ST Research and discovery thread

When going to the castle the first time luck manipulate the trans so you can take the fastest route.

When sneaking Zelda out of the castle use 1 line to get past the first 2 guards.

After fighting a boss, savewarp instead of going in the warp.

1st boss - Stagnox: When the battle starts slash his head and he will immediately begin to attack.  Go around and whirlwind his ass and do *6* normal slashes (NO jumpslashes).  Move back slightly and use the whirlwind again to keep him down and use another 6 slashes to get him to the 2nd phase.  For the 2nd phase always use normal slashes (again, NO jumpslashes) and he should go down in 2 cycles.  I got a 1:20 fight with this strat.

After seeing ferrus savewarp back to wellspring station.

2nd boss - Fraaz: Strategy to come later

For getting the bomb bag, after fighting the red zora warrior at the end of spirit tower 3 a chest will apear with a palace dish in it.  Get that, then after getting the bridge worker to fix the bridge sell it to linebeck for 500R.  After that you'll need to save and luck manipulate beedle to be near the trading post to buy the bomb bag before getting to the ocean realm.

When going to the ocean temple use this trick to skip the train chase around the temple.

In the ocean temple use this trick to skip opening the trapdoors for the boulders.

For the whip miniboss throw the boomerang around the place the mniboss will be before entering the room to stun him immediately.  Use bombs to take him down quickly.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N66v7Zy9i1g

General whip speed tricks: when grabbing a switch, let go of L/R as soon as it touches the switch and it will activate skipping the pull back animation.  When swinging on a pole hold your stylus on the screen until a little before you will swing off.  This will get you off a bit faster and jump a bit farther.  When pulling thorns out of a thorn gate only pull the left thorn out then squeeze through the right one.

3rd boss - Phytops: First Cycle: 1 slash, 2 Spins, 1 bomb. (80)
Second Cycle: 1 Jump (+!5), 1 slash, (+10) 2 bombs. (+60) (85 on this cycle)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sJKJsqgzVs

Alternate Solution on Floor 15 of the Spirit Tower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiEOnbNwRrQ

Glitches:
Fall from edge glitches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIq20-ToxO0

Weird Graphical glitch in castle town
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfJcNHc1-uE

Zelda holding glitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jAQShbNhj0

Heart Meter Glitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZj5sU_Rbo

It seems like Roll Cancelling cannot be done on here:
The most notable example is trying to open a chest or a door during a roll.

The new roll input is ok if you were making a TAS run but annoying outside TAS, I've been tapping interactive objects when I was trying to perform another roll.

Kazooies Map to clip through grey rocks and small pots trick doesn't work on here, you can't get the map up while you are moving.

Running through the smog on the first temple is ok, it doesn't block Link's access unlike flames.

For the first boss I need to test:
* If keeping the bomb catapillars will be a good idea as damage source on the second phase
* Check if Bomb explosions deals 30 DP or not by comparing normal slices against bomb explosions).
* If the boss react to a certain number of hits no matter how powerful the attack was.
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***Got the 2nd map piece now, incase you viewers want to know how far I am into the game.

I am currently at the last boss fight.

Afterwards, i will be looking for quickest way to do bosses/puzzles/etc.

Maybe early items?

Yeah I noticed that too my map glitch with rocks doesn't work because you cannot open menus when you are walking. But there is way to open them when you are walking.

Right when you start walking you can push arrow button down or right to open menu and link will stop while you do that. You can use it to walk right to the rock like in PH but still it doesn't work in ST for some reason. Rocks are more harder on this game for some reason.

I got my game one day before release day ;D

EDIT: I run along with one thing in hyryle castle town. There is those flower beds in circle. When you try roll to them link will rise little bit on air. Maybe useless tought.

Related to players who has completed the second dungeon.
Highlight below to see text.


At Bridge Worker house, go to the top right of the map, you'll see 4 rocks in a diamond formation. You can roll inbetween the 2 to get into the middle without destroying them.

Then play Song of Discovery and you spawn a grey chest. Link will then be inside a grey rock, when trying to open the chest I Link should clip into the chest.

Again nothing useful but sounds cool at least.

EDIT:

Related to players who has completed the third dungeon.
Highlight below to see text.

I've found a way to enter the whip room VERY quickly. Expect a video soon.

Very nice Greenalink :)

I bought PRIMA's ST Guide today. I love collecting game guides.

Since the game is quite new, I'm looking up all these little hidden items and such. they could come in handy!

