The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Glitches

These are glitches found in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Beware, for some glitches can freeze your game or make you lose your saved game.

Scrolling Shenanigans
1) Enter the Dark World and go to Skeleton Forest.

2) Drop down the east most hole(1st screen) to enter the large room in the Skull Dungeon with three Gibdos, a Wall Master, several bumpers, spikes, a key in a chest and a keydoor in the northeast corner.

3) Kill all the enemies and make sure the northern door is unlocked.

4) Go in between the two bumpers that are almost touching each other near the north side of the room.

5) Make sure Link is on the southern side of the pot between the bumpers, and as close to the pot as he can be, then face north.

6) While facing north, press and hold B to charge a spin attack.

7) Move sideways into one of the bumpers (the results of the glitch change depending on which one you bump into, see below for more info).

8) After Link bounces off that bumper, but before he hits the other bumper, release B to perform the Spin Attack. (Timing has to be perfect - Link should be about halfway, possibly a little farther, from one bumper to the next. It will definitely take several tries to get it right in many cases.)

9) Exit through the northern door without touching any walls or pots. (Otherwise, the effect of the bumping may be lost.)

If all went well, the screen should scroll horizontally beyond the walls of the room. You will see the room containing the Fire Rod chest on both sides of the room you're in.

Depending on which bumper you hit, and how many times you perform the glitch, you can achieve one of the three following results. For result 1, have Link hit the right bumper first. For result 2, have Link hit the left bumper first. Finally, for result 3, perform the glitch twice, using the same bumper as your starting point each time. Finally, you can undo the glitch simply by performing it again in the opposite direction you performed it previously.

(All directions are from the room you enter after leaving the bumper room.)

RESULT 1 If you go west through the southern door, you will end up stuck in a wall and will have to use the mirror to get out. If you travel through the northern passage instead, you will enter the "Glitch Zone" (See below). Once in the Glitch Zone, the camera will no longer scroll abnormally, but it will focus on the wrong room (not the room Link is actually in). As you move around, you will see a "dummy" version of Link on the screen, with no shield. That is a graphical glitch and does not reflect Link's true position. (Use the map to confirm his actual location.)

RESULT 2 Same as result 1, except: When you enter the Glitch Zone, the camera will continue to scroll out of bounds. This lets you synchronize the camera back with Link by moving back and forth. Some doorways will not work exactly the same as before, meaning it's easier for Link to get stuck in a wall (requiring you to use the mirror to get out). Although you can synchronize the camera with Link, what you see is a "clone" of Link. He moves through the room normally and looks perfectly fine, but he cannot interact with anything very well (pots disappear, enemies go through him, switches don't activate, and many items won't work properly.)

RESULT 3 When you pass through either doorway heading west, Link will end up in the room with the Fire Rod chest, as you would normally expect. However, the camera continues to scroll out of bounds. The game otherwise acts normally until you go through another door... This is the effect you want for the Under-Underworld glitch.

THE GLITCH ZONE (These instructions assume you used result #1 above. If you used result the latter stages of the exploration].)
 * 2, things will vary as doors won't always work the same [particularly in

Room #1: You are in the Big Key room. Camera focuses on room east of Big Key room. Head east to go to Room #2. Go south for Room #3.

Room #2: You are back in the room you were in right before entering the Glitch Zone. Camera focuses on room with Fire Rod chest. Go south to return to bumper room (you can redo the glitch for a different effect if desired at that point). Go west through northern passage to return to Room #2. Go west through southern passage to go to Room #3.

Room #3: This is the room where Link moves a statue onto a switch to open a doorway. You cannot go north because you cannot interact with the statue or switch. Camera focuses on room just west of Fire Rod treasure chest (which is also just east of where Link actually is). Go south to exit the dungeon altogether. Go west for Room #4.

