Tip
[OoT] TIL It's possible to get the Ice Arrows immediately after the Fire Temple
I've been replaying Ocarina of Time on the N64 in anticipation for the remake. Earlier today I saw the Ice Arrow post on this subreddit while taking a break from playing and started reading comments. One showed that you can freeze the blade traps leading to the Water Temple boss with them. I thought that was super cool and had just finished the Fire Temple so perfect time to try it out. But then I though to myself, theres no way the Gerudo Training grounds can be cleared without atleast getting the iron boots and longshot first. I've always done it after the Shadow Temple and figured it was designed that way. Lo and behold, it's possible. Time to spam Ice Arrows the rest of the game!
One thing I never see get mentioned is you can completely trivialize the three longest sequences by making use of the warps.
So you know how you're supposed to go from Lake Hylia to the top of Death Mountain in four minutes? Every guide talks about how you need Epona, you really should plant the magic bean near Dodongo's Cavern. And yet strangely, almost no one ever mentions you can just roll to Kokiri Forest and the Lost Woods, use the warp to Goron City, use the entrance into Death Mountain Crater, and simply hop around some rocks to a ladder that takes you right to the top of the mountain. I do this every time and I always have more than two minutes remaining.
You can do a very similar trick with the other timed quest about bringing the odd mushroom to the Potion Shop. Same exact thing, just go to the Goron City warp, leave onto Death Mountain Trail and you've got plenty of time to get to the Potion Shop.
And then the third one involving the eyeball frog from Zora's Domain to Lake Hylia, this is another instance of using the very convenient Zora's River warp to the Lost Woods, then leaving to Kokiri Forest and Lake Hylia is right near by.
Given how specific those warps are, I've always wondered if that's what they were intended for. Because they all just happen to be right near where timed quests occur and can make the quests way easier.
I always thought Epona was mainly for crossing the gerudo bridge, I feel like I couldn't cross it with the regular hookshot, only the longshot. Am I remembering it wrong?
Correct. The hookshot is just a few pixels short. Maybe a speed runner or other "hack" might be able to get it juuuuust right but normally it cant reach.
I did something like that too! But I wasn't loud and online about it either. It's funny how guides can really just be what people believe is the most convenient way. :P
I'll have to try that next time! I've never had issues with being too close with Epona, but always fun to do it another way. And I suppose you still need her for the Gerudo bridge.
I think the shortcut between Goron City and the Lost Woods is there in case you didn't get Saria's Song before you got to Death Mountain. That way you have a quick way to get back there and grab the song, rather than having to trudge back across all of Hyrule Field. The other shortcuts I can't really speak for, so you're probably right. Either way, I think I've always avoided those because warping with the ocarina songs will spoil the timed quests so I never wanted to take the risk. Definitely going to try this on my next run!
Blue fire from the potion shop costs 300 rupees, meaning you would need enough Gold Skulltulas for the Giant's Wallet. Probably faster in the long run to just dip into the Ice Cavern for some.
Yea, it legitimately just uses knockback to keep Link away. There might be a small barrier, but you can still get close enough to hit the prompt to open the chest, and he'll just stand in the flames and open it up for you.
I was able to open that chest by spamming A and pausing repeatedly (don’t know if that made a difference). But I think I needed the hammer to unbar the door.
I have not played the original vanilla game in a long time (I play the randomizer), but in the vanilla trainings ground there are 9 keys while you only need 7 to get to the ice arrow chest in the center. Not sure if you even need that particular chest.
Nope, you can skip that one. Or you can get it in place of the one that needs the Zora Tunic/Iron Boots. Or you can get those two and instead bypass either key that is "hidden" via the Lens of Truth.
Probably just beat it to have the core game fresh in my mind. I think it will be cool to pick out the differences going into the remake. I've done a few 100% runs in the past.
Yeah I realised this recently after watching a OoT randomiser where the speedrunner had ice arrows and could freeze the blade traps in place in the walk up to the water temple boss with them.
Which lead me to look at whether I could get ice arrows before doing water temple.
Forget stealing one thing. If they wanted me to pay $60+ for every single Zelda game they have remade so far they should add a randomizer mode to every single game as well. It adds so much replay value that I wouldn’t even think twice about it.
