Buffering

Buffering is a technique to precisely control Link's movements. If a player is performing a precise trick, they may wish to move Link for only 1 frame. You'll quickly find that tapping the dpad for just 1 frame at 60fps is very difficult to reliably execute. Buffering techniques allow us to more safely and consistently move Link in small increments.

Sword Buffering

Sword buffering takes advantage of the way Link is immobile while slashing his sword in order to control Link's movement in subtle ways. Because of its speed relative to most other forms of Buffering, it is a valuable technique for ALttP speedrunning. There are two common ways they are used:

Moving for 1 Frame

The technique for moving one frame with Sword Buffering is to press the direction you want to move and then press B one frame later. If properly executed, Link's slash animation will cut his movement off after 1 frame of moving, giving the player ample time to release the dpad before any extra walk frames come out.

It is important with Sword Buffering (and other forms of Buffering) to be familiar with how Link's movement works. For example, if you're doing a trick and you notice that you need to move 1 pixel north to get in the correct position, a single Sword Buffer north will NEVER put you in the correct spot. This is because 1 frame of north movement will move Link by 2 pixels. In these instances you either have to move up and then back down, or use diagonals to adjust Link's position. More information can be found at Movement.

This technique is useful for optimizing some of the precise tricks in an NMG run (such as Hammerjump), but it's especially important for RMG and MG speedruns where precise control of Link's movement is necessary for many of the tricks.

Same Frame Diagonals

Another very common use of Sword Buffering is to quickly and easily guarantee same frame diagonals. Since the dpad isn't made up of traditional "buttons," pressing diagonals such that both directions occur at the exact same time can be challenging. Sword buffering offers a nice solution to this. Simply press B to slash your sword and while Link is in the slash animation, start holding whichever diagonal direction you need. Because Link won't move while slashing, the player is given 12 frames (length of the slash animation) to begin hold diagonal so that both directions are being pressed by the time he's moving again.

Examples of where this technique is used include the bush setup for Fake Flippers and executing the last step in a teleport.