert (#6 flute spot).
  • Equip flute [2]
• Use the Desert portal to warp to the Dark World.
  • Don't forget to set up spooky action glitch.
• Enter Misery Mire.
  • Equip ether [3]
• 1 cycle the wizzrobes in Mire02 (hopefully)
  • Equip fire rod [2]
  • Fire rod helps with hitting the 1 cycle, and it's the next item you need for Mire torches anyway.
• In the spike chest room, get the small key under the pot.
• Flip the crystal switch in the key jelly room (and also, get the small key from the bari).
• Do Mire torches, sip your drink, get the big key.
• Get cane of somaria
  • Equip hookshot [2]
• Get the small key in the chest in the spike chest room.
• Go to Mire basement.
• Use a cane block to get through the first basement room.
  • Equip somaria [2]
  • Make sure you preserve your spooky setup.
• Use spooky fire rod shots over the next rooms.
  • Equip fire rod [3]
• Defeat Vitreous.
  • Equip bow [1]
  • 14 arrows (-8)
  • Equip mirror [1]
• Collect Crystal #6

Turtle Rock

• Mirror to Light World.
• Flute to Hylia waterfall (#8 flute spot).
• Open the Ice Cave bombwall and enter.
  • Equip bombs [2]
  • -1 Bombs (0)
    • Fire rod auto-equipped
• Get ice rod.
• Flute to Death Mountain (#1 flute spot).
  • Equip flute [2]
    • This menu will be 2 taps whether you ran out of bombs or not.
• Go to East Death Mountain and hookshot across the broken bridge.
  • Equip hookshot [1]
• Climb to the top of East Death Mountain via paradox cave.
• Do the peg puzzle to unlock TR portal.
  • Equip hammer [2]
• Open Turtle Rock and enter.
  • Equip quake [2]
• Get full magic jar and bomb in the entrance.
  • 1 Bomb (+1)
  • Equip somaria [2]
    • This equip is worth paying specific attention to as many novice players get it wrong with 3+ taps.
• Do TR torches.
  • Equip fire rod [3]
  • Equip hookshot [2]
• Get small key in roller room.
• Backtrack to platform lobby and go to chain chomps room.
  • Equip somaria [2]
• Get big key.
• Go through double pokeys and crystaroller room.
• Get the small key on laser bridge.
• Go to Trinexx.
  • Get the large magic jar in TR restock room if necessary.
• Defeat Trinexx.
  • Equip ice rod [2]
  • Equip fire rod [1]
  • Equip hookshot [2]
• Collect Crystal #7.

Ganon's Tower

• Run to Ganon's Tower and open it with the power of the 7 crystals.
• Go left side basement.
• In the peg room, collect the small key under the pot in the southeast corner.
  • Equip hammer [2]
• Hookshot through the spike skip room.
  • Equip hookshot [2]
• Use boomerang to hit the switch in spike skip room before entering double switch room.
  • Equip boomerang [1]
• Use boomerang and hookshot to get through the double switch room. Collect the small key in double switch room's southeast pot.
  • Equip hookshot [1]
• Get the small key from the chest in the firesnake room.
• Do the warp maze, skipping the final warp.
• In the invisible bridge room, collect 5 arrows.
  • 19 Arrows (+5)
• In the bento box room, open the bomb floor and collect a bomb (from under the pot) and 10 arrows from the chest.
• In the bento box room, blow open the bombfloor
  • Equip bombs [1]
  • 0 Bombs (-1)
• Also in the bento box room, collect a bomb from the pot above the pit to Ice Armos as well as the 10 arrow chest.
  • 1 Bomb (+1)
  • 29 Arrows (+10)
  • Equip arrows [1]
    • If you run out of bombs doing bento box bombfloor, then you'll auto-equip fire rod and have the 1 tap menu (this is optimal). But if you have extra bombs, this will be a 2 tap menu to equip arrows.
• Defeat Ice Armos.
  • 11 Arrows (-18)
• Get the big key and mirror to warp back to the dungeon entrance.
  • Equip mirror [1]
• Go upstairs.
• Do the mimic rooms.
  • Equip bow [1]
• Do gauntlet.
• In gauntlet5, take the guaranteed rod shot on the red stalfos.
  • Equip fire rod [1]
• Defeat Lanmo2 using fire rod.
• Do wizzrobe rooms.
  • Equip somaria [3]
• Do first torches room, using lamp on the first 3 torches and fire rod on the final one.
  • Equip lamp [2]
  • Equip fire rod [1]
• Get the full magic jar in the laser eye wall room.
• Do second torches room entirely with fire rod.
• Get the mini-helmasaur small key.
• Use a bomb to get through conveyor bombwall room.
  • Equip bombs [1]
• Hover the gap at Moldorm2.
  • If you choose to fight him, you need an extra equip to the hookshot, and you'll need another equip later for fire rod on Ganon.
    • Equip hookshot [1]
      • If you still have bombs in your inventory, this will be a 2 tap menu.
• Defeat Agahnim2.

