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Faron BiT
Discovered by gymnast86 on May 30th, 2019
Description
Normally, trying to load the Sky during Back in Time crashes the game, since most layers of the Sky cannot be loaded properly in BiT. However, the layer corresponding to the loftwing tutorial can load correctly, and therefore this tutorial can be accessed during BiT. This would normally not be useful, as that tutorial has a boundary that cannot be crossed while on the loftwing. However, the Eldin Light Pillar is within the boundaries of the tutorial.
Using the Story Flag RBM variant of the Early Light Pillar glitch, it is possible to enable the Eldin Light Pillar on a file that can access the loftwing tutorial during BiT, and therefore reach the surface during BiT. This allows for the Back in Time state to reach the Sealed Grounds, Faron Woods, and Lake Floria, greatly expanding the list of available scene flags for use in Reverse BiTMagic tricks. It also opens up a variety of new statues for new BiTWarps, and allows for Reverse BiTWarps into areas of the surface, such as Ancient Cistern.
Note: If you clear the cutscene for entering a light pillar for the first time with your file that can enter the Wing Ceremony in Back in Time, then you can attempt to enter the Eldin Volcano in Back in Time. That however leads to a crash.
Setup
While the original Faron BiT was found using the Early Eldin Pillar, it is also possible to enter the Faron Light Pillar in Back in Time. Three useful setups are described below.
Method 1 - Early Eldin Light Pillar
To access Faron during BiT, using the Eldin Light Pillar you need a specific file setup. This file must have the following characteristics:
- Be saved after the loftwing tutorial with Zelda but before winning the Wing Ceremony or obtaining the Hero's Tunic
- Have access to the Eldin Light Pillar
These two things are normally mutually exclusive, but we can save a file at the prompt after the loftwing tutorial, copy it to a spare slot, and later enable the Eldin Light Pillar on that file. To perform this version of the Early Light Pillar trick, we must have:
- A Tablet File that has the Ruby Tablet, but not the Amber Tablet (this will usually be our speedrun file)
- Our Target File saved after the loftwing tutorial (usually on the save prompt before the Wing Ceremony).
Then we can load the Ruby Tablet into BiT by obtaining a Stamina Fruit with the Tablet File selected. We then enter the goddess statue with our Target File selected, then place the loaded Ruby Tablet into the pedestal (possibly having to Skyward Strike the crest to raise the pedestal). The light pillar cutscene will begin in BiT, and by starting our Target File at the right time (about 1 second after the second camera change, as the light pillar forms), we can gain access to that pillar on our early game file.
Method 2 - Early Faron Light Pillar & Sky RBW
The setup time for this method is lengthier than the Eldin Light Pillar method, but this one has the benefit that it can be done before even leaving Skyloft. It is therefore useful in a Low% speedrun to skip the Hero's Tunic, or in any% where skipping the Slingshot is possible.
The Faron Light Pillar is out of the boundaries you can reach during the Loftwing Tutorial. This means you need to set the story flag for being able to jump off your loftwing on the file that is saved on the Wing Ceremony Prompt. This is usually not possible, as you only unlock that ability when talking to Fi after obtaining the Hero's Tunic. This is however possible with clever routing.
You will first need the following file setup:
- File 1: Hero Mode file
- File 2: Has saved the loftwing but not obtained the Hero's Tunic yet
- File 3: Hasn't saved the loftwing yet.
Perform Early Faron Light Pillar on File 3, using the Story Flag RBM technique. Make sure File 3 also has the goddess sword.
You are now going to RBW into the Sky. This requires being saved at a save prompt. The fastest way is to use a trick known as File Duping. Activate BiT. Select File 1 (the Hero Mode file) and go back to the splash screen, and then Save at the Bazaar Statue while opening the splash screen. This will file dupe File 3 over File 1, but File 1 will still say "Hero Mode". MAKE SURE NOT TO GO BACK TO THE SPLASH SCREEN OR SELECTING FILE 1 TWICE. Now BiTSave File 2 to load the Loftwing. You can now jump into the sky, mount your loftwing, and start File 1 as you enter the Sky loading zone in order to RBW into it.
Now, go towards the Faron Light Pillar and watch the Fi cutscene around it. That cutscene unlocks the ability to jump off your loftwing. After that ability is unlocked, go back to Skyloft and rescue your loftwing for real. Save at the Wing Ceremony Save Prompt, or escape the tutorial thanks to your newly gained diving ability. File 1 can now access the Loftwing Tutorial in BiT and dive to the Faron Light Pillar.
Video forthcoming
Instead of using File Duping, BiTSaving File 3 on the Emerald Tablet Save Prompt and then doing a standard RBW into the Sky is also a possibility, although it is slower.
Method 3 - Bed Trick to the Surface
This setup takes longer than the others. It requires already having access to Faron. In this method, we will unlock the ability to jump off the loftwing on a file that did not save the loftwing yet, and then we will save the loftwing on that file. This will grant us a way to reach the Sky in BiT and be able to dive. Remounting your loftwing in BiT can be used to load story flags, and thus light pillars.
The file setup is the following:
- File 1: Usually the run file
- File 2: Saved anywhere on the Surface where bed trick is possible
- File 3: Hasn't saved the loftwing or done anything that would make saving the loftwing impossible
Now activate BiT. Perform bed trick by starting file 2 and file duping file 3 over file 2. File 2 will now be an early game file on the surface. Now chose to fly to the Sky and go near where the Faron light pillar is supposed to be to trigger a Fi cutscene that unlocks the ability to dive. Now fly to Skyloft and save your loftwing. You can escape the loftwing tutorial thanks to the ability to dive, and save anywhere. You now have a file that has the loftwing tutorial layer and the ability to jump off the loftwing on file 2.
