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Ancilla Glitches

In early 2019, Yuzuhara discovered an almost entirely new class of glitches - ancilla glitches. The word ancilla is used for the stuff that Link creates - bombs, dash dust, splashing water, etc. Yuzu posted his discoveries with titles like keepExplosion, hoppingBomb, getintoEG, manipulateBombCoordinates, manipulateBoomerang, doubleSomariaBlock, and weirdSwordbeam. Below are examples dated Feb 9-10, 2019.

Yuzuhara explained that each glitch can be done once after reviving with a fairy or deathhole. But what is the connection between a fairy revive and ancilla? It took the A Link to the Past community a few months to take a closer look.

Pinkus started researching them and shared his findings on Jun 19, 2019. The "magic variable" is 03C4, known as the search index. A fairy revive sets this variable to 6, which allows ancillae normally constrained to slots 0-1 or 0-4 to be placed into slot 5. A bomb, for example, can be manipulated or duplicated if placed in this slot.

Yuzuhara's keepExplosion (a.k.a. Murderbomb, demonstrated above) involves misslotting a bomb and then extending its timer by using a sword beam, sword spin, or hookshot 5 slots under the bomb.

Later that day, Yuzuhara found that using the lamp 3 times can set 03C4 to very high values including 0x10, extending available slots to the point of going out of bounds. Pinkus saw that this could be used in combination with certain values of a nearby array to set up a condition in which the game could write to the wrong places. As a result, he was able to write "bomb stuff" all over the wrong memory.

The possibilities would be explored later, but there was something else found earlier that captured the community's attention:

Pinkus — 06/19/2019 8:47 AM

but uh oh (or maybe not), you can despawn hearts in darkworld after defeating a boss and grab the crystal hope that doesnt change glitched low%? lol

Spoiler: yes, it does!

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OWEG in LowAD

Following the OWEG discussion, fsg posted a new routing idea for LowAD on May 28. Skipping the back of Escape with OWEG would allow us to save its small key for later. This key could be stolen from Hera with a bomb clip, and we could use it to unlock Swamp, collecting the Hookshot early. The route would then avoid the Mire double dip and save "800 years."

MichaelK brought up a consequence in item collection: the route would add the Shield but drop the Lamp. To arm EG, we would need to talk to Link's Uncle for a Save & Quit point, but the Sword and Shield would be picked up as a result. That said, the Lamp would no longer be required because it is normally needed to push the ornamental shelf, which no longer needs to be pushed. Michael spelled out the potential new branches with Tree Warp and OWEG allowed:

MichaelK__ (He/Him) — 05/28/2019 2:59 PM with OWEG allowed we'd be at 9 lowad routes btw :derp2: Lamp + (Pearl / Mirror / Bottle / Tree), Shield + (Pearl / Mirror / Bottle / Tree) and Tempered (can't do oweg for escape skip) fsg — 05/28/2019 3:00 PM the more the merrier we are now really competing with sm in terms of low% solutions MichaelK__ (He/Him) — 05/28/2019 3:01 PM LPLOWAD, LMLOWAD, LBLOWAD, LTLOWAD, SPLOWAD, SMLOWAD, SBLOWAD, STLOWAD and SLTLOWAD :derp2:

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Overworld EG

Overworld EG, or OWEG, was a question mark for No EG/DG/WW speedruns in 2019.

Why was OWEG a consideration in a "No EG" category? One reason is that it acts quite differently than Underworld EG. Essentially, EG is layer manipulation and typically involves walking freely underneath the upper layer. However, layers in the overworld are less meaningful because walls will block Link regardless of layer. The only way OWEG was known to be helpful was to bypass sprites. Therefore, EG is overpowered in the underworld but mostly harmless in the overworld.

On Apr 30, fsg tested an OWEG route that was only 10-15s slower than the known AD route:

If OWEG were allowed, we could walk past the gold guards on the top of Hyrule Castle, allowing us to escape Escape.

