Hints

Hints are messages that can be found in game that provide information to the player about the seed they are currently playing. These hints allow the player to make informed decisions about their playthrough and assist them in their routing. Some hints are vague, some are direct, and some are just there to pass along fun information. For a detailed explanation of hints, you can check out isaac's video here.

Hint Signs/Locations

There are 35 custom signs that have been placed around Hyrule to assist the player along their way. Along with those, some in-game signs have been modified to provide information relevant to the Check(s) associated with the area.

Zone	Description	Image
Ordon	Next to the gate outside Link's House
Faron Woods	On the ledge behind the scarecrow near Coro's House
Faron Field	Underneath the wooden bridge
Sacred Grove	On the wall next to the doors that lead to the past. This zone includes the Sacred Grove, Lost Woods, and the "past area" (once you take the doors to the past but before you enter the actual Temple of Time dungeon).
Death Mountain	In the volcano area overlooking the Gorons
Eldin Field	Next to the wooden bridge that leads to Kakariko Gorge. The divide between "Eldin Field" and "North Eldin" is the middle of the Bridge of Eldin (the stone bridge which gets its middle section warped away in the vanilla game). The southern Phasmid check and Owl Statue chest are part of Eldin Field, and the northern Phasmid check and Sky Character check are part of North Eldin.
North Eldin	On the ledge to the north of the rocks that lead to Lanayru Field. The divide between "Eldin Field" and "North Eldin" is the middle of the Bridge of Eldin (the stone bridge which gets its middle section warped away in the vanilla game). The southern Phasmid check and Owl Statue chest are part of Eldin Field, and the northern Phasmid check and Sky Character check are part of North Eldin.
Kakariko Gorge	Along the fence that is to the north of the Owl Statue
Kakariko Village	In the hot spring that is above the Elde Inn
Kakariko Graveyard	Behind King Zora's Grave
Hidden Village	By the fence near the Howling Stone
Beside Castle Town	On the stone ledge where the Golden Wolf sits. This is the area to the west of Castle Town (east for Wii). The Poe on the far side of Castle Town is not part of this zone (belongs to Castle Town).
Castle Town	In the central plaza in front of the fountain. This zone includes the poe on the bridge outside the east exit (west for Wii).
South of Castle Town	In front of the fountain
Great Bridge of Hylia	On the ledge with hanging vines above the Owl Statue
Lake Hylia	Near Falbi in the Flight By Fowl House
Lake Lantern Cave	At the halfway point near the light that allows you to leave the area
Lanayru Spring	Underwater between the two small chests
Lanayru Field	Along the fence on the north side of the field near the entrance to Zora's Domain. The Spinner Alley chest is part of Lanayru Field.
Zora's Domain	In the alcove above the entrance to Snowpeak Mountain
Upper Zora's River	On the far side of Hena's house
Gerudo Desert	At the end of a long ledge near the central gate before the Bulblin campfire. This zone continues until you hit the screen transition to Bulblin Camp.
Bulblin Camp	In the northern corner opposite the roasted boar
Cave of Ordeals	On the 1F ledge as soon as you enter
Snowpeak Mountain	On the far side of the frozen lake near the blizzard
Forest Temple	In the central hub, it is next to the door that has the webs in front of it.
Goron Mines	In Gor Ebizo's room before the miniboss
Lakebed Temple	On the lower west path outside the main room (east for Wii)
Arbiter's Grounds	In front of the Poe Gate in the central room.
Snowpeak Ruins	In the hearth room near Yeta
Temple of Time	In the entrance room near Ooccoo
Temple of Time	After the Beamos moving walls room. This is a special sign only used for Beyond This Point hints. If the Beyond This Point hint for Temple of Time is not enabled, this sign will have a filler hint.
City in the Sky	In the central room near the door leading to the miniboss wing of the dungeon
Palace of Twilight	In the entrance of the dungeon near the platform to the second wing
Hyrule Castle	In front of the tall statue at the start of the dungeon

Hint Types

Location Hint

This hint lists the contents of a specific check.

• "They say that the reward for Faron Field Bridge Chest is the Spinner"

Item Hint

This hint tells what area an item is located in.

• "They say that a sword can be found in Lakebed Temple."
• "They say that the Gale Boomerang can be found in Eldin Province."

Barren Hint

This hint indicates a zone that does not have any useful items.

• "They say that there is nothing to be found in the Forest Temple"

Way of the Hero Hint

This hint indicates a zone that contains a Check that is logically required to complete the seed.

• "They say that Kakariko Gorge is on the way of the hero"

Path Hint

A more precise version of WotH hints. Indicates an area that contains a check that is logically needed in order to accomplish a goal.

