The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Glitches

Scrolling shenanigans

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  1. Enter the Dark world and go to Skull Woods.
  2. Drop down the east most hole (first screenshot) to enter the large room in the Skull Dungeon with three Gibdos, a WallMaster, several bumpers, spikes, a key in a chest and a keydoor in the northeast corner.
  3. Kill all the enemies and make sure the northern door is unlocked.
  4. Go in between the two bumpers that are almost touching each other near the north side of the room.
  5. Make sure Link is on the southern side of the pot between the bumpers, and as close to the pot as he can be, then face north.
  6. While facing north, press and hold B to charge a spin attack.
  7. Move sideways into one of the bumpers (the results of the glitch change depending on which one you bump into; see below for more info).
  8. After Link bounces off that bumper, but before he hits the other bumper, release B to perform the Spin Attack. (Timing has to be perfect — Link should be about halfway, possible a little farther, from one bumper to the next. It will definitely take several tries to get it right in many cases.)
  9. Exit through the northern door without touching any walls or pots. (Otherwise, the effect of the bumping may be lost.)

If all went well, the screen should scroll horizontally beyond the walls of the room. You will see the room containing the Fire Rod chest on BOTH sides of the room you're in.

Depending on which bumper you hit, and how many times you perform the glitch, you can achieve one of three results. (All directions are from the room you enter after leaving the bumper room.)

Result 1

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  • Have Link hit the right bumper first.

If you go west through the southern door, you will end up stuck in a wall and will have to use the mirror to get out. If you travel through the northern passage instead, you will enter the "Glitch Zone" (See below). Once in the Glitch Zone, the camera will no longer scroll abnormally, but it will focus on the wrong room (not the room Link is actually in). As you move around, you will see a "dummy" version of Link on the screen. If you're playing the SNES version, the Dummy has no shield. But he looks completely normal in the GBA version (and has his shield), except for how he walks. The Dummy is a graphical glitch and does not reflect Link's true position. (Use the map to confirm his actual location.)

Result 2

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  • Have Link hit the left bumper first.

Same as result 1, except:

When you enter the Glitch Zone, the camera will continue to scroll out of bounds. This lets you synchronize the camera back with Link by moving back and forth. Some doorways will not work exactly the same as before, meaning it's easier for Link to get stuck in a wall (requiring you to use the mirror to get out). Although you can synchronize the camera with Link, what you see is a "clone" of Link. He moves through the room normally and looks perfectly fine, but he cannot interact with anything very well (pots disappear, enemies go through him, switches don't activate, he disappears in doorways, and many items won't work properly.) He also makes no noise, because although he can pick up pots and go in the right doorways, this still isn't the real Link. He's actually two screens away from where the clone is, resulting in a different kind of Dummy. Sometimes the scrolling will screw up horizontally, trapping you in one room. When exiting the room, you will find yourself on the other side of it. (The Clone still functions normally this way, but it's hard to describe how Link is two screens away, since the screen you're on stays the same the whole time--therefore, this screen--or vertical column of screens--you're trapped in is the only existent screen/column in the game until you fix it. If you're trapped in this eternal loop, go back through the door, then through it again. As the screen scrolls, you should see it "flash" into a different screen.

Result 3

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  • Perform the glitch twice, using the same bumper as your starting point each time. Finally, you can undo the glitch simply by performing it again in the opposite direction you performed it previously.

When you pass through either doorway heading west, Link will end up in the room with the Fire Rod chest, as you would normally expect. However, the camera continues to scroll out of bounds. The game otherwise acts normally until you go through another door… This is the effect you want for the Under-Underworld glitch.

The Glitch Zone

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These instructions assume you used result #1 above. If you used result #2, things will vary as doors won't always work the same (particularly in the latter stages of the exploration).

Room #1
You are in the Big Key room. Camera focuses on room east of Big Key room. Head east to go to Room #2. Go south for Room #3.
Room #2
You are back in the room you were in right before entering the Glitch Zone. The camera focuses on the room with Fire Rod chest. Go south to return to bumper room (you can redo the glitch for a different effect if desired at that point). Go west through the northern passage to return to Room #2. Go west through the southern passage to go to Room #3.
Room #3
This is the room where Link moves a statue onto a switch to open a doorway. You cannot go north because you cannot interact with the statue. The camera focuses on the room just west of the Fire Rod treasure chest (which is also just east of where Link actually is). Go south to exit the dungeon altogether. Go west for Room #4.
Room #4
You are now in the room west of the Fire Rod room, with the camera focusing on the room you just left. (If the key door is still locked, Link will sometimes get stuck inside the door, forcing you to use the Magic Mirror.) Go east to return to Room #3, or go south for Room #5.
Room #5
Link is in the compass room (very difficult to navigate if you got the compass). The camera focuses on the room west of the compass room. Go north to return to Room #4. Go east for Room #6 or west for Room #7.
Room #6
Link is in the room west of the compass room, with the camera focused on the compass room itself. Unfortunately, Link is positioned right over a bottomless pit, so you can't do anything but fall repeatedly.
Room #7
This room is the room of the Swamp Palace (level 2) where Link goes through a waterfall to access a hidden doorway. You can synchronize the camera to Link here (since the room is two screens wide), but you can't do anything else because Link is suspended in mid-air above the room's floor, making it impossible to go anywhere.

The Under-Underworld

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  1. Perform the Scrolling Shenanigans glitch by hitting the right bumper twice. When you travel north to the next room, use the Hookshot to reach the upper door, then go west.

