Ocarina of Time

Forest Temple

See Phantom Ganon for the boss fight in Forest Temple.

Entering Forest Temple

Entering Forest Temple is straightforward as Adult in most circumstances. This section shows some strategies for entering Forest Temple without Hookshot. To enter as Child Link, see the Enter Temple as Child section.

Bombchu hovers

QPA Bomb hovers

No explosives/hookshot

Skipping the Minuet of Forest

Uncertain use case. Minuet is normally skipped when using the Fire to Forest Wrong Warp, but the cutscene trigger in Sacred Forest Meadow can also directly be skipped with hovering.

Reverse Minuet cutscene skip

If you wrong warp into Forest Temple from the Fire Temple, you can avoid the Minuet of Forest cutscene. However, leaving the dungeon will activate it, but the cutscene can be skipped from the inside by exiting the temple with no health left.

with a bomb

This video demonstrates doing this setupless by backflipping into a bomb explosion and hitting the load zone before Link lands (this can also be done with a sidehop).

⁠Alternative method using small setup for safety

with a bombchu

setup by Axel

This is easier than timing backflipping into a bomb and takes less time in isolation because it doesn't involve waiting out a bomb's fuse. Target the wall anywhere next to the load zone, sidehop and shield drop a chu midair, then continue targeting but release shield and switch to holding up prior to landing.

⁠Bombchu setup swordless (buffered)

1st Floor

Boss key skip from central room

Discovered by Unreal

Anywhere near the middle of the staircase, target the right railing
Shielded horizontal slash
Pull hookshot
Backflip on the first possible frame (3f after hookshot input) to clip into the left railing (see notes)
Hold left to jump and ledge grab
Press A to drop on the fourth possible frame or beyond to avoid popping back in bounds
Target, turn left, and sidehop right to the load zone

Notes:

As shown in the video, the frame perfect input in step 3 can be made much easier at the expense of a small amount of time: Get hookshot into Link's hands in step 3, then input a backflip and the hookshot on the same frame to clip into the railing.
⁠This video demonstrates a slightly faster method that skips shielding to cancel the slash animation, instead pulling the hookshot out on the first possible frame after the slash. This works with a vertical or horizontal slash.

manual aim setup

Head over to the far north door and position yourself in the crook of the two railings. Turn around, pull out the hookshot, and align the red dot with the right side of the door frame as shown. Now, with the hookshot still out, do a backflip and press the hookshot button mid-flip. This will shorten the backwards distance of your backflip and put you right over the railing. Now walk towards the stairs to clip. From here, drop down and jump to the loading zone.

Note: On the GCN Version the loading zone is slightly more difficult to hit as it is more aligned parallel to the staircase.

Early basement

Poes cutscene skip

The four poes cutscene begins a set amount of time after Link enters the room. Catching bugs or fish in a bottle right as the cutscene starts will give control back before the cutscene ends, making it possible to take the elevator down to the basement well before intended. There is a 2-frame window to catch bugs/fish to make this happen.

Hold up after opening the door
Ideally, pause on the frame shown in the video (Link's arms both visible; see notes below)
Press the bottle button during unpause lag to drop bugs/fish
Press the bottle button again on either of the first two possible frames to catch the bugs/fish and get the cutscene skip (this can be paused buffered; see notes below)
Allow the bug/fish text box to fill completely before closing it; if you close it too soon, the elevator will move slowly

Notes:

In step 2, dropping bugs on this frame isn't strictly necessary. It just places the 2f window to catch the bugs immediately after the drop animation ends, making it easy to mash the bottle button and get the skip. Pausing one frame later (space visible below Link's left boot) also works, but then there's only one frame available afterward to press bottle for the catch. Likewise, dropping bugs/fish a frame earlier than the ideal frame doesn't make the skip impossible, but it means that pressing bottle again for the catch on the first possible frame will be too early and won't skip the cutscene. And so on for all earlier frames.
In step 4, if using bugs, hold in the direction the bugs are moving to make sure Link is close enough to catch them. If using fish, don't move.

Megasidehop method

This can be used as a backup to reach the basement if you miss the cutscene skip using a bottle. If you saved before attempting the cutscene skip, this method reaches the basement about 8s faster than reloading your save and trying the cutscene skip again.

Mid-air timer stops

Extremely precise trick useful for the glitchless IL run. It requires nearly frame perfect sidehops from the start of the room to the elevator along with 1st frame timer stop using a cutscene item after every sidehop. There is 1 frame of leniency; allowing 2 or more extra frames to pass will trigger the cutscene.