• "They say that Sacred Grove is on the path to Diababa"
• Note anything that is on the path to Hyrule Castle is not path to the main dungeon bosses.
• Anything that is path to Ganondorf is not path to the main dungeon bosses or Hyrule Castle

Path hints can also be "Item to Item" in which an item is path to another item

• "They say that a Clawshot is on the path to Zora Armor"
• NOTE: If an item is on the path to another item and there are multiple ways to get the second item, you can deduce that other methods that can be used to get that check are locked behind the contents of that check or its path item.
  • Example: If Clawshot is on the path to Zora Armor and the Zora Armor is on Eldin Field Female Phasmid, which can be gotten with a Clawshot or the Boomerang, you can logically deduce that the Boomerang is somehow locked behind either Clawshot or Zora Armor.

Number Hint

Indicates how many of an item can be found in an area

• "They say that 2 swords can be found in Lanayru Province

Trade Chain Hint

Indicates a specified trade item leads to a target item

• "They say that the Male Beetle at Snowpeak Mountain leads to the Hyrule Castle Big Key"

Trade Group Hint

Indicates something about a group of trade items.

• "They say that bringing female bugs to Agitha leads to nothing.

Junk Hint

Does not indicate anything meaningful and are mostly included for fun.

• "They say that staring at rupees will take you places you never thought possible!"

Beyond This Point Hint

Indicates whether or not there are any useful items beyond the sign.

• "Nothing beyond this point"
• "Something good beyond this point"

NOTE: when big keys or small keys are set to "Own_Dungeon", this hint ignores those keys when indicating if useful items are beyond that point.

Agitha Rewards

Tells any good rewards Agitha can give. These can be viewed on the sign outside Agitha's castle.

• "Please bring golden bugs you find to Agitha's Castle. I'll share a GREAT happiness with you: Sword, Hyrule Castle Big Key"

If Agitha does not reward any Good items, then the following will be on her sign with purple text:

• "Please bring golden bugs you find to Agitha's Castle. And tell them the princess awaits!"

Jovani Rewards

Tells the rewards given by Jovani for returning the Poe Souls. Can be viewed on the sign outside Jovani's House.

• "20 souls reward: Orange Rupee (not required)"

NOTE: If the Jovani reward checks are all excluded or if no rewards are hinted by the hint distribution, it will display the vanilla text.

Always Hint

Based on hint distribution, these hints are guaranteed to list the contents of specified checks no matter what.

Sometimes Hint

Based on hint distribution, these are location hints that are randomly selected from a pool of checks to hint.

Big Key Hint

If enabled by the hint distribution, when big keys are set to Kensanity or Any Dungeon, a dungeon's sign will have a hint indicating where its big key is:

• "They say that the Forest Temple big key can be found at Lake Hylia." (on FT Sign)
• "They say that the Male Beetle at Snowpeak Mountain leads to the Hyrule Castle big key." (on HC Sign)

Self Hints

Certain checks/NPCs list the contents of their items when interacting with/near them.

• Barnes tells you what item he sells when you try to buy the bomb bag check.
• Charlo will tell you what item he rewards when you talk to him (before donating).
• The Fishing Hole sign by the bottle pond will tell you what you can catch in the pond for the Empty Bottle check.
• Shops indicate the item you can buy. If "Shop Models Show The Replaced Item" is disabled then the text is vanilla.
  • As of Version 1.2, Barnes is considered a shop check.

Hint Overlapping

Most hints are generated such that they do not overlap each other. For example, if Goron Springwater Rush is an Always Hint and you find a hint elsewhere that says that Eldin Field is on the Way of the Hero, it can be deduced that the WotH Hint is not directing towards Goron Springwater Rush as that check's contents are already hinted by the Always Hint. NOTE: for Item to Item Path hints, the hint directs towards all copies of the source item and target item. So item names that show up in the hint are not directed towards other hint types.

• Example: if Clawshot is path to Lantern and Lanayru Spring is path to Argorok, you know that the item in Lanayru Spring that is on the path to Argorok is not a Clawshot or a Lantern since the Item to Item Path hint directs toward all checks rewarding those items.
• Note: Self Hints such as Charlo do not direct toward checks. You are simply able to walk up to the check and view the contents. You could compare this to viewing items in shops or golden bug checks.
• Note: Number Hints do not direct toward any checks, and they still count checks that have been directed toward. For example, if you have the hints "Plumm rewards a sword" and "there are 2 swords in Lanayru Province", then the Plumm reward is one of those 2 swords in Lanayru Province.