Reaching Faron Woods in BiT
Once we have our file setup correctly, to reach Faron Woods during BiT we can take the following steps:
- Activate BiT.
- Save a file that has the loftwing available at a statue during BiT (we will frequently use the Faron BiT file for this).
- Jump off a platform and call your loftwing.
- Fly into the loading zone for the loftwing tutorial (near the village windmill). Alternately, you can select a later game file while calling your loftwing, then quickly select the Faron BiT file before the fadeout happens. This will automatically load you into the sky, but if you fail to open the file quickly enough, the game will crash.
- If method 1: Fly the loftwing to the base of the Eldin Light Pillar. You must also fly to the base of the pillar; you cannot dive off your loftwing, but hitting the base of the pillar will automatically jump you off your loftwing. This is interpreted as your first visit to the surface, which automatically loads you into the Sealed Grounds in Faron.
- If method 2: Dive to the Faron Light Pillar
- If method 3: Immediately jump off your loftwing and remount it while selecting a file that has the Faron light pillar opened. Then dive to the Faron light pillar (which is invisible)
- Note that you will not be able to dash until you finish scrolling through the tutorial text, but don't scroll through too quickly or you will activate the cutscene at the end of the tutorial before reaching the light pillar.
Reaching Faron Woods itself requires either going through the Sealed Temple, or climbing a log to access the Behind the Temple area directly. The log is generally used for this purpose; BiTMagic can be used to have the log pushed down.
Uses
Faron Back in Time is slow to access, meaning that the only tricks that employ it are ones that skip a significant portion of the game. These tricks are possible via Faron BiT:
BiT in Other Areas
Discovered by azer67
Both the Lanayru Light pillar and the Thunderhead are very far from within the boundaries you have access to during Back in Time, and as such you cannot simply dive to them. However, using the Groosenator in Back in Time, it is possible to launch yourself to both Lanayru and the Thunderhead. The file setup is the following:
- File 1: Run File
- File 2: Faron BiT enabled File
- File 3: File that has obtained all 3 parts of the Song of the Hero as well as beaten the Fire Sanctuary (all of this is necessary for the Groosenator) and that is saved in the Sealed Grounds.
If File 3 isn't saved in the Sealed Grounds, it will still work if you are saved in an area with scene flag 9x80 that, in the Sealed Grounds, corresponds to the Impa Text after beating the Imprisoned 3. (Check the Scene Flag documentation sheet).
Once the setup is ready, follow the next steps:
- Activate BiT.
- Go to Faron in Back in Time.
- Enter the Light Pillar in Back in Time with File 3 selected.
- BiTMagic the needed flag for the Groosenator with File 3.
- Talk to Groose with File 3 selected.
- Select going to the Shipyard for Lanayru BiT, and to Bug Heaven for Thunderhead BiT.
This allows for entering many new areas within BiT: The Thunderhead and the Isle of Songs, the entirety of the Sand Sea (except for the Sandship and the Pirate Stronghold Interior), the Lanayru Caves and the Lanayru Mines.
Since this requires all 3 song of the hero parts, this is generally not considered very useful.
Note: Attempting to go to the Thrill Digger Cave in Eldin will crash your game. Attempting to go to Fun Fun Island or to Bamboo Island without selecting the Faron BiT enabled file will crash your game. With a slightly different file setup it is possible to get launched to Flooded Faron Woods as well in Back in Time. This however also crashes the game
Miscellaneous
Light Pillar Interactions
- When loading into the sky, only the pillar that have been opened on the file that entered the Sky will visually appear. However, if you update story flag information from another file (usually by mounting your loftwing) then you can fly to the pillars that file opened, even if they are visually not there.
- When it's NOT the first time entering a pillar cutscene: both when entering the light pillar and at some point when Link gets past the clouds while diving into it, the game will check story flag information to know if it should make the statue selection screen appear. This screen crashes Back in Time and should be avoided. The statue selection screen will appear if you've watched the Sealed Grounds introductory cutscene for Faron, the Eldin introductory cutscene for Eldin, and the Lanayru Mines introductory cutscene for Lanayru. If you never check a statue you will also be able to avoid the statue selection screen.
- Which stage to load after entering a light pillar is determined by the file that mounted the loftwing last, or the one that was used to enter the sky with if that did not happen. This is important to be able to Reverse BiTWarp into Bokoblin Base, or to enter the Sealed Grounds with the Goddess Statue instead of the Sealed Grounds with the Spiral.
Death in Faron BiT
Anywhere but on Skyloft (where dying always respawns you on layer 28 anyway), death can be used as a reload of the area, and can be useful combined with BiTMagic.
When you die, the story flags read at the start of the death cutscene will be frozen and used to determine the layer of the area when you respawn. However if you select another file before pressing continue, the game will load the scene flags from that file instead. This desync of information is not exclusive to dying, but because dying reloads the area, it can be used to cause some environmental changes in Back in Time, that normally require a reload, using a file that is not saved in the same area.
The main use for this is to load the Water Scale Trial Gate in Back in Time without having a file that has opened the Water Scale Trial gate legitimately. Make sure one of your files has the flag for the trial gate to be opened (3x02), then go to Faron in Back in Time. Now commit the story flags from a file that has Faron Woods layer 3 (required for the trial gate to appear, commit by saving for exemple) and die with it selected. Before pressing continue but after dying, select the file with scene flag 3x02. Then press continue. You will respawn in Faron Woods layer 3, with the scene flags from the file selected before you pressed continue committed. And because death acts like a reload of the area, the Water Scale Trial Gate will be opened.