After fsg posted his video, Blank shared a discovery about Lonk (a.k.a. Lunk). Lonk is a glitch that puts Link in a bunny-like state in which the player cannot use A or B but can use Y (the opposite of Super Bunny), and he can take knock-back damage from Agahnim's barrier but not zap damage. Blank showed that Lonk could be used in combination with armed EG to activate OWEG on top of Hyrule Castle.

Another idea was to use the Magic Mirror to skip the back half of Escape. However, the game places technical obstacles in the way of collecting the Mirror. The Old Mountain Man will walk infinitely into space unless Link visits Armos Knights first, and he does not appear at all if Zelda text is following you. Lonk, OWEG, and Early Mirror could be useful, but they were tabled for now.

On May 24, JoshRTA asked if anyone ever tested an alternate route for All Dungeons. Glan responded:

Glan — 05/24/2019 10:54 AM This is pretty :CosmicBrain: but hear me out Go to uncle and oweg escape castle Then eastern I guess Then get mirror Then rescue zelda

This theoretical route would eventually become the main starter for all categories in No EG/DG/WW (later known as Restricted Major Glitches), but it was not timed until Blank re-routed Any% in 2020.

At this point, it appeared that OWEG was not saving time in AD. However, its relevance for LowAD was potentially more significant.

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LowMAD by MichaelK in 2:07:35

Michael earned a new PB in LowMAD on May 17, 2019, a few days after running Tree Warp LowAD. Michael describes the disasters:

Michael Kunze — 05/17/2019 Helma Death, Arrghus Death, Ganon Death, Screwed up getting the Ice Wrap for like 5 minutes :derp2:

While it may be the last run of the original LowMAD, Michael used this category as a base to try out the new ancilla glitches that would gain attention in the next month.

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Tree Warp Low% AD in 4:03:00 by MichaelK

Regardless of the ruling on Tree Warp, MichaelK would run with it.

MichaelK__ (He/Him) — 05/10/2019 2:18 PM i'd say we call this lowwwad and keep the old lowads 👀

It took Michael only two days to route and run Tree Warp Low% AD. On May 12, he posted an RTA viable method of Tree Warp as Bunny Link.

This method takes advantage of the fact that trees never go inactive, so the top tree fills three slots. Bunny Link can then lure the Moblin and Thief to the bottom tree. The only issue is that enemy RNG is not easy to control. Because of that, there is a risk failure, which may take the form of a game crash.

The dungeon order would remain unchanged from LowTAD. The difference is the item collection: Ether is collected with a Tree Warp immediately following Castle Tower. Fighter's Sword/Shield and Tempered Sword are skipped.

After re-climbing the tower, Michael encountered a surprise:

It turns out the route has a bonus boss fight – Agahnim 2 at Agahnim 1. Aga 2 appears because Tree Warp takes place in the Dark World. Since there is no world transition to return Link to the Light World, the Dark World version of the boss awaits at the top of the tower. After the re-fight, Ether drops as the dungeon prize. Unfortunately, Link is "softlocked" because there is no automatic transition out of the dungeon. But thanks to the diagonal walls of the boss arena, we can clip out and then save & quit.

The full item list is:

master sword flippers glove bow hook fire rod ice rod ether lamp hammer somaria mirror

And of course, 10 heart containers. Soon, however, that would no longer be a given.

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Tree Warp

In May 2019, kan posted a brand new glitch in the ALTTP Discord.

The glitch was Tree Warp, an example of Dynamic Sprite Spawn Overflow. Essentially, we can spawn a Wallmaster in a grabbing state to take us back to the last place we entered. This occurs when we load a talking tree, which is three sprites (two eyes and one mouth), when only one sprite slot is available. The explication can be found here: https://spannerisms.github.io/treewarp

Glan recognized that this could be used to reenter Aga Tower in LowAD to collect Ether, thereby removing the second rain state sequence and skipping Fighter's Shield. Additionally, since our Master Sword is not downgraded to Fighter's Sword, we do not need to upgrade to Tempered Sword.

