Moon Jump Resources

Moon jump (MJ) is not a glitch in vanilla Twilight Princess: It is a cheat code that gives Link upward speed when the player presses R + A. This page includes resources for tricks used in moon jump speedrun categories that aren't relevant to speedruns without the cheat code.

──── General ────

This page contains many of the videos on ChrisIsAwesome's playlist, but some videos on the playlist aren't included.

General movement

It's important to be familiar with movement speeds for Link's various movement options and long jump attack speeds when deciding how to use moon jump. Full speed LJAs are often the best option when possible, but sometimes setting up for a full speed LJA takes long enough that a sidehop, normal jump attack, or even forward jump ends up faster and/or safer. Enemy LJAs can be worthwhile when the boomerang isn't available. This page generally won't include descriptions of moon jump strategies that are as simple as picking a visual cue.

Fall damage

See this page for detailed information on when Link will take fall damage. This is very important information to be familiar with for moon jump speedruns.

Howling stone alternate exits

The hidden skill map always contains the collision and load zones for the platforms Link stands on when he enters through the various howling stones in the overworld. With moon jump, it's possible to enter the map with one howling stone, carefully jump to the platform for another howling stone, and exit back to the overworld from the new howling stone. This requires first moon jumping high enough that the golden wolf unloads, which makes it possible to enter first person and line up the jump.

This spreadsheet calculates setups for howling stone alternate exits given the starting coordinates and angle and ending coordinates. The blue rows are the results; e.g. for the alternate exit from Sacred Grove to Snowpeak, the goal angle is 32042, and a way to reach the platform is to B attack (30 speed) and hold moon jump for 19.6 seconds before releasing it, or alternatively to jump attack (26 speed) and hold moon jump for 22.6 seconds before releasing it. These can be timed using your speedrun timer. These setups ideally make Link land in the destination load zone, as landing elsewhere on the platform will deal 4 hearts of fall damage.

Examples

Door trick

Moon jump between Link opening a door in a dungeon and him trying to run forwards to the next room, then release moon jump to allow him to land. (If you don't allow him to land, he'll end up stuck and unable to void out, so you'll need to savewarp.) This leaves Link out of bounds when the new room loads. From here, depending on context, it may be useful to let Link drop into water or moon jump further to land on a higher platform or jumpslash out of bounds or onto the door frame. For example:

Poe text skip

MJ interrupts the poe soul ripping animation, allowing Link to warp away before the text comes up. However, it is possible to warp away too early and not get the soul. A good approach is to only go through with the warp if the soul ripping sound effect plays while the map opens, as this means you'll never warp away without the poe soul counting. If the sound effect doesn't play while the map opens, you probably opened the map too early, though there is one frame where choosing to warp will let the sound effect play on the frame between the map closing and the warp beginning, which does count the poe soul. Opening the map on the last possible frame before the poe soul text begins fails to warp and gives Map Glitch instead. There is a 5f window to successfully warp away with the poe soul still counting, including the frame before the sound effect plays but not including the Map Glitch frame.

Moon Jump Midna Dive (MMD)

discovered by Lise_G

After moon jumping high up while talking to Midna, Link can fall so quickly that, with the correct spacing, he can ignore floors. Since the spacing depends on the height difference between Link's highest point and the floor, MMD setups usually involve standing in a certain place and releasing moon jump at a specific time, or after a certain time if Link just needs to reach a ceiling. Timing moon jump can be done with cues from the Midna text, the run timer, a metronome, or other things.

──── Early game ────

Early Ordon orange rupee

This strategy is inconsistent because of the roof's slope.

Sewers skip

Jump attack MJ over the load zone; don't go to far or Link will fall back in bounds. Walk to the right side of the far end of the tunnel and aim Link towards the end of the sewers by looking at the minimap. Jump attack to the end.

Post-sewers Midna text

──── Eldin ────

LJA to Kakariko Village

This LJA needs to be aligned well to load the piece of the map linking Faron Field to the Gorge. It also needs to go high in the air to avoid an invisible wall, so it will deal two hearts of fall damage.

