Advice for Beginners on Finishing Runs

It is very important to understand why the leveling works how it does in Zelda 2. The most important thing is to make sure you get your attack levels correct after the first 5 palaces. That is the vital thing. If your attack levels fall behind you're dead. When your author was learning this game, the difference between finishing 1CC and not, was getting the leveling right.

And it turns out, if you take too many magic and life levels early on, you cannot get enough experience by the palace ends, in order to get those attack levels.

So for Palaces 1-4, err on the side of having a little too few magic and life levels, versus having too many. Honestly, it's better to take an unintentional death, than to take a free fill up with an extra magic or life level. Using up lives will cost you in palace 4, but extra level will cost you the run.

Unwary's Charts

Unwary's Charts can be useful for beginners for the leveling and experience details.

7/8/8

This was the leveling made known by John 'Pro_JN' Nurminen. It's relatively easy to pick up, and used to set world records in the past. This is a very beginner-friendly strategy. The only tricky part is making sure to get enough P-bags (or do Trophy Cave before Palace 1) in order to get Attack 4 from the Palace 1 gem.

At Palace 1 Gem: 3/1/1
After Palace 1: 4/1/1
At Hammer: 4/2/3
At Palace 2 Gem: 5/2/3
After Palace 2: 6/2/3
At Palace 3 Gem: 6/3/4
After Palace 3: 7/3/4
After Palace 4: 7/3/7
At Palace 5 Gem: 7/3/8
After Palace 5: 7/7/8
After Palace 6: 7/8/8

8/8/7

Here is a more advanced leveling plan, used by some other record-setting runners. Credit to Feasel for walking me through it:

At Palace 1 Gem: 3/1/1
After Palace 1: 4/1/1
At Hammer: 4/2/3
At Palace 2 Gem: 5/2/3
After Palace 2: 6/2/3
At Palace 3 Gem: 6/3/4
After Palace 3: 7/3/4
At Palace 4 Gem: 7/4/4
After Palace 4: 8/4/4
At Palace 5 Gem: 8/4/5
After Palace 5: 8/6/7
After Palace 6: 8/7/7
Entering Palace 7: 8/8/7

Note that to use this leveling, you must make sure to trigger the full 9000 XP rewards at Palace 5 and at Palace 6.

8/8/7 with 3/1/1 after Palace 1

Here's a variant of the 8/8/7 leveling, which addresses the possibility of not getting 4/1/1 out of Palace 1. Credit to Duxcub, Solairflaire, and Pro_JN in helping me get it nailed down:

At Palace 1 Gem: 2/1/1
After Palace 1: 3/1/1
At Hammer: 4/1/2
At Palace 2 Gem: 5/1/2
After Palace 2: 6/1/2
At Palace 3 Gem: 6/2/4
After Palace 3: 7/2/4
At Palace 4 Gem: 7/4/4
After Palace 4: 8/4/4
At Palace 5 Gem: 8/4/5
After Palace 5: 8/6/7
After Palace 6: 8/7/7
At Great Palace: 8/8/7

8/8/6

And here is a variant at 8/8/6, used by Error72 when he set the All Keys record:

At Palace 1 Gem: 3/1/1
After Palace 1: 4/1/1
At Palace 2 Gem: 5/2/3
After Palace 2: 6/2/3
At Palace 3 Gem: 6/2/4
After Palace 3: 7/2/4
At Palace 4 Gem: 7/3/4
After Palace 4: 8/3/4
After Palace 5: 8/6/6
After Palace 6: 8/7/6
At Great Palace: 8/8/6

8/8/5

Pro_JN beat Error's 8/8/6 with this. He requires 2 200pbags in p1. The advantage of this is you don't have to kill anything to get Magic 8. The disadvantage of course is that you only have Life 5 at the end.

At Palace 1 Gem: 3/1/2
After Palace 1: 4/1/2
At Palace 2 Gem: 5/2/3
After Palace 2: 6/2/3
At Palace 3 Gem: 6/3/3
After Palace 3: 7/3/3
At Palace 4 Gem: 7/3/4
After Palace 4: 8/3/4
After Palace 5: 8/7/5
After Palace 6: 8/8/5

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link/All Keys Leveling Plans

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