However, since it was called an actual wrong warp, there was a question of whether to allow it in No EG/DG/WW.

Incidentally, kan's video demonstrates Qirn's finding of throwing sprites past transitions. This would not be the last time Qirn tech would influence LowAD.

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LowTAD by MichaelK in 3:03:39

MichaelK__ (He/Him) — 04/26/2019  a pig kicking me off his platform prevents a nice sub3 

Michael continued a grind of the LowAD Mirror variants throughout Apr 2019. In Low% Tempered, he achieved a 3:27:57 on Apr 12 and a 3:03:39 on Apr 26. Unfortunately, the VODs were lost to time. 

Michael’s sum of best of 2:47:14 showed that the sub-3 was real. However, a wave of advances in glitch hunting would soon thrust LowAD in new and challenging directions.

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LowBAD by Chexhuman in 1:46:46

fsg — 03/14/2019

whatever routes we come up with low% bottle will still be the real lowad the prestige category

Low% Bottle would be my third completed of the three main LowAD variants. In this run, the Magic Bottle is simply used as a replacement for Moon Pearl. Because of that, LowBAD is without a doubt slower than LowPAD and most likely slower than LowMAD. Still, it’s faster than the original LowAD route, thanks to dropping two potion trips and the old Oldmanathon. My run was completed on Apr 13, 2019.

Without the benefit of a TAS or a run to reference, I routed and ran the category mostly on my own. Of course, it is derivative of the original LowAD and incorporates subsequent discoveries, so the hard work was already done for me. 

LowBAD features two Fake Flutes used for Link states. The first one lets us open up Thieves and Mire, where we collect Hookshot and unlock doors to set up Mirrorless Swamp. The second one lets us enter Ice Palace. The last Link state needed is for Ganon, which we get after Agahnim 2, conveniently. 

Citrus clips are used throughout this run, but there were a couple of exceptions: Mire to Hera and DMD were old-school multi-diagonal 1-frame clips. I made a note to fully convert to citrus clipping going forward.

The run demonstrated these peculiar glitches (intentionally or not):

Bunny wriggling – after the Mire overworld clip, I wriggled across deep water to get into the dungeon, although this is not optimal. 

Permabunny – Getting hit by bunny beams and then taking damage causes permabunny. Using the T-Rock pipes, I was able to get “Lonked” and then revert back to Link.

Total Games Played: 21. I used a deathwarp in the first room of Swamp to refill hearts. Altogether, the route has 10 save & quits and 10 deathwarps. While a 1:3X should be possible, my LowBAD attempts ended here.

Dungeon order:

Eastern  Escape  Darkness  Hera  Desert  Swamp Skull  Agahnim  Mire  T-Rock  Ice  Thieves  G-Tower

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LowMAD by Chexhuman in 1:34:47

Following in Michael’s footsteps, I completed my first run of Low% Mirror on Apr 2, 2019. This would be my second of the three main LowAD variants.

Just like Michael’s, my run includes getting “Lunked” to progress through Turtle Rock. At the big chest entrance, we can use Mirror Super Bunny and bonk against the wall to perform a rail clip. Entering a pipe transforms Bunny Link into Lonk, and touching an enemy restores Link to normal. This tech saves time versus a dungeon bunny revival.

Before the Lonk glitch gained notoriety, it was variously referred to as Lunk and Lousy Link.

Lowlights of the run include an unfortunate death and an unintended save & quit. The game over occurred in the overworld of Skull Woods. Conveniently, a mirror portal used for mirror clipping remained outside of Mountain Cave, so returning was surprisingly fast. The additional save & quit happened after the Agahnim fight, which requires mirroring first. 

The run ends with 15 games played. Ideally, there would be 13 (7 death warps and 6 save & quits).

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LowPAD LOTAD by fsg in 1:19:25

On Mar 30, 2019, fsg streamed a new LOTAD for Low% Pearl. At 1:19:25, fsg’s time was 3 minutes faster than Blank’s for Low% Mirror. Unlike Blank, fsg tested out movement for clean rooms, so the categories would remain difficult to compare. The route itself does not diverge from Chex’s PB.

