A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past
Glitches FAQ v1.00

(February 2008)
This is the most recent version of the FAQ. I will no longer upload the text-only version on GameFAQs. This is still a work in progress, although I admit that I don't spend much time on it at the moment...

Table of Contents

I: Introduction and Stuff

I.1: Version Updates

Version 1.00 Version 0.97 Version 0.93b Version 0.93 Version 0.92 Version 0.9 Version 0.82
(no v0.81 because of a stupid error when sending the FAQ...) Version 0.8
Version 0.7

I.2: Introduction

This FAQ is intended for players who have already finished this game (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, for the SNES) and want to try new things. It contains major spoilers and I consider that the player is already familiar with most names and normal game events. If you haven't finished the game yet or do not really remember it, it might be hard to understand my explanations (and it can spoil you the pleasure of completing this awesome game normally).

This Glitches FAQ does not reference all known glitches for this game. This would be too long and I'm not interested in most of the minor glitches of this game (having your shield turn blue or seeing a purple soldier is not that interesting...). The glitches in this FAQ are the "useful" ones meaning that they let you do things that you weren't supposed to do (or at least not at the moment you do them). I particularly like to use glitches to complete special "glitch quests" such as speed runs or complete important parts of the game without important items (sword, Moon Pearl, etc.)

The main reason why I have written this FAQ was to talk about the Exploration Glitches (see [EXG]). These glitches are very powerful ones of this game. They can freeze your game or even might damage your saved games (it only happens with one of them, and can be avoided if you follow the instructions). I highly recommend that you first experiment most of the glitches that I present here on an emulator (ZSNES and Snes9X are the best ones by far) so you take no risks, and you can use savestates to make the experimentation easier. Then, if you know what you are doing go and do it on your real SNES if you like (I tried most of the glitches on my SNES).

I.3: Vocabulary and Abbreviations

Here's a short list of the abbreviations that I use sometimes in the FAQ, and quick definitions (or a reference to the paragraph that defines it) of some of the terms I use. I also included some names of elements (places, items, etc.) of the game that might not be so well known.

Blind's Hideout
Blind the Thief is the boss of the fourth Dark World dungeon. Blind's Hideout is naturally the dungeon where you fight him... And it's the one located in the Village of Outcasts.
Chris Houlihan's room
It's a secret room in the game (see [CHR])
Dark Palace
The first Dark World dungeon where you get the Hammer. It's the Dark World version of the Eastern Palace.
Desert Palace
The second Light World dungeon. The one that is... in the desert!
DMD
Death Mountain Descent. It's a glicth that lets you go down from Death Moutain without going through the caves. It lets you explore the Dark World very soon in the game. See [DMD]
Eastern Palace
The first Light World dungeon. The one where you get the Bow. It is, as the name implies, located on the east of Hyrule...
Exploration Zone
The collection of all rooms of the game (inside of a dungeon/cave/house) where you can move almost freely with the help of Exploration Glitches. See [EXG]
Exploration Glitch
These are the glitches that let you explore the Exploration Zone. See [EXG]
Hop
(verb) Action of jumping back onto the floor of a room from the Exploration Zone.
Hyrule
Hyrule is the land where the action occurs. Hyrule is all that you see when you look at the Outworld map. Technically, the Dark World is not in Hyrule... It's the Golden Land, but to me it's the Dark version of Hyrule so I never talk about the Golden Land.
Hyrule Castle
The main castle of Hyrule. The one where you go at the beginning of the game to rescue Princess Zelda. Then you go there again when you want to fight Agahnim after getting the Master Sword.
JSEG
Jump and Save Exploration Glitch. One particular Exploration Glitch. See [JSEG]
Kakariko Village
It's the main village of Hyrule. The one that is on the west side, and south of the woods.
Magic Mirror
It's the item given to you by the Old Man in Death Mountain. It lets you go back from the Dark World to the Light World. I sometimes use the verb "to mirror" which means "to use the Magic Mirror".
Master Sword
The Master Sword is the legendary sword of Hyrule. You get in in the woods. Then you can upgrade it twice (into the Tempered and Golden Sword). Notice that when I say "the" Master Sword, it means the Lv. 2 sword that you find in the woods, but when I say "a" Master Sword it means any sword of level 2 or more (the one from the woods, the Tempered Sword, or the Golden Sword).
Misery Mire
It denotes both the swamp in the Dark World that's where the desert was in the Light World (the place where it rains until you use the Ether Medallion) and the dungeon that's there.
Moon Pearl
It's the item that's in the Big Chest of the Tower of Hera. It lets you keep your original shape when in the Dark World. It's supposedly required, but there are plenty of ways to do stuff without it (plus it's so much funnier to be a Pink Bunny).
PBEG
Pegasus Boots Exploration Glitch. Another Exploration Glitch. See [PBEG]
Pegasus Boots
These are given to you by Sahasrahla. They let you dash and bump into objects.
Pyramid of Power
It's the big pyramid on top of which you respawn in the Dark World. It's where the final fight against Ganon takes place.
STEG
Stairs Exploration Glitch. Yet another one. See [STEG]
Tower of Hera
It's the third Light World dungeon. It's the one in the mountain where you get the Moon Pearl.
Turtle Rock
The seventh Dark World dungeon. It's the one that's shaped like a Turtle, and is located in the Dark Death Mountain (gee, that's creepy).
UDEG
Up/Down Exploration Glitch. [UDEG]
Village of Outcasts
It's the Dark World version of Kakariko Village.

II: The Glitches

In this section I will describe the most important glitches of this game that I know. For each one, I'll explain as clearly as possible what it does, how to perform it, what are the possible uses, why it happens (programming stuff) and some other interesting things you might want to know.

II.1: Death Mountain Descent

Description

The Death Mountain Descent (aka. DMD) is a very interesting glitch. It lets you get down from Death Mountain in the Dark World (you arrive in the cemetery). It can be executed as soon as you have the Magic Mirror. Thanks to David Wonn for this glitch that I found on his site.

Requirements

You'll need the Magic Mirror and the ability to reach the first portal to the Dark World (the one in Death Mountain that leads to the Tower of Hera). Having the Moon Pearl could be a good idea if you want to explore the Dark World without trouble but it is not necessary.

How to

Why it happens

The following illustration will help understand why this weird glitch happens.

(1) ====================================== (Light World)
(2) ==================[!]================= (Dark World)
(3) [--Link--] (Dark)
(4) **[--Link--]** (Light)
(5) ***[--Link--]* (Light)
(6) [--Link--] (Dark)
(7) **[--Link--]** (Light)
(8) ************** [--Link--] (Light)
(9) *************[--Link--] (Light)
(10) [--Link--] (Dark)

In this illustration, each column represents a pixel of the game (for example I have here supposed that Link's sprite was 10 pixels wide, and the ledge was 3 pixels wide). The symbols have the following significations:

TODO: redo image and legend
Some points have to be explained:

Notes

The glitchy peak

II.2: The Levitation Trick

Description

The levitation trick, as the name says, is a trick that lets you walk over pits as if Link was levitating. It also makes Link move slowly without actually moving his feet (the sprite is still but you can move in the room).

It cannot be done on a real SNES with a normal controller (unless you're some kind of robot that can press the A button with a perfectly regular rate of 60 presses per second...). However, people have told me that they could do it with some turbo controllers (it doesn't seem to work with all turbo controllers, however).

Requirements

For this glitch you need the Pegasus Boots. You'll also need either an emulator with a good turbo controller emulation (ZSNES works wonders) or a turbo controller that allows this glitch.

How to

This is very easy to do. When you have the Pegasus Boots, simply use the auto fire on the A button and use the directional pad to move. You'll see that Link moves slowly but without moving his feet (like levitating). Now if you try to go over a pit, you'll be able to walk over the void.

Why it happens

I can't enter too much in the details here. However I'll try to give an idea.

This whole glitch is a priority conflict (at least I think it's the explanation). When Link is standing on the void, the game should notice it when making a test that compares Link's position with the position of all obstacles on the screen (holes are here considered obstacles). If the test concludes that Link is on a hole, then the falling animation is triggered. However, on another side, when the A button is pressed and if the player has already found the Pegasus Boots, the boots animation should start. Now when Link is standing on a hole and at the moment of the test the A button is pressed then the game gives the priority to the Pegasus Boots animation (this is a programming error in my opinion and this is what leads to this glitch), and at the next frame, normally the animation should be stopped because the game should see that Link is on a hole but if the A button is again pressed at the moment of the test (or right before) then a new Boots animation is started. As the Boots animation can be started translated to one pixel in any direction (depending on the direction that is pressed on the pad) this enables Link to move slowly in a given direction without ever letting the game see that we are on the hole (in fact the test is never actually done since the Boots animation takes the priority).

As only the first image of the Boots animation is done each time (since we have to start a new animation each time in order for the glitch to work) it seems that Link is standing still.

Also note that the programming error is not really an error since on a real SNES it is impossible to obtain a perfect synchronisation so the test happens eventually (1 or 2 frames later) and Link falls in the hole. Besides giving the priority to the input (buttons pressed) over the game tests is generally a good programming choice since it avoids some freezing situations in which the game enters a loop and never considers the player's choices.

Notes

II.3: The Exploration Glitches

Description

Exploration glitches are the most powerful glitches that I know in this game.

It is like a kind of "no-clipping mode" in the sense that it lets you see almost any room of any dungeon in the game. However they are quite hard to use (not really hard to perform, but hard to manipulate correctly to do what you want to do) at first because you easily get lost and the game might freeze quite often if you go to the wrong places.

The main idea of these glitches is that they take you "under" the floor of most rooms and this way you can walk either under or "outside" of the rooms (be on the other side of the walls). As all rooms of the dungeons are in the same place in the program (see [UDRW]), if you don't use the usual connections (doors, staircases etc.) you can go from a dungeon to another without problems... These glitches are the main reason why I decided to write this FAQ because the possible uses are nearly unlimited.

Notes

II.3.A: Skull Dungeon Method (SDEG)

Thanks to dvdmth

Description

This is the version I like less. It's harder to perform than the others, must be done later in the game and is very hard to use correctly (it's much more unstable than the other ones). I nearly never use it. Its only real good point is that it can be done on a real SNES without doing anything special. Also it's the first EG that was discovered.

