History

This page contains information about the history of Twilight Princess HD Speedrunning, as well as some other notable dates and occasions.

Tricks and Glitch Discoveries

General Terminology/Notes:

  • Hyperlinks of times go to YouTube or Twitch videos of those runs. If there is no hyperlink or the hyperlink is dead, that run has probably been lost to history (which is something that happens a surprising amount, actually)
  • When multiple "world records" occurred on the same day and the order in which they occurred cannot be easily determined, the only one listed is the best run achieved on that day. I think the only situation where this happened is when Mofat and Taka both got 4:2x:xx times on March 5, 2016. Mofat got a 4:28:56, and Taka got a 4:23:44. Only Taka's time is listed below because it's not obvious which run happened first
  • Because this record history was initially put together in 2018, to the extent that world records were lost to history before then, they might not be listed here. For example, there's a very good chance that Awsumi got a world record in Glitchless Master Sword during the 5:35:33 run, but that video is lost to history, so we have no way of knowing for sure (other runs seem to suggest that it was a 2:40-ish time)
  • Temples are colloquially split into two "halves." Halfway is where the dungeon item is. So, for example, the first half of Goron Mines would be up through bow, and the second half of Goron Mines would be from bow through the end of the dungeon
  • KB2 = King Bulblin 2 (the fight on the Great Bridge during Zora Escort)
  • The estimates for how much time a given route saved are estimates, so take them with a grain of salt. Among other things, smaller tricks and their associated timesaves aren't always listed here.
  • Known differences between HD and SD as of April 5, 2016 (anything not listed here was either found later/will be mentioned later or was assumed obvious at the time of writing the pastebin, just never tested due to lack of early route viability)
  • Game Released on March 4, 2016

This section will not list discoveries made prior to the release of the HD version unless they were assumed impossible or needed new setups and later found to be possible.

Major Any% Routes/Discoveries

Original Route (Glitched-Casual Playthrough)

  • Adopted circa March 1, 2016 (early copies)
  • Went through all the dungeons in order, did all the sidequests between dungeons that are required in a casual playthrough, but used LJAs and clips in dungeons
  • Best known time with this route: 6:09:19 by Awsumi on March 4, 2016

Second Route (Early City Route)

  • Adopted circa March 4, 2016
  • Skipped the second half of Snowpeak Ruins, all of Temple of Time, and the Hidden Village/Ancient Sky Book Sequence
  • Saved around an hour or so
  • Best known time with this route: 3:58:14 by Demon on March 12, 2016

Early City in the Sky

  • Main article
  • Discovered by SexyZora19, Paraxade before HD came out
  • Confirmed to actually work in HD (many thought it was patched) by Venick on March 4, 2016
    • Side note: There are a few reasons why people thought this trick didn't work. First of all, Nintendo increased the size of the statue, so the trick is a little harder (though it's still extremely easy). Second of all, people started to like the quick transform function too much and this trick only works if you transform by talking to Midna. Lastly, only a few people had the game because it didn't officially come out until March 4, 2016 (Skyreon had an early copy).
  • Saves an hour (or something like that)

Third Route (Gate Unloading Route)

  • Adopted circa March 14, 2016
  • Skipped several rooms in City in the Sky using HD exclusive Gate Unloading
  • Saved around 45 seconds
  • Best known time with this route: 3:56:41 by Awsumi on March 17, 2016

Gate Unloading

  • Main article
  • Discovered on March 5, 2016 on stream by Mulsqi
  • Figured out on March 14, 2016 by Orcastraw
  • The game can only load one gate actor per power cycle and due to an SD to HD coding oversight, the game does not unload the gate in Lakebed from memory. Therefore, by loading a similar gate in Lakebed, we can skip several long/annoying rooms in City in the Sky to save around 45 seconds

Fourth Route (Fyrus Skip)

