View source for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link/100 Percent Deathless Routing

= Simpoldood's Notes =

Here's a route courtesy of Simpoldood:

Death Mountain, P1, P3, & P4 all have specific monster kills for big6 count & min/max exp areas. In P2, you can fix your 6-count. If no 200P drop in Death Mountain, you can still keep going and get a lucky red jar drop in P1 for last door.

0. Get North Cave Magic Container (& Shield Spell?)

1. Hammer then Spectacle Rock MAGIC Container
   Death Mtn stuff:
   - 3-1-2 in death mtn (200P is good but not mandatory, no 200P might be a reset in P1, w/o grinding).
   - make sure big6-count is at 5 at Medicine pick up, this is done by skipping only one Goriya in death mtn,
     kill every other big6,including Jump Cave & Medicine Cave guys.
   - make sure you don't level up magic-2 until P1 (mandatory)
   - Do NOT pick up more than 2 random 50P drops, just 1x50P drop would be awesome though. Try not to pick up a 2nd one.
   - DO NOT pick up more than 1x200P drop.
   

2. Get Medicine, Downstab, Fairy spell
   - usually, if you get 200p in Death Mtn, the atk-4 pops up at Medicine, so get that atk-4 (this is the ideal).
   - make sure your exp is 99/100 or less (mandatory) after atk-4.
   - if you have 100/150, get hit by 1 Tinsuit in P1 so exp is less than 100, after Atk-4 & before Candle Room.

3. [SHIELD Town] OR [P1] OR [Parapa HEART container] first (it's up to you). Just go to P1 after Fairy Town.
   - Big6 HAS to be at 5 at entry (it usually is if you did the leveling route correctly).
   - Skip keys, kill 1st red Stalfos for a drop (red jar would be the optimal drop). If 200p, level up Magic-2.
   - If red Jar, watch your exp, keep it at 99exp or less. Don't pick up the bridge 50P (going left towards Candle).
   - If red Jar, kill DoomRaddle in Candle Room, skip level-ups. Kill orange IK, immediately CAST FAIRY before Magic-2 refill, get Candle.
   - If 200P drop, kill all Big6 monsters, etc.. You'll need to rely on a Red Jar drop before final locked door or get a key otherwise.
   - Need 250exp before Boss (mandatory)
   - Post P1 leveling should be at 5-2-2 (atk-5 from P1 crystal).

4. After P1, go to P2. [Shield spell, Parapa Heart, Mido Heart Cave]
   - Just get a 5-2-3, anywhere in P2 and nothing else. Skip keys except the key in the Bot Bridge.
   - Get 200exp before Boss
   - you can ignore Big6 count but I usually get a 5Count before leaving P2.
     Having a count of 5, will make the semi-mandatory P3 Big6 count very easy.

5. Go to P3 (6-2-3, atk-6 from P2 crystal). Swamp encounters, do not exceed 50exp from kills towards Graveyard.
   - Kill Goriya under Graveyard (optimally, this should be a drop). 
   ** If Goriya-drop is red Jar, great, proceed to P3. Stab entry-statue, if red IK, kill it. If jar, wutever.
   ** If Goriya-drop is 200p, then pray for a red Jar at Statue entrance OR mandatory red jar after Raft pick-up.
        - If red IK at statue, kill it, level-up Magic-3 or wait for Life-4.
        - Level-up Magic-3 before Raft, if no red jars anywhere.
        - If red jar, at statue, refill magic gauge.
   - Possibly all Big-6 enemies, are mandatory in the rooms you'll be in.
   - 1st room, if 200p drop from Goriya, skip DoomKnocker & kill blue Stalfos.
        - If red Jar from Goriya, kill Doomknocker & blue Stalfos & Myu.
   - 2nd room, if 200P from G, just go thru the room, try not to get hit by anything. Kill a couple myus if you want.
        - If red jar from G, try to kill as much Myus as you can, you'll need the exp.
   - 4th room, always pick up Key.
        - if 200P from G, kill Doomknocker & SKIP 100P [or skip Doomknocker if you killed the 1st Doomknocker].
        - If red jar from G, kill Doomknocker & get 100P (mandatory).
   - 5th room, if 200P from G, kill 1 red IK in the blocks. Kill red Stalfos, then Go down elevator.
        - If red jar from G, skip red IKs, kill red Stalfos, go down elevator.
   - 6th room, do not exceed 194exp and mandatory, do not exceed 199exp BEFORE RAFT room.
   - 7th room, skip Key & red IK going right (mandatory). Don't die.
   - Raft room, kill red IK, skip Magic-up or do a Life-up.
     - Kill blue IK (always), immediately cast Fairy, then Magic-3 refill (if not already Magic-3).
     - You should already be 6-3-4 after Raft pick-up. If you did everything correctly, this should always happen.
   - Get a minimum of 249exp from flying-heads room. If you kill the red IK in the statue-head, possibly skip Goriya outside coz 6-count.
     - Typically, you skip that statue-head. Next red IK should be a drop. 
   - Kill the Blue IK for exp, if necessary. You should have 499exp or more.
   - If you did the Big6-counts correctly, last red IK, should be #1 in the Count. Make the Goriya outside P3 to be #2, always.
   - 6-5-6 from P3 crystal (mandatory).