Requirements

Reach Skull Dungeon (#3). Can be done as soon as you can perform the DMD as you can reach Skull Dungeon from there.

How to

Why it happens

I think that some parameter (used when defining the scrolling of the camera) is calculated with an error of one pixel (or so) each time you bounce back and forth between the bumpers. This means that if you bounce for long enough this parameter has a value that is one screen wrong and so the glitch happens. This explanation might not be really clear (in fact I never use this glitch so I know very little about it) but it would explain why two different things can happen when doing the glitch (I think that if you don't bounce enough times nothing happens, if you bounce the correct ammount of times (2) happens and if you bounce too many times (1) happens). However I have not tested this enough to conclude.

Notes

II.3.B: Pegasus Boots Method (PBEG)

Description

This one is a very good version of the exploration glitch. It lets you easily explore all the Primary Underworld (rooms of the dungeons and some caves) very soon. The bad point is that it requires an auto-fire controller (or an emulator). It seems also that not all turbo controller work (so I recommend you do it with ZSNES).

Requirements

You need to be able to enter Hyrule Castle (so it can't be done after defeating Agahnim unless you use another EG to enter the castle) and perform the Levitation Trick [LEV], so you need the Pegasus Boots and a turbo controller that works with the Levitation Trick (an emulator does this perfectly).

How to

Why it happens

This glitch is very simple to understand. All we do is exit the room from a point where the programmers didn't think we could. As they didn't consider that walking on the void was possible, they didn't consider necessary to close the room on the right wall. If we walk on the void (with the levitation glitch) we can exit the room to the right. When doing so the game handles it as it does normally when going from one room into the next one (most transitions are like this, each time the screen scrolls) and takes us to the room that is stored east of the current one in the ROM. This room happens to be a room from another dungeon since all dungeon rooms are stored together (see [UDRW] for more details). Moreover as we were on a lower level in the previous room (remember that the entrance door of the room is higher than the floor from which we did the levitation trick) the game considers we are in the lower level of the rooms we visit.

Notes

II.3.C: The (Up + Down) Combo (UDEG)

Description

This is another method to perform the exploration glitch. The good point is that everybody can perform it with a real SNES (no need for an emulator), but the bad point is you'll have to open your controller for it. It is a strong use of the more general multi-directional glitch [MDR]. I'll explain here how to perform it in the place where I found it works the best and it's the most useful (as soon as possible) but there are a lot of other places where it can be done too. This glitch is quite similar to the [STEG] to perform, but the two have quite different properties, and are used in different places.

Requirements

This glitch can be performed as soon as you enter Hyrule Castle for the first time. It also requires that you open your controller if you're playing on a real SNES as you'll have to press simultaneously Up and Down (this is it's main bad point)... Refer to the multi-directional glitch [MDR] subsection for more info.

How to

Why it happens

This glitch is very weird. I'm not sure that I correctly understand what happens. For now, I think that the game is very confused when we press both directions (Up and Down for example) and that it acts in some ways as if we were pressing Up and in some other ways as if we were pressing Down. For example Link faces down but moves Up. When entering a door, the game loads the southern room instead of the northern one and Link's location is messed up (I haven't really understood which location is chosen and why). However in the particular case that I have explained here (in Hyrule Castle if you make two transitions) the location is corrected the second time and Link is considered really in the southern room. From there it is possible to explore as for the previous glitch, and once again we are in a lower level since we performed the glitch from a lower level (see [PBEG] explanation).

Notes

II.3.D: Going Under the Stairs (STEG)

Thanks to The Night Hunter

Description

This glitch seems very similar to the UDEG but has a different behaviour. It's more stable and can be used in different places (so it's complementary). As the name implies, it consists in going through some stairs and under the floor.

Requirements

Not much is required game-wise. As with the UDEG, it can be performed in Hyrule Castle when you enter for the first time. It can be done in many other places (where there are stairs, but not all the stairs). It also requires that you open your controller if you play on a real SNES since you'll have to press all four directions at the same time (see [MDR]).

How to

Why it happens

That's pretty hard to tell... Again, it has something to do with the Multi-Directional Glitch [MDR] and the game doesn't know if you're moving up or down, or left or right. What's puzzling is that it doesn't work if you only press two directions... I don't really understand it, but I guess that when Link is on the stairs the fact that you're pressing one directions makes the game think you're going up and the other direction makes it think you go down. In the end, you're at some point on the screen with an incorrect level (the game thinks you're on the lower level when you should be on the top one).

Notes

II.3.E: "Jump and Save" method (JSEG)

Thanks to Sergio Villicaña

Description

A very simple to do EG, that has very weird side effects and uses. It was found by Sergio Villicana who used a more complicated version of the glitch involving the use of the Magic Mirror (see notes). Here, I'll explain a simpler version that has the same results.

Mainly, the JSEG lets you enter both the Primary and the Secondary Exploration Zones (see the Underworld Map section [UDRW]) very soon and with very little equipment. It can also let you go through sprites in the Outworld (you seem to be under the floor too but can't really go through obstacles).

Requirements

To perform the glitch, you'll need one or two save slots (it might be better to do it with 2 but if you don't have them free then deal with only one). From here I'll call them game A and game B.

WARNING: If you perform this glitch, you'll most likely destroy one of your saved games (game B). Be warned and proceed at your own risks. If you're using an emulator, copy your saved games before or use saved states to recover a lost game. If you're playing on the actual console, then either accept the risk of losing your saves or don't try it at all (or try it when you have no other game of interest saved on your cartridge).

How to

Why it happens

This glitch has many side effects that I really don't understand (see the notes below). However the main glitch is quite understandable. When you're playing game A and jump down, Link enters a temporary "jumping" state while he's in the air. Programming-wise this special state is useful to solve weird problems that could occur with enemies or other things while he jumps, so setting his state to "jumping" solves everything (he can't be hurt and such things). Of course, his state has to be stored somewhere in the memory and supposedly when he reaches the floor, the game will change his state back to "not jumping".

However, if you save and quit while in this state, the game never resets the value (and that's probably a programming mistake since they should reset all such values to the defaults when quitting) so when you start a new game, you're still in this state.

Now I think that dashing into a wall or being hurt causes Link to be into another special "hurt" state (again you're invincible while in this state to make things simpler to program). This means that at this time you're in both states "hurt" and "jumping". However at the end of the "hurting" animation, the game wants to reset your state back to normal so it checks your status and applies the corresponding changes... Normally, after being in state "jumping" you should always be in the lower floor, so it is understandable to consider that the game automatically puts you in the lower floor whenever you leave the "jumping" state. So when the game resets your status, it takes you to the lower floor at the same time and so takes you under the floor.

Also remember that there's no lower floor in the Outworld, so setting you to the lower floor always takes you under your normal level.

The last thing to understand is why entering a room with a lower floor causes the glitch to disarm... I think this is simply because when you enter a room with a lower floor the game knows that you might have a change of level and so prepares the "jumping" state by initialising it to it's default value (which would be "not jumping").

Why it doesn't do it in all rooms even if there's no lower floor you might ask? Simply because it saves one operation in the rooms where it seems "useless"... In other words this is a typical example of a "lazy" implementation (not that the programmers are lazy but that they want their program to do as little operations as possible) that creates a bug because they didn't realise that you could be in the state "jumping" in a "single level" room.

Notes

II.3.F: Pros and Cons of Every Version

So far, we know 5 different versions of the Exploration Glitches ([SDEG], [PBEG], [UDEG], [STEG] and [JSEG]). Each of them has advantages and disadvantages categorized as follows:

Overall:
If I like the glitch or not, if it's useful, easy etc.
Simplicity:
If it requires special and complicated things, or if it can be done easily on a SNES.
Availability:
How soon it can be done in the game.
Range:
In how many places it can be done, how many places can be reached with this method.
Historical:
If it was good when it was discovered (compared to the other known versions at the time).
Use:
If many interesting glitch quests can be done with it.
Stability:
How do things work when we hop into a dungeon after performing the glitch, how do things behave while in the Exploration Zone etc.

Skull Dungeon

Overall
Simplicity
No special requirement
Availability
Very late. [DMD] makes it more available though.
Range
Only one place
Historical
The first known method
UseAlmost useless
StabilityThe most unstable of all the known versions

Pegasus Boots

Overall
Simplicity
Requires an emulator or Turbo controller
Availability
Available when you get the Pegasus Boots
Range
Only one place
Historical
The second known method, the first I used, and the first to give an astonishingly fast speed-run technique (15 minutes)
Use
Because it's stable, and can be done soon enough, it has many uses. I used it as my main EG for quite a long time
Stability
Probably the most stable version. Very good to start exploring the Exploration Zone

Up+Down

Overall
Simplicity
Can be done on a SNES but requires to open a controller
Availability
Available when entering Hyrule Castle
Range
Works on several places. It can't reach the Secondary Zone however
Historical
After the PBEG was extensively worked on, this one became a great version because it can be done almost at the start (when first entering Hyrule Castle). It enabled the fastest speed run in 3 minutes
Stability
Not so stable. Most of the time you have to exit and re-enter the dungeon you hopped into to fix it

Stairs

Overall
This might be the best of all on an emulator
Simplicity
Same as UDEG
Availability
Same as UDEG
Range
Can be performed in a lot of places (almost any dungeon, and many caves). Can enter the Secondary Zone and Turtle Rock
Historical
I did a huge mistake in not noticing this glitch's potential when I started playing with the [MDR]. When The Night Hunter rediscovered it it didn't have that many new uses...
Stability
Can be very stable (should be possible to hop into any dungeon except Watergate Dungeon) but sometimes leads to the "third level" problem

Jump and Save

Overall
Your best choice if you're playing on the SNES and don't want to open your controller
Simplicity
Easy to do, no special requirement
Availability
Can be done when you reach the Sanctuary
Range
Can be armed and triggered in many places. Is the only one to work in the Outworld (but it's useless). Can reach the Secondary Zone
Historical
Came too late, so not that much of a revolution. Was the first to reach the Secondary Zone but nothing can be done with it. Also enables the only easy-to-do on SNES speed-run (about 7 minutes)
Stability
Pretty good when you learn to use it

II.4: Super Bunny

Description

The Super Bunny is a weird glitch that lets you use your sword as a Pink Bunny. It is only useful of course if you plan on not getting the Moon Pearl...