  • Adopted circa March 26, 2016
  • Skipped the second half of Goron Mines, beat KB2 with the bow, used Pot Clip to bypass the rock in Lakebed Temple, and stole bombs from Iza with wolf to have necessary bombs for the first half of Arbiters Grounds
  • Saved around 2.5 minutes overall
  • Best known time with this route: 3:49:11 by Gymnast86 on May 7, 2016

Fyrus Skip

  • Main article
  • Discovered by Dragonbane on March 26, 2016
  • By using a milk trick to get below the void plane and exploiting infinitely vertical air triggers for twilights, you can skip beating Fyrus (you previously needed to beat him to break the rocks)
  • Saves around 2.5 minutes (would eventually save far more, but you still needed the bow at this point in time)

Fifth Route (Gauntlet Route)

  • Adopted circa October 9, 2016
  • Got bombs from Iza using Iza Gale and Epona Clip in order to skip the entirety of Goron Mines. Bombs were used instead of the bow to beat KB2.
  • Saved around 9 minutes overall
  • Best known time with this route: 3:40:15 by Pheenoh on March 26, 2017

Epona Clip

Iza Gale

  • Main article
  • Discovered by 60namrruc before HD came out
  • Improved setup by TrogWW around October 9, 2016 (others modified this setup with slight differences when moving it to HD, specifically Pheenoh early on, but all of those are essentially based on TrogWW's setup)
  • Gets to Iza early to save 9 minutes over doing half of Goron Mines

Improvements to Epona Clip

  • Main article
  • Newer setups by Pheenoh and Rasenurns on January 20, 2017 and August 6, 2017, respectively
    • Side note: the upper echelon of HD runners were basically split on these two setups. Both worked pretty well
  • Probably saved like 30 seconds to a minute over the old setup

Sixth Route (Splitting Lanayru)

  • Adopted circa November 19, 2017
  • Used Eldin Twilight Wolf to do the first half of Lanayru Twilight backwards (saved around 30 seconds of movement) and split Lanayru Twilight into one half during Eldin Twilight and the second half after Eldin Twilight. This was also the time when most people adopted the easier Kargorok Out of Bounds Clip
  • Saved around 36 seconds
  • Best known time with this route: 3:40:12 by Jacquaid on June 10, 2018

Eponaless Lanayru Gate Clip

  • Main article
  • Discovered by Rachel before HD came out
  • Consistent method as wolf found by Arbiters Anomalies on August 26, 2016
    • Side note: While it was discovered a long time ago, it wasn't really implemented until around the time the HD All Dungeons category was created, possibly because the presence of the horse threw us off, and also because few people in the HD speedrunning community were really active. A lot of times tricks are discovered early on, but only rediscovered by the speedrunning community years later
  • Saves around 30 seconds of net movement in Lanayru Twilight by allowing us to get the meteor immediately after entering Lanayru Twilight normally

Kargorok Out of Bounds Improvements

  • Main article
  • Discovered by Dragonbane before HD came out
  • Easier clip found by Nitroplay on March 7, 2016 (rediscovered around August 21, 2017)
    • Side note: Yet another one of those things that we just didn't find for like a year+ after it was found. It would have been implemented earlier, but there weren't a lot of high level players running between when this was rediscovered. It was only adopted by any HD runners around the time that the All Dungeons category was created
  • Saves around 6 seconds of movement

Seventh Route (Poe 1 Skip)

  • Adopted circa July 6, 2018
  • Used the new Poe 1 Skip setup to do the first half of Arbiters Grounds backwards
  • This route had been possible before, but Poe 1 Skip was too inconsistent for real runs before the June 2018 setup was discovered
  • Saved around 1:10
  • Best known time with this route: 3:35:28 by Pheenoh on August 9, 2018

Poe 1 Skip

  • Main article
  • Discovered by Venick before HD came out
  • New setup developed by Pheenoh, Hakua, and Jacquaid on July 6, 2018 (setup got a lot better over the course of the next week)
  • Saves around 1 minute by altering the order of the rooms in Arbiters Grounds before the Poe Gate

