Flame Fatales 2024 Recap: Takeaways and Interviews with the Zelda Runners

Summary and Reactions

There are those specific speedrunning categories where one key strategy can either make or break a run. This is what goodgortho faced when performing a Defeat Ganon, No SRM run for the GCN version of Ocarina of Time. According to Gortho, this specific version is key to the run due to a specific glitch that’s needed.

The main key for a “Defeat Ganon” run like this would be to perform what is known as the Ganondoor glitch, but thanks to a new trick discovered this past January, it is now the Ganonfloor glitch. One of the key differences with this change is that you head on over to Dodongo’s Cavern instead of Inside the Great Deku Tree.

The run starts off smoothly as Gortho is successfully able to get to Zora’s River thanks to a glitch she achieves in the Lost Woods. From there, she makes it to Bottom of the Well, where she not only is able to pull off the Navi Dive trick but also the Corpse Push glitch in her first attempt. However, it’s when Gortho makes it to Dodongo’s Cavern that the real challenge reveals itself.

Gortho says it herself at the end of the run that this clearly shows why the Ganonfloor glitch is both precise and difficult which you can see during her time trying to succeed with the trick. It takes her multiple attempts through a span of roughly 14 minutes to get Link to the Ganon fight. Nevertheless, Gortho successfully completes her main goal, slaying the beast with a final time of 29m 4s 8ms.

Overall, while this run had a major hiccup near the end, Gortho showed the dedication it takes to truly master such a very precise glitch. While she admits that while the run was bittersweet, this definitely demonstrated what Ocarina of Time speedrunners can discover if given the time.

Interview with goodgortho

Kristen was able to get a chance to speak with goodgortho about the differences with the updated run, as well as the “hard-boiled eggs” origin story.

What are the key differences in terms of difficulty when it comes to using the old “Ganondoor” glitch and the new “Ganonfloor” one?

I can’t speak on it too much just because I never ran the ganondoor/GIM route. I know that the old route had some precision to it, but I think in terms of ganonfloor you have to maintain a high level of precision for a longer period compared to ganondoor. Link’s positioning and your camera angle cannot stray from very specific values from the moment you enter Dodongos Cavern until the moment you warp. There’s close to zero room for error.

You briefly mention near the end of your run that you use the N64 controller instead of a GCN one for this version of Ocarina of Time. Why is that? Also, could you explain the “hard-boiled eggs” comparison?

So the original reason I decided to run with an N64 controller opposed to GameCube was because I just like the C-buttons and was used to that. Rewiring muscle memory to use GameCube C-buttons was just something I did not want to do. Also, my controller has a steel bowl, steel stick, and a cap that I really enjoy so I’d really not be able to go back at this point. There are a handful of us that use N64 but most people who run Ocarina of Time use Gamecube.

As for the hard-boiled egg thing…the notches on a GCN controller’s gate are very defined. You can feel when your control stick is hitting into an up notch or a left notch or a down-right notch, etc. The notches feel hard, whereas with an N64 controller the notches are less defined, so it’s more difficult to tell when you’re in a notch. For example, if you’re holding straight up, sometimes the stick can slip a little left or a little right instead of staying in the up notch and you may not even notice. So the notches feel a lot “softer” like a hard-boiled egg, like bouncy and undefined. After the run someone reached out to me and was like “is it sad that I knew exactly what you meant by that hard-boiled egg thing.”

If given a chance to be a part of another GDQ event, is there any other Ocarina of Time category you currently run that you would love to demonstrate?

My favorite category is a category called Glitchless All Main Quests. It’s the most restricted Any% category on the board and it’s what I started speedrunning with. I love this category so much and am actually running it at PACE Fall in November! It’s just quite long so it’s hard to get it into a marathon setting a lot of the time. It helps that we have a mod (shorthand for a modified version of a game) called “faster quest” that shortens the category by about an hour and a half by scrapping cutscenes and adding fast text and etc. So that’s actually the version I will be running at PACE.

Tears of the Kingdom (All Dungeons) by cloud__sr

The Flame Fatales was happy to host cloud__sr, who’s known for their Tears of the Kingdom speedruns. For this event, she played alongside commentator nukie, who was in charge of guiding us through this All Dungeons run. This category requires players to complete what are considered the main dungeons of the game before heading off to defeat Ganondorf.

Cloud currently runs 13 Tears of the Kingdom speedrun categories, and holds version 1.0 World Records in All Main Quests, All Shrines, and Master Sword (both Restricted and Unrestricted). She’s even currently second for All Dungeons, so it’s hard to deny Cloud’s skill when running this title and it certainly shows in this run.

The first 30 minutes of the run are loaded with precise techniques as Cloud and nukie explained each one perfectly. In fact, Cloud stated most of her run restarts occur within the first section of the run because it is back-to-back glitches and exploits. The most important is a save file glitch called Zuggling that allows the player to have the unbreakable version of the Master Sword in their inventory (now labeled as “MsgNotFound”) from the tutorial for the entire playthrough. This helps when you do the run low on health and want to beat bosses within one cycle.