Effects of scroll:

    • Effect (B): The camera scrolls normally to the next room. You can synchronize the screen to put Link in the middle if you want.
    • Effect (C): The camera performs a double-scroll, stopping on a small square room containing only a pot. Link is in the Fire Rod Chest room, and the camera is focusing on the room east of this room. Link can scroll the camera toward the west, into a different room, to begin the Clone glitch.
    • Effect (D): Same as effect (C), except you can't scroll the camera to the west now. It stays focused on the small room, and you can only exit through the west or bottom to begin the Dummy glitch.
  1. If you end up experiencing effects (C) or (D), head east, then go south in the middle (whether you see the right room or not). This should get you back in the room with the bumpers. Try again until you achieve effect (B).
  2. Once you enter the room with the Fire Rod chest, head back east through the same door.
  3. It looks like Link went back into the room opposite the door, but what you see is the dummy Link. Move back and forth until Link's true location is visible on the west side of the Fire Rod room! Use the Hookshot to cross the gap, then head east through the same door you just went through.
  4. After the double-scrolling effect finishes, you'll be in a later room of the dungeon (use the Map if you don't recognize what came into view). Dash each two times to get Link's true position into view quickly. You're in mid-air! This is quickly fixed, however, by simply climbing the stairs to your north (sort of). Just walk over them and you'll "climb" to the top of the stairs. Then, climb back down them and you'll be on the bottom level, like normal.
  5. Head west, through the door you see there. Link will disappear as he enters, but don't be bothered by it — just go. Another double-scroll will occur, and you'll be under the floor of the room you first went in after triggering the glitch.
  6. Once you're under the dungeon floor, move Link back and forth until the camera is in sync with him.
  7. Once the camera is in sync, head to the west. When Link hits the hard boundary at the end of the room, the screen will loop around, eventually stopping on the Fire Rod chest room.
  8. Move Link back and forth, taking care not to go too far to the right.
  9. If the camera does not scroll at this point, then go on to step 11. If the camera does scroll as you move back and forth, then go back and redo steps 8-9.
    • Sometimes it only takes one loop around to get the camera to stop on the Fire Rod room, while other times it can take three or four cycles. However, it shouldn't take longer than that — it you go half a dozen times around and the camera refuses to stay on the Fire Rod chest room, you should consider using the Magic Mirror and restarting.
  10. Go to the east. The camera should scroll to the room east of the Fire Rod room.
  11. Notice the circle of pots at the Northern end of this room. Normally, you would see a spark enemy moving around these pots going clockwise.
  12. Keep going east until that spark appears. (You should go the same distance you went back in steps 8-10.)
  13. Now go east two more times (two more cycles around).
  14. Go west. The screen will now scroll to the Fire Rod chest room.
  15. Go west two more times (two cycles around). As the screen scrolls around the second time, you should see that spark enemy I mentioned above. If you don't you miscounted somewhere.
  16. Go east. The screen will scroll back to where the circle of pots (and the spark) is located.

If you performed these instructions correctly, the camera should now scroll normally throughout the entire Under-Underworld. That is; never again will it scroll beyond the boundaries of a map square. (It will scroll between rooms within a map square, but it should always stop at the map square's boundaries until you travel to the next sector.)

It seems to be fairly tedious, but after you've performed this procedure a couple of times, it should become fairly straightforward.

Here's a list of all the reasons why you should do this from now on when exploring the Under-Underworld:

  1. No more unpredictable scrolling.
  2. No more sprites disappearing as you move around (Link disappearing, and enemies and other objects disappearing as well — now those problems are gone forever.)
  3. No more going through doorways and not being sent to the right location.
  4. Enemies and other objects can now be interacted with.
  5. You can now see Wallmasters.
  6. Items now work as they should.
  7. In dark rooms, Link's light "cone" now appears at the correct location.
  8. You can now explore the Under-Underworld smoothly and naturally, something that prior to now was only possible in emulation!

Note that the exploration still isn't perfect — you can't enter every room's normal playing area, and it's still possible for Link to get stuck in some rooms where he must warp out with the mirror. Also, graphical glitches still occur as the wrong sprite palette is used (although most oddities are fixed by bringing up the map, going through a door, and/or using the Ether medallion, there are some graphical quirks that remain until you leave the underworld altogether). However, this is a much-needed improvement over what we've been stuck with since the glitch was first discovered. Enjoy!

Now, by moving under the floors of different dungeons and other indoor scenes, you can get just about anywhere (with some limitations) in the underworld! But be very careful of the following:

  • When moving north or south, stay in the middle of the scene currently loaded. You don't want any wraparound effect to be visible when moving north or south. Usually there are no problems, but crashes are possible if wraparounds are combined with vertical scrolling.
  • Don't trust the flashlight in dark rooms. When moving west or east, the flashlight does not reveal Link's actual location. (Moving north or south is somewhat better but still not always accurate.)
  • Keep your Magic Mirror handy — it's easy to get stuck when you go into a room that has both an upper level and a lower level.

To beat the game early once you're in the Under-Underworld follow this route:

  1. Go west near the top of the screen (to keep from getting stuck) until you reach the throne room of Hyrule Castle.
  2. Go north through the dark room, then stop when you reach a lighted room again (it will be a portion of the Tower of Hera).
  3. Go west one scene. The west side of this scene must be scrolled completely into view before continuing, but do not go beyond this scene. (You'll see the section of Hyrule Caster's tower, where Agahnim warped Zelda to the Dark World.)
  4. With the screen divided between the rooms horizontally (with the empty rooms on the right side), go north until you reach your destination (through and beyond Ganon's hideout).

Blue shield

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This glitch requires you to have the second (red) shield or the third (mirror) shield. The result is that your shield will be blue and remain that color even after moving to a new screen.

    • To do this glitch with the red shield equipped, find one of the enemies that sticks out its tongue and takes your items. The item-snatching enemy can be found in various places, such as in the forest, in the Dark World.
    • To do this glitch with the Mirror shield, find Like Likes. An easy location to find them is outside of the Shield Shop. You must use Like Likes for the Mirror Shield as it cannot be stolen by other enemies.
  1. Set Ether as your special attack.
  2. Allow the enemy take your shield (for red shield, this may take a few tries since the item-snatching enemy takes items at random).
  3. Use Ether to freeze the enemy when it has your shield (don't use the Ice Rod as it will kill the enemy).
  4. Kill the enemy to get your shield back. It will now be blue.