Although it gives you the ability to use your sword, you are still very helpless as you can't use any of the other items (except bottles). The Super Bunny reverts to a normal bunny when hit.

II.4.A: Lake Hylia

Thanks to David Wonn

Description

This method lets you become a Super Bunny in Lake Hylia (in the Dark World). While a Super Bunny, you can walk or slide on water, use your sword to defeat enemies. It also enables a few other side effects (see [TELE])

Requirements

You'll need the flippers, the Magic Mirror, the ability to reach the Dark World version of Lake Hylia and not having the Moon Pearl for this glitch.

How to

Having both the Flippers and the Magic Mirror, go to the Dark Lake Hylia from the North East angle (if you come from the Pyramid of Power, it's the path that doesn't require you to use the Hammer). You should be on a piece of land that goes South to a ladder and a platform that lets you come out of the water.

Lake Hylia

Why it happens

There are two abnormal things to explain here (and I don't really understand them in details so I won't really explain them). The first one is why you slide on the water after jumping on your portal. Obviously what happens here is that the Bunny "appears" on deep water, and that should not happen ever. So the game doesn't really handle this correctly: for one part the warp is supposed to be correct (deep water is a correct target so the warp is accepted), then since you're in the Dark World with no Moon Pearl you're a Bunny, but then that means that you're supposed to be a Bunny standing on deep water (which shouldn't be possible). I think that what the programmers should have done is simply don't accept the warping into deep water if you don't have the Moon Pearl, but apparently they didn't expect this to be possible. From there, I don't really see why the "sliding" effect occurs, but it's clearly for the same reason as in the Surfing Bunny glitch [SUBU] (in this other glitch what happens is that you manage to change screens while on deep water, so you "appear" on deep water too.

The second thing to explain is why when warping from deep water (Light World) into shallow water (Dark World) you become a Super Bunny... This again I don't really understand. Here there isn't even any apparent problem since the Bunny is supposed to be able to walk on shallow water (so warping and becoming a normal Bunny would be perfectly understandable). I think that the key element is that when you warp you're in the "swimming" state and that's what triggers the Super Bunny, but I don't have any explanation why it happens...

Notes

II.4.B: In a Hole

Description

You can turn into a Super Bunny if you enter the Dark Underworld from a hole without having the Moon Pearl.

Requirements

You must be able to reach the Dark Underworld from a hole without having the Moon Pearl.

How to

Some places where you can do it

Why it happens

I don't know why this happens since I never really understood what internal error in the game could lead to the "Super Bunny" state. However as I said before it's due to the fact that the bunny state is so particular and still the programmers didn't expect the player to skip the Moon Pearl.

Notes

II.4.C: Teleportation

Description

As a Super Bunny (with the Lake Hylia method) you can travel a few screens on the Outworld. If you're damaged while in a different screen than the one where you did the Super Bunny trick, you'll be teleported to another location, and can hence reach some points of the Outworlds that cannot reached by normal means (nothing too great though, as it mostly takes you to places where you're stuck)

Requirements

Being able to do the Super Bunny in Lake Hylia trick [LHSB]

How to

See the next paragraph (why it happens) for a better understanding of the spots you can reach (because it's not random, so you can control where you're going).

Why it happens

This is a somewhat amusing glitch, but not very hard to understand (in fact it's a very natural behavior, if you admit that you can be a Super Bunny that's walking on deep water, which is part of another glitch, so it won't be explained here).

It's simply due to the fact that when you fall into deep water when you're not supposed to (either as a bunny or as Link if you don't have the flippers) the game will take you back to the last point where you were standing on land. However, since you're not supposed to have changed screens between the moment you left the land and the moment you hit the water, the game simply changes your coordinates on the current screen you're in.

In this glitch, we leave solid ground as a bunny but the game doesn't really notice we're in the water, but still memorizes the coordinates of the last point where we were standing on ground. When we change screen without touching solid ground, the coordinates of this "last land point" aren't changed. When hit by an enemy, the super bunny state is lost so we fall into the water, and the game takes us back to the coordinates it has stored, only now we go to these coordinates on the new screen, which can be an otherwise unreachable point.

II.5: Moon Pearl Emulation

Description

This section covers different ways you can use to revert to a normal Link in the Dark World when you don't have the Moon Pearl. We'll see later [MSMP] that it is possible to use these methods to finish the game by defeating Ganon without ever having the Moon Pearl.

II.5.A: The Surfing Bunny

Description

The Surfing Bunny glitch is a glitch that lets you revert into Link when in the Dark World with no Moon Pearl by having a faery revive you while on deep water... Strange, but definitely the most useful and easy to perform method to explore the Dark Outworld as Link.

Requirements

You need to be able to reach the Dark Swamp (place where dungeon #2 is) as a bunny, the flippers, a faery in a bottle and no Moon Pearl of course.

How to

Why it happens

A weird glitch indeed. For some reason, it seems that when you die in deep water, the game assumes automatically that you should be normal Link and doesn't change you into a bunny (in some sense it's understandable since the bunny should not be able to be in deep water). The weird thing is the surfing on water part (and also my explanation of why you revert to Link is dependent on the sliding part since you'll still be a bunny if you're killed while going in deep water but are not sliding).

Notes

II.5.B: Surfing Bunny Goes to Misery Mire

Description

This is a variant of the previous glitch that works in Misery Mire swamp (necessary if you want to open dungeon #6 with the Ether Medallion).

Requirements

This glitch works similarly to the previous one. You'll need a faery in a bottle, the flippers, no Moon Pearl and the ability to reach the swamp of Misery Mire.

How to

This glitch is very similar to the previous one so I'll assume that you know how to perform the normal Surfing Bunny glitch (as it's much harder to reach Misery Mire without the Moon Pearl you should be familiar with the previous one if you're trying this).

Why it happens

This glitch is nearly the same as the previous one. The only difference is how to make the bunny surf on the water. As you can't use any change of screens you'll have to find something else: in this case the warping between the two worlds will do it perfectly since it will take you directly on the deep water, as a fresh and normal bunny.

Notes

II.5.C: Life After Death?

Thanks to Adam T.

Description

This glitch lets you turn into Link inside any Dark World dungeon that you can enter as a Bunny.

Requirements

You must be able to enter a dungeon of the Dark World as a Bunny.

How to

Why it happens

Quite easy to understand. First, you have to know that the dungeons are not really considered as being in the Dark World. This is simply because all dungeon rooms (from both the Light and the Dark worlds) are stored the ones next to the others (to see clearly what I mean try doing the exploration glitches). Now when you die, you are taken back to the beginning of the dungeon in your normal form (because there is only one "resurrection" script). Since the dungeon is not in the Dark World it won't test whether or not you have the Moon Pearl in order to turn you into a bunny. This might seem an inconsistency in the programming but it is an understandable error since there should be no possible way to enter a Dark World dungeon as a bunny (you should need the hammer, and the only way to enter the 1st dungeon is by having Kiki open the door for you but Kiki doesn't show up if you're a bunny).

This being said, you can check that if you die in the outworld (normally... not as a surfing bunny...) you are resurrected as Link and immediately changed into a bunny since the game checks if you have the Moon Pearl each time you "appear" in the Dark World. This is also why you turn back into a bunny when exitting a house/cave/dungeon (because at that time you go from a neutral zone, neither Light or Dark World to the Dark World so there is a test).

Notes

II.5.D: Could You Give Me a Hand?

Description

This trick gives an alternative way to turn back into Link in the Skull Dungeon (#3) (thanks again to Adam T. for this other method).

Requirements

You must be able to enter a room of Skull Dungeon where the ceiling hand tries to grab you as a Bunny.

How to

Why it happens

Nearly the same as the previous one. The "hand script" has been written only for Link's normal form so you are taken to the entrance of the dungeon as a normal Link. Since the dungeon isn't considered being in the Dark World you are not turned into a bunny.

Notes

II.5.E: Fat Faery's Power

Description

This is not really a useful glitch but I thought I'd mention it. It's another way to revert to Links original form in the Dark World when not having the Moon Pearl.

Requirements

Be able to enter the Fat Faery's pond without the Moon Pearl.

How to

Why it happens

I'm not really sure why this one happens... The weirdest thing is that you appear as a normal Link but have no abilities, as if you were still a bunny. In other words only the visual sprite has been changed. I really don't know what's so special about this faery room, since this glitch doesn't happen in other rooms or caves.

Notes

II.6: The Ether Medallion Glitch

Description

This interesting glitch gives you the Ether Medallion without having a Master Sword.

Requirements

You must be able to perform an Exploration Glitch from Hyrule Castle. It seems that some unstable EG don't work for this trick. I recommend using the [PBEG] or [STEG].

How to

There are two ways, the original one, and the later (and simpler) one.

The original method is as follows:

The other method is simpler:

Why it happens

Weird... really weird... However I think that I know why it happens (well, at least I know why something weird happens!).

Remember that we did the EG from Hyrule Castle right? Now since we never left the castle (meaning that we never exited and entered properly another dungeon) the game considers that we're still in the Castle. The Castle is like a real dungeon, it has a map, a compass and even a big key (and you can use it in the other dungeons!). However it has no pendant or crystal...

Normally this is not a problem since the boss fight in Hyrule Castle triggers a special action (very special in fact because it switches from phase I to phase II in the game, see [3PHA]). However, if you go and fight some boss from another dungeon, after you defeat the boss, he dies and gives you his heart container (the heart container is not part of the dungeon, it's part of the boss since it appears where the boss died) and then triggers the pendant/crystal script. This is where the glitch happens!

This script makes some object fall from the sky right in the middle of the room.

For some obscure reason, when you are in Hyrule Castle and execute this script it's the ether medallion that falls from the sky. This is possibly a consequence of the fact that since there is no real pendant/crystal for Hyrule Castle the game points to some item in the ROM code and this item appears to be the medallion... It could have been any object, and even something that was not really an object from the inventory.

Why it is specifically the medallion that falls remains a mystery to me but at least I'm nearly sure that the pendant/crystal doesn't fall because we're considered as being in Hyrule Castle. Also, when you grab the medallion nothing special happens (you are not taken back to the outworld) because the dialogue with the princess and the teleportation to the outworld is part of the crystal-grabbing script, so it is not executed in this case.