LJA from Kakariko Village to Gorge portal

Elde Inn sidehop

Death Mountain Trail LJA

  1. Enter DMT from the back load zone that doesn't trigger a cutscene upon load (there's surely a setup from the cutscene load as well, but not this one)
  2. Backflip
  3. Target the boomerang between the dark and light splotches shown
  4. LJA
  5. MJ beneath the first rock overhang (don't just hold MJ); flick control stick to fix the camera
  6. Land where the poe is later, and get to the downward slope shown while waiting for the boomerang to return
  7. LJA again towards the howling stone

Shown at 39:00.

Enter Goron Mines

──── Lanayru ────

Enter Lakebed Temple with MMD

This can be done even with high water.

Louise skip

Ice cave puzzle skips

It's faster to use the B&C to break the ice if you have it.

──── Snowpeak ────

Snowboarding Skip

Saves ~40s over LJAing to Yeto and then snowboarding with moon jump.

  1. Open the door while facing the left corner (not super precise) for angle 64926 after walking through the door
  2. C-up rang cancel while holding down for angle 7390
  3. Dry roll x3; it doesn't matter whether these are chained or not
  4. Item wheel buffer to angle 57566 using tree branches in top right as visual cue (long bottom and short top visible, no more, no less)
  5. Dry roll x2; same as before, doesn't matter if they're chained, this is just to get Link to the low area
  6. C-up and aim the rang down until you can target the ground; this still works if you target lower than the absolute highest point that works, but the highest point gives you the most frames (10) to start the LJA without risking losing the angle
  7. Target any number of times
  8. Throw rang and LJA as soon as possible
  9. For bonus points (not shown in video), to void out asap after hitting the respawn trigger, hold moon jump from the beginning of the LJA until the yellow triangle on the minimap is halfway intro the gap between green areas near the end of the minimap, then release moon jump
  10. Can also skip the Midna text after respawning by moon jumping and jumpslashing

The boomerang appears to go directly away from Link until it reaches the targets, so LJAing on any of these frames (up to 10 or so if you target as high as possible) will give you the same angle, and that angle works. On the frame the boomerang reaches the targets, it changes to an angle that doesn't work, and then starting on the frame after it changes back to the working angle. But LJAing within the first 10 possible frames is easy enough to do consistently.

(I found a couple other setups before this one that involved less rolling, but they had 3-4f windows for LJAing, so this setup sacrifices a second or two to expand the frame window to something very comfortable. I think one of those setups was open door on right side, roll, JA autospin, angle buffer to 577xx, throw rang without targeting.)

──── Desert ────

Cave of Ordeals floor skips

Example at 5:32:27.

Getting out of bounds

This can be done on any floor after a fairy floor. f21-f32 is the longest stretch without poes.

  1. Align cardinally on f20 and sidehop into the right wall
  2. Roll forward to grab the ledge
  3. Stand up and slash turn right (target first to make sure camera is cardinally aligned)
  4. Aim clawshot at lowest point on medallion (how high you aim determines Link's facing angle)
  5. Shoot the clawshot and MJ between it reaching the medallion and Link reaching it to clip through the ceiling
  6. Soon after clipping, press A -> B to cancel the clawshot and start a jumpslash
  7. Tap MJ seven times once per second or so to land on the door to f22
Further floor skips

This setup takes advantage of Link losing speed midair during a jump when the control stick is neutral to make it so he's moving very slowly by the time he's over top of the next door.

  1. Stand near the corner of the door (not too close to the edge or Link will fall instead of jumping)
  2. Aim the leftmost point of the clawshot reticle at the visible upper left corner of the next room
  3. Hold up to jump off the door
  4. Continue holding up until the camera moves through the wall texture and Link becomes visible again (maybe half a second), then release to neutral
  5. Tap MJ to keep Link out of bounds; put on the iron boots at some point so that the taps don't make Link go so high that he'll take fall damage upon landing
  6. When the yellow triangle on the minimap is roughly cut in half by the wall of the narrow passageway to the next floor on the minimap, stop MJing to land on the door; err on the side of doing extra MJ taps instead of fewer because if you release to neutral at the right time in step 4, Link will come to a nearly complete stop over the door
  7. When approaching the floor you want to return in bounds on, aim the left endpoint of the right line of the clawshot reticle at the same room corner described in step 2, then cancel first person and jump straight forwards to land beyond the next door; alternatively, for safety, do the normal skip to the door

──── Forest Temple ────

West wing heart piece strategies

──── Goron Mines ────

First room LJA

MJ in the narrow gap between the platform and the ceiling.