Death Mountain descent

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  1. First, you must be on Death Mountain in Hyrule, not the Dark World. This can only be done when you first get there, and you have not beaten Agahnim the first or second time. While you are on Death Mountain, notice the bridge. If you haven't been to the bridge before, it's all the way to the right from where the old man's cave is (the one where he gives you life if you talk to him). To see where this bridge is, go up the small ladder, then where all the large boulders stuck to the ground are, go all the way to the right. You will see a broken bridge.
  2. Now, go back up Death Mountain and go to the warp portal where you transport to the Dark World when you step on it.
  3. Once you are turned into a bunny, go south from where you warped and there will be a crack in the ledge; jump down and go right, toward the bridge.
  4. When you get to the area where the bridge is supposed to be, there won't be a bridge there, just two "statues".
  5. Go up to the section right under the top statue.
  6. Look to the right side of the screen, then use the Magic Mirror to teleport.
  7. While looking to the right side of the screen, move one pixel to the right (only Link's shield should stick out of the portal)!
  8. Wait until you stop flashing and you are teleported back to the Dark World. If you do not accomplish step 7 correctly because you accidentally moved too far, then you will be teleported back again to the Light World. Move back to step 6 and try it again.
  9. Once you are teleported back, and if you did it correctly, you will notice that you are one pixel closer to the edge. Do not move! Instead, teleport back.
  10. Once you teleport back, move to the right until you are stopped by the post on the bridge. Now wait for Link to stop flashing.
  11. Take out your sword then power it up. While holding the Sword Button, slowly move toward the portal until you touch the edge and are teleported back to the Dark World.
  12. If you did it correctly, and if you went to the portal as slowly as you can, you will be in the Dark World, but will stand on the ledge without being teleported back into the Light World. If you did not complete Step 10 correctly (which means you went too fast), then you will be teleported to the Dark World then teleported back to the Light World. You must start back at Step 6 over again.
  13. Once you are on the ledge, do not move left! Doing this will cause a failure and you will have to do Steps 6–10 again. When you are on the ledge, move to the right and you will fall into the black area with all the lava streams moving around.
  14. Move all the way downwards and then when you see a large section of a ledge on the bottom of the screen, move down the right-side or left-side of it and off the screen. If you do this correctly, you will be on a large ledge. Jump down and you have completed the Death Mountain Descent.
    • Note: If you went down and right, you'll see a part of the screen hanging off at an odd angle from this one, and touching it will either half-scroll, or freeze the game, so be careful! Just move away until the angled piece disappears and then come back, and it's safe.

However, if you are in the black area of Death Mountain and you move down the left side and shift down, you'll be on a ledge to the east of the graveyard. It's completely safe to jump here.

Why do you want to do this glitch? Well, if you jump down off the last ledge in this glitch, you will notice that you are now on the grounds of the Dark World. Because of this, you are able to explore almost the entire Dark World without having to beat Agahnim or getting all the Pendants.

Now that you have completed this most precious glitch, it's time to make things better. Notice that in the Dark World, all of the graphics are a little "glitchy"? Well, that's because you're not supposed to go to the Dark World from the black area in Death Mountain. If you do not like the look of this, use the Magic Mirror to return to the Light world, then go into the portal to return back. Everything's normal again. Also, when you are in the black area, if you do not move toward the correct area, which is the large ledge, you will be stuck in the waterfall or the side of the ledge, and you will have to restart. There are many glitches that come from this one.

Metamorphosis fairy

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  1. Do the Death Mountain Descent glitch, make sure you have at least one Fairy in a bottle with you and the Zora's Flippers.
  2. After you've done the Descent proceed to Kakariko Village, head downward through Kakariko Village and to the right, proceeding towards Link's House.
  3. Once you get there, move down to the "swamp", and go down to the section of the lake.
  4. When you're right next to the right side of the lake, continue getting hit by the enemies until you are almost dead, then walk into the deep water.
  5. You should start blinking. Continue pressing the Left button (don't hold it down, but tap it to move a step at a time). Do it over and over until the screen scrolls. You will notice that the bunny (Link), will be "skating" on the water, moving in the same way he does when swimming in human form. If he is not skating, just scroll screens again until he does. Stay on the water with about one heart left (actually, two hearts will do; just make sure one hit will be your last).
  6. While skating on the water get killed by an enemy with just one hit, you will fall down as Link, then the fairy will sprinkle her little pixie dust on you, making you come alive again.

If you do it incorrectly, the screen will become extremely glitchy, scrolling over and over, collecting "pieces" of the screen as it scrolls, and you will not have any control whatsoever. If this happens, press the Restart button, because it will go on and on and on for eternity.

If it does work though, instead of Link returning in bunny-form when the Fairy brings him back to life Link's ordinary form will return. You might want to save afterwards. Getting killed or entering then exiting a building/cave will return you to Bunny form.

Added glitch

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There are other ways to have fun with this skating trick, as when bunny Link submerges with the B button or gets hit by an enemy, he may appear in the wrong location. Read below for some interesting (and probably confusing) explanations of the areas you can traverse. Link can make the screen do lots of things, and he can stand on ledges he shouldn't be on. As a "skating" bunny, press B to submerge (if you're using SNES, get hit by an enemy for the same effect). If you do it on the left screen, where there's a lot of water, he'll appear sticking halfway out the left side of the screen. Move away from the edge of the screen to avoid a scroll loop. Next, the screen will begin acting strange. Bunny Link moves through things and hits objects that aren't there. What you see is the Dummy. Go to the top of the screen (move a little to the right if you are blocked) and you will be in the next screen, and it looks like you are standing to the right of Link's house. Move left and right in small steps to correct the screen's position, bit by bit, to see where Link really is (and be careful not to jump off the ledge). Now after correcting the screen, you see Link standing on the ledge in front of his house! But be careful, because you can see a part of the screen you just left behind, and touching it will cause a scroll loop. Move away until the strange section disappears from view, then move back and it's gone. If Bunny Link submerges on the right screen, where there's only a small strip of water, he'll appear sticking halfway out the right side of the screen. Don't head to the top of the screen. Move left and right to correct the screen, since you're looking at a Dummy again. Note that Link can only move left and right a tiny bit. Be very careful not to jump off the ledge! It's very narrow. The screen you saw the Dummy on is to the right of Link, with the small water strip. You can't touch it since it's on the other side of the ledge. Jump off the ledge. Link interacts properly with this screen he's currently on, but in reality, he is actually not in that screen. There are no enemies; the true screen is off to the right, where you cannot go because of the ledge. Now, move to another screen from here. Link will actually scroll down and left!. Be careful, he can get stuck in the rock this way. Also the blocked screen angle is revealed, so avoid it.

