Ganon's Tower
Outside of key shuffle modes, climbing Ganon's Tower and completing the dungeon usually necessitates finding the big key, which can be located in any of the 22 checks in the "basement" area (floors 1F and B1). Two small keys in total are also needed for the climb, but one can be picked up from the helmasaur on floor 6F at minimal time cost, meaning the minimum requirements to climb are one small key and the big key.
Many different routes are viable and commonly used for searching the basement, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Detailed timing data can be seen and compared using this GT Routing Estimator spreadsheet created by StructuralMike, which can be copied and modified with your own room times, but a brief attempted summary of the various routes is given below.
In the following descriptions, the following shorthand is used:
- Left route consists of taking the left-hand stairway from the Lobby and proceeding through Bob's Torch, Conveyor Cross, Hookshot, DMs Room (if not already visited), Map Room, Double Switch, Spike Crystal, Firesnake Room, Warp Maze (Rails), Warp Maze (Pits), Invisible Catwalk, Bob's Room, Ice Armos, Big Key Room.
- Right route consists of taking the right-hand stairway from the Lobby and proceeding through Hope Room, Tile Room (skipping the chest), Speed Torch, Crystal Conveyor, Compass Room, Conveyor Star Pits, Falling Bridge, Hidden Star, Invisible Bridges, Invisible Catwalk, Bob's Room, Ice Armos, Big Key Room.
The routes are presented in no particular order.
Full Left
- Left route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Right route until Compass Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
This route is slightly slower than the others on average, but makes up for it by having the best possible full-clear time among routes that check Tile Room last. Routes like this one that visit Compass Room last can potentially lose almost 3 minutes to a route that goes straight to Compass Room, but this also means that in 17/22 seeds (roughly 77%), Speed Torch will never need to be visited, which usually saves on at least half of a magic bar, depending on the strategies used.
Hope-Left
- Hope Room, mirror
- Left route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
A variant on the Full Left route that visits the two chests in Hope Room first, which leads to a lower average time to find the big key.
Because routes that go right to Compass Room first are only possible if at least one small key is found in Hope Room, this route is also a common fallback for runners who prefer those routes but are forced to mirror out of Hope Room after finding no keys.
Compass-Left
- Right route until Conveyor Star Pits (grabbing the small key), mirror
- Left route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
Similar to the Full Left route, but done in reverse order. Although it loses on full clear time due to visiting Conveyor Star Pits to grab the small key, it is faster on average because getting to the 4 chests in Compass Room generally takes less time than getting to the 4 chests in Bob's Room / Big Key Room from the previous check.
Going to Compass Room first minimizes the worst-case time loss against a theoretical opponent regardless of their routing choice, but can lose 45-60 seconds getting to the chests on the left side against a number of routes that go left first. Another disadvantage of this route is that it depends on at least one small key being in Hope Room, which is not always the case.
Rando-Right
- Left route until Randomizer Room, mirror
- Right route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
Boasting a very good average big key find time, this route also attempts to reduce potential time loss against opponents who visit Compass Room first by switching to the right-hand route after visiting Randomizer Room. Strategies like this one that do a partial left route before mirroring are also exceedingly likely to find the required small key required in Hope Room to continue further when compared to routes that try to get to Compass Room immediately. This route's main weakness is the potential to lose about 100 seconds to the multiple routes that check Hope Room first, if the big key is there.
Hope-Rando-Right
- Hope Room, mirror
- Left route until Randomizer Room, mirror
- Right route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
This route is similar to the above, but tries to solve for the aforementioned weakness by checking Hope Room first, giving up a bit of time to prevent that worst case. It still suffers from potentially losing 1-2 minutes to an opponent that rushes to Compass Room first, but in a fair number of seeds that strategy won't actually even be possible due to no small keys being placed in Hope Room!
This is another potential fallback for runners who like to go for a Compass first route but fail to find a small key in Hope Room.
Stalfos-Compass-Left
- Left route until DMs Room, mirror
- Right route until Compass Room, mirror
- Left route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
Also sometimes colloquially known as the "Dark Magician" route. This route is notable for being "dependable" in that it tries to minimize the worst-case time loss against a theoretical opponent, but without relying on a small key being in Hope Room like with the Compass-Left route.
Generally loses about a minute of time against other left-first routes that proceed past DMs Room, if the big key is past that location.
Hope-Stalfos-Compass-Left
- Hope Room, mirror
- Left route until DMs Room, mirror
- Right route until Compass Room, mirror
- Left route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
Same as above, with an extra initial stop at Hope Room. This adds an extra 8 seconds to the average time to find the big key, with the only benefit being that you get to Hope Room an extra 30 seconds earlier.
Stalfos-Full Right
- Left route until DMs Room, mirror
- Right route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Left route until Randomizer Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
This route makes it to Compass Room and the Big Key Room quite early while not giving up on the initial checks on the left route. It's major weakness is the 6 checks in Map Room, Firesnake Room, and Randomizer Room, where it can lose over two minutes to routes that go left first.
Full Left, Tile before Compass
- Left route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Hope Room, Tile Room immediately after
- Continue right until Compass Room, mirror
By checking Tile Room on the way to Compass Room, this route attains the best time for full-clearing the basement, and doesn't give up as much on average big key time as you might expect. It's main weaknesses are, of course, the 6 checks in Hope Room/Compass Room, where it can lose 3 minutes to a variety of strategies, and up to 5 minutes against an opponent going to Compass Room first.