Improvements to Poe 1 Skip

  • Main article
  • Upwarp method discovered by MrMrMen on August 13, 2018
  • Various setups made by a bunch of different people on the same day
  • Saves around 10 seconds over a good attempt on the old method. Also easier

Eighth Route (KB2 Skip)

  • Adopted circa August 27, 2018
  • Used KB2 Skip to bypass need to beat KB2 (thus need for bombs or bow) for Zora Armor, skipped all of Goron Mines and Epona Clip/Iza Gale Sequence, reintroduced Pot Clip into the route, stole/duped Iza Bombs before Arbiters Grounds as wolf for necessary bombs in Arbiters Grounds
  • Saved around 7.5 minutes overall
  • Best known time with this route: 3:26:31 by Jacquaid on October 2, 2019
    • Honorable Mention: 3:26:43 by Gymnast86 on December 1, 2019. This run was only slower than the record at the time because it didn't use amiibo

KB2 Skip

  • Main article
  • Discovered by MrMrMen on August 27, 2018
  • Saves around 7.5 minutes and eliminates the "gauntlet" (the epona clip/iza gale/kb2 with bombs sequence)
  • By voiding out in the area before fighting KB2, we can skip getting both bombs and bow, which itself saves like 10 minutes, but then due to other route differences from needing bombs eventually and not having them in Lakebed Temple, we only save around 7.5 minutes over the previous major route overall

Ninth Route (Early Snowpeak Route)

  • Adopted circa April 28, 2020
  • Used a precise superjump with a wolfos to bypass the void trigger tied to getting reekfish scent. This allowed skipping reekfish scent, which in turn allowed skipping the post-AG sequence, the bomb bag, and Ordon day 2, as well as putting Snowpeak before AG
  • Saved around 8.5-9 minutes overall
  • Best known time with this route 3:14:54 by D3lighted on November 7, 2022

Early Snowpeak

  • Main article
  • Discovered by Ekke325 on April 26, 2020
  • Modern setup by Gymnast86 found April 28, 2020
  • Saves around 8.5-9 minutes and introduces a new triad of difficult tricks, namely Ordon Gate Clip, Bokoblin Pushing, and Wolfos Jump (Early Snowpeak)

Major All Dungeons Routes/Discoveries

Original Route

  • Adopted circa November 19, 2017 (when the category was made)
  • A play off of the third major Any% route with minor changes:
    • Finished Snowpeak instead of skipping the second half
    • Used Fyrus Skip because it was still faster than watching the Messenger cutscene
    • Used the Lanayru Twilight Splitting from the sixth major Any% route
    • Beat Temple of Time sometime between City in the Sky and Hyrule Castle (order of Temple of Time and Palace of Twilight does not matter)
  • There were a few different routes really early on, but the fastest route known at the time was pretty quickly implemented across all runs, so I'm not going to list a bunch of different tentative routes because we already knew all the strats, but just hadn't implemented them yet
  • Best known time on this route: 4:22:27 by Jacquaid on August 9, 2018 - Part 1 Part 2

Second Route (KB2 Skip Route)

  • Adopted circa August 27, 2018
  • Used the aforementioned KB2 Skip to delay Goron Mines until after Snowpeak (any time after Arbiters Grounds saves a significant amount of time)
  • Saves around 3-4 minutes overall
  • Best known time on this route: 4:12:11 by Jacquaid on July 8, 2019

Third Route (Early Snowpeak Route)

  • Adopted circa April 28, 2020
  • Used the aforementioned Early Snowpeak to basically save all the time Any% does. At this point, we assumed (blame Jacquaid) that getting bombs from Iza would be faster because of Snowpeak and Temple of Time, but we knew for sure that skipping bombs would be slower here than it would be in Any%
  • Saves around 6.5-7 minutes overall
  • Best known time on this route: 4:02:29 by Gymnast86 on August 10, 2020

