How to Play

Triforce Blitz is an exciting, fast-paced take on Ocarina of Time Randomizer that was designed with competitive play in mind. However, Triforce Blitz is also very fun to play casually and a lot of attention went into making it accessible for new players. This document assumes the reader has some familiarity with Ocarina of Time Randomizer already, but we are working on a version of this document for complete newcomers who have only played Ocarina of Time.

This video by Elagatua provides a quick primer on how to play Triforce Blitz as well as some of our design rationale and what problems of Ocarina of Time Randomizer's standard ruleset and settings.

Goal

Unlike Ocarina of Time Randomizer's Standard goal where Link must defeat Ganondorf, the goal in Triforce Blitz is to find the three triforces of Wisdom, Power, and Courage which have each been hidden in one of Hyrule's dungeons. The goal of any Triforce Blitz seed is to find the three Triforce pieces, at which point the game will end and display the credits scene.

The three Triforce Pieces are each hidden in one of Hyrule's many dungeons, including those that do not reward a Spiritual Stone or Medallion. Those being Inside the Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern, Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly, Forest Temple, Fire Temple, Water Temple, Spirit Temple, Shadow Temple, Bottom of the Well, Gerudo Training Grounds, Ice Cavern, and Ganon's Castle. The Triforce Piece can be anywhere in its respective dungeon, and isn't just limited to being found on the final boss of the dungeon.

To help Link in his quest to locate the Triforce pieces, the Gossip Stones outside of the Temple of Time will tell him how many items are required to retrieve each of the Triforce Pieces. These so-called Path Count hints are the most important and powerful hints available to the player, and are explained in greater detail in the section below. Additionally, ten more regular Path Hints can be found across Hyrule with one of those ten always being found on the fourth Gossip Stone outside of the Temple of Time, these Path Hints tell you where you can find one of the items on a specific Triforce piece's path. Conversely, five Barren hints are hidden around Hyrule which tell you what locations will not yield any useful items.

Path count and path hints

One of the first things the player will want to do after starting a Triforce Blitz seed is to run out of the Temple of Time where Link spawns, and check the four Gossip Stones outside. Three of these stones will contain a new hint type introduced by Triforce Blitz called the Path Count hint. The Path Count hint tells you how many required items of which no duplicate copies exist are required to get the item, according to the logic used by the randomizer.

The path count means exactly how many uniquely accessible items are required to reach the Triforce piece. For example, let us say the Triforce of Wisdom is located in the Deku Tree on Queen Gohma. The path might look like this: Hookshot → Slingshot. The path count would thus be 2 since there are only two items on it, but that does not mean you only need those 2 items. For example, the Hookshot might be locked behind a bombable boulder. The Bomb Bag might or might not be part of the Path count depending on if there are multiple Bomb Bags available to the player. That is what is meant by "uniquely accessible."

It is important to remember that the Triforce piece can be in any check located inside the dungeon. For example, a Triforce piece in the Spirit Temple may have a very low path count if it is located at the start of the child section of Spirit Temple, or a very high Path count if it is located on Twinrova. It is therefore more often than not a mistake to guess which dungeon the piece might be in based solely on path count.

To help you figure out where the Triforce piece is located, you will be given ten Path hints, one which may be found right outside of the Temple of Time and nine more scattered around Hyrule. These path hints will tell you where one of the items on the path of a specific Triforce piece can be found, which will help you narrow down the search considerably.

The following is a video by Elagatua explaining how Path Count hints work exactly and the nuances of how to interpret them.

Way of the Wanderer

Another new hint type in Triforce Blitz is the Wanderer hint. A Wanderer hint points to a location with an item that is collected in the seed's playthrough, but is not on the Path to a Triforce piece. These hints might point to helpful items like Bomb Bags, Hookshots, or Strength Upgrades, but they could also point to less helpful items like Wallets or Tunics.

Use your discretion when deciding whether to chase Wanderer locations. Wanderer hints are prioritized above Sometimes hints and will fill slots left empty from a shortage of Path or Barren hints. However, there will always be room for at least one Wanderer hint as long as a hintable Wanderer location exists.

See the video below for a more detailed discussion of the Wanderer hints.

Differences from Ocarina of Time Randomizer

While the Triforce Blitz settings are based on the standard tournament settings for Ocarina of Time Randomizer, to expedite the average completion time of the seed and to accommodate the different goal of Triforce Blitz, the following changes have been made to the settings:

  • The bridge to Ganon's Castle opens when the player obtains any 2 dungeon rewards (Medallions or Spiritual Stones), that means the player only needs to complete one dungeon to access Ganon's Castle since you start with one dungeon reward that would normally be rewarded for pulling the Master Sword from the pedestal.
  • The elevator in the Forest Temple leading to the basement is always up and enabled.
  • The platform in Jabu-Jabu's Belly has been lowered, giving access to the Barinade boss arena.
  • Boss keys have been removed from the game, allowing Link to immediately enter the boss arena if he can access it.
  • The adult trading quest has been reduced to merely the Claim Check.
  • Link only has to collect 3 cuccos for Anju in Kakariko Village to get her reward.
  • The reward for the frog fly-eating minigame (also known as Frogs 2) has been disabled.
  • Link will always start as an adult in the Temple of Time.
  • The rewards from collecting 30, 40 and 50 Golden Skulltullas have been disabled.
  • Checks involving the Skull Mask and Mask of Truth have been disabled.
  • The chest in Jabu-Jabu's Belly that rewards the Boomerang has been disabled.
  • The Gold Scale is no longer considered a logical entry to the Water Temple, but it is still allowed for the player to enter the Water Temple with it.

Hint distribution

The Triforce Blitz preset distributes hints in the following manner:

  • 3 Path Count hints located outside the Temple of Time.
  • Up to 10 Path hints, one of which is always located outside the Temple of Time.
  • Up to 5 Barren hints.
  • 3 always hints: Ocarina of Time song, Nocturne of Shadows song, 20 Skulls.
  • At least 1 Wanderer hint, with extra being available if there are less than 10 Path hints or 5 Barren hints. Wanderer hints are duplicated as space allows, but there will always be one Wanderer hint without a duplicate.
  • Sometimes hints fill any remaining gossip stones after all Path, Barren, and Wanderer hints have been placed.
  • Path hints will always prioritize dungeon locations over Overworld locations.
  • Barren hints will always prioritize dungeon locations over Overworld locations.
  • There is no limit to the amount of dungeons that may be hinted by Path and Barren hints.

Tracker support

Screenshot of the Gossip Stone Tracker using the Triforce Blitz layout.

A Triforce Blitz layout for the Gossip Stone Tracker is available for download.

GST Layout for Triforce Blitz