Death Mountain Descent
Death mountain descent (or DMD) is an Out of Bounds trick that allows Link to leave Death Mountain to access areas around it on the map. There are many different types of DMDs but when DMD is used alone, it is almost always in reference to West DMD, which is what this article will cover. For other DMDs, see Clips.
DMD allows the player to jump off Dark World Death Mountain and directly access the Western parts of the Dark World Overworld (Skull Woods, Village of Outcasts, etc.). This is a valuable sequence break because the Dark World warp on Death Mountain is the only one in the game that doesn't require items to use. By using that warp and then doing DMD, the player can access much of Dark World early.
As Link with Boots
The fastest and easiest way to do this is to Spindash . Enter the spin dash state (superspeed not required, although typically faster to use), align yourself with the bottom wall, have Link facing downwards, and hold to clip through the corner. Once Link jumps, go completely neutral on the dpad. It is very important that you don't walk after jumping. Doing so can trigger an infinite scroll. After landing, start a dash charge, and then turn Link north during the dash charge so he bonks the wall above him. Hold down after bonking and you should get a transition downwards and a FAWT into the screen below.
Any category where you have Hookshot in your inventory at the point in the run you do this trick allows you to opt for Hookspeed instead of Spinspeed if you wish.
Optimizations
Bonkless
This is a technique that skips bonking before the transition and therefore, saves around 1 second. After Link has started to clip the corner, switch to to jump instead of continuing to hold . If done correctly, Link will take a different type of jump that allows you to get a good transition without bonking. After landing, just walk up and then walk down.
With superspeed, you only have a 2 frame window to switch to during the corner clip to get the correct jump. Make sure you practice being able to recognize when you've gotten it and when you haven't. Having that ability allows you to revert to the bonk method in the event that you switched to too late. If you try the bonkless movement but jumped while holding , you'll trigger an infinite scroll.
Long Hop
Dashing off the ledge headed to short ladder can be made slightly faster by starting your dash on Y-Coord 31A. Link will get a better jump that travels beyond the bush.
Bunny DMD
There are three ways to do DMD as bunny. The first involves a mirror transition. The fastest way is to do the Hera Clip, quickhop down off the ledge and hold down-right. You will nudge against a boulder. Align with this boulder (Link passes to the right of it) and move cardinally down until an obstruction stops you. You MUST have been aligned with the boulder for this to be successful. From there, move cardinally left into the warp. once the warp brings you to the Dark World, move cardinally left until an obstruction stops you. Then, move cardinally down until another obstruction stops you. Finally, press AND HOLD left. If you stop holding left, you will restart the walking animation, and have a 50/50 chance of softlocking. As you continue to hold left to walk, menu to mirror. (You may also menu to mirror at any point prior to this.) At this point, the easiest method is to use select buffers to get to the right pixel for the mirror transition.
Once you are on this pixel, cancel the pause menu and use the mirror on the right frame. If you do it correct, you will end up here:
From here, move straight left. You will end up on this screen.
From here, you need to make sure you correct the camera so when you transition into the screen above DW Kakariko, you do not softlock. Walk in alternating diagonals to do this easily.
Once completed, you will be in Dark World Kakariko as bunny.
The second method is slightly slower, but still faster than a manual clip. You perform all the above steps, but instead of mirroring on the exact correct pixel, you just walk into a transition. You will screen wrap to the dark world equivalent of outside the sanctuary. As soon as the transition completes, mirror to the light world. Dash left until you are aligned to where the sanctuary door would be, cancel dash right, and dash north into the sanctuary off camera. Immediately leave the sanctuary, dash south, and dash left. After the next screen transition, you will see your mirror portal right where you apparently left it.
Here is a video from poor_little_pinkus demonstrating this.
The third method is a manual select/sword buffered clip.
