Title Screen Glitch (Back in Time)

Discovered by mzxrules

Description

In both The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, whenever you reset the game, the game will continue to run in the background for a few more seconds while the screen slowly fades to black or white, before dumping the current game and loading the title screen sequence. In Twilight Princess, it was discovered that if you were to fall in quicksand and reset the game at just the right moment, the event that respawns Link will fire while the title screen is loading, allowing you to play on the title screen map.

However, there are a few key differences between the two games. Unlike in Twilight Princess, it's possible spawn in places other than the title screen. And thanks to Storage, it's possible to bring back an item with you.

The trick is also referred to as the Back in Time (BiT) glitch.

Title Screen Glitch w/ Void-out

Drowning Method

  1. Jump into any sort of deep water
  2. Wait until Link's water gauge is just about completely empty
  3. Reset the game.

Out of Bounds Method

  1. Find a void or pit that will reset the area if fallen into
  2. Jump into it
  3. Reset the game just as Link drops just below the height he started his jump at

Notes

  • If done correctly, you'll hear the sound that plays whenever Link is crushed or goes out of bounds as the screen fades away.
  • The correct timing will change if you use a jump attack mid air.

Title Screen Glitch w/ Death

Discovered by Paraxade

Kill yourself on any map, and when prompted to continue choose Yes. Then simply press and hold B + X + Start to activate the glitch. Unlike the other methods, this doesn't require you to be nearly perfect.

Effects

The game respawns you at Outset Island if you did the Title Screen Glitch by voiding-out, and at your savewarp location if you did the dying method of the Title Screen Glitch. If you did the void-out method, you will spawn on the sea_T map, on which the only island is Outset Island. If you did the dying method to spawn back on Outset for exemple, you will spawn on the normal sea map, which means you can in theory perform an unbuffered manual superswim to go to other islands. When you leave the Outset quadrant on the normal sea map, the title will disappear and you will be allowed to press A and B as many times as you want.

No matter the method you used, when you respawn, it is believed that all of the previous game data is dumped from memory and overwritten with the game data used for "Title Screen" Link. Within about 4 seconds after respawning, the King of Red Lions appears, starting the title sequence (and for some reason will cause the minimap texture to "sail" off the screen). This leaves you with only about 10 seconds to use one Start/A/B button press without bringing up the file select screen. The pause menu will also take priority over the game going to the file select screen so this gives you a 2nd pause if you wish.

Link start out with full health, and is completely mute for some reason during the glitch.

All triggers leading into the houses appear to lead to nowhere, and only causes Link to get stuck in the transition animation between houses. The entrance to Jabun can be reached by swimming, but trying to enter it also causes Link to get stuck. Drowning in the ocean, or entering Beetle's shop causes the game to think that the first title sequence has ended, and plays the opening story, ending the glitch.

Uses

Using this glitch, it is possible to get rupees, heart pieces, small keys, wind waker, the sail, or magic early, among other things. There are 2 ways to make use of BiT:

  • After performing BiT, perform any action and then save the game. The file that performed BiT will get replaced by a file where Link is on Outset with no item and no flag triggered, other than for everything you did on the title screen. That can be used to get the Wind Waker or the Sail for exemple.
  • Another way to transfer items to the title screen Link is to open a chest/obtain an item with storage and then activate BiT without reloading the area. If the chest contained rupees, a heart piece, magic or a small key, that item will be given to the title screen Link, and after saving you will have obtained that item much earlier than intended. Because of how small keys are registered, you can obtain up to 14 small keys in DRC using this glitch and the fact that you can transfer keys between dungeons. Unfortunately, main inventory items can't be obtained early that way, but it does work to get the magic meter.

To save the game after performing BiT, you must either die which will make a save prompt appear, or you must press start before the title appears on screen which will open your pause menu. On the pause menu you can save your game.

Dying on the Title Screen on Outset

Discovered by GlitchesandStuff

When BiT is preformed by voiding-out, you end up on a special Outset stage, where the collision and actors are different from the usual stage. For example, you can climb up steep surfaces that you couldn't otherwise climb up. Another important thing to note is that some ledges, that Link would normally fall off when attempting to jump off them, can be overcome in BiT. This allows you to jump from the bottom of the well to its roof. To do so, position yourself sideways as close to the edge of the well as possible so it looks like Link has one foot standing suspended in the air. From here, use C-up to align the second "2" of the "2002" on the title screen text with the left edge of the well, and the top of the "TM" part of the title screen text with the top edge of the well. Once you have this angle, hold L to get out of C-up mode and simply jump.

This is one method of dying while in the BiT title screen on Outset. Some other method involves taking damage from small pots.Tthe "Game Over" screen overwrites the Title screen sequence, allowing you to save after the title appears on screen.

Last updated 05/03/2023 – azer67