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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s most popular speedrunning route has been made “obsolete” after standing for 12 years, all thanks to an accidental discovery that shaves an entire minute off the world record.
The previous record-setting route relied on the ability to go through a door at the Deku Tree and end up at Ganon’s Tower during the collapse, relying on a technique called ‘Wrong Warp’ to do so. That route was first discovered in 2012, and while it’s been optimized since then, it’s still been the fastest way to complete the game for many years - until now.
Our story begins in 2017, when long-running Ocarina of Time speedrunner DannyB was playing around with a room duplication glitch (itself discovered in 2009) that yielded some strange results. Multiple duplications started to mess with collision in the room, leading to DannyB simply falling through the floor of the dungeon and crashing the game.
It wasn’t until this year that the implications of that video were discovered - repeated room duplications would mean ‘dynamic’ - or moving - polygons would corrupt data from the static geometry that made up the surfaces Link could move across. In the original video, that simply meant the geometry disappeared, but runner Natalyahasdied guessed that polygons could be corrupted in different ways, and that code from one polygon could be matched up to code from another polygon somewhere else in the game. In this case, Dodongo’s cavern, that early game dungeon, could feasibly stitch up to Ganon’s tower at the end of the game.
It took DannyB just three minutes to find that loading zone, and while it didn’t initially work thanks to the time of day, it wasn’t long before the speedrunning community had a route directly to Ganon that they could work to optimize. As the video above explains, the technique required is pretty intricate, but if you can pull it off, it shaves an easy 60 seconds off the previous best route.
The previous record, of 12.57, had stood since May 2023, and was thought likely to remain the record for a long time. With the advent of Ganonfloor, however, top-level runners dropped that record multiple times in a single day, and it now sits 70 seconds faster than the Ganondoor record. With this new route still yet to be fully optimized, that time is likely to drop even further.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2
Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”