# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #29

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Spotlight Story** is all about speedrunning real-life public transit networks and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and new TAS movies. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-29)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Spotlight: Enzo 🔦

I love non-gaming speedruns. Really cool things emerge when the speedrunning formula is applied to everyday activities that everybody is familiar with. In past publications I’ve already talked about [Excel](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-14) and (briefly) [baking](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-24#%C2%A7story-of-the-week), and today I’d like to put the spotlight on another one: **public transit networks**.

The goal is fairly simple: use public transport to pass through every station on its network, as fast as possible. Time starts when the doors close at the first station and ends upon leaving the train, tram, bus or monorail after having ticked off all others on the network. It is simple, but also much more complicated than it sounds.

The majority of it might be an autoscroller with no way to speed up the vehicle you’re in, but that just means that other factors become much more important. Arguably, the most important part of any speedrun is the route, and in an open scenario like this one a lot of questions need to be answered:

- Where should my route start / end?
- Where do I transfer from one line to the next?
- How do I minimize the amount of stations I visit multiple times?
- Are there any shortcuts between stations / lines outside of the network?

The answers to these are an exercise in graph theory and a classic travelling salesman problem, with the additional constraints that we are restricted to lines, can only change them at specific points and - most importantly - are also optimizing the route for speed. Any time spent waiting at a station or bus stop is completely wasted. The frequency of different lines and the time it takes to change at a station need to be carefully considered.

During a run, the stakes are high. For any multi-hour speedrun, resetting is a serious blow, especially far into the run. But for public transit systems and on optimized routes, an opportunity where the right lines align at the right time might only present itself once or twice a day. Additionally, randomness (RNG) is rampant and trains or buses can run into a myriad of issues, causing them to be delayed or even cancelled. Committing a day of your time to a run shows serious commitment, whether in real life or in video games.

The idea of clearing entire networks has been around for a while. There are many recognized Guinness world records and popular content creators that have attempted these challenges, but they haven’t been called a speedrun until recently. And only when they did, they appeared on my radar.

I first came across this phenomenon through a [video by YouTuber ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ap30oYwyM)[Adam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ap30oYwyM), in which he attempts a run through the **Bay Area Rapid Transit** network, or **B.A.R.T.** for short, using a route that promised a new record if completed successfully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ap30oYwyM

**BART** gets a special shoutout here because they recognize, embrace and encourage speedruns of their network. [On their website](https://www.bart.gov/news/fun/speedrun) you’ll find a chronological list of verified runs as well as information about how to start your own.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2c3c30af-94db-4053-858c-14ff0b330aa8_947x767.png)

[A map of the Bay Area Rapid Transit, showing all the lines and all the stops.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2c3c30af-94db-4053-858c-14ff0b330aa8_947x767.png)

Compared to networks like the London Underground, BART is fairly simplistic, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to optimize, let alone finish a good run. The architect of the fastest route through the system is young high school student **Enzo**. He is a strong advocate for public transit and has not only perfected the route through his local network, but recently went to Los Angeles to speedrun the metro system there as well. Check out the [full video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5L4NWpX_vA) on **[his ](https://www.youtube.com/@CqtzYT)[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@CqtzYT)[ channel](https://www.youtube.com/@CqtzYT)**!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5L4NWpX_vA

Eager to learn more, I reached out to Enzo and received not only a quick, but also an exceptionally comprehensive response. The full version of the text-based Q&A sadly goes far beyond the scope of this article and there are cuts I needed to make, but I will follow up with an extended version as a separate publication in the near future.

# Insights from Enzo

### **Q: Would you like to introduce yourself?**

> I’m currently a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, advocating for transit through journeys and experiences that appeal to audiences of my demographic. Speedrunning helped me incorporate myself into the transit community, but I’ve since branched to other areas like content creation and networking with communities to advocate for transit.

### **Q: How did you get into speedrunning public transit systems?**

> I had a passion for transit and considered myself an enthusiast, but wanted to make something out of it. A difficult and creative challenge was the perfect opportunity, and seeing as I was already an active gamer, speedrunning my local system, *BART*, checked all the criteria on my imaginary list. I was first exposed to the idea of transit speedrunning through the YouTuber **[tomo tawa linja](https://www.youtube.com/@tomo-tawa-linja)**, and found myself invested in their videos on the subject.

