Randomizer Guide

Hello, everyone and welcome to the Twilight Princess Randomizer! On this page, we will explore the land of Hyrule, go over what is new to the randomizer, what is the same, the generation process, and any other miscellaneous bits of information that you need to know about the randomizer and this specific release.

The current version is: v1.0b. The latest version can be downloaded from the website!

The console window

There is an interactive console that can be accessed via

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+ File:ButtonIcon-GCN-Z.svg. The controls are as follows:

• Open or close the console using R+Z.
• Select a seed using the D-Pad.

Setup

The setup for 1.0 is very similar to the 0.X Beta in terms of the methods used, but the files and their usage have changed slightly. For 1.0, a typical memory card would look like the following:

• Randomizer.gci This is the bread and butter of it all. This file reads in the seed data file and applies all of the patches in-game. It can be downloaded here
• Rel_Loader.gci This is the same file that was used in previous betas. This is a save file that has the Rel Loader that is used to load the randomizer. You can either use the .gci file or the Gecko Code to load the Randomizer. Both can be found here.
• seedData.gci This file contains raw data created by the Generator that is read by the Randomizer file.

With 1.0, an external generator is used to generate seeds so they have to be loaded onto the memory card separately. There is no limit to the number of seeds you can have on your memory card at one time (as long as you have the space available).

The Regions of Hyrule

This section details the different areas around Hyrule and how they have changed in the Randomizer.

• Ordon Province
  • As with the original game, the adventure starts in Ordon Village, where not much has really changed from the previous beta. Players can choose to experience the fun and thrilling tale of the first three days of Ordon Village where Link rescues cradles, feeds a cat, and saves Talo, or skip it and start their quest a different way.
  • Even if the Prologue is skipped, you can buy the Slingshot from Sera's Shop.
• Faron Province
  • Faron Woods
    • After saving Talo during the prologue, to be able to leave the forest, the player must either complete the Forest Temple or have the Open Forest setting enabled. To enter the Forest Temple, the conditions for entry are the same as the vanilla game.
  • Lost Woods
    • To access the Lost Woods, you will need to obtain the Shadow Crystal to be able to jump around the trees of North Faron Woods to the entrance. Once you enter the woods, the chase begins! You will need to be able to track down and fight the Skull Kid if you wish to proceed. The first version of the Skull Kid chase is skipped in 1.0 so logically, this requires the Bow and Arrows.
  • Sacred Grove
    • Sacred Grove remains similar to the previous beta. If you wish to enter the Temple of Time, you must strike the master sword into the pedestal, which will remove the statue and allow you to enter.
    • If you find yourself in Sacred Grove without the Shadow Crystal, you can save warp to North Faron.
• Eldin Province
  • Kakariko Village/Graveyard
    • This is the same old dusty, mountainous village that we all remember. If you wish to donate to Malo Mart, then you will need to complete the Lanayru Twilight (because there’s no point in trying to do business in a Twilight-Covered land now is there?). The developers have also helped Barnes rebuild his bomb shop so you can buy bombs from him without needing to complete Goron Mines. There also lies a secret in the graveyard that you can uncover if you find a specific item. (See Custom/Special Items)
  • Death Mountain
    • The mountain is home to the Gorons. A tribe of large, rocky beings that will try to beat you up if you get too close. As with the original game, you will need the Iron Boots to throw the Gorons to the side and climb the mountain. Once you reach the top, you will need to defeat Gor Coron in a sumo match if you wish to enter the Goron Mines.
  • Hidden Village
    • The Hidden Village is the same as the vanilla game. To enter it, you need to collect the Wooden Statue. Once you gain access, the village contains shoot-outs, hide and seek, and remembering the world's longest howling song.
• Lanayru Province
  • Castle Town
    • Castle Town is the center of trade and commerce in Hyrule. With tons of minigames, shops, and a man who you can give your life savings to. Speaking of Charlo, as a slight quality of life change, you can now donate 100 or 50 rupees to him at a time instead of the normal 30 or 50. This should speed up the donation process a little.
  • Lake Hylia
    • On the waters of Lake Hylia, the chest at the top of flight by fowl has been replaced with a free-standing item. If you’re lucky, you can even get it to fall down from the platform. You can also use Bombs to enter the Lake Lantern Cave and uncover its secrets. If you ever get lonely, be sure to visit Auru on the tower. He seems like a nice guy. If you happen to find yourself in Lake Hylia during the twilight and are not a wolf or do not have the Shadow Crystal, then you can save warp and it will take you back to Hyrule Field.
  • Zoras Domain/Zoras River/Fishing Hole
    • While not much has happened in Zora’s Domain, the neighboring areas have some small changes that should be pointed out. For rescuing Iza, you can take a trip (or two) down to Lake Hylia (even if you save her as a wolf!). When you enter the Fishing Hole, you can go on an adventure with Hena to fish for the item that you see sparkling on the cliff in the middle of the pond or you can bring your own fishing rod to help clean up the environment.
• Desert Province
  • Gerudo Desert
    • To enter the Gerudo Desert, all you need is Auru’s Memo. Once you have it, you can show it to Fyer and use his cannon to travel. In the event that you do not have the Shadow Crystal to warp out, you can just save warp and the game will spawn you back at Lake Hylia, free to continue your adventure.
  • Bulblin Camp
    • The camp key check has been replaced with a freestanding item and the chests have been fixed to operate appropriately. Aside from that, not much has changed.
• Snowpeak Province
  • Upon entering the chilly mountainside, you will meet Ashei, who will give you an item as a kind gesture. If you wish to scale the mountain, however, you will need the Coral Earring to be able to catch a reekfish and get its scent.
  • In Glitched Logic, it is logical to use Map Glitch to bypass the blizzard, because of this, you can howl at the Howling Stone an infinite number of times.
• Forest Temple
  • Once you get all 4 monkeys, they won’t force you to go fight ook. Besides that, the dungeon is pretty much the same.
  • If you defeat Ook as wolf, the game will automatically transform you back into human to get the item.
  • If you defeat Diababa as wolf, the game will transform you back into a human as to not void out.
• Goron Mines
  • No notable changes.
• Lakebed Temple
  • No notable changes.
• Arbiters Grounds
  • No notable changes.
• Snowpeak Ruins
  • The bug where a BossFlag value greater than 0 would cause the suits of armor in the lobby to not spawn has been fixed.
• Temple of Time
  • No notable changes.
• City in the Sky
  • The bridge to the west wing is broken by default. Because of this, you logically (and literally) need the Double Clawshots to reach the west wing.
• Palace of Twilight
  • No notable changes.
• Hyrule Castle
  • No notable changes.

