EG Escape
From ALttP Speedrunning Wiki
EG Escape refers to a sequence of EG tricks used to quickly rescue Zelda and complete the opening sequence of the game. This is important for many of the full MG Speedruns.
Contents
To Ball & Chain
Jump S&Q Methold
- The safer, easier method.
- Use the normal route until entering Hyrule Castle. There is a faster known Jump S&Q in Uncle Cave, but since it requires a difficult clip, you may as well do the fastest strat shown below if you want to further optimize this section.
- Do a Jump S&Q in the lobby. To execute this, just jump the ledge and open the S&Q menu while Link is in midair.
- Make your way back to Hyrule Castle and go to the lower east room. It is essential that you take no damage in this part because it will disarm the EG you have stored.
- In the lower east room, there are a number of patterns the green guards on the lower floor can give you, and it's important that you get familiar with reacting to them. It can be easy to accidentally take damage, which will disarm EG.
- Climb the stairs and walk down the catwalk. Get hit by the blue soldier and you'll clip to EG. Hold until you transition.
- On the following screen, hold until Link jumps into the void. This will rearm EG that we'll use after talking to Zelda. It's important you don't take any damage until after that point.
- After voiding, begin holding . You'll transition left once. Continue holding on the next screen until you see the spiral stairs leading to B2 appear on the left side of your screen. Press to enter them and exit EG. You can then go to Ball & Chain Room.
East Clip Method
- This is the current fastest RTA strat and is roughly ~20 seconds faster than the Jump S&Q method above.
- Enter Hyrule Castle and go straight to the lower east room. Climb the stairs and do the following inputs to clip:
- Get in the corner to the left of the top of the stairs (coordinates
510,C60). - Buffer 1 frame (or 2 pixels) north. Your coordinates should now be
510,C5E. - Begin holding to get on
510,C61. It is recommended to buffer this since the diagonal needs to be same frame. You can hold the direction indefinitely. When you're in the right spot, roll to to turn Link left (no risk of popping out here). - From here we need to clip left to
509,C61. The first 2 pixels can be gained in a single buffer . The video uses sword, which will be your fastest option. But you could use select if you wanted. You should now be on50E,C61. - From here we'll get all the way to
509,C61clipping 1 x-coordinate at a time with the same technique. Begin by holding sword out. This is crucial because Link holding sword alters his movement and allows this trick to work. To clip, you need to move for 1 frame followed by a neutral dpad for at least 1 frame. Repeat this 5 times to get to509,C61.- Since you have to hold sword, the only way you can buffer this is using select.
- You can hold the neutral dpad between the diagonal presses for as many frames as you want. It is faster to get into the next buffer asap though, and going fast will prevent Link from charging a spin attack before the clip is finished.
- When you get to
509,C61, hold and roll to and Link will begin walking over the the bottom layer of the room. You can drop sword now.
- Get in the corner to the left of the top of the stairs (coordinates
- Walk straight down and jump to EG. Make sure you hesitate slightly after jumping before going to walk or else Link could transition onto the next screen stuck in the void.
- On the following screen, hold until Link jumps into the void. This will rearm EG that we'll use after talking to Zelda. It's important you don't take any damage until after that point.
- After voiding, begin holding . You'll transition left once. Continue holding on the next screen until you see the spiral stairs leading to B2 appear on the left side of your screen. Press to enter them and exit EG. You can then go to Ball & Chain Room.
Ball & Chain Fight
This is a complicated room and the source of many MG Speedrun resets, so put some practice in.
The goal here is to defeat BnC, collect the big key, speak to Zelda, and get the Lamp -- all without taking damage. Taking damage will put Link in EG where he will be unable to interact with anything in the room. You can't get back in-bounds in this room either, so it's a huge timeloss to get hit early.
After you have Zelda and the Lamp, you ideally get hit by the green soldier into EG. The strats below show how to best manipulate the soldier to quickly get hit, as well as some safer options if playing this room aggressively is too difficult or annoying for you.
Up/Down Soldier
- If the green guard is walking up or down, and he walks long enough to touch the bottom wall (meaning he'll turn to face north), this is the fastest strat.
- The guard will always notice you when you go to grab the pot. It's important that your execution on BnC is clean or else you can get in a situation where you're sandwiched between the green guard and BnC. That'll almost always work out poorly.
- Sometimes the guard will be getting dangerously close while you're grabbing Big Key. Use your sword to hit him away when this happens. The below strat shows what this looks like.
Up/Down Soldier Tink Aggro
- If the green guard is walking up or down, but he does not walk long enough to touch the bottom wall, he won't notice you when you go into the cell to pick up the pot. To solve this, simply tink your sword against the pot before lifting it. The noise will alert the guard and you can proceed as normal.
- This video shows how to handle it if the guard is threatening to get too close while you're waiting for the Big Key to drop.
Up/Down Soldier 8 Slash
- If you don't like the above pot strats, you can just do a normal 8 slash setup instead. Ignore the green guard and aggro him with a poke after you've defeated BnC.
- If the soldier is far away after you've gotten Zelda and the Lamp, you can walk out of the cell and meet him. To get one screen north, you must walk between the cells though. For some reason, the cell bars' collision exists even in EG. Make sure you have a feel for how to do this if you go for it.
Left Soldier
- When the soldier is walking left, he'll immediately notice you when you come into the room. This is the fastest way to deal with this, but it's also surprisingly finnicky. A lot of players prefer to do the S&Q Method (shown below) if they get this pattern.
- Hit the soldier once and quickly turn the corner right. Begin walking diagonally where the video does to avoid the guard seeing you a 2nd time. If he does see you a 2nd time, you'll be fighting BnC and the green guard simultaneously, which is basically a guaranteed disaster.
Right Soldier
- When the soldier is walking right, just hold until Link is walking along the bottom wall and go do 8 slash. The guard will likely be in a spot where you can quickly aggro him after the fight with a sword tink on the left side of Zelda's cell.
- Pay attention to when the guard stops walking. If he comes to a stop very quickly (like at the corner of the wooden table), he'll notice you while you're walking to the right. You can adjust to this with the strat shown below.
Right Soldier Early Stop
- If you notice the guard stop early on a right-moving pattern, slash your sword once to time avoiding his search as you move along the bottom wall. If successful, you can proceed with the normal right guard strat.
- If this fails, you'll just have to kill the guard and do the S&Q strat.
S&Q Method
- This strat is important to know as a backup in case you're forced to kill the green guard, but it can also be a good safety strat for players who don't want to bother with all or some of the above strats.
- This is ~7 seconds slower than a good fight that gets hit into EG with green guard.
