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	28:26	lackattack24	August 8, 2018	Any% (Quest 1, No Up+A)
	34:29	lackattack24	May 2, 2018	Any% (Quest 2, No Up+A, No ACE)
The Adventure of Link	18:02	Simpoldood	August 5, 2018	Any%
	57:45	Simpoldood	December 18, 2017	Any% - No warps or deaths
	1:14:30	Simpoldood	July 4, 2018	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
	1:41:53	Xelna	September 12, 2016	100% - No savewarps, deaths, or out of bounds
Link's Awakening	01:21	Global-Trance	August 15, 2015	Any%
	44:01	zmaster91	May 8, 2018	Any% - Warpless
Link's Awakening DX	02:14	SeYsEy	December 4, 2017	Any%
	52:38	vlackSR	January 25, 2018	Any% - No wrong warps, no out of bounds, no save & quit
	1:18:32	vlackSR	September 5, 2018	100%
Ocarina of Time	17:04	Torje	September 5, 2018	Any%
	3:56:08	zfg	September 22, 2018	100%
Ocarina of Time 3D	37:44	ZeldaCubed	August 3, 2018	Any%
	4:13:22	benstephens56	March 8, 2018	100%
Majora's Mask	1:15:59	EnNopp112	July 25, 2018	Any%
	4:42:23	EnNopp112	September 21, 2018	100%
Majora's Mask 3D	1:24:17	Iwabi74	August 5, 2018	Any%
	5:45:08	TheLegendofZaheer	November 5, 2017	100%
Oracle of Ages	1:34:09	zmaster91	October 6, 2017	Any%
Oracle of Seasons	1:39:14	zmaster91	September 8, 2018	Any%
Four Swords	20:42	legrandgrand and Baffan	July 7, 2016	Any%
Four Swords Anniversary Edition	21:32	GolderArevival	September 21, 2018	Any%
The Wind Waker	3:48:17	Demon	July 5, 2018	Any%
	6:56:29	ChaoticAce	January 24, 2016	100%
The Wind Waker HD	58:41	Ian_Miles29	September 19, 2018	Any%
	5:55:34	Linkus7	August 30, 2018	100%
Four Swords Adventures	2:03:23	Zmaster91	May 29, 2018	Any%
The Minish Cap	1:44:19	ToadsWoot	August 19, 2018	Any%
	4:03:23	ToadsWoot	March 29, 2018	100%
Twilight Princess	2:54:41	ChaoticAce	January 3, 2019	Any%
	6:39:49	sva	July 9, 2016	100%
Twilight Princess HD	3:29:17	Jacquaid	September 20, 2018	Any%
	7:34:25	sva	April 9, 2016	100%
Phantom Hourglass	3:20:15	Hornlitz	October 4, 2016	Any%
Spirit Tracks	4:31:57	mosstkm	September 16, 2018	Any%
	9:29:42	indykenobi	August 16, 2014	100%
Skyward Sword	4:50:59	Nimzo	August 14, 2018	Any%
	7:26:18	keitsu23	April 2, 2018	100%
A Link Between Worlds	1:21:20	ahamplan	April 29, 2017	Any%
	3:04:43	romulostx	March 23, 2018	100%
Breath of the Wild	35:48	Wolhaiksong	September 21, 2018	Any%
	1:59:27	Zdi	September 2, 2018	All Divine Beasts
	27:26:37	SpecsNStats	August 6, 2018	100%

Other Games

Game	Time	Performer	Date	Notes
The Faces of Evil	24:18	Usui	April 17, 2018	Any%
The Wand of Gamelon	29:35	Authorblues	February 7, 2017	Any%
Zelda's Adventure	1:12:56	Douggernaught	December 10, 2016	Any%

See Also

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