The Legend of Zelda came out in 1986 and has since captured millions’ hearts. While it’s a masterpiece, it’s not without its programming oversights. Glitches and video games go together like peanut butter and jelly, sometimes to hilarious results. Other times, these glitches allow you to break the game and do things in an order that wasn’t intended or save valuable resources. By reading the memory of this game, our understanding of its mechanics has exponentially grown, so let’s explore what these glitches are and how they work! If you can master these, I promise, you’ll become a legend!
5. Keeping Food
Let’s kick off our list with a nifty little trick. The food item in the Legend of Zelda has a primary use: you need it to progress in the level 7 dungeon as a hungry Goriya blocks your path, demanding food. But this item is more than just a hunger-satisfier. It can be used as bait for other enemies, showcasing its versatility. And the best part? You can buy this item multiple times from a few merchants hidden throughout the land, giving you the power to replenish your resources whenever you need.
The glitch to keeping this item after giving it to the Goriya is to walk up to the NPC and give him the food. After he disappears, the secret found music plays, goes into the submenu, and then ends with a secret found in the game. From here, you’ll select “Continue,” and the game will restart. Link at the dungeon entrance with the food still in his possession. When you enter the Goriya room, the NPC will be gone, allowing you to give it the food and still keep it.
This glitch doesn’t seem too useful on its surface. The ability of the food to kite enemies is most useful, and if you’re able to grab it with the boomerang before it fades, you can keep this item. It’s the idea that you can purchase this useful item once without having to track down a merchant to buy another, which makes this glitch useful.
4. Moving Attack
One of the core mechanics in the Legend of Zelda is being able to swing your sword. Without it, it wouldn’t be much of an adventure. Although people have run the game without acquiring the sword, this section isn’t about that. When you swing your weapon, your character sprite stands still during the attacking frames and is able to move again after the attack finishes.
To perform this glitch, you must attack as you touch a door. The game then overrides the fact that you can’t move while attacking with a cutscene of you walking through a door, leaving your sword out. I could not find information on whether this glitch keeps the hitbox active or not, so I don’t feel comfortable saying one way or another, but it does look cool.
3. Self-Unlocking Door
This Legend of Zelda game started a franchise, and one of the tropes that started here is locked doors that need a small key to unlock. This game came out before the time when small keys could only be used in the dungeon they’re found in. This is where we start to get to glitches that save a lot of time and resources.
This glitch can only be performed in the level 1 dungeon on the first quest, but performing it is simple enough. You’ll need to make some precise movements within a short window to pull this glitch off. Well, it depends on your definition of “precise” and “short window”. Jokes aside, all you must do is enter the level 1 dungeon and then leave. When you reenter the dungeon, the locked door to the north will be unlocked, giving you an extra key.
Now, I did joke this glitch is harder than it actually is, but there is a caveat: this glitch only works on the first visit to the dungeon. Keys are often a precious resource in the Legend of Zelda. So, if you want an extra key for the rest of the game to skip that one room that is giving you trouble, use this glitch!
2. Portable Fairy
The Legend of Zelda also introduces fairies to the franchise. These useful creatures will heal you completely no matter how much damage you’ve taken. The problem with this game is that the fairy animation is incredibly long. While this glitch is only useable in one instance, it’s nice to walk around while being healed.
You don’t need to do a complex or frame-perfect button press to do this glitch. However, you need to be in the second quest to use this. All you need to do is complete levels 1-4 and then head into the 5th level. From here, you don’t need to complete the level, but you do need to touch the fairy in level 5. Once you do, you will find that you can move around freely while your health fills up. Any damage you take during this time will also get healed, extending the glitch and making you practically immortal.
Let me break it down for you with some math. I counted the frames it took to heal from 1 heart 13 took 234 frames. This was counted on YouTube, where most of their videos are played in 30 frames a second. There is a slight inconsistency with what frame, either 10 or 11 frames, half a heart will heal, but that may be because of the frame rate the game runs in on hardware. It’s difficult to find the exact framerate online, but just using my data, it takes 7.8 seconds to fill 12 hearts. That’s a long time just to wait around.
Legend of Zelda Honorable Mentions
I have some honorable mentions that aren’t quite glitches but are useful to know. The Legend of Zelda is known for its drops, and while they seem random, did you know you can predict what will drop and when? A nifty chart details all the drops you can get and when, but I will also go over how it works first.
The game keeps track of what you kill from the moment the game is powered on. This counter starts at 0 upon power-up, and each kill increments the counter by 1. There are four groups of enemies that could drop different items based on the counter. This isn’t a guaranteed drop, but speed runners have this chart memorized, along with what enemies belong to what group. This is mostly used to predict when a bomb will drop. This is known as forced item drop, and all forced item drops override normal drops.
1. Screen Scroll
Screen Scroll is an infamous glitch found within The Legend of Zelda. This is the glitch speed runners primarily use to move quickly in the overworld and reach places they normally couldn’t access until later. With this glitch, runners can cross rivers early, bypass the Lost Woods, and skip the Lost Hills. This is also the most technical glitch on this list, so pulling it off will take some practice. No jokes this time.
This glitch is actually pretty precise. You need to be standing within 5 pixels of the edge of the screen while facing the edge, then for 1 frame, press a direction that’s perpendicular to where you’re facing. In other words, if you’re trying to go east and west, you’ll need to press up or down on the d-pad for 1 frame. If done right, Link will turn around, then you simply walk off the screen, and Link will appear on the opposite side of the screen.
As I said, this trick is very precise as you need to be exactly 5 pixels, no more and no less. I’m pretty sure the game runs in 60 frames per second so the 1 frame button press is also pretty tricky by giving you 1/60th of a second to execute the glitch. While it may be difficult, it’s well worth the effort. Mastering these glitches will help you become part of the legend that is in this series.
When it comes to legendary status, this game takes the cake. The world is full of locations to explore and mechanics to exploit. Just remember that this is a secret to everybody!
For More Great Content
If you enjoyed a trip down memory road with me, check out 10 of the most powerful swords in The Legend of Zelda Series! For other content by me, click here. I would greatly appreciate it!
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About the Author
Phillip is an avid gamer and loves football. He loves all types of games ranging from video games, TTRPGs, and board games, and loves to learn about coding and game design. During the football season, he can be found cheering for his favorite football teams, usually with an elevated heart rate and a jersey on. His social media handle is Phillip Bentle on Facebook.