MM 100% F.A.Q.

Q. What's changed since you last ran 100%?
A. The route has changed significantly to accommodate several new tricks as well as some old ones that were timed recently and deemed to be faster. The newer tricks include larger saves like equip swap, which is used for zora egg duplication as well as item recovery of both the Letter to Kafei and the Priority Mail to Mama, and fairy fountain cutscene skips for 3 or the 6 fairy reward cutscenes we normally would have to watch in a run. Besides these larger time saves, there's also a host of smaller time saves and movement optimizations that add up to decent save over the course of the run. While I do not have an accurate estimate of how much time this saves, it's quite significant to the point that it trivializes most runs done on previous routes.

Q. What is your goal time?
A. Short term is to get ~4:45, but over the course of a longer period (potentially months), I'd like to get sub 4:40 if possible. We shall see.

Q. Why are you playing on the Japanese version?
A. While the Japanese version does have the significantly more difficult Postman minigame, I believe a good run using the Japanese version is significantly faster than the English version. The newest route of 100% benefits runs on the Japanese version significantly more than the English version due to being able to abuse the pirates' vision in Pirate's Fortress and Power Crouch Stab using the Great Fairy Sword obtained early in the run. Additionally, I just enjoy playing the Japanese version of the game more, as I prefer it's Zora Swimming Mechanics and Weirdshot mechanics.

Q. Why do you skip the heart piece on Clock Tower? I thought this was 100%?
A. I will collect that heart piece at the end of the run, when I enter Clock Tower to proceed to the moon and the final boss. The reason it's collected then rather than the the beginning of the run is so it can be used to obtain ISG. The fastest alternative method for getting ISG is a nearby sign, which forces an extra hover to get on to the clock tower platform, as grabbing the ledge would cancel ISG. So by getting ISG off of the heart piece, you save a bombchu and a small amount of time.

Q. How are you not losing Big Poe when selling it to the curiosity shop?
A. I'm doing a variation of curiosity shop dupe by using the 2 empty bottles on my C-buttons. By holding R (Just gives me an extra frame for the trick) and mashing the buttons for the empty bottles before the game replaces my Big Poe with an Empty Bottle, I can switch the active item in Link's hand from the Big Poe I'm selling to one of the empty bottles. This means that instead of writing an empty bottle over my Gold Dust, it writes an empty bottle over another empty bottle, and I can continue selling the Big Poe until I have enough money for Bank Heart Piece.

Q. What's that pink sword? How did you get it?
A. That is the Great Fairy's Sword, which is obtained by collecting all the stray fairies in Stone Tower Temple. This sword deals 4 damage with a normal slash, which is 4x the damage done by the Kokiri Sword. The damage of the various swords in the game is as follows:
Kokiri Sword       - 1
Razor Sword        - 2
Deku Stick         - 2
Gilded Sword       - 3
Great Fairy Sword  - 4
Fierce Deity Sword - 4
Fierce Deity Beam  - 6

Q. Why are you switching masks back and forth on deku playground day 2?
A. Every time you put on or take off a transformation mask in this area, the platforms that the rupees travel on move a little, but the rupees do not. Done enough times, this means the platforms eventually move out from underneath the rupees, and they fall to the floor where I can easily collect them. This is faster than playing the minigame normally.

Q. Why don't you do that on day 1 or day 3?
A. This trick doesn't work on platforms moving vertically, which day 1 and day 3 both have. Day 2 only has platforms that move horizontally, so it is possible to collect every rupee in this manner. However, on day 1 and day 3, since not every rupee can be collected using this trick, it's faster to just play the game normally.

Q. Why don't you use the Bunny Hood for postman minigame?
A. At the point in the game that I do postman minigame, I have yet to obtain the Bunny Hood. Even if I did, the strategy I use for the minigame, which involves a visual cue using the triangles revolving around the postman, would not be helped by having the timer visible. In fact, attempting to use the fast scrolling timer would be more difficult to use as a visual cue than the slow spinning triangles, so I probably wouldn't use the Bunny Hood anyway even if I had it.

Q. How is Japanese Postman Minigame different from the English version?
A. On the English version of the game, the window to stop the timer at 10.00 is 2 frames, or 1/10 of a second. However, on the Japanese version of the game, that window is only 1 input frame, or 1/60 of a second. In addition to the input being much more precise, it can also be impossible to win the game on occasion, as the timer can skip 10.00, counting from 9.99 to 10.01, creating different results even if the A button is pressed on the same frame. This variance is caused by the timer's value being dependent on console cycle count, while the player only has the option to stop the timer on any of the games 60 input frames each second. The timer can reach a value on the correct frame high enough that the game rounds it upwards to 10.01, effectively skipping 10.00. The English version avoids this issue as a result of 2 visual frames (6 input frames) that you can stop the timer on where the game sets the value of the timer to 10.00 regardless of what its actual value was.

Q. Why not use the sword for the jumping minigame?
A. I gave the sword to the Mountain Smithy at the start of Night 2, and I'm waiting to pick it up until my next trip to Mountain Village at the end of Cycle 2.

Q. What's the WR?
A. The leaderboards can be found here: http://www.speedrun.com/mm#1001