  1. Note: If you enter one of the glitched screens from the wrong side (by jumping into it, or by directly entering it by shifting from a different screen) then there will be no infinite scrolling loop when you move between the two screens; sometimes you may be blocked, or nothing will happen. Better yet, Link may enter the loop upon turning around and touching the screen he just left. Again, be careful!

Another glitch is possible during this. Go to the small strip of water on the left side of the screen to the right, and do the submerge glitch. When Bunny Link reappears at the right side of the screen, move down and right repeatedly (he's on a slanted part of that very narrow ledge) until you see him fully. Now, don't jump off the ledge--instead, move down until you get to the very bottom of the screen. (Don't enter the next screen or you'll have to start over.) When at the very bottom of the screen on the narrow ledge, turn left and try to jump down. If you can't, move up a little and try again. Link will appear to jump, but he won't jump off the ledge. He moves a little to the left, but then he falls further down and part of him disappears through the bottom of the screen. Move left again, and then he will jump off the ledge and disappear completely. Start moving down until the Dummy Bunny jumps from the top of the screen and lands on the ground. Start going left (since you're no longer on the screen shown, you have to move up and down to get past invisible blockages). Go left and enter the next screen. Link will be in a different location now, and you see the wrong Link, so move up and down to find him (without going too far up). Since the camera is seeing two screens at once, Link can accidentally shift into the north screen halfway into it which begins the scroll loop. Now that you're here, you can move around the big ledge section next to the Swamp of Evil. There is a lot of glitching up here, because you can shift many screens you shouldn't be able to. There is lots of opportunity to freeze the game by mistake with scrolling. If you get stuck just below the top of a ledge, Link can unstick himself by moving toward the ledge and he'll jump down. One other cool thing: if you wrap around next to the desert/swamp of evil, and then you go down to the very bottom of the screens there, this is actually the entire bottom of the outside world. There will be different effects depending on what system you use. If you use the GBA, the screen fades as if you've entered the forest and the game freezes. Just look at the SNES version's effects!

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Do the above glitch, so that Bunny Link is on the ledges next to the Desert.

  1. Move toward the desert, and go down the ledge without jumping into the desert.
  2. You will reach the bottom of the screen and the entire overworld. Go to the Light World.
  3. Go to the screen on the right, then shift down.
  4. One of two things will happen: Link will either enter a screen full of garbage, or he won't scroll at all (the music just stops). You need to achieve the second effect, which is very hard to do until you've gotten the first effect several times.
  5. Once the game appears to freeze, wait a minute and Link will scroll into a different kind of screen. Moving around causes "boinging" sound effects.
  6. Kill Link with bombs before the game crashes. The Game Over message is corrupted. Select any option, then at the ->A window, press A.
  7. Now Link's back in his house. Go outside, and although the enemies can still hurt Link, he can't damage them. He can repel them with the sword, but they won't take any damage from any item he uses on them. Every time a text box appears, it'll say ->A. If Link dies again, the game crashes.
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This only works on the SNES; the GBA will affect scrolling and cause scroll looping to occur.

Find any ledge in the Dark World that Link can jump off of sideways. Move against the ledge and press A to use the Mirror (like with the underground glitch). When he teleports, he'll be in mid-air. Now, he can kill enemies with his sword beam, and pick up items with the boomerang. Nothing can touch him. Also, you might notice the side effect of him appearing above everything else (i.e. he'll appear standing above the edges of the trees, instead of under them). Explore a little. Don't dash or jump down any ledges, or the glitch will be undone.

Reality overlap

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  1. Perform the Death Mountain Descent.
  2. Enter a dungeon and die (don't have any Fairies to revive you).
  3. When you reappear at the start of the dungeon, exit.

The Light world music will be playing instead of the Dark world music. If you scroll to a different screen and then scroll back to the original screen you'll now be in the light world but with some Dark world tiles. Dungeon four apparently gives good results. If you do it the other way with the Dark World music playing and you appear to be in the Light World, you can use the Flute to warp to a few screens and you'll still be in the Light World without the game changing to Dark World; it only changes when you shift screens.

Reality overlap II

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You must not have beaten Aghanim I. Also, This only works on the GBA Version.

  1. Perform the Death Mountain Descent.
  2. Now, while still in the overworld, die. You must not have a Fairy to revive you.
  3. From the "Game Over" menu, choose any option. Then choose "Start from Saved Place".

You'll appear at the last place you entered the Dark World overworld from, except that you're Link (not the bunny, provided you don't have the Moon Pearl yet). The Light World music plays, and if you use the Magic Mirror, you'll appear in the Dark World again with the Dark World overworld music and be returned to bunny form (if you don't have the Moon Pearl). You can use this glitch to get really far into the game without the Moon Pearl, but if you beat a Dark World Dungeon Boss while in the Light World status, you may sometimes only get the Heart Container-no crystal. You'll get stuck there and have to reset the game.

If you want to have fun, for effect, you can make the Dark World music play while the game thinks Link is in the Light World. Go to Skeleton Forest. Then leave. Whether the Forest was foggy or not, the Dark World music will play until you enter a cave, or a building with different music. Then exiting the building/cave will bring back the Light World music. Note:If, when you went into the Skeleton Forest, the Lost Woods in the Light World were cleared of fog, the regular Dark World music will play instead of the Skeleton Forest music. Also, the fog in the Skeleton Forest will be gone since the game thinks you're in the Light World, where there's no fog in the forest. If the Lost Woods in the Light World were foggy, the foggy Lost Woods music will play in the Skeleton Forest, and the Forest will have thicker fog (Light World Lost Woods fog) than it should have. It's very strange, hmm?

