Flags and Triggers

---

Crash Debug Screen

Found by Taka

After crashing the game, press the buttons in the following order to make the crash debug screen appear :

• Hold D-pad Right and press L 3 times
• Hold D-pad Up and press R 6 times
• Hold D-pad Left and press Z 5 times
• Hold L + R + Z and press D-pad Down

---

Event Flags

This diagram represents all of the major known flags and triggers in The Wind Waker.

Completely white arrows represent a trigger that is required for another event to occur.

Arrows that are just an outline represent natural progression in the storyline and not necessarily a direct trigger.

A list of all global flags can be found ⁠here.

Notes:

• "Talking to KoRL after Hyrule 2" isn't exactly accurate. It should have been "Loading TotG after Hyrule 2".
• The canons and the battleships inside reefs only spawn once you've defeated Phantom Ganon in FF2.
• The mapfish only spawns on the overworld if you have both met KoRL (by beating FF1) and defeated Gohma (= spawned the portal after Gohma). The mapfish cutscene after Wind Temple only plays if you have defeated Gohma and Molgera (= spawned their respective portal) and you if you have owned the Fully Charged Master Sword at any point (this matters since there are ways to downgrade your sword through glitches).

The known event flags are below. The array starts at 0x803B872C on JP and at 0x803C522C on US:

---

Animation Sets

Cutscenes in TWW and TWWHD make use of special animations to make Link move around. However, the game doesn't use all of the animations right away. Instead, they are split into 2 different sets: Animation Set 1 and Animation Set 2.

When starting the game, the first Animation Set is used. But upon enting the Helmaroc fight, the game switches to the second Animation Set.

These animation sets are important to acknowledge, because entering a cutscene that uses these animation sets with the wrong one will crash the game, since the game tried to play a non-conform animation and failed to do so.

Here are cutscenes that use Animation Set 1:

• Intro Cutscene
• Hero's Clothes Cutscene
• Saving Tetra in the Forest Cutscene
• Helmaroc kidnapping Aryll Cutscene
• Hero's Shield Cutscene
• Leaving Outset Cutscene
• Barrel Launching Cutscene in FF1
• Forsaken Fortress 1 Cutscene
• First Encounter with KoRL Cutscene
• Delivery Bag Cutscene
• Din's Pearl Cutscene
• Deku Tree Cutscene
• Farore's Pearl Cutscene
• Password Cutscene
• Nayru's Pearl Cutscene
• TotG Rising Cutscene
• Going down to Hyrule 1 Cutscene
• Master Sword Cutscene

And here are cutscenes that use Animation Set 2:

• Ganondorf Cutscene in FF2
• Valoo Cutscene
• Tetra to Zelda Transformation Cutscene
• Earth God's Lyrics Cutscene
• Playing EGL to Medli Cutscene
• Half Charged MS Cutscene
• Wind God's Aria Cutscene
• Playing WGA to Makar Cutscene
• Fully Charged MS Cutscene
• Hyrule 3 Cutscene
• Breaking the Hyrule Barrier
• Puppet Ganon Cutscene
• Post-Puppet Ganon Cutscene
• Ganondorf Cutscene
• Ending Cutscenes

These lists might not be exhaustive. Entering the Helmaroc fight is what changes the animation set. One must enter that fight with Animation Set 1.

There are 2 ways to skip cutscenes that are past a loading in The Wind Waker:

• The first one is to get crushed with storage after triggering the loading zone leading to the cutscene. This cancels the cutscene on its first frame. For most cutscenes, skipping them in this way does not set all the required flags, but there are exceptions (the deku tree cutscene). This cutscene skip method always avoids the animation set crashes. See Storage Cutscene Skip for more information.

• The second one is to unload the cutscene with Actor Unloading. This method always set all the flags set by the cutscene, but still doesn't give you the items the cutscene normally gives to you when watching it. Animation Set crashes will still occur in most circumstances if the cutscene is skipped this way (but there are exceptions, such as the Ganondorf cutscene which normally crashes with the wrong animation set, but only rather late into the cutscene).

