Damage & Health

Link's attacks

Below is a list of the base attack damages by weapon type. These values will change depending on the enemy you are fighting.

Note that all Crouch Stab damage values listed are of it's default value, since the Crouch Stab takes on the damage value of the previous attack (see Power Crouch Stab for more information).

Power Crouch Stab (PCS)

Discovered by Amn Lens Dragonair

The crouch stab deals the same amount of damage as the previous sword-like attack, no matter what attack was previously conducted. For example, one could jumpslash with the Biggoron's Sword, pause and equip the Master Sword, and then continue to deal Biggoron's Sword jumpslash damage by crouch stabbing with the Master Sword.

This is often used to a great advantage by "storing" the damage amount dealt by a more powerful but slower attack (usually a jumpslash) and using the much faster power crouch stab instead for increased damage output.

The power crouch stab can be combined with ISG to deal massive amounts of damage every frame.

1. Perform an attack to store. The attack does not have to hit anything for the trick to work.
2. Perform a crouch stab on an enemy by holding down R while not Z-targeted, and stab by pressing the B button.

When Link enters a new scene, the default damage dealt by a crouch stab with any weapon is 1, or the same amount of damage dealt from a slash from the Kokiri Sword. Yes, a crouch stab with the Biggoron's Sword will take 4 hits to kill a blue Tektite if it is the first attack used upon entering the scene!

The special properties of the last attack are carried over with the power crouch stab, such as the Megaton Hammer's ability to destroy boulders, or the Master Sword's ability to deal more damage to Ganon. For example, if you swing the Megaton Hammer, then switch to the Master Sword, Link will be able to destroy boulders with it by crouch stabbing them.

If your previous attack is a Spin Attack, the power crouch stab will only deal slash-strength damage, even when using a charged (orange) spin attack.

Damage flags

The game uses 32 flags that are on or off for each AT collider (colliders that can attack/damage/hit) which determine the "types" of damage it will deal—for example, these are what determines whether something is a "fire" attack that can light torches. Conversely, AC colliders (colliders that can receive hits) use the same flags to determine what "types" of damage register collisions. For example, the game will not register collision between an AC collider whose only damage flag is "Hammer Swing" will not be affected in any way by attacks that do not have the "Hammer Swing" flag.

Critical health effects

The term "Critical health" in speedrunning terms almost always refers to having 1 heart or less and has the following effects:

• Flex drop becomes a fairy
• The camera zooms in closer to Link than usual when not targeting
• Critical wiggle occurs

Critical wiggle

When in critical health, at every multiple of 256 frames (12.8 seconds at 20fps) after scene load, a random amount of leftward rotation between 0x0000 and 0x2000 (equivalent to 0 to 10000 units) is added to the control stick input angle (which effectively moves the control stick angle but not the magnitude of what you're holding). This only happens when untargeted and not in the pause menu.

Most of the time, crit wiggle won't affect gameplay substantially, but it can cause a trick to fail if it happens on certain important frames, like the frame before a roll or the frame a slash happens. Because crit wiggle happens at regular intervals, you can try to prevent it from messing up a trick by avoiding doing certain parts of the trick certain amounts of time after the scene load, which you can estimate with your run timer. In gz you can add a watch (VC 1.2: 0x801C8DFC, x32) to see crit wiggle in action; whenever the two last digits hit "01", you'll get a wiggle.

Low health beeping

Confusingly, the primary "critical health" effects above are separate from the low-health beeping sound and Link's slouched-over idle animation (and his panting sound effect), which are functionally irrelevant most of the time. The health cutoff for those effects is a percentage of Link's maximum health. This state is what the game's decompiled code refers to as "critical health", so the terminology can be sometimes confusing. Low health beeping begins at:

• 1 heart : when Link's max health is 5 hearts or less
• 1.5 hearts : when Link's max health is 6-10 hearts (inclusive)
• 2 hearts : when Link's max health is 11-15 hearts (inclusive)
• 2.75 hearts : when Link's max health is 16-20 hearts (inclusive)

Glitched health

Despite the HUD only displaying Link's health in increments of a quarter heart, the game keeps track of it in 16ths of a heart. "Glitched health" isn't really a glitch but refers to Link's health not being a multiple of a quarter heart and thus being misrepresented by the HUD. There are several ways this can happen:

• When Link is on fire, the residual burn damage deals 1/16 of a heart every 8 frames (see video below) until Link is extinguished, which can be done at any time by the player
• When Link is frozen, the residual freeze damage deals 1/16 of a heart every 4 frames (see video below) until Link is thawed, which can be done at any time by the player
• ⁠Shooting yourself with an action swapped arrow deals 1/16 of a heart
• When ⁠flare dancers, beamos, and peahats explode, the explosion deals 7/8 of a heart of damage (dodongo and baby dodongo explosions only deal 1/2 of a heart)

The main reason glitched health can be confusing in a speedrun is that Link's actual health isn't evenly distributed across the quarter hearts the HUD can show. As shown in the image below, the visual 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4 hearts each represent a range of five 16ths of a heart, and the full heart only ever represents a true sixteen 16ths. If Link takes a known amount of damage and you see the HUD change in an unexpected way, this is why. For example:

• If Link takes bomb damage (1/2 heart) and the HUD goes from showing 1 + 1/2 hearts to showing 3/4 of a heart, then the initial 1 + 1/2 hearts was actually either 1 + 6/16 hearts or 1 + 7/16 hearts, and the resulting health either 14/16 or 15/16 of a heart
• If Link takes lava floor damage (1/4 heart) when the HUD shows 1/4 of a heart but he doesn't die, then the initial 1/4 heart was actually 5/16 of a heart

Global timer for burn and freeze

investigated by Fig

Residual burn and freeze damage can only be dealt on frames that are multiples of 8 and of 4 respectively on a global frame counter, as Fig demonstrates for burn damage. This means that the amount of time it takes for burn or freeze to start affecting Link's health after the initial hit is variable. It also accounts for being able to take damage frame perfectly between roll invincibility and damage invincibility.

Play: YouTube video

Drinking a poe

As documented ⁠here by mzxrules, drinking a poe has a random effect that depends on Link's current health. It can deal damage, but it can never kill Link.

If health > 1 heart:

• 33.3% chance of restoring 3 hearts
• 33.3% chance of restoring 1 heart
• 33.3% chance of dealing 1 heart of damage

If health <= 1 heart:

• 66% chance of restoring 3 hearts
• 33% chance of restoring 1 heart