Action Swap for first eye switch

This makes it possible to shoot the eye switch without having the bow. However, a quiver and at least one arrow are required.

Target the wall and turn left
Instant shield drop a bomb
As soon as possible, backflip and pull another bomb immediately (frame data needed)
Land, then shield drop the second bomb and sidehop right
Sideroll and release target
Retarget, draw hookshot, and wait with shield and target held
On the normal quickdraw frame (shield and head tilted right), press stick to get action swap
Get into position, pull stick, and press it again to shoot the arrow upwards and to the left

Song of Time block skip

with ledge clip

It is possible to get directly into the West courtyard without Song of Time by ledge clipping into it and opening the door.

with jumpslash clip

This strat is not recommended in any scenario anymore, it is outdated.

West courtyard Megajump to upper ledge

Superslide to west courtyard ledge after Map

East courtyard Hookshot vines near red switch

Hover boost to Amy's room

Checkerboard room before Amy

Fast glitchless checkerboard room

Uses an anti-grav jumpslash recoil after the 2nd floor frozen eye switch to start further into the puzzle, as well as a backflip from the chest at the end of the room to skip waiting.

Superslide through falling ceiling

Jungle Jump

Jungle Jump Explanation

Jungle Jump refers to a Hookshot jump in the lower Stalfos room of Forest Temple which jumps up to the Bow Stalfos room above. The 1F Stalfos fight must be completed, because the key chest is required for the Hookshot jump, but also because the first fight is required to spawn the upper Stalfos fight. Jungle Jump saves, in isolation, ⁠approximately 1m15s to get to the Fairy Bow compared to climbing the Temple.

In order to properly load the upper room, the trick first uses EPG (Entrance Point Glitch) on entering the 1F Stalfos room, then uses a bomb to die on the same frame as the Hookshot connects with the key chest. After reviving from the death Hookshot jump and ending the EPG in the upper room, voiding out or setting and returning Farore's Wind will reload the upper room allowing the Stalfos to spawn.

EPG

There are many strats, most of which are similar speed, shown below. For beginners the Right side EPG is often recommended because of the timing of the bomb drops, but most high level runners use one of the left-side setups.

Left side EPG options

The setup variations are listed roughly from fastest to slowest, but all are very similar speed so it should be mainly up to runner preference.

TKC setup

This setup can also be optimized by doing the slashes without shielding (starting to hold downleft during the vertical slash helps) and by doing the turnaround with a spin cancel from the final horizontal slash.

⁠CountLG setup

SVA setup

There are better options for the Hookshot aim portion than the video below shows (see the next section).

Right side EPG strat

For many runners this has the advantage of using instant shield drops for the bombs, which gives more time after dropping the bombs to turn, backflip, and stab the door. For that reason it is often recommended for new runners who are learning Jungle Jump.

Hookshot jump aim

The aiming to the chest works from either left-side or right-side EPG. The directions are simply flipped. These resources assume left-side EPG. The chest can be opened or closed, it doesn't matter.

Standard frames

Tap or hold target after the EPG to align the camera behind Link
- If doing right-side EPG, turn 180 now instead of in step 3
Instant shield drop bomb

9 or 10 frames after pulling bomb, which are the first two frames that the small puff of smoke is visible above the bomb (see this image):

Hold Down (only if left side EPG) + tap Hook to aim, switch to holding Left as the Hook is being pulled
- Switch to Right instead if using right side EPG
Hold left to spin with the hookshot until the frame needed
- Frame needed depends on the frame you did step 3 on, see this image
Hold Up + tap Hookshot to shoot chest

Extra frames + backup adjustments

Using some adjustments found by tob3000, it is possible for an 8th frame Hookshot pull to work, instead of just 9 and 10, as well as to get an extra Hookshot jump pause frame for a frame 9 Hookshot pull.

Voiding after Jungle Jump

After being revived by the fairy, you must walk a bit into the upper room (not backwards) to close the lower door and set your entrance point there. If Farore's Wind can be used, it is faster to set and return FW than to void out.

JJ triple slash clip

The triple slash clip is approximately the same speed as a megaflip when bomb is pulled early and the position is done setupless, but bomb count considerations may make the TSC preferable.