Notes

II.7: The Multi-Directional Glitch

Description

This glitch is a very weird one (yet another). The idea is to press simultaneously two opposite directions (up and down for example), which you cannot do on a normal SNES controller, so that the game is very confused and many interesting things happen.

The main (most useful) uses of this glitch are the (Up + Down) combo Exploration Glitch (see [UDEG]) and the Stairs Exploration Glitch [STEG] that have already been explained earlier. However there are other minor uses of this glitch that I will present here.

Requirements

To perform this, as I said, you'll have to press simultaneously two opposite (or even the four) directions. This can easily be done with an emulator (if your computer doesn't act correctly when pressing multiple directional keys as it happens to mine simply use the key combos functions of the emulator), but it's not possible with a normal SNES controller.

However, if you really want to try it on your console, you can open carefully your controller and take the "directional cross" part so you'll be able to press two or more directional buttons at the same time. If you do it carefully there's no risk for your controller. I did it and it worked perfectly without any damage.

II.7.A: Fun With the Map

Requirements

Be able to do the Multi-Directional Glitch and see the World Map (with the X button).

How to

Why it happens

The game gets confused because you press multiple directions. On one hand it tests whether or not you can scroll left/up and sees that you can (because you are at the right/bottom border) and after the test is ok, it moves to the right/down because this direction is pressed. In fact as you press two directions, the first one is used for the test to see if you can scroll or not and the second is used for the scrolling. This is why you can go out of bounds. Once you are out of bounds, all scrollings are accepted (even if you press only one solution) since you are already out of the regular tested values.

Notes

II.7.B: Princess? What Princess?

This glitch is now outdated
See the next paragraph [PRIN] for a better and simpler version
I keep this paragraph for "historical" reasons and because it might be interesting.

Description

This glitch lets you do funny things in the very beginning of the game, before bringing Princess Zelda to the Sanctuary. With it you can exit the castle without rescuing Princess Zelda and reach Kakariko village for example under the rain (as it's raining at the very beginning of the game).

Requirements

Be able to do the Multi-Directional Glitch and reach the throne room of Hyrule Castle at the beginning of the game, before saving Princess Zelda from the castle's prison.

How to

Why it happens

Very similar to the UDEG and STEG (see explanations [UDEG] [STEG]). Since you press multiple directions, the game takes you to some room but loads another room's objects and sprites. The ornamental shield is such an object and it doesn't appear in the room you enter so you can go through the passage to the sewers without Princess Zelda. All scrolling errors while in the sewers result from the fact that your real position and the camera position have been messed up because of the incorrect scrolling (the camera moved in some direction while your position was shifted in some other direction).

All the glitches that happen while you are outside are the consequences of being in the outworld during phase I of the game (see [3PHA]).

Notes

II.7.C: Take the Princess for a Walk

Description

This glitch uses an EG ([UDEG] or [STEG]) to exit Hyrule Castle with Princess Zelda following you. Its effects are very similar to the ones of the previous glitch as you'll be able to explore the outworld under the rain (now with the the Princess).

Requirements

You can only perform this glitch at the beginning of the game while Princess Zelda is following you. You'll also need to be able to perform the [UDEG] or the [STEG].

How to

(see [UDRW] for instructions on how to find your way in the Exploration Zone)

Why it happens

It is exactly the [UDEG] or [STEG] that has been discussed earlier. All other side effects while in the outworld are the consequence of being in the outworld while in phase I of the game (see [3PHA]).

Notes

II.8: Skip the Sword and Shield

Description

This is a very special glitch, that lets you go through the guards at the beginning of the game (before you enter the Secret Passage) thus skipping the part where your uncle hands you the Sword and Shield.

It is "technically" doable on a real SNES but it would take a lot of time (and by a lot, I mean several hours of boring dialog skipping)... On an emulator with a speed-up function it can be done faster, and automatically.

Requirements

Gamewise, you don't need anything since you're supposed to perform the trick right when you exit Link's house for the first time (so start a new game). Other than than, if you're planning on doing this on a real SNES you'll need several hours of patience (not kidding...) so I consider that it's only humanly possible to do with an emulator that can speed-up (apparently some GameFAQs user with no life did it on the real SNES...)

How to

Why it happens

This glitch is very interesting because I have understood it fully even before I tried it (so when I tried it, I knew it would work).

I was playing in the starting zone with the guards when I realized how these guys work: they are sprites, not overworld objects, so they aren't really obstacles. In fact when you are standing next to them and walk in their direction, it triggers a special event that cancels your step (in their direction) and makes the dialog box appear.

Independently, in this area, Princess Zelda contacts you telepathically once every minute (we'll see later what can affect this one minute timer) and this event (the apparition of Zelda's message on screen) has a greater priority than the guards event.

This means that if you are standing next to a guard, if you start walking into his direction at the exact frame when Zelda's message should appear, Zelda's message appears but the guard won't talk to you and, much more importantly, he won't stop you! However this will only last for one frame and on the next frame he'll not only stop you but also talk to you.

Now let's talk a little bit more about the Princess message. When being perfectly idle in some neutral area, the message appears every 60 seconds, which means every 60x60=3600 frames (the frames are the only real time unit of the game). Therefore, there's a counter on the game that starts at 0, that is incremented every frame and when it reaches 3600 triggers the "message event". However, some things can freeze the counter or delay the apparition of the message:

Combinig this knowledge, you can do an interesting experience (which is what I did by accident, and in the process of understanding what happened I realized that I could completely go through the guards). Go next to the guard until he talks to you (there you know that you're as far to the right as you supposedly can). Now move down and grab the wall (with A). From there, wait a minute (still grabbing the wall).

By waiting a minute while grabbing the wall, you know that Zelda's counter is full, and that she'll contact Link when he lets go of the wall. Start pressing Right, and let go of the wall.

At that point what will happen is that Link will move one pixel to the Right and Zelda's message will appear. However, since you moved one pixel Right, as soon as Zelda's message is over, the guard event will be triggered and a dialog will appear. When this dialog is over, you'll still be in the guard's zone (still one pixel too far to the right) the guards event will be triggered again and another dialog will appear at the next frame!

It'll seem as if Link was trapped in an infinite dialog with the guard! However, if you press Left, when a dialog ends, Link will move one pixel left and be free...

Now let's go back to the main glitch. The idea is that, between two dialogs from the guard, Zelda's counter is incremented (I don't exactly know by how much but I'd say only one or two, since there's not more than one or two frames of "idle" time in between). So every 3600 or 1800 dialogs (yes... that's a lot) the message will appear again, and for the same reason as before, you'll be able to move some pixels to the right (you can move 2 pixels if you do it right, I'll explain that in a moment)! If you move enough (roughly about 28 pixels It seems) you'll reach the end of the screen and scroll to the next screen where you'll be free to do what you like (see [NOSW] for more details of what you can do).

To move that many pixels, you'll have to skip roughly 28*1800/2 = 25200 dialogs, which takes a lot of hours to do... (and that's a very rough estimate, it could be even more)

Now, here's a trick to make Link move 2 pixels every time the message appears. As you might know, when moving right or down, Link moves one pixel the first frame, then 2 the next one, then 1, 2 etc. (see [FPA] for more on this). When moving left or up, he moves 2 pixels first then 1, 2, etc. The message from the princess will appear every 3600 frames (maybe 1800 but it's the same) which is an even number... This means that if Link was trying to move 1 pixel when the message first appears, he will always be trying to move 1 pixel every time the message appears (since he should move 1 pixel every two frames...). What you want to do is make sure that he moves two pixels to the right the first time the message appears. To do so, grab a bush and go to the guards. Move as much to the right as possible (until you talk to them), then skip the dialog and wait for about a minute with the bush over your head (but not talking to the guard anymore). This will fill the message counter. Now throw the bush, and this will trigger the princess message. Now start pressing right and skip the message, this way as soon as the message ends Link will try to move to the right, meaning that he'll try to move 1 pixel to the right the frame following the appearing of the message, and this ensures that when the message appears next, it will be at a frame when Link moves two pixels to the right, and he'll keep on moving 2 pixels every time (which saves half the time, but it's still several hours long).

Notes

II.9: The "Final Save" Glitch

Description

This is more of a side effect to the Exploration Glitches than a glitch in itself. What it does is that it puts you on top of the Pyramid of Power as a bunny and with all enemies being the Light World enemies with messed sprites.

Requirements

You must be able to finish the game while still in Phase I. The only way I know to do this is by using an EG. See [5MIN] and [3MIN] for examples to trigger this glitch.

How To

Finish the game (enter the Triforce room) while still in Phase I (see [3PHA]). This can be done with some exploration glitches ([UDEG], [STEG] and [JSEG]). The fastest ways of doing it are described in [5MIN] and [3MIN].

Why it Happens

Well, when you finish the game, an automatic save is made that sets your location to the top of the Pyramid of Power. If you were still in Phase I when the save is done, the sprites of the Dark World aren't set yet (see [3PHA]) so instead the game loads the Light World ones, but with the sprites set of the Dark World (you'll easily see that the glitchy thing next to you when you appear is supposed to be the electric bat barrier on top of Hyrule Castle).

Notes

II.10: The Fire Pants Glitch

Thanks to flagitoius

Description

More than a real glitch, this is an exploit of the game's way of making Link move (well it's also linked to the multi-directional glitch [MDR]). It lets you walk at 4/3 of the normal speed when going up or left. It's very tedious to do though and can only be done on an emulator (so not really useful but interesting nontheless).

Requirements

An emulator that lets you go frame by frame, or a device that lets you program your key input frame by frame.

How To

It's pretty simple, all you have to do, if you want to walk to the north, is pressing alternatively Up and (Up + Down) changing every frame. If you want to move to the west, alternate Left and (Left + Right). The best way to do it is by having an emulator that can slow down the speed of the game enough so that you can change the input at every frame, or by recording a key combo that alternates every frame...

Why it happens

Well, normally, when moving in any of the four main directions, Link is supposed to move 3 pixels every two frames. To do so, the game makes him move alternatively one or two pixels each frame. When moving Left or Up, the first frame he moves 2 pixels, then 1, then 2 etc. When going Right or Down, he moves 1 pixel the first time and then 2,1,2 etc.

