Fairy Fountains and Grottos

See the Alternate Exit page for more information and a map of the grotto scene.

─── Grottos ───

Swamp Gossips grotto alternate exit to back Deku Palace grotto

As this alternate exit is one of the most useful in speedruns, there are many variations on the way the trick is performed. The trick can be broken down into the root hover and the hover to the alternate exit.

This tutorial shows a straightforward setup for both parts of the trick.

More root hover options

Peahat grotto alternate exit to Deku Palace bean grotto

This setup is for 100% and involves getting the heart piece from the chest. See video description on YouTube for detailed instructions.

Generic grotto alternate exit to Lens cave

This version is 3b12c. See video description on YouTube for detailed instructions. There is also a 4b12c version that does not rely on any diagonal notches.

─── Fairy Fountains ───

Great Fairy cutscene skips

It is possible to skip the cutscenes for receiving Great Fairy Mask, Great Spin, and Great Fairy Sword by clipping out of bounds and hitting the cutscene trigger while voiding out. If done correctly, black bars will appear at the top and bottom of the screen just before the screen goes black. This clip works the same way in all fairy fountains, but the cutscenes for Double Magic and Double Defense can't be skipped the reward is put in the inventory partway through the cutscene instead of at the beginning.

  1. (The spin attack is not part of the setup - it just demonstrates that Link does not have Great Spin yet)
  2. Superslide roughly towards the dark corner of the doorframe; this is not very precise
  3. Once stuck in the corner, hold ESS left to begin an extended superslide
  4. On the last frame before Link clips or the 1st frame after he clips (shown in video), switch to holding down-right; if you paused on the 2nd frame after the clip, begin by holding down-right and then switch to down

Woodfall fairy fountain alternate exit to Snowhead fairy fountain

with Zora and megaflips (3b4c)

  1. Keep entrance angle (if lost, target wall and turn at right angles to find it again)
  2. Walk forward into corner, slash fins, then jumpslash onto ledge
  3. C-up to aim, then press up and A on the same frame to jump and grab
  4. Zora slash once to the right, transform human, and slash once down
  5. Turn up, use a bomb to get ISG, and hover once
  6. 3 chu hovers and unlock the camera, turn just up of right, and retarget
  7. 2 megaflips with a chu to stop the first one
  8. Sidehop or backwalk right to load zone

with Zora and sidehop hovers (1b8c)

This method is good if you can spend chus and want to preserve bombs.

  1. Keep entrance angle (if lost, target wall and turn at right angles to find it again)
  2. Walk forward into corner, slash fins, then jumpslash onto ledge
  3. C-up to aim, then press up and A on the same frame to jump and grab
  4. Zora slash once to the right, transform human, and slash once down
  5. Turn up, use a bomb to get ISG, and hover once back-left
  6. 3 chu hovers back-left
  7. 5 chu sidehop hovers up-left
  8. Sidehop once into the Snowhead fairy fountain and then once more to clear the obstacles
  9. Backwalk to the exit

with a long hover and megaflips (4b9c)

This method doesn't get close enough to the center of the fairy fountain to trigger the Great Fairy cutscene.

  1. Get ISG and do the first hover from just past the beginning of the tiled floor
  2. 7 chu hover and unlock; bending rightward isn't required but does make the alternate exit more lenient
  3. Turn left, then hover once more with 1 bomb and 1 chu (unlock and retarget to prevent weird camera)
  4. 2 megaflips with a chu hover in between
  5. Back up a little bit and then sidehop to the load zone
Last updated 04/08/2024 – bewildebeest