Bombchus Before Bomb Bag

There are two effective ways to get bombchus early. The most common way is to get them from the Bottom of the Well. The other way is to get them from doing Spirit Temple Early.

Bottom of the Well Early

There are three practical ways of entering Bottom of the Well before without draining the water out of the well, and one impractical but interesting way. Typically, one would activate ISG off a cucco and dive in the well that way. If one doesn't have a shield, ISG is not possible so damaging the cucco with jumpslashes is preferred. If Navi appears, one can simply Navi Dive as one would to do escape the Forest from the Lost Woods.

Method 1 - Cucco ISG

The quickest method is to activate ISG directly off of a cucco. Alternatively, one can activate ISG off of a sign, put away one's equipment and simultaneously roll into and grab a cucco.

Once the cucco is overhead with ISG active, make your way to the edge of the well and face away from it. From here, shield drop the cucco and backflip immediately afterwards to fall through the water during the cucco rage cutscene. Once you regain control of Link, quickly make your way to the Bottom of the Well entrance.

Do no backwalk with the cucco above your head as there is a high possibility of raging the cucco prematurely. The cucco will stay above your head indefinitely no matter how much you walk around normally.

Method 2 - Cucco Dive without Shield

In some scenarios, you may want to get the Deku Shield from the chest in the Bottom of the Well, which means you have no ability to use the cucco ISG method to reach the entrance. In this case, one can damage the cucco beforehand and jumpslash the cucco when it is on the edge of the well.

This method is notorious for being difficult to perform quickly as you must do a minimum amount of damage to the cucco to ensure you make it rage on the final jumpslash. Typically, two jumpslashes should provide adequate damage. Then, one must throw the cucco onto the edge of the well, and jumpslash over the well so that you fall into the water and rage the cucco at the same time.

Method 3 - Navi Dive

Simply perform exactly the same set up as escaping the Forest using a Navi Dive.

Method 4 - Float with a Cucco Out of Bounds

This method is completely impractical for a speedrun, but is still of technical interest. Before starting, it is useful to throw the chicken nearest the pathway to Death Mountain Trail right against the wall so that it is easier to pick up later.

Clip into the out of bounds into the house behind the Potion Shop by jumpslashing into the acute angle corner at the top of the stairs. Jump over the gap in the floor and pick up the cucco on the other side of the wall. Jump back over the gap in the floor and align yourself with the Bottom of the Well entrance which you will be able to see. Jump in its direction, whilst avoiding going back in bounds at the bottom of the ladder you initially climbed up. Manoeuvre yourself to hit the loading zone of the Bottom of the Well.

Actor Glitch

Once in, one needs a way of getting to the crawl space near the entrance under the water. Zelda's Lullaby can be played at the other side of the well to lower the water, but in a speedrun, one would typically want to get bombchus before heading to Hyrule Castle. It is possible to use the Walking Whilst Talking, or Actor Glitch, to unload the water, thus bypassing the requirement of Zelda's Lullaby.

First, one needs a key, which can be got by heading around the corner to the right of the entrance from a chest behind a fake wall. Proceed up the right hand pathway to find a crawl space and enter it. When exiting the other side, one must open the door before the "exiting crawlspace cutscene" ends. The analogue stick position for this angle is very slightly down from down-left. As soon as control is regained, hold this position and roll to the door and press A to open it. If you time it and angle it correctly, you will hear the door opening but you will remain in the same room. If you are too late, you will simply go through the door.

In performing this trick, the actors in the next room are loaded whilst the actors in the main room are unloaded. Included in these unloaded actors is the water near the entrance, allowing one to access the previously unreachable crawl space. Crawl through here to reach Dead Hand. By defeating Dead Hand and exiting his room, the correct actors are loaded again and one can Vine Clip using the Skulltula.

Vine Clip

Once Dead Hand has been defeated and you have reloaded the Skulltula, the final step to getting to the bombchu chest is to clip out of bounds and swim through the invisible water. There are two methods of clipping, one with Deku Nuts and one without. The method without is the most common as it can easily be pause buffered and lands you in the high water, whilst the Deku Nut method is not normally buffered, but lands you in the low water.

Once clipped through, you land in invisible water - either "high" or "low" water. High water is far superior because it is possible to swim directly to the bombchus without having to walk around out of bounds. If one lands in low water, one will fall to the ground and will have to navigate to a specific spot where it is then possible to float up to the bombchus. This is harder and slower, so is not recommended.

Method 1 - Pause Buffered Vine Clip

1. Back walk off the very edge of the ledge
2. Pivot left to face the wall and centre the camera, slash the wall with B and pivot left to face the skulltula
3. Press B just as/just before the skulltula reaches the top of his swing. The delay in the sword swing will mean you actually hit him at the bottom of his swing, which is what we want
4. Right after pressing B, turn around and backwalk off the edge so that you start to climb down
5. Stop climbing down when Link's left hand starts moving down. Link's right hand should be above his left hand. Pausing here ensures you don't move down too far
6. At this point, attention shifts to the skulltula's legs on the right. We want to skip forwards a few frames to find the frame where there are two small, skinny legs in the top right of the screen at approximately 00:24. Depending on the exact timing of the sword slash, the legs may be higher up or further left
7. The next frame will be a single, fat leg somewhere around your C down button
8. The next frame will be a single leg right at the top of the screen, possibly even off the screen. On this frame, pause buffer A + down
9. Buffer down on the control stick for the next frame
10. Hold up on the control stick on the next frame and you will clip through
11. Once you clip, release all buttons
12. When you land in the water, flick down-left and centre the camera behind you to give you approximately the correct alignment
13. Above you, you will see the corridor with the water in it, swim forwards directly under the water to the bombchu room, pressing B rapidly to swim faster
14. Fall out of the water to the right once you are next to the bombchu room. It is safest to jump slash to give yourself some extra distance but if you fall from high enough, the jumpslash is rendered unnecessary

Method 2 - Deku Nuts

Using Deku Nuts, which can be found in a chest in the central area of the main room, one can stun the skulltula and drop and regrab the vines just as stun timer on the skulltula wears off.

Swimming to Bombchus from the Basement

If you fall out of the water whilst swimming to the bombchus, it is still possible to float up in a column of invisible water just below the room containing the bombchu chest. Head over to the strange looking floor texture and locate the sharp point. Just at the tip of this point is a column of water which can be used to float up to the bombchus. Backflip into it, float up for a couple of seconds, then swim back-right whilst holding Z. If done correctly, Link will appear to jilt a little bit, which means you have clipped through the floor. From here, you can float up a little bit more before swimming forwards and jumpslashing out of the water and in to the room, which by now should be visible on the screen.

Often you will get pushed out of the water when you try to backflip in - just try backflipping in again. Sometimes Link will not clip through the floor, in which case just try adjusting the time at which you start swimming down-right and try again. If, once you clip through the floor, you wait too long, then you will float all the way back up to the main room and will have to start again from the Actor Glitch. If you walk too far on to the texture, it can damage you, so avoid doing that.