Here it is, my first ever speedrun. Zelda 2 completed with no Up+A and no deaths.

I'll second tmont's sentiments on doing this type of Zelda 2 run: if you want to enjoy this game, don't play it like this. It was hard as hell, and took me about 4 months from the initial training stages to get this run on tape, and I was intimately familiar with the game (though a little out of practice) before I got started. And while the feeling of accomplishment I got upon its completion was second to none in my time as a gamer, getting their was certainly much less than half the fun. Also, if any of you readers plan to run this game, do yourself a favor and run this on the NES. I played on the GCN collection, and the Gamecube controller is far from ideal for this game.

I would like to give many thanks to Tommy 'tmont' Montgomery, whose run this one replaces. He was there every step of the way with advice and encouragement. Without his prior run this one wouldn't be nearly as fast as it is, and without his aid I doubt it would've been completed at all.

This run is far from perfect. The route isn't quite optimal, but for a deathless run going the fastest possible way (Death Mountain first without the candle) isn't very feasible, and the two heart containers I get could be skipped. A different leveling strategy that focused more on attack levels and less on life levels could also bring the time down a bit. As far as spells go, I get Life instead of Shield, which does save some time, but skipping that as well is also a possibility, and I wish anyone who attempts any of these changes the best of luck. This was plenty hard enough as it is.

There are lots of little errors here and there, a couple not so little one, and one that is certainly glaring. Take the latter two categories out and my time would be at least 45 seconds lower, but at the point I got this particular run down I was starting to find it very hard to make myself play the game, and I have little desire to try to improve it currently. Maybe at some point down the line, but not now.

What really makes running this game so difficult is the random movements of so many of the enemies. While you can memorize what you're going to face every step of the way, you can't know how they're going to act. This holds especially true for pretty much anything that's blue, and the designers like to put those guys near lava pits. There is also a large amount of luck that can either raise or lower your time significantly. Flawless evasion of the overworld enemies would drop my time considerably, though it would've been very possible for me to hit many more than I did. Enemy item drops can also have an effect on time, but there's no way to control those either.

I think this run speaks for itself fairly well, but if you're curious about my personal take on how it went, you can read the extended comments below. If not, hope you enjoy it.

Extended Comments

These will be split up by fairly arbitrary sections.

• Game start to Palace 1
  
  Running left out of the North Palace does save a split second, and every little bit helps. From there it's a beeline to the first magic container. I skip a Lowder on the way in so I get experience from all 3 Octoroks (every 6 small enemies and every 6 big enemies drops an item), and I think killing the last two on the same jump in the dark looks pretty cool. Then it's off the the patch of forest with a point bag. Ideally all three Aches fly away from me, but 2 out of 3 isn't bad certainly. There's nothing really noteworthy from there to the palace.
  
  
• Palace 1
  
  The early goings here are pretty smooth and the skull room on the way to the candle is one of the pieces of tech I'm especially proud of. The Bots in the bridge room could've gone better, but with their random movement patterns I don't mind sucking up a hit or two. The Cyclops in the candle room could've gone down before he got a chance to jump again if I hadn't whiffed the third hit, but he would've cost me more time if he didn't drop a point bag, so no major complaints. My only other real gripe here is that Horsehead landed a hit on me, which almost never happens. Also note that I place the crystal with the bare minimum amount of experience to get the attack level. Definite style points.
  
  
• End Palace 1 to Death Mountain
  
  This stretch really couldn't have gone much better. I know the Lowder in the first cave is going to drop something, and the fact that it was a point bag this time around makes the quick stop a time saver rather than a time waster. The trophy cave went perfectly, and no major hang ups in the cave south of Ruto. Then I get loads of luck on my way to Bagu's house and don't hit a single random encounter which almost never happens. The bridge encounter and the town both go about as smoothly as they can.
  
  
• Death Mountain
  
  This was far from my best trip through here. The first two caves go alright, but the stupid Aches in the third trip up a little. Then I'm alright for a couple more until I get to the one with the blue Goriya. I mistimed the jump over his first boomerang and things went all to hell for a second there. The only other really rough patch is at the start of the hammer cave. The first red Daria, if he doesn't throw an axe quickly (which in my experience he usually doesn't) I can kill him quickly and smoothly. Alas, it didn't work out that way this time around and more ugliness ensues. Other than that, my only real gripe with this stretch is I didn't get a single big enemy point bag drop, and that's going to cost me some time down the line.
  
