Disaster Relief Done Quick 2024 Recap: Takeaways and An Interview with One of the Zelda Speedrunners

Spoiler Warning: This article contains a summary and commentary regarding a speedrun of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The article content, the comment section below it, and the links within it may contain spoilers, including details about the final section of the game. Proceed at your own risk.

This post was co-authored by Josh Wittmershaus, with thanks to Kristen G. Rosario.

Equipped with stellar speedrunning skills, knowledgeable commentary, and timely donation incentive-driving quips, the team over at Games Done Quick (GDQ) has pitched in to help those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene by hosting Disaster Relief Done Quick 2024! This 56-hour event not only featured a run of The Wind Waker, but also a bonus speedrun of Echoes of Wisdom, in what was likely a first for many viewers!

The money raised throughout this event benefited Direct Relief, a non-profit humanitarian aid organization providing emergency medical assistance and disaster relief in the United States and internationally. Thanks to everyone who donated during the marathon, GDQ was able to raise $45,191 USD!

We hope you enjoy our coverage of Disaster Relief Done Quick’s (DRDQ) Zelda runs as much as we enjoyed checking out this marathon!

The Wind Waker (Any% No MSS) by Glubbers

What a joy it was setting sail with DRDQ in their featured run of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The runner, USA-based gamer Glubbers, has a great track record of runs for many 3D Zelda games, and was joined by gymnast86 as commentator and Mr. Game and Shout as master of ceremonies, creating a great trio of chatters throughout the run. Glubbers is particularly keen in his ability to describe what mechanics he is performing and why they’re important for the run. His ability to narrate the action was all the more crucial in this case as he presented Wind Waker’s Any% No MSS run, which he describes as particularly accessible for new speedrunners. MSS stands for “Manual Super Swim,” and is described well in this tutorial video by MrAlberto.

The chemistry between Glubbers, gymnast86, and Mr. Game and Shout is immediately evident as they banter their way through Outset Island, talking about some of the quaint elements that make the beginning of this game so memorable. For example, they note that it’s always important to visit your Grandma… because you never know when she’s going to give you the family heirloom shield that you’ll need for your journey. Also, something I never noticed before is that Aryll doesn’t give her older brother, Link, a birthday present; instead, she just lets him “borrow” her telescope, which makes for an odd birthday transaction on multiple fronts. While going to investigate the top of the island, Glubbers points out that there have been some invisible walls placed in the beginning of the game that may be seen as Nintendo’s attempt to prevent some early sequence breaking before getting the sword. This doesn’t seem to factor in much to the run itself, but I feel like it just goes to show that despite barriers placed by the developers, speedrunners tend to find their way around a lot of them.

Using (and abusing) a game’s storage capabilities plays a pivotal role in many speedruns, this run being no different. Throughout the run, Glubbers used the Storage category of glitches to make his way across the map, and in one instance used what the commentators referred to as “peg storage,” a rather tricky instance of hitting a peg on a fairy island at precisely the right moment in order to execute a Wind Waker Dive. It continues to amaze me how detail-oriented runners can be, to the extent that they are dialed in on what areas Link can clip through or where the best opportunities for storage manipulation are.

Another example of Zelda runners’ impressive attention to detail is the use of a mechanic that viewers of this run got to see a lot of, although it was unfortunate given Glubbers’ hopes of completing the run in time: the Zombie Hover. This trick is aptly named because it can only be done in the limbo between when Link loses his last heart and when the game declares Link dead. For that brief moment in time, the player can use the frame to continuously jump slash their way upwards. This requires a decent amount of button mashing, as well as finding a “rhythm” to work in. Glubbers didn’t succeed in his first few attempts, and as he continued to try, it became clear that he was struggling to find his rhythm, becoming physically exhausted. gymnast86 provided some helpful alternatives and all the while, chat was being incredibly supportive. I would genuinely be interested to see how much money got donated to the cause in the time Glubbers spent on this task, because the love seemed to be outpouring. He was eventually able to find an alternate route up the Deku Tree and continue along with the run, all the way until the beginning of the battle with Ganondorf, where he announced that he had run out of time. While it certainly wasn’t the end anyone had hoped for, Glubbers’ attitude towards the whole thing – coupled with the support of gymnast86, Mr. Game and Shout hyping the crowd, and the chat cheering him on relentlessly – was a great reminder of the kind of community that we involve ourselves with when we do speedrunning. 

Interview with Glubbers

Glubbers graciously took the time to answer some questions Josh had for him about the run and the response he received from the crowd. 

Is Any% No MSS your favorite way to run Wind Waker? If not, what is?

Glubbers: No, MSS isn’t my favorite category, though it’s the one I had the most recent experience with due to the recent ZeldaSpeedRuns 3D Zelda Relay where I also did No MSS. Personally I’m partial to All Dungeons. MSS is a trick which can be very off-putting for beginners, but to me it brings a lot of fun into the game as a result of the sequence breaking it causes! As for All Dungeons, I typically prefer categories where you’re both completing a large chunk of the game, but also breaking it open at the same time, keeping the “core gameplay” the same. In this case, it’s completing the dungeons, but doing that with whatever glitches or tricks you can to speed up the process, and All Dungeons highlights this in a very fun way to me.

