The Legend of Zelda

NES · Any% · 1986

Current WR

28:48

First Known Run

~55:00

A deceptively complex speedrun built around screen-scrolling glitches and precise overworld routing to finish the game in under thirty minutes.

The Legend of Zelda Any% run exploits the game's lack of save verification to use the Second Quest warp trick, where dying with specific inventory states allows the player to access later dungeon content without defeating early bosses. The "wrong warp" via the screen-scroll glitch allows Link to clip through dungeon walls and reach Ganon's room far ahead of normal progression. Routing optimisation consumed years of community effort, as the game's open structure means dozens of item-collection orders must be evaluated against each other. The run is notoriously dependent on the Magical Sword damage output, and most top routes acquire it earlier than casual play would suggest.

Famous Techniques:

Screen Scroll Glitch — manipulating the camera transition between screens to clip Link into out-of-bounds areas
Wrong Warp — triggering a dungeon warp using unintended inventory state to skip to Ganon's level
Bomb Boosting — using bomb explosions to push Link past normally impassable barriers at high speed
Second Quest Skip — dying in specific conditions corrupts the quest flag, granting access to later game items early

Notable Runners:

Zmaster — long-dominant runner who held the record for years and standardised current routing conventions
LackAttack24 — world-record holder who refined the sword acquisition order and popularised the current any% route
Arcus — active top contender noted for applying TAS-derived sub-pixel manipulation to live play

Key Facts:

The game's open overworld makes routing unusually complex; a single item-collection order change can save or lose over a minute
The "No Up+A" category (disallowing the reset-warp) is equally popular and considered the more skill-intensive category
Emulator runners discovered most major glitches, which console runners then verified as hardware-reproducible
The community distinguishes "NES" from "FDS" (Famicom Disk System) records due to load time differences