Vulp FAQ #1: The WInd Waker

Wind Waker FAQ

by Vulpone, for use primarily in my extended info. Feel free to use this as you please, just don't steal credit. That would be, at best, rude and, at worst, illegal theft of my content ^_^.

Hey!
I've been asked a lot of questions about the games I run and to make it easier on myself, my mods and everyone else, I've decided to compile a small FAQ that should cover most, if not all, of the basic questions. I'll be doing one of those for every game I run, so be sure to check those out, too -- if you're curious, that is!

For easy navigation, search for number X followed by a space and a - in your browser. 'X - ' with x replaced by a number; ex: " 5 - ". The key words after the number are used to explain the question... just search for the number before it.

1 - Tingle Tuner explained
2 - Zombie Hovering explained
3 - Regional Differences
4 - Sail Pumping explained
5 - Leaf Pumping explained
6 - Rolling explained
7 - Dry Storage/Storage/Superswim explained
8 - Wind Waker Leaderboards
9 - Soup Glitch
10 - The run
11 - Learning the glitches
12 - Low% Explained
13 - Low%: Why not Japanese.
99 - Suggestions

1 - Q: What is the Tingle Tuner/ What is a 'tunerless' run?
A: The Tingle Tuner is an in-game item that is obtained upon saving Tingle. In exchange for money, the Tingle Tuner can give you either potions ('Red, Blue or Green Ting' used to heal out of Zombie Hovering ) or temporary upgrades ('Tingle Balloon', used to enter Forbidden Woods faster). The Tingle Tuner can only be used by connecting a GBA to your console with the corresponding cable; as some people do not own one of both parts, they don't do runs with the Tingle Tuner.

2 - Q: What is 'Zombie Hovering'?
A: Upon death, the game allows input for a short amount of time. If you do a jumpslash ( L + A) followed by repeated airslashes (just B), you can gain height. If done fast enough, you can gain a lot of height and thereby get to places earlier. Upon touching the ground again, however, you would die, so you must either heal with the Tingle Tuner/heart drops or hover into a loading zone (such as Forsaken Fortress II Helmaroc Skip). @Cosmowright has created a great video about Zombie Hovering! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUTPINL7UQs
Note: A hover cannot be starting unless you have your sword out upon dying. It must be in Link's hand .


3 - Q: What are the differences between Japanese and English?
A: As with Ocarina of Time, Japanese text advances a lot faster in The Wind Waker. The characters are displayed a lot faster and the time saved by this is said to be 19 minutes in an any% run (compared to English). However, there are also further regional differences: in the Japanese version, there are a lot less rupees so one must collect them at other places. The biggest change would be that the Golden Ship Triforce Chart in English is a Treasure Chart in Japanese; this Japanese exclusive quest of 5 Treasure Charts leads to the Triforce Chart. The 'Barrier Collapsing' cutscene can also be skipped in Japanese, saving an extra ~30 seconds.
Overall, it is said that Japanese is 13-15 minutes faster than its English counterpart.
Italian is the second fastest language, but it is only available on the PAL version. The Spanish version is next in line

4 - Q: Why are people repeatedly putting away and pulling out the sail while sailing the Great Sea?
A: This technique is called Sail Pumping. Every time you pull out the sail, you get a small boost. We use this trick over and over again, saving about ~7 seconds  of sailing per quadrant. (Note: the 7 seconds are an ideal value that can only be achieved by optimized sail pumps; the time saved in an actual speed run varies as this trick is based on rhythm)

5 - Q: Why are people doing that weird Leaf trick where they pull it back out again?
A: This technique is called Leaf Pumping. Similar to the above Sail Pumping, this trick is done by repeatedly putting away and pulling out the leaf. Normally, when gliding with a leaf, one linearly loses height; by Leaf Pumping, height is maintained and previously unreachable ledges can be grabbed. Most notable use is farming the Ghost Ship for Rupees.

6 - Q: Why do people roll all the time?
A: Rolling is the fastest method of traveling in The Wind Waker (on land, mind you). Timed rolls are more efficient than mashing the A-button, much like in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.

7 - Q: What is Dry Storage/Storage/Superswim etc?
A: I'll redirect you to Cronikey's (Dry) Storage paste bin: http://pastebin.com/HdvUnHzm
She has done an amazing job with it and it'd be a shame not to use it! :)

8 - Q: Where can I find a leaderboard?
A: Right here! http://zeldaspeedruns.com/leaderboards/tww Just select the category you want and you'll see the fastest players and their comment about that run.

9 - Q: How come people never/rarely drink their Elixir Soup?
A: This trick is called the 'Soup Glitch', although it works with every bottled item or even the Tingle Tuner! By pressing start and the button on which your bottle is at the same time, followed by replacing said bottle with another item so that your bottle is no longer on any button, upon unpausing, the game will do an action (like releasing a Fairy or drinking Potions/Elixir Soup) but keep the content of the bottle. If you're curious, once again @cosmowright has done a great video about that glitch as well.
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urOq9XSpk3A
PS: If they drink the soup, they messed up the glitch :P.

10 - Q: Is this the run?
A: Yes, it's always the run.

11 - Q: This is cool, I wanna learn this! Where can I learn to speed run games?
A: That's amazing! Be sure to watch speed runs (linking some runners at the end) and you know the game. After that, be sure to check out http://zeldaspeedruns.com/tww/ , most tricks are covered there. It's a little outdated here and there, but we're all working on improving it! :)

12 - Q: What is Low%, what does it mean?
A: Low% means finishing the game with as least items as possible. Or, in other words, skipping as many items as we can. This means that we sometimes have to go out of our way in order to skip one item. Naturally, that is slower and thus, low% takes longer than any% (which means beat the game as fast as possible, no restrictions).

13 - Q: Why don't you play Japanese in Low%?
A: We play on the Spanish/Italian (PAL only) version because this skips 4 Treasure Charts, which one would be forced to obtain on the Japanese version (as part of a Triforce Chart sidequest) and Japanese would be a lot slower with the Rupee farming.


99 - Q: Could you explain _____?
A: YES! Just hit me up on Twitch and drop a question there if it's not covered here. I'll definitely add it to this FAQ then. Thanks for the help! :)