Room #4: You are now in the room west of the Fire Rod room, with the camera focusing on the room you just left. (If the key door is still locked, Link will sometimes get stuck inside the door, forcing you to use the Magic Mirror.) Go east to return to Room #3, or go south for Room #5.

Room #5: Link is in the compass room (very difficult to navigate if you got the compass). Camera focuses on room west of compass room. Go north to return to Room #4. Go east for Room #6 or west for Room #7.

Room #6: Link is in the room west of the compass room, with the camera focused on the compass room itself. Unfortunately, Link is positioned right over a bottomless pit, so you can't do anything but fall repeatedly.

Room #7: This room is the room of the Swamp Palace (level 2) where Link gues through a waterfall to access a hidden doorway. You can synchronize the camera to Link here (since the room is two screens wide), but you can't do anything else because Link is suspended in midair above the room's floor, making it impossible to go anywhere.

The Under-Underworld
1) Perform the Scrolling Shenanigans glitch by hitting the right bumper twice. When you travel north to the next room, use the Hookshot to reach the upper door, then go west.

2) If you end up experiencing effects (C) or (D), head east, then go south in the middle (whether you see the right room or not). This should get you back in the room with the bumpers. Try again until you achieve effect (B).

3) Once you enter the room with the Fire Rod chest, head back east through the same door.

4) It looks like Link went back into the room opposite the door, but what you see is the dummy Link. Move back and forth until Link's true location is visible on the west side of the Fire Rod room! Use the Hookshot to cross the gap, then head east through the same door you just went through.

5) After the double-scrolling effect finishes, you'll be in a later room of the dungeon (use the Map if you don't recognize what came into view). Dash each two times to get Link's true position into view quickly. You're in mid-air! This is quickly fixed, however, by simply climbing the stairs to your north (sort of). Just walk over them and you'll "climb" to the top of the stairs. Then, climb back down them and you'll be on the bottom level, like normal.

6) Head west, through the door you see there. Link will disappear as he enters, but don't be bothered by it--just go. Another double-scroll will occur, and you'll be under the floor of the room you first went in after triggering the glitch.

7) Once you're under the dungeon floor, move Link back and forth until the camera is in sync with him.

8) Once the camera is in sync, head to the west. When Link hits the hard boundary at the end of the room, the screen will loop around, eventually stopping on the Fire Rod chest room.

9) Move Link back and forth, taking care not to go too far to the right.

10) If the camera DOES NOT scroll at this point, then go on to step 11. If the camera does scroll as you move back and forth, then go back and redo steps 8-9.

[Sometimes it only takes one loop around to get the camera to stop on the Fire Rod room, while other times it can take three or four cycles. However, it shouldn't take longer than that - it you go half a dozen times around and the camera refuses to stay on the Fire Rod chest room, you should consider using the Magic Mirror and restarting.]

11) Go tothe east. The camera should scroll to the room east of the Fire Rod room (duh).

12) Notice the circle of pots at the Northern end of this room. Normally, you would see a spark enemy moving around these pots going clockwise.

13) Keep going east until that spark appears. (You should go the same distance you went back in steps 8-10.)

14) Now go east two more times (two more cycles around).

15) Go west. The screen will now scroll to the Fire Rod chest room.

16) Go west two more times (two cycles around). As the screen scrolls around the second time, you should see that spark enemy I mentioned above. If you don't you miscounted somewhere.

17) Go east. The screen will scroll back to where the circle of pots (and the spark) is located.

If you performed these instructions correctly, the camera should now scroll normally throughout the entire Under-Underworld. That is, never again will it scroll beyond the boundaries of a map square. (It will scroll between rooms within a map square, but it should always stop at the map square's boundaries until you travel to the next sector.)

It seems to be fairly tedious, but after you've performed this procedure a couple of times, it should become fairly straight-forward. To be honest, even I don't know exactly why it works the way it does, but who's complaining: It works, and that's all that matters.