Something else to note about cutscenes is that some of them can actually give you items because the game assumes you should have them and they are used during the cutscenes (mostly Link's sword and shield). This is the case with the following cutscenes:

• Helmaroc Kidnapping Aryll Cutscene: gives Hero' Sword
• Ganondorf Cutscene in FF2: gives Master Sword and Hero's Shield
• Breaking the Hyrule Barrier: gives Fully Charged Master Sword
• Puppet Ganon Cutscene: gives Fully Charged Master Sword and Mirror Shield
• Post-Puppet Ganon Cutscene: gives Fully Charged Master Sword and Mirror Shield
• Ganondorf Cutscene: gives Fully Charged Master Sword and Mirror Shield

---

Pirate Ship Flags

Pirate Ship Locations

The Pirate Ship is one object that can be found in various places through the game. Here is a list of all accessible locations:

• On Outset Island (during day+Prologue state only)
• On a special "Overworld Travelling" map (normally accessed by leaving Outset at the end of the Prologue)
• On the Forsaken Fortress 1 map (always there, behind a rock in the distance)
• On Windfall Island, during Endless Night (only before Hyrule 2)
• On both Outset and Windfall on layer 2 (by doing Flight Control Platform Escape)
• On Outset on layer 0/8 (the post-FF1 layer)

Outset stays in Prologue State as long as the Gossip Stone Trigger in FF1 isn't activated. That trigger can be skipped, which can lead to some more sequence breaks. Also note that the Outset Pirate Ship will be invisible, unless you watched the cutscene of Helmaroc coming to Outset, or you've saved Tetra in the forest.

Note: On the HD remake, the Outset pirate ship doesn't have collision when invisible, and so you have to make it visible before being able to enter it. On the original game however, you can enter an invisible pirate ship.

Pirate Ship States

Entering or leaving a pirate ship can have different results depending on what you did previously on the savefile. Here is how they work:

The Spoils Bag chest only appears during the day, and not during night or Endless Night.

---

Savewarping Flags

Info

Savewarping refers to the act of saving and quitting the game. Upon reloading the save, Link is usually placed back on the shore if he saved on the island, in the middle of the ocean if he saved in the water (far away from the island), or at the beginning of the dungeon if he saved inside it. However, savewarping works very differently during the early game, here is a list of what happens depending on what you did in the game.

Savewarp flags behave in tiers, the moment you trigger a higher tier flag, triggering a lower tier flag will not change your savewarp location. When the last savewarp flag is hit, we say that savewarp flags are fixed.

Uses

By performing Outset Escape, you can avoid hitting every single of these flags. They can then be used at your advantage to:

• Escape from places you are not supposed to be at yet/can't be escaped otherwise.
• Go back to places that are not accessible otherwise.

For example, savewarping can be used to go back to FF1 even if you have both the sword and the bombs in your inventory. A notable example of keeping these early game savewarp flags is Savewarp-escaping Hyrule 1. By obtaining all 3 pearls before beating FF1, and raising TotG before beating FF1, you can go into Hyrule 1 before triggering the last savewarp flag. This allows you to savewarp from the Master Sword Chamber directly to Outset, FF1 or Windfall.

---

Layer Logic

Description

In order to know what actors need to be loaded depending on the player's story progression, the Wind Waker uses a system called "layers". This is a variable that dictates which actors need to be loaded. All actors in the game have a layer value associated to them, and if the currently loaded stage layer is the layer that actor is supposed to exist in, that actor will load, otherwise it will not. This is how the game makes sure that the windfall pirate ship only appears during endless night, or that the portal to Ganon's Tower only can appear in Forsaken Fortress 3 for example.

There is generally in every stage a "default actor" layer. Actors placed on that layer will always load regardless of the actual layer value. This means that if the current layer is 5 for example, only actors placed either on the default layer or on layer 5 will load. Most actors in the game are placed on this default layer, since most of them are not story progression dependant.

It is actually quite uncommon for the layer value to be set on stage load immediately. It happens in some specific cases, such as in specific stages, or for specific cutscenes, among other rare occurences. Most of the time however, the stage layer value is instead set to -1, and in this case the actual layer value will be decided by the room you are currently in. This is particularly important on the sea stage, where each quadrant is its own specific room, and there it is generally the room that decides the layer.

The game mostly checks global flags to know what layer is supposed to be used. In time sensitive areas, the day and night cycle also plays a part, where generally the even layer number will be used for day-time and the next odd number for night-time.

Layer Logic Table

The table below shows the room layer logic used by the game, as found in the dComIfG_play_c::getLayerNo function. At the top you will find the default layer, and the further you go down in an area the higher priority that layer has.

Layer Manipulation

On the overworld, it is sometimes possible to trick the game into using a layer that it is not supposed to for some rooms. This is called performing a Layer Manipulation, and it is possible because the game makes a distinction between stage layer and room layer. Normally, on the sea stage, the room layer is supposed to always decide the layer. There are however specific cases where a load will instead force a specific stage layer onto the sea. Because the stage layer always takes priority over the room layer, this can allow you to bypass the room layer checks. The following actions will perform a Layer Manipulation:

• Beating Forsaken Fortress 1 for the first time will force the stage layer to 0. Because it is a stage layer, it allows you to access the Forsaken Fortress 2 on layer 0. On that layer, there is no door leading to Helmaroc. Because Outset Island on layer 0 has the pirate ship, this can also be used to obtain Bombs on Outset.
• Beating Forsaken Fortress 1 for the second time will have the Meeting KoRL Cutscene not play again. This will leave you on layer 8. Once again, there will be no door leading to Helmaroc on that layer.
• Playing the Flight Control Platform minigame is a load that forces stage layer 2 (regardless of day/night). If you escape the minigame (see the Flight Control Platform page), you can explore the entire sea on this layer. Outset and Windfall will both have a pirate ship and Forsaken Fortress will be similar to FF3.
• After finishing to play the Flight Control Platform minigame, there is on the japanese version only a load that forces stage layer 1 (again, regardless of day/night). This can be useful again to get the bombs from Outset, or to go to FF2 again after Hyrule 2.