The fact that Up and Left are handled slightly differently than Down and Right might be an explanation to the Multi-Directional glitch [MDR], and it could be the reason why, when pressing Up and Down at the same time, Link moves Up (since Up is "stronger" than down) and the same priority is applied when pressing Left and Right (and when pressing all four directions, he moves Up/Left).

However, this doesn't completely explain everything since, for one it doesn't explain why he looks the other way in the Multi-Directional glitch, and second, when you press two opposite directions, he moves at normal speed... This means that when pressing Up+Down, he move 2 pixels during the first frame, then 1, 2 etc.

And this is precisely the reason why the "fire pants" glitch works: when you press Up, he moves 2 pixels Up, then you press (Up+Down) and he moves again 2 pixels Up because the game considers that he starts a new move (he somehow changed directions)... then you press Up and he moves 2 pixels again and so on. Bottom line is: he moves 2 pixels at every frame, meaning 4 pixels every 2 frames, instead of the normal 3.

Notes

III: Glitch Quests and Things to Try

III.1: Speed-Running with Glitches

This section will explain in details how to complete the game very quickly with the help of Exploration Glitches. The idea is always to go as quickly as possible to the first point where you can perform the EG and then making your way to the Triforce room (entering the Triforce room will trigger the ending).

III.1.A: 15 minutes

Description

This was my first "very quick method" to finish the game using glitches. It lets you complete the game (trigger the ending credits) in about 15 minutes.

Glitches used

How to

(see [UDRW] and [ADDR] for instructions to find your way in the exploration zone, and follow the paths given)

Notes

III.2.B: 5 Minutes

Description

Yet another method to complete the game very quickly. This one uses the JSEG as soon as possible. It is the fastest method that can be done easily on a real SNES (without opening the controller).

Glitches used

How to

(see [UDRW] and [ADDR] for instructions to find your way in the exploration zone, and follow the paths given)

Notes

III.2.C: 3 Minutes

Description

This is a method that lets you finish the game (trigger the ending credits) in less than 3 minutes. It is the fastest method I know.

Glitches used

How to

(see [UDRW] and [ADDR] for instructions to find your way in the exploration zone, and follow the paths given)

Notes

III.2: No Sword Quests

No Sword Quests are a recurrent obsession in the LttP communities. Countless attempts have been made to avoid as much as possible to use the Sword, or to get rid of it.

In this section, I will describe a few variants of No Sword quests, meaning that for each I'll say which are the limitations that are set and how it is possible to do a big part of the game according to these limitations.

There are 4 different swords in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The one you get from your uncle at the beginning is the Fighter's Sword (Lv1), the one in the Lost Woods is the regular Master Sword (Lv2), the one that the Smithies temper for you is the Tempered Sword (Lv3) and finally the one given by the Fat Faery is the Golden Sword (Lv4). Note that the 3 last swords are 3 different version of the Master Sword (so when I say "a Master Sword" it means one of these 3, not necessarily the Lv2 one).

In a natural game, it is not possible to avoid getting the Fighter's Sword and the regular Master Sword. However the Lv3 and Lv4 swords can be skipped (you have to rescue the Smithy's partner to get the Big Bomb that'll let you have the Silver arrows though, but you don't have to give him your sword to temper).

Here are the main points in the game (a natural game) where a sword is specifically needed:

These are the main problems when doing a No Sword quests. We will now see how these can be solved in different situations.

III.2.A: No Master Sword

Description

My objective when doing this quest was to go as far as I could in the game without ever getting a Master Sword. I also made it with as little equipment as possible (ie. no pieces of heart, useless items etc.). This quest is very hard (as the initial Fighter's Sword is very weak) so I recommend you only try it if you're a very good player (or do it on an emulator so you can use savestates). You can of course make it a bit easier by taking more than the bare essential items. This quest doesn't use any Exploration Glitch.

Constraints

Result

It's possible to do almost everything (get all 3 Pendants and all 7 Crystals and Complete Ganon's Tower) in the game except defeating Ganon

Glitches used

How to

You should now have 9 hearts and no other item than the ones listed before. You should now have all crystals and 12 hearts. However you can't see your crystals because you haven't fought Agahnim yet...

Notes

III.2.B: No Master Sword, no Moon Pearl

Description

In this quest, the objective was to reach the final battle without the Moon Pearl (as I had already done in [PBGA]) but this time being able to defeat Ganon. I thought for a long time that this was not possible since we'll need the Silver Arrows to kill Ganon (and therefore the big bomb that requires to finish the Ice Dungeon and Misery Mire). However Adam T. (aka. mister yummy) from the GameFAQs LttP board gave me some methods that let me complete this quest. Initially, we also wanted not to take the Master Sword. As it is impossible to hurt Ganon without a Master Sword, we had to take one and so I decided never to get the one from the Lost Woods but to have the Fighter's Sword tempered at the last moment right before defeating Ganon.

This quest is a little outdated now because we have better ways of doing some of the things here, but I keep it because it was very interesting.

Constraints

Result

Glitches used

How to

In Misery Mire, there is a big room with a color changing switch, blue blocks (the ones activated by the color switch), a fireball turning around a "comb-shaped" wall and at the very far west of the room there is a key under a pot... I recommend you complete Misery Mire without taking this key as you might need it later when completing Ganon's Tower. It is very possible to complete Misery Mire without using this key, but you must be careful which doors you open not to waste too many keys (but this dungeon has so many useless keys that you should be able to do it quite easily).

There is an alternate method that I haven't tested which is to complete all of Ganon's Tower normally as you now have all the necessary items for it (I think). If you want to do this simply enter the Tower with the [PBEG], exit and re-enter. Complete the Tower normally.

Notes

III.2.C: Almost No Sword (w/o Glitches)

Description

Here I wanted to do as much as I could in the game without having a sword at all, but without using any glitch. As the only way to get rid of your sword is to give it to the smithies, you'll have to find the smithies as soon as you can. Also some specific actions in the game require that you have a sword so you'll have to do all these actions before you give your sword, then give the sword and complete as much as possible without the sword. I also made it a bare essential quest since it's more fun.

This makes it very hard so once again I recommend that you only attempt it if you know what you're doing!

Constraints

Result

Glitches used

none

How to

Notes

III.2.D: No Sword

TODO: write paragraph

III.3: Pink Bunny meets Ganon

Description

This weird quest was inspired by a Pink Bunny fan at the GameFAQs message board. The main idea was to be able to bring Link in his Pink Bunny form (so without a Moon Pearl) in the final battle against Ganon.

Glitches used

How to

Now you'll see that you don't have the big key anymore (and the enemies will be back in the Tower). However this is not a problem as you have already opened all the doors leading to the boss room.

After you defeat him you'll be taken to the Pyramid of Power using the Flute (even if you don't have it...). If you want, you can go and fight Ganon as Link, but you won't be able to kill him. Instead you might want to become a Bunny and fight him (you won't kill him either as a Bunny but it's funnier). To do so you have to activate correctly the Dark World by defeating Agahnim (in Hyrule Castle).

Notes

III.7: Rainy day

Description

This section gives some details about what you can do using the glitches that let you explore the underworld under the rain in the beginning ([MDPR] and [PRIN]). This section is very technical and might be quite hard to understand. I recommend that you use an emulator (for the savestates) and Hyrule Magic (for finding your way in the exploration area, else refer to [UDRW] and [ADDR] for finding your way) if you want to explore what can be done.

However, I find this part very interesting and very challenging in terms of "glitch exploration" because when you try to do something many problems arise that you didn't think of and you have to find new ways to solve them... This section is mainly a summary of some solutions found so far. When I first explored this glitch, I was stuck because I couldn't get the Magic Mirror (so I couldn't go to the Dark World). A few months later, ccexplore sent me an e-mail telling that he had found a way to get the mirror, and that he had explored a lot of the Dark World but he still had some problems with a few dungeons and items. We started working on this and after one week we were able to finally defeat Ganon in Phase I. Here are the solutions to the main problems you might encounter in Phase I.

In all this section, I consider that you have already performed one of the glitches that let you explore the outworld under the rain (ie. in phase I of the game).

(Note: the first phase of the game (Phase I) goes from the beginning to the moment when you bring Zelda to the sanctuary for the first time, see [3PHA] for more on this)

Also, some of the explanations given in this section might be outdated now because we might know of other methods to do some things. However, I don't plan on keeping it up to date, if you're interested in the Phase I quest, use this as a starting basis, and then explore by yourself, and of course if you have problems, questions or want to share your findings, go to the GameFAQs board...

III.7.A: Entering the Desert Palace

Description

If you try to go to the Desert Palace you'll soon see that there is a problem. The first step to reach it is to enter the swamp. There are 3 ways to enter the swamp. If you try from Lake Hylia then you'll need the flippers, to get the flippers you'll need the power gloves and the gloves are... in the desert. If you try from the south of Kakariko, and then east you'll see that you need the gloves to lift a rock. The last way is from Link's house but those damn guards are still there to bother you. Follow these steps to avoid them.

Glitches used

How to

Notes

III.7.B: The Power Gloves

Description

If you've come directly to the Desert Dungeon by using the method explained previously without bothering with the Eastern Palace then you probably don't have the Pegasus Boots (and if you have them then tell me how you did it without completing the Eastern Palace!). In this case you'll see that it seems impossible to get the Big Key of the Dungeon because you need to dash into a lamp to get a small key that'll open a door that leads to the Big key.

"Impossible" did you say? Nothing (or nearly) is impossible when you know how to manipulate correctly the glitches.

Glitches used

How to

Now be careful with the next part as it can make the whole manipulation fail and you'll probably have to save/quit and restart from the secret passage in Hyrule Castle if it fails (so if you're playing on an emulator, a savestate might be useful now).

After getting the big key, chances are you won't be able to go back to the entrance of the dungeon (you can try it but you might get stuck which would be sad...). What you should do is save and quit and restart. You'll be in the secret passage again. Exit without Zelda (or with her if you want) as you did once, go back to the Desert as you also already did and enter the dungeon. You now have the big key. You can head directly to the Power Gloves' room.