Early Snowpeak

  • Main article
  • Discovered by Ekke325 on April 26, 2020
  • Modern setup by Gymnast86 found April 28, 2020
  • Saves around 6.5-7 minutes and introduces a new triad of difficult tricks, namely Ordon Gate Clip, Bokoblin Pushing, and Wolfos Jump (Early Snowpeak)

Fourth Route (Ice Boost/No Bombs Route)

  • Adopted circa January 3, 2022
  • After EmberMTZ did some timings, it was discovered that not getting bombs and instead using the staircase clawshot strat in Snowpeak Ruins lobby saves 50s. Using Ice Boost would save an additional 50s
  • Saves around 50s without ice boost and around 1:40 with ice boost
  • There were no new records set on this route, but the fastest run using the staircase clawshot strat was 4:02:36 by D3lighted on September 28, 2022

Ice Boost

  • Theorized by Taka, proven by Simikins on September 30, 2020
  • Saves around 50s over staircase clawshot strat and around 1:40 over getting bombs

Fifth Route (Final Freezard Skip Route)

  • Adopted circa December 10, 2022
  • Dropping from the ladder at a specific time allows us to skip the final freezard in Snowpeak Ruins from the first floor, obviating the need to use ice boost or the staircase clawshot strat
  • Saves around 1 minute over the staircase clawshot strat and around 10s over ice boost
  • Best known time on this route: 4:00:37 by D3lighted on January 5, 2023

Final Freezard Skip

  • Discovered by ChrisIsAwesome on December 10, 2022, video example by Gymnast86
  • Saves around 1 minute over the staircase clawshot strat and around 10s over ice boost

Major Glitchless Any% Routes/Discoveries

First Route (JP Glitchless/Bug Limit Route)

  • This route used the ruleset inherited from SD's old Bug Limit category, which has now been renamed to JP Glitchless. For the most part, SD's modern JP Glitchless ruleset mirrors the original HD Glitchless ruleset, but the SD community has changed that ruleset to clarify a number of issues that arose after (for example, banning brakesliding over sand and snow). Those clarifications were never formally part of the original HD Glitchless ruleset, although many of them were informally adhered to based on assumptions as to what should or should not be considered a glitch (for example, old HD Glitchless runs generally did not do Poe 1 Skip because opening locked doors backwards felt like a glitch, even though it was never formally banned). Some of those assumptions were based on the practices of Draconif, who held the SD Bug Limit record for a long time. The entire ruleset will not be listed here, but you can get an idea of what was or wasn't banned from looking at a combination of the SD JP Glitchless ruleset, Draconif's SD Bug Limit runs, and old HD Glitchless runs
  • For context, the old Bug Limit ruleset was developed by the JP SD community on an ad hoc basis over time, and as a result, many of the rules may not seem consistent. In general, the ruleset allowed bomb boosts, which allowed sequence breaks in dungeons. By contrast, most sequence breaks outside of dungeons were banned. As a stark example, "tunnel warping" in the graveyard before getting zora armor was banned, while using a peahat LJA in City in the Sky to skip several peahats was allowed
  • The old bug limit category developed originally as a no save and quit category, so while saving and quitting is not a "glitch" (as we like to joke), it was banned and remains banned in SD's modern JP Glitchless ruleset
  • Best known time on this route: 5:17:59 by Jacquaid on September 16, 2019

Second Route (New Ruleset)