Here's a list of all the reasons why you should do this from now on when exploring the Under-Underworld:

1. No more unpredictable scrolling. 2. No more sprites disappearing as you move around (I've had Link disappear, and I've had enemies and other objects disappear as well - now those problems are gone forever.) 3. No more going through doorways and not being sent to the right location. 4. Enemies and other objects can now be interacted with. 5. You can now see those wall masters. (If you're like me and got caught by an invisible one once in a while, you're glad now.) 6. Items now work as they should. 7. In dark rooms, Link's light "cone" now appears at the correct location. 8. You can now explore the Under-Underworld smoothly and naturally, something that prior to now was only possible in emulation!

Note that the exploration still isn't perfect - you can't enter every room's normal playing area, and it's still possible for Link to get stuck in some rooms to where he must warp out with the mirror. Also, graphical glitches still occur as the wrong sprite palette is used (although most oddities are fixed by bringing up the map, going through a door, and/or using the Ether medallion, there are some graphical quirks that remain until you leave the underworld altogether). However, this is a much-needed improvement over what we've been stuck with since the glitch was first discovered. Enjoy!

Now, by moving under the floors of different dungeons and other indoor scenes, you can get just about anywhere (with some limitations) in the underworld! But be very careful of the following:

- When moving north or south, stay in the middle of the scene currently loaded. You don't want any wraparound effect to be visible when moving north or south. Usually there are no problems, but crashes are possible if wraparounds are combined with vertical scrolling.

- Don't trust the flashlight in dark rooms. When moving west or east, the flashlight does not reveal Link's actual location. (Moving north or south is somewhat better but still not always accurate.)

- Keep your Magic Mirror handy--it's easy to get stuck when you go into a room that has both an upper level and a lower level.

To beat the game early once you're in the Under-Underworld follow this route:

Go west near the top of the screen (to keep from getting stuck) until you reach the throne room of Hyrule Castle. Go north through the dark room, then stop when you reach a lighted room again (it will be a portion of the Tower of Hera). Go west one scene. The west side of this scene MUST be scrolled completely into view before continuing, but do not go beyond this scene. (You'll see the section of Hyrule Castel's tower, where Agahnim warped Zelda to the Dark World.) With the screen divided between the rooms horizontally (with the empty rooms on the right side), go north until you reach your destination (through and beyond Ganon's hideout).

Blue Shield
This glitch requires you to have the second(red) shield.

1) Find one of the enemies that sticks out its tongue and takes your items. This enemy can be found in various places, such as in the forest, in the Dark World.

2) Set Ether as your special attack.

3) Allow the enemy take your Red Shield (this may take a few tries since it takes items at random).

4) When the tongue is still out and the shield is halfway to the enemy, use Ether to freeze it.

5) Kill the enemy and to get your shield back.

Your shield will be blue and remain that color even after moving to a new screen.

Death Mountain Descent
1) First, you must be on Death Mountain in Hyrule, not the Dark World. This is when you first get there, and you have not got the Moon Pearl or beaten Agahnim the first or second time. While you are on Death Mountain, notice the bridge. If you haven't been to the bridge before, it's all the way to the right from where the old man's cave is (the one where he gives you life if you talk to him). Go up the ladder, then where all the large boulders stuck to the ground are, go all the way to the right. You will see a broken ladder. Note: I am informed that it is possible to do this glitch even if you have Moon Pearl, I have no confirmation of this though.

2) Now, go back up Death Mountain and to the warp portal where you go to the Dark World when you step on it.

3) Once you are a bunny on Death Mountain, you can either go back down using the ladder, or go directly down when you change, then you'll see a crack in the ledge. Jump down from it, then jump down from the platform you landed on. It doesn't matter which way you go, just go back to where the bridge is.

4) When you get to the area where the bridge is supposed to be, there won't be a bridge there, just 2 "statues".

5) Go up to the section right under the top statue.

6) Look to the right side of the screen, then use the Magic Mirror to teleport.

