StarTopic Wind Waker Randomiser |ST|

[Jaysc]

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I’ve been part of the randomiser community for a few years so I felt this was the best forum to talk about this.

What is a Randomiser?​

Nearly all Legend of Zelda games have a linear path through the journey. Throughout the games you essentially:

1. Pick up a new item from a chest.
2. Complete a dungeon with the new item.
3. Sometimes backtrack through previous levels.

Items usually block progression through the game due a mechanic requiring the item. For example, bombs to blow up a wall, or fire to melt ice.

A randomiser will cause the new items you find to be placed out of order. You are able to find items that are normally found much later in the game potentially right at the start. This is the essence of a randomiser.

The randomiser places all items found in chests/locations into different locations in such a way that each item you find will (potentially) open up new locations with new chests. This continues until you are able to defeat the final boss and complete the game. Not every location will contain a “progression” item, but instead could contain something miscellaneous like money.

Of course, there are usually other modifications to allow this sort of progression. For Wind Waker, instead of starting as you typically though, you are placed in the open world able equipped with a sail and allow to go to any location accessible. Events that are usually restricted are enabled from the start.

Legend of Zelda games are not what randomisers exclusively apply to. Metroidvania games can apply the formula easly due to the nature of progression and backtracking. There are also unexpected games that can also be modified to apply the randomiser formula.

Wind Waker Randomiser​

First, I recommend you finish the game normally. The Randomiser will essentially spoil the whole game. Consider finishing the gamecube or even the Wiiu HD version of the game.

Randomisers are customisable with settings. Chests and even gifts from NPCs can be grouped into different types of “checks”. For example, you may not want to randomiser all chests found in dungeons, or you may not want to randomise items found using treasure charts. Even starting items can be changed to your taste. It’s also possible that you may not need to defeat any dungeons.

In general by default, you are starting on an island with your trusty boat (KORL or King Of Red Lions), the Wind Waker, and your sail. In addition, you are giving the Wind God's Aria and balled of gales (warp song). After that, you are free to go anywhere in the world. There are “logical” locations based on your settings that you will aim to go to, and eventually the items found there will open up the world to more new locations.

The goal is to obtain:

• 8 Triforce Shards
• The fully powered Master Sword
• Light Arrows (with your bow)
• Shield
• Boomerang
• Grappling Hook
• Hookshot
• The ability to defeat Ganon

Once you have collected all the items, are you able to enter Hyrule (Triforce), break the barrier surrounding the castle (Master Sword), defeat Puppet Ganon (light arrows and boomerang), make your way to Ganon (GrapplingHook, Hookshot), and provide the final bow to Ganon (shield)

The Randomiser can be found here.

Tracker​

In order to help players know what locations they should be checking, tools called “Tracker” can be used. By inputting the setting of your randomiser, you are given a list of highlighted locations that will potentially contain progression items. You can mark locations as checked, and mark items you acquire, thus opening more locations.

For Wind Waker, the main one we use can be found here.

Racing & Glitches​

Following the same idea of speedrunning, there is also a community centered around racing randomisers to completion.

Each runner have the same game settings and start at the same time. The goal is to finish the game first. Runners like to go fast so glitches exploiting the game are allowed. This means by doing certain things you could access locations that you wouldn’t normally be able to access without the correct items. In some cases, you may not necessarly need to find all items to finish the game.

You find information about glitches here.

The only glitch banned (so far) in order to not ruin the spirit of racing is the Barrier Glitch, a glitch allowing you to skip getting the Master Sword and breaking the barrier surrounding Hyrule.

Seasons​

Every year we have tournaments called “Seasons”. The community collectively comes together to determine the best settings to use for the tournament and races. Usually the settings explore a unique and approachable way to play the randomiser. As of writing, we are on Season 5.

Weekly Race & asyncs​

The community tries to have a race every week. It alternates between something standard (like a season setting) to something more different and unique. Check out the discords for more information

You can also find async seeds. This is where people can race each other in their own free time by recording their time onto a spreadsheet. Again can be found on the racing discord

Spoiler Log Races​

When racing, players are not given the the location of items in the game (known as spoiler log). Casually you are able to in case you get stuck. However, we have the concept of Spoiler Log Races where everyone is giving an set amount of time before the race to look at the spoiler log in order to create the best and fastest route through the game. This allows players to really test their knowledge of glitches and mechanics of the game. You should have a good grasp of Wind Waker randomiser knowledge before attempting this.

Videos​

While you can find individuals streaming randomisers, I suggest taking a look through ZeldaSpeedRuns archive.

The twitch channel can be found here.
You can find their Youtube channel here but appears to contain less videos.

Here’s an example of a race.

How to get started​

The best way to get started is to join the two community discords. Both contain information on how to get started, and guidance on how to play. In addition, both communities are open to questions and are always happy to help.

Wind Waker Randomiser Discord - [https://discord.gg/r2963mt](https://discord.gg/r2963mt)
Wind Waker Randomiser Racing Discord (My main server) - [https://discord.gg/HQP3cAF](https://discord.gg/HQP3cAF)

You can find me sitting on these servers under the name "Colfra".

I personally think Wind Waker Randomiser is one of the more accessible randomisers available when compared to others. I have randomiser experience in Ocarina of time, Majora’s Mask, Link to the past, and Kingdom Hearts 2. They all bring something unique but Wind Waker is the one I can easily go back to. Please let me know if you have any questions, either in this thread or within the discords.

 

[Jaysc]

Randomania Randothon 2023​

Randomania Randothon is a marthon streaming a variaty of different games with randomisers. They are currently receiving donations for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

You can find the schedule and stream here.

This Sunday, I'll be commentating on a Wind Waker Randomiser race between my two friends. Please take a look at the stream and consider supporting the marathon.

 

[WestEgg]

This is great! I’ve seen some good randomized runs and would definitely like to see more.

 

[Mekanos]

Streaming Wind Waker for an organization called Nami, huh?

I cannot imagine how much more complex a randomizer is for a 3D game. I might have to check out some of this.

 

[WestEgg]

Vinesauce did a run a while back which was pretty enjoyable.