### **Q: Finding the quickest possible route is a big focus. How do you analyse a new transit system for speedrunning?**

> When I’m completely unfamiliar with a system’s layout or operations, it’s generally a better idea to learn how it functions as a whole before diving straight in. For example, I had never ridden the LA metro system before and figured it was a better idea to learn the lines’ headways, important station layouts, and fare system, among other basic things. After gaining some familiarity with the system - which you can do online, but I would highly suggest scouting in person - the next step is to open up a spreadsheet and plot the current fastest time route, using whatever format you prefer, as well as noting any strategies (like where to stand in which car of the train to optimize transfer positioning). Then, open up a to-scale system map, and observe possible shortcuts in the WR route or consider swapping end/start points. If the WR route is already extremely optimized, it doesn’t hurt to consider options that you might have crossed out for one reason or another before brute forcing them, as sometimes the wildest routes are the fastest.

### **Q: Before the run, I noticed that you scout some stations where key changes will take place. How else do you prepare for the day of the run?**

> To be honest, most of the preparation and logistic readiness come long before the attempt. […] you should be mentally ready for anything. During the night before the attempt, prepare a backpack with goods such as power banks, food and drinks, and other miscellaneous items as applicable, from recording equipment to hand sanitizer.

### **Q: While on the speedrun, Do you actively monitor multiple lines and their delays? Could you see yourself changing your route on the fly?**

> Of course, runners should monitor conditions on the system and off the system, like weather patterns, delays on the system, and other factors. Should something dire occur, a spontaneous route swap is possible. If you do, maybe it's best to tank the delay/cycle and continue with your route, or maybe it's best to swap routes. Normally, if there is a segment of the run that is vulnerable to fluctuations and variability, it's a good idea to plan a backup route in advance. However, as with many systems, if the run is already exceptionally optimized, one missed transfer likely kills your run.

### **Q: How have schedule updates or line changes affected your speedruns?**

> […] major changes, such as new line openings or station additions/removals warrant complete leaderboard resets, similar to how different versions of Minecraft have different leaderboards. Of course, in real life, you can’t rollback to play an older version of a system, so rather than completely removing and forgetting the leaderboard, a system’s leaderboard is archived, and then reset for its current state.

### **Q: Do you plan to improve the BART record?**

> BART is already one of the most optimized systems in the entire world in transit speedrunning. With their schedules having changed recently on the 13th, any hopes of beating my time of 5 hours, 9 minutes, and 35 seconds is virtually non-existent.

### **Q: How does transit speedrunning compare to gaming speedruns?**

> Similarities: The spirit of speedrunning, and what a speedrun fundamentally is. Additionally, things like optimization, planning, brutal fails, close calls and lucky RNG are all shared factors between gaming and transit speedruns. There are shortcuts for many systems and anything that counts as public transit is fair game.Differences: There isn’t a website or page like speedrun.com for transit. Thus, there’s often controversy in some runs that push rule sets and boundaries to their limits, as a symptom of a lack of moderation. Real-world runs and video game runs are very different, in the sense that you can’t pause (obviously), resetting takes MUCH longer, and there are often more variables and external, uncontrollable factors compared to video game runs.

### **Q: What advice would you give to newcomers?**

> […] the best advice I can give is to not overthink it and start the process of researching past runs, combing through timetables, finding a fast route, and executing it. You’ll learn a lot over the course of the run, and if you continue to make attempts on the same or different system, your experience will carry you through.

### **Q: Is there a global transit speedrunning community?**

> Unfortunately, each metropolitan area kinda has its own community, and sometimes (like in the case of the USA), there may be some public but inactive communities on various social media platforms, banding together to try to record every attempt on every system to make sure nobody gets left out. However, because of this, there isn’t a network that connects all speedrunner hobbyists under one roof. Odds are, if you google '[system name] speedrun', ex. 'WMATA speedrun', multiple results will come up with past and current runners battling locally for the top spot.