Notes

III.7.C: The Magic Mirror and the Dark World

Thanks to ccexplore

Description

To explore the Dark World correctly, you'll need the Magic Mirror to travel back to the Light World (and also do the DMD). Since you can't have it normally because of the "old man bug" (see notes of previous paragraph) you'll have to use a specific path. From there you can travel in the Dark World in Phase I, but you'll see that the sprites are all messed up...

Glitches used

How to

As I said in the previous paragraph notes, you cannot get the Magic Mirror simply by entering Death Mountain and rescuing the old man, since the game will glitch and enter an infinite loop when the old man tries to enter his house. However it is possible to enter the Tower of Hera using an EG before you meet the old man. To do so, perform either a PBEG or an UDEG and find your way to the main entrance of the Tower (room 119). This room of the dungeon is hoppable but you have to be careful because of the red/blue switches. If you did a PBEG, then most likely the switches will act correctly so you won't be stuck, but if you did it on a real SNES and used an UDEG or STEG the switches won't work so if you hop into the hall too far from the door you'll be stuck inside. To solve this problem, try to move right next to the main door and hop into the room next to the door so you're inside the little perimeter delimited by the red blocks and can exit the Tower from there (this might not be very clear but I'm sure you'll understand if you try and go there). From there exit and re-enter the Tower so you can complete it correctly. It's now time to get the Magic Mirror. The detail I was missing and that cceplore discovered is that if you exit the Tower of Hera and then head back to the cave where you should meet the old man, he will still be there and follow you, and for some mysterious reasons, if you take him home from there he'll give you the mirror and enter correctly in his house! (you don't have to complete the Tower of Hera, simply entering with an EG and exitting is enough, also it seems that this method doesn't really always work... If you it doesn't work for you, try using another EG or going to the Tower of Hera using another route in the Exploration Area)

With this technique, you now have the Magic Mirror. This means that you can now perform the DMD to explore the Dark World!

As soon as you'll reach the Dark World, you'll notice something very weird: all sprites (meaning, enemies, characters, heart pieces etc.) are in fact the Light World sprites from Phase II. For example as soon as you use the portal in Death Mountain and enter the Dark World Phase I, you'll be attacked by boulders falling down and small glitchy creatures that move quickly on the ground and can be petrified when hit... These small creatures are in fact the little "winged-squirrels" from the Light World! After you did the DMD, you'll keep recognizing Light World sprite all around you. Why this happens remains quite a mystery to me (well, it's obvious that the Dark World shouldn't exist at all in Phase I but still I don't understand why the game loads the Light World sprites as a default, it would have been more logical if the Dark World was empty as the Light World is in Phase I). This "sprite" transposition has both good and bad sides (but compared with an "empty" Dark World it only has good sides). The good side is that we will now be able to interact with some of the Light World sprites since they can be found in the Dark World. The bad side is that the Dark World sprites have completely disappeared and are nowhere to be found (we'll see some very special examples however where they are not completely lost).

The first thing you might want to do now is find the Hammer since it'll make your exploration around the Dark World easier (and let you use some of the portals so you don't have to go to Death Mountain every time). Kiki the monkey will obviously not appear so you have to enter with an EG. The PBEG works fine, but it seems that it is much harder with an UDEG or a STEG... What you want to do is hop into the dungeon (you can try to hop into the room with the mimics (room 27) that is one north of the room where you have to push a statue on a switch, the room with the statue and the switch (room 43) sometimes works too but some other times the red/blue switches won't work so you'll be stuck).

Once inside the dungeon, if you only want to go for the Hammer then find your way to the big chest and get the Hammer (remember that you won't need the Big Key if you did an EG from Hyrule Castle and don't exit since you already have the one from there). If you want to complete the dungeon correctly (meaning that you want the Crystal) you'll have to exit the dungeon. When you reach the outside, the game will still think you're in the Light World (if you did your EG from the Light World, which should be the case most likely). When you're outside it should be raining. Use the Magic Mirror and it'll take you to the Dark World but without the rain. Now since Kiki the monkey never opened the door to the dungeon you can't enter pressing Up... However pressing down will solve your problem and you'll enter the dungeon correctly from the Dark World (Yes, you read it right... You have to press Down). Note that if you use the Mirror twice, you'll be taken to the Light World, and if you stand on the same place you won't be able to return to the Dark World because since the door to the dungeon isn't open the game considers that the world switch is invalid. In that case simply move up while in the Light World to take your portal from the upper side and you'll be taken to the Dark World and enter the dungeon automatically. You should now be able to reach the Hammer without trouble.

Remember that each time you hop into a dungeon from another dungeon (or cave or whatever) and want to get the Crystal of the dungeon you have to exit and re-enter. Also if you came from the Light World, you need to use the mirror to be considered as being in the Dark World before re-entering.

With similar methods (not very complicated) you can find the Titan's Mitt, but you won't be able to enter Blind's hideout normally because the grid that you have to pull to enter the dungeon is a Dark World sprite so it can't be opened in Phase I, so enter with an EG. The exit/mirror/enter technique doesn't work here since you won't be able to re-enter so you can't get the crystal (well... at least I don't know how. But don't worry about the crystals, because you won't need them for Ganon's Tower anyway). Also the Skull Dungeon can be completed totally without trouble.

You can also get the flute. Interestingly enough, the flute boy sprite is the same in the Dark World and in the Light World, only that it doesn't act the same depending on the World you're in. This means that if you go to the Dark grove, you'll see the "tree-like" flute boy and he'll give you the shovel. This "tree-like" flute boy is in fact the Light World flute boy sprite that acts like the tree since the game knows that you're in the Dark World (luckily for us since we can therefore find the flute). The flute is located in the Light World as normal (it's strange since it's a sprite, but somehow this sprite still appears in the Light World in Phase I). When you have the flute, you can use the Ether Medallion trick [ETH] to find the Ether Medallion, and then enter Misery Mire. Complete the dungeon if you want to (you'll need the Levitation Trick [LEV] because you can't have the Hookshot so it cannot be done on a real SNES).

You can also hop into the Ice Palace with an EG (into the room with a moving floor, spikes, blue electric jellyfishes and black creatures coming from the walls (room 62S)), find your way to the entrance, exit, mirror, re-enter and complete the dungeon (again you'll need the levitation trick).

Notes

III.7.D: Rescuing the Smithy's Partner

Thanks to ccexplore

Description

It seems impossible to rescue the Smithy's Partner in Phase I of the game since the frog sprite doesn't appear in the Dark World... However, there's a solution! (due to a brilliant observation by ccexplore)

Glitches used

How to

There could be 3 ways to get a Master Sword. The first one would be to take it in the Lost Woods with the three pendants but the Master Sword sprite doesn't appear in the Woods. The second one would be to rescue the smithy's partner but the smithy/frog sprite doesn't appear where it should in the Dark World (since it's a Dark World sprite). The third way would be to reach the Fat Faery's pond and get the Golden Sword (I seem to rememeber that throwing the Fighter's Sword in the pond works but I'm not positively sure). Moreover we'll need the Silver Arrows so it seems that we must reach the Fat Faery's pond. This would require the Big Bomb, but the Big Bomb only appears after having recued the Smithy's Partner and completed Misery Mire and the Ice Palace.

Our only chance seems to be the smithy. ccexplore noticed that the smithy's sprite inside the Light World house and the smithy/frog's sprite in the Dark World were the same... So his idea was to enter the smithies' house when the game thinks we're in the Dark World so the smithy's sprite will act as if it was the frog in the Dark World (the same that happened with the flute boy's sprite).

And guess what? It worked!

Here are ccexplore's instructions on how to do it, directly quoted from one of his e-mails:

I've now found a fairly easy and reliable way to get to room 227. Here we go: 1) head to swamp palace until you reach the upper-left quarter of room 179.
2) exit to the left by left+right. you'd see that the screen scrolls incorrectly, to the right.
3) immediately head left to scroll yourself back to the room 179 screen you just scroll off from.
4) now head down 3 screens (causing 3 vertical screen scrolls). You'd notice that the vertical scrolling is pretty normal. after the 3rd scroll, you'll see that you've reach room 227.
5) now head to the vertical center of the room, and then head right, you'd find the screen scroll to the right incorrectly again. Basically, the display has been off by half a screen horizontally ever since you did the left+right, so it looks like you're now on the lower-right quarter of room 227.
6) however, looks can be deceiving! the game actually considers you to be in the lower-left corner of room 227. So now, using your visual memory (or just have Hyrule Magic open in front of you), hop into the room, climb up that invisible stairs and then head to the invisible exit. You're now in the Outworld right outside Smithy's house, with Dark World music!
If you enter Smithy's house, you'd get the frog. And you'd get his frog dialog and him following you and all! (you might have to be a non-rabbit to do this, I haven't tried this as rabbit...) Now, in the outworld you'd find that you can't seem to use your mirror, because your in the Light World outworld (it seems like when using the mirror they check your map location rather than the "actual" state of the world). No problem, because as soon as you induce a screen-scroll, you'd immediately be placed back into the Dark World, since that's where the game thinks you're at anyway. Now use the mirror to properly head back to the Light World, and head to Smithy's house and smile. :)

When the smithy is rescued, you can buy the Big Bomb and ask the Silver Arrows and the Golden Sword to the Fat Faery and kill Ganon. Congratulations, you have finished the game in Phase I.

Notes

IV: Technical stuff you might want to know

IV.1: The three phases of the game

As you probably noticed it, there are some important key events in this game that can reshape completely the Outworld. The most noticeable change is probably the rain at the beginning that stops when you bring Princess Zelda to the Sanctuary, but there are others.

Depending on what you have already done in the game, some important things will behave differently. In a normal game (no glitches), all should be smooth and happen correctly because you can't really break the order of the key events. But if you start using all the glitches, you'll see that you can do a lot of things out of sequence.

When doing so, things might behave in radically different ways depending on the key events that you have already triggered (and possibly the order in which you did trigger them). The game can basically be divided in 3 parts (that I call phase I, phase II and phase III because I don't want to find original and pretty names). The phase you're in has mainly an importance on the sprites of the Outworld, and the respawn points (where you start when you reload a game). There seems to be no incidence on what happens inside the dungeons (or caves, houses etc.)

