Death Hole

Death hole is a transition glitch that abuses the mechanics of death, falling, and screen transitions at the same time.

Loose explanation / info

When Link falls into a room and dies at the same time, the game will believe Link has transitioned even though he is not physically moved to the room below. This makes the glitch a class of transition corruption. Data from the room below will be loaded into Link's current room, changing chest contents, pit destinations, key doors, transition destinations, etc.

The fairy revive that plays out is the result of a submode conflict, which is often a component of transition corruptions. The game mode address at $10-11 is set to 07 00 in normal indoors gameplay, and when Link falls in a pit, that transition will change this value to 07 07. Meanwhile when Link dies the game mode will be 12 01, with the value at $11 incrementing through various phases in the death animation. If the player dies and falls at the same time though, the death will start at 12 08, and the incrementing will take the player through 12 0B, which is the fairy revive submode.

If the player hasn't died or opened the map at any point in the run, the screen will be black until Link transitions.

There are two crash possibilities with death hole that players should be aware of:

• If a death hole is performed on a void (a pit that damages Link), the game will crash.
• If a bomb in slot 0 is used to death hole, the game will crash. In practice, this usually means players should avoid placing two bombs and using the second bomb to death hole.

Because the player can't be damaged while falling in other versions of the game, death hole is a glitch unique to the Japanese 1.0 version.

Applications

Arrghus death hole

This is an important trick in many MG runs that have to defeat Arrghus. It allows the player to very quickly access Arrghus without the need for flippers. Watch the video below to see it in action both with and without somaria pits visible.

Technique

1. This trick has a couple of prerequisites:
   1. You want to have Link's hearts down to where one bomb explosion will kill him. Usually you'll have the default green tunic on, which means you'll want 1 heart or less, but if you have an armor upgrade, you'll need a lower heart count.
   2. If you haven't died in the run yet, it's highly recommended that you open the map some time before doing this death hole because doing the trick with the black screen is very difficult.
2. Kill the red develant before doing anything. If it's alive, it'll harass you while you're trying to do the trick. You can walk right at the beginning of the room for timing purposes (no point in dashing if you need to wait for it to spawn anyway). You can also optionally defeat the develant on the right side of the room to make the end of the trick a bit more comfortable.
3. North STC on the door here. If your somaria block is in slots 1 or 0, you should detonate it after doing the STC to prevent issues from happening. Usually the only reason your block may go in those slots is if you placed a block, then detonated it, then immediately placed a new one.
4. Come out of the doorway and walk downright until Link is aligned with the right wall in the small corridor where the develant was. While aligned with the right wall, hold until Link is in the corner. Turning on invisible pits in the practice hack will help you navigate this section (and the subsequent sections for that matter).
5. Begin a dash charge and turn it right before the charge complete so that Link bonks the wall. Hold during the bonk animation so that Link doesn't slip into the invisible pit after he lands.
6. After walking down a safe distance from the invisible pit, align with the wide rail on the right. Link's X-position should be 0888. You want to position him on one of two Y-positions: 0FA6 or 0FA7. Make sure Link is facing either left or up (use a dash turn if he isn't).
7. If you're in a good spot, do a bomb dash. If Link is facing north, you'll want to turn Link left during the dash charge. You want Link to bonk the left wall. Begin holding during the bonk animation and slash once after Link has landed. Continue holding into the pit.
8. After the revival, begin holding until the camera starts to shift left, then hold until the camera shifts back right. Charge a dash to the right and cancel it down to align with the bottom wall after you've passed the invisible pit below you. Once again, the visible pit feature in the practice hack is helpful for getting a feel for this section. There's also an image you can reference below with a potentially helpful visual cue. If you cancel this dash late, the develant will often hit you, and if you cancel early, you'll fall into an invisible pit.
9. After aligning with the bottom wall, charge another dash to the right, and you'll transition to Arrghus's room.