While in the Reality Overlap II glitch in the Dark World, there are a few glitchy things you'll see:

    • Talking trees have green mouths.
    • Destroying a bush or grass that has an enemy in it will make the enemy look glitchy and unrecognizable.
    • In the spot you rescue the frog from that becomes a Sword-Temperer, you'll see the two old men (or one of them, depending on whether or not you've rescued him yet) and they'll be swinging their hammers. Entering this screen from a different screen will make them look like enemies' heads, and exiting a building and coming into the screen will make them look normal. Regardless of what they look like, you can still talk to them here like you can in their shop, and they will temper your sword there too.
    • If the Flute Boy is still in his grove, he'll look very glitchy here. He'll play the Flute and when you get too close, he'll disappear like usual, as if you're in the Light World.

Reality overlap III

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  1. Go to the East Palace.
  2. Go to the third room and use the Mirror to warp back to the beginning just as Link begins to jump from the ledge.
  3. Go to the third room again and dash at the east statue.
  4. Go back to the entrance room, then right, through the empty room, into Thieves' Town.
  5. Shift down one screen to the entrance room, jump out of the ledges and into view, then exit Thieves' Town.

Link will be a human in the Dark World whether he has the Moon Pearl or not, and the Light World music plays. There are also a few Light World things you will find. To be in the Light World with Dark world music, perform this glitch in the opposite way, start in the real Dark World in Thieves' Town, go underground and into East Palace, third room, jump out of the wall, go to the entrance and exit East Palace. You'll be in the Light World, Dark World music plays, and you'll find a few Dark World things there.

Danger bunny

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  1. Perform Reality Overlap II.
  2. Go to where flute boy is and use the magic mirror. Link will be transformed back into a bunny.
  3. Talk to flute boy (as a bunny) and get the shovel.

When you get control of Link again, press B and he will swing an invisible sword! The sword can be used to cut bushes, but not enemies, and if you get hit, you'll lose it.

You can also do the glitch in an easier way, as many times as you want. Go to a spot in the Dark World (Try the area around the Ice Palace) where there's shallow water, and in that same spot in the Light World, it's deep water. Stand in the shallow water as a bunny, warp to the Light World, and Link will become human and fall into the deep water. Wait for him to teleport back, and then the glitch is activated. When Bunny Link walks, his body graphics move twice as fast, and when he walks into deep water, he walks over it like it's the ground. But if he goes onto dry land, he sometimes jumps out of the shallow water onto the land (as if he were jumping out of deep water) and the glitch is undone. However, if you hold the B button and then walk onto land, the glitch stays, and Bunny Link doesn't jump. He can use the sword, he can dash, he can pick up objects (although he can't hold them in bunny form, so he throws them instantly, looking like he kicked them. He also smashes right through them if he picks them up from the top side.) The sword can harm enemies now, but only from the swiping of the sword and the sword beam. Holding out the sword and walking into an enemy does nothing, and neither does the Charge Attack. (I think Link can do all these things if he does the glitch by using the Flute Boy too.) The glitch will now be undone when he jumps onto a green platform, or dashes into an object and bounces back, or jumps off a ledge. But if you find a way to do this glitch in the swampy area below his house/Bomb Shop, you're lucky, since there's no green platform to jump on. He goes directly to dry land and can now go wherever he wants to with these abilities.( Never mind, I found an area. Go to the screen in Dark World where he gets the Quake. Perform the glitch by standing next to the deep water and warping. If he is in deep water in Light World, he'll activate the glitch when he teleports back.

    • Note: If you perform the glitch by going into deep water as a bunny in Dark World, and it's deep in the Light World too, he'll be walking unsteadily over the water when he teleports back into the Dark World. And if you submerge when he's walking this way, he will either return to the spot he entered the water from, or you can activate some serious screen scrolling glitches and even get onto ledges that you aren't supposed to be able to get on. Just remember that you need the Flippers to be able to do this part, and to get into deep water as a bunny, tap to move horizontally a step at a time. (This is described in the Metamorphosis Fairy section.) DO NOT enter the deep water vertically, because then Bunny Link will slowly float over the water without any body parts moving, and he'll speed up, then flicker back to slow speed, speed up, flicker slow, over and over, and you can't control him. You'll have to wait until he touches dry land and jumps out, gets hit by an enemy and returns to where he entered the water from, or hits a solid object or the edge of the screen. If he does hit an object or the edge of the screen, he'll stop and freeze completely. If there's an enemy close by, let it hit him to unfreeze him. If no enemy is near, you have to save and restart. But if he enters the water far enough horizontally, he can move any direction without this happening. Also, it is safe to enter the water vertically on the Super Nintendo version, because he will move up a little, then splash back out instantly.
    • If Bunny Link is far out into deep water and an enemy hits him, messing up his water-walking ability, it takes a long time to slowly tap your way to shallow water, so instead, use the Magic Mirror and go to the Light World. When you morph back to the Dark World, he will be walking in that strange way, because the game thinks he's swimming. You can press A and R to swim faster, but press B and Link will submerge. This is bad, because Link either pops back over to where he started walk-swimming from, and you'll have to travel between Worlds again to reactivate walk-swimming--or Link will activate those screen-scrolling glitches. If the screen scrolls to a far area and the enemies freeze, this won't be long. Link will reappear at the screen corner, but now he can easily enter an infinite scrolling loop or enter a place where the screen pixelizes and disappears, then nothing else happens. And while he travels between screens, his position takes about 25 seconds to load each time. If you see the Dummy, you can't synchronize because the screen keeps scrolling up more and more, showing the same two screens over and over. Basically, the game is completely messed up, so you'll have to restart.
    • Important Note: If you're in a situation like an infinite scrolling loop, you don't have to turn off the game completely if you're playing the GBA version. To quickly restart, press A, B, Start, and Select simultaneously.

Back door lockup

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  1. Go to Spectacle Rock. (Where there's a cave door. It is to the left of the magical Dark World transporter-the one that has a triangle of small white stones surrounding it.)
  2. Position Link directly above the cave you see below the rock. (He must be aligned perfectly — use the Hookshot or other items to test).
  3. Face north.
  4. Hold B.
  5. Walk backwards off Spectacle Rock and into the cave.