Crouch stab setup

Target left wall (0xdfe6)
Sidehop right into corner
1 ess left
2x crouch stabs
Hold target
Hold left for 2 or 3 frames before starting a triple slash (target+left+B)
- In practice you can think of this as just "hold left first, then quickly press B"
- If you hold left for 4+ frames your slash won't hit the wall
Pull Hookshot on one of the first 2 possible frames (the 2 after the first sparks frame)
- Mashing is normally recommended for this due to how quickly you can retry the trick

If you fail to clip, keep target held and sidehop back into the right corner, then repeat from step 4.

Shieldless ESS-up setup

JJ megaflip

The megaflip is approximately the same speed as a triple slash clip when bomb is pulled early and the position is done setupless, but bomb count considerations may make the TSC preferable. It doesn't really require a setup, but due to the limited space in the corner it can be more difficult to manually line one up.

No setup

This seemingly succeeds more consistently if the bomb is to the right of Link's position, which can be done easily by dropping it to the right of the door then backwalking into the corner, which moves Link a bit left towards the door, as shown in the video.

Setup

The start of the setup in the video is extraneous, you just need to target the wall and start the setup from there.

Block Room

Failed Superslide Hover Boost Block Room Speed Trick

Discovered by ZFG

Upon exiting the second highest door in the block room attempt a superslide toward the platform north of you, but execute the slide a bit earlier than normal. This will trigger a normal ground jump. Now quickly put on your hover boots,and roll toward the bomb to get your boost, turn around and ground jump onto the ledge.

Block room alcove jump

You can reach the low alcove with the door to the west courtyard early, without glitches. This can be done with a jumpslash recoil (which gives temporary anti-gravity) or a precise jump and jumpslash.

Jumpslash recoil (anti-gravity)

Farore's Wind setup

If you need to set Farore's Wind in this room to come back later, you can use it to get the angle for the jumpslash recoil, as shown in the video.

If setting Farore's Wind doesn't give you the good angle to just hold up after, then you probably walked forward too far before sidehopping right just prior. If you notice that you walked too far forward you can do one sidehop, backwalk against the wall, then do the second sidehop. The jumpslash doesn't need to be a quickdraw one, you can press B just before or after running off the ledge so that you auto jumpslash in your jump off the ledge. Quickdraw is just faster.

without Farore's Wind

The setup shown in the video also works with 3 ESS turns.

Jump + jumpslash

This was formerly the method used in Glitchless, because temporary anti-gravity used to be banned. Now it is mostly obsoleted by the easier jumpslash recoil, shown above.

Block skips

These blocks normally required Goron Bracelet to push, but they can be skipped using glitches.

Green block jumpslash clip

The large green block can be skipped by doing a jumpslash clip. Instead of backing away from the block, like in the video, you can also hold shield to avoid grabbing the block.

Ground jump onto blocks

Discovered by GuanoBowl

You can get on top of both of the large blocks in this room by storing a ground jump, then backflipping against the corner of the block. This must be done on the side of the blocks where Link is under a sloped "archway" type of ceiling.

The green block can easily be skipped this way, because from the top of the block you can climb up to the ledge above (or the ladder).

Bombchu recoil jump onto blocks

Red block skip

The red block normally needs to be pushed to get to the final upper ledge and advance to the 2nd floor. From on top of the red block (after a ground jump), it is possible to reach this ledge without pushing the block.

Hover boots rolls

Hoverboost

May be a bit easier than the rolls strat for many people, with the disadvantage of needing to pause buffer. Aiming to the ledge is simple enough after getting the damage boost.

Bombchu hovers (no hover boots)

2nd Floor

Twisted Corridor Navi text skip

In the twisted corridor sidehop to your right or left then backwalk to the other end. If you then stick to the wall and sidehop across the gap you'll skip the second Navi text warning you of Floormasters.

Weirdshot fairy pot from Bow Chest

From in front of the Fairy Bow chest, you can perform a weirdshot and hookshot the pot in the lower Stalfos room which contains a fairy. The fairy rapidly flies up toward Link's position allowing you to catch it or use it.

Weirdshot back to 1F from Bow chest

Similar to the fairy weirdshot above, you can weirdshot the chest below the Bow room to get quickly back to the first floor.

Boss key skip from bow room

Discovered by Exodus

Superslide method

Target angled wall left of red carpet door (0xdfe6)
Turn 90 degrees right, walk forward
Superslide into the left corner
Equip Hover Boots and release target
On 2nd - 8th frames Hover Boots are active: equip Kokiri Boots and release all input
- 9th frame adjustment: after Link lands, dry roll then hold Down immediately
- 10th frame adjustment: hold Downright instead of releasing all input

Hammer method

Discovered by Adarax

Dry roll from the Bow Chest.
Align with the wall as shown in the video.
Swing your hammer and equip hover boots on the 1st recoil frame.
Unequip Kokiri Boots and hold the direction shown in the video.

