break the game.
Glitches
Glitches are what make a speedrun a speedrun. They are usually errors within the game that cause unexpected behavior and enable the player to enter an uninteded state. Wind Waker has a ton of fun tricks of varying difficulty to try. In speedrunning, they enable a player to beat the game faster. The Wind Waker contains many of the same name glitches between versions but are often carried out differently due to slight changes between versions.
Actor unloading is a glitch where certain game objects or entities (called "actors") are made to stop existing or "unload" from the game. This technique is used to skip portions of the game, such as cutscenes, scripted events, or enemy encounters, to save time.
Actors in Wind Waker are things like NPCs, enemies, chests, or interactive objects that are part of the game world (like doors). Actor unloading works by manipulating the game's internal logic to make these actors disappear or stop functioning, often in ways the developers did not intend.
Barrier Skip is a sequence break glitch in which the player can clip past the barrier encompassing Hyrule Castle. This skips the need to activate all the flags that are required to break the barrier and gives the player access to the dungeon Ganon's Tower early.
There are two parts to a barrier skip, the visible barrier and invisible barrier. There are several methods to execute barrier skip, but the most common are through Bomb Clips (Gamecube) and Item Sliding (HD).
Cutscene skip is a glitch that allows players to bypass or avoid watching in-game cutscenes. Cutscenes are pre-scripted scenes that usually provide story details, but in speedrunning, they are typically avoided to save time.
Cutscenes can be avoided using various methods. Runners may use precise timing/movement, avoiding trigger conditions, exploits, etc.
Bomb Boosting is a glitch used to gain extra height or distance by using bombs. This technique exploits the game's mechanics in a way that allows Link to be launched into the air or across gaps by the explosion of a bomb.
It is often used to skip over sections of the game or access things out of order. The use of bomb boosts can cut out time consuming tasks in the game and save time.
Island Hopping is a difficult application of the "Item Sliding" glitch. If you charge up an Item Slide for long enough and release your speed with the correct timing, you can hop between islands on the overworld saving time on sailing or superswimming.
Since there are no visual or auditory cues for this timing a metronome is usually used to consistnetly time Island Hops. This glitch is only executed in the HD version.
Item sliding is one of the most powerful glitches and enables the execution of additional fun tricks. It allows the player to gain speed indefinitely at an exponential rate.
While a player moves in one diection and then tries to walk in the opposite direction, speed increases exponentially. While a useful movement glitch, it allows the player to reach speed values high enough to crash the game if it is released too late or charged for too long. This glitch is only available on Wind Waker HD.
Leaf Pumping is a technique that allows you to maintain height while gliding with the deku leaf item by quickly and repeatedly pulling out and canceling the deku leaf. This makes it possible to reach ledges that would otherwise be out of reach.
Cancelling is performed by quickly alternating the "A" button and item button. At the end of the desired travel, the player can grab a ledge by pressing "A" to cancel and tilt the character forward with the joystick.
Ledge clipping is a technique used to pass through walls, ledges, or other solid surfaces. It is often used to access restricted areas or skip parts of the game.
By placing an object (such as Medli, Makar, an orb, statue, bombs, a pot, etc.) near the point where a ledge and wall meet (typically at a right angle), it is possible to clip Link through the vast majority of walls in the game. Pause buffering is often used for a more accurate execution of the glitch.
Roll Clipping is a glitch which allows you to roll through some walls from climbing up a ledge. Like other glitches, it allows the player to access restricted areas or skip sections.
Roll Clipping is done by being partway inside of a wall while hanging on a ledge. After climbing up the ledge, there is a single frame in which you must roll towards to wall to pass through it. In the Wind Waker HD version, the character will perform a jump after rolling which may or may not be beneficial depending on the situation.
Storage is a glitch that affects the next event that occurs. In Wind Waker, a flag is used to know if Link is in a cutscene or in gameplay called the "Storage flag". It is set to 1 when Link is in a cutscene, and to 0 when in gameplay. It is said that Link has Storage when Link has the storage flag set to 1 (in cutscene) while in gameplay.
When you have Storage and enter an event, the storage flag that is abnormaly set to 1 will change to 0. This allows Link to be in a gameplay state during cutscenes and we say that the event was "stored". Storage can be obtained with various functions:
This glitch allows various tricks and glitches that are listed below, such as cancelling cutscenes, or moving with textboxes on screen for exemple. This glitch is only available in the GameCube version.
Super Swimming is a glitch used to travel across the map in record times by abusing the swimming mechanics in Wind Waker. This glitch not only allows quicker movement speed but sequence breaking too.
In the game, changing the character’s direction on every other frame of his swiming animation causes backward speed units to build up. Releasing the speed units will result in fast movement across the Great Sea. There are several methods to super swim:
In some instances, an Extended Super Swim (ESS) can be performed. This allows the glitch to last a long duration/distance. This glitch is possible in both versions of Wind Waker but the execution for them is completely different in each version. HD utilizes the item sliding glitch and GC relies on storage.
Wind Waker Diving is a glitch that allows you to plummet downward by activating a cutscene just as you are about to fall. This can be done with any item that has a cutscene, but the Wind Waker is preferred, as the duration of the dive can be controlled.
This can be used to "dive" underwater and swim beneath islands, but is more commonly used for the storage glitch. It can also be used to dive into the void without being warped to the start of the room. The glitch is noramlly performed with a ledge grab cancel using the wind waker.
Zombie hovering is a glitch that allows the player to gain infinite height as long as there is no interuption. The glitch is only able to executed a moment before death. This allows for section skips and shortcuts.
The zombie hover abuses the jumpslash animation to rise higher and slightly forward in the air. Execution is done by rapidly mashing the B button as soon as the character dies. In order to continue playing after gaining height, the player must restore the character's health via the tingle tuner item, fairies, or enemy drops.