Getting Started

Getting Started

Welcome to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Speedrunning! Here we will be going over how to get set up for your first speedrun, for those new to either speedrunning in general or to this game specifically, as well as covering how to get setup for your first run, and what you’ll need to know about the game as you get started.

Game Version

There are 6 main versions that runners play on in TotK, due to the number of patches implemented by Nintendo in the first few months after release.

• v1.0.0 (released pre-launch/day 1 for physical copies) is currently the most common version for speedrunning, and as of Sept. 2024 is the fastest version for Any%, All Dungeons (tied with v1.1.1), All Shrines, 100%, Great Sky Island, Master Sword, GSI 100%, Blindfolded, and Runeless. v1.0.0 has a wide range of exclusive glitches that are quick to set up and powerful for speedrunning, and is generally considered the best overall version for speedrunning TotK.

• v1.1.0/v1.1.1 (released May 11, 2023 and May 19, 2023 respectively) are functionally identical for the purposes of speedrunning. It is currently the fastest version for All Dungeons (tied with v1.0.0), All Main Quests, Purah Pad Plus, and All Kohga Battles. v1.1.1 retains several of the more basic glitches from v1.0.0, although some (such as Arrow Smuggle) require longer/more convoluted setups. The main advantage v1.1.1 has over v1.0.0 is fast and maneuverable Autobuild Cancel Slides, for long distance movement.

• v1.1.2 (released May 25, 2023) was the first version to patch a wide amount of glitches from earlier versions, although still retains a few powerful glitches for speedrunning, such as Fuse Entanglement, Item Duplication, and others.

• v1.2.0 (released July 4, 2023) patched even more glitches, but introduced a strong early game glitch in Quick Smuggle, making GSI routes optimal on this version for a time (has since been obsoleted by v1.0.0).

• v1.2.1 (released August 22, 2023) is the current patch of the game, and while many methods of prior glitches were patched out, there still remains ways to do almost everything that older versions can do, albeit with the caveat that setups are often much longer and complicated, making them not viable for speedrunning in some cases. That being said, v1.2.1 and the two preceding patches of the game still have their own unique facets that make them interesting for some runners.

Every category in TotK has a viable route on any version of the game, so no matter what version you have access to, you can start picking up the speedrun. Do note, however, that the majority of currently existing guides are focused on either v1.0.0 or v1.2.1 speedruns, as these are the two most commonly run.

Downpatching

If you are on a later version and want to play on v1.0.0, you can downpatch on a physical copy through [factory reset]. If you own a digital copy, you have to either purchase a physical copy or downpatch through Switch homebrew. A physical copy of the game averages anywhere from 10-20s slower than a digital copy over the course of an Any% run, due to longer loading times, but really only makes a big difference at the top level, so it's recommend to just run on whatever copy you currently have, for accessibility purposes.

Leaderboards

If you want to submit your run to the leaderboards on speedrun.com, you’ll need some method to record gameplay so that the audio/video is recognizable for the entirety of the run. Common methods are either using a capture card to record your Switch gameplay, or phone or other camera pointed at the screen. Emulators are not allowed for leaderboard submissions.

You can use a timer program such as Livesplit, but do know that it is NOT required to have one to submit; a timer is just for the runner’s personal use. If you have a timer in the layout of your game recording, make sure it doesn’t obscure too much gameplay, by either displaying it to the side of the game footage or with a transparent background.

It’s highly recommended to read over the Game Rules and Category Rules on speedrun.com before attempting a run; this applies to every category of every game, as it is a good habit to familiarize yourself with the full rules before getting started, to ensure you have a valid run to submit to the leaderboard if you so choose.

All runs submitted to the leaderboard are required to display the game version number you are playing on; this is done by pressing “+” over Tears of the Kingdom on the home menu. You can show your version number before or after the run, but if you show after the run or at some other point and you choose to submit that run to the leaderboard, the verification team kindly asks that you leave a timestamp with your submission so it can be easily checked.

Every run and new attempt must also start from a fresh boot of the game, so make sure you close out the game entirely whenever you reset. Time will start either upon selecting New Game, if you run through the intro, or upon gaining control of Link in the Room of Awakening from an intro skip file. If you are using the 6m39s offset, start your timer as the screen fully fades to black before loading in.

Starting from an Intro Skip File

The TotK community has voted to allow Any% and some other categories to start from an intro skip file, which means skipping the cutscenes and “autoscroller” that make up the first 6 minutes of the run. Performing an out of bounds glitch known as intro clip will save you up to 1 min or more in the run, but for learning purposes if you want to skip intro for now, make sure you set up your file correctly.

The best way to set up your intro skip file is to play thru the intro and make a hard save right after Link wakes up in the RoA. Make sure you do not move Link at all after loading in, and try not to make another hard save on this profile, or you will need to play thru intro again next time you want to run, unless you are able to back up that save with NSO cloud saves or with homebrew. Some runners may create a separate user profile on their switch just for speedrunning, to maintain this intro skip file. If you are using a timer, set the timer to start with an offset of 6m 39s 733ms, as this is the average time for intro completion that was voted on by the community when intro skip was decided. This offset is not a perfectly optimal time, so if you aren’t ready to try intro clip yet, you can still run through the intro to try and save a few seconds over this offset if you want.

Game Settings

Amiibo

Using amiibo is allowed for leaderboard submissions, and amiibo vs no amiibo runs are designated with a filter on the boards. In the optimal any% route, using amiibo saves around 30-40s, however with this slightly modified beginner route amiibo provides little to no benefit. If you are following this guide and not using amiibo, you can turn amiibo use on or off; personally for no amiibo runs, I keep it turned off so it does not appear in the ability wheel and I won’t accidentally select it. Do note however if this does happen to you, the run still counts as no amiibo until you actually scan. Any% is the category where Amiibo has the most impact, and is not as necessary in other categories optimally.

Camera

It's recommended to set camera sensibility to Very Fast, as there are sections of the run where you will need to quickly turn or aim, and Very Fast enables you to do so with the greatest ease.

Motion Controls

Using motion controls to aim is generally preferred by most runners for Any% and some other categories, but turning motion controls off is perfectly competitive for Any% as well, and is almost required for some other categories, such as runs that make use of Autobuild Cancel Slide. Gyro drift can also impact the performance of certain glitches such as Arrow Smuggle Flight, but can be easily mitigated. As such, using motion controls or not is largely a matter of preference.

Minimap

Locking the minimap to North is similarly a matter of player preference, however it is strongly recommended to set HUD Mode to Normal rather than Pro, as there are several portions of different runs where having access to the minimap and Link’s coordinates is extremely useful. Having the minimap and other UI elements displayed also is very useful for the mod team to verify runs.

Language

For the Any% category, the Voice Acting language that you can select in the Settings menu here makes no difference to the run, as the only voiced cutscene that is unskippable, the intro cutscene, is the same length in every language. However there are several differences for the system language, which affects the text you see in-game. The fastest system language or text language for TotK Any% is Russian, which saves just over 1s over English, and a few seconds over the slowest option, Korean. This is because different languages have different numbers of text boxes in different spots of the run. Obviously this is a very small timesave you can get for free, but if you prefer to play in your native language while learning or running, feel free to do so according to your preference. This guide will be displaying text in English for ease of learning.

For any category that completes a dungeon, English will be the fastest voice acting language, with system language currently understood to be negligible.

TotK Voice Language Comparison by Fig