The run is distinguished by fsg’s well-optimized strats:

A-Tower red spear guards – since the room normally requires a shield, fsg slashes the spear out of the air

G-Tower Gauntlet 4 arrow (a very consistent strat) 

Ice Palace spike trap dash (dependent on frame rule)

The boss fights are well done, including a 2-cycle Lanmo, 1-cycle Arrghus, 1-cycle Vitreous, and 21s Kholdstare.

Total games played: 13 (5 death warps and 8 save & quits).

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LowPAD by Chexhuman in 1:27:02

In the midst of the Bottle/Mirror/Pearl split, I was preparing for an upcoming marathon run for Link to the Cure. I decided to grind Low% Pearl because it appeared to be the fastest (and safest) option.

I started with the sword & shield version on Mar 16 before attempting the Uncle skip route on Mar 17. I achieved the above PB after 20 attempts on Mar 29.

The run features a couple of overworld glitches that I helped contribute:

Flippers Wrap – Ice Palace is accessed using a double right-side screen wrap, developed with Tojso

Catfish DMA – Link can navigate from Pyramid to Turtle Rock by ascending Death Mountain on the way to Catfish, using a combination of lateral and vertical screen wraps

It also includes a water walk route from Moldorm to Zora. In the Moldorm arena, we can arm a water walk to later activate in Zora’s Domain after clipping down from East Death Mountain.

While Low% Pearl saves time in the overworld versus Low% Mirror, clearing Swamp Palace involves the infamous Mirror skip. The setup begins by deleting the Old Man at the Master Sword Pedestal. We then collect Ether and complete Agahnim’s Tower. From the Dark World, we enter Misery Mire and then clip from Hera to Swamp to pick up the Hookshot. At this point in RMG history (No EG/DG/WW), we still needed to enter Mire first to unlock Swamp because we could not yet steal a small key from Escape. Mire of course has a bounty of small keys to steal.

After Hookshot, we S&Q to Pyramid and then use a Skull Woods Houlihan to return to the Light World. The Houlihan is much easier to execute as Link with the use of sword-out hook dashes. Exiting Link’s House, we pull open the dam and S&Q to Old Man Cave (sans Old Man), from which we clip from Hera to Swamp and backtrack to the entrance. Then we can finally reload the dungeon and defeat Arrghus.

Despite the trouble of Mirrorless Swamp, the category allowed for various routing options. Before getting comfortable with this dungeon order, I tried a late Misery Mire and considered an early Ganon’s Tower. In the end, the dungeon order would be:

Eastern Escape Darkness Mountain Desert Agahnim Swamp Mire Thieves Skull G-Tower Ice T-Rock

The PB led up to the marathon run the very next day, featuring excellent commentary by Tojso. Check out that run here. 

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LowTAD by MichaelK in 4:29:14

After completing Low% Mirror, Michael tackled Low% Tempered on Mar 26 in what would be the first Bootless LowAD run. The epic length is due to incredibly convoluted routing combined with retries and rerouting. Michael improvised: “using Desert to exit Desert” was not in the route.

This run features previously described Low% Tempered routing – Swordless Superbunny hedge maze traversal, unlocking Desert from Thieves, and re-climbing Castle Tower for Ether. 

Additionally, this run’s glitches include:

West moat FAST (funny auto-swim thing) to clip into Escape

Mirror jump to save the Frog

Misplaced mirror portal to enter Ice Palace

Learning bootless strats led Michael on a string of other bootless categories such as Bootsless All Dungeons RMG and "RBO" """"""""""""""""""""RMG"""""""""""""""""""".

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LowMAD LOTAD

On Mar 24, 2019, Blank debuted the first low-optimization tool-assisted demonstration of a LowAD speedrun, clocking in at 1:22:17.