  • Adopted circa February 6, 2022
  • For a very long time, both HD and SD Glitchless runners were dissatisfied with the old Bug Limit ruleset. Most complaints centered around the no save and quit requirement, leading to jokes about how "savewarping is a glitch," but there were other complaints about the ad hoc, inconsistent nature of the rules. Some people wanted the ruleset to be more permissive and others less
  • After many years of fruitless discussions (that often quickly devolved), real traction was made in late 2021 and early 2022, led in large part by DefinitelyNotFX, who had been running his own ruleset which he called "Glitchless" (as opposed to the existing "Bug Limit"). During these discussions, the SD community opted to create a new, less permissive category called "Glitchless" that allowed savewarps, but banned certain things like bomb boosts. They also clarified the old Bug Limit ruleset and renamed it to "JP Glitchless"
  • The HD community, on the other hand, did not feel like a category split was necessary, and instead changed the existing ruleset to be (generally) more permissive, renaming the category to "Glitchless" in the process. Because of existing leaderboards, the only new bans were minor tricks that were never formally banned, but which nobody had actually done (for example, using the boomerang to LJA off of a keese). As the HD leaderboards had fewer runs, there was more leeway than on SD to introduce new bans without invalidating any runs. The major changes are as follows:
    • Savewarping is now allowed
    • Gate unloading is now allowed
    • Tunnel warping is now allowed
    • Skipping the upper valve in Lakebed is now allowed
    • Skipping certain barriers in Hyrule Castle is now allowed
    • Various things previously assumed banned are now formally banned (but not including brakesliding over sand or snow)
  • Because of the unique nature of the ruleset updates, all three Glitchless rulesets (SD Glitchless, SD JP Glitchless, and HD Glitchless) now have completely different rulesets. But in general, HD Glitchless remains close to something like SD JP Glitchless if it allowed savewarping
  • The rest of the new ruleset will not be listed here, but overall, the new ruleset saves somewhere around 8 minutes
  • Best known time on this route: 5:14:24 by Jacquaid on December 7, 2022

Third Route (Final Freezard Skip Route)

  • Adopted circa December 10, 2022
  • Dropping from the ladder at a specific time allows us to skip the final freezard in Snowpeak Ruins from the first floor, which saves multiple minutes of moving around cannonballs
  • Saves around 3.5 minutes
  • Best known time on this route: 5:03:08 by Jacquaid on October 5, 2023

Final Freezard Skip

  • Discovered by ChrisIsAwesome on December 10, 2022, video example by Gymnast86
  • Saves around 3.5 minutes by avoiding cannonball movement

Any% Records

Current Any% Record

3:14:54 by D3lighted, set November 7, 2022

Progression

All Dungeons Records

Current All Dungeons Record

4:00:37 by D3lighted, set January 5, 2023

Progression

  • November 19, 2017 - 4:46:49 - Tyloxs
  • December 3, 2017 - 4:44:36 - Jacquaid
  • December 8, 2017 - 4:43:06 - Jacquaid
  • December 17, 2017 - 4:37:10 - Tyloxs
  • January 18, 2018 - 4:36:14 - Jacquaid
  • May 23, 2018 - 4:35:26 - Jacquaid
  • July 11, 2018 - 4:31:49 - Jacquaid
  • July 13, 2018 - 4:28:23 - Jacquaid
  • August 9, 2018 - 4:22:27 - Jacquaid - Part 1 Part 2
  • September 21, 2018 - 4:20:28 - Jacquaid
  • January 5, 2019 - 4:19:12 - Jacquaid
  • January 6, 2019 - 4:18:56 - Jacquaid
  • January 8, 2019 - 4:16:49 - Jacquaid
  • March 26, 2019 - 4:15:54 - Jacquaid
  • July 6, 2019 - 4:14:28 - Jacquaid
  • July 7, 2019 - 4:13:44 - Jacquaid
  • July 8, 2019 - 4:12:11 - Jacquaid
  • July 19, 2020 - 4:06:19 - Gymnast86
  • July 25, 2020 - 4:05:14 - Gymnast86
  • July 26, 2020 - 4:03:56 - Gymnast86
  • August 10, 2020 - 4:02:29 - Gymnast86
  • January 5, 2023 - 4:00:37 - D3lighted

