Zelda II: The Adventure of Link/Categories

Commonly run categories

Any% SDA, Deathless

This is the Cadillac of Zelda II categories. It has the highest "skill cap." The rules are that one can get or skip any items or spells, as long as you start from a new game and win the game. Death warps are not allowed, so to meet the standards of an SDA run, no deaths are effectively allowed. Casting the Fairy spell while out of bounds (e.g. the Thunderbird Skip) is disallowed by convention. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. This category is difficult because of the required route. The player gets the Hammer and the Fairy spell before entering Palace 1. Additionally, the player skips the Shield and Fire spells, most heart containers, the upward thrust, the Cross, and and Candle. In fact top runners are now adding in skips of the Life or Spell spells. In theory, skipping both is possible. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules.

100% All Keys, 1CC

The player has to get all spells, all heart containers, all magic containers (as all are needed to get the Thunder spell anyway), all sword techniques, and all permanent items (1ups not included, dungeon items plus magic key and hammer). Maximum leveling is not required. Deaths are allowed, but continuing after Game Over or Up+A is not allowed. Also, the player must have gotten a key for every door he uses, or for every door he get past by other means. Most notably: walking on the ceiling over a door still requires the player to have gotten a key for that door, and using the Fairy spell to get through a door without a key is forbidden. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. This is a very good category for a beginning Zelda 2 speed runner to learn, because it is much easier for a player learning the game to attempt. The successor to the old Extreme Rules category, it is notable in that it's actually faster to do Palace 1 first, instead of getting the hammer. The game is still difficult, but the beginning of the game is much easier to get going, as the player instead simply wanted to try to get sufficient numbers of P Bags in Palace 1 to get Attack 4, rather than having to fight through the caves dark, at Attack 1.

Any% "New Game+", No OOB

This is the same as the Any% Up+A category, except that the player does not start with a new game. Instead, the player starts with a save file from a previously won game, so the player can start with any combination of spells and levels. Typically one will chose to start at 8-8-8 and with every spell, but it's possible that other leveling will have value, due to the desire to trigger death warps early. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. What distinguishes this category is also the banning of the healer and fairy glitched warping tricks. This is the 'old' NG+ before the Thunderbird skip changed everything.

100% SDA, Deathless

This is the same as Any% SDA, Deathless, except the player must get all spells, all heart containers, all magic containers (as all are needed to get the Thunder spell anyway), all sword techniques, and all permanent items (dungeon items plus hammer and magic key). Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. It turns out still to gain time in this category to get the Fairy spell before Palace 1, so it's still a very difficult category.

Any%

Do anything it takes to get to the end fastest. Skip anything and everything. As long as you start from a new save file, do it. In this category the runner uses death warps, game overs, and the use of Up+A on the second controller to 'game over' immediately. The player is also expected to use Healer and Fairy glitches to the fullest. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. In practice, this has become the 'glitched' category.

Any% "New Game+"

This is the same as the Any% Up+A category, except that the player does not start with a new game. Instead, the player starts with a save file from a previously won game, so the player can start with any combination of spells and levels. Typically one will chose to start at 8-8-8 and with every spell, but it's possible that other leveling will have value, due to the desire to trigger death warps early. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. In practice, this has become the 'glitched' category, which can be run in the shortest possible time.

Lesser-run categories

100%

The player must place all crystals, get all spells, all heart containers, all magic containers (as all are needed to get the Thunder spell anyway), all sword techniques, and all permanent items (dungeon items plus hammer and magic key). Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. Deaths, Up-A, and OOB glitches are fully expected to be used where they benefit the runner.

Any%, No OOB

This category is essentially the "old" any% before the Thunderbird skip came into play: do any thing it takes to get to the end fastest, excluding the healer and fairy glitched warping. In this category the runner uses death warps, game overs, and the use of Up+A on the second controller to 'game over' immediately. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules.

Any% No Door Fairying, 1CC

This is a hybrid of the Any% and former Extreme Rules categories. The rules are that one can get or skip any permanent items (dungeon items plus hammer and magic key), sword techniques, or spells, as long as you start from a new game and win the game. Deaths are allowed, but continuing after Game Over or Up+A are not allowed. The player is not allowed to use the Fairy spell to get through a door without a key. Casting the Fairy spell while out of bounds (e.g. the Thunderbird Skip) is disallowed by convention. Timing begins when the player gains control of Link in North Palace, and timing ends when the player loses control of Link shortly after defeating the Shadow. Tricks that require modified, non-standard, or even just worn down controllers, such as left + right, or up + down, are not allowed per standard SDA rules. An important note about this category is that this is the fastest 'non-glitched' any% for the common version 2 of the Zelda II cartridge in the PAL region, because that version of the game does not allow door fairying. This is also similar to the fastest 'non-glitched' any% for the Famicom Disk System version of the game, as one cannot pick up items as a fairy.

100% "Extreme Rules"

This category is unconventional. You may instead want 100% All Keys, 1CC.

This was a very popular category to run, because it was much easier for a player learning the game to attempt. It was notable in that it's actually faster to do Palace 1 first, instead of getting the hammer. The game is still difficult, but the beginning of the game was much easier to get going, as the player instead simply wanted to try to get sufficient numbers of P Bags in Palace 1 to get Attack 4, rather than having to fight through the caves dark, at Attack 1. The player had to get all spells, all heart containers, all magic containers (as all are needed to get the Thunder spell anyway), all sword techniques, and all permanent items (dungeon items plus hammer and magic key). Deaths are allowed, but Game Over and Up+A are not. Further, the player was disallowed from walking on the ceilings to skip rooms, using the Fairy spell to go through doors without keys, and pausing on the overworld to manipulate wandering encounters. Timing began when the player presses Start to begin the game. Timing ended when the last hit is delivered to the Shadow.

Note further that Twin Galaxies Extreme Rules required 8-8-8 leveling when the rules were posted on the forums, but apparently TG did post runs that were 7-8-8.