### **Q: How do you see the future evolving, and what role do you hope to play in it?**

> My transit speedruns weren’t really intended to gain much recognition at all and were my way of advocating transit through a fun experience that I thought tied my past life with my new passion well. However, now that I’ve seemingly adopted a transit speedrunner title, I’m not going to stop what I’ve been doing; my realistic future goals would be to sweep the West Coast, including cities like Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and San Diego, as well as tackling some East Coast giants like Boston’s MBTA and DC’s WMATA. In the distant future, I hope to one day take my chance at titans like Tokyo and Shanghai. In general, though, my role in transit speedrunning has largely played out already; influencing people who may or may not have previously been transit enthusiasts to go out and try something similar, spreading advocacy for the fact that, yes, if you plan a transit trip well, it can be very efficient and cost-effective, and to hopefully project a better image for public transportation systems on the online world.

I think that’s a beautiful sentiment to end it on. Once again, a huge thank you to **Enzo** for his time. Make sure to check out **[his ](https://www.youtube.com/@CqtzYT)[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@CqtzYT)[ channel](https://www.youtube.com/@CqtzYT)** to watch his run through the LA metro system and to stay updated on future ones.

And you, dear reader, let me know in the comments or on the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**: have you been inspired to try this in your local city or town? If so, which one?

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-29)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about speedrunning real life public transit networks.


On Rails - The Gold Split #29

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #24

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about all about arbitrary awards to wrap up the year of speedrunning and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and recent TAS movie publications. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-24)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

After realising that anybody can give out any award for any reason, I thought: why not give it a shot? ***The Gold Split Speed Awards*** (working title) are guaranteed to be subjective and arbitrary.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of people, runs or other entities that do deserve to be mentioned here. I hope the list successfully showcases some of the high points of 2024 and makes it harder to forget them.

I consider myself to be immersed in the scene, but I definitely missed someone or something that should be featured here. Let me know in the comments below!

Next year I’ll plan further ahead and we’ll have a proper ceremony with trophies and booze. Definitely. But without further ado, let’s get into the categories!

## Speedrunner of the Year 🏆

There was never any doubt that this awards wouldn’t go to @Suigi . The entire speedrunning community has been tripping over each other while coming up with new superlatives to describe his most recent achievement, something that has never been done before: holding all five records in all five main categories for *Super Mario 64*. I, too, consider it to be among the greatest achievements in speedrunning history, ever. Nobody else came close this year. 🐐

Check out the main story in *[Week #21](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-21)* of *The Gold Split*, where I use fancy graphs and many more words to explain the when, how and why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP-GOoGqA8w

## Speedrun of the Year 🏆

@Summoningsalt is primarily known for their video essays on world record histories. But they’re also the best at *Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!*, holding impressive records in five of the game’s categories. This year, they achieved a huge improvement in the isolated final fight against *Mike Tyson* himself. It is by far the hardest one in the game and a good time does not only depend on dodging, ducking, and hitting frame-perfect punches, but also on randomness.

In June, @Summoningsalt **defeated *Mike Tyson* in 2:00.00**. This run improved the previous record by eight frames. This might not sound like much, but according to them, the luck necessary to get this time has a 1/6,000 chance of occurring. And even then, it’s still necessary to hit all 21 frame-perfect punches (each 1/60 of a second) and lose as few frames as possible while dodging and ducking.

It is as much about execution as it is about luck, and the persistence to put in tens of thousands of attempts over many years to achieve it deserves a special place here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_wvPExoOg8

## Glitch Discovery of the Year 🏆

I admit that there many other glitches this year that were potentially more impactful, saved more time, trivialised complicated sections, or changed speedruns entirely, but the award goes to the ***Disc 1 Skip* in *Final Fantasy VII***.

While it did also have huge implications for the speedrun, prompting major route changes and saving a good chunk of time, you may argue that it had an even bigger effect on the game’s story. By skipping from the end of *Midgar* straight to *Disc 2* the cutscene in which *Aerith* is killed by *Sepiroth* still plays, but she remains in the party and can be used throughout the rest of the run. I dare say that *Aerith’s* death is one of the most iconic ones in video game history. And the fact that this glitch saves *Aerith* and is actually useful in the speedrun at the same time makes it the winner in this category.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bANC9Nqdyf8

## Video Essay of the Year 🏆

In 2024, @Summoningsalt alone put out five high-quality long-form video essays, and it’s awesome to see the amount of content creators who put in so much effort to explain glitches, strategies, or the history of world records in any given game.

The award this year goes to the crazy scientist that brought you *Super Mario 64’s* parallel universes: ***[pannenkoek2012](https://www.youtube.com/@pannenkoek2012)***

Their **[lecture about invisible walls in ](https://youtu.be/YsXCVsDFiXA)*[Super Mario 64](https://youtu.be/YsXCVsDFiXA)*** not only captivates casual players and viewers, but it’s something even the most seasoned veterans of *Super Mario 64* speedrunning can still learn from. Outstanding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsXCVsDFiXA

## Speedrunning Game of the Year 🏆

For me, ***[Chained Together](https://www.speedrun.com/Chained_Together)*** is the best game for speedrunning released in 2024. It has everything you might look for in a tense run and more. Tough execution, high stakes, no downtime, and a good *Any%* runtime all contribute. In addition, the game’s coop feature is hilarious and it’s been a while since I’ve seen good coop speedruns from a new game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3s0STN7bb4

## Non-Video-Game Speedrun of the Year 🏆

In May 2024, ***[Baking](https://www.speedrun.com/IRL_Baking)*** was invented. More specifically, baking twelve chocolate chip cookies. As fast as possible. Popularised by streamer @QTCinderella, it quickly gained some traction on its leaderboards, but it took a few months for the ruleset to be well defined. Too many corners were cut to get ahead of the competition. By now, the recipe no longer containes quantities, just a set of mandatory ingredients, and each cookie must be measured and tested for quality control.

Nevertheless, applying the speedrunning formula to real-life tasks is hilarious to me and something every speedrunner can probably relate to. What do you mean by you’ve never tried to speedrun your shopping?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sO9cK2hWG0

## (New) Speedrunning Event of the Year 🏆

This was a tough category and I considered not including it. In order to avoid AGDQ or SGDQ taking the top spot on metrics every single time, I felt like I had to restrict it to events that newly arrived to the scene in 2024.

Amongst those, ***[Fast50](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOQLqxudEz9N4JcPpvniPlYHNqn1PkL6e)*** stands out to me. It broke with a lot of conventions, but in doing so it did an undeniably great job at bringing speedrunning to an almost entirely new audience. It successfully combined live speedruns with reaction content from popular streamers and raised $250,000+ for a good cause on top of being incredibly entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FLs_lPfvvY

## Non-Speedrun Achievement of the Year 🏆

Many feats of gaming excellence qualify for this category, but I can’t think of a better one than beating the (potentially) final milestone in a 35 year old classic: @dogplayingtetris**[ achieving ](https://youtu.be/fXhbti5SneE)*[Rebirth](https://youtu.be/fXhbti5SneE)*[ in NES ](https://youtu.be/fXhbti5SneE)*[Tetris](https://youtu.be/fXhbti5SneE)***.

*Rebirth* is considered the true end of *Tetris* happens when the player finishes level 255. The level counter rolls over and resets the speed and score multiplier. There are many challenges on the way there though. Starting at level 29, pieces come in at the maximum speed, and it is a long and tough battle to get all the way to 255. This is further aggravated by level 235, where the player needs to clear 810 lines to advance instead of 10 like on any other level. Additionally, after level 138, pieces start to no longer appear within the standard colour palette and are sometimes barely visible against the background. The entire run took @dogplayingtetris more than 80 minutes, clearing more than 3,300 lines, most of them at ridiculous speed.

The video below does a good job at putting this insane achievement into context and expanding on some of the intricacies that led to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z97tkKKlWA

## Top Dog of the Year 🏆

Shiba Inu ***Peanut Butter*** and his human @JSR_ entered the big speedrunning stage with a [remote speedrun of ](https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8)*[Gyromite](https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8)*[ at ](https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8)*[AGDQ 2024](https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8https://youtu.be/wwP5N44Lcd8)*.

At *SGDQ 2024*, it was then time for the literal stage. *Peanut Butter* showcased the speedrun for *Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB*, putting all that training and practice to the test, demonstrating nerves of steel and absolutely [knocking it out of the park](https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/1dvmobh/the_game_winner_from_best_boy_peanutbutter/). What a good dog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2FZKJ4QBdA

## Personal Quest to Perfection Award 🏆

This award solely exists because @Bubzia showed up every other week whenever I did research for *The Gold Split*, continuously pushing for more optimisation and better times in his blindfolded *Super Mario 64* speedruns.

Many thought the pinnacle was reached two years ago when he collected all 120 power stars blindfolded in 11 hours, 22 minutes and 43 seconds. But he was just getting started with optimising strategies and categories and has not stopped throughout the whole year. This would already be impressive, but is topped off by his showcase of *Super Mario 64 Randomizer* at *SGDQ 2024*, where @Bubzia was able to show off not only execution, but also the learning and memorisation elements of his blindfolded speedruns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfzOc97vYEk

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-19)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about arbitrary awards to wrap up the year of speedrunning.

The Gold Split Week #24: The Gold Split Speed Awards

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #13

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This ***Story of the Week*** is all about the new *Low%* route in *The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker* and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-13)**.

![](/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Story of the Week

Most of the time, new discoveries make a speedrun go faster and that makes sense. However, runners of the ***Low%*** category must feel a little bit anxious about them. The goal of *Low%* is to beat the game while completing the fewest objectives and acquiring the least number of items possible.

And in this reference frame, a new discovery could mean the obvious: saving time through a new trick or a route change. But it could also mean that another objective and/or item became redundant in order to beat the game and therefore needs to be eliminated. And only acquiring as few items as absolutely necessary is the ultimate requirement of *Low%*.

An infamous example of the lengths that *Low%* runners have to go to is *The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess*. It was found that the idle animation while picking up an item is missing a frame. And that missing frame moves Link ever so slightly in one direction while ignoring collision with anything. By picking up a rupee in a certain spot close to a closed gate or door, Link will very slowly start moving into it over the course of the next few hours. This strategy is called a *Rupee Slide* and takes up **over** **ten hours** of the game’s current *Low%* route. These images were taken from [Anorakkis' former record](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB26JegZ1Bo):

![Two screenshots from the game Twilight Princess side by side. The left shows Link in front of a door in the Rupee pickup animation, the right screenshot shows the same Link, but now slightly clipped inside the door after ten hours have passed](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F486bd9df-fef2-4a27-9379-449aa168aad7_3018x1026.jpeg)
Left: Before the Rupee Slide | Right: After the Rupee Slide

After that introduction, these are the news: let’s say (hypothetically), that it was assumed that nine items were absolutely necessary to beat a game and that it couldn’t be done with fewer. This run would take roughly one hour, not too different from *Any%*. But now, a new discovery makes one of these items redundant. It is now possible to finish the game with eight items. Even if that run is infinitely more complicated and takes **13 hours** to complete, it is now the new *Low%* standard and also the new record.

This is exactly what happened recently to ***The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker***, and so far Swiss speedrunner ***[Aloakirby](https://www.twitch.tv/aloakirby)*** is the only person to complete a run with the new route. It took them just a little over 20 hours, but the run also includes a good seven hours of healthy sleep.

The item that is now no longer necessary is *The Wind Waker*, a conductor's baton giving *Link* various powers when conducting the right songs, not too dissimilar from the *Ocarina of Time*. But more importantly, it was also used to set up glitches and make other tricks more consistent. This is a full list of items acquired during *Low%* now, at the time of writing:

- Bombs
- Bomb Bag (30)
- Deku Leaf
- Magic Meter
- Master Sword
- Hero's Shield
- Fully Charged Master Sword
- Mirror Shield

This makes the entire run way more complicated, longer, and reliant on RNG. Due to a lack of space and… well… knowledge, I can’t go into full details, but here are a few of the resulting consequences that stand out. I’ll link the speedrun after explaining the three glitches and add a timestamp for each of them.

