Speedrun:A Link to the Past/Any% (NMG, No S+Q)/Desert Palace

The main objectives of this segment are going to be obtaining the Pegasus Boots and the Book of Mudora to gain access to Desert Palace. Completing this dungeon will open the way to Death Mountain. Fortunately we have the opportunity to acquire a few additional Safeties along the way which will make death much less of a risk going forward.

Obtaining the Book

We're going to start by visiting Sahasrahla to turn in the Pendant of Courage.

Nudge up against the Right torch to get past Saharsrahla without getting stuck and talk to him from the right side to receive the Pegasus Boots.

Clear the way and move up above the pots. Hold the A button to start charging a Dash, then turn and face Up to break the wall. You can choose to dash into the wall normally but we do it this way to avoid grabbing the wall and so the pot prevents Link from being knocked back further.

Open these three chests to obtain 100 Rupees and 3 Bombs. These rupees will be used later in the run to access Palace of Darkness.

Back in this room, press angle Down+Right to nudge slightly right and start dashing. If you don't move out of the doorway you will just Bonk into the pot.

Now that we have the boots we can do the first JP 1.0 Glitch which is Spinspeed There are two steps to performing this Glitch. First we have to Arm spinspeed state, then we need to Activate it.

Hold the sword out as you climb to the top of the stairs. Now we are at the part that may take a few tries. Slide your thumb very quickly from B to A. You will know you did this correctly if you press the B button after and the sword doesn't come out. You can see this on my input display on the images above. Spinspeed is now armed. If you have trouble getting to this step it's possible that you aren't playing on a JP 1.0 version. This trick saves around 10 seconds over the full run so it isn't a huge deal if you aren't able to get it. I recommend trying no more than 3 times in a real speedrun attempt before just moving on.

To activate spinspeed you just need to exit a Manual Staircase with a diagonal or cardinal input. Hold angle Up+Left and you will exit the stairs at dash speed.

Follow this path to exit the screen. You may prefer to go around the eagle statues rather than through them if you find this movement to be easier. Falling down from the slope with cancel spinspeed and you'll need to dash down from here.

Walk down just below the corner of the slope then start a dash and turn Left.

If you recall from the start of Eastern Palace Overworld, we needed to line up on a specific pixel to avoid being attacked by an enemy. This screen works in a similar way but we have to get a bit deeper in the weeds with some hidden Game Mechanics so you understand what we're doing here. If you're following along on the ALTTP Practice Hack you can pay attention to the vertical position coordinates A68 and A6A as you enter this screen.

In order to get through this screen quickly you'll need to be touching the top wall on vertical position A68, but you'll notice that dashing along the slope on the previous screen sometimes nudges you down by one or two Pixels.

You can ensure that you get on this correct position every time by holding Up+Left on the dpad as you enter this screen. Start a dash as soon as you begin moving. It may be helpful to practice this setup a few times to learn the timing.

Ideally you want to dash here as early as possible to avoid hitting the green soldier's sword. It's not always going to matter if you hit him however. You may still get lucky and he could be slow to react to you, giving you enough time to still dash down safely. Getting through quickly without alerting him will still improve your chances quite a bit.

If you get knocked out of your dash and catch everyone's attention, your best bet is to give up on dashing down and walk until you clear of all enemies. You may need to hit one of the way with your sword if this happens.

Just dash left here.

Dash Left until you are in between the two sets of bushes. Make sure to face down before dashing again to avoid picking up a bush.

Dash down below this slope and then dash Left to the next screen. You just need to be far enough down to avoid bonking the tree on the next screen.

Dash Left until you pass this blue guard then move Up+Left and start dashing up after you get past him a little. This is a pretty tight gap to get through so if you're having trouble you can start a bit lower on the screen when you dash left to give yourself more time to react. You can also slash him out of the way if that helps. Getting hit out of your dash is always the slowest option.

Here you just want to walk up and exit below the dirt path. Dashing is only faster than walking when you have a long enough straight path (at least 5 tiles).

Follow the path to the library as indicated (dash in red, walk in blue).

Bonk into the shelf to collect the Book of Mudora. I like to hold Right as the text box appears because you can just mash L+R when there's only one text box. Dash down to the bottom to exit.

Early Net & Bottles in Kakariko

Here we have our first diverging route options. Most beginners will choose to visit Kakariko Village at this point to collect either one or two Bottles. However if you are confident in your ability to defeat Helmasaur King with only 7 hearts, you can save a significant amount of time by doing this chore while you activate the Flute later on. If this is your first time running the game, you'll probably want to follow along with the safer "early bottles" route.

If you aren't doing early bottles, follow this route in reverse order to go toward the desert entrance and skip the rest of this section. Otherwise, follow the path to Kakariko.

Dash along this path to the back of the Kakariko Inn to obtain your first Magic bottle.

Go into the house directly North to get the Bug Net from the sick boy.

You can collect a second bottle from the Street Merchant if you got the 100 rupees from the front of Eastern Palace.

Now we want to fill both bottles with fairies. Go up the stairs directly above and stand on the Right side of this tree. We're going to do our second Minor Glitch known as Item Dash. To do this you want to hold your Index and Middle fingers a few inches above the Y and A buttons, then quickly slam your fingers down onto the controller and hold both buttons down.

This trick works by starting a Dash on the same Frame that you use an Item. You have to slam your hand down quickly to ensure that both buttons are pressed at exactly the same time. You'll see the bug net sticking out while dash dust starts to appear if you did it right. By performing an item dash from the Right side of this tree, you will auto-collect the fairy as it appears. Some trees it only works from the Left so I'll let you know for each one.

Don't worry if you're following along on the English version. You can just catch the fairy normally.

Follow this path to head back to reconnect with the original speedrun route and move onto the next section. Don't forget to cancel your dash at the South end of Kakariko to avoid bonking into the sign.

Entering Desert Palace

Exit this screen on the Left side of the dirt path to set up the next movement.

This blue soldier will notice you if you just stand here for about half of a second. You want him to start running toward you so that he will be near the top of the screen out of the way after you dash down. You can bait him a bit more and make this movement easier if you slash once before dashing.

Start dashing to the right when you get below the bushes and go until you get the the Left side of the first tree. If you are done collecting fairies keep dashing until you exit the screen.

If you are collecting a second fairy you will want to move down beside this tree and charge a sword spin. This movement does two things. It will Aggro the second blue soldier and get the first one off camera where he will conveniently forget that you exist. Spin the soldier and slash once to kill him, then use an item dash from the Left side to auto-catch the fairy. Move back up to the dirt path and dash to the right again.

You won't always have to worry about this guy, but if you happen to dash into him you'll want to walk up a few steps before dashing up.

Walk up above the corner of the slope and Dashturn Right to dash along the slope until you exit the screen.

Similar to the bridge screen in this segment, you want to Buffer a Up+Right input as you enter the screen and start a dash. This slight nudge upwards will make the blue soldier bounce farther down out of your way as you pass. Dash down along the Left side of the opening to exit.

File:LTTP 19dp south links house.png File:LTTP 19dp 2 south links house.png

Similar to two screens ago, walk past the corner of the slope and dash Left.

Use the menu to the book to buffer a Down input to cancel your dash here. A Menu Buffer can be used to help you time an input on the dpad in this game because your movement will happen on the first possible frame. We use this particular menu buffer to avoid dashing in the water because dashing in water or tall grass slows down Link's movement a bit. This is only a small time save so don't worry if you miss it.

Walk down and left on this screen.

Dash Left until you are above the first bush, then dash Down through it and exit left. If you follow this route you can avoid all of the enemies and get through safely. You don't have to do this perfectly, however if you dash through the second bush the bird WILL get you. The timing can sometimes be difficult and random because of extra Lag that makes the game run noticeably slower when a lot of objects are on screen at the same time. If you get hit at all just keep going.

Follow this path by using dashes while facing the slopes indicated in blue. The other slopes will help to nudge you along the path as you go. Make sure Link's feet are touching the grass texture indicated in the second image. If you are any higher than this you will hit the cactus on the next screen.

Dash along the path and use the book in front of the tablet to open the way into Desert Palace. Make sure to be fully past the corner as shown in the second image to avoid running into the mountain slope on the way up. After the path is opened you can walk the rest of the way into the dungeon. Don't forget to save some frames by Pumping as you climb the narrow stairs.

Unlocking the Power Glove

Our first objective upon entering Desert Palace is to collect the Power Glove from the main front section of the dungeon. This will give us access to the back section that is locked behind heavy stones. Start by going left and dashing up between the first and second pillars. I know it looks like this Leever is going to Spawn on top of you, but his Hitbox won't be active until long after you're gone.

Walk Left between this gap and collects the Arrows from the bottom pot. Move left a bit more to throw the pot at this leever as it spawns. You can be quite a bit lower than you would think as shown here. Make sure to exit this screen with a dash on the right side. We want the full sword charge for the next enemy.

Hold the sword charge until you get to this Devalant enemy and spin to kill it. WALK up to the top and dash left. It's only very slightly faster to dash up here and you risk getting stuck in the top door if you miss the timing.

Hold Up+Left on the dpad until you get in between the torch and the wall, then start a dash and bonk the left wall. This setup works because you still hit the torch with your bonk and it moves you slightly closer to the key.

Walk above the torch to collect your key, then either walk down on the left side or dash on the right side of the Beamos.

Dash right for the next two screens.

Dash through this screen and walk down to the key door.

The compass chest room is another one that requires all enemies to be killed before moving on. These enemies will start in a fixed position and stay there for about two seconds, then we have to react to random movements after that.