Hint Zones

Hint zones are often referenced by hints and refer to the logical area that contains the check(s) referenced. Each Check belongs to exactly one Zone. Hint zones are not inclusive of other zones and are directly independent of one another. For example, if a hint says `They say that there is nothing to be found in Faron Woods.`, this does not apply to the Forest Temple or Sacred Grove as they are different zones. Some zone boundaries are direct, but others may have boundaries that players are not familiar with (i.e the boundary between Eldin Field and North Eldin Field is the middle of the Bridge of Eldin, so the Owl Statue Chest is considered Eldin Field, but the Owl Statue Sky Character is considered North Eldin Field). Below are a list of checks that technically take place in more than one location and hint zones they belong to:

• Goron Springwater Rush is considered to be in the Eldin Field zone
• Both Iza checks are considered part of Upper Zora's River
• Plumm's Fruit Balloon Minigame is considered Lake Hylia

Also note the following:

• East Castle Town Bridge Poe is considered part of Castle Town
• Snowpeak Mountain is the overworld zone, and Snowpeak Ruins is the dungeon zone. Snowpeak Mountain belongs to Peak Province and Snowpeak Ruins belongs to the "Dungeons" province.
• Agitha's Castle is its own zone which is different from Castle Town. Both zones belong to Lanayru Province.

Here is an image containing some of the zone boundaries. Note that it does NOT contain all zones (for example, Lake Hylia is not present. Interior zones such as Lanayru Spring, Lake Lantern Cave, and Agitha's Castle are also missing).

Hint Provinces

Sometimes a hint will reference a Province (such as Lanayru Province) instead of a Zone. Each Zone belongs to exactly one Province. Since each check belongs to exactly one Zone, each check also belongs to exactly one Province. For Overworld zones, you can confirm the Province by viewing the world map in-game.

Zones by Province

• Ordona Province (1)
  • Ordon
• Faron Province (3)
  • Faron Field
  • Faron Woods
  • Sacred Grove
• Eldin Province (7)
  • Death Mountain
  • Eldin Field
  • Hidden Village
  • Kakariko Gorge
  • Kakariko Graveyard
  • Kakariko Village
  • North Eldin
• Lanayru Province (11)
  • Agitha's Castle
  • Beside Castle Town
  • Castle Town
  • Great Bridge of Hylia
  • Lake Hylia
  • Lake Lantern Cave
  • Lanayru Field
  • Lanayru Spring
  • South of Castle Town
  • Upper Zora's River
  • Zora's Domain
• Desert Province (3)
  • Bulblin Camp
  • Gerudo Desert
  • Cave of Ordeals
• Peak Province (1)
  • Snowpeak Mountain
• Dungeons (9)
  • Forest Temple
  • Goron Mines
  • Lakebed Temple
  • Arbiter's Grounds
  • Snowpeak Ruins
  • Temple of Time
  • City in the Sky
  • Palace of Twilight
  • Hyrule Castle

Check Categories

In race distributions, you may get hints which reference Check Categories. These are groups of checks which do not have to respect zone boundaries.