Note: Frame 4 or 5 may require a jumpslash depending on your initial position at the chest.

Skip frozen eye switch

Basement

To get to the basement early, see Early basement.

Fast glitchless basement puzzle

Descend elevator facing slightly right of entrance door
Sidehop right while elevator is moving down
Push room CCW once
Move down after pushing, hit switch
Move out to the red carpet on the far side of the room
Push room CCW again
Move down after pushing, hit switch
Get back on elevator facing forward
- Will be facing the west area of Forest Temple
Sidehop off the elevator and back on when it reaches the peak
Sidehop left into the basement after elevator descends
Continue left to hit switch
Backwalk from switch
Backflip onto elevator then backwalk off
- Backflipping off carries the risk of grabbing the ledge
Backwalk to boss door and open it

Weirdshot basement Gold Skulltula

Uses Longshot. A precise variation may be possible with Hookshot, but you can also rotate the room for the Skulltula.

Boss Key skip from basement

Push room counter-clockwise 2x to open the red areas
Target gate in front of switch
Sidehop left, sideroll untarget
2x crouch stab
Jumpslash and hold shield to clip
7x left sidehops
5 ess turns left to angle 0x8000
Target then turn 90 degrees left
Shielded horizontal slash
8x right sidehops
Turn Up-left (lenient diagonal)
Sidehop right into loading zone

In step 6, if you don't want to actually skip the door, you can do 8 sidehops left instead.

Child Link strategies

Enter Temple as Child

4 bombchu hover

5 bombchu hover

This strat is possible to do unbuffered, because it consists of 5 sideflip hovers and doesn't use shuffle hovers. If done unbuffered, it's faster than the 4 bombchu hover.

Hover to Gold Skulltulas as Child

West courtyard hover

East courtyard hover

Basement hover

All skulltulas as Child (full route)

Elevator glitch as Child

West courtyard hover as Child

The start of the video shows this hover to get to the upper courtyard ledge.

Green block jumpslash clip as Child

Video shows Sword and Deku Stick setups.

Block room Child hover

You can hover to bypass the blocks and reach the upper floor as Child. This strat uses 8 Bombchus, with a 9th if needed to get ISG at the start.

Twist boss key hallway as Child

The first twisted hallway, which leads to the Boss Key chest and the Bow room, can be twisted as Child by doing hovers and hitting the switch with glitched damage ISG. If you can use Slingshot/Bow, Child Link can also shoot an Deku Seed to hit it.

Spawn Poe chests by voiding (Child)

If the Poe Elevator cutscene is still active because you skipped it, you can void out using these setups (or use Farore's Wind to reload the room if you have access) to spawn the Small Key/Compass chests. This does not work to spawn Meg the purple Poe, for that you must actually defeat the Poe sisters.

Defeat Poe Sisters as Child

Joelle (Red) / Beth (Blue)

Child Link can use QPA and action swap for a big Deku Stick, as the video shows, to hit the Poe paintings for the red and blue Poe fights. It must be repeated if doing both fights, which makes it a bit time-consuming.

Amy (Green)

Meg (Purple)

You can use Bombchus to hit the real Meg during the fight. No special tricks are required.

Child BK skip from courtyard vines

In the west Courtyard room, on the vines that lead up to the Map chest room, you can vine clip using a bombchu and land just out of bounds next to the Phantom Ganon loading zone.

You can also kill the lowest Skulltula before starting to make the climb a little safer.

Target vine wall (0x4000) and roll fully in corner to the right of vines
Sidehop left, neutral roll
Hold up, 3 or 5 climbs upward (including the start) and 1 climb right
- Link's head will be just reaching a horziontal on the wall texture
Bombchu + shield vine clip (doesn't seem to work with a shieldless vine clip)
Enter Phantom Ganon loading zone after landing, either by:
- Shield/flick turn Up-right (lenient diagonal), sidehop left
- Hold between Up and Up-left while Link is getting up from the landing (very lenient, especially closer to Up)

Basement BK door/skip as Child

From the basement puzzle room, you can skip solving the full puzzle as Child by using a jumpslash clip. From the collision out of bounds, you can either continue inbounds straight to open the Boss Key door, or you can get around the door to skip the Boss Key. The video shows the BK skip, but you can simply walk back inbounds instead of doing the ending portion (see text in video). Pushing the rotating walls does not require any strength upgrades.