6. Fire Town, Kid, UpStab, Reflect
   - If Big6 is at 1-count, kill Blue Goriya outside P3 for a 2-count.
   - Just make sure that the Lizard is #3 in the count, when you get the Kid. Don't kill any Big-6 anymore until inside P4.
   - Need minimum 1290 at P4 entry. So usually, only do 1 or 2 encounter skips to Reflect Town.

7. After Reflect, go to P4 (current stats 6-5-6, Big6count at 3 at P4 entry, 1290exp minimum).
   - skip monsters & keys, go to Boots room, SKIP all Stalfoses F O R N O W (mandatory).
   - Kill the Doomknocker before or after Boots pick-up.
   - in Boots room, kill both Stalfoses for more exp & 5-count. Kill blue IK for exp and coz he's in the way going back. Pick up Boots.
   - Minimum exp after Boots pick-up should be 1660, it's usually more than that.
   - Go back up the elevator.
   - Kill red Stalfos by elevator shaft, for an optimal red Jar or the fucked-up 200-goddamn-Bitch-drop
   - Go up the elevator.
   *** if red jar dropped, kill blue Stalfoses and the 100P for a minimum of 1900 exp.
     - proceed to next room, cast Reflect, kill both Wizz Robes for minimum of 2100 &< 2199. Exp is usually somewhere in between there.
   *** if 200P dropped, do not exceed 2199 in blue Stalfos room. You need a minimum of 2100 though. Skip WizzRobes.
     - if 200p dropped, go back up to the entrance, farm for a red jar (or reset the run) SOBAYED. Don't kill a red IK at the entrance.
   *** if red jar dropped, cast Jump, get small key, kill red IK for Magic-6 level-up.
   *** if 200p dropped, skip small key, kill red IK, then immediately cast Fairy, before Magic-6 level-up.
   - Make your way to the Boss, you can ignore 6-counts and minimum exp before Boss. Just finish the palace.

8. P5 (Get the Ocean Heart Container, either before or after the Palace)
   - Level-up Life-7 from P4 Crystal or not, player-preference. Life-7 is any% deathless route.
   - If you skip Life-7, just do an Atk-7 at P5 Crystal.
   - Just get the Flute, fight Gooma, do whatever you want with the Crystal bonus.

9. Hidden Town, Spell spell, Magic Key, final Magic Container
10. Final HEART, then P6, Cross, Barba, Thunder spell.

= PresJPolk's Notes =

As a companion to simpoldood's notes, I did a brain dump to try to help someone trying to learn this. This may agree with or disagree with the above in places, but take it for what it's worth.

My key drops I monitor in deathless:

Second orange daira in the bit/daira room of DM: want a PBag.

Orange daira in hammer room: want a pbag if we didn't get one before, else jar is nice. (don't take both pbags if you get them).

First stalfos in p1: want a jar

You'll then get two drops in p2.  the first one I guess is nice to be a pbag but it doesn't generally matter much I don't think?  second one you want a jar else you have to dig one out.

Set the count to 5 in p2, so the goriya on the way to p3 is a drop. Technically a pbag is faster if you get a jar from the statue but... gimme jar. :)

Make sure to kill enough things that in p3 you don't need a drop from the last red IK... easy trap to fall into.

The rush to p4 is then grabbing enough XP.  KILL THE LIZALFOS WITH THE KID.  you'll generally do no more than one or two encounter skips on the way to darunia since you need that XP.

You want the big 6 to be at 5 coming up the elevator after the boots. Since you probably left p3 around 1?  goriya on the way back is 2, orange lizalfos gives 3. kill the two armored stalfos in the boots room for 5.  I so often forget that goriya counts!

There are very few big 6 kills in p6.  note your count coming out of 5 (I Think I aim to be at 1) and kill the appropriate number of lizalfos on the way to/from new kasuto so you leave p6 at 5.

And that's why I'm constantly muttering strange numbers during deathless runs!