Here's a short description of each of the 3 phases.

Phase I

Beginning of the game -> Bringing Zelda to the Sanctuary

Key events Respawn points Notes

Phase II

Bringing Zelda to the Sanctuary -> Defeating Agahnim in Hyrule Castle

Key events Respawn points Notes

Phase III

Defeating Agahnim in Hyrule Castle -> End of the game

Key events Respawn points Notes

IV.2: The Underworld Map

First of all this section is not intended to be a real "map" of the Underworld area, but an explanation of how the Underworld rooms are coded in the game ROM. By Underworld, I refer to all parts of the game that are not the Outworld, which include the houses, the caves and the dungeons. This part might only be interesting to you if you use the Exploration Glitches.

I HIGHLY recommend that you download and use the ROM editor Hyrule Magic if you are interested in these kinds of details since all I'm about to explain here can be understood very simply using it.

IV.2.A: What is a Room in this game?

While you play through the game (without glitching like mad), you get the impression that the Underworld room in LttP can be of very different sizes and shapes. This is only an illusion. In fact the way the game sees it is very simple: all rooms have the same size (quite big in fact) and are square-shaped.

However, some of them can be filled with walls in such ways that they become either very small (if most of the room is a very thick wall then the room seems small from the inside) or are divided into a number of smaller rooms (2, 3 or 4 only as we'll see).

The maximum size of a room is the size of Hyrule Castle's main entrance (I'm sure you've noticed how big this room is). This huge room can then be divided in two, three or four parts using only divisions from the middle of the sides as shown below:

TODO: Pictures

As an example, Link's house is the size of a quarter of a room and the vertical rooms next to Hyrule Castle main entry are the size of half a room.

Now that you know that, you might have wondered why you never had this impression of a big room cut in four parts when you were in Link's House for example. Well, it's simply because of the camera effect, that is programmed to stay inside of a quarter of a room when asked to (in some rooms you can scroll out and in some you can't) and that gives the impression that there's nothing out of the bounds of the screen when in fact there's more!

Have in mind that different "small in-game rooms" can in fact be in the same "big coded room". For example, the two fortune tellers' houses (that are both only one quarter of a room) are two parts of a same big room. This means that if you could walk through the walls inside their houses, you'd go directly from one to the other... and that's precisely what we do when using the exploration glitches!

(Again, use Hyrule Magic and see for yourself, it's better than any explanation I could give!)

It's now time to talk about the general disposition of the rooms...

IV.2.B: The Two Underworld Zones

Now that you know what a room really is, know that there are a total of 296 rooms in the game. For these rooms, only a few are completely used in the game, many of the 4-parts ones have 2 or more empty quarters and there are even rooms completely empty (for some strange reason there's no 1-part empty room, all empty rooms are divided into at least 2 sections).

These 296 rooms are divided into 2 groups (for other strange reasons...). The first group contains 256 rooms (which is very understandable since it's a power of 2, so it's easier to address) and the second group contains the last 40 rooms (that's more unusual, I would have expected at least 64 remaining rooms...).

The 256 first rooms (numbered from 0 to 255) are what I'll call the Primary Exploration Zone. They are distributed on a 16x16 square as follows (hover over the image to see the rooms more clearly):

 (Click the image if you want to see the full size one... but it's HUGE)

Moving into this square is to be considered as follows. Considering that you're in room x:

All coordinates should be read "modulo 256" meaning that if you are in room 245 and go down you reach room (245+16 = 261 = 5 + 256) which means that you reach room 5.

All you have to understand now is that in the game, when you go through a door, you are either "teleported" to a given room (that's always what happens when you use stairs for example) or the game scrolls to the next room (corresponding to the previous explanation). Be careful, sometimes you think that you're changing rooms but you're only going from one part of a room to the other without really changing rooms!

When you're playing you can tell what kind of transition the game is doing because if you see that the camera scrolls to the next room then you haven't "teleported" and if the screen changes completely then you have teleported.

All rooms of all dungeons are somewhere in this huge 16x16 square of rooms. A dungeon is not necessarily represented as a connex set of rooms (and usually two levels of a given dungeon are placed at completely different locations in the square).

When you perform an Exploration glitch, what you do is that since you go under the normal ground level, you can walk under the walls too. So in fact, in almost every room you can go to the next one (in any direction) and since you don't enter any door or use any staircase the game won't "teleport" you elsewhere and since you reach the limits of the room the game naturally scrolls to the next room. This is how you can move freely around all (or at least almost all) dungeon rooms.

However, there's a second group of rooms in the game. The rooms numbered from 256 to 295 have a very different disposition, that is as follows (well not so different since it's again in lines of 16 rooms):

256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 260 270 271
272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287
288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295

Again moving to the right and to the left adds or substracts 1 to your room number (so going from 271 to the right goes to 272) but this time every transition that would take you to a room numbered less than 256 or more than 296 will cause the game to crash. In other words, when you're in this zone you have to do only transitions that'll keep you inside the zone.

Note that the zone isn't a complete rectangle (there's nothing under room 280). This zone will be called the Secondary Exploration Zone. It contains mainly houses, shops and caves.

So far, only two exploration glitches let you explore this zone, and it's the "Jump and Save" EG [JSEG] when hopping out of Link's bed at the beginning and the [STEG] when doing it from a cave.

IV.2.C: Some useful addresses

In this section, I'll give you the numbers of some rooms that might be of interest so that it can help you find your way through one or the other of the Exploration Zones. All numbers correspond to the room numbers in Hyrule Magic, and also to the disposition of the rooms that I explained in the previous paragraph.

One last thing... When you're exploring, sometimes the game goes into a loop while going in a given direction (meaning that going right while in room x takes back to room x for example). In this case do a few transitions in the opposite way (go to room (x-2)) and then go back to your initial direction, this should fix it.

Next to the number of the room, I'll sometimes indicate a direction. This indicates in which quarter or half of the room is the specific part that I'm describing (for example, the final battle room is in the North East quarter of the room 0).

Some rooms of the Primary Exploration Zone (rooms 0-255):
0 NEFinal Battle With Ganon (trigger the ending by moving one room up)
3 SWChris Houlihan's room
6 SWArrghus's room (Watergate Palace)
7 Moldorm's room (Tower of Hera)
8 SEExit of the Faery hole cave (east of the cemetery) (hoppable)
12 Ganon's Tower main hall (hoppable)
18 Sanctuary (hoppable)
20 Pipe rooms in Turtle Rock. Don't enter while exploring because it'll freeze the game.
21 Another pipe room of Turtle Rock. This one might freeze the game too, but is sometimes hoppable.
27 SWA hopppable room in the Palace of Darkness (even though it has no lower floor, you can hop in when coming from a PBEG, not sure about the other ones). It's a room where you fight 3 mimics.
41 SEMothula's room (Skull Dungeon)
43 WA useful hoppable room of the Palace of Darkness (the one where you have to push a statue on a switch)
47 SThe Kakariko cave (NW of the village), it's a useful hoppable room.
62 SA hoppable room in the Ice Palace (doesn't work very well, but it's the only one that I know in this dungeon). It's the room with a moving floor, spikes, black shadows coming from the top and blue electric jellies)
64 SEA very useful hoppable room in Hyrule Castle. It's the room with two archers and a spearman that is two rooms before Agahnim.
67 SEA hoppable room in the Desert Palace that lets you kill Lanmolas for the Ether Medallion (see [ETH])
96 EThe room in Hyrule Castle that's west of the main entrance. It's the room where I recommend you do the [UDEG], [STEG] and [JSEG].
97 Hyrule Castle main hall
98 This room is similar to 96E. It's the room east of Hyrule Castle main entrance.
104 The room in Skull Dungeon with two bumpers very close to each other. This is the only room where you can do the [SDEG].
112 NEIt's the room where you start if you do the [UDEG] from room 96
113 NEThis room is hoppable and you can perform the [STEG] from it. It's the staircase that's right after the Boomerang (the Boomerang is in 113SE) and just before Princess Zelda's cell.
114 SThis is where you should do the [PBEG]
115 SWThis is where the PBEG should lead you (it's the room before the Power Gloves in the Desert Palace)
119 Tower of Hera main entrance. Hoppable but hop near the door in order not to get trapped by the blue blocks in case the red/blue switches don't work correctly.
128 NPrincess Zelda's cell (not hoppable though)
144 SWVitreous's room (Misery Mire)
152 SMisery Mire entrance (you can levitate over the pit [LEV])
178 NA hoppable room in Misery Mire
179 NWAnother hoppable room in Misery Mire (but the previous one is easier). You can do an UDEG from here (well, it's a (Left+Right)EG actually).
194 Central Hall of Misery Mire (hoppable)
195 WAnother hoppable room in Misery Mire that leads to the central hall
228 WThe Mountain Cave (hoppable)
Some rooms of the Secondary Exploration Zone (256-295):
(the whole zone can easily be explored by going to the right from Link's house):
260 SELink's House
263 SEHoppable house of Kakariko (but doesn't take you out of the Exploration Zone)
278 SEFat Faery's pond
283 SWVery interesting hoppable room. You can exit to the outworld from here but will be stuck outside if you reached it by hopping out of Link's bed at the very beginning.
289 SWSmithies shop
295 Last room of the Secondary zone. Don't move to the right or the game will freeze!

IV.3: What Dungeon Am I In?

In some instances, it is important to understand how the game keeps track of the dungeon we are currently in. The game considers that there are 14 different dungeons, that go by pairs (we'll see why later):

The SewersHyrule Castle (first part)
Eastern Palace (LW1)Desert Palace (LW2)
Hyrule Castle (second part)Watergate Dungeon (DW2)
Dark Palace (DW1)Misery Mire (DW6)
Skull Woods (DW3)Ice Palace (DW5)
Tower of Hera (LW3)Blind's Hideout (DW4)
Turtle Rock (DW7)Ganon's Tower
The rest of the underworld is considered not to be in any dungeon (I'll refer to that as a "cave").

When played normally (ie. without glitching) the player moves in the outworld, then sometimes enters a dungeon/cave/house. Since the dungeons don't communicate directly (except one exception that we'll mention later) we aren't supposed to be able to change the dungeon we're in without going back to the outworld. This is why the game will keep considering we are in the same dungeon as the one we entered first while we don't go back to the outworld.

