Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

In time this page will hold information about records, races, and strategies. We've also got [records/ records] and [races/ races]. See also the menu above for pages on specific topics.

Records

Route

A true beginner to the game may not even know where to go or, worse, will emulate the routes used by the very best players playing the hardest game categories. This is a mistake. My advice is to follow this route:

Magic Container south of North Palace
Town of Rauru – Shield Spell
Heart Container south of Palace 1
Palace 1: Parapa – Candle
Trophy
Town of Ruto – Jump Spell
1-up south of Medicine
Bagu
Town of Saria – Life Spell
Death Mountain – Hammer
Magic Container west of Hammer
1-up southwest of Mido
Heart Container east of Palace 2
Medicine
Town of Mido – Fairy Spell, Downward Thrust
Palace 2: Midoro – Handy Glove
Palace 3: Island – Raft
Town of Nabooru – Fire Spell
1-up west of Maze Island
Magic Container on Maze Island
Palace 4: Maze – Boots
Lost Child
Town of Darunia – Reflect Spell, Upward Thrust
Palace 4: Complete
Heart Container north of Palace 5
Palace 5: Ocean – Flute
1-up north of the Valley of Death
Town of New Kasuto – Magic Container, Spell Spell, Magic Key
Heart Container east of Palace 6
Palace 6: Hidden – Cross
Town of Kasuto – Thunder Spell
Palace 7: Great

This is a basic route that, if executed well enough, would produce respectable times in the 100% All Keys category, assuming the runner does not fairy through doors. If you don't know where these places are, or how to get through the dungeons, there are maps to help. Mike's RPG Center has great maps, though a beginner may find the palace maps of NESMaps.com easier to read. Here's a little animation that could serve as a reminder of the route. I link it because it's cute: Only after mastering this route should the runner attempt more advanced routes, such as those run by the top any% runners, which include skipping the candle entirely, getting the Fairy spell before Palace 1, and skipping spells like Life or Spell.

Experience and Leveling

If you do not level properly in this game, it gets harder, and harder, and the game quickly gets out of hand. Make sure to have Attack level 4 by the time you leave Palace 1. This requires some luck, and some practice. Know your 6 counts. Know your P bags. It's critical to learn how to manipulate your experience, to ensure the biggest possible payoffs at the end of each palace. Level Attack early, and make sure your "Next" level is Attack every time you put a gem into a statue at the end of a palace. [/adventure-of-link/zelda-ii-experience-by-level/ Know the experience chart], and know what monsters are left to kill in each palace (maps to come here soon).

Sample Leveling Plans

This was the leveling made known by John 'Pro_JN' Nurminen. It's relatively easy to pick up, and used to set world records.

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

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: 5/3/3
After Palace 2: 6/3/3
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.

Here's a variant of the 8/7/7 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

Drops and 6 Counts

There are three kinds of enemies in this game: Enemies with no drops, enemies in the "small" group, and enemies in the "large" group. This is important to know, because when the enemies drop items is not random. Every sixth enemy you kill in a group will drop an item. Kills in one group to not affect kills in the other group. So, if you kill 5 Bots, then an Iron Knuckle, killing another bot after will cause a small drop. Likewise, killing 4 Iron Knuckles, then killing some Bots, then killing two Stalfos will cause a large drop on the second Stalfos. The kind of drop you get, however, is random. Small drops will usually be a blue jar, but have a 1/8 chance of being a 50-point P Bag. Large drops are equally likely to be a red jar or a 200-point P Bag. This means if you kill the same enemies, in the same order, every time you play the game, you will get drops at the same times. This is an important fact in routing the game, as well as in recovering from bad luck or mistakes.

Combat Techniques

The most important thing to know is to keep your momentum. If you're moving forward, you can keep hitting enemies, instead of letting them hit you while staying alive. This means that generally, the worst possible attack to make is the standing sword attack. It's slow because of the backswing, and you stop to make the attack. Better is the crouching sword attack. It's faster than the standing attack, but it also kills your momentum. However certain enemies are bad to crouch stab, such as the ever-annoying Tin Suits, who have top-heavy hit boxes. Jumping is the key to combat in Zelda 2. Often a jumping crouch thrust is best. Sometimes you will want to jump, crouch, and then thrust on your way down from your jump. Against other enemies, or for a final attack, you may want to attack while you're coming up in your jump. Enemies like Iron Knuckles need special techniques. Jump at them, do not crouch, and then thrust on the way down to hit them in the visor. However in a two square-high corridor, there isn’t room to jump. Instead, when facing an orange or red Iron Knuckle in this situation, press A then B right after, very quickly, to get attacks in. A blue Iron Knuckle can defeat this. Instead do jumping crouch stabs (most notable at the last key in palace 5).

The Jackhammer

The downstab is a powerful attack. While the game limits the frequency of sword stabs that are possible by pressing B, it does not limit the number of stabs possible by pressing down to do a downstab. This means that getting on top of an enemy and mashing down will get in many hits quickly. The Jackhammer is possibly most notable against Iron Knuckles in three tile high corridors (often seen it front of items). By jumping into the iron knuckle and doing a downstab, it's possible to get *inside* the enemy doing a downstab. By mashing down, one can hit the enemy over and over, killing the Iron Knuckle (or getting through it with a lot of damage done at least) without doing any damage at all to Link. Other useful jackhammer opportunities: Dragon heads, Bubbles (in a casual run or a no-reset run where 50xp is needed), Barba, (in theory) Boss Gooma, Horsehead, Helmethead (after the helmets are removed).

The Whirlwind and the Panicked Dolphin

Related to the jackhammer is the whirlwind. Primarily used in TASes, the whirlwind does aerial crouch stabs, while alternating pressing left and right. Similarly to how mashing down will create multiple hits, so too will constantly changing directions. It's rare that this is doable and practical in a live run, but there is one enemy whom it is useful to attack in this way, or at least try: Thunderbird. Sometimes, you'll just get lucky by mashing around like a panicked dolphin.