Getting Started

Welcome! This is the ZeldaSpeedRuns site with general knowledge and speedrun resources for Ocarina of Time and Ocarina of Time Master Quest. Please read below if you are interested in learning to speedrun either of them! You can also see the full list of pages in the navigation sidebar; after reading this page be sure to check out the others under the "Getting Started" category!

No matter where you start, here are some of the most important resources available to you:

• OoT community Discord server, where you can (and should) freely ask for help with setting up or speedrunning the game
• Speedrun.com leaderboards for vanilla Ocarina of Time as well as Master Quest, where you can view and submit videos of speedruns for any category! This is also where you can view detailed rules for the game and for each category
• gz (the Practice ROM), by far the most important tool for practicing this game. It patches an Ocarina of Time ROM or WAD file with the practice tool, which can then be run on a Nintendo 64 (using a flashcart), a Nintendo Wii with homebrew tools, or a PC-based emulator.

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What category should I start with?

If you visit the speedrun leaderboards, you'll see that there are a lot of options you have in terms of how to run Ocarina of Time! Not to mention the Master Quest version of the game as well as a number of extension categories. Where should you start as a beginner? Everyone likes different categories, but some might come with significant considerations for new runners (for example, 100% is a very difficult, very long category, even for experienced runners). Some shorter categories include a lot of ubiquitous strats/tricks which make them a great starting point if you eventually want to learn something else! Here are some of the most common recommendations, approximately how long they are for a beginner-to-intermediate runner, and reasons they may or may not appeal to beginners. Click the links to see the routes/guides for each one!

• [Any%] (5m) : the fastest way to complete Ocarina of Time! Its popularity in the community and its incredibly short length are some of the big appeals for beginners, and the central glitch of the run, [Lightnode SRM], is used in many other SRM categories which makes Any% a good place to start if you are interested in running those categories. Although the run may look confusing and difficult, it is surprisingly simple to perform the credits warp, and it is very cool to be able to say you beat Ocarina of Time in under 5 minutes! The main downside to Any% is that it contains almost no overlap with any non-SRM categories you may wish to learn later.
• [Nocturne RTA] (50m - 1h) : goal is to beat Forest, Fire, and Water Temples and obtain the Nocturne of Shadow. Although it doesn't beat the game, this is quite a popular category because it completes a significant amount of the game while clocking in at well under an hour. One of the reasons this is an excellent category for beginners is that it includes many strats that are used in other categories. If you are interested in eventually learning All Dungeons or MST (categories that are certainly more difficult), Nocturne RTA is a great starting point. As with all Ocarina of Time runs, this category does require some difficult tricks, but notably fewer than a lot of other categories.
• Defeat Ganon (10m - 25m; depends on route) : there are many options under this broad category! If a credits warp feels a little too unsatisfying to you, or you have some nostalgia for older Any% routes from before 2020, this might be your best choice! Specifically the ["Classic Kakariko Route"] is often recommended for beginners, but you also have the option to do slightly different routes under the ["No SRM"] label. These routes are great because they're among the easiest for newer runners to learn, although they play as child Link for the entire run which may mean a steeper learning curve for other categories later on.
• [Glitchless AMQ] (4h+) : formerly known as Glitchless Restricted, "All Main Quests" is also a good choice for beginners who don't mind running long categories! Because it strictly prohibits many techniques, it does not rely on difficult glitches, instead requiring focus on fundamentals like movement and menuing, encouraging you to build good habits into your muscle memory and familiarizes you with almost every dungeon and area. However, a major drawback for many people is the length of the run. If you want to run Glitchless but find it too long, you may be interested in running on the "Faster Quest" rom hack, which removes about 1 hour 15 minutes of cutscenes.
• [GSR] (1h30m) : "Ganondorf Source Requirement" (formerly "No RBA/WW" then "No IM/WW") is a classic category that resembles an early Any% route prior to glitches like [Reverse Bottle Adventure] and [Wrong Warp]. It has historically been a popular first category, being a relatively simple run that completes Shadow Temple and Spirit Temple, gets the Bow & Magic Meter, and defeats Ganondorf. A combination of learning GSR and Nocturne RTA covers a significant amount of the game. Major drawbacks include the number of long cutscenes and the fact that, when doing all the fastest tricks, the run can get quite challenging.

Of course, there's also other ways to speedrun the game, such as [Bingo]! Note that this does not include Master Quest categories, because they are rarely someone's first category and will be unfamiliar to many in the community, making it harder for you to learn (however, you should absolutely run Master Quest if you really want to!).

How do I set up / start playing?

Almost all routes mentioned above can be done on any console or version of the game (see also Version Differences), except the Ganonfloor and Deku Tree GIM routes for Defeat Ganon. Also, Any% will use slightly different setups depending on which console you are on. At minimum all you need is a way to play the game and you can do a speedrun. Note that Ship of Harkinian, the PC port of Ocarina of Time, is considered a different game due to fundamental changes to the code in order to make it run natively on PC.

Along with the base game, you will likely also want to set up the Practice ROM, known by its codename "gz". Below is a short overview, but for full details on whichever method you're using to play the game, see [Emulation], [Controllers & Adapters], and [Capture & Streaming].

• You can create a gz ROM by using the patcher downloaded from the website and supplying your own existing Ocarina of Time ROM. If you aren't sure how to get a ROM for your copy of the game, ask for help in the Discord.
• If [playing on a PC emulator], download an allowed emulator for the console you want to emulate (you can see the allowed list on the Speedrun.com rules). Most people recommend using Dolphin, a Gamecube/Wii emulator that can run the Wii VC version of Ocarina of Time, but you can also use Project64 Versions 1.6 or 1.7 only at this time. Emulator runs are allowed for submission unless your time is within 10% of the current world record, tracked here.
• If playing on a Nintendo 64 and are buying a game cartridge, see Version Differences for how to identify the different versions of the game. You can use a flash cart (most commonly an Everdrive or a SummerCart) and an SD card to load games, important for practicing on a gz rom. If doing runs using a flash cart, submissions are allowed unless your time is within 10% of the current world record, tracked here.
• If playing on a Nintendo Wii, you'll likely need to homebrew your Wii to install WAD files. Be sure to follow the Wii Hacks Guide closely to safely mod your Wii and this video by Fig that ensures you're playing on an official, standard version of the Wii's IOS9 (required for leaderboard submissions).

Now practice and enjoy! And be sure to check out the other Getting Started pages on this site! Before learning a route it is highly recommend to read [General Mechanics-Tips] which contains very foundational knowledge needed to understand how to perform setups and tricks in this game. To record and livestream your gameplay check out the [Capture & Streaming] page.