Do you feel that creating easier categories like No MSS can help bring new speedrunners into the community?

Glubbers: Absolutely! No MSS is the most preferred category in Wind Waker, or at least has been for the past few years, and I see this being in no small part due to its accessibility. People can either start there and branch off into other categories as they gain more experience, or just simply enjoy optimizing No MSS. Giving that avenue to approach the game is vital to keeping prospective runners interested!

What’s your favorite Zelda game to speedrun and why?

Glubbers: Twilight Princess. I’ve run Twilight Princess for nearly five years at this point. It’s not my favorite Zelda game overall, though it is my second favorite, but Twilight Princess has a large amount of variety in its tricks. Everything is so very different and every segment feels unique! Twilight Princess also has the charm of being my favorite kind of run, one that requires a large chunk of the game to be played, but offers a lot of options to change up that experience from an “intended” route.

What’s your favorite backflip to do in the run?

Glubbers: LOL, the backflip into the cutscene with Grandma is the only backflip which feels impactful. Though there is a backflip during barrier skip which wasn’t shown during the run…

It’s no secret that there was a struggle in Zombie Hovering up the Deku Tree, but you continued to persist and try it. Can you tell us about what was going through your mind while this was happening?

Glubbers: Alright, this is a bit of a long explanation, so bear with me for a moment. At first I was confident. I’m prone to “over-mashing,” since you can mash too fast for Zombie Hovers. That’s a normal flaw for me to have. In a normal run, I typically start out mashing too fast and settle into a rhythm without issue. Due to having some nerves, I wasn’t able to find that rhythm at first, which is largely a non-issue. The problem came in at a point where I started to pause repeatedly while hovering. At this point I had a slight sharp pain in my elbow, and I couldn’t move my arm properly anymore. Before this point, I wasn’t worried about anything, I somewhat expected minor issues due to nerves and this was definitely a point when I expected to have them show through. After this, I was wracking my brain for different ways I could get up to the leaf without straining myself too much, which is why I went on to try so many different things before eventually settling and getting it with the “outside” hover, which in retrospect is a simple and obvious solution… and probably what I’m most comfortable with out of any options available, but it’s just rather slow. My mind was entirely focused on continuing and finishing the run, and what ended up happening as a result was that I forgot about my backup saves. What would have been best would have been to just load a save after the leaf, which I had on hand, on that same memory card (Save File 2), and just continue, but I was laser-focused on how to resolve the issue at hand and get the leaf. I’m not someone who does showcases often. I can count the number I’ve done on one hand. So my mind was set towards a “backup save” not being an option at all. The important takeaway, for me, is that a showcase is not a regular run, and the rules of a regular run don’t necessarily apply. Showing off the run is what matters, not leaderboard validity.

I think it’s fair to say that the composure and resilience you demonstrated during the run is a necessary trait for a successful speedrunner. Do you have words of wisdom for those who are new to speedrunning and struggling with certain mechanics and getting easily flustered?

Glubbers: Everybody resolves things differently, so to me the most important thing is to find what works best for you. The best answer I can give related to my own experiences comes from something I heard another speedrunner say a few years ago. I may be paraphrasing, but it was something along the lines of “If a trick is making you upset, or you’re having difficulty, mentally separate yourself from the trick, and ask yourself if you’re still upset. If you are, wait 5 minutes and ask yourself again. If the answer is still yes, it’s time to put the game down for a bit.” And this mentality is kinda just how I approach life in a lot of ways. In the direct experience I had with the leaf hover on DRDQ, there are a couple ways to view it. “Oh no, I’m failing a trick in front of a few thousand people” is a true statement, but it’s not a very constructive one. In a more general sense, ask yourself questions like “What am I doing wrong here, in my own opinion?” and if you can’t answer that, then it’s time to ask for some outside help. But in general, the main thing to keep in mind is that it’s not the end of the world, and if you have confidence in yourself to perform something, don’t let that confidence waver. If you can do something once, you can always do it again.

Your passion about the cause for DRDQ was very apparent throughout the run. Can you talk a little bit about the experience of getting to stream runs to help support a cause like this?

Glubbers: I’ve only done a few runs for events like this which support charities or other good causes, and every time I have a lot of fun. It means the world to me to be able to support a good cause when I’m able, and the fact that I’m able to just by playing some Zelda is amazing! Definitely something I would recommend to everyone to try if they’re interested. It just amounts to a fun time, sometimes meeting new people, and getting to enjoy yourself playing one of your favorite games.

What’s the weirdest object you’d let someone “borrow” as their birthday present?

Glubbers: Haha, I’m not exactly sure I would let anyone borrow anything as their birthday present instead of just getting them a gift to keep. But if someone were set on borrowing a gift for some reason, I carry some medieval weapons as decoration and if someone were very set on borrowing a battle axe, who am I to say no?

Echoes of Wisdom (Any%) by gymnast86

As DRDQ 2024 approached its conclusion, prolific Zelda speedrunner gymnast86 jumped into action, fulfilling a bonus game incentive by tackling an Any% speedrun of the newest series title, Echoes of Wisdom (version 1.0.1). 