So, Chex has pretty nice run of plowad that's 1:29:xx, this lotad I made of mlowad is 1:22. I'd say the routes could be pretty equal

Blank compared Low% Mirror to Low% Pearl. Which route would be the fastest? We would never know for certain. In the Mirror route, extra time is spent on numerous bunny glitches; in the Pearl route, time is consumed by Oldmanathon and Mirrorless Swamp.

The LOTAD shines in demonstrating mirror clips. A well-placed mirror allows Link to dash buffer into position during iframes, and after transitioning to the Dark World, Bunny Link can easily teleport and/or ledge hop. In this run, Classic DMD, Catfish DMD, Mire escape, Ice wrap, T-Rock climb, and GT clip all use mirror clips in this way. While not necessarily faster, they are considerably easier.

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LowMAD in 2:08:02 by MichaelK

Immediately following the Uncle skip now required in LowAD routes, Michael routed and ran Low% Mirror. 

Michael’s PB on Mar 18, 2019, beat his first run from two days earlier. The run features:

Northwest moat clip with dash-turn buffers to clip into Escape

First and only sword pulled from pedestal before Mothula fight (nice routing with Mirror)

Overworld Mirror Super Bunny for a Link State to open Mire + Thieves

0 HP Swamp entry

Super Bunny bonk into T-Rock pipe maze for Lonk state

A bunny walk to Ganon’s Tower from T-Rock – complete with crystal cutscene!

Dungeon order:

Eastern Escape Darkness Desert Hera Skull  Agahnim Thieves Mire Swamp Ice T-Rock G-Tower

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Low% Tempered Routing

All that said, LowTAD could still be routed as its own challenge. There were potential variations: which items could be used for Link State? Blank reasoned that we needed the Smith for Tempered, and our only known methods of rescuing the frog required Mitts, Bottle, or Mirror. So, Pearl was out.

Glan mentioned that the route absolutely needs Mirror because having no Boots means that Mire must be entered with Hookshot equipped. So, normal Swamp entry was required to collect Hook. (Collecting Hook from Hera was not an option because we still could not save a key in Escape.)

MichaelK posted a Low% Tempered + Mirror route on Mar 24. This route was convoluted and rightly so. Not having Boots and managing game states presented several hurdles. Michael even thought it was impossible for a moment, sharing this image:

However, being unable to bonk was not a problem in this case. Glan had worked out that we can clip to Desert Palace from Thieves Town with an extra small key, one that would normally be used to access the Titan’s Mitts room (of course, in LowAD, we don’t collect the Mitts). Link could unlock the key door in Desert, reentering to pick up the big key and beat the dungeon normally.

There are two subtle effects of reentering Desert. First, Link reverts to Bunny form because we are still in Dark World (a Fake Light World screen). We can Dungeon Bunny Revive at the Beamos Statue to become Link again. Second, death warping changes Dark World to Light World – this is important because Palace of Darkness and Desert Palace have a pendant/crystal conflict. If we want the Pendant of Power to fall after defeating Lanmolas, then we must either be in Light World or not have already collected Crystal 1. 

How do we get into Thieves Town, anyway? Like LowMAD, we must gain Superbunny at Catfish. However, at this point, we do not have Gloves, so we cannot pick up the rock on the way to the Pyramid. Instead, we teleport down through the Palace of Darkness hedge maze and dodge the enemies to make our way to the Pyramid, where we pull the statue to gain Link State. Link must then walk the southern route around the Dark World, using two upward teleports at the Digging Game.

Since we have not yet collected the Ether Medallion, we cannot open Misery Mire. This has to be done in a later Superbunny trek. (Let’s not forget that we have to climb Castle Tower twice: once to defeat Agahnim, and again to collect Ether.) In the second Superbunny trip, we are in rain state, which means we must combat crabs and other Light World enemies that have found themselves in the Dark World. The Light World pull trees have moved here as well, which means we must find the exact spot on the Pyramid to pull one and regain Link State.

