Speedrun:A Link to the Past/Any% (NMG, No S+Q)/Hyrule Castle Tower

Agahnim's Tower Overworld

Now that we have our three Pendants of Virtue the intensity from the previous segment drops off quite a bit while we collect the Master Sword and head off to visit Agahnim for the first time. The pace stays pretty quick for the tower climb portion but we won't be doing any difficult trick setups here.

Obtaining the Master Sword

Walk down the stairs and dash to the left. Sometimes this Deadrock will sit right here as you're coming down and you'll have to be prepared to slash it if it's still in your way.

Stop your dash after this rock, then walk down and do a Quickhop by tapping A at the ledge.

Dash left and get ready to cancel your dash with a Down+Left input. Hold this diagonal and tap A at the ledge to drop down in front of this cave entrance.

Dash along the slopes and walk in cardinal directions around the first pit to avoid falling in. Dash under the next pit a bit lower than you think you need too just to be safe. It takes a few Frames to move down lower but it takes several seconds to fall in the pit and wait for the camera to scroll back to the entrance.

It's usually a good idea to grab this 5 pack of arrows under the first pot if you have less than 10. You need a minimum of 9 arrows going forward and that gives you no room for error on the next 9 arrow shots. Dash left along the slope and count the 5 pits as you go down. As soon as you can see the last pit, use your menu to arrows to Buffer a Down+Left input and walk the rest of the way to the cave exit. This is a really good place to use the menu because it costs about 8 seconds extra if you bonk and fall in the pit.

Do a quickhop at this ledge then dash Up against the slope.

Dash left and move up through this gap.

Cancel your dash up with a diagonal Up+Left and exit at the top of the screen. Just make sure you're not all the way at the top Pixel or you'll bonk the bush on the next screen.

Dash left until you are directly above this middle grass texture and dash down. A lot of the objects in the Lost Woods area have a much lower tolerance for nudging which means it's much easier to bonk on them. The Crow also gets back to you very quickly which make both the timing and spacing pretty tight for this movement. If you like you can choose to hold the sword out instead, and then you can take an extra second to line up your dash down.

Dash up through this next log, then move Down+Left toward the two bushes. It's important to use a cardinal down input here and Dashturn to the left so you don't accidentally grab the first bush. Dash up and ignore the Mushroom for now.

Dash left through the bushes. Don't worry if you accidentally go through the top row. This dash down is similar to the first one with the crow. You can choose to cancel your dash early and walk down through the log instead of the more difficult movement.

Dash left through this gap and walk the rest of the way to the top exit.

Move slightly to the right so you can dash all the way to the back of the pedestal and grab the sword.

Look for this exclamation point to know when the last text box is coming. Hold right and mash L+R during the last text box.

Dash all the way down and make sure to cancel your dash early enough to avoid the bonk.

Entering the Tower

Follow this route to exit the Lost Woods.

You can hold diagonal Down+Right and mash L+R to clear the single text box here. Dash right under the log.

We get to just ignore the crow this time.

Cancel your dash down with a diagonal Down+Left into the mushroom. We do this for a couple reasons. You don't want to accidentally collect the mushroom twice so we always do it on the way out and this also makes it easier to set up the next movement. Normally we would want to dashturn through these bushes like last time, but in this case you want to avoid grabbing the wall below. So in cases like this it's best to face to the right before dashing through.

After dashing through the last crow you need to be partially on this line to avoid bonking the exit.

Nudge slightly Down+Right before dashing down here. Sometimes this green soldier will react very quickly and hit you but there isn't a whole lot that can be done about it. Dash to the right anywhere in this gap, then use two dashes to exit the next screen as close to the left side of the tree as possible. Use the bushes below for a good Visual Cue of where you can dash.

Move diaginally Down+Right in between the first two trees, then dash down and right to exit. Aim for the gap in between the two sets of bushes.

Move to the right until you clear to corner, then dashturn down. It's important to stay on vertical coordinate 728 so you can dash past the fence without bonking. It doesn't work 100% of the time but usually if you get the vertical position correct it doesn't matter how far right you go.

Move diagonally Down+Right along this corner and dash through the bottom row of bushes. Sometimes a fairy will spawn in these bushes but it usually isn't worth the effort to chase them.

If you need a fairy refill this is your best opportunity to take a detour.

Cancel your dash when you are past these heart textures and dash up. This visual cue ensures that you always avoid running into sword on the way up. Move diagonally Up+Left up the stairs to take advantage of the increased movement speed that you get from moving diagonally on manual stairs.