100% Records

100% (No Amiibo) Records

Current 100% (No Amiibo) Record

7:18:10 by D3lighted, set May 20, 2021

Progression

100% (Amiibo) Records

Current 100% (Amiibo) Record

7:52:20 by D3lighted, set April 18, 2023

Progression

Glitchless Records

Glitchless Any% Records

Current Glitchless Any% Record

5:03:08 by Jacquaid, set October 5, 2023

Progression

  • March 14, 2016 - 5:47:56 - Awsumi
  • March 17, 2016 - 5:35:33 - Awsumi
  • September 13, 2019 - 5:23:23 - Jacquaid
  • September 14, 2019 - 5:19:19 - Jacquaid
  • September 16, 2019 - 5:17:59 - Jacquaid
  • December 7, 2022 - 5:14:24 - Jacquaid
  • December 10, 2022 - 5:08:36 - Jacquaid
  • December 16, 2022 - 5:05:07 - Jacquaid
  • February 1, 2023 - 5:05:06 - D3lighted
  • October 3, 2023 - 5:04:41 - Jacquaid
  • October 5, 2023 - 5:03:08 - Jacquaid

Glitchless 100% Records

Current Glitchless 100% Record

9:27:49 by HeartPiece, set April 25, 2022

Progression

  • April 25, 2022 - 9:27:49 - HeartPiece

Glitchless (Master Sword) Records

Current Glitchless (Master Sword) Record

2:30:11 by D3lighted, set January 26, 2023

Progression

  • March 14, 2016 - 2:43:14 - Awsumi
  • May 11, 2018 - 2:38:08 - Tyloxs
  • September 6, 2019 - 2:33:53 - Jacquaid
  • September 13, 2019 - 2:33:13 - Jacquaid
  • September 16, 2019 - 2:33:01 - Jacquaid
  • September 19, 2019 - 2:32:46 - Jacquaid
  • June 6, 2022 - 2:32:12 - Onaku
  • December 3, 2022 - 2:31:57 - Jacquaid
  • December 7, 2022 - 2:31:50 - Jacquaid
  • December 15, 2022 - 2:30:16 - Jacquaid
  • January 26, 2023 - 2:30:11 - D3lighted

Goron Mines RTA Records

Special Unreported Times

  • March 12, 2016 - 1:23:12 - Demon
  • March 17, 2016 - 1:23:31 - Awsumi

Current Goron Mines RTA Record

1:14:19 by D3lighted, set March 5, 2023

Progression

  • March 25, 2016 - 1:23:37 - Gymnast86
  • February 9, 2018 - 1:23:20 - Jacquaid
  • June 5, 2018 - 1:22:34 - Tyloxs
  • June 6, 2018 - 1:22:31 - Jacquaid - Part 1 Part 2
  • July 6, 2019 - 1:21:18 - Jacquaid
  • April 27, 2020 - 1:20:53 - Onaku
  • April 27, 2020 - 1:18:46 - Onaku
  • May 9, 2020 - 1:18:05 - Jacquaid
  • September 5, 2020 - 1:16:56 - Jacquaid
  • February 27, 2021 - 1:16:44 - Onaku
  • September 12, 2021 - 1:16:28 - Nephistoss
  • December 10, 2021 - 1:16:05 - Onaku
  • January 22, 2022 - 1:15:52 - Onaku
  • February 13, 2022 - 1:15:13 - Onaku
  • March 5, 2023 - 1:14:19 - D3lighted

Marathon Runs

Summer Games Done Quick 2017 - Any% - by Pheenoh

Trashathon 2017 - Goron Mines RTA - by Tyloxs

ZeldaSpeedRuns Marathon 2018 - Any% Race - by Pheenoh, Jacquaid, Tyloxs, and Justin

ESA Marathon 2018 - Any% - by Onaku

Zelda 3D Remake Relay - Any% Race - by Tyloxs, Onaku, Pheenoh, and Jacquaid

Summer Games Done Quick 2020 - Any% - by Gymnast86

Zelda 3D Remake Relay - Any% Race - by Onaku and TheBeanSeller

Last updated 10/09/2023 – Jacquaid