Trapdoor skip on Marine Temple.
Saves at least 1 minute on segmented runs but 2 minutes on Single Segment if you do not count death warping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbZXnXGlrOY

I know this is off topic but How did you record like that Greenlink?

All I do is to film it sideways so I can get both screens recorded from the camcorder then I edit the raw video with Adobe Premiere Pro. It's possible to do the edits on Sony Vegas but I find Adobe Premiere Pro a bit easier for screen edits.

Jumpslash>Quickspin on bosses is rape

Just completed the game and woah, this is WAY more challenging that I first expected.
Sadly I cannot find any major exploits to this game yet the structure and a tracks system makes the game near bulletproof to sequence break unless someone finds an RBAesque glitch.

Is it ok for me to make a topic on the Phantom Hourglass engine tweaks made to Spirit Tracks?

My estimate to complete this is 5 hours & 30 minutes -> 6 hours range.

Edit:
US and Europe has differences.... don't worry it has no effect on speed running. ;)

Did you know that Cole's bodyguard has a different name when comparing the US & EU releases.
US: Byrne
EU: Staven
AUS: Byrne (although the official Website & manual mentions it's Staven).

I prefer Staven because it's easier to remember and to spell compared to Byrne.

Ya making a PH - ST engine differences thread would be useful.

I'll do a 2nd playthrough once Christmas break starts to look for stuff.

Game also have more difference that that staven name.

First town is also called by different name, US: Aboda Village & EU:Outset village
Also Whittleton Village in EU is Mayescore. Why would Nintendo do it that way?

I found cool glitch yesterday from this game with my friend. Maybe it's useless but still fun to look. I'll make video later.

EDIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIq20-ToxO0
Enjoy!

Pretty overlooked because you couldn't do this on Phantom Hourglass but you can use your items to cancel your Spin attack.

The spin attack sometimes go up depending on when you cancel it by using an item, it's pretty useful on enemies and subbosses. Proper boss battles are not really useful due to the nature of the cycles. I haven't killed the first boss in 2 cycles or less on both phases.

Quote

Why would Nintendo do it that way?

It's probably because it was translated seperately rather than working together. It isn't the first time this has happened as the latest Advance Wars DS game (Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict) has a lot of name changes on the playable characters, minor differences to the game's story script and even some of the units!. The US version is notable for having "Grr .... you piece of crap" but the European version's rudest quote was "Who the hell are you"?

Just another little glitch what I found by accident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfJcNHc1-uE

Just one graphical glitch in hyrule castle town.
Enjoy!

I found another way to do the Marine Temple Trapdoor Skip.

Marine Temple Trapdoor Skip Without Bombs or Death:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKDd0-8RZ8Q

This video shows two more ways to skip this, "Trap." Getting hit only 1 time is way harder then getting hot 2 times.

This will make it if we don't get bombs in a Speed run we still have a fast way past the trap.
Witch I'm guessing we aren't getting bomb because that takes time correct me if I'm wrong.

To be honest, I knew this method too but I didn't mentioned it since it feels obsolete compared to the bomb trick. As far as I know, you need to use your own bombs at the last section of the Spirit Tower.
Bombs has loads of uses like Train hijack boss at Ocean Land and possibly Captops. I need to playthrough this again and take notes seriously this time.

Just started a 2nd playthrough.  Some speed tips

-When getting zelda out of the castle you can get her past the first 2 guards outside with 1 path, might be able to get past the 3rd too if you go really fast.

-You can't get past the blizzard in the snow realm without seeing ferrus, even if you know the route.

-I think the earliest you can get the bomb bag is after the snow temple.  I didn't get it but I saw beedle flying around.  If not, right after ST 3 he'll be right on your path.

-Hit the warp point below Anouki Village on your first trip to the snow realm.  On second thought, its probably slower to use the warp for transporting the bridge worker.

-You can't learn the song of birds until you go to the ocean sanctuary to get carben to appear there.

-I have an idea for skipping the train chase to get into the ocean temple.  When you pass the first intersection to either head right to the temple or up, stay between the curved rails so the armored train can't come straight at you.  Make him go up then hit reverse and try going right before it can get to you.  Though there are 2 reasons this might not work though: 1) The 2nd train might get summoned and hit you or 2) you can't reverse fast enough and the armored train hits you.  Worth a try though.  Its too late for me to test but I'm hoping someone else can soon.

-Phytops trick: At the end of his attacking phase where he tries to whip you, quickly grab a barb from one of the sitting tentacles before it goes under, then when he comes back up you can hit him early.