Check Types

The following is a brief overview of the different kinds of checks that take place in the randomizer and how they operate.

• Treasure Chests
  • Self explanatory. These are the items that you get from treasure chests.
• Event-Based Items
  • Items received from cutscenes or received from in-game events.
• Free-Standing Items
  • These are items that appear in the overworld. As of 1.0, the items render with the proper item model.
• Gifts from NPCs
  • These are items that are given by Non-Playable Characters (NPCs).
• Shop Items
  • Items that can be bought from shops. As of 1.0, the items render with the proper item model if the setting is enabled.
• Golden Bugs
  • In 1.0, the golden bugs are replaced with freestanding items. This means that you won’t have to chase them everywhere.
• Bug Rewards
  • Agitha gives a reward based on the bug that you give her.
    • If the setting to shuffle NPC Gifts is disabled, Agitha will work like in vanilla.
• Poes
  • Poes operate in a simple manner. You kill a poe, you get an item.
• Hidden SKills
  • To get the item, you will need to howl at the stone and then go complete the skill tutorial to receive it. By default, you will always start at the Shield Attack Tutorial to prevent a softlock and you will repeatedly do the Great Spin tutorial if you have all of the skills.
• Foolish Items
  • These are trick items that can be added into the item pool. If one is collected, then Link will take damage of some sort.

Generator Settings

This is a list of explanations for the options and settings found on the Generator. There are also tooltips on the site to provide more information as you select your settings.

