Wind Waker Any % Speedrun (japanese /w tuner)

July 11th 2013 (Day 1)

I recently began speedrunning The Legend of Zelda : The Wind Waker /w the Tingle Tuner. I'm currently playing on the english version, but I'm going to switch to the japanese one as soon as I recieve it, because the text scrolls way faster, so it saves time.

For now, I'm just learning the Any % route and there is a lot to remember/memorize/practice/experiment. A whole hell of a lot. This game, when speedran, takes about 4:32 (WR) to 4:45 hours to beat. That's when your run is actually very good. So, just imagine this, 4:30-4:45 hours of gameplay with tons of super hards trick back to back, yes my friend, that's the start of a new adventure/challenge for the Xelna you know!

Read next post to keep track of my progress!

Information about the various tricks in this game : zeldaspeedruns.com/

11th July 2013 (Day 1 : Learning & Practice)

I decided to jump into Zelda Wind Waker because, first of all, this game is really cool and there's lot of stuff to do and it's hard, I like challenges.

I started the game and played through the first parts. I finished Outset Island, Pirate Ship, Forsaken Fortress and Windfall Island. My first day came to an end on the Dragon Roost Island. While doing all that stuff, I was watching the game's top players' best run and tried to replicate what they did. At first I thought ''omg I'm really bad'', but after maybe 2 hours of practice, I kinda got the hang of it. Sure, it's only the beginning of the game and you might think, well it's should be easy. Well yeah, it's only the easy part...


Outset Island : This part isn't really difficult, just roll as much as you can to save time, etc. I'm gonna end up playing this part sooo many times. Didn't take me much time to get used to it.

Pirate Ship : I was watching the WR run on YouTube and thought... I shouldn't have any problem with the ropes part. But then, I tried it and kept falling down because I let go the ropes to late, thus giving me a big swing. I kept trying it and realized it's super easy if you let them go early.

Forsaken Fortress : Omg... The guards kept catching me and throwing me in jail. You're supposed to do this trick with the barrel that confuses the guard and make them not see you as far as before, but they were still getting me. I got this trick maybe twice out of 15 runs, will practice some more, though. Also, the window jump trick annoyed me at first, but then I realized I wasn't roll jumping off the edge, that's why I was failing. Rest is kinda easy.

Windfall : No hard tricks there, just need to collect some rupees and buy the sail from that guy. I always forget I have to get some rupees to buy it, then save some for some later tricks with the Tingle Tuner. Overall, fun and relaxing part, but again, my guess is that I'll end up playing that part so much too. Off the sea we go, direction Dragon Roost Cavern, grabbing some rupees on our way there! Yeah... A boat ramming into floating barrels and getting rupees on its way...


12th July 2013 (Day 2 : from start of Dragon Roost Island to start of Forbidden Woods, learning and practicing)

Dragon Roost Island : This island isn't really difficult until you enter the cavern (1st dungeon). Oh boy... Sure, walking around and talking to people in order to gain entrance to the dungeon is hella easy and boring, but then, geez! So, I open my Gameboy Advance SP (Tingle Tuner), call Tingle to buy a bomb from him (10 ruppes). I lower my health to 1/4 heart, then explode myself with the bomb, so I'm dead. I do that Zombie Hovering trick to gain height air-slashing like crazy. To do this trick, you need to kill yourself, then as Link gets back up, you have a very few frames to hold L, and mash B+A at the same time. If you get it right, Link will ground air slash and lift from the ground. From then on, you only need to mash B, but like CRAZY super fast. If it's not fast enough, you won't gain height and if you touch the ground, you and your run die. I practice this a lot of times and since I was totally not used to mashing that fast, my arm now hurts. Plus, you have to mash super fast and select some stuff on your Gameboy Advance SP at the same time, because when you reach the upoper floor, you need to heal yourself (with the Gameboy) to avoid death. Anyways, once I got up there after like 15 million tries, I got the grapple hook. Man I hate that fight to save Medli. Then, I re-entered the cave and got Storage off a ledge (click the link on 1st post to know what I'm talking about), opened the chest, ran up the wall and glitched my way through the boss door without the boss key. Anyways, finished Dragon Roost Island, got new storage off a ledge and attempted my first superswim.

Since you earned camera lock from storage, you hold up and your camera rotâtes like crazy. You can charge your super swim speed like that and the only limit is your air meter. That's right, we're travelling on the sea without our boat. At first I kept failing my superswims because... I was just so bad and I couldn't maintain a good angle (your angle needs to be good in order to reach the island you want, because every time your turn your camera, your speed diminishes). Took me like 20 tries before I even made it to the island I was aiming for, either because I didn't have enough speed or my angle was ugly. Finally reach Bird's Peak island after like an hour (lol). Took another 30 min to figure out how to clip through the blocking grid (go through the wall). Finally got it, jumped in the hole, played the Wind's Requiem in order to spawn the chest with a triforce chart in it (will need it way later in the speedrun).

Then, I needed to get storage again, but this time I had to make that tree push me off the ledge and I didn't know how to do it (like what buttons/joystick angle). Watching a video doesn't help because you can't see the runner's hands... I serach all over the Internet and couldn't find anything. Finally, figured out that you need to hold joystick forward to hit the tree, which will make you bounce backwards (weird, huh?). Yeah, you need to always fall off a ledge to get Storage. And this time, I need to get it twice in a very short amount of time, before it turns night. Got it, then supersim to Forest Haven, not too hard, got it first try.


Forest Haven : I missed the ledge grab to the merchand boat like 3 times before eventually getting it. You need to set your angle really precisely. Did a Wind Waker dive (dive with the Wind Waker mode). This trick allowed me to swim Under the surface of the water and reach the inner Forest Haven's loading zone without going all around the island and waste a bunch of time. I was actually surprised I pulled the trick that fast. Then, did all the stuff I needed to do and made my way up to the leaf, easy. It's possible to skip a bulb by abusing the collision of the leaves the Leaf item is sitting on. Lmao. If you're still reading, thanks! Finally, made my way to the 2nd dungeon, called the Forbidden Woods using the leaf and the Tingle Balloon, another item you can buy using your Gameboy Advance (Tingle Shop). This item costs 30 rupees. That whole forest part was a lot of fun to speedrun. The tricks are really cool.

And here I am after day 2! The beginning of Forbidden Woods.