Thieves Big Key EG
From ALttP Speedrunning Wiki
Thieves' Big Key EG is a trick that can be used to quickly get the Thieves' Town Big Key from the dungeon's entrance room, which skips three rooms you'd need to do if you get the Big Key normally. This can save up to ~13 seconds if done well.
Strats
Rail Clip
Technique
- The goal with this strat is to use the rail to clip past the ledgehop. Fortunately, the game's rail collision isn't very picky and 1-frame movements are unnecessary.
- Stand facing left into the right edge of the rail. The y-coordinate you start at isn't picky. Coords
A41-A59(a 25px window) can all work, although subtle adjustments must be made depending on where you start it and you'll probably develop a preference for a specific smaller window within that range. - When you're in a good spot, you'll want to alternate short diagonal movements and to clip through the rail. Any cardinal moves are bad, so sword buffers are a good idea to prevent accidental cardinal movements. The video shows a very optimized clip where when directions are changed, a single slash is used to stop holding the current direction and also to pivot into the next one. Some players prefer to divide those actions into two separate slashes.
- Which diagonal you begin with depends on where you start the clip. If you start it high, you'll want to begin {{<v}} and if you start low, you'll want to begin {{<^}}. Additionally, how long you can move between each slash depends heavily on where you start from and how you've moved previously. This pretty quickly gets a bit too complex and nuanced to easily teach, but with practice you'll be able to pick up on these subtleties, if maybe only subconsciously.
- This is the fastest strat to get to Big Key, but it's not that much faster than a good Gap Diver Down, which is arguably easier to consistently optimize. It does get you a free 5 rupees though, which can be a significant advantage in some routes.