• Logic Rules
  • Glitchless
    • Generates a seed that requires no glitches or hard to perform tricks to complete the game.
  • Glitched
    • Generates a seed that may require glitches and hard to perform tricks to complete the game.
  • No Logic
    • Randomly generates a seed-data file with items randomly placed in all locations.
• Hyrule Castle Requirements
  • Open
    • The barrier around Hyrule Castle is dispelled from the beginning. The player must still complete MDH or have the setting to skip it enabled.
  • Fused Shadows
    • The barrier around Hyrule Castle will be dispelled once the player has collected all Fused Shadows.
  • Mirror Shards
    • The barrier around Hyrule Castle will be dispelled once the player has collected all Mirror Shards. (Note: there are only 3 mirror shards in the pool since you technically already have the one in the desert.)
  • All Dungeons
    • The barrier around Hyrule Castle will be dispelled once the player has completed all Dungeons.
  • Vanilla
    • The barrier around Hyrule Castle will be dispelled once the player completes the Palace of Twilight.
• Palace of Twilight Requirements
  • Open
    • The mirror is assembled by default and the portal is activated.
  • Fused Shadows
    • The portal to the dungeon will activate once the player has collected all fused shadows.
  • Mirror Shards
    • The portal to the dungeon will activate once the player has collected all mirror shards.
  • Vanilla
    • The portal to the dungeon will activate once the player completes City in The Sky.
• Faron Woods Logic
  • Allows the player to leave the forest once Faron Twilight has been cleared. If disabled, the player must complete Forest Temple to leave the Woods.
• Golden Bugs
  • Adds the Golden Bug checks to the randomization pool. If unchecked, they will be Vanilla.
• Sky Characters
  • Adds the checks that require moving the Owl Statues in the overworld to obtain the characters into the randomization pool.
• Gifts From NPCs
  • Adds all checks where Link gets an item from an NPC to the randomization pool. If unchecked, the check will be vanilla.*
• Poes
  • Adds all Poe checks to the randomization pool. If unchecked, they will be Vanilla.
• Shop Items
  • Adds all checks that you can permanently buy from shops to the randomization pool. If unchecked, they will be Vanilla.
• Hidden Skills
  • Adds all checks where the player learns a hidden skill to the randomization pool. You start with the Shield Attack tutorial by default to prevent a softlock and will always finish with the Great Spin tutorial (even when you have all 7 skills).
• Small Keys
  • Vanilla
    • Small Keys will be placed in their original location.
  • Own Dungeon
    • Small Keys will only be randomized in their current dungeon (i.e you can only find a Forest Temple Small Key in the Forest Temple, but that location may not be vanilla.)
  • Any Dungeon
    • Small keys will be randomized between dungeons. (i.e you can find a Forest Temple Small Key in Goron Mines.)
  • Keysanity
    • Small keys will be randomized among all checks meaning that you can find them anywhere in the game.
  • Keysy
    • All small key locks are removed and the keys are removed from the item pool. The exception to this is the bulblin camp key, which the player will start with.
• Big Keys
  • Vanilla
    • Big Keys will be placed in their original location as the base game.
  • Own Dungeon
    • Big Keys will only be randomized in their current dungeon (i.e you can only find the Forest Temple Big Key in the Forest Temple, but that location may not be vanilla.)
  • Any Dungeon
    • Big Keys will be randomized between dungeons. (i.e you can find the Forest Temple Big Key in Goron Mines.)
  • Keysanity
    • Big Keys will be randomized among all checks meaning that you can find them anywhere in the game.
  • Keysy
    • All Big Key locks are removed and the keys are removed from the item pool.
• Maps and Compasses
  • Vanilla
    • Maps and Compasses will be placed in their original location as the base game.
  • Own Dungeon
    • Maps and Compasses will only be randomized in their current dungeon (i.e you can only find a Forest Temple Map/Compass in the Forest Temple, but that location may not be vanilla.)
  • Any Dungeon
    • Maps/Compasses will be randomized between dungeons. (i.e you can find a Forest Temple Map/Compass in Goron Mines.)
  • Anywhere
    • Maps/Compasses will be randomized among all checks meaning that you can find them anywhere in the game.
  • Start With
    • The player starts with all Maps/Compasses and the items are removed from the item pool.
• Excluded Checks
  • A list of all checks. Selecting an item in this list ensures that an important item won't be placed in the location. NOTE: Settings take priority, so if you exclude a check, but a setting requires the check to be vanilla, the check will be vanilla, whether it has an important item or not.
• Starting Inventory
  • A list of potential starting items. Selecting an item from this list adds a starting item for Link to begin his adventure with.
• Skip Prologue