Check Category	Description	Checks List
Purple Mist (5)	Checks in Faron Woods which are locked behind using the Lantern in the Purple Mist. 3 chests in the mist room and 2 chests in the cave behind the mist.	"Faron Mist Cave Lantern Chest", "Faron Mist Cave Open Chest", "Faron Mist North Chest", "Faron Mist South Chest", "Faron Mist Stump Chest"
Owl Statues (15)	All checks which are locked behind moving Owl Statues. 2 checks at each of the 6 Sky Character spots. 2 checks when you first enter the Temple of Time past area (1 is a poe). Also 1 chest in Hyrule Castle.	"Sacred Grove Past Owl Statue Chest", "Sacred Grove Temple of Time Owl Statue Poe", "Faron Woods Owl Statue Chest", "Faron Woods Owl Statue Sky Character", "Kakariko Gorge Owl Statue Chest", "Kakariko Gorge Owl Statue Sky Character", "Bridge of Eldin Owl Statue Chest", "Bridge of Eldin Owl Statue Sky Character", "Hyrule Field Amphitheater Owl Statue Chest", "Hyrule Field Amphitheater Owl Statue Sky Character", "Lake Hylia Bridge Owl Statue Chest", "Lake Hylia Bridge Owl Statue Sky Character", "Gerudo Desert Owl Statue Chest", "Gerudo Desert Owl Statue Sky Character", "Hyrule Castle Graveyard Owl Statue Chest"
2 Lantern Chests in Lake Lantern Cave (2)	The 2 chests in Lake Lantern Cave which are hard-locked behind using the Lantern.	"Lake Lantern Cave Sixth Chest", "Lake Lantern Cave End Lantern Chest"
Underwater (16)	Checks which are located underwater. These require using the Iron Boots, and you could drown if you just stood there without Zora Armor.	"Eldin Spring Underwater Chest", "Lanayru Field Behind Gate Underwater Chest", "Lake Hylia Underwater Chest", "Lanayru Spring Underwater Left Chest", "Lanayru Spring Underwater Right Chest", "Zoras Domain Extinguish All Torches Chest", "Zoras Domain Light All Torches Chest", "Zoras Domain Underwater Goron", "Goron Mines Crystal Switch Room Underwater Chest", "Goron Mines Outside Underwater Chest", "Lakebed Temple Before Deku Toad Underwater Left Chest", "Lakebed Temple Before Deku Toad Underwater Right Chest", "Lakebed Temple Central Room Spire Chest", "Lakebed Temple West Second Floor Southwest Underwater Chest", "City in The Sky Underwater East Chest", "City in The Sky Underwater West Chest"
Southern Desert (12)	The first half of the Gerudo Desert zone where you land when you take the cannon in Lake Hylia. This is the upper level before you jump down to the circular area with the Bulblins and the campfire. It is the southern part of the Gerudo Desert zone on the map.	"Gerudo Desert East Canyon Chest", "Gerudo Desert East Poe", "Gerudo Desert Female Dayfly", "Gerudo Desert Lone Small Chest", "Gerudo Desert Male Dayfly", "Gerudo Desert Owl Statue Chest", "Gerudo Desert Owl Statue Sky Character", "Gerudo Desert Peahat Ledge Chest", "Gerudo Desert Poe Above Cave of Ordeals", "Gerudo Desert Skulltula Grotto Chest", "Gerudo Desert South Chest Behind Wooden Gates", "Gerudo Desert West Canyon Chest"
Northern Desert (10)	The second half of the Gerudo Desert zone. This is the lower level you jump down to. It contains the Bulblins at the campfire, and it continues up until you enter the Bulblin Camp zone. It is shaped kind of like a circle in the north half of the Gerudo Desert zone on the map.	"Gerudo Desert Campfire East Chest", "Gerudo Desert Campfire North Chest", "Gerudo Desert Campfire West Chest", "Gerudo Desert North Peahat Poe", "Gerudo Desert North Small Chest Before Bulblin Camp", "Gerudo Desert Northeast Chest Behind Gates", "Gerudo Desert Northwest Chest Behind Gates", "Gerudo Desert Rock Grotto First Poe", "Gerudo Desert Rock Grotto Lantern Chest", "Gerudo Desert Rock Grotto Second Poe"
Grottos (24)	All checks which are located within grottos. Grottos are entered by digging into circular patches as Wolf.	"Ordon Ranch Grotto Lantern Chest", "Sacred Grove Baba Serpent Grotto Chest", "Faron Field Corner Grotto Left Chest", "Faron Field Corner Grotto Rear Chest", "Faron Field Corner Grotto Right Chest", "Eldin Field Bomskit Grotto Lantern Chest", "Eldin Field Bomskit Grotto Left Chest", "Eldin Field Water Bomb Fish Grotto Chest", "Eldin Field Stalfos Grotto Left Small Chest", "Eldin Field Stalfos Grotto Right Small Chest", "Eldin Field Stalfos Grotto Stalfos Chest", "Lanayru Field Poe Grotto Left Poe", "Lanayru Field Poe Grotto Right Poe", "Lanayru Field Skulltula Grotto Chest", "West Hyrule Field Helmasaur Grotto Chest", "Outside South Castle Town Tektite Grotto Chest", "Lake Hylia Bridge Bubble Grotto Chest", "Lake Hylia Shell Blade Grotto Chest", "Lake Hylia Water Toadpoli Grotto Chest", "Gerudo Desert Rock Grotto First Poe", "Gerudo Desert Rock Grotto Lantern Chest", "Gerudo Desert Rock Grotto Second Poe", "Gerudo Desert Skulltula Grotto Chest", "Snowpeak Freezard Grotto Chest"
Golden Wolf (7)	All of the Golden Wolf checks.	"Faron Woods Golden Wolf", "Gerudo Desert Golden Wolf", "Kakariko Graveyard Golden Wolf", "North Castle Town Golden Wolf", "Ordon Spring Golden Wolf", "Outside South Castle Town Golden Wolf", "West Hyrule Field Golden Wolf"

Here is how the northern and southern desert are split: