Superspeed

Superspeed is a glitch whose primary effect and namesake comes from how it allows Link to walk around with dash speeds. It does have a few other useful effects in addition to that though.

The glitch exclusive to the Japanese 1.0 version of the game. The speedrun community classifies it as a minor glitch.

Arming Superspeed

In order to use superspeed, the player must arm it first. This is sometimes also referred to as getting the "superspeed glitch state".

To arm superspeed, the player must perform a spin dash or an item dash using the hookshot or a medallion. All of these techniques require the Pegasus Boots. Spin dashes and Medallion dashes require a sword, and the item dash methods of course require their respective items.

After superspeed is armed, Link will be unable to use his sword until superspeed has been canceled. He will still be able to use Y-items though.

Spin dash

A spin dash (also called "spinspeed") is a superspeed arming method where the player starts a dash charge on the very first frame of a spin attack animation. This involves the following:

1. The player has a sword and the Pegasus Boots in their inventory.
2. The player fully charges a spin attack.
3. The player is in a context where A will start a dash charge. A common error novice players tend to make is trying to do a spin dash while Link is facing directly into a wall. In that situation, Link is in a grab context, not a dash charging one. Make sure you have Link positioned to where A would start a dash.
4. The player releases B and presses A on the same frame. This is commonly phrased as releasing B and then "pressing A on the frame after", but Professor Josh is here to tell you that's some misinformation. There's no empty frame between the B release and the A press.

If done successfully, Link will have armed superspeed.

Item dash

An item dash with the hookshot or any of the medallions will arm superspeed. These are executed the same way as any item dash.

Unlike other item dashes, these items don't actually let Link charge his dash. Their animation plays (the hookshot extension or the medallion spell effect), and afterwards, Link will have armed superspeed.

Activating the Speed

After superspeed is armed, the player can touch a manual stairway or ladder and walk onto normal ground to activate superspeed. This allows Link to walk around with the speed profiles of a dash. He's no longer restricted to the (mostly) cardinal lines imposed by dash routes, and he doesn't have to stop and recharge every time the player wants to change directions.

Due to these things, superspeed is a common optimization on screens featuring manual stairs/ladders assuming Link has the means to arm it.

Interactions with stair drag

When Link is close to exiting manual stairs/ladders, the game puts him in a state we call "stair drag". Typically it's optimal to cancel stair drag to regain his usual walking speed more quickly when coming off of these stairs. But if the player has superspeed armed and wants to come off the stairs with active superspeed, stair drag cannot be canceled.

This is often a confusing interaction and occasionally players misunderstand it. A common misunderstanding that can crop up in older resources and tutorials is thinking that you can't come off of stairs holding a diagonal direction and have active superspeed. This isn't true, and there are multiple examples in the Any% NMG run where you really want to be using diagonal to exit stairs with active superspeed.

Instead, you must not do any of the things that would cancel stair drag towards the end of a set of manual stairs:

• Turning Link to the left
• Turning Link to the right
• Standing still

Sometimes these actions can happen quickly in ways that are difficult to detect. A good example is the Unholy Spin dash on the way to the Library in the Any% NMG run. The player arms superspeed with a spin dash, and then they want to touch a ladder briefly before 180ing away from it to activate superspeed. While doing the 180 turn, it's easy to accidentally face Link left or right for a frame or two and come off the ladder with inactive superspeed.

Movement pattern

With active superspeed, Link moves 4 pixels per frame cardinally. When moving diagonally, Link moves at an average of 2.625px/frame.

Interactions with wide stairs

When the player has superspeed armed, and they're on a set of wide stairs with room to move left and right, players can generate a lot of speed through using diagonal movements. The diagonal movement pattern on stairs with superspeed averages 1.25px/frame along both axes. This is much faster than Link's cardinal walk on stairs with superspeed (0.625px/frame) and the cardinal or diagonal walks on stairs without superspeed (0.6875px/frame).