  • Sets all of the flags for the first 3 days of Ordon that the player usually plays during the introduction of the game. If enabled, it will spawn the player into Day 3 of Ordon to go to the spring to get Epona from Ilia. If this setting is excluded, the Fishing Rod and Cat fishing checks are excluded and not accessible.
• Faron Twilight Cleared
  • If enabled, the necessary flags to complete Faron Twilight are set and the player does not have to complete it. If this setting is enabled, the Ordon Sword and Shield checks are excluded and are not accessible.
• Eldin Twilight Cleared
  • If enabled, the necessary flags to complete Eldin Twilight are set and the player does not have to complete it.
• Lanayru Twilight Cleared
  • If enabled, the necessary flags to complete Lanayru Twilight are set and the player does not have to complete it.
• Skip Midna's Desperate Hour
  • Sets all of the appropriate flags for Midna’s desperate hour to be completed. NOTE: The player cannot use midna on their back outside of twilight until MDH is completed as well as all of the twilights are cleared.
• Skip Minor Cutscenes
  • Sets all of the flags for all minor cutscenes and textboxes (random midna text, dungeon entrance CSs, rupee text, etc.)
• Fast Iron Boots
  • If enabled, the player is not slowed down when wearing Iron Boots or carrying the Ball and Chain.
• Quick Transform
  • If enabled, the player can instantly transform between Link and Wolf by pressing a specified combination of buttons. (Gamecube: R+Y)
• Unrequired Dungeons are Barren
  • If enabled, any dungeon that does not need to be completed to unlock Hyrule Castle will not contain any items required to complete the seed. Whether or not a dungeon is required is based on its reward/completion necessity.
• Transform Anywhere
  • If enabled, the player can transform in front of NPCs.
• Increase Wallet Capacity
  • Increases the player’s wallet capacity from 300,600,1000 to 1000,5000,9999 respectively.
• Shop Models Shop The Replaced Item
  • If enabled, the model of the item replacing the shop item will display in the shop, if disabled, the check will still be randomized, but you will not know what the item is until you purchase it.
• Foolish Item Frequency
  • None
    • There are no foolish items in the item pool.
  • Few
    • There is a small chance that foolish items can appear in the item pool.
  • Many
    • There is an increased chance that foolish items can appear in the item pool.
  • Mayhem
    • More than half of the junk items in the item pool are foolish items.
  • Nightmare
    • All of the junk items in the item pool are foolish items.
• Mines Does Not Require Wrestling
  • If checked, the player does not have to wrestle Gor Coron to enter the dungeon.
• Lakebed Does Not Require Water Bombs
  • If checked, the rock blocking the entrance to Lakebed Temple will be gone.
• Arbiters Does Not Require Bulblin Camp
  • If checked, the player does not have to defeat King Bulblin to enter Arbiters Grounds (this removes the Bulblin Camp Key from the item pool)
• Snowpeak Does Not Require Reekfish Scent
  • If checked then the player does not need to catch a reekfish to go through the blizzard.
• Temple of Time Does Not Require Sword or Grove
  • If checked, the portal to Sacred Grove will be given, the player will not have to fight Skull Kid, and the stairs to the dungeon are active.
• City Does Not Require Filled Skybook
  • If checked, then the Sky Cannon is automatically warped to Lake Hylia once Lanayru Twilight is Complete. (removes the sky characters and books from the item pool)
• Hero's Tunic Cap Color
  • Changes the color of the cap of the Green Hero's Tunic.
• Hero's Tunic Torso Color
  • Changes the color of the area of the Hero's Tunic above the belt.
• Hero's Tunic Waist Color
  • Changes the color of the area of the Hero's Tunic below the belt.
• Zora Armor Cap Color
  • Changes the color of the cap of the Zora Armor.
• Zora Armor Helmet Color
  • Changes the color of the helmet of the Zora Armor.
• Zora Armor Torso Color
  • Changes the color of the torso armor part of the Zora Armor. (the part that is normally blue.)
• Zora Armor Scales Color
  • Changes the color of the scales on the Zora Armor.
• Zora Armor Flippers Color
  • Changes the color of the Flippers of the Zora Armor.
• Lantern Glow Color
  • Changes both the color of the light sphere of the Lantern as well as the color of the light emitted from the lantern.
• Heart Color
  • Changes the color of the heart meter in the top left corner of the screen.
• A Button Color
  • Changes the color of the A button on the HUD.
• B Button Color
  • Changes the color of the B button on the HUD.
• X Button Color
  • Changes the color of the X button on the HUD.
• Y Button Color
  • Changes the color of the Y button on the HUD.
• Z Button Color
  • Changes the color of the Z button on the HUD.
• Randomize Background Music
  • Off
    • All background music is vanilla.
  • Overworld
    • Only overworld music is randomized.
  • Dungeon
    • Only dungeon music is randomized.
  • All
    • All music is randomized.
• Randomize Fanfares
  • Randomizes the various fanfares that play when you complete events in the game. (complete a tast, catch a fish, get an item)
• Disable Enemy Background Music
  • Disables the music that plays when you fight an enemy.

