Speedrun

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A speedrun is a playthrough of a game with the intention of completing it in the shortest amount of time possible. Unlike the Three Heart Challenge, optional upgrades are acceptable but are generally ignored if the amount of time they save is less than the time it takes to obtain them. Most speedrunners attempt to break record times by using a variety of glitches to save time. However, cheating devices, hacks and custom game controllers are generally not allowed. A video of the gameplay is usually required to verify that a record was truly broken. Most record breaking takes place on streaming services in recent years. Sometimes, speedruns are done on emulators, which their use is sometimes allowed.

Community

The speedrun challenge has given rise to its own community consisting of casual and world-class speedrunners and their spectators. Much of the community is hosted on the website Speed Demos Archive (SDA) as well as the live-streaming site Twitch. The SDA forums are often used to discuss route planning and new techniques in order to improve run times. Many speedrunners – especially world-class ones – will stream their runs live to spectators; most do so on Twitch using timing software. Through Twitch, spectators can support runners monetarily by donating or paying for a subscription to the runner's channel. Donors can add comments to their donations which runners will usually read aloud during lulls in the run, or after it is completed. Many speedrunners allow their donors to choose a file name for each run. Twice a year, SDA hosts charity marathons called "Awesome Games Done Quick" (peak winter event) and "Summer Games Done Quick" (off-peak summer event), where world-class speedrunners congregate and live-stream speedruns to elicit donations from viewers.

The Legend of Zelda games are highly contested and constitute some of the most popular games for speedrunning. Zelda speedrunning has its own expansive sub-community. ZeldaSpeedRuns compiles information on speedruns and hosts the series' definitive speedrun leaderboards.

Terminology

Main article: Speedrun/Glossary

Speedrunners evolve unique terminology and abbreviations for each game. It usually refers to important techniques or strategies ("strats"), most of which are exploitative glitches.

Glitches

Most speedruns rely on exploitative glitches and sequence breaks to finish the game quicker. Glitches are a rallying point for the speedrunning community. The discovery of new glitches, usually a result of extensive research by members of the community, can lead to breakthroughs in a run category. This can reignite interest in a "dead" category, resulting in further competition and run improvement. A category "dies" when a strong, decisive record is made that cannot likely be beat. Competition in the category thus wanes until new "strats" or glitches are discovered.

Some Zelda games are more "broken" than others. In Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening, massive sequence-breaking glitches exist that skip most of the game. These games can be completed in a matter of minutes – Link's Awakening can be completed in under 3 minutes; Ocarina of Time in under 20. Games such as The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword feature less drastic skips and still require several hours to complete.

Game Versions

Due to slight design changes between game versions, a specific version of a game will be more desirable than others for speedrunning. Japanese versions are frequently used for Zelda games because there is less text to wait through. (The Japanese writing system utilizes Chinese characters, which are logograms, as well as their own syllabaries. These amount to a smaller volume of text than an equivalent translation written with the Latin alphabet.) Additionally, many speedrunners prefer to play with the NTSC version of the game over the PAL version as it usually runs faster (60Hz versus 50Hz).

For example, the Chinese version of Ocarina of Time for the iQue Player was at one point ideal for any% speedruns. This version has the fastest text and the least lag. It is less suitable for other Ocarina of Time categories because of the iQue's slow start screen. The Japanese version is used for other Ocarina of Time categories.

Categories

Multiple speedrunning categories exist for each game. Each category sets unique conditions under which the run must be completed.

Any% is the standard speedrunning category. The goal is simply to complete the game as quickly as possible, without any conditions.

100% is the second most popular category. Full completion of the game is required in this category. All Heart Containers, songs, inventory and quest items must be obtained. 100% speedruns do not necessarily have to meet any other 100% Completion criteria.

Glitchless runs must be completed without the use of glitches.

Various categories exist that are unique to each game. For example, Majora's Mask features an "All-Masks" category. Ocarina of Time features several unique categories, including "All Dungeons", "Ganonless", "No Wrong Warp", etc.

Current Records

Main article: Speedrun Records

The following is a list of speedrun records for The Legend of Zelda games. For a complete leaderboards that includes all the major speedrun categories, see the ZeldaSpeedRuns leaderboards. All runs listed are single-segment/real-time attack, meaning the run was completed in one take from start to finish.

