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

DMD Demonstration

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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 <v 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

DMD Bonkless

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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 v to jump instead of continuing to hold <v. 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 v 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 v too late. If you try the bonkless movement but jumped while holding <v, you'll trigger an infinite scroll.

Long Hop

DMD Long Hop

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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.