### **All *Superswims* have to be performed manually**

Superswimming is the speedrunner’s preferred way to traverse the ocean. Simply put, it enables *Link* to swim backwards, and extremely fast. With *The Wind Waker*, players were able to perform a glitch called *Dry Storage*, making *Superswims* consistent and relatively easy to perform. But without this crucial item, they now have to set up each *Superswim* by using one of the following options, or a combination:

- Executing frame-perfect pause-buffering (pausing, unpausing, and immediately pausing again on the next frame) and changing *Link’s* direction on every pause
- Changing *Link’s* direction by 180° on every frame by flicking the joystick **30 times per second** (the game runs at 30 frames per second)

Performed in the run at: **[39:25](https://youtu.be/8T-42gsjGbQ?t=2365)**

Speedrunner ***[gymnast86](https://www.youtube.com/@gymnast86)*** has a great video on the evolution of the *Superswim*, and there’s no better time to watch it than right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o32bxtKtXxM

### The run now includes a 1-hour long *Zombie Hover*

A *Zombie Hover* allows *Link* to theoretically gain infinite height and also some horizontal movement, while having no health. This sounds great on paper, but there’s two downsides:

1. Unless *Link* manages to land in a loading zone or increase their health, they will just die as soon as they touch land or water.
2. It is necessary to hit the B-button many times per second throughout the entire duration. The faster you can hit that button, the more height you gain. If you don’t hit it fast enough, you lose height.

Despite being able to pause and take breaks, doing this for over an hour is incredibly physically demanding, and nothing any doctor would recommend as a workout. To make matters worse, at the end of this particular *Zombie Hover*, a frame-perfect trick is required to achieve the desired result. *Link* needs to land in the water to be teleported to the upper entrance of Forest Haven, but also needs to pick up a heart on land just before. But if *Link* touches the land before falling in the water, they aren’t teleported.

The way this is achieved is insane, but so cool: at the apex of the *Zombie Hover* and above the desired location, *Link* starts to fall. At exactly the right moment during the fall, they pull a bomb out of their pack and hold it above their head, which now starts its fuse. If this was done correctly, the bomb explodes after they pick up the heart lying on the ground below, but before they touch the ground. The force from the explosion pushes them into the water, teleporting them to the entrance.

Performed in the run between: **[1:11:10](https://youtu.be/8T-42gsjGbQ?t=4270) - [2:20:00](https://youtu.be/8T-42gsjGbQ?t=8400)**

### **Skipping Puppet Ganon is complete RNG**

I won’t pretend to fully understand this, but it involves a complicated *Zombie Hover* and dropping bombs into a pot from above while being attacked by *Puppet Ganon* and *Keese* at the same time. This skip alone took *Aloakirby* more than eight hours of attempts during their run.

Done successfully in the run at: **[9:26:00](https://youtu.be/GScAu8Iun8g?t=33960)**

This is a condensed version of the full run, shortened to two and a half hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hCFTA8Ddhg

But if you are actually curious about the entire run, you’ll find it on YouTube in two parts: **[Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T-42gsjGbQ)** | **[Part 2](https://youtu.be/GScAu8Iun8g)**

There is of course plenty of room for improvement. After all, the run still contains seven hours of sleeping and eight hours of attempts at skipping *Puppet Ganon*. An optimally performed run might only be three hours long. However, it’s very unlikely that many players will attempt to complete it using this route, considering how physically and mentally demanding it is.

Now, apparently it’s technically possible to beat the game with just seven items. But the glitches required to pull that off have been proven too inconsistent even for the most hardcore *RTA* runners out there. The tool-assisted speedrun even gets away with collecting only five items, and experience taught us that it’s only a matter of time until an *RTA*-viable route is found for seven and even less items, pushing the limits of *Low%* even further.

![](/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-13)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about the new Low% route in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

The Gold Split Newsletter #13 - Minimalist Link

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Fatzke

xo7qoy9l

Join the Discord server while you wait! https://discord.gg/VD8dEWSz

PEAK

The leaderboards will be opening at 8pm UK time on June 26th 2025. Happy Karting!

Mario Kart World

Leaderboard embargo to allow us to all enjoy the game and discuss rulesets for said categories! 

Cant wait to see everyones runs!! 