With a run estimate of one hour, gymnast86 took the stage near the end of the final day of the event and was joined by fellow Zelda speedrunner Glubbers for commentary, with GDQ Hotfix showrunner Skybilz steering the ship and reading donations. While gymnast86 showcased what the Zelda speedrunning community has been cooking up for Echoes of Wisdom in the short time since its release, Glubbers seamlessly helped explain glitches and strategies, some seen during this run and some not. A common refrain discussed during this run was the immense time drain caused by unskippable cutscenes – according to gymnast86, of the first 17 or so minutes of time during a previous practice run, a whopping 11 had elapsed during unskippable cutscenes and dialogue. As the speedrunner joked during the run, the developers of the game must have been “allergic to skippable cutscenes.” The only skippable exceptions are scenes preceding boss fights, where players wouldn’t want to watch the same cutscene over and over again when returning to the same boss fight after being defeated.

Despite all the time eaten by the chibi cuteness of Echoes of Wisdom’s introductory storytelling, gymnast86 optimized what he could, streamlining platforming and only defeating enemies when required, leaning into the power of Link’s bombs when possible (the introductory Ganon fight went pretty quickly in this fashion!), jumping while placing echoes, and using spins for speed and to get extended jumps. Swordfighter form was also pretty handy for getting a little extra vertical boost when needed. gymnast86 was choosy when it came to learning echoes, only picking up essentials like the table, old bed, Sea Urchin, Strandula, and Darknut echoes. The speedrunner showed off how he’d experimented with the use of Bind, and what variety of objects will trigger certain events, in order to combine item use and save time.

For this one-hour Any% route of Echoes of Wisdom, gymnast86 had to engage in some hefty skipping after completing the Suthorn Ruins dungeon and strategically activating Waypoints (note: the route used by gymnast86 during this run does not utilize the recently-discovered Suthorn Ruins skip). 

After minute 37, the run gets into major endgame spoiler territory – so from here on out, consider yourself double warned!

gymnast86 skipped straight to the final dungeon area by utilizing the Wrong Warp glitch. This type of glitch can be found in all sorts of games (famously including another Zelda title, Ocarina of Time) and involves taking advantage of the way a game’s memory storage works to transport the player to a location not intended by the developers at that time in the playthrough. 

In short, as Glubbers explained, this glitch exploits the indexes associated with Waypoints, and because Still World index values are shared with those of the overworld, the player can layer one map over the other to load into the final dungeon. To get to this point, the player must acquire the sign echo in order to begin the glitch at the edge of the Eternal Forest, where normally when Zelda enters the forest from any direction but the actual entrance, she will “void out,” the fog kicking her back to the “permitted” area outside the treeline. The timing can be tricky, but the aim here is to read the sign in the same frame as Zelda begins to void out. With a couple of other well-timed steps, the player gets access to the map storage menu and is able to warp between various Waypoints both in the overworld and in the Still World, leading to being able to warp straight into Null’s Body. loohhoo over on YouTube has put together a helpful video guide for executing the type of Wrong Warp in Echoes of Wisdom that gymnast86 performed during his run. There are a few funny effects of utilizing the Wrong Warp glitch, with some potential for softlocking in Null’s Body, but there are also sections of the approach to the final boss that can be skipped, so gymnast86 sidestepped these potential issues and ran right ahead to the end of the game. 

It was enlightening, having only just recently beaten the game myself, to watch the speedrunner show off a few super effective fight strategies I hadn’t thought of, such as dispatching echo monsters in the moment before they materialize out of blob form and using Bind to stretch out Null’s arms so Link can take each one down with a single spin attack. It was also humanizing and encouraging to watch such an impressive speedrunner experience a few frustrating defeats during the lengthy boss fight, particularly when facing deadly Lizalfos echoes; but each time he jumped right back into the fray of the final battle to work diligently towards a swift finish. It’s pretty dangerous to go up against Null with only four hearts and not much equipment, so gymnast86 used Bind to move Link to the right parts of the battlefield, placed Sea Urchin echoes to end sub-phases, and used boulders to shield himself from spinning Skorchills. While he was able to thank the Wrong Warp glitch once again for a handy autosave before the third phase of the boss fight, with such a variety and number of enemies and some pesky targeting issues, toward the end I started wondering whether we’d see a sub-one-hour finish after all.

The seasoned speedrunner proved me wrong, however! Time ends when Zelda and Link finally pull the piece of Prime Energy out of the beaten Null – and in this case, gymnast86 clinched the win at 57m 52s 6ms.

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Thanks to Glubbers and gymnast86 for their impressive runs during Disaster Relief Done Quick 2024, and thanks to you, our readers, for checking out our recap! If you missed the marathon but would still like to support hurricane relief efforts, you can donate to Direct Relief here (and you can even specify which disaster area you’d like your donation to go toward).

Did you get to watch any of the speedruns during this charity event benefiting Direct Relief? What were some of your favorite moments from the Zelda runs? Does anything surprise you about the discoveries coming out of the Echoes of Wisdom speedrunning world? Let us know down below in the comments!