Dodongo's Cavern

Skip Eastern Half of 1F

It's possible to reach the switch that unbars the door on the west side of 1F early. This skips all the rooms on the east side of the first floor, including the first Lizalfos battle.

Doing this as an adult is trivial, since adult Link is tall enough to grab onto the ledge with the switch. As a child, you can grab onto the ledge using a Ground Jump

With a Strength Upgrade

Discovered by Acryte

If you have a strength upgrade, such as the Goron Bracelet or Silver Gauntlets, you can simply pick up the bomb flower and store a ground jump off it like you would with any other bomb. See the Ground Jump page for methods.

With a Bombchu

Discovered by Runnerguy2489

If you don't have a strength upgrade, you'll need to store a ground jump off a Bombchu explosion, using the bomb flower as your grab-able object. There are three ways you can do this.

1. Hold Z for the duration of the trick, without targeting anything
2. Stand in front of bomb flower, within grab zone
3. Pull out a Bombchu
4. Tap R then press R + A (almost simultaneously)

or

1. Hold Z for the duration of the trick, without targeting anything
2. Pull out a Bombchu
3. Stand off to the side of bomb flower, within grab zone
4. Around the 7th-8th flash, tap R then press R + A (almost simultaneously)

or

1. Hold Z for the duration of the trick, without targeting anything
2. Pull out a Bombchu
3. Stand off to the side of bomb flower, just slightly behind the grab zone
4. Around the 7th-8th flash, hold R and mash A Note: Make sure you're not too far back for this method or you may get a superslide off the bomb flower

Reach Bomb Bag Chest Early

It is possible to reach the bomb bag chest starting from the south side of the room, skipping the flame circle rooms and the second Lizalfos fight.

Bombchu Megaflip Method

Discovered by Runnerguy2489

1. Line yourself up with the north side of the alcove coming into the room
2. Sidle to the edge until the tip of Link's hat is to the right of the corner of the wall
3. Use C-up and align the sword so it overlaps the parallel arch structure in the distance
4. Turn around 180 degrees
5. Perform a bombchu megaflip

This is generally viewed as the method of choice.

Bombchu Boost Method

1. Pull out a Bombchu
2. Set up like in the video
3. Hold Z and wait
4. Jump off the edge at 7th-8th flash and mash B

This method doesn't require a shield, so it is useful if you happen to have lost it or are skipping it.

As Adult Link

Adult Link can grab the pillar with a simple, well-angled jump. [visual aid to come]

Hookshot Megajump to the 2F Bridge

With a bottled fairy, you can do a hookshot megajump to get onto the 2F bridge as soon as you enter the main center room. You need to stand in a position that is below the bridge so that you will land on top of it. The fairy will revive you and you will be free to get the bomb bag quickly. The lava, bombs, or bombchus can be used for this megajump.

Get Past Flame Circles without Slingshot

Using a series of precise jumps and alignments, it is possible to jump across all of the flame circle platforms without needing to shoot the eye switches to extinguish the flames. The following video shows how to set up each jump.

Light Dodongo's Eyes with Bombchus

Discovered by Acryte

You can light the dodongo head's eyes with bombchus from the main room, allowing instant access to the end of the dungeon. In most cases it is preferable to go through the dungeon to get the Bomb Bag, but in certain scenarios this could be useful.

Begin by going to the back right corner of the main room at the bottom of the stairs, facing the back wall. Align the right edge of C-Down with the line. Drop one bombchu immediately, and drop the second one at the peak of the second flash.

A more recent setup is seen in the video below.

Staircase Hover to Block

Discovered by Acryte

Using a Staircase Hover you can reach the block in the north room without going around normally. This saves about 10-15 seconds over the normal route.

This hover is not needed as adult, because adult Link is tall enough to simply climb up the ledge to the block.

Open Boss Door without the Block

You need a bottle with a bug or fish to do this trick. Using Ocarina Items allows you to keep the item in the bottle, but can make it more difficult to backflip out of the hole. Using the bottle switch trick costs you the bottled item, but seems to make the backflip out of the hole more consistent.

Ocarina Items method:

1. Drop and re-catch bottle item
2. Align yourself with the center of the boss door
3. Backflip twice
4. Backflip once more, pressing bottle then sword while in midair
5. Wait about half a second then press B to stop playing the Ocarina
6. Turn 180 degrees and backflip out of the hole
7. Backwalk to the boss door, turn around, and open it

Bottle switch trick:

1. Drop and re-catch the bottled item
2. Align yourself with the center of the boss door
3. Backflip twice
4. Backflip once more, pressing bottle in midair
5. Turn 180 degrees and backflip out of the hole
6. Backwalk to boss door, turn around and open it

Defeat King Dodongo with Bombchus

Discovered by Acryte

King Dodongo can be defeated without bombs or a strength upgrade. This is mostly for a challenge, and is usually not useful in speedruns.

1. Activate ISG off Navi by targeting KD, or off a bomb flower
2. Turn the corner and stand on the slope near the lava
3. Face away from and perpendicular to KD
4. Hold Z and wait for KD's fire breath
5. As soon as KD rolls past you, pull out a chu and sidewalk to the centre of the lane
6. Run forward towards KD until you have about a sidehop's distance between you and his mouth
7. Around the 8th flash of the chu, press R to shield drop it
8. Immediately let go of Z, turn around 180 degrees, hold Z and R, and backflip into the explosion to hover
9. Immediately backflip out of the hover and pull out a chu in midair (do not shield drop the chu; if done correctly, KD should snap it up on his own)
10. When KD is stunned, touch his head to deliver ISG damage
11. Follow KD when he rolls
12. Repeat until dead

This trick is used in the current Child Dungeons route to skip bombs. It it used in correlation with lighting the eyes with chus.

Note that this is a very precise trick.