The first step is to walk up and slash this Popo. I like to use cardinal movements here because the spacing is pretty tight and it's a bit harder than it looks. Once you get to this point you can start charging a dash and turn right to kill the next one. The statue will nudge you into place.

Next you'll have to react to whatever random movement the last enemy gives you. In this case he moved closer to the door which saves us some time.

This room is really only very annoying when you take too long to kill the first popo and you get a downward movement from the second one and miss it on the dash through. You can prevent this by just walking instead but you can possibly get hit by the beamos if you do.

This screen is a great opportunity to menu buffer to the lamp. If the path is blocked you can use this time in the menu to figure out how to adjust to avoid damage. Collect your Big Key then walk down far enough to see the cannonballs so you can time your dash down.

Walk back through the compass room then backtrack to the west side of the dungeon, collecting the arrow pot as you go if you have fewer than 20.

Grab this first arrow pot then reveal the switch and step on it to unlock the doors.

Grab the next pot from the Left side and hold Up+Right on the dpad to collect the arrows as you move toward the door. You should be able to avoid the beamos with good movement. The timing isn't too tight on this one.

Collect your Power Glove and start making your way to the next section of the dungeon. Dashing and walking out are about equally fast here. The fastest movement is to dash from two stairs above the bottom as shown here. This will speed up your movement by cancelling the lag that you get from exiting the stairs.

Activate the switch again and move down to dash out. The top half of beamos statues do not exist in the game.

Hold Down+Right until you get past the corner of the wall then exit the screen as far right as possible. You don't absolutely need to be touching the wall in this case but it's a good spot to aim for.

Dash down safely on the right side of the sand trap and go through the left exit.

There is a fairy room here if you push this block. You can use this as an opportunity to restock or you can just collect your first fairies here if you prefer. If you are already stocked up just walk to the lower exit instead.

Back of Desert Palace

Walk down and dash against this slope, then pick up the rock to reenter the dungeon.

Walk over and push this block to the right to access the next room. It doesn't seem like it but dashing in this room is slower than walking.

This room introduces several interesting hidden game mechanics. It's one of those spots where you get to feel like a real speedrunner because it's not possible to understand what's happening just by watching. The first step is to exit this doorway with a Left input. This will cause Link to snap to the left on the lowest possible vertical position. It's very important to be touching the wall for the next part. Grab the pot and move left a bit to collect the small key.

Go back to the doorway with a Right input and start charging up a dash. It's important to do a dashturn here by pressing the Up input while the dash is charging. This will keep you on the same vertical position. If you did everything correctly Link will do a Keydash. The reason this works is because of the Grid system we learned about earlier. Objects in this game are aligned on a grid of 16px tiles. Because Link dashes 4 Pixels per Frame, if we are a multiple of 4 pixels away from a locked door we can simply dash through it. You can set this up by aligning with any wall or object in the room.

Hold down and dash to the next room.

Here we have another kill room. Start by moving left and the dashturn down when you overlap with the first popo. This game has a very annoying mechanic that makes it impossible to use the sword for a brief moment after dashing through an enemy. When you turn to the left to face the second popo you will need to delay you B press juuuust slightly.

At this point you want to walk under the beamos and start deciding how to kill the last two enemies. If they both sit in front of the door it makes your decision very easy. Usually if they split up/down you will kill the bottom one first and then dash up to kill the last one. The only rule is never bonk the top wall. It's always slower than walking back down.

The room also has a few hidden game mechanics. Start by moving Down+Right until you are below this torch and then dash left. This movement is for a couple different reasons. It's possible to hold straight down and get in position faster, but it is only very slightly faster. Using a diagonal instead gives you significantly more time to react to your Visual Cue which is a tradeoff that even the best speedrunners prefer.

The second thing we are doing here is manipulating the camera position like we did for the Ball and Chain Trooper. Again it's slightly faster to dash Above the torch, but this will Aggro the popos at the top of the room right away and force you to deal with random enemy movements. We get around this by delaying their 2 second activation time for as long as possible.

Cancel your dash when you pass the last torch and lift up this pot for the small key. There are hearts in the outer pots but it's a huge risk to go for them. Take the safe route and rely on your bottled fairies. Here we're going to do another keydash. This time you can align with either the top of the pots OR the left side of the torch. Try to make sure you nudge the torch just a bit so you don't miss it. If you struggle with the RNG on this one you can choose to walk around the right side of the torch for a small time loss. Again even at a very high level of speedrunning, these small intentional time losses can be seen to improve overall consistency.

Dash up to the locked door, then collect the small key and walk back over.

This room has a few different options for routing depending on what refills you need.

If you have 30 arrows and full health, dash over and light the torches in this order. If you have arrows but need the two hearts, you can walk to the left instead.

These are the routing options for collecting the arrows with and without the hearts. One helpful note for the arrow route is to delay moving down until the eye is fully opened. This timing will manipulate the Eyegore to walk Right instead of down, leaving a clear path for you to walk.