Speed-running OoT

Speed-running The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a staggeringly broad and complex field of study. The game takes around 24 hours play to complete for the first time and slightly less than 5 to beat at top speed.

There is a vast number of major and minor tricks to be employed.

Pre-game tactics and general notes

First, read all of the following:

• Timing OoT
• Routes through OoT
• Movement techniques in OoT
• Text techniques in OoT
• Weapons of OoT

There are only a few places where you absolutely need sound turned on, but it's worth doing, since there are some useful audio cues.

You should know the whole game inside-out, including the optional bonuses which won't necessarily form a part of your run, what's stocked in all the shops, and ideally also the contents of the various fixed-contents pots you'll find. This is so that when you find yourself short of some vital commodity e.g. money, bombs, you know where to get them at short notice while losing minimal time.

Know your route inside-out. You should never have to stop and think about your next objective, you should be automatically running in the right direction already.

You'll be skipping a significant number of important items for speed purposes. See Minimal runs of OoT for information about doing without these.

Pull out bombs before you reach the thing you're planning to bomb, to save some time waiting for the fuse to go down. When bombing walls, try to put the bomb at one side of the wall and wait at the other side, so you can run straight through instead of waiting for the blast to clear.

You can use the Hookshot or Longshot to zip to the top of - or a least a long way up - most of the ladders, vines and climbable walls you find.

Kokiri Forest

Backflip over the first fence instead of descending the ladder. Back-walk to the first corner.

Your first task is to collect the Kokiri Sword and then buy a Deku Shield en route to Mido and the Great Deku tree. You need 40 rupees to buy the shield, and there are rupees hidden all over Kokiri Forest. An awful lot of work has been put into finding the optimal route to collect them. I won't bother to explain a route to you: I'll tell you where the rupees are and you can collect whichever ones you want:

• There are three green rupees in the grass on the way to the Kokiri training ground.
• Climb the last fence in the training ground before the little hole, and jump off it towards the hole, as far as you can. You'll collect a green rupee and a blue one.
• After the small tunnel towards the rolling rock area, there's a brief period where the camera is frozen but you are not. Start running before camera catches up.
• There are two green rupees in the long grass in the rolling rock area, but you can't see them, so learn where they are.
• You can slash the bush behind and to the right of the chest with the sword in, to get another HYR1.
• There are two blue rupees in this area too. The bush behind the blue rupee nearest the hole has a green rupee in it too, but you'll need the sword to get it, so consider collecting these on the way back from the sword.
• Do a backflip in the training area right after going through the hole the second time, and you'll get another HYR1.
• Slash the furthest sign on the right on your way out from the training ground for another five rupees.
• Enter the house directly facing the little tunnel to find four chests. Open the far two for ten more rupees.
• You'll find HYR5 behind that same house.
• There're three more rupees in the grass between that house and the stepping stones.
• You get HYR5 for jumping the river stepping stones accurately on your way to the shop.
• There are HYR5 hidden in the far corner of the shop.

Don't jump into the water on your way towards Mido. Go further to the left and jump the gap cleanly where it's narrower, or go to the right and jump onto the stepping stones.

Deku Sticks are astoundingly useful because they are the most powerful weapon young Link can use. These Deku Babas are not, however, the only place you'll be able to collect them. You can only hold 10, but my advice is to just kill them all once to get three Deku Sticks, and not hang around waiting for them to respawn.

Dungeon guide: Inside the Deku Tree

There is the option of doubling back to get more Deku Sticks from the Deku Babas at this point.

Additional tricks

• Hookshot Ascent
• High Grab
• Stone Umbrella Shortcut