[ESA Winter 2022] A Link Between Worlds Any% skips/tricks notes

Power Glove Skip

By jumping off a ledge and getting hit by a crow, Link flies in whatever direction the crows hits him. This can be used to fly over the rocks blocking the Death Mountain entrance, and so it can be entered without any items. After that, using pots as weapons to survive the cave you can reach Death Mountain, unlocking the full Ravio shop.


Tornado Rod Lifting

If Link uses the Tornado Rod during the invincibility after a hit, he can be pushed in the air by an enemy, which is useful to go out of bounds. The main enemy for this are Armos, they move fast towards Link and have a high hitbox. This trick is useful in Eastern Palace and Hyrule Castle mainly.

Even without enemies, the Tornado Rod is useful to go up moving platforms by using it while they’re coming towards Link. This is useful in multiple dungeons, but most obviously in House of Gales.


Dash Slide

The Pegasus Boots have an animation when breaking where Link slides. This animation is interesting, and with proper positioning and holding back we can use it to cross gaps without falling. This is used in the room before the boss in House of Gales, and as the final piece in Desert Skip.


Bombrod

If Link gets hit at the top of a Tornado Rod jump, normally with a Bomb, he gets a small boost upwards that is sometimes just enough to go upwards. The only “pure” Bombrods in the run are in Tower of Hera, which are all 2 frame tricks. Bombrods with enemies are used in House of Gales (Skip Skip Skip) and Turtle Rock (Turtle Rock Big Key Skip) to skip other parts.


Skip Skip Skip

In House of Gales, positioning a Keese on the edge of the unpowered fan that goes to the last floor lets us use the Tornado Rod under it, get hit, and reach the loading zone to said last floor, skipping almost all of 2F.

Quick Equip Cancel (QEC)

Opening the Quick Equip many after using an item skips the recovery of using the item, letting Link move immediately, as well as use another item immediately after. This is the basis of most skips in Lorule, and it’s very good for optimization in general.


Ice Rod Clipping

If you use Ice Rod in deep water, a block of ice forms. With QEC, you can move Link under that block of ice as it falls, which lets us clip through adjacent walls. This is used a lot in Swamp Palace, to skip the Big Bomb escort, and initiate Arrghus Skip. It’s also used as a part of Desert Skip.


Arrghus Skip

Using Ice Rod Clipping in the 2nd room of Swamp Palace, we can get to the SE room and raise the water level. With that level, we can clip again to swim next to the boss room, fall into water in the room above, and move to a precise position to swim into the boss room in a way that Link lands half out of bounds. From there, slowly walking to the north wall lets us enter the final staircase, skipping the boss.


Fire Rod Boosting

The Fire Rod pillar is a moving active hitbox that goes continues past ledges if it touched ground first. With QEC, this can be abused to jump off the ledge and get hit by the fire, sending Link diagonally upwards. It’s useful for Desert Skip, Rosso’s Ore Mine Skip, and Turtle Rock Portal Skip.


Desert Skip

A masterpiece at work, a three-combo of rods to never see the Desert before beating it. In Misery Mire, there’s a small corner of water we Ice Rod Clip into to Tornado Rod up to the platforms, and then with a Fire Rod Boost we can go out of bounds and run to the boss arena. With a well placed Dash Slide, we clear the gap into the painting, skipping fighting the boss as well.


Eyeball Duplication

In one of the final rooms of Skull Woods, you have to escort two eyeballs to place them in pedestals that unlock the Boss Key. However, the eyeballs can be grabbed while they’re entering the pedestal, so if grabbed right as they enter it we can reuse the same eyeball for both pedestals, skipping the detour for the other one.


Knucklemaster Skip

With proper positioning, we can Tornado Rod as Knucklemaster punches, and use its big hitbox to clip into the stairs leading to the painting, skipping the fight.


Rosso’s Ore Mine Skip

In the broken bridge separating the two sides of Dark Death Mountain, we use a Fire Rod boost to enter the go into the railing, and hookshot to the other side. This skips a long autoscroller section to reach the east side of Dark Death Mountain, allowing us to go to Ice Ruins faster.


Ice Ruins Skip

If we move right during the transition between floors in the Ice Ruins elevator, we can clip into the space between floors. If done in B3F, we can dahs upwards to land out of bounds, and navigate in a way that we fall into the boss arena. Since we fall in the upper half, the boss doesn’t activate, but we can still hit his hitbox in the center with Fire Rod to kill it and end the dungeon.


Dark Maze Skip

In the south section of Dark Maze, we lure a Chomper to the corner of the tree, get hit, and stun it to get ourselves stuck in the corner. If we bonk to the right, the Chomper pushes Link to the edge, and we can walk to the last part of the section.


Turtle Rock Portal Skip

The lake area is loaded when in the Dark Palace area, so with a Fire Rod Boost we can stand on the ledge and fall into the lake to skip having to go back to Hyrule just to enter a specific portal for the area.


Animation Storage

If Link tries to get out of water but you don’t fully move the stick into it, it stores the animation for getting out of water. The next time we touch anything, Link goes up whatever he touched. This is useful for Turtles Skip and for a minor timesave in Swamp Palace.


Turtles Skip

Using Animation Storage in the Turtle Rock area, we can get up the island containing the dungeon, and use the Tornado Rod to enter it. This skips the quest to save all 3 turtles in the area to access it as normal.


Turtle Rock Boss Key Skip

By freezing the seesaw right next to the platform containing the access to the Turtle Rock boss, we can stand high enough on it and make a Wizzrobe shoot at us. If we catch up to that shot, create a platform with Ice Rod, and Tornado Rod into the shot, we can clip upwards to access the boss arena without getting a single key.


Thieves Hideout Statue Clip

In the Thieves Hideout statue room, we can place one of them on the iron bars and one next to it, so that if we activate the bar and hold onto the right statue, we can clip into the floor, on a space between floors. From here, we can access the midboss very fast, skipping a few rooms, but the long setup doesn’t make it particularly faster than just doing it as normal.


Recoil Jump

If Link uses the sword to hit something and get knocked back out of a ledge, he jumps upwards. Interrupting this animation with a damage source, you can use it to get out of bounds or cross some barriers. In this run, it’s only important for Trials Skip.


Trials Skip

In the Bomb Trial inside Lorule Castle, we place the big bomb in a specific section, move it up with the color blocks, and find a precise position with the Hookshot. When on the position, slashing, then using Hookshot, then slashing again both activates the big bomb and gives us a Recoil Jump. If the position was correct, we get boosted out of bounds, and we can fall directly into the loading zone that goes to the final boss.