Hi Minish Cap discord,
I'm not a current MC speedrunner, but I was back in the late 2000s before the ocarina glitch was discovered, and I've been following runs since. As I'm sure you're aware, the new TAS just came out this week. In his submission text Tompa mentioned an ongoing search for a way to skip cloning Link to push the block in Palace of Winds, and that finishing the dungeon early could potentially lead to skips using Roc's Feather. How much aside from a trip to Elemental Sanctuary would be skippable if that was the case?
I'd greatly appreciate any insight from the community!
If you're looking for the widest audience and input possible, I'd recommend posting your question in the speedrunning discord:
It would skip a trip to the Elemental Sanctuary, the Moblin Fight in north hyrule field, and the Ezlo backstory cutscene that comes immediately after. I'm not exactly sure how much time it would save, but it would be quite a bit and is probably the biggest (reasonable) skip currently left in the run.
That said, afaik early cape wouldn't really offer anything. Theoretically if we could get the cape before entering crenel then we could do bootsless swamp trivially and get the Ocarina before Cave of Flames, letting us do a faster route there. However, in order to finish Palace we need either the cane or the ocarina (which would require cutscene OG) for a small key, as well as either the magic boomerang or the lamp for boss door clip, meaning we'd need to leave palace after getting the cape which I can't see ever being faster. The only other dungeon where cape could save time is in Deepwood, but fusing is locked behind beating Deepwood so that's impossible. Still, the extra sanctuary trip + cutscenes is a pretty big timesave on its own. Although it would require beating Gyorg without clones which is awful, so maybe don't find that ^^
So I know getting to Palace of Winds early wouldn't be possible without the Ocarina, which requires prior access to the swamp. Would the skip down from Mt. Crenel to reach Castor Wilds early still be possible without doing Cave of Flames first? Also, could bootsless swamp ever be possible without the cape? I considered the possibility of obtaining the remote bombs giving recoil to Link as he sinks, but discovered Temple of Droplets has to be completed first to do the requisite Kinstone fusion.
But that got me wondering, has anyone ever looked into using regular bombs to accomplish that? Like, have one bomb give Link an initial push into the swamp and another one as close as possible to the edge give a full impact from the furthest possible damage point? In theory, Link would get maximum push distance right as the sinking timer starts. Would that be enough to cross?
Regardless, it's amazing how far Minish Cap has come in terms of speedrunning. I remember when TSA was still alleged to have the world record, before even Ocarina glitch was discovered!
Would the skip down from Mt. Crenel to reach Castor Wilds early still be possible without doing Cave of Flames first?
Yes very much so, the potential low% route would go to crenel just to get the grip ring and the wind crest outside the dungeon before doing crenel clip and then skipping the boots to rush the things in swamp. We can do crenel clip by preserving the hot spring water and then using that bottle to get invulnerability.
Also, could bootsless swamp ever be possible without the cape?
but fusing is locked behind beating Deepwood so that's impossible.
Ok this is true for almost every fusion in the game except for 5, the ones in cloud tops. For some reason we can do these fusions without getting the kinstone bag which is normally what locks being able to fuse, and kinstone bag is in town which only exits the Festival state once you beat DWS.
This is done in the NG+ Reverse Dungeon Order run, we start the run by beating DHC, then we do an ocarina boost to get OG in Veil falls, do a respawn exploit off a dig cave entrance and climb veil falls without having beaten graveyard. From there we do cloud tops normally and beat palace, then continue to beat all other dungeons.
Thank you all for your insight! Now I see why the hunt goes on. It's a shame that Cave of Flames can't be skipped entirely, though. Any day now DHC early or ACE will be discovered in MC and we'll see sub hour times pop up!