Custom/Special Items

Below is a list of custom items or items whose functionality has changed in the Randomizer enough that it needs to be noted down.

• Shadow Crystal
  • When obtained, this item allows the player to transform at will. To get Midna on Link’s back, the player needs to clear all twilights and Midna’s Desperate Hour or have the settings to skip them enabled.
• Powered Dominion Rod
• Shadow Crystal
  • This is the second item in the Dominion Rod progression chain that allows the Dominion Rod to be used in the present.
• Filled Skybook
  • Once the Sky Book is completed, the Sky Cannon is repaired and waiting at the lake to take the player to the City in the Sky.
• Big Wallet
  • Once obtained, the icon next to the rupee counter turns red.
• Giant Wallet
  • Once obtained, the icon next to the rupee counter turns purple.
• Gate Keys
  • These are the keys that the player usually gets from defeating King Bulblin during the escort mission. Once obtained, the gates to Kakariko Village and the Lanayru Province are unlocked in Hyrule Field. Also, Rutella will be waiting for the player in the graveyard to give them an item.
• Foolish Item
  • Foolish Items, or Ice Traps as they are commonly referred to, are items that freeze the player and do damage to them once obtained. The idea for this item came from the Ocarina of Time Randomizer.
• Bomb Bags/Giant Bomb Bag
  • The bomb bags are no longer progressive and can be found in any order (there is no real difference between the three bags you get from Barnes, Iza, and the Goron) Note: The giant bomb bag does not give the player the ability to use bombs, it just increases the amount of bombs that the player can cary whenever they do have the ability to use bombs.

Additions/Quality of Life Changes

Below are a list of major notable mechanics/changes that are available to the player in the Randomizer.

• Time of Day Change
  • Once the player has the Shadow Crystal, they can press Z to talk to Midna where they will have an option to change the time of day. If the stage has a time flow (time passes normally) then the time of day will immediately change. If there is no time flow, then the area will reload to set the proper time.
• Item Wheel Collection Screen
  • At any time, you can open up the item wheel and press Z or Start to open up the Collection Screen. On this screen you will see useful information about your current playthrough such as current key count, mirror shard/dungeon reward count, seed number, etc.
• Required Dungeons
  • Read the sign outside of Link’s house to find out which dungeons are needed to complete the seed!
• Fast Tears of Light
  • If you choose to not skip the twilights for any of the regions, a patch has been implemented that spawns the tears on the ground and reduces the collection timer, allowing them to be collected instantly.
• Permanent Reekfish Pathing
  • Once the player has caught the Reekfish for the first time, the scent path through the blizzard in Snowpeak will always show, even if the player does not have the Reekfish Scent anymore.
• Skippable Cutscenes are Auto-Skipped
  • As the title implies, the randomizer automatically skips all cutscenes that are skippable. This is to prevent crashes caused by being the wrong form in a cutscene. Examples of this include the Shadow Beast cutscene during Faron Twilight and the Interlopers Cutscene after Lanayru Twilight.
• Custