Diver Down

Diver Down is a type of rail clip that works on rails adjacent to underworld Auto Stairs. The only thing required to clip is a Sword, but in most RTA contexts, items such as Cane of Somaria are used to both speed things up and simplify the inputs.

Diver Down clips lead to Link being able to access a ledge hop that's ordinarily blocked by the railing. Sometimes this just leads to him being able to jump to an otherwise inaccessible area, but other times it may allow him to enter EG. All Diver Down clips are considered Major Glitches by the RTA community, and are therefore banned in NMG Speedruns.

/ \ Stairs refer to stairs where the upper floor is oriented at the bottom of the stairway and the lower floor is above. Vice versa for \ / Stairs.

Diver Down on / \ Stairs

With Somaria

Technique:

• Place the block facing left while Link is 8 pixels below the stairs. Because rails are 8px wide, this is often easily lined up by pressing Link against one of the railings on either side of the stairs. You also want to be sure that Link is able to touch the block by the end of the following step (ie. don't place it too far left). If the top of the stairs is a y-coordinate ending in xx8, you'll want to place the block on a y-coordinate ending in xx0. If the top of the stairs is a y-coordinate ending in xx0, you'll want to place the block on a y-coordinate ending in xx8. For concision, I'll word this as "move to coords ending in xxR or xxZ" for the rest of this section, but this DOES NOT mean that the trick works in multiple positions. It means that one of those positions works depending on the stairs you're working with.
• Position Link into the left corner formed by the stairway and the railing just to the left. This will usually also involve pushing the block to the left some, which is fine. Just be sure Link is touching the block when he's in the corner. Your x-coordinate should end in xx8 or xx0, and your y-coordinate should end in xx0 or xx8.
• Sword buffer down once. This will put you on a y-coordinate ending in xx1 or xx9.
• Slash sword and begin holding <^ during the slash animation. Link should move up to a y-coordinate ending in xxF or xx7.
• Tap < so that Link is facing left.
• Press and hold B to slash sword and hold a sword charge. Also begin holding <^ during the slash animation. It is especially important you don't press ^ before < here, or you'll pop out and have to start over. If successful, Link should walk straight through the railing.
• With good timing, you can let go of B to drop sword and prevent Link from charging a spin attack. This isn't essential to the trick, just a way to save a little time.

Applications

Drowned Chest Diver Down

If you're doing the back of Swamp and going to Arrghus, this trick is ~8 seconds faster than the normal route that takes you through the final water lever room. This trick is useful in RMG Runs that need to defeat Arrghus. File

Cannonball Highway EG

This is a way to get to the Eastern Big Chest quickly from the entrance. It's used in All Dungeons MG after the Juke to Big Key. File

With Sword Only

Technique:

• Position Link in the corner where the top of the stairs and the railing to the left of them meet.
• Buffer down one frame.
• Slash and begin holding <^ to partially clip the wall. Your y-coordinate should end in xxF or xx7, depending on the stairs.
• Tap < to face Link to the left.
• You can get the first movement left with a single Sword Buffer, using <^. Your x-coordinate should end in xxE or xx6. You can also go straight into the clipping detailed in the next step, but you'll need to buffer one more position (you won't skip over xxF/xx7, as you do with sword buffer).
• From here, we need to clip left to xx9 or xx1 using one-frame movements with sword out. Hold sword and buffer (probably want to use select) one frame of <v followed by at least one frame of neutral dpad. Repeat these inputs until you get to the target x-coordinate. Remember that Link must be holding sword this entire time. If you're select buffering, be sure to cancel the S&Q menu with B so you don't drop sword between buffers.
• After reaching xx9 or xx1, press < and roll to <^ to walk through the rail, where you'll be able to ledgehop or enter EG or whatever.

Lamp Canceling

When you get to the section where you're holding Sword and buffering <v, you can use a technique called Lamp Cancelling that will allow you to stop holding B. Simply hold B and use the Lamp to activate this. You don't need to have any MP for this to work. The game will consider you in "sword-out" movement until something happens to make the game reconsider Link's state (ie. slash sword, dash charge, take damage, etc.).

This technique is especially useful on / \ Stairs because we can now Grab Buffer to clip really fast.

Applications

Uncle Jump

A grab buffered Uncle Jump. This is the fastest Jump S&Q available to the player after getting sword and is an optimal component of the modern RMG opening route using Lonk and Overworld EG. File

Diver Down on \ / Stairs

With Sword Only

Technique

• Get in the corner where the stairs and the left rail meet. Your coords should end in xx0 or xx8, depending on the stairs.
• Buffer up one frame.
• Begin holding <v. It's recommended to buffer this input with sword since you want both directions of the diagonal input on the same frame. You can hold this input indefinitely. You should now be on a y-coordinate ending in xx1 or xx9, indicating that you're clipped into the wall by 1px.
• Face left.
• You now have two options. You can go straight into the buffering detailed in the next step OR you can get the first 2px of the clip with a single sword buffer <v. The sword buffer will of course be a little faster, but also harder
• We now want to clip left to an x-coordinate ending in xx9 or xx1. To do this, hold B to hold sword out and alternate between 1 frame buffers of <v and neutral dpad. You can hold neutral dpad as long as you like but the <v moves need to be 1 frame. Since you're holding sword, sword buffers aren't an option here. Typically the best buffer tool you'll have for this is select. Make sure you're canceling the S&Q menu with a held B press so you don't drop sword between buffers.
• After you get to the correct x-coordinate, press < and roll to <v to clip through to hop or enter EG.

Lamp Canceling

• If you have the Lamp, you can use it while holding a sword charge and the game will drop sword but still treat Link like he has sword out movement. You can use this to avoid having to hold B during the <v buffers.
• This is far less useful for \ / Stairs because Link is incapable of grabbing the rail, meaning we can't use Grab Buffers. Still, some players prefer to do Select Buffers without concern for keeping their sword out while clipping.

Applications

Used in the East Clip EG Escape Route in MG categories. See EG Escape for more info.

Gap Diver Down

Highlight of the gap we can use to make these easier and faster

With \ / Stairs, if there's a tile or more of space between the stairs and the rail to the left, you can do simplified inputs to clip with nothing but sword.

Technique

• Stand next to the stairs against the ledge and press v and quickly roll to v>. If done correctly, Link should clip by 1px into the wall below, and his y-coordinate should end in xx9 or xx1, depending on the stairs.
• Walk left to the rail. Hold sword out and move <v through the rail.
• You can often just hold <v until Link hops or enters EG but if you want to move a good distance through the rail, you'll have to let go of <v and repress it to continue moving.

Applications

Thieves' Big Key EG

One of the ways to do Thieves Big Key EG File

Spec Rock Cave EG

One of the ways to do Spectacle Rock Cave EG. Note that with this clip, if you just hold <v to clip the rail, Link will jump too soon to enter EG. You must go to < or v and back to <v to stop this from happening. File