Speedrun Records

Main Games

Game	Time	Performer	Date	Notes
The Legend of Zelda	27:40	lackattack24	May 26, 2019	Any% (Quest 1, Up+A)
	28:17	lackattack24	March 27, 2019	Any% (Quest 1, No Up+A)
	34:29	lackattack24	May 2, 2018	Any% (Quest 2, No Up+A, No ACE)
	35:24	lackattack24	May 6, 2019	100% (Quest 1, No Up+A)
The Adventure of Link	18:02	Simpoldood	August 5, 2018	Any%
	57:36	Simpoldood	September 22, 2019	Any% - No warps or deaths
	1:13:46	Simpoldood	March 10, 2019	100% - All Keys, 1CC
A Link to the Past	01:31	Lomiig	February 1, 2017	Any%
	1:23:10	Xelna	July 23, 2018	Any% - No major glitches
	1:41:18	Xelna	September 16, 2019	100% - No savewarps, deaths, or out of bounds
Link's Awakening	01:21	Global-Trance	August 15, 2015	Any%
	01:21	GreenTunic	December 22, 2018	Any%
	43:26	aullos	August 21, 2019	Any% - Warpless
	1:05:26	BambooShadow	September 21, 2019	100%
Link's Awakening DX	02:13	SeYsEy	January 29, 2019	Any%
	51:56	vlackSR	July 22, 2019	Any% - No wrong warps, no out of bounds, no save & quit
	1:17:06	Sagaz	June 20, 2019	100%
Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch	1:38:51	Samura1man	September 28, 2019	Any%
Ocarina of Time	16:58	Torje	July 12, 2019	Any%
	3:51:39	zfg	June 29, 2019	100%
Ocarina of Time 3D	37:23	ZeldaCubed	October 24, 2018	Any%
	4:08:58	gymnast86	February 25, 2019	100%
Majora's Mask	48:32	EnNopp112	September 10, 2019	Any%
	1:15:29	EnNopp112	April 24, 2019	Any%, No Text Overflow
	4:35:30	EnNopp112	December 3, 2018	100%
Majora's Mask 3D	1:24:17	Iwabi74	August 5, 2018	Any%
	5:21:34	Iwabi74	March 18, 2019	100%
Oracle of Ages	1:32:28	Sagaz	March 30, 2019	Any%
	2:20:36	Sagaz	August 18, 2019	100%
Oracle of Seasons	54:40	Drenn	July 24, 2019	Any%
	1:38:25	Drenn	January 29, 2019	100%
Four Swords	20:42	legrandgrand and Baffan	July 7, 2016	Any%
Four Swords Anniversary Edition	20:32	golderzoa	December 28, 2018	Any%
	34:50	Mikesky and Tomster	January 31, 2017	Any% (Co-op)
The Wind Waker	1:07:50	Linkus7	September 15, 2019	Any%
	3:48:17	Demon	July 5, 2018	Any% (No Actor Unloading)
	6:35:30	Demon	September 30, 2019	100%
The Wind Waker HD	54:15	Ian_Miles29	March 3, 2019	Any%
	5:34:53	Linkus7	May 13, 2019	100%
Four Swords Adventures	2:02:26	zmaster91	July 16, 2019	Any%
The Minish Cap	1:37:38	vlackSR	August 27, 2019	Any%
	4:03:23	ToadsWoot	March 29, 2018	100%
Twilight Princess	2:54:11	Demon	March 22, 2019	Any%
	6:35:49	Adam	January 20, 2019	100%
Twilight Princess HD	3:26:31	Jacquaid	October 2, 2019	Any%
	7:34:25	sva	April 9, 2016	100%
Phantom Hourglass	3:13:33	benstephens56	November 8, 2018	Any%
	5:24:45	benstephens56	October 14, 2018	100%
Spirit Tracks	4:31:57	mosstkm	September 16, 2018	Any%
	9:29:42	indykenobi	August 16, 2014	100%
Skyward Sword	2:09:22	sva	September 3, 2019	Any%
	7:26:18	keitsu23	April 2, 2018	100%
A Link Between Worlds	1:21:01	TheLegendofZaheer	October 23, 2018	Any%
	3:01:11	TheLegendofZaheer	April 30, 2019	100%
Tri Force Heroes	2:19:51	Koopary	July 20, 2018	All Levels
	4:17:01	Cognition_TV, Thelmpasta, and zed0	March 4, 2018	All Levels (Multiplayer)
Breath of the Wild	28:24	sketodara01417	August 6, 2019	Any% (Amiibo)
	28:54	sketodara01417	July 19, 2019	Any% (No Amiibo)
	1:55:01	Zdi	September 3, 2019	All Divine Beasts
	23:29:14	SpecsNStats	June 10, 2019	100%

Other Games

Game	Time	Performer	Date	Notes
The Faces of Evil	24:18	Usui	April 17, 2018	Any%
	35:40	Grumpmeister	May 5, 2018	100%
The Wand of Gamelon	29:35	Authorblues	February 7, 2017	Any%
	39:44	Grumpmeister	April 29, 2018	100%
Zelda's Adventure	1:12:56	Douggernaught	December 10, 2016	Any%
Freshly-Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland	3:50:46	dynomation4	July 28, 2019	Any%
	6:43:17	dynomation4	July 29, 2018	100%
Hyrule Warriors	2:53:57	Tricourage	June 24, 2015	Any%
	2:19:48	Tricourage	April 2, 2015	Any% (New Game +)
Cadence of Hyrule	16:48	incnone	July 14, 2019	Any% (V1.0.1)
	55:17	incnone	August 5, 2019	100%

See Also

• 100% Completion
• Three Heart Challenge
• Challenges
• Speedrun on Wikipedia