Other glitches included Arrow Smuggle Flight, which allows players to attach a bow to Link’s foot to fly around the map. Another is Fuse Entanglement, which allows players to Fuse items to shields — notably Rockets — but still interact with them. This is how you can gain infinite height in most places on the map. This is affectionately called Pocket Rockets.

After completing the Great Sky Island, Cloud went unintuitively to the Spirit Temple first because of how many necessary items are available on the route there. Navigating the Depths was easy, thanks to the Pocket Rockets at her disposal. She continued fast-traveling around Hyrule with various glitches and clipping into rooms to activate terminals (also disabling Sages whenever possible so they wouldn’t get in the way). Doing these techniques helped her complete the Water, Fire, Wind, and Lightning Temples in that order. Once Cloud was finished with Hyrule Castle, she dove right in to face Ganondorf’s Army.

Well-placed clips allowed her to zip through most of the boss battles, including the army. Cloud made sure to have plenty of Topazes to electrify the enemies and a couple Fairies as a just-in-case measure. While Ganondorf goes down quick, the Demon Dragon is one of the hardest sections of the game for speedrunners according to her. This is mainly due to the randomness, the speed at which the beast moves, and kicking Link off its back. Fortunately, Cloud still managed a nearly perfect epic battle.

Cloud completed the run in 2h 58m 32s 7ms which even included a pit-stop to New Serenne Stable in order to fulfill a $2,000 donation incentive to feed its adorable dog.

Interview with cloud_sr

Kristen got to speak with cloud_sr about why she runs so many Tears of the Kingdom speedrun categories, running the game in version 1.0, as well as the challenges of using certain glitches and tricks.

You actually run quite a few different categories for Tears of the Kingdom. What motivates you the most in running so many categories for this single Zelda title?

cloud_sr: Funny you bring this up, I actually have a bit of a reputation in the community for running a bunch of different categories at once; but I would say my main motivation in doing so is simply to have fun! I really enjoy playing Tears of the Kingdom and find its mechanics very interesting, both in casual play and in speedrunning. Each category has something unique to offer, and I wanted to try each one out for myself.

Earlier in your run, you bring up how the community is working towards making the Tears of the Kingdom 1.0 runs more accessible for new runners as well as improving the route for those returning. What are some of the key differences between running 1.0 and some of the later patches for Tears of the Kingdom?

cloud_sr: Version 1.0 is quite unique, to the point where it almost feels like playing a different game. Besides all the version-exclusive glitches it offers, one of the main benefits of running on v1.0 is a much faster early-game segment, going through the intro and getting off the Great Sky Island much quicker than other versions. Going back to glitches, many of the main techniques used in v1.0 speedruns these days rely on completely different mechanics from other versions, specifically relying upon the menu/inventory system, so running v1.0 generally means establishing a solid knowledge base for how these systems work, which runs on other versions may not require.

Are there any tips for those wanting to jump into Tears of the Kingdom 1.0 runs?

cloud_sr: For those wanting to learn a category on v1.0, now is the best time yet, as our server just opened up a large new resource section dedicated to helping new runners learn. Generally I also recommend coming to get to know the community, and there’s a lot of runners who love helping newcomers get up to speed. Also one of the nice things about Tears of the Kingdom as a speed game is that almost every single strat has an easier (if slightly slower) alternative, so while the learning curve can be quite sharp in the beginning, keep at it and you’ll be finishing runs in no time, and then can introduce harder strats later on, if you choose to do so.

One of the things that you brought up during your run was a hidden mechanic that’s called “Reduced Overload Threshold.” You explained a bit of it during the Water Temple portion of your run. What’s the learning curve like on figuring out a mechanic like ROT?

cloud_sr: The concept of overload has always been a bit obtuse, and things would often seem to go wrong for no reason, but over the past few months, several dedicated members of the community have been slowly uncovering the behind-the-scenes mechanics of how overload works and how it can be applied to speedruns; to the point where now we have a pretty good handle on how to effectively utilize it, what can go wrong, and how to fix it. Learning all the facets of overload in a speedrun context is a bit of a challenge, as there is a lot you need to know, but nowadays it’s much more understood, so picking it up is simply a matter of practicing the run as-is and learning from experience.

Aside from ROT, were there any other tricks/glitches you showed during this run that were the most challenging to learn?

cloud_sr: The difficulty curve for All Dungeons has definitely increased overall since the emergence of the v1.0 route, but coming over from Any% made it more manageable for me, specifically with the Arrow Smuggle tech that we rely upon heavily in Any%, and in the first 45 minutes of All Dungeons, as that glitch can be tough to master. Other than that, the Demon Dragon boss fight at the end was definitely a challenge to learn, as the timing window to hit the fastest cycle is very small, with just a few seconds of wiggle room.

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We like to thank you for checking out our Flame Fatales 2024 wrap-up! What did you think of these two runs? Did you have a favorite, and what moments from these runs impressed you the most? Let us know in the comments below!