Ganon

• Defeat Ganon silverless.
  • If you have hookshot equipped from after GT, you'll need another equip to the fire rod during this fight.
    • Equip fire rod [1]
      • If you still have bombs in your inventory, this will be a 2 tap menu.
• Win the game 🎉

Rupee route

The rupee route involves accumulating enough rupees to pay for the following things:

1. 110 rupees to Kiki the monkey to open Palace of Darkness.
2. 10 rupees to the dwarfs to temper Link's sword.
3. 500 rupees to King Zora for the flippers.

The costs for tempering Link's sword and buying the flippers are both comfortably covered by collecting the two 300 rupee chests in the Village of Outcasts: one in the C-shaped house and one in the brewery.

That leaves the 110 rupees that need to be collected for paying Kiki. There are two main approaches for this: Sahasrahla's closet and tree rupees.

Sahasrahla's closet rupees

After speaking with Sahasrahla at the beginning of the Desert segment, you can bonk the cracked wall in the back of his hut to access a backroom containing 3 chests. The left and right chests both contain 50 rupees.

6 rupees can be gotten automatically from the circle of pots room later in Castle Tower. This leaves 4 rupees that need to be made up through drops or backups.

Tree rupees

The tree rupee route is a few seconds faster than the rupees in Sahasrahla's closet, but it's a bit more difficult and requires more attentive rupee management. This route leverages two rupee pulls. The first pull is done on a tree at the mountain foot and will give 4 blue rupees. After pulling the first tree, the player needs to defeat at least 4 enemies without taking any damage. If those conditions are fulfilled, the player can pull a second tree in Lost Woods that will give 4 red rupees.

So the player will have access to 100 rupees from the rupee pulls alone, and 6 rupees can be gotten automatically from the circle of pots room in Castle Tower. This leaves 4 rupees that need to be gotten from another source. Usually the player can expect to make up this amount through enemy drops, but enemy drops are ultimately RNG. So there are some backups the player can use if necessary.

Buzzblob route

This is the fastest route. The player does the first rupee pull, exits the first rupee tree screen to the northwest, and then uses an arrow on the buzzblob on the Lumberjack screen.

From there, the player gets the next two kills on the crow and hoarder on the 2nd dash in Lost Woods. The fourth and final kill is gotten from the crow after Master Sword.

Despite being fastest, the buzzblob route is widely disliked, even among the game's best players. This is because the buzzblob's movement makes it difficult to consistently execute a long ranged arrow shot on.

Crow shot route

This is the next best route after the buzzblob one, and it can be made very consistent and reliable. After pulling the first tree, the player shoots the crow that's just to the left. Then the player aims to exit the screen more east (ideally on X-position 0490) than the buzzblob route does so that the Lumberjack screen can be routed quickly without interacting with the buzzblob. After going into the Lost Woods, the route is the same as the buzzblob route.

This route loses 30-40 frames compared to the buzzblob route. It's also arguably inadvisable to go for this route under two conditions:

1. If using this arrow means that the player will have to get an extra arrow pot or chest somewhere later in the run, this isn't worth it to go for. This shot only saves around 20 frames over the next best route (the hoarder beam), and arrow pots cost more than that.
2. The crows are part of the variety prize pack. If this crow is set to drop arrows, you'll be unable to grab them, and those arrows are worth a decent amount of time. Trying to save the drop for later in the run is arguably the correct play.

Hoarder beam route

This route doesn't go for any kills before the Lost Woods. It gets the kills on the dash through the crow and hoarder after entering Lost Woods, and it gets the kill on the crow after Master Sword. Then just before dashing south towards the 2nd tree, the player can beam a hoarder (actually the same hoarder that's dashed through earlier) for the 4th kill. This route is about 50-60 frames slower than the buzzblob route and 15-25 frames slower than the crow shot route.