  
• End Death Mountain to Palace 2
  
  Both the random encounters I hit on my way to the medicine cave are unfortunate. The first I could've avoided by waiting a split second and either dodged it entirely or got hit on the path. The second I would've preferred a swamp encounter since I can navigate those faster. Oh well. The cave itself went alright except for yet another red potion drop from the last Daria and a poorly timed jump on the way out (with Jump cast no less, ugly). Only getting path encounters on the way to town is a plus, and except for slightly overstepping the door of the magic lady's house Mido went smoothly. I've had trips from Mido to Palace 2 go much worse, but this particular one would've been a lot better if the fairy encounter hadn't run into me. There would've been a long break in the random monster appearances after that set had disappeared.
  
  
• Palace 2
  
  I usually have at least close to Attack level 5 when I enter this place, but the glut of red potion drops I hit through Death Mountain put me way under target. This isn't too big a deal, but does cost me a little time in that every Ironknuckle I run into takes one more hit to kill. That lack of experience from earlier also forces me to place the crystal with my levels at 5-2-3 with enough excess to get the next Attack level instead of the preferred 5-3-3. Outside of that, no complaints with how this palace went. I'd have preferred to submit a run where Helmethead didn't hit me, but he usually does, so oh well.
  
  
• End Palace 2 to Palace 3
  
  Short little segment here, but oh is it ugly. Two random encounters on my way out of the swamp isn't terrible, but not great either. What really makes me shake my head every time I watch this is the pause on the boulder square (I was expecting the random guys to show up, and was surprised when they didn't), and then the two random encounters in the graveyard. That's usually none, and the second could've easily been avoided with a quick stop at the King's Tomb, but I thought I could make it to hole and instead get hit with one on that panel. At least I got out of both of them alright. The cave itself went well, though it turns out I didn't need the blue potion I went back for. Couldn't know that at the time, so no complaints there.
  
  
• Palace 3
  
  The red potion at the door was a welcome sight even if it did make the blue one I went back for earlier unnecessary (I have to cast Fairy later, and I won't be getting a Magic level). I'm very happy with how everything went up until the raft (except for that weird sound I got when I was opening the door, that was a first). The first Bot in the lava room holds me up a bit (I've had way too many runs end in this room, I was determined to play it safe) and I probably had the most trouble I've ever had with bear head statues in the next room, usually run that nice and clean, but oh well. No complaints with the rest, I've had better fights with the boss, but this one certainly wasn't bad.
  
  
• End Palace 3 to End Palace 4 Part 1
  
  I actually came up with that leveling strategy before I saw tmont's run, but seeing him do the same made me believe in it much more firmly. Those Life levels up my survivability a lot and without them I'm sure the next couple of stages of the game would be loads tougher. No random encounters on the way to Palace 4 is a rarity, and I'm glad to have done it here. I use Fairy to skip the "you got the thing" animation at the Magic Container, saves me a couple seconds. Things don't go too badly until the Stone Warrior before the Boots room. I hate these things with a passion, and if you don't take them out quickly and smoothly the will hurt you. This guy didn't go down quickly or smoothly, and the result is ugliness. The red potion I get in the next room makes up for the damage to my health, but I can't get back the time. Really I would've preferred a point bag here since that would've let me skip killing the Stalfos in the ruts on the way out, one of which cost me a bunch of time, but that entirely necessary as you'll see later.
  
  
• Leaving and Returning to Palace 4
  
  I've got enough magic to use Fairy to pick up the abducted child and again save a couple seconds. My random encounter evasion on the way to Darunia is nothing special, but none of them hold me up for any great period of time. I don't even try to skip the forced encounters since there both pretty easy and offer about 100 experience a pop, and I need the experience. The town itself is home to a pretty ugly mistake (of all the places to screw up. . .). It all resulted from a badly timed sip of my beverage. I forgot for a second you actually have to talk to the Upstab guy, so I gimp out a little right in front of him. That itself isn't too bad, but then I must've been a little flustered and mashed the talk button a little too much and talked to him twice (lousy unskippable dialogue. . .). That's a nice sized chunk of time gone right there and just looks really bad. Nothing too eventful from there until I get back to the palace.
  
