ALTTPR Swordless Mode: Hammer, Medallion Pads and Ganon

A Link to the Past has a swordless speedrun category, and its rules let you leave Ganon alive. The Major Glitches All Dungeons (Swordless) board on speedrun.com says Ganon "does not need to be killed", because killing him without a sword is "not possible". On the original cartridge, that holds up.

The A Link to the Past Randomizer's Swordless mode does not give you that exit. It takes the swords out of the item pool and then patches the game so a seed can still be finished: the Magic Hammer picks up three of the sword's jobs, two curtains start the game already open, and the medallions get pads to stand on. Our ALTTPR beginner guide never reaches the Swords setting, and the Inverted and Retro guides cover world states. Swordless is a weapon setting, so it sits on top of a world state rather than replacing one.

Most of what follows comes from three places, the same kinds those guides used. One is alttpr.com: the options page and the update notes. One is the generator's source code on GitHub, which holds the logic rules a seed is filled against. The last is the base ROM patch the generator applies, which is where the game itself gets changed. When this guide says "the logic", it means those No Glitches rules for the Open and Standard world states. Inverted keeps its own rule files, and its Ganon rule is worded differently, so check it separately.

What Swordless changes

The options page lists four values for the Swords setting: Randomized, Assured, Vanilla and Swordless. Randomized shuffles all four Progressive Swords into the game. Swordless, in the page's words, removes all swords from the game and replaces them with 20 rupees.

Under the hood, the generator flips one switch in its ROM writer. Swordless turns on three flags in the base patch, one that lets the Hammer hurt Ganon, one that limits medallions to their pads and one that lets the Hammer read tablets, and it pre-opens the two curtains in the starting save data. The same save data writes 0xFF into the sword slot, a value the patch's file-select code labels as swordless.

The item pool changes in two directions. Every sword the pool would have held becomes a 20-rupee pickup. The bows go the other way: the options page says both Progressive Bows are always in the pool, and if a pool would still come up short of silver arrows, the generator adds a Silver Arrows upgrade as a progression item. On Retro, the take-any cave that would hold a sword holds 300 rupees instead.

The Hammer takes over from the sword

If one item defines a Swordless seed, it is the Magic Hammer. It does three of the sword's jobs outright.

• Agahnim's Tower. The options page says the bat barrier outside the tower can be broken with the Hammer. The logic's entry rule swaps the Master Sword for the Hammer: the Cape or the Hammer, plus something that kills most enemies. The Hammer counts for that second part too, so it opens the door on its own.
• The Ether and Bombos tablets. Both want the Book of Mudora and the Hammer. In the base patch, the tablet check reads the Hammer as if it were the Master Sword. You still have to reach each tablet the usual way. The Ether tablet's rule includes whatever gets you to Tower of Hera, and the Bombos tablet is a Mirror trip from the south Dark World.
• Ganon. The options page says Ganon can be damaged with the Hammer, and the logic will not count him as beatable without it. That gets its own section below.

It also carries a lot of the boss list. Moldorm has no other answer in Swordless, Trinexx needs it on top of both rods, and most of the other bosses list it as one option. Get the Hammer early.

Two curtains start the seed already open

Agahnim's Tower and Skull Woods each have a curtain that would normally need a sword. The options page says both are already open in Swordless. The generator handles it in the starting save data: Swordless calls one routine, documented in the source as setting the curtains open in swordless, and it marks both curtain rooms as already opened before you load the file.

The logic follows suit. In a seed with swords, the rule for Skull Woods' boss asks for a sword on top of the Fire Rod, the Moon Pearl, three small keys and whatever beats the boss. Swordless drops the sword from that list and keeps the rest, so Skull Woods still wants the Fire Rod.

Medallions only work on their pads

The options page sets out the rule. Medallions can only be used to open Misery Mire and Turtle Rock, or to progress through Ice Palace, and they only work where their emblems indicate.

The base patch makes that literal. Its medallion check lets a cast through in five spots:

Anywhere else, the patch hands the game your sword slot, which holds no sword, and the cast does not happen. No medallion is a weapon you can fire wherever you like any more.

The medallion each door wants is drawn at random when the seed is generated: one of Ether, Bombos or Quake for Misery Mire, and another draw for Turtle Rock. In Swordless, the logic asks only for that medallion at the door.

Ice Palace is where the pads matter. The logic needs a way to melt things before it lets you into the dungeon: the Fire Rod, or Bombos. In a sword seed, Bombos only counts with a sword. In Swordless it counts on its own, and a comment in the generator says that melt check should only be used where the Bombos pads are. One of the three pads is in Kholdstare's room. With boss shuffle on, Swordless pins Kholdstare to Ice Palace and keeps him out of every other boss slot, including the three in Ganon's Tower.

Agahnim falls to the Hammer or the Net

Agahnim's fight is a reflection fight: he throws magic, and you hit it back. Zelda Wiki's Bug Net page says the net can knock his blasts back at him, though Link swings it slower than a Spin Attack, so the timing is tighter.

The logic uses both items. To clear Agahnim's Tower in Swordless, it wants the tower's two small keys, the Lamp, and either the Hammer or the Bug-Catching Net. The second Agahnim, at the top of Ganon's Tower, takes a sword, the Hammer or the Net in every mode.

If the Hammer is late, the Net and the Cape can stand in for it at the first Agahnim. The tower door still wants a weapon the logic trusts against its enemies: the Hammer, a bow, the Fire Rod, the Cane of Somaria, or the Cane of Byrna backed by extra magic. Bombs do not count at this door.

What each boss asks for without a sword

The generator keeps one rule per boss, and with boss shuffle on, a boss takes its rule to whatever dungeon it lands in. Below are all twelve entries in its boss list, read for a Swordless seed, with the two Agahnim fights sharing a row. How each fight actually plays is in our boss guide. This table is only what the generator will accept.

Two notes on the wording. "A bow" means either Progressive Bow; on Retro it also needs the Rupee Quiver. Magic is counted in bars: your meter is one bar, Half Magic makes it two, and each bottle adds one more refill of whatever your meter holds. Two bars is Half Magic or one bottle. Three is Half Magic and a bottle, or two bottles. Four is Half Magic and a bottle, or three bottles. That is on Normal item functionality. On Hard and Expert, the options page has potions refilling 50% and 25% of the meter, and the logic counts bottles for less.

Three rows deserve a second look. Moldorm takes a sword or the Hammer and nothing else, so in Swordless the Hammer is the whole answer, at Tower of Hera or wherever boss shuffle sends him. Helmasaur King needs a bow on both placements, because his rule's damage clause lists only swords and arrows. And Mothula's Golden Bee route gets narrower: the generator's bee rule wants the Net, a bottle, and either the Pegasus Boots or a sword with Quake, so in Swordless it is the Boots or nothing. Our bottles guide covers where the Golden Bee comes from.

Ganon needs the Hammer, the silvers and a fire source

Start with why the speedrun rule is right about the original game. When Link swings the Hammer, the game's hit check throws the swing away before it reaches any sprite numbered 0xD6 or higher, and Ganon's two sprite entries are 0xD6 and 0xD7. The zelda3 decompilation shows that check line for line.

The randomizer's base patch hooks that exact instruction, under a comment that reads Hammerable Ganon. With that flag set, which Swordless does, the cut-off moves to 0xD8 and Ganon falls inside the range the Hammer can hit. A Hammer hit is then worked out like any other. The decompilation files it under damage class 3, the same class as a Tempered Sword slash, and our damage guide covers that class from the vanilla side.

The logic still wants more than the Hammer. A comment in the generator's world setup reads "In swordless mode silvers are 100% required", and the Ganon rule follows it on both item placements. It asks for:

• The Hammer.
• The silver arrows, meaning both Progressive Bows, or a bow plus the Silver Arrows upgrade.
• The Lamp or the Fire Rod, for the torches. The v31.0.4 update notes record this fire-source requirement being added for Swordless.
• The usual endgame: the Moon Pearl, whatever the goal itself demands (seven crystals on the default Defeat Ganon goal), and Agahnim's second defeat unless the goal is Fast Ganon or Ganonhunt.

That is stricter than a sword seed on Advanced placement, where the Retro guide's Ganon rows show the logic asking for no bow at all. In Swordless, any goal that ends at Ganon needs the silvers.

The pool is built to cover it. Both Progressive Bows are always in it. On Hard and Expert, which stop at the plain Bow in a sword seed, the options page lists silver arrows as the maximum bow in Swordless, and the v31.0.3 notes fixed a bug that left them out of Swordless seeds on Hard-or-harder pools. If you still reach Ganon without them, read his phase-three line. When you lack the silvers, the generator rewrites it to ask whether you found the arrows in a named region, the region where a bow sits, or in "My tower" if that bow is in Ganon's Tower. The v31.2.1 notes are the latest fix to that hint.

Basic placement still checks your health

Basic item placement holds dungeons back until you look ready, and in a sword seed part of looking ready is the sword. Palace of Darkness, Swamp Palace, Skull Woods and Thieves' Town want any sword, plus hearts and a bottle. Ice Palace, Misery Mire, Turtle Rock and Ganon's Tower want the Master Sword, plus more hearts and either two bottles or a mail upgrade.

Swordless deletes the sword half of each of those checks and keeps the rest. The generator still waits on your hearts and bottles before it sends you into the Dark World dungeons on Basic. The boss rules work the same way. Arrghus, Blind and Trinexx lose their Basic sword clauses outright. Mothula, Kholdstare and Vitreous keep a Basic extra, and it becomes the Fire Rod with magic or a bow.

Everything else we have written about the game, including the vanilla item locations a Swordless router still leans on, is on the A Link to the Past coverage hub. The vanilla swordless category and its records are in our speedrun guide.

Quick Action Checklist

• Hunt the Magic Hammer first. It opens Agahnim's Tower, reads both tablets, beats Moldorm and finishes the Trinexx rule, and Ganon's rule names it.
• Use the Cape and the Net if the Hammer is late. The Cape gets you past the barrier as long as you also carry a weapon the logic trusts at the door, and the Net handles Agahnim.
• Bring the Book of Mudora and the Hammer to both tablets.
• Learn the five medallion spots: the Misery Mire door, the Turtle Rock door, and three Bombos pads in Ice Palace. Nowhere else.
• Bring the Fire Rod or Bombos to Ice Palace. Either one gets you in; Bombos only works on its pads.
• Expect Kholdstare in Ice Palace even with boss shuffle on.
• Carry a bow to Helmasaur King. In Swordless his rule wants arrows on both placements.
• Do not walk into Ganon short. The logic wants the Hammer, both bows or a bow plus the silver upgrade, and the Lamp or the Fire Rod.
• Read Ganon's phase-three line if you arrive without silvers. It names a region where a bow sits.
• On Basic, keep your hearts and bottles up. The generator still checks them before the Dark World dungeons.