28 years after its release and (almost) two remakes later, a new glitch has been discovered in the OG Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and fans are already expecting it to have a big impact on certain challenge runs.
As shared by Ocarina of Time speedrunner ZFG on Twitter, the "really cool new glitch" involves using a bottled item right as a hitbox is disappearing in order to "overwrite damage values," allowing you to beat certain bosses without the items usually required for them. Specifically, "2 big uses so far are beating Volvagia without hammer, and Ganondorf without light arrows."
Elaborating on this further in a separate post, ZFG explains that "because this has to do with memory loading and unloading stuff, this sometimes needs specific setups with things you need to do beforehand," but this "will be very situational." For now, though, Link's magic spin attack combined with using a fairy in a bottle "seems pretty consistent," they say.
What's more, the glitch even works in Majora's Mask, with the combo of using magic spin and then using spring water generally resulting in "powder keg damage," which can be used to quickly blast through to the Goron Racetrack and Romani Ranch (albeit with a bit of setup).
Really cool new glitch in OoT was just found. Using a bottled item as a lingering hitbox is disappearing can cause the bottled item to overwrite damage values. 2 big uses so far are beating Volvagia without hammer, and Ganondorf without light arrows. https://t.co/wSzFKBtAfQOctober 11, 2026
But how about Ocarina of Time? ZFG anticipates a potential impact on a number of different speedrun categories, but not necessarily all of them. "Although this seems like something obviously very useful on the surface, there's actually a bunch of minor details that makes it not as simple to just be an automatic timesaver in runs," as they put it. For example, the All Dungeons category skips currently obtaining the slingshot and magic, which you need one of to make the glitch work, though speedrunners are currently experimenting with a method here to get the slingshot for a potentially faster Volvagia fight.
"The one main category this seems immediately good for is No Wrong Warp, which can now skip the long process to get magic in exchange for just slingshot, saving a few minutes," ZFG reasons. Meanwhile, randomizer runs are "definitely the biggest winner" thanks to the ability to beat Volvagia without the hammer.
While it doesn't seem like this glitch is going to be a game changer for the majority of casual fans, it's still really interesting that things are still being found after all this time. If you're curious to try it, it reportedly works on the Nintendo Switch Online version of the game as well as the original cartridge release.