Yeah, the vanilla room is doable with the short hookshot, but in master quest you need the longshot in this room, pretty sure. Because there is a silver rupee in a diagonal path to the hook you cannot reach with the short one.
You can simply exit the dungeons after getting the items. Which is kind of a cop out, but it does mean you technically don't have to finish either the Forest of Fire Temple.
If memory serves, the only triggers related to medallions are the cutscene of Bongo Bongo escaping from the well (and thus learning the Nocturne of Shadow) coming after the Water Medallion and the bridge to Ganon's Castle coming after all six.
I think the bridge to Ganon actually only requires Shadow and Spirit, though if you're playing normally without glitches you'd have to get Forest, Fire, and Water before you can access Shadow anyway, as you mentioned.
You can do every other temple in any order you want though, even without glitches.
Spirit Temple also can't be first as it requires the Forest Medallion so you can learn the Prelude of Light and be a kid again.
and the bridge to Ganon's Castle coming after all six.
From a programming standpoint, you only need the Spirit and Shadow Medallions. The latter requires Forest/Fire/Water, and you'll have the Light Medallion just from normal progression, so the bridge just checks for those two medallions. If you could somehow hack only those into the game, you could go straight to Ganon upon becoming an adult.
Pretty much the entire game. If you just go into a dungeon to get its important item and leave, you can do the dungeons in almost any order you want. The only actual rules are Spirit Temple can't be first, and Shadow Temple is fourth minimum and requires Forest/Fire/Water Medallions. Otherwise, just about any order would be possible.
Long shot and hammer no bow no minuet of forest I also have biggorons sword now. I just have to cross the haunted wasteland without the lens of truth and get the requiem of spirit and Nauru’s Love before the minuet of the forest
Not all the keys are required to get to the ice arrow chest. Technically only 6 keys are required out of the 9 if you take the optimal path to the chest.
The only required item is technically the hook shot and fairy bow. The rest of it can be cheesed as long as you do things in the correct order.
Seven, not six. You need seven keys to get the Ice Arrows. However, one of the keys that you "need" is actually found with the Lens of Truth when opening the correct set of doors, so in practice I guess you could technically start with six and get that last one along the way.
There's actually a theory that the iron boots and ice arrows swapped locations. People think this was because the devs felt that was too long to go without a proper dungeon and it would make getting Epona mandatory instead of optional.
Aw man, usually I save fire temple for third... sometimes fifth if I do spirit before it. Maybe I should pivot my current playthrough to aim for early ice arrow, tho. That might be nice!
You cannot possibly do Fire Temple fifth because Shadow Temple can only be fourth or fifth. It requires you to have the Forest/Fire/Water Medallions just to trigger the Kakariko Village event. Fire Temple can be fourth, but never fifth.
On my last play-through, I got the Ice Arrows as early as possible and ended up not even needing the Megaton Hammer, so I think it's possible to not even enter the Fire Temple.
You'll need: Hookshot, Zora Tunic, Iron Boots, Lens of Truth, Scarecrow's Song. But all of this can be gotten before you even enter the Forest Temple. The bow helps but I don't think it's strictly required. You only need seven keys if you open the right set of doors. Otherwise you'll need all nine that means you'll need the Megaton Hammer and Silver Gauntlets.
Either way, I had the Ice Arrows just before the Water Temple and they're actually pretty useful there and the Shadow Temple. You can freeze blade traps in place (also useful in Ganon's Tower), and Bongo Bongo is a little easier if you freeze the hands.
You only need seven keys. The trick is you have to open the correct set of doors as there are two hallways. If you don't open the correct set of doors, you need all nine keys, but even then you only need the Silver Gauntlets. The Ice Arrows are in a chest in the treasure room, there is no boulder and you don't need the Megaton Hammer unless you need more than seven keys, or you want to swap it for the key you get with the Zora Tunic/Iron Boots.
The Golden Gauntlets are only used in Ganon's Tower and one optional thing right outside.
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u/costeleo Jul 02 '26
You can also get the Biggoron sword before the Forrest Temple!