Flags and Triggers

Story Flags

This diagram represents all of the major known flags and triggers in The Wind Waker, that lead towards breaking the Hyrule Barrier and beating the game.

Completely white arrows represent a trigger that is required for another event to occur.

Arrows that are just an outline represent natural progression in the storyline and not necessarily a direct trigger.

Notes:

• "Talking to KoRL after Hyrule 2" isn't exactly accurate. It should have been "Loading TotG after Hyrule 2".
• Breaking the Hyrule Barrier and the triggers required to make it happen can be skipped thanks to Barrier Skip.
• The Fully Charged Master Sword can be obtained early aswell thanks to Barrier Skip, by watching the Puppet Ganon cutscene early.
• The canons and the battleships inside reefs only spawn once you've defeated Phantom Ganon in FF2.

King of Red Lions flags

Getting in the Boat

Early game requirements: Buy the sail AND Din's Pearl AND (Set wind direction South OR have been in the boat before)

After going down to hyrule 1: Pull the master sword

After going down to hyrule 2: Watch the tetra to zelda cutscene

Sailing Locations

Default : Windfall, Pawprint, Dragon Roost Island

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After obtaining the Wind Waker : Windfall, Pawprint, Dragon Roost Island, Fire Mountain, Eastern Triangle Island, Bomb Island, Forest Haven

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After Wind Waker Cutscene AND obtaining Farore's Pearl : All Islands Except Forsaken Fortress

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After Wind Waker Cutscene AND obtaining Farore's Pearl AND having Master Sword : All Islands

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Animation Sets

Cutscenes in TWW and TWWHD make use of special animations to make Link move around. However, the game doesn't use all of the animations right away. Instead, they are split into 2 different sets: Animation Set 1 and Animation Set 2.

When starting the game, the first Animation Set is used. But upon enting the Helmaroc fight, the game switches to the second Animation Set.

These animation sets are important to acknowledge, because entering a cutscene that uses these animation sets with the wrong one will crash the game, since the game tried to play a non-conform animation and failed to do so.

Here are cutscenes that use Animation Set 1:

• Intro Cutscene
• Hero's Clothes Cutscene
• Saving Tetra in the Forest Cutscene
• Helmaroc kidnapping Aryll Cutscene
• Hero's Shield Cutscene
• Leaving Outset Cutscene
• Barrel Launching Cutscene in FF1
• Forsaken Fortress 1 Cutscene
• First Encounter with KoRL Cutscene
• Delivery Bag Cutscene
• Din's Pearl Cutscene
• Deku Tree Cutscene
• Farore's Pearl Cutscene
• Password Cutscene
• Nayru's Pearl Cutscene
• TotG Rising Cutscene
• Going down to Hyrule 1 Cutscene
• Master Sword Cutscene
• Helmaroc Cutscene

And here are cutscenes that use Animation Set 2:

• Ganondorf Cutscene in FF2
• Valoo Cutscene
• Tetra to Zelda Transformation Cutscene
• Earth God's Lyrics Cutscene
• Playing EGL to Medli Cutscene
• Half Charged MS Cutscene
• Wind God's Aria Cutscene
• Playing WGA to Makar Cutscene
• Fully Charged MS Cutscene
• Hyrule 3 Cutscene
• Puppet Ganon Cutscene
• Post-Puppet Ganon Cutscene
• Ganondorf Cutscene
• Ending Cutscenes

These lists might not be exhaustive. Entering the Helmaroc fight is what changes the animation set. One must enter that fight with Animation Set 1.

Pirate Ship Flags

Pirate Ship Locations

The Pirate Ship is one object that can be found in various places through the game. Here is a list of all known locations:

• On Outset Island, after watching the pirates coming to Outset cutscene (during day+Prologue state only)
• On Outset Island, after watching helping Tetra in the Forest (during day+Prologue state only)
• On a special "Overworld Travelling" map (normally accessed by leaving Outset at the end of the Prologue)
• On the Forsaken Fortress 1 map (always there, behind a rock in the distance)
• On Windfall Island, during Endless Night (only before Hyrule 2)
• On both Outset and Windfall on layer 2 (by doing Flight Control Platform Escape)
• On Outset on layer 0/8 (the post-FF1 layer, ONLY if the pirates coming to Outset cutscene has been watched OR Tetra has been saved)
• On some of the maps used for the credits (there is no known way to have control of Link on them)

Outset stays in Prologue State as long as the Gossip Stone Trigger in FF1 isn't activated. That trigger can be skipped, which can lead to some more sequence breaks.

Pirate Ship States

Entering or leaving a pirate ship can have different results depending on what you did previously on the savefile. Here is how they work:

The Spoils Bag chest only appears during the day, and not during night or Endless Night.

Savewarping Flags

Info

Savewarping refers to the act of saving and quitting the game. Upon reloading the save, Link is usually placed back on the shore if he saved on the island, in the middle of the ocean if he saved in the water (far away from the island), or at the beginning of the dungeon if he saved inside it. However, savewarping works very differently during the early game, here is a list of what happens depending on what you did in the game.

Savewarp location	Event to trigger
Outset	-
Pirate Ship (Overworld Travelling)	Watching the "Leaving Outset" cutscene
Pirate Ship (FF1)	Obtaining the Spoils Bag
Forsaken Fortress 1	Watching the Barrel Launching cutscene
Windfall	Watching the post-FF1 cutscene w/KoRL
Most recent loaded area	Having control inside of KoRL OR Courtyard cutscene in Hyrule 2

Savewarp flags behave in tiers, the moment you trigger a higher tier flag, triggering a lower tier flag will not change your savewarp location.

Uses

By performing Outset Escape, you can avoid hitting every single of these flags. They can then be used at your advantage to:

• Escape from places you are not supposed to be at yet/can't be escaped otherwise.
• Go back to places that are not accessible otherwise.

For exemple, savewarping (or deathwarping) is the only way out of the pirate ship in the current any% route. Because it is possible to start an item slide superswim from both Outset and Windfall, savewarping can be used to escape from islands that don't have a superswim. Savewarping can be used to go back to FF1 even if you have both the sword and the bombs in your inventory.

Currently, it is not possible to keep these early game savewarps for the endgame: there is no way to avoid hitting the last flag in Hyrule 2. There is also no known way to obtain Nayru's Pearl without KoRL in the HD version, and so it is not possible to keep any of these flags for Hyrule 1 either. If a way is found, then it would be possible to savewarp escape Hyrule 1 in All Dungeons, skipping having to pick up the Master Sword.

Day/Night Cycle

Description

The Ghost Ship only appears at night, so manipulating the Day/Night cycle is crucial in a speedrun in order to skip having to obtain the Song of Passsing or needing to wait for the Ghost Ship to appear. The Ghost Ship also appears at different islands depending on the moon phase, and manipulating its location is also important. The time is measured in-game in terms of hours and minutes. 0:00 is defined as midnight, 6:00 is when it turns day, and 18:00 is when it turns night. The in-game date also advances by 1 whenever the time passes midnight.

How Time Passes

Time passes differently depending on the current time. Between the times of 6:00 until 11:00 and 18:00 until 23:00, time passes everywhere normally on every island, including inside dungeons, buildings, and hidden caves. However, at any other times, time will not pass on certain islands. These islands include Windfall, Dragon Roost, Forest Haven, Outset, Gale, and Headstone. Time will also not pass inside any building, dungeon, or hidden cave. Because of this, it is crucial to wait until it just turns day or night if you want time to pass at certain places, or arrive at a certain place before it turns day or night in order to have time freeze.

Events That Reset the Current Time

Occasionally, certain in-game events will reset the current time to a certain value while still preserving the current in-game date. Arriving at Greatfish will immediately reset the current time to 0:00 (midnight). Visiting Hyrule field will reset the current time, but to 12:00 (noon). Forsaken Fortress 2 resets the current time to 21:00. Forsaken Fortress 1 resets the current time to 20:00. The cutscene that follows beating FF1 also messes with the day/night cycle, as it resets the current time to 12:00 of the previous day. Completing the Ghost Ship resets the current time to 08:00 of the current day.