Link will enter the cave in a rather glitchy way, and when the next scene is loaded, Link will be completely frozen (no controls work). The only way out of this is to save and quit. This same glitch works on the ledge you walk out onto when performing Death Mountain Descent.

Colour-changing soldiers

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  1. First off, you must meet all of the following:
    • Not having beaten Agahnim I,
    • having the Flute,
    • and having access to a dungeon that triggers this oddity (the oddity will not trigger if you've beaten Agahnim I).
  2. Enter one of the following dungeons (the listed names are their GBA names):
    • Dark Palace (Dark World dungeon 1),
    • Misery Mire (Dark World dungeon 6),
    • Turtle Rock (Dark World dungeon 7),
    • or Ganon's Tower (Dark World dungeon 8).
  3. Exit the dungeon.
  4. Use the Magic Mirror to return to the Light World.
  5. Use the Flute to warp back to your house (or any place with green castle soldiers about a screen away).
  6. Then move one screen to the west (or in the direction of the green soldiers).

If you used Dark Palace or Misery Mire for this trick, you'll see gold castle soldiers instead of green ones. If you used Turtle Rock or Ganon's Tower for this trick, you'll see purple castle soldiers instead of green ones. Regardless of colour, they have exactly the same abilities as green castle soldiers, including the number of hits they take to die. Should you try this with Swamp Palace (Dark World dungeon 2), Skull Woods (Dark World dungeon 3), Thieves' Town (Dark World dungeon 4), or Ice Palace (Dark World dungeon 5), the castle soldiers will remain green.

There is another way to do this by using the super speed glitch:

  1. fly to Kakariko village
  2. go up one screen then right another
  3. kill all the knights
  4. go to the ramp and use it like as stairs for the super speed glitch
  5. go to the bottom right slanted wall of the pond and press against it

You should jump onto the wall and look like you are swimming. Save and quit the game then reload. The blue knight will be unchanged but the green one will have turned gold.

A third way to do the glitch is:

  1. Go to Dark World area where the Flute Boy is in the screen above. The screen you are in has blue and green soldiers in the Light World.
  2. Enter this screen from the top left. If you didn't, go to the top left to the next screen, then back down to this screen.
  3. Warp to the Light World.

There will be normal blue soldiers, and the ones that should be green will be purple.

Super speed

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You need the flute duck & the Pegasus boots for this glitch.

  1. Face left by the stairs.
  2. Go to Kakariko Village and call the duck.
  3. When the duck appears on your screen press the A button (smoke should appear, but not your sword!).
  4. Cancel out of the fly map (try to use your sword; if you can't you did it right).
  5. Go up or down the stairs.

You should run instead of walking.

Problems with this glitch are:

  1. You can only use items.
  2. It will stop if you get hurt, touch a person, jump from a ledge or leave the screen.
  3. If Link begins dashing too soon and starts running before the duck picks him up, he'll bounce back when he touches something. The super speed will still work, but bouncing will undo it. And be careful not to get stuck between two objects, as Link will keep bouncing back and forth between them. If they are far enough apart that he falls a little before bouncing, he'll land on the ground after reaching the top of the screen, but if they are too close together, you'll have to save and quit, because he will keep bouncing and bouncing and bouncing forever.

You can use this glitch anywhere there are stairs or ladders outside in the light world, but if you jump off a cliff, the glitch is canceled. Be careful of that, because unlike normally when he moves against the edge for a moment before jumping, with this glitch activated he'll jump as soon as he touches the edge.

Under/over-Underworlds

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  1. Go to a place in the underworld where you can jump from an upper level to a lower level.
  2. Jump, then while Link is in the air, open the menu and choose to save and quit. (Note: The glitch may not work at every location. For example, the first room in Hyrule Castle does not permit the glitch, although other rooms in that same dungeon do.)
  3. After saving, return to the file select screen and select any game (it doesn't matter which one you pick — it can be the same one or a different one).

If the file you picked was saved in the Light World, be sure to start in either Link's House or Sanctuary — not the Mountain Cave (you'll see why later). If all goes well, Link will be in a "hybrid" state. Although he looks normal, the game internally thinks he is on the lower level, even though he's on the upper level. The result is that as soon as you get hit by an enemy, dash into a wall, or do certain other things, Link will magically disappear under the floor and end up in the lower level!

Note that for the glitch to work, Link must not travel to the lower level or any underworld scene prior to activation. This is because entering the lower level fixes the bug, as the erroneous "lower level" status is repaired. This is also why you cannot start at the Mountain Cave, since you begin on the lower level there.

Applications of this glitch are enormous:

  • Beat the game immediately after rescuing Zelda! Now it's possible to beat the game with only 3 hearts, and (almost) nothing else!
  • Explore both underworld maps! Before, via the Skull Dungeon glitch, we could only explore one map. Now we can explore both! (See the next section, however, for some very annoying consequences.)
  • You can even disappear under the ground in the overworld! However, doing this doesn't cause anything extraordinarily important, as the game still acts in many ways as though you were still on the surface. Basically, the result is that you disappear, but you still interact with the playfield (i.e. you bump into walls, pick up stones, enter caves, fall down holes, etc.). Most items you use will appear above the surface; thus, you can kill an enemy with the beam off Link's sword (not the sword itself, however) and retrieve items using the boomerang.
  • If you start a new game after setting up the glitch, Link will disappear beneath the floor of his room as soon as you jump out of bed. (This is one possible starting place for exploring the new underworld.)

Three major problems exist with the new underworld, however:

  1. If you enter the underworld at one house/cave, activate the glitch, then work your way to another house/cave, then exit, you will appear outside at the place you started from — not the place you just exited. This is because the game does not distinguish between different exits in the second underworld, as there is no place where you can enter and exit via different doorways under normal conditions. (Note that the game actually takes advantage of this phenomenon, defining only one fortune teller place, one fairy fountain [not counting those that exist as portions of other caves], etc.)
  2. In many cases, as you explore the new underworld, the scrolling will screw up, showing signs similar to those related to the Skull Dungeon glitch. Note that these problems will not appear at all in the original underworld if you use this glitch. This is because the original underworld was designed to let you move from one map sector to the next, whereas the new underworld does not have any houses/caves that scroll beyond map square boundaries. (It appears you can resolve this problem by starting in a place like Blind's [Light World] hideout, where rooms exist that stretch across multiple screens. However, this does not appear to be a 100% fix; you may still encounter the problem nevertheless.)
  3. The new underworld is much smaller. Therefore, it is very easy to scroll out of bounds, forcing the game to crash very violently (sometimes showing a weird screen with the word "BUG" written multiple times on it). If the game crashes, saved game data may be corrupted!
Glitch variation
The original form of the glitch used a different technique. In this case, you used the Magic Mirror to set it up. Go to (for example) Level 4 of the Dark World. Go to a spot where you can jump down to the lower level, then try to time it so that Link uses the Magic Mirror as he starts his jump. If done right, you will return to the entrance without hearing the normal warping sound, and you will not have control over Link.
  • If you were facing left or right when you jumped, Link will be motionless and you have to save and quit. Upon resumption, the master glitch above will be armed, so getting hit will knock Link to the lower level.
  • If you were facing north, Link will move automatically (in a very weird fashion) northward, causing some bizarre scrolling effects. If Link gets hit while crawling along like this, he will unfreeze. If not, then, eventually, the action stops, at which point (if you haven't already done so) you will need to save and quit. (Again, the master glitch will be armed as before.)
  • If you were facing south, Link moves automatically outside the dungeon. Once out, he continues his automatic motion southward, but will stop after a couple of seconds (unless he has no shield; then he'll keep going until he is attacked). At this point, you regain control of Link, and the master glitch will be armed. (This provides a method of activating the glitch without saving in the process.) On GBA, this can be exploited without the loss of control, so it can be done and then instantly you can dash into the wall.
  • If you were playing the GBA version, using the mirror glitch will not make you lose control of Link; therefore, you can perform it and then instantly dash into a wall to go underground. But on GBA, if you arm the glitch, then save and quit, the glitch will unarm itself, as the GBA version seems to hold its normal status much more strictly. The Save and Quit method does not work on the GBA.

Ghost of Misery Mire

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  1. While in the Light World use the flute to call the duck and go to map point number 6, in the lower left.
  2. Lift the two rocks nearby and go through the portal to the Dark world that's underneath one of them.
  3. Jump off the ledge into Misery Mire.
  4. Use the Bombos Medallion.

You should see a pillar of flame, indicating a dying enemy, but there wasn't anything there before. There are also two other such "ghosts" in the Mire. The Hyrule Magic game editor lists the enemies as Fireball Zoras, which would explain why they don't appear; normally Zoras are only in deep water.

Boomerang buzz

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  1. Stand in the Kakario Village near the lake on the right side of town.
  2. Get far enough away that the boomerang will not hit the edge of the lake (this if for the blue one, if upgraded to red, just stand so the lake is barely visible).
  3. Throw the boomerang at the lake, turn around, and dash with your Pegasus Boots. when you reach the man who runs away when you get near him, you will stop. you might have to start again if it doesn't work without it. To get rid of the man, walk up to him. As he starts running, Dash after him. If you catch him, he talks to you. If not, he disappears into the trees (or the other screen) without saying anything. But either way (whether you catch him or not), if you followed him all the way to the end of the screen and saw him disappear, he won't appear again when you go back to where he was before. Now you can perform the glitch because he won't be in your way. Perform the Dashing part of the glitch now.

the boomerang will now fly quickly across the screen from left to right, starting from the far edge of the screen. It doesn't hit enemies, but if it's red and passes between at least one bush twice in a row, the bush will disappear without the rustling leaf sound. No items appear from the bush(es). It also will make glitch spots appear everywhere that look like cut-down bushes. If you use the Shovel as the Boomerang passes, a line of holes will appear, but they reveal no items. The Boomerang keeps flying and flying. It will curve to try to pass your location as it goes by. It will continue to do this until you leave the area. After a period of time, the 'rang will slow down to slightly above your normal (not dashing with boots) speed. When this is happening, if you walk in the same direction as the 'rang, when it catches up to you it will slow down to stay with you as long as you continue moving right.

This glitch was found on the GBA Version.

Mirror reset curse

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This glitch only works on the Game Boy Advance version, the SNES version will just crash. It is important to copy your file to another slot before attempting this, since it is very harmful to your save file.

You can do it in Eastern Palace, but the Thieves Town is better. Start there and use the Mirror to go underground. Go east from the entrance into the next room, go to the right side of this room. Then dash up for a long time until you reach a brown + shaped room. It will have a healing fairy in it. Go east again to an empty room, dash right, and the game will freeze, then glitch. Use the mirror to warp back to the entrance.