This is particularly useful when using exploration glitches since these can let us go from one dungeon to the other "without the game noticing the change". One useful consequence of this is the fact that we can use keys from a dungeon on doors of another one: performing an EG from HC after getting the big key lets you open all big doors in the other dungeons for instance, and performing an EG from a cave gives you infinite small keys in the dungeons you go.

Another use of this is what was first known as the Ether Medallion glitch, and more generally all possible ways of confusing the game when fighting bosses. Bosses are handled in a very special way by the game: when you kill a boss, it triggers some special events depending on the dungeon you're in. In most dungeons, when the boss dies a heart appears where he was, and when you grab the heart the pendant/crystal corresponding to the dungeon falls down.

However there are some special dungeons. Hyrule Castle 1 for instance doesn't have a pendant/crystal (nor do HC2, Ganon's Tower and the sewers for that matter). So when you enter HC1, do an EG and go fight a boss from another dungeon (or even simply enter a boss room if you've already killed the boss) the game gives you "the pendant corresponding to HC1", which isn't supposed to exist, and for some reason (consequence of how the game was programmed) it's the Ether Medallion that falls. This is very useful in some special quests since it lets us have the Ether Medallion when it would otherwise be unreachable (phase I quests mainly).

There is another very intersting use of this: Ganon's Tower has the three Light World bosses inside. When they are defeated, a special exception is raised because we are in Ganon's Tower, and for this reason the bosses don't give any heart container. But if you start from another (regular) dungeon, and hop into Ganon's Tower, when you go and fight these bosses they will work as normal ones and give a full heart container when they die! This means that you can reach 20 hearts without getting all heart pieces. Sadly, getting more than 20 hearts has absolutely no effect (the extra hearts don't appear on screen and aren't taken into account when being damaged).

Now, a last interesting thing that can be done with this is to get pendants/crystals from other dungeons. If you start from a given dungeon and EG into another one and defeat the boss there you'll be rewarded with the pendant/crystal of the initial dungeon you came from. This might not seem too useful by itself (except if for some reason you really don't want to fight a given boss but want to get the pendant/crystal he's supposed to be protecting) but it's were the exception mentioned earlier is of the utmost importance...

IV.3.A: Changing Dungeons "on the Fly"

Thanks to MathOnNapkins for most of the information here, and to assassin17 for some useful things too.

If you have read carefully the list of dungeons above, you might have noticed something strange: the sewers and HC1 are two separate dungeons! (also you may notice that HC1 and HC2 are also two separate dungeons, even though they share the same map... but that's not so important here)

However when playing a normal game, you're not supposed to go back to the outworld in between the two. This means that the game is able to change the dungeon you're in, while you're still in the underworld... And indeed, it is what happens when going through the ornamental shield (the one Zelda helps you push) door. This door is completely unique, because walking through it changes the dungeon you're in.

Now, you could think that simply going through the door sets the dungeon you're in either to "the sewers" or "Hyrule Castle 1" depending on the way you're going. But that's not how it works. As said earlier, the dungeons go by pairs (pairs are represented on the same line in the list above). And going through the shield door simply switches from the dungeon you were in previously to its corresponding dungeon (this is why in a normal game it takes you from HC1 to the sewers).

This means that this same door can be used to reach other dungeons as well. Take for example Turtle Rock (DW7). Turtle Rock is a very annoying dungeon when glitching because first it requires the use of the Quake Medallion to be opened (which is a problem both in a no sword quest and a Phase I quest) and besides it is hard to hop into with exploration glitches (it often freezes the game because of the pipe rooms). So the crystal is often very hard to get...

On the other hand, Ganon's Tower is very convenient. It's very easy to hop into the main entrance then exit and re-enter the dungeon to load it correctly (at this point the game considers you really are in Ganon's Tower). From there you can EG out and go to the magic door (the shield door), go through the door and EG again. At that point the game thinks you're in Turtle Rock. Now find any boss room that you can reach and you'll be rewarded with the seventh crystal! Misery Mire (DW6) and the Watergate Dungeon (DW2) can also be a problem but both of their corresponding dungeons (DW1 and HC2) are very convenient to glitch (remember that you can hop into DW1, exit and reenter even if it has not been open by the monkey if you press down as soon as you exit the dungeon).

V: The Chris Houlihan's Room Mystery Solved

V.1: What is the Chris Houlihan's Room?

If you've played this game a lot, or if you were very lucky, you might have accidentally found yourself in a room where you shouldn't have been. A room full of blue rupees with a telepathic tile that says "My name is Chris Houlihan. This is my top secret room. Keep it between us, OK?". On the other hand, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, keep reading as I'm about to explain how to get there on purpose.

But, first things first... Chris Houlihan is an american kid who won a Nintendo Power (the Nintendo magazine) contest some years ago (before the game came out that is). The main prize was to have the privilege of having his name in the new upcoming Zelda game. It seems that at first the "secret" room wasn't supposed to be that secret, and it should have been accessible from a crack in the Pyramid of Power (what is now the entrance to the Palace of the Four Swords in the GBA version). However, for some reason, this entrance was removed and the secret room was supposed to be left inaccessible (but those lazy programmers didn't take it out of the ROM). This is the story as I have heard it, it might not be perfectly accurate but you get the main idea (I still have doubts about the fact that the room was supposedly left inaccessible and yet we can enter it).

The room itself can only be entered from a hole (or so it seems since no one has yet entered it from a normal door). The Hyrule Castle secret passage hole and the hole on top of the Pyramid of Power are two confirmed possible entrances, others might work too of course (I know that these holes lead somewhere else, it just happens that sometimes they lead to the room, and we'll see in a moment when this happens).

When you enter it, you fall in the middle. The room has a blue floor (like plenty of other "rupee rooms" inside the dungeons) and 45 blue rupees (placed in 5 sets of 9 rupees each (since blue rupees are worth 5 rupees, there's a total of 225). The exit door in in the middle of the South wall, and the telepathic tile with Chris's message is in the middle of the top wall. The whole room looks like that:

the Chris Houlihan's room

When you exit, you always appear in front of Link's house (no matter if you entered the room from the Light or Dark World).

Moreover, if you don't touch any of the rupees and exit, the next time you enter the room, the rupees will still be there. But if you take at least one, then they'll all be gone when you come back (so you can't use the room to get 999 rupees quickly, but if you take some, you'd better take them all).

V.2: How to Get There

Here's the simplest known method to enter the Chris Houlihan's room. First I'll give precise instructions for this particular method (that enters from the Hyrule Castle hole), and then I'll explain why this triggers it and how you can enter it from other holes or after doing some steps differently.

How to reach it

How it works

Apparently (thanks to euclid, flagitoius and dvdmth for these explanations) what triggers the room is a misalignement of your vertical position. What this means is that for some reason, the game thinks that you are somewhere (some Y coordinate) when in fact you're somewhere else (for example, it displays you on the screen at some height, but thinks in some other register that you're somewhere else). Why the game has different coordinates for Link's location remains a mystery to me but we have already seen weird such things when playing with exploration glitches (for example the game thinks you're in some room but loads another one so you are hitting the walls of the first, but interacting with the sprites of the second).

Anyway, at some point you're "misaligned" and this is a problem for the game when it has to determine which hole you're entering and where you fall. And it seems that when you're misaligned the way we make it, it loads the Chris Houlihan's room (some people consider it's a bug handling technique that will load the room when some coordinates are not right).

Now, let's see what causes this misalignement. Normally, when Link walks, he can move either one or two pixels in a given direction every frame (see the explanation of [FPA] for more on this). For this reason, it seems that the programmers only thought that you could exit a screen from one of the two first lines that will trigger the screen change. For example, if the screen change occurs every time Link's Y coordinate is superior to a constant s, then they assumed that when changing screens you were either at s or (s+1) (Y coordinates increase when moving South, since I consider that the (0,0) pixel is the North-West one). It's possible that for this reason, after the screen change, the game considers that you're either at t or (t+1) if t is the top most pixel where you can appear (where you appear if you changed screens from s).

So all they have to do when changing screens is remember if you come from s (and have you appear at t) or (s+1) and have you appear at (t+1). But, when dashing with the Pegasus Boots, you move 4 pixels each frame! This means that if at some frame your Y coordinate was (s-1) or (s-2) and you're dashing South, then the next frame you're at (s+3) or (s+2)! From there, after the screen transition you'll be at (t+3) or (t+2) but the game will think that you're at t or (t+1) (since these are supposedly the only possible locations after the screen change). This is where the misalignement is supposed to come from.

When following the steps that I gave earlier, the bomb ensures that you're either at (s-1) or (s-2), and then when you dash you're sure to cause the misalignement.

When the glitch is armed, it seems that any North or South transition will disarm it (when considering when to make the change it probably take into account the "real" on screen coordinates, and so it corrects the error after the change) unless of course you dash once again from (s-1) or (s-2). However Left/Right transitions don't seem to affect it (which is why the explained steps let you enter the room even if after arming the glitch you change screens to the west).

It seems (thanks to dvdmth for experimenting all that) that the room is only loaded when you enter the hole from the South. Also the only known way to arm the glitch is with a South transition. Other holes than the Hyrule Castle one work too, but you must be able to access the screen from another one after doing one transition South and then only East/West ones (the Faery hole next to the cemetery works when coming either from the screen with the birds and the entrance of the cave leading to Death Mountain, or more amusingly when performing the Death Mountain Descent [DMD] if you do the last South transition correctly).

VI: Conclusion

VI.1: How to contact me

You can either send me a mail at or try to see me at the GameFAQs Zelda:LttP message board. All comments about this FAQ are welcome (good and bad) but I don't guarantee that I'll answer to all. If you think something should be added to this FAQ feel free to tell me because I'd be glad to discuss new glitches or new interesting challenges with someone (all credit will be given where due of course).

If you see a spelling mistake (even the slightest) or some sentence that doesn't make sense (I'm french so my english might be weird from time to time) send me an e-mail so I can correct it (even if it's a mail with only one minor spelling mistake, don't hesitate).

Also, it might take a lot of time before I do the next update of the FAQ... So don't be too impatient if you send me something to update and it's not changed in the following days.

VI.2: Thanks

I would like to thank