7) While looking to the right side of the screen, move ONE PIXEL!

8) Wait until you stop flashing and you are teleported back. If you do not accomplish Step 7 correctly, you will be teleported back. Move back to step 6 again and try over. It's not really that hard, though.

9) Once you are teleported back, and if you did it correctly, you will notice that you are one pixel closer to the edge. DO NOT MOVE! Instead, teleport back.

10) Once you teleported back, move to the right until you are stopped by the post on the bridge.

11) Take out your sword then power it up(hold the Sword Button). While holding the Sword Button, SLOWLY move toward the portal until you are teleported back.

12) If you did it correctly, and if you went to the portal as slow as you can, you will be teleported back, but will stand on the ledge without being teleported back into the Light World. If you did not complete Step 10 correctly(which means you went too fast), then you will be teleported to the Dark World then teleported back to the Light World. You must start back at Step 6 over again.

13) Once you are on the ledge, DO NOT MOVE LEFT OR IN ANY OTHER DIRECTION! Doing this will cause a failure and you will have to do Steps 6 - 10 again. When you are on the ledge, move to the right and you will fall into the black area with all the lava streams moving around.

14) Move all the way downwards and then when you see a large section of a ledge on the bottom of the screen, move down the right-side of it and off the screen. If you do this correctly, you will be on a large ledge. Jump down and you have completed the Death Mountain Descent.

Why do you want to do this glitch? Well, if you jump down off the last ledge in this glitch, you will notice that you are now on the grounds of the Dark World. Because of this, you are able to explore almost the entire Dark World WITHOUT having to beat Agahnim or getting all the Pendants.

Now that you have completed this most precious glitch, it's time to make things better. Notice that in the Dark World, all of the graphics are a little "glitchy"? Well, that's because you're not supposed to go to the Dark World from the black area in Death Mountain. If you do not like the look of this, use the Magic Mirror to return to the Light world, then go into the portal to return back. Every thing's normal again. Also, when you are in the black area, if you do not move toward the correct area, which is the large ledge, you will be stuck in the waterfall or the side of the ledge, and you will have to restart. There are MANY glitches that come from this one.

Metamorphosis Fairy
1) Do the Death Mountain Descent glitch, make sure you have at least one Fairy in a bottle with you and the Zora's Flippers.

2) After you've done the Descent proceed to Kakariko Village, head downward through Kakariko Village and to the right, proceeding towards Link's House.

3) Once you get there, move down to the "swamp", and go down to the section of the lake.

4) When you're right next to the right-side of the lake, continue getting hit by the enemies until you are almost dead, then walk into the deep water.

5) You should start blinking, continue pressing left( don't hold it down, but tap it to move a step at a time). Do it over and over until the screen scrolls. You will notice that the bunny (Link), will be "skating" on the water, stay on the water with about one heart left (actually, two hearts will do, just make sure one hit will be your last).

6) While skating on the water get killed by an enemy with just ONE hit, you will fall down as Link, then the fairy will sprinkle her little pixie dust on you, making you come alive again. If you do it incorrectly, the screen will become EXTREMELY glitchy, scrolling over and over, collecting "pieces" of the screen as it scrolls, and you will not have any control whatsoever. If this happens, press the Restart button, because it will go on and on and on for eternity.

If it does work though, instead of Link returning in bunny-form when the Fairy brings him back to life Link's ordinary form will return. You might want to save afterwards. Getting killed or entering then exiting a building/cave will return you to Bunny form.

Reality Overlap
1) Perform the Death Mountain Descent.

2) Enter a dungeon and die (don't have any Fairies to revive you).

3) When you reappear at the start of the dungeon, exit.

The Light world music will be playing instead of the Dark world music. If you scroll to a different screen and then scroll back to the original screen you'll now be in the light world but with some Dark world tiles. Dungeon four apparently gives good results.

Reality Overlap II
1) Perform the Death Mountain Descent.