Agahnim's Tower Climb

Now that we have the Pegasus Boots we can just dash through this room. Start on the left side of the torches to avoid any bad RNG from the guards.

Move diagonally Down+Left out of the door and dash out when you get to the second level. Normally you wouldn't dash a very short distance because of how long it takes to charge up a dash. Anything under 5 tiles really isn't worth it. The door transition is farther than it looks though, it's about 8 tiles away so dashing is worth it here.

Walk until you get about half a tile below the corner before dashing so you don't bonk the top wall on the way over. Slash the magic barrier to enter the tower.

Dash up through this empty room to find two Gold Ball and Chain Troopers. Face down and hold Down+B to tap the sword on the door. This will get their attention and they will start walking toward you. Don't forget to let go of the dpad and let the sword charge after you hear the first tap.

Wait for the two guards to get closer together. As soon as you see their feet touch you want to back up to the rail and release your sword spin. This is similar to what we did in the Hyrule Castle Basement to collect the first key. Both guards bounce back and take spin damage twice which takes them both out in one attack.

Hold a sword charge as you enter the next room, then move diagonally Down+Right until you get to about here and spin to kill both guards.

After you collect the key, use a Left input moving back toward the door to stay on vertical coordinate CB8. This will allow you to turn and do a Keydash from here. You can usually collect any items that drop on the way up.

The Sword Knight in this room will start chasing you immediately, making it impossible to just move diagonally to the door. If you start by walking left until you get past the red carpet you can usually just ignore him without getting hit.

The dark maze is one of the more difficult rooms in this segment, especially if you managed to get here with sword beams. Using sword beams will instantly alert all of the guards and you'll have to fight your way out. With some luck we can avoid a couple unwanted encounters. Follow these paths to the key and then back through to the key door. I indicated walking in black so it's easier to see. The only necessary dash is the one through the first Chasupa. You can stop this dash as soon as you hit it to avoid bonking. Otherwise just move quickly to reduce your chances of being detected and only attack if something is blocking your path.

In this room you can just hold Up+Right all the way to the door to avoid both guards.

This room is similar to the first dark room but easier. Nudge into the statue with a diagonal Down+Left and hold the diagonal until you get to the door.

This is a general idea of the route you'll follow for this room but you'll have to react to some random enemy movements along the way. The guard in the center will start by moving around in a cardinal direction and you'll need to figure out where he is when you start crossing over to the left side.

If he moved to the right, he'll be sitting under this torch where you can just knock him off the edge. If he moved any other direction he'll be hanging out near the left side where he spawned from. When you look to the left you'll need to decide if you should knock him into the top or bottom pit on your way through. If you miss the pit it takes two slashes in total to kill him. It's possible that the guard above you will get all the way over before you have time to start dashing. Knock him out of the way if he gets too close.

It's also possible to just get unlucky and get knocked into the pit anyway. Don't worry it happens to everyone.

This room works differently depending on if you have sword beams or not. This first part will be the same either way. Hold your sword out as you enter this room and use a Down input to poke the Blue Archer with the side of your sword. Continue moving Down+Right until you get to about where the red tiles are then move right a bit to slash him.

If you don't have sword beams you won't disturb the other archer and you are free to move down to the bottom wall and do a keydash. You will collect the key as your dash starts and make it through the door safely.

If you use sword beams you will alert the other archer and he will attempt to follow you. Moving down to do a keydash will allow him to stay low and snipe you from the side. To avoid this we stay a bit higher and dash up. You will have to cancel your dash to avoid bonking. This movement comes with a bit of extra risk because the other guard can still be hanging out near the door.

Coming into this room you only want to pay attention to the guard on the right. If he is facing left or right you'll shoot two arrows at him from the side. If he moves up or down fire two arrows from above.

Shooting the bow will alert the second guard so he starts looking for you as you come around under the statue. Fire two more arrows at him and menu to the boomerang before dashing out.

Continue holding the sword out after you enter this room, then hold right on the dpad while you mash Y to tap the door with the boomerang. This will alert both guards more quickly. Move down to this position while you wait for them to get closer.

When the top guard's spear gets to the wall, move cardinally down and left so the top guard is in between Link and the wall above. Use a sword spin to quickly take out the top guard, then move down and slash the remaining guard twice. Be sure to stay above his spear so he can't block with it.

If you missed the timing or got bad RNG you'll knock both guards back. If this happens quickly move up so you can hit them from a higher position and slash until they're both gone.