Blue Warp Cutscene Skip

In addition to skipping the Forest Medallion cutscene, this trick is required for Child Link to obtain the Forest Medallion (from source) without crashing.

Bomb OI cutscene skip

Setup by Battemanne

Bomb OI is faster than backflip OI because it doesn't require dropping and catching a bottled item. However, because bomb OI involves a frame perfect input, backflip OI is easier, and it even ends up faster if you pause buffer more than 3 times for bomb OI.

Prepare by damaging down to 1h during the fight
After PG dies, sidehop left
Turn left
Press hookshot
Hold left and pull bomb within 12f of pressing hookshot
Bomb OI (looking for the first frame that Link's shield is fully past the yellow triangle on the ground)
Once the camera settles, press B to cancel OI with the control stick neutral
Input bomb, target, and left on the frame Link's arms are parallel to the ground; this is the second frame of their movement away from the ocarina pose (see notes)
Input target, shield, and down on the frame Link's right and left feet overlap (see video) to drop the bomb and backflip
Midair, pull bottle and begin holding up (continue holding target and up for the remainder of the trick)
Swipe the bottle after reaching full walking speed
Continue holding target and up until Link dies

Notes:

In step 8, if you pause on a different frame after canceling OI, you can still get the cutscene skip with some adjustments:
- Pause on 2nd frame (Link's arms parallel to ground): described above
- Pause on 3rd frame (Link's arms angled towards ground): Do the inputs in step 9 1f earlier than described (Link's feet will be slightly apart instead of crossed); the rest stays the same
- Pause on 4th frame (Link's shoulders more at rest): Do the inputs in step 9 2f earlier than described (Link's feet will be far apart); instead of swiping a bottle in step 11, swing the hammer
- Pause on 5th frame (hard to distinguish from 4th frame): Do the inputs in step 9 3f earlier than described; instead of swiping a bottle in step 11, swing the hammer (must continue holding target after backflip)

Bottle OI cutscene skip

In isolation, bottle OI is slower than bomb OI because it requires dropping and catching a bottled item. However, if you need to do RBA anyway, bottle OI can be faster because you have a bottle in hand already. Also, because bomb OI involves a frame perfect input, bottle OI is easier, and it even ends up faster if you pause buffer more than 3 times for bomb OI.

Initial position setup (fish)

After the fight, do shielded jumpslash
Turn 180 degrees
Drop and catch fish (possible to use bugs but they are not stationary)
Dry roll
Backflip bottle OI

Non-initial position setup

After PG dies, tap or ESS down for facing angle 0x0; if you need to back this up, target anywhere along the wall that the gate to enter the fight is on
Drop and catch fish/bugs
Sidehop into the right corner of the arena and sideroll once you're there
2 sidehops left
Turn or ESS turn right
Backflip bottle OI

See video for additional notes. Note the fence visual cue for the sidewalk strat will be offset by a bit compared to the initial position setup, due to the slight difference in Link's position; Link's walking animation still provides a consistent visual.

Sidewalk strat (empty bottle/hammer)

This is the standard strat for most modern RTA runs. It requires empty bottle or Hammer.

After performing the Ocarina Items on the blue warp:

Once the camera settles, press B to cancel OI with the control stick neutral
Input target, hold right, and bomb on the 2nd/3rd Link's arms move (each gives different frame for step 3)
On correct frame (see visual cues in video): backflip and quickdraw empty bottle/hammer during backflip
Start holding forward in air
After Link takes 1 step, swing empty bottle OR swing hammer + start holding R (continue holding forward)

See video for cues and extra frames with Hammer or Iron Boots.

Backwalk strat

This strat is good when you don't have empty bottle or Hammer. Some people find that it is harder to do this strat with less pause buffering due to having less clear anticipatory visual cues.

After performing the Ocarina Items on the blue warp:

Once the camera settles, press B to cancel OI with the control stick neutral
Input target, down, and bomb on the frame the sword is nearly vertical and covering Link's face; this is the second frame of their movement away from the ocarina pose
Input target, shield, and down to drop the bomb and backflip on the frame shown in the video (first frame that the fencepost is visible on the right side of the screen; around the peak of the second red bomb flash)
Continue holding down (no target) until Link dies

See video for adjustments if you paused late in step 2.

1f late: perform step 3 1 frame early, horizontal slash and hold neutral instead of step 4
2f late: perform step 3 2 frames early, horizontal slash -> crouch stab instead of step 4

Last updated October 6, 2026 by bewildebeest