2) Now, while still in the overworld, die. You must not have a Fairy to revive you.

3) From the "Game Over" menu, choose "Continue without Saving". Then choose "Start from Saved Place".

You'll appear at the last place you entered the Dark World overworld from, except that you're Link (not the bunny, provided you don't have the Moon Pearl yet). The Light World music plays, and if you use the Magic Mirror, you'll appear in the Dark World again with the Dark World overworld music and be returned to bunny form (if you don't have the Moon Pearl).

Danger Bunny
1) Perform Reality Overlap II.

2) Go to where flute boy is and use the magic mirror. Link will be transformed back into a bunny.

3) Talk to flute boy (as a bunny) and get the shovel.

When you get control of Link again, press B and he will swing an invisible sword! The sword can be used to cut bushes, but not enemies and if you get hit, you'll lose it.

Backdoor Lockup
1) Go to Spectacle Rock.

2) Position Link directly above the cave you see below the rock. (He must be aligned perfectly - use the Hookshot or other items to test).

3) Face north.

4) Hold B.

5) Walk backwards off Spectacle Rock and into the cave.

Link will enter the cave in a rather glitched way, and when the next scene is loaded, Link will be completely frozen (no controls work). The only way out of this is to save and quit.

Color-Changing Soldiers
1) First off, you must meet all of the following: Not having beaten Agahnim I, having the Flute, and having access to a dungeon that triggers this oddity (the oddity will not trigger if you've beaten Agahnim I).

2) Enter one of the following dungeons (the listed names are their GBA names): Dark Palace (Dark World dungeon 1), Misery Mire (Dark World dungeon 6), Turtle Rock (Dark World dungeon 7), or Ganon's Tower (Dark World dungeon 8). Exit the dungeon.

3) Use the Magic Mirror to return to the Light World.

4) Use the Flute to warp back to your house (or any place with green castle soldiers about a screen away). Then move one screen to the west (or in the direction of the green soldiers).

If you used Dark Palace or Misery Mire for this trick, you'll see gold castle soldiers instead of green ones. If you used Turtle Rock or Ganon's Tower for this trick, you'll see purple castle soldiers instead of green ones. Regardless of color, they have the exact same abilities as green castle soldiers, including the number of hits they take to die. Should you try this with Swamp Palace (Dark World dungeon 2), Skull Woods (Dark World dungeon 3), Thieves' Town (Dark World dungeon 4), or Ice Palace (Dark World dungeon 5), the castle soldiers will remain green.

Under/Over-Underworlds
1) Go to a place in the underworld where you can jump from an upper level to a lower level.

2) Jump, then while Link is in the air, press Select and choose to save and quit. (NOTE: The glitch may not work at every location. For example, the first room in Hyrule Castle does not permit the glitch, although other rooms in that same dungeon do.)

3) After saving, return to the file select screen and select ANY game (it doesn't matter which one you pick - it can be the same one or a different one).

If the file you picked was saved in the Light World, be sure to start in either Link's House or Sanctuary - NOT the Mountain Cave (you'll see why later). If all goes well, Link will be in a "hybrid" state. Although he looks normal, the game internally thinks he is on the lower level, even though he's on the upper level. The result is that as soon as you get hit by an enemy, dash into a wall, or do certain other things, Link will magically disappear under the floor and end up in the lower level!

Note that for the glitch to work, Link must not travel to the lower level or any underworld scene prior to activation. This is because entering the lower level fixes the bug, as the erroneous "lower level" status is repaired. This is also why you cannot start at the Mountain Cave, since you begin on the lower level there.