There are a few different ways that this room can go but hopefully you get the good RNG like this first example. Always start by moving Down+Right to grab the pot on the right and then throw it down at the guard in the center ring. At this point you want to pay attention to the guard in the outer ring. If he moves down like this he won't bother you at all. Grab the pot on the left to kill the middle guard and throw the boomerang. You will collect the key as you move to the right to collect the arrow pot and then you are free to exit the locked door.

It's possible that you will still hit your target with the first pot if the other guard hangs out at the top. If this happens you want to stun him with the boomerang. You may need to slash your sword once to get him out of your path before you throw the other pot. Once the path is cleared continue on as before.

Sometimes you will hit the wrong guard with the pot. When this happens, slash him twice to kill him and then throw the next pot at the middle guard like before. Now we need the pot from the top-left corner near the Chasupa. Walk over and slash it before grabbing the pot or it will also block your shot. Don't forget to collect the bomb to save yourself some time collecting inventory later on.

The easiest way to navigate this room is with two dashes. It's always possible to get knocked out of your dash on a bad RNG so don't worry if it happens. You can choose to walk instead but it isn't easier, safer, or faster.

You want to get out of this room as quickly as possible to avoid bad RNG. You can get some free downward movement by starting to push the statue at the top and then moving diagonally Down+Left while pushing it. This saves all of the time that you normally would have spent walking down, so you can get down past the statue before the red guard gets there and avoid having to fight anyone.

Walk around until you get to this spot, then throw your boomerang diagonally Up+Right to knock this guard into the pit. Follow the path around and dash up to the stairs. You can use diagonal movements to save time by cutting these corners but be careful to avoid getting too close to the edges. It's possible this guard can hit you near the stairs but it's not worth worrying about.

Dash through this empty room, then move left a start dashing up before the cutscene starts. Mash through all of the textboxes with A, B, and Y (not X to avoid using the map). When Agahnim starts to fade through the curtain you can continue holding A to start your partially charged dash faster, then move around and slash the curtain to enter the fight.

Boss: Agahnim

This boss fight is by far the easiest, but it's the single biggest source of time loss to RNG in the any% run. Agahnim will always do the same exact attack pattern so there's no guessing about where to stand or what to do, but ultimately it's up to luck if you get a fast fight or not. He will always start the Cycle with a yellow deflectable energy ball. The next three attacks have a 50% chance of being either yellow, or a non-deflectable blue ball. The fifth attack in the cycle is always a lightning attack that fills up the whole room.

The goal of this fight is to damage Agahnim 6 times with yellow ball attacks. Since you are guaranteed a yellow ball in each cycle, the highest amount of blue ball attacks you can get is 15. Each one of these blue ball attack costs about 6 seconds. Each additional lightning attack also costs 6 seconds. Since the statistical average for blue ball attacks is about 3, you can usually bet on losing around 24 seconds to bad RNG in this fight. About 1/3 of the time you'll do better and about 1/3 of the time you'll do worse.

At the start of this fight, mash A, B, and Y to clear the single text box, then Agahnim will warp to a random position. The only thing we can control in this fight is which direction we deflect him to. Since we know this attack is going to be a yellow ball we can safely aim to hit him back to the center of the room. Hitting him toward the center reduces the average length of the next warp and saves us time on average.

You can see in this example if you move up a little higher he will face the top wall. Try to avoid this because it makes it much easier to miss your attack and have him face the side wall instead.

During the middle part of the cycle where it's possible to get blue ball attacks, you want to continue to hit Agahnim toward the center of the room if possible but you also want to avoid the blue energy balls. In these examples you can see that I just use a position that's parallel to him to avoid being hit. If he stands at the top-center of the room there isn't a whole lot you can do if he bounces the wrong way but at least you saved 6 seconds!

It's also important to talk about spacing and why we use sword spins. A sword spin makes it so you are actively "attacking" for an extended period of time so you don't have to worry about timing a sword slash. You want to position at a minimum of about 2.5 tiles away from Agahnim like in this example. If you get any closer you won't be able to deflect the attack any faster and you risk getting zapped when the sword contacts him. Anything in the range of 3 tiles or so away is pretty good.

For timing you want to release the spin right when his two energy balls come together in the middle.

Always stand at the top of the room during the lightning attack. If you lost count of his attacks you can always tell that it's coming because he won't turn and face you when you stand to his side. Anywhere in the top 2 rows of tiles should be safe. Don't forget that the next attack is always a yellow ball after this one.

After you land 6 attacks you'll be pulled into the dark world again. Mash through some text and get a full health refill then we'll be on our way to Dark Palace.