The following two routes are provided for the sake of completeness but generally not recommended unless you have a specific reason or preference for them:
Full-Right
- Right route until Big Key Room, mirror
- Left route until Randomizer Room, mirror
- Tile Room last
This route suffers from a notable dropoff in average time to find the big key thanks to frontloading a large chunk of time navigating the rooms on the right-hand route that don't contain any checks. One arguable advantage of this route is that it puts off the checks that are most awkward to return to the Lobby from when the mirror is not available -- Firesnake Room and Randomizer Room.
Tile-Compass-Left
- Hope Room and Tile Room immediately
- Continue right until Conveyor Star Pits (grabbing the small key), mirror
- Left route until Big Key Room
This route gambles everything on Tile Room, which is in general not recommended as the big key is less than 5% to be in that location. If you do get lucky, however, you can gain an entire 4 minutes of time over almost all other routes, while still coming out ahead of a left-first route if the big key is in Hope Room/Compass Room. The average time to find the big key with this strategy, however, is worse than with all others described on this page.
If the mirror is not available, returning to the beginning of the dungeon is only possible via deathwarp, backtracking, or by passing through the Big Chest Room. Backtracking is also not possible on the left side after entering the portal in Spike Crystal, or on the right side after entering the portal in Compass Room.
Routes that "swap sides" multiple times (Hope-Stalfos-Compass-Left, as an extreme example) are less viable with no mirror on hand. Excluding Tile Room, only 6 checks are available on either side before reaching a point of no return. It may be prudent to attempt to intentionally take damage along the way to setup for a death warp.
In many game modes, the big chest is ignored due to not being able to contain required progression, but in modes such as Open All Dungeons where the big chest can potentially contain a required item, your choice of route can take this into account when relevant.
Ideally your route would end at the Big Key Room, as this will guarantee that you have the big key on hand in order to walk to the big chest and open it, but of course, most routes will make a concession for checking Tile Room last.
Another approach is to end at Compass Room, taking the trip through the right side of the basement and through Invisible Catwalk to reach the big chest, but this is a longer trip than from the Big Key Room.
From Hope Room, it's faster to use the mirror to reach the stairs to floor 3F, even without the boots.
This also applies when going to Bob's Torch, with or without the boots. Of course, traveling through the small key door on the left side of Hope Room is faster than either of these two routes, but this is generally avoided outside of key shuffle modes as sacrificing the small key to do so is usually not worth it.
Magic management is often important to consider when going through the basement, as magic is used in many rooms in both the basement and the rest of the tower, and there is no magic refill after defeating Agahnim at the top of the tower (unlike in a normal dungeon). Several rooms give the opportunity to use magic for time-save purposes, or to spend extra time for magic refills. Magic concerns may thus change your room strategies, or even your route through the basement as a whole.
Below is a summary of rooms and strategies in the basement where magic is involved:
Magic Spend Opportunities
Speed Torch always requires magic to traverse:- Speed Torch - 40 magic for "normal" strategy (fire rod, lamp, lamp, fire rod)
- Speed Torch - 52 magic instead for easier quickswap (fire rod, lamp, fire rod, fire rod)
- Speed Torch - 68 magic instead to save ~0.85 seconds (fire rod, lamp, fire rod x3)
- Speed Torch - 64 magic minimum if no lamp is available (fire rod x4)
Hope Room also requires 8 magic to proceed through to Tile Room and beyond.
These three rooms don't necessarily require magic, but it's often used, depending on equipment:
- Hookshot - 8 magic is typically spent on somaria if boomerang is not available (saves ~0.75 seconds over bomb)
- Crystal Conveyor - 16 magic to optionally fire rod the first gibdo
- Crystal Conveyor - 16 magic for two somaria blocks (saves ~2.5-4 seconds over bombs)
- Crystal Conveyor - 32 magic for spooky glitch strategy (saves ~1 second over somaria)
- Double Switch - 8 magic can be spent on somaria if boomerang is not available (saves ~0.2 seconds over bomb)
Invincibility items can be used to speed up some rooms:
- Firesnake Room - Can spend ~10-15 magic on capedash to save ~0.75-1.5 seconds
- Firesnake Room - Can spend 16 magic on byrnadash to save ~0.3-1.2 seconds
- Spike Crystal - Can spend ~10 magic on capedash to save ~0.33 seconds
- Falling Bridge - Can spend ~20 magic on byrnadash to save ~0.5 seconds
- Falling Bridge - Can spend ~28 magic on capedash to save ~0.75 seconds
- Invisible Catwalk (from east) - Can spend ~12 magic on capedash to save ~0.8 seconds
- Map Room - Can spend ~22 magic on capedash to save ~0.2 seconds (not recommended)
And finally, the following rooms have situational uses for magic:
- Bob's Room - Can spend 8 magic to powder the anti-fairy
- Ice Armos - Can spend full magic bar for byrna fight if bow is unavailable
- DMs Room - Up to 48 magic can potentially be used for various strategies
Magic Refill Opportunities
In rough order of most to least efficient:- Invisible Catwalk - small magic for ~4-5 frames
- Speed Torch - full magic for ~2 seconds via hammerdash (before lighting torches #2-4)
- Double Switch (with boomerang) - one small magic for 15-20 frames
- Hookshot - one small magic for ~0.5 seconds
- Double Switch (without boomerang) - one small magic for ~1.25 seconds
- Crystal Conveyor - one small magic for 1.5-2 seconds
- Pots n Blocks - full magic for 10+ seconds