LJA to magnetic ceiling room

Moon jump to first HP

Dangoro skip

Getting past the shortcut room gate makes it possible to get the bow and third key shard without fighting Dangoro.

  1. (Skip grabbing the gate on purpose - the video does this unnecessarily)
  2. Hold MJ without holding up so Link doesn't grab
  3. Hold up and release MJ immediately afterwards; up and MJ should overlap for 1 frame; if they don't overlap, Link will grab the gate, and if they overlap longer, Link will pop up and crush void
  4. If done correctly, Link will grab through the stone ceiling instead of the top of the gate
  5. Climb left at least twice, then press A to pop up (the video holds up to climb, which is slower)
  6. Target and hold up to run/roll off

An easier but slightly slower alternative for steps 1-4 is to MJ and grab the gate, pull the item wheel, MJ with the item wheel open (always give 1 frame of MJ after closing the item wheel), then close the item wheel to automatically grab through the stone ceiling (no control stick input required). Then carry on from step 5.

──── Arbiter's grounds ────

Claw jump to poe 2

Clawshot onto the medallion and begin moon jumping as Link approaches it. This will make Link ignore the ceiling. Cancel the clawshot when Link is above the room, then jumpslash across to the door.

Poe Gate Skip with MMD

Stallord Skip with MMD

──── Snowpeak Ruins ────

Chapel cutscene skip

MJ while Link has turned to look at the door closing behind him, then jump attack out of the cutscene trigger. This skips the long intro cutscene and leaves the door to the bedroom key unlocked. If savewarping from the bedroom key, this skips the entire chilfos fight. If leaving normally after the bedroom key, get the key before killing the final chilfos, then moon jump towards the door during the cutscene of it opening.

Shown at 31:44.

Yeto cutscene skip

During Midna's last text box before the 1-framer, moon jump all the way to the ceiling with 1 heart or less. Clear the text box, then release moon jump frame perfectly so Link lands and dies on the 1-framer. This skips the cutscene with Yeto and Yeta. One way to time this is to set a metronome at 449bpm, press B on beat 1 to close the text box, and press and hold B again on beat 17 (which is equivalent to beat 9 if counting in twos, or beat 5 if counting in fours) to override the moon jump inputs and fall.

──── Temple of Time ────

Staircase skips

Use door trick with iron boots on to jumpslash onto the door frame out of bounds. Time pressing B and holding L when the door closes. Jumpslashing at the wrong time can make Link fall out of bounds, land on the door frame in bounds and crush void, or land entirely in bounds in the next room.

Boss key without clearing room

Like a standard door trick, MJ when Link finishes pushing the door up. However, in this case, MJ can only be active for a maximum of 2 frames before it causes Link to get stuck and forces a savewarp, so this is risky. If successful, jumpslash beneath the room to the boss key, then crush void on top of the torch to respawn outside the boss key room.

Shown at 59:08.

──── City in the Sky ────

Claw jump to Aeralfos

At the lower door from the first room in the east wing, clawshot onto the medallion and begin moon jumping as Link approaches it. This will make Link ignore the ceiling. Cancel the clawshot when Link is above the room, then jumpslash across to Aeralfos.

Shown at 1:38:16

──── Hyrule Castle ────

Boss key cutscene skip

The best way out of the boss key area with the gate down is death warping, so prepare by damaging down. Getting to the boss key with this setup costs 2 hearts.

  1. From the small key chest, dry roll twice, then sidehop right
  2. Target the boomerang near the top of the wall just to the right of the corner of the tower in the distance housing the boss key chest
  3. LJA and hold moon jump until the two slits at the top of the boss key tower hit the bottom of the screen, then release (flick control stick to make the camera behave)
  4. Link should land in the boss key area and take 2 hearts of damage
  5. Get the boss key, then deathwarp to escape

Shown at 2:09:57

Final tower skip

Dry roll and tap right to adjust Link's angle partway through, then sidehop left and tap MJ repeatedly to fit Link into the gap in the wall.

Shown at 2:11:03

Last updated 05/20/2026 – bewildebeest