Canceling Superspeed

Superspeed (whether only armed or active) can be fully canceled in a few different ways. If any of these happens and the player wants to get superspeed back, they'll have to rearm it.

• Starting a dash charge
• Transitioning to a new screen
• Hopping a ledge
• Touching a sprite that doesn't deal damage (such as a crystal switch or an NPC)
• Moving near the edge of a pit
• Collecting an item, such as a heart piece or any other freestanding item; collecting dropped resources (like rupees, hearts, magic, arrows, etc.) won't disable superspeed
• Opening a chest
• Speaking to an NPC or entering a cutscene

The following things don't disarm superspeed, but they do end active superspeed. If any of these happen and the player wants to reactivate superspeed, they can just touch stairs (or a ladder) without the need to rearm superspeed again.

• Taking damage
• Lifting an object
• Throwing an object

Other Effects

Outside of allowing Link to walk very quickly, superspeed has a few other significant effects. All of these effects are present with armed superspeed as well as active superspeed, so the player doesn't necessarily have to activate superspeed or have a manual staircase/ladder around to leverage these effects.

Sword climbing

Sword climbing is a trick that allows Link to climb narrow manual stairs/ladders faster than normal. Even with superspeed active or armed, Link walks 0.6875px/frame when he's on manual stairs. With exceptional pumping, he may approach a 1px/frame speed. Stair climbs allow him to move even faster than that.

A sword climb is done by:

• Having hookshot equipped
• Stepping onto a manual staircase or ladder
• Holding Link's sword out
• Executing a hook dash

If successful, Link will acquire the movement pattern he normally does when holding his sword out and moving cardinally while not on stairs. This averages 1.25px/frame, and if Link is moving north, pumps can speed this up even further.

If Link exits stairs with an active sword climb, he will not come off with active superspeed. This is because this movement pattern won't create the necessary stair drag effect that activates superspeed. If the player wants to come off the stairs/ladder they're using with active superspeed, they'll need to drop the sword climb before they reach the exit to the stairs.

Something else worth noting: this trick does still work on wide stairs, but if Link is on wide stairs, it's just better to use plain diagonal inputs with the armed superspeed.

Bomb climbing

Bomb climbing is similar to sword climbing, and it also allows Link to climb narrow stairs at 1.25px/frame. To execute it, you need to only:

• Have superspeed armed
• Carry a bomb while on the stairs

This will give Link a nice speed boost, but players will also need to find a way to get rid of the bomb before it explodes. Being hit by it while Link is on the stairs will slow him down significantly. Also like the sword climb, Link needs to not be carrying the bomb when he exits the stairs if the player wants to come off the stairs with active superspeed.

Despite being called "bomb climbing", it's also doable with a somaria block. It does not work with any other carryable object though (pots, rocks, bushes, etc.).

Hammer hitbox extension

With superspeed armed, Link's hammer will take on the hitbox properties of Link's sword when he's dashing. When facing north, this is significantly more favorable than the normal hitbox the hammer has.

This trick is a core component of the current strats on the King Helmasaur boss fight.

0 cycle Arrghus

By holding sword and doing a hook dash, Link will be able to pull the puffs off of Arrghus and kill them without having to slash. If the puff kills are chained together quickly enough, the player can finish them all off before Arrghus can do his hurricane attack.

For more information, see: Arrghus

Out-of-bounds glitches and clipping

TODO

Instant quickhops

If Link has superspeed (even if it's just armed and inactive), he will instantly hop a ledge if he touches it. This can be desirable or undesirable depending on the situation.

Desert Ledge superspeed

In Any% NMG, superspeeding saves around half a second on this screen. Players must exercise some caution though. If Link touches the nearby ledge at all, he will immediately jump and the player will lose over a minute of a progress needing to backtrack to get back on the Desert Ledge.

Quake hop

Players can open Turtle Rock with a quakedash and use the armed superspeed to guarantee a perfect ledge hop while walking to the Turtle Rock entrance.

Swamp statue interaction

TODO