Good effects
    • Link's Heart maximum instantly is reduced to one-half. If he dies, his hearts will become three again, but it takes four hits to kill him. The Hearts are all glitchy. Getting a Heart from an enemy, bush, pot or something else (or letting a Healing Fairy restore your Hearts) will drop Link's Hearts down so it takes one hit to kill him. This stays this way until you clear at least one palace again, hence the name Mirror Reset Curse; the game resets back to that point where you have to beat the Palaces again. When you get the Heart Containers, Link's Hearts no longer glitch in the strange way. Now he can get a maximum of 5.5 Hearts (By finding Pieces of Heart as well). If an enemy that takes 1/2 Hearts away hits Link, he'll lose a whole heart. If an enemy that took at least one Heart or more hits him, he'll lose 1/2 Heart, no matter how much the enemy took before (like the bomb-throwing giants and the pink flying birds).
    • He'll get the Bow and Silver Arrows. He can have 17 maximum.
    • His bomb count maximum reaches 127.
    • He automatically gets the 1/2-dropping Magic, whether or not he already had it. But items still take a little more Magic than they used to. But the Cane of Byrna now takes only one notch of magic to wave, then uses no more magic as the ring of light surrounds Link. If he's very low on Magic (one or two notches left), puff the Lamp and he'll be almost fully replenished. (You can't puff the Lamp anymore unless you're on very low magic.) If he runs completely out of Magic, however, the Lamp won't work and he'll have to get a Magic Decanter.
    • Many enemies can't even hurt him now. They are the crabs, bees, bats, tongue-sticking enemies, the brown arrow-shooting creatures, yellow shield-swipers, green bomb droppers (purple ones still harm Link), Link's own bombs, the yellow hopping things with green hair, and those yellowish-brown slithering things that steal shields. One thing these enemies all have in common is that they originally took one-half Heart or two Hearts from Link. Link will simply bounce off these enemies now. A bad part is that when you're doing the Metamorphosis Fairy glitch, it's harder to die since most enemies in the Dark World are basically harmless now. You need to get shot by an arrow from the brown guy. He can't hurt you, but his arrows still can. You can also go to the lower screen and touch the purple flying enemy.
  1. He automatically gets all four bottles, but they all have bees in them, and they are glitchy until you let all the bees out. While glitchy, the top and bottom ones will be called Flote-Zaubers, and the two middle ones will be called Pfeiles.
    • When visiting the Fairy at the Waterfall of Wishing, you can throw in two items to benefit you: the Shovel and the Sword. The Shovel's benefit is simply that it changes the messed-up Shovel status to normal, but you lose your Flute and will have to dig it up in the grove again. Throwing in the Sword turns it into a Piece of Heart, and since the Mirror Reset Curse automatically gives you 3/4 Heart Pieces, this one makes it into a Heart Container, and you get another Heart. The Sword is gone, but if you visit the Swordsmiths east of Kakariko Village, they "take your sword" from you and temper it, and when you get it back, they have changed it into the normal Tempered Sword. Now enemies will be pushed away from you if you use the Charged Sword Swing attack.
    • His Shield (red, I think) becomes a bunch of glitched pixels, but if you visit the Shield Shop in the Dark World, you can buy a normal one, even the Mirror Shield.
Bad effects
  1. The screen becomes negatively black and blue, and warping between worlds causes a mass confusion of white screen. Link is all you can see. He will sometimes be a bunny again, having lost the Moon Pearl, but other times he'll be human because the negative screen completely messes up his status. I think whether he's bunny or human depends on how much time he spends in the Reset Curse room before using the Magic Mirror. (Right now, he stays a bunny in either world, or he will be human until he enters a building/cave.) If Link goes to another screen, the objects will become visible, but the ground is still white. You must enter a building or cave to restore the negative screen. When warping to the Light World, making the eternal white screen appear, Link can't get back to the Dark World through the sparkly portal until the screen is restored back to its negative form. To make the screen entirely normal again, save and quit (have a copied file) and choose to play the glitched file. Link will be shown as a negative in the File Selection screen, and the number 999 will be under him. When playing the file, the screen will be normal, and Link will have his human status restored in the Light World and normal-looking pink bunny in the Dark World, but in the Light World he looks like a glitchy rainbow. If he does the Metamorphosis Fairy Glitch, he looks normal. Metamorphosis Fairy is the only way he can look normal now.
  2. Your Rupees will deplete automatically, and this continues for a very long time. The hundreds number keeps glitching, the Rupees keep resetting and decreasing, and this continues for about five minutes. Then it stops at a very low number. All you can do is wait. And while the Rupees are running out, Link can't buy anything, as the game seems to think he has no Rupees at all. The sound of the Rupees is very annoying, but just wait a while and it will stop.
    • He has lost the Magic Cape.
    • He still has his Magic Powder, but it's so glitchy that it's completely unrecognizable and can't be used. Or it might be the mushroom.
    • He can't Dash and can't get back the Pegasus Boots. Sahasrahla won't give them to Link because of the glitch.
    • He can't pick up pots or stones. The best substitute is to use the Magic Hammer to pound pots and small white stones.
    • He can't open chests. Some of them have been closed again.
    • His Boomerang is all glitchy and isn't worth using anymore. Sometimes it follows him vertically, or flies away from him.
  3. The two Fairies that increase your bombs and arrows and enhance items are not to be trusted anymore unless you are doing the things with them mentioned in the Good Effects. The Fairy that increases his bombs' and arrows' maximums only needs fifty Rupees to activate now, instead of 100. She will be very messed-up with the bombs. With the arrows, she says at first that she increased his arrow count by two points (to nineteen), and then many other numbers if you keep trying the arrow thing, but they stay at seventeen no matter how many times you ask for more. The Fairy that enhanced his items before will now take some away permanently. Here are the items that the Fairy can make disappear after tossed in the water:
    • Ice Rod: The Ice Rod on the selection screen looks normal now, but Link loses his Lamp forever. The chest with the Lamp is in his house unopened, but Link can't open chests now. Without the Lamp, if Link enters a dark room, the light cone will shine in a random spot and that's the only place you can see in the room.
    • Shovel: Link's Shovel's image is restored, but he loses his Flute and will have to dig it up in the grove again.
    • Magic Hammer: It becomes a Piece of Heart that Link receives. He still has his Magic Hammer, but sometimes it looks glitchy when being used now, and he also loses the Fire Rod.
    • Sword: It also becomes a Piece of Heart. Link's Sword (which has the power of the Golden Sword in this glitch) is gone.
    • If you haven't used the Bottles yet and they look glitchy still, they can be lost too, depending on what you throw in.

Bad glitch effects continued

    • Mentioned above, if you lose the Lamp, then when entering a dark cave or room, the lamplight is in the wrong place somewhere, and it stays there.
    • When Link uses his Charged Sword Swing, enemies are no longer pushed away from him unless he fixes the Sword with the method mentioned above.
    • Medallions take almost half your magic now.
    • If he has his shield, it will become a bunch of glitched pixels until he buys another one.
  1. You can't stop the glitch. If you activate the Mirror Reset Curse again, Link will only restart at the beginning of the Curse just like he did before. To perform the glitch of going underground and redo the Curse again, warp back to an entrance when Link jumps from a ledge, and when you're supposed to dash into something, get hit by an enemy instead. This also puts you underground. If you die when the enemy hits you, restart at the palace/dungeon entrance and get hit again. You'll still go underground because the glitch is still armed and ready.