Zelda Runners – Bombing Darknuts

Welcome back to your bi-weekly installment of Zelda Runners. Doug here to offer another look into the world of Zelda speedrunning. Over the last few weeks, if we’ve learned anything, we learned that no records are ever safe. Several Zelda games saw a shakeup at the top of their rankings, while one of our own participated in a casual race. Let’s see how things shook out.

New Notable Achievements

Greenmario continued his Legend of Zelda domination by taking yet another record from lackattack24. On August 14, Greenmario finished an Any%, No Up+A run with a time of 28:08.74, taking world record by just over a second. The highlight of the run was an exceptionally clean dungeon 5.

One of the more difficult strategies in the speedrun involve Darknut rooms. By placing a bomb either perpendicular to or in the path of a Darknut, these tough enemies can be taken out quickly. The problem is that requires Link to stand directly in their marching path at close proximity. This can be a scary tactic, but Greenmario clears a required Darknut room with ease, before sprinting through the rest of the dungeon. He grabs the triforce piece at 13:32, four seconds before lackattack24, and saved over 17 seconds over his previous PB.

This lead held until dungeon 8, where Greenmario lost the advantage and entered Dungeon 9 four seconds behind lackattack24. The advantage held up all the way to Ganon’s room, where lackattack24 still held a one seconds advantage. The difference came in Ganon’s pattern. Greenmario was able to stun lock Ganon is position faster, and picked up two seconds securing the lead and the record. It’s amazing how one single room can make or break a run like this, and I highly recommend watching each run side to side. Follow the links for Greenmario’s world record and lackattack24’s former world record.

Head-to-Head

A great way to test your strats (and mettle) against other runners is to hold a race. One of ZeldaDungeon’s own has taken this approach on several recent occasions. Mases Hagopian hopped on the official ZeldaDungeon Twitch channel for three A Link to the Past races in the last couple weeks. On August 5th, he was victorious against Satan_Spawn 1:52:07 to 1:59:42. A race on August 7th finished in a loss for Mases against capncrunch92, 1:42:27 to 1:55:26. Finally, he raced and lost against Fricker22 on August 14th, 1:32:32 to 1:45:29.

Each race had some notable moments that decided each race. Satan_Spawn took an unfortunate death against Armos Knights early in her run. While this occurred less than 12 minutes into a two hour run, it created a gap that she simply could not close. Against capncrunch92, the race was much closer through the early game. An unfortunate fall to Moldorm by Mases and some clever movement manipulation by capncrunch92 put capncrunch in a lead he would not give back. Fricker22 put on a show in his race, taking a lead within the first six minutes and never looking back. He powered through each dungeon and boss en route to a 12 minute victory.

The races were all very entertaining, and great resources for new runners. If you’d like to watch Mases’ progress and perhaps catch a few races, follow the ZeldaDungeon Twitch channel here.

Round Up

As mentioned, several other Zelda games saw a new runner post world record times. Here are some of those runs:

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Any%, No Major Glitches (NMG): Simpoldood – 52:54.073
Any%, No Scroll Lock: Simpoldood – 47:08

A Link to the Past

Low%, NMG: Doomtap – 1:28:09

Link’s Awakening

100%: GlyphDX – 1:03:09

Majora’s Mask

Any%: ki9698 – 24:50
All Masks: fullgrowngaming – 1:31:19
All Dungeons: fullgrowngaming – 54:47
All Fairy Rewards: Keko_25 – 1:51:00

Twilight Princess HD

All Dungeons: gymnast86 – 5:03:56

Minish Cap

100%: Pk22ah – 4:02:06

Phantom Hourglass

Any%: Mr_Shasta – 3:10:56

Skyward Sword

Any%: sva16162 – 1:24:18
All Dungeons: HalfJaise – 3:16:59

Wind Waker HD

Any%: mralberto23 – 52:29

Breath of the Wild

Any%: sketodara01417 – 26:54.653
All Shrines: taykage – 6:00:32

The Final Split

As a small plug, I have also started running A Link to the Past, hoping to get a time around the 1:30 mark. Currently, I have a personal best of 1:49:20, and counting. It’s a fun speedrun with a lot of tech, and we are always looking for new runners!

Be sure to follow the runners mentioned in this article, or search for your favorite Zelda game on Twitch. Also, check out the semi-annual Games Done Quick marathon, as mentioned in our previous article, featuring no less than five Zelda games. We’ll see you next time on Zelda Runners.

Doug is an editor for Zelda Dungeon. When he’s not writing, he’s busy as a professional coffee roaster and a Twitch streamer. He has also lost countless hours in A Link to the Past Randomizer. You can follow him on Twitter.