This strat has a couple of caveats:

1. You need sword beams (duh). But this is a potential roadblock on this route if you get hit by the deadrock outside of Hera or you fall in diagonal cave or something.
2. This kill is an extremely good backup if going for the dash kill on the crow after Master Sword. If you miss that kill, this one will be available for a quick backup. But if this is already in your route, then the only remaining backups are all multiple seconds out of the way.

Lumberjack hoarder route

This route goes stays east of the first rupee tree and dashes through a hoarder on the lumberjack screen. After entering Lost Woods, it's the same as the buzzblob and crow shot routes.

This route used to be popular but has fallen out of favor over the years. One reason is just that it's slow. It's about +80 frames on buzzblob, +45 frames on crow shot, and +25 frames on hoarder beam. Another important factor in its decline is that only two blue rupees are convenient to grab. The other strats which all go west of the rupee tree have very quick access to a third blue and pretty quick access to a fourth as well (more on this below).

Collecting enough rupees

Given that the maximum you can make from these rupee pulls is 100 rupees (20 from first tree, 80 from second), they're not enough on their own to pay Kiki the 110 rupee price tag he has on opening Palace of Darkness. The route assumes the remaining cost will be made up from two sources:

1. In Castle Tower circle of pots, you pick up two rupee pots to throw at the guard holding the small key. The left pot will have a green rupee, and the right will have a blue, adding 6 to your total.
2. 4+ rupees from drop luck.

The circle of pots rupees are guaranteed, but the drop luck isn't. It's generally a safe assumption that you'll get some amount of rupees given the rats and popos you'll meet in the early part of the run, but enemy drops are RNG and fundamentally unreliable. So it's important to know some good backups for when the drop luck isn't working out.

Backup blue rupee pots

Both routes expect a small amount of rupees from enemy drops, but enemy drops are ultimately RNG. So there are a couple of backups to know about that can bail you out if the drop luck doesn't pay:

1. In beamos circle of pots in Desert Palace, the player can grab the 5 rupee pot if their current count is less than 4. There aren't many good places to farm drops left in Light World, and this is very fast and easy to grab.
2. The "suicide" 5 rupee pot in the dark pits room of Castle Tower. This pot occurs later in the route, giving the player a couple of more drop chances. But it also takes the player on a risky path through the room.

Arrow route

Eastern drop luck

At the end of Eastern Palace, the player has to defeat three red eyegore enemies. These enemies are part of the arrow prize pack. There are 3 situations that can happen from this:

So usually the player can expect 1 drop, but there is a possibility they get 2 or none. If the player is getting the extra arrows on the east side of the bow chest room, then this has minimal impact on the run.

Eastern arrow gamble

The extra arrows on the east side of the bow chest room cost around 1 second to grab. The player can choose to skip them and potentially save that time if they get good drop luck from the red eyegores.

If the player skips the arrows:

• With 1 drop from the red eyegores, they'll have enough arrows to continue.
• With 2 drops from the red eyegores, they'll be in effectively the same arrow count as if they had gotten the extra arrows. But they didn't spend the extra second grabbing them. This is the big time save from the gamble.
• With 0 drops from the red eyegores, they won't have enough arrows to fight the Armos Knights. This leads to wasting 3+ seconds collecting extra arrows from pots in the double reddies room. This is arguably a reset-worthy time loss this early in the run.

So there's a 1/8 you save a second from skipping the arrows and a 1/8 you lose a lot of time from not having enough arrows to fight Armos.

A common misconception is that this gamble still saves 1 second in the 1 drop scenario, but this isn't true. Taking the gamble means having 5 fewer arrows when comparing to a run that got the extra arrows. That arrow count discrepancy isn't going anywhere, and it will generally mean that the player who got the extra arrows will need to grab one less arrow pot or chest somewhere later in the run. In light of this, the gamble usually only saves 10-20 frames when the player gets one drop.

Bomb route

There are a few decisions players can make with their bomb route. The above route is quite aggressive and seeks to optimize drop chances and equips by running out of bombs at key places.

Extras, spares, backups

West PoD pickups bomb

The northeast pot in the west section of the PoD pickups has a bomb under it and is very quick to grab (~30 frames). Players can get this as an extra or as a replacement for grabbing the second pot before hammerjump. The second hammerjump bomb pot is only around 10 frames faster (if done very well) and gives the player less time to work with for setting up hammerjump.

