Time Travel Mechanics

Adult Reset

When you travel to the future for the first time, the game will equip the following set of items to Adult Link.

• The Master Sword is placed on B, and the slot for it is highlighted
• Deku Nuts are equipped to C-Left if the Deku Nuts slot is not empty. If the slot is empty, C-Left is blank
• Bombs are always placed on C-Down
• The item in the Ocarina slot is placed on C-Right. If the slot is empty, the c button will be blank
• Hylian Shield equipped, but only if you have it
• Kokiri Tunic and Boots are equipped

The way the game checks to see that this is the first time becoming an adult is by checking if your B button is blank, or you do not have the Master Sword in the inventory. So if you become swordless, and return to the future, you'll activate Adult Reset, which is to say the game will re-equip Adult Link as if this was the first time becoming an adult.

As Bombs are always equipped regardless, it's possible to skip obtaining bombs properly by using Cojiro RBA to obtain a bomb bag. This allows you to collect bombs and you can use them as long as they are equipped to a C button.

Going back in time

When you go back in time, the Kokiri Sword is always placed on B, even if you never obtained it.

Bottles/Trade Items

While Young and Adult Link share the same inventory, the game keeps track of what items they each have equipped on the C-Buttons and the Left Side Equipment screen separately. Because of this, the item values for all bottles, bottle items, and trade sequence items are updated every time you travel through time.

When a bottle item or trade sequence item is equipped to B, this results in a glitch known as Bottle Adventure.

Farore's Wind

Traveling through time clears your last Farore's Wind return point.

Pedestal of Time

During the cutscene where Child Link draws the Master Sword from the pedestal of time, the Master Sword is added to the inventory, and even placed on B as Child briefly. It's possible to use a trade item timer to warp away during the cutscene, to keep the Master Sword on B as Child. Because you receive the Master Sword during this cutscene, it's only possible to activate Adult Reset from the pedestal of time if Adult Link's B button is blank.

Light Arrow Cutscene

Watching the Light Arrow cutscene counts as going back and forth through time, which means that it can be used to trigger Bottle Adventure and Adult Reset. This is used to get the Master Sword back on a v1.0 save file without going back in time (since in v1.0, you can keep non-sword items on B after a save without Master Sword in the inventory).

Because Link does not draw the Master Sword from the pedestal of time during this cutscene, the Master Sword is never added to your inventory this way, even through Adult Reset. Because of this, the Light Arrow cutscene is the only way to activate Zora's Mask BA without the 2nd most significant bit set.