The Song of Passing can be used to access the odd or even corresponding layer. For example, playing the Song of Passing on layer 8 will give you access to layer 9.

---

King of Red Lions Flags

Getting in the Boat

After FF1: Buy the sail

After obtaining the Wind Waker: Buy the Sail AND Have Din's Pearl AND (Set wind direction South OR have been in the boat before) (this is called the South Wind Flag)

After going back to Outset after Bombs: Reload the area

After going down to Hyrule 1: Master Sword Cutscene

After going down to Hyrule 2: Tetra to Zelda Cutscene

Sailing Locations

Default : Windfall, Pawprint, Dragon Roost Island

After obtaining the Wind Waker : Windfall, Pawprint, Dragon Roost Island, Fire Mountain, Eastern Triangle Island, Bomb Island, Forest Haven

After Wind Waker Cutscene AND obtaining Farore's Pearl : All Islands Except Forsaken Fortress

After Wind Waker Cutscene AND obtaining Farore's Pearl AND having Master Sword : All Islands

Cutscenes

Most cutscenes in the game act fine even if you haven't met KoRL yet. For example, the Wind Waker Cutscene plays normally with the only difference being an invisible KoRL. The cutscene of getting Nayru's Pearl from Jabun also works perfectly fine, and KoRL is visible despite not having been met. There are a couple exceptions though. If you have skipped FF1 and haven't met KoRL yet, the cutscenes that fail are the following:

• The Courtyard Cutscene in Hyrule 2 crashes the game.
• The Cutscene of entering Headstone Island with Medli softlocks (but you can use storage to avoid it).
• The Wind Temple Mapfish Cutscene after beating Molgera crashes the game.
• The Cutscene of going down to Hyrule 3 softlocks, but only after the cutscene ends, as you load into the courtyard.
• Opening the dark portal in Ganon's Tower softlocks.

Table

---

Scene Flags

The address for currently loaded scene flags start at 0x803B8880 on JP.

---

Shared Flags

There are a couple cases in the Wind Waker where different actions will end up setting the same flags. Flags are used by the game to remind itself that an action has been performed on this savefile or during this play session. When several actions set the same flags, it will oftentimes make it impossible to perform both at the same time. These are called shared flags.

• In Dragon Roost Cavern, the secret purple rupee that can be revealed by using a tingle bomb in the first room of the dungeon shares its item collection flag with the joy pendant inside the pot near the boss door of the dungeon. Thus you can only collect one or the other.
• In Forbidden Woods, the rupees around the boomerang chest in the miniboss room share their item collection flag with the rupees inside or on top of the big blue flower in the main room of the dungeon. This means that collecting any of the rupees around the boomerang chest or inside/on top of the big blue flower will make the other rupees disappear.
• There are two pairs of barrels containing rupees inside the Windfall bomb shop that share their item collection flags. Collecting the rupees from one of these barrels before breaking the corresponding other barrel will make it so that barrel won't drop anything.
• In Forsaken Fortress 2, some hammer pegs share their zone flags. See Shared Peg Hammering.
• Again at Forsaken Fortress 2, inside the kitchen room there are hammer pegs between the cauldron containing the ting discount and the hallway. The US and PAL releases have 5 hammer pegs there instead of 4. The peg that was added on the far left side shares its flag with obtaining the ting discount, meaning that obtaining the discount first will hammer this peg down, and hammering the peg down first will make the discount unobtainable until you reload the area.
• On Needle Rock Island, the salvaging flags 0 and 1 are both shared by two different salvage spots. There are two light ring salvages that use spots 0 and 1, and these spots are also used by the non-golden gunboat salvage spots. Thus, salvaging one of the light rings or one of the gunboat spots and then reloading the room will make the shared salvage spot unobtainable. The only way to salvage all these spots on the same savefile is by salvaging them all without reloading the quadrant inbetween.
• On Stonewatcher Island, one of the canons on the platform shares its destroyed flag with the gossip stone text that triggers when trying to lift the headstone without the power bracelets. These are shared zone flags in the same room, and they can be abused.

Play: YouTube video