-Is it possible to take the Anouki to Wellspring Station before getting the freight cart?  If so then its probably best to take him after the snow temple.

You also need the song of discovery. There's another song you can't skip either but I forgot which one.

TSDA wrote

You also need the song of discovery. There's another song you can't skip either but I forgot which one.

You need song of light, discovery and birds.  Healing and awakening can be skipped.

I just finished my 2nd playthrough in just under 10 hours.  5 hours seems more realistic for a speedrun considering I sucked horribly and took some breaks.

I've found a cool trick against the first boss that would enable us to clear the first phase really quickly. The second phase can be cleared in 2 cycles but it has to be done in a strict order on the first cycle to end the battle during the second cycle.

Nothing much on the second boss but do not use the Jump + Spin combo, use the Spin + Spin combo instead he advances to the next phase after 2 cycles instead of 3. (Only tried it with the Lokomo Sword, test if the Recruit sword gives the same result).

The third boss Captops it's easier to dodge its thorny tentacles by going near to the inner circle. If you know the last strike you can use the Whip to grap a thorn to aim at Captops when s/he comes out from the water.
(The boss rush will not let you use bombs but during the main playthrough it's possible to use bombs, so using the bombs at the last hit before the wakeup should cut the number of total cycles by 1).


The forth boss Vulcano only summoms the blue meteor when you hit his weak spot on the lower body. He should scream and them perform a hammer punch to the ground. The blue meteor can be destroyed really quickly by using your own bombs.

Sorry to derail the topic, but ST has a boss rush?
Jesus, nearly every zelda game needs that feature, I'd be tons better at boss battles >_>

Well there is a minigame that will take Link to go through a series of rooms containing certain amount of enemies (Chu chus, bats, etc). There are 3 levels

Level 1 : Easy enemies with the first boss at the end.
Level 2: Medium enemies with a boss battle partway through (3 bosses in total).
Level 3: Tough enemies with a 'boss rush' at the later half with 1 boss exclusive to the mode (6 bosses).

It features an In-game timer but it pauses whenever you want to change your current Item.

Wow, I can't believe I didn't find out about this site 'till now lol.

Anywho, figured I'd contribute a bit since I'm around, here's a couple of minor speed tricks I've found:

1. When activating fish switches with the whip, you can cancel the "pull" animation completely by letting go of L/R and removing the stylus from the touch screen before the whip interacts with the switch, the switch will just instantly activate rather than having the tongue pulled out. Doing this has various results on other interactive elements (it will break pots, but won't pick up items off the ground, etc).

2. By holding the stylus to the screen and letting go later, you can drop from a whip swing a little quicker.

I don't know how known/obvious those are, but I didn't see them mentioned in this thread, so whatever. Hopefully it helps. :3

So i found something interesting< but seems like it'll be useless:

LoZ ST Zelda holding glitch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jAQShbNhj0

This seems useless because you can't ride on Zelda.

But what you do is pick up the object just as she does and this should happen. You can use any Item as long as you don't hurt Zelda. If Zelda does get hurt the item drops where ever link is.

also it seems like the sand temple has some glitches at least from what I can tell. Like I found a way to go OoB but you just fall so it's useless.

And for 100% (or something like that.) the hurricane spin is the fastest way to travle even if you get dizzy.
But I'm guessing we are getting it right before we go to the end boss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZj5sU_Rbo

I didn't make this but it makes me wonder what happens if you save the game before the game crashes. It doesn't work with yellow potions and you would need at least 10 or more hearts when using a Red/Purple potion to achieve the glitchy meter.

Edit:
When i was playing through the game for the first time. I notice that before the game goes to the overworld rails section, there is possible luck that there isn't any Death Trains around the land/realm. I noticed this after buying Mega Ice when trying to solve the route to get to Goron Valley at Fire land/realm.

I just tested my idea for avoiding the trains and getting into the ocean temple early, and surprisingly it worked.  Its pretty easy too.  I might be able to make a vid tonight.

Also, we need a rupee route for the bomb bag (500R). 

ZFG wrote

Also, we need a rupee route for the bomb bag (500R). 

After playing a bit it seems like the best thing to do is to get an item worth 500 then sell it when you have to fix the bridge. I forget exactly where it is, but there is one that you can get really easily. IIRC.

Venick409 wrote

After playing a bit it seems like the best thing to do is to get an item worth 500 then sell it when you have to fix the bridge. I forget exactly where it is, but there is one that you can get really easily. IIRC.

Well you can't sell stuff to him until the bridge is already fixed and by that time beedle would probably be on the other side of the map.