  
• Finishing Palace 4
  
  I have a little trouble with the first key, but I'm pretty smooth with the second one (that's usually reversed). I was hoping to be able to attempt to skip that second key entirely actually, but experience prohibited me from even trying (I needed the 200 from the Stone Warriors). I got a red potion from the statue by the third key in the unconventional way. Turns out I didn't really need it, but being able to Fairy out of that room is a definite plus. Nothing all that notable until Carock. He died nice and quick (only like 3 shots missed!), though I didn't need to cast Life when I did (I wasn't about to about gamble on that though) and his death gave me just enough experience to hit my target. Good thing too, a reset due strictly to bad luck at that point probably would've cost me a controller. I was a little gimpy getting the key, but that only cost a second or two.
  
  
• Palace 5
  
  If it wasn't for the boss I wouldn't hesitate in saying this is the easiest palace in the game in terms of this run. This is largely because it's the only palace where I don't have an experience target to hit. Outside of a few slight missteps here and there I really have no complaints with how this one went, and the fact that I got the key in the falling block room as easily as I did is a definite plus. I cruised through here all the way to Gooma, who can be killed faster than I did, but he still went down quick enough. Again, I didn't need to cast Life in the fight, but I wasn't about to chance it.
  
  
• End of Palace 5 to Palace 6
  
  No randoms on the way to the river devil is a definite plus, and the forced encounters went pretty well, though you might wonder why I cast Fairy on the second one. Without it, I always get hit at least once while trying to navigate past the Fire Dragon. Granted, I get hit a bunch while flying through, but as a fairy it doesn't slow me down at all, I have the magic to burn, and I have a Life level coming to me on the next screen. Seemed like a good idea to me.

  On my way through the forest both going to and coming from New Kasuto I actually want to get into a few random encounter as I need the experience. I actually get a little more experience than I usually do this time around, and that throws me a bit later, but we'll get to that when we come to it. The town went well except for a brief wrong turn on my way out from getting Spell, and on my way back through the cave the spider things smacked me around a bit, but with a Heart Container soon to come I wasn't all that worried about it. The random I hit on said Heart Container's panel is a bit of a headshaker, but it only cost me a few seconds.
  
  

• Palace 6
  
  There's lots of little things that go wrong in this palace that can cost a great deal of time. Missing any of the long jumps is a huge setback, and even with inflated Life levels most of the enemies here hit really hard. All in all I did decently through here. I do alright in the early going, though I meant to kill the first Blue Ironknuckle rather than knock him off the cliff. The invisible gap in the room before the cross gave me a lot of trouble in the early training stages, especially on the way back, but I nailed it both ways here. The only thing in the whole palace that really makes me shake my head is backtracking to kill the Blue Ironknuckle after I fall down to the route to Barba. I was thinking I had to make up for not killing the one earlier, but it was completely unnecessary, even without the red potion drop I got later, due to the little extra experience I got on the way to the palace. That just didn't click at the time, and the result is wasted time. The red potion, however, did turn out to be a lifesaver as the second Mounted Ironknuckle would've kill me without the castings of Life. I could've played Barba a little more aggressively and probably would've gotten him on the third pass if I had, but the start of the fourth is nothing to sneeze at. After the fight I almost screw myself by canceling a Magic level I need to take, but catch myself before it's too late.
  
  
• End Palace 6 to Great Palace
  
  Fairy is a must for the bridges, I wouldn't dream of trying to go without it this late in a run. You'll notice I don't take the Magic level right away. That's a little insurance against the random red potion at the start of Death Road not being there. The fact that it did appear is a definite plus, though, as it lets me be pretty free with my magic through this stretch. I had four misses on skipping the forced encounters, which isn't great, but could've certainly been much worse. I also played a few of the random encounters pretty timidly, but it's way to easy to die through here. The first room in the first cave went badly, but from there to the palace went pretty well. I will say I got lucky to not die when I did hit my magic level, that really got my heart pumping.
  