Applications of this glitch are enormous:

we could only explore one map. Now we can explore both! (See below, however, for some very annoying consequences.) surface; thus, you can kill an enemy with the beam off of Link's sword (not the sword itself, however) and retrieve the item using the boomerang.
 * Beat the game immediately after rescuing Zelda! Now it's possible to beat the game with only 3 hearts, and (almost) nothing else!
 * Explore *BOTH* underworld maps! Before, via the Skull Dungeon glitch,
 * You can even disappear under the ground in the overworld! However, doing this doesn't cause anything extraordinarily important, as the game still acts in many ways as though you were still on the surface. Basically, the result is that you disappear, but you still interact with the playfield (i.e. you bump into walls, pick up stones, enter caves, fall down holes, etc.). Most items you use will appear above the
 * If you start a new game after setting up the glitch, Link will disappear beneath the floor of his room as soon as you jump out of bed. (This is one possible starting place for exploring the new underworld.)

Three major problems exist with the new underworld, however:

(1) If you enter the underworld at one house/cave, activate the glitch, then work your way to another house/cave, then exit, you will appear outside at the place you started from - NOT the place you just exited. This is because the game does not distinguish between different exits in the second underworld, as there is no place where you can enter and exit via different doorways under normal conditions. (Note that the game actually takes advantage of this phenomenon, defining only one fortune teller place, one fairy fountain [not counting those that exist as portions of other caves], etc.)

(2) In many cases, as you explore the new underworld, the scrolling will screw up, showing signs similar to those related to the Skull Dungeon glitch. Note that these problems will not appear AT ALL in the original underworld if you use this glitch. This is because the original underworld was designed to let you move from one map sector to the next, whereas the new underworld does not have any houses/caves that scroll beyond map square boundaries. (It appears you can resolve this problem by starting in a place like Blind's [Light World] hideout, where rooms exist that stretch across multiple screens. However, this does not appear to be a 100% fix; you may still encounter the problem nevertheless.)

(3) The new underworld is much smaller. Therefore, it is very easy to scroll out of bounds, forcing the game to crash very violently (sometimes showing a weird screen with the word "BUG" written multiple times on it). IF THE GAME CRASHES, SAVED DATA MAY BECOME CORRUPTED!! I've had files copy from one slot to another, I've had files revert to an earlier saved status, and I've had files screw up entirely. This is making it very dificult for me to map out the new underworld. EXPLORE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK - BACKING UP GAMES DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE PREVENTION OF DATA LOSS!! (Apparently this game's file save system is very vulnerable.)

Glitch variation:

The original form of the glitch used a different technique. In this case, you used the Magic Mirror to set it up. Go to (for example) Level 4 of the Dark World. Go to a spot where you can jump down to the lower level, then try to time it so that Link uses the Magic Mirror as he starts his jump. If done right, you will return to the entrance without hearing the normal warping sound, and you will not have control over Link.

level.)
 * If you were facing left or right when you jumped, Link will be motionless and you have to save and quit. Upon resumption, the master glitch above will be armed, so getting hit will knock Link to the lower
 * If you were facing north, Link will move automatically (in a very weird fashion) northward, causing some bizarre scrolling effects. Eventually, the action stops, at which point (if you haven't already done so) you will need to save and quit. (Again, the master glitch will be armed as before.)
 * If you were facing south, Link moves automatically outside the dungeon. Once out, he continues his automatic motion southward, but will stop after a couple of seconds. At this point, you regain control of Link, and the master glitch will be armed. (This provides a method of activating the glitch without saving in the process.)

(NOTE: This glitch may not work in the GBA adaption of Legends of Zelda LttP.)

Ghost of Misery Mire
1) While in the Light World use the flute to call the duck and go to map point number 6, in the lower left.

2) Lift the two rocks nearby and go through the portal to the Dark world that's underneath one of them.

3) Jump off the ledge into Misery Mire.

4) Use the Bombos Medallion.

You should see a pillar of flame, indicating a dying enemy, but there wasn't anything there before. There are also two other such "ghosts" in the Mire. The Hyrule Magic game editor lists the enemies as Fireball Zoras, which would explain why they don't appear, normally Zoras are only in deep water.