Conveyor toilet bomb

On the way to downstairs to the big block room in Thieves', you can grab the bomb under the room's northwest pot at the cost of around 40 frames. This can be useful either as a backup when you've accidentally used extra bombs somewhere or as an extra when playing a more safe route.

Pot island bomb

In Swamp's pot island room, there are 2 pots with bombs under them. The one above the small key is quick to grab.

This pot is good as a backup for when playing an aggressive route that didn't get any drops, and it's gotten in the above route outline.

Swamp restock bomb

Peg maze bomb

Sahasrahla's closet bombs

In the backroom of Sahasrahla's hut, the middle chest contains 3 bombs. This is out of the way if you're doing tree rupees for your rupee route, but if you're doing Sahasrahla rupees, it's a solid option. It only costs 1.5 seconds for 3 bombs, and you won't have to worry so much over making mistakes with them.

Optimizing drop luck

A good reason for advanced players to avoid getting extra bombs is that they don't allow you to save time when lucky drops happen. The two main ways to get drops are:

• Advancing the variety prize pack to the bomb, which is the 6th drop in the pack. Because of its late position in the pack, it typically drops somewhere in Dark World, if at all. Common places to get it are Thieves' Town big block room or Skull Woods mummy statue room.
• Farming a drop from a zora on the waterfall of wishing screen. The zoras are in the bomb pack, which has a 100% drop rate. This still relies on the zora being in a place where the drop is convenient to get.

By getting extras, even very quick extras, early in the route, you don't give yourself the opportunity to save time with a lucky drop.

Slug bomb

Another place to get a drop is in Mire's slug room. There's one slug RNG pattern where you can quickly and reliably farm a drop, allowing the player to skip grabbing a bomb in TR's entrance room later on.

This drop has a small amount of anti-synergy with any shopping route that gets ice rod before the Turtle Rock segment. It's still worth getting, but it adds a tap to one of the equips (fire rod to hookshot before opening the cane of somaria chest).

Emergency bombs

Because they're slow, these are bombs the player shouldn't intentionally route in. However, they can save your run if you've gotten into a bad situation.

Jelly bombfloor bomb

Stalfos knight drops

Mini-helma key bombs

Ice cave rock farm

Shopping route

Shopping is the community's term for routing around when to collect the ether medallion and the ice rod. There are three popular options:

• boomer shopping
• zoomer shopping
• long swamp

There's also a fourth route that a few players use or have experimented with: gamer shopping.

Boomer shopping

Boomer shopping is the name for the "old" way of getting ether and ice rod. Before 2018, almost every player got both of them at the start of the Misery Mire segment of the run. This had a couple of distinct advantages:

1. It allowed sword climb on Death Mountain.
2. It had good synergy with the pre-spooky bomb route.

After spooky, some prominent runners began to rethink the wisdom of this route. Ice rod before Mire no longer has good synergy with the bomb route, and getting ether before Mire has a massive drawback: getting hit on Death Mountain, which isn't entirely under the player's control, is very bad.

There are some players who still do this route, whether out of old habit or preference. It does have a couple of advantages:

• The aforementioned sword climb on Death Mountain makes the route faster that zoomer shopping (by less than 1 second, but still).
• When fluting from Swamp, players can use a hook dash to easily optimize getting picked by the duck.
• Some players prefer a hook dash Death Mountain climb in comparison to a spin dash one, which is what's required if you get ether before Swamp.
• If the player does take damage on Death Mountain, they can potentially try to farm a heart off a crab near the ice cave.

Zoomer shopping

Zoomer shopping is the most popular shopping route among top players in the game today (2026), and it's the route that's used in the outline above. The player gets ether during the Swamp Palace segment, and then gets ice rod during the Turtle Rock segment.

This moves the ether collection to a segment where taking damage is less impactful, and it moves the ice rod to a segment that works well with bomb and equip routing. It does have a cost of losing a small amount of time to ether-in-Mire routes due to not having the hookshot for climbing Death Mountain.

Long swamp

Long swamp is a shopping route that gets ether and ice rod during the Swamp Palace segment. This works well with some players' bomb route decisions, and it gets both ether and ice rod done during a segment where there's little pressure on the player's health.

A downside to this route is that there aren't good places to get bombs between IPBJ and the beginning of Swamp Palace when the player needs to go get ice rod. If the player, for whatever reason, runs out of bombs at IPBJ, they won't have a bomb to open ice cave. This easily creates scenarios where the player has to adjust their route on the fly and change where they get ice rod.

Gamer shopping

Gamer shopping is the theoretically optimal route given current knowledge and strats. With this, the player would get ether at the start of the Misery Mire segment, which allows them to climb Death Mountain with hookshot. Then, they would get ice rod at the start of the Turtle Rock segment, which has more optimized equip and bomb route outcomes.

Despite being the optimal choice, this isn't something many players use. Runners tend to think the reward doesn't justify the risk.

Safeties

There are several safety options players can route in to make completing a run easier.

Sanctuary heart container

The Sanctuary heart container is in the chest inside the Sanctuary, and it can be quickly collected at the cost of around 3 seconds. The player will lose around another second throughout the run to having more hearts and accruing more lag.

At a cost of only ~4 seconds overall, it's the cheapest piece of safety equipment in the game. Having one extra heart container is surprisingly valuable across a few different places in the run. The most notable are:

• Between Hyrule Castle and Eastern Palace, there's no heart refill unless you get the Sanctuary heart.
• Eastern Palace big key damage boost eats 1.5 hearts. Staying alive through the segment is easier with the extra heart container.
• In Tower of Hera, an extra container gives extra breathing room against Death Mountain and mini-moldorm shenanigans.
• The player can survive an extra hit during the King Helmasaur boss fight.
• In Skull Woods, the player can afford an extra hit from any of the 2-heart damage sources in the segment (ropas, gibdos, Mothula).

Magic powder

The magic powder converts antifairies and bunny beams into actual fairies that can refill 7 hearts. This is sneakily very impactful as most Dark World dungeons have a lot of antifairies.

To get the magic powder, the player should collect the mushroom while in the Lost Woods getting the Master Sword. Then after unlocking the flute, they should flute to the witch's hut (#2 on the flute interface), turn in the mushroom, and collect the magic powder. This loses around 40 seconds of time in total.

Fake powder

There's an alternate fake powder route that makes use of the fake powder glitch. Using this, the player can just grab the mushroom in Lost Woods and skip collecting the actual powder. There are significant limitations to the glitch: the player needs either the cane of somaria AND no magic or they need some convoluted ledgepog setup.

In practice, this means fake powder is only a great solution in two places: before Vitreous and at the top of Ganon's Tower before Moldorm2.

Half magic upgrade

If the player is getting magic powder, they can also pick up the half magic upgrade while tempering their sword. This costs a decent amount of time and only has great utility at the Kholdstare and Trinexx boss fights. In the modern game, few runners get it, even if they're brand new to the run.

Gold sword and silver arrows

Gold sword and silver arrows make the late game, particularly the Ganon fight, easier. They can be collected at the cost of around 1 minute. If the player is getting them, they should swap the order of Swamp Palace and Misery Mire. They can run to the bomb shop after Swamp Palace to buy the super bomb. Then the super bomb can be used to access the Pyramid Fairy.

The player may also need to pay some amount of attention to their rupees. The usual 600 rupees from the Village of Outcasts covers the cost of flippers and the tempered sword (510 rupees), and the player will need 100 rupees to buy the super bomb at the bomb shop. Usually, player can expect to make up the 10 rupee deficit from drops, but it's worth keeping an eye on this just in case it doesn't work out. For some quick backup rupees in the Dark World dungeons, you can check out the rupee backups in 100% which can serve the same purpose for this.

Bottles and bug-catching net

A bottle and the bug-catching net can be comfortably routed into the run in a couple of different places:

1. While getting the Book of Mudora from the library, the player can dip into Kakariko Village and get the tavern bottle and bug net.
2. While on the way to unlocking the flute, the player can make a pit stop for the tavern bottle and bug net.

The second option is a bit faster than the first one. This is because the player will already be in Kakariko Village and won't have to traverse extra screens. However, getting the bottle and bug-catching net while unlocking the flute means getting these two items later in the run.

If the player wishes, they can collect 100 extra rupees and also buy the merchant bottle in Kakariko, which will give them 2 bottles to work with. The 100 rupee chest in the cannonball room of Eastern Palace is a good choice for getting the extra rupees.

This was once a popular option for newer runners but has gradually fallen out of favor over the years. It takes a while to get these items, and there aren't many quick places to get a fairy that don't involve the magic powder.

West side breeze route

If you're not on the Japanese 1.0 version, you won't be able to do the fake flipper route for going to Death Mountain after beating Desert Palace.