Altogether, the dungeon order would be:

Eastern Escape Darkness Hera Desert Skull Castle (Agahnim) Thieves Swamp Ice Castle (Ether) Mire T-Rock G-Tower (Agahnim)

Yes, even though Agahnim is defeated once in Castle Tower, we must fight him again in Ganon’s Tower after rain state is restored. Even though Agahnim 2 is not fought in this route, the run is still valid because focus of the category is on all dungeons, not all bosses. The same rule applies to All Dungeons RMG: if one were to fight Agahnim 1 instead of Agahnim 2 due to dying in Ganon’s Tower, it still counts as a valid run. 

Edit: Added paragraph about reentering Desert. Thanks, Michael!

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Saving the Boots

Low% Tempered had a very good chance of becoming the new LowAD.

At the beginning of the Tempered discussion, Blank mentioned that reopening the tower entrance would require a reset of the game state by talking to Link’s Uncle. For this to happen, Fighter’s Sword and Shield must be skipped during Escape.

fsg realized that the shield could be cut entirely if Uncle were skipped altogether. If the shield counted as an item, then the Tempered route would increase the item count by one while the other LowAD routes could go without it. The main differences would be going to Eastern Palace first, clearing Escape with Boots and Bow, and playing swordless until Master Sword.

There was some resistance to counting the shield as %. It was argued that Link’s shield is tied to the sword as one pickup. The shield could be considered like bombs – they can be gained or lost at any time. And how could we start counting the shield as an item if the category was routed with shield in mind from the beginning?

fsg was in favor of bending and redefining rules to make things more fun. For example, in Low% Defeat Ganon, all three pendants are collected for Master Sword, even though no pendants are picked up in (Any%) Defeat Ganon. As for the shield, fsg argued that it impacts gameplay enough to be considered equipment. 

Despite the disagreement, it was understood that if the shield were not counted, then LowAD would be Boots-less. 

Counting the shield as an item, the two routing ideas were now equivalent:

boots + book  vs tempered + fighter shield

Regardless of the math, discussion of the new routes carried on. Blank saw Low% Pearl as wide open for routing possibilities and soon posted a draft.

After no further argumentation, the Pegasus Boots were saved!

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Low% Tempered

Low% Pearl would be the last LowAD category... of those found on Mar 14, 2019. Two days later, we had another solution.

The inevitable idea came from Blank: is it possible to pick up Ether Medallion from Agahnim’s Tower, dropping the need for Pegasus Boots and Book of Mudora? 

Low% Tempered (LowTAD or TLowAD) threatened to transform LowAD into a Boots-less category. Although the Boots are exceptional for going fast and making clipping easier, they are only truly necessary for collecting the Book – which in turn is only necessary for acquiring Ether Medallion.

So how do we earn Ether from Agahnim’s Tower? Normally, after defeating Agahnim, the tower locks, and the game state changes from Zelda to Agahnim. In this state, the entrances to the castle are removed, and there is no way to clip in. However, Link’s Uncle can be saved for later, and talking to him will revert the game state to Rain, which reopens the castle doors. If Link can reach a boss room where the boss is defeated, and if Link does not hold the prize of the current dungeon, then a prize will fall, typically a pendant or a crystal. This is the case upon entering Agahnim’s arena. But no prize is defined for Hyrule Castle or Castle Tower, so the default prize, which happens to be Ether, will fall.

So far, the item list would be cut by 2 – Boots and Book. However, after the return of Rain State, we lose access to the Master Sword, so we would have to collect Tempered Sword to defeat Ganon. Tempered increases the item count by 1, since Level 1 Sword counts as 1 item, Level 2 Sword counts as 2 items, etc. So, Low% Tempered would cut 1 item total.

Incidentally, another item on the chopping block was Lamp. It would be unnecessary for Escape if Agahnim were defeated at the start, but Tojso judged it to be impossible due to a lack of Sword to slash curtains. Lampless LowAD would be tabled for the time being.

Still, the Tempered route was not appealing. Picking up Tempered defied Low% combat as we knew it, and no one wanted a speedrun without the Boots. Would Low% Tempered be the true LowAD in the end?