  
• Great Palace
  
  I drilled this place so many times before I even considered trying to record a run, and I think for the most part it shows. It here, however, that I commit the mistake of the run, which I largely attribute to nerves. That wrong turn looks really ugly, and cost me dearly, a little over 20 seconds gone. I take a little solace in the fact that I didn't get smacked around too bad getting back on track, but I still cringe every time I watch it. Outside of that, the only other real hang-up I encountered was the second red potion statue which took three tries to bear fruit. I was able to skip the fairy though, so that's something. Thunderbird went really well, though I was nervous as hell during the fight. And if any of you were hoping this would be speedrun where someone actually duked it out with Dark Link, I'm sorry to disappoint.

And tmont's right, it is really nice to see a zero next to your name at the end.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading it, and hope you enjoyed the run.

Zelda II is my favorite NES-game and because of nostalgia it's also my all-time favorite game. This game had everything I wanted from a videogame at the time of release. I hadn't played The Legend of Zelda (which is also a great game and a difficult one, but very different and not as technical), which was probably an advantage. Zelda II gets a lot of unfair stick. Those who haven't played The Great Palace with the revolutionary AI of the Dreadhawks there shouldn't criticise the game IMHO. But I am the first to admit that a speed run of this game contains too much fairy-casting through locked doors. Though a speed run without it would be even longer and this speed run is over 1 hour long...

The Zelda II European Version is modified, meaning that movement on the overworld-map is 5/6 speed compared to the American Version, but the sidescroller-scenes are almost as fast.

This run is exactly as minimalistic as my previous run: I skip the spells: Shield, Life, Fire and Spell. I skip the items: Candle, Cross and Magickey. And I skip three Life-containers (it's possible to skip four).

Speedrunning Zelda II takes a long time and can be quite frustrating. I'm not sure this run is better fighting-wise than my previous 1:06:17 run, but it's certainly more clever and faster. By changing around on my route and level-up system I decrease the luck needed when it comes to magic-potion/experience-bag droppings.

For those who aren't as familiar with the game as me, I will try to explain how the magic-potion/experience-bag dropping system works: After killing 5 'big enemies' you will have a 50/50 chance of either a magic-potion (refills your magic) or an experience-bag (200 experience points) at the drop of the next 'big enemy' killed. (Bosses, Blue Ironknuckle and Red Lizalfos don't count). E.g.: I kill 5 Orange Moas ('big enemy') at the entrance of Maze Island Palace (4th) to set me up for a magic-potion (refilling my magic to cast Fairy-spells through locked doors, saving time skipping keys) inside the palace at the first Red Ironknuckle. It will save me two lives and a lot of time. Fingers crossed for not getting an experience-bag there...

I get maximum luck on magic-potion/experience-bag droppings in my run:

A magic-potion in Parapa-Palace (saves one life - 1 extra Fairy-spell needed).

An experience-bag in Midero-Palace (1 of 2 needed to level-up).

An experience-bag in the Island-Palace (needed to save time, not killing an extra Blue Ironknuckle for level-up).

A magic-potion in Maze Island Palace (needed to save two lives and a lot of time: 2 extra Fairy-spells needed).

A magic-potion in Three Eye Palace (saves one life: 1 extra Fairy-spell needed).

Here's my thoughts on how the key areas of the game were done in the run:

• Death Mountain: Far from perfect, but I can't complain with no unwanted deaths there without the Candle. Unlike my previous run, I use a death-abuse at the hammer-location to save time, and leave here with stats 3-1-2 instead of 4-1-2 (Attack - Magic - Life). I compensate this 'loss of experience' by taking on Midero Palace (2nd) with stats 3-1-2 before Parapa Palace (1st), something that would prove costly...

• To The Water of Life/Medicine: I avoid the random encounter in the swamp and do some acrobatic jumping inside the unlit cave.

• Midero Palace (2nd): Why oh why... It wouldn't be a Kristian Emanuelsen Zelda II run without the one unwanted death in it would it? Everything went smoothly in here until THAT Blue Stalfos drained almost all my life-energy. Enough to make one hit from Helmethead lethal... I kill him without getting hit afterwards of course. Room for improvement.

• Parapa Palace (1st): Pretty straight forward and easy entering here with 5-1-2. Thankfully, I got the magic-potion instead of the experience-bag.

• Island Palace (3rd): Went well, but I unnecessarily turn and kill the Red Ironknuckle at the entrance.

• Rescue the child and to Darunia: I "waste" some time on my way to Darunia, can't complain overall though, faster than usual.

• Maze Island Palace (4th): As stated before, the killing of the 5 Orange Moas at the entrance aren't just for experience-gaining, but also to set me up for a magic-potion that is a definite must in this palace. I can therefore "fairy" my way around the palace with only one death-abuse instead of three. Carrock goes down very quickly indeed. On my way to the Boots, I choose to level-up Life to 4, so that I can survive one hit from Gooma if my life-energy is full there. I didn't take a hit from Gooma later on, so it proved to be time-wasting...

• Ocean Palace (5th): Not very good, a somewhat lack of concentration. Too many small stops for my liking. I do a death-abuse to refill my magic at the beginning, as it is slightly faster than going back to get the key. I use Fairy-spell at the locked door instead.

• To and from New Kasuto: I get lucky again, being able to skip the first of those three similar tiles with hitting a random encounter at the right time. When entering Three Eye Palace I prefer to have killed 5 'big enemies' on my way, setting me up for a magic-potion/experience-bag to refill magic there. Therefore some of the random encounters to and from New Kasuto are wanted, but not the second last one where the Red Lizalfoses dwell in the woods as those don't count when it comes to magic-potion/experience-bag droppings.

• Three Eye Palace (6th): All went well, except that Barba should be disposed of at it's second appearance, not the third.

• Bridges to and from Old Kasuto: I don't use any fairy-spells at the bridges to save magic for Death-Road. I almost die at the first bridge from Old Kasuto... Close shave.

• Death Road: All goes well here.

• The Great Palace: Can't complain. I go 'under' and then 'over' the Blue Dreadhawk between the two sets of blocks this time. Certainly a little more risky, but worth the seconds saved.

• Thunderbird: Think positive... I take no hits from him.

• Dark Link: Hmmm, could and should have been killed a little faster.

Really hope you enjoy this run!

This run was a result of me being depressed about not getting close enough to Rodrigo Lopes' world record of 1:01 for a regular run of this game. Also, I was sick of going through Death Mountain without the Candle and a ridiculous strength advantage. Compared to either of the other runs I attempted for this game, this one was a cakewalk.

Once I got the time down to 43 minutes, it becomes a matter of avoiding unwanted encounters. It's amazing how much time can be shaved off this run due to blind luck. I had one run that was so incredibly lucky that it was minutes ahead of all my other attempts, and about 40 seconds ahead of this one by the time I got to Death Road. Then I hit a snag of bad luck, and it ended up being just over 42 minutes, when it could have easily been under 41:30. A further study of exactly how the overworld "enemies'" paths are determined, and thereby avoiding them more often, could bring this time closer to 41 minutes. But I doubt anyone has the perseverance, stamina, or love of this game for that kind of lunacy.

This run is a few seconds away from the Twin Galaxies world record time of 41:50, by Rodrigo Lopes. I have to give huge props to him, because if I hadn't known it was possible to get a time that low, I would have stopped when my time got to 43 minutes. The mere fact that he accomplished such a phenomenal time with no information to go on except the previous run, which had no giant flaws (aside from an ill-timed death) and was five minutes slower, still astounds me. Without the knowledge of his time, this run would never have happened (or if it had, it would've been much slower). Also, thanks to Lokarin for discussing some strategies, and for his initial interest to improve Emptyeye's run.

NG+ is an amusing way to speedrun Zelda II IMHO. The strength-advantage gives you the opportunity to defeat some of the bosses, e.g. Gooma, with more daring fighting-strategies. And most importantly, you don't have the frustrating NG-Death Mountain problem of a 35 %? chance of getting through with the hammer, even though you fight perfectly (gathering enough experience to level up attack to 4).

I consider this run to be even more lucky than my NG-run, as I have very few random-encounters. The run through Death Mountain isn't optimal, but I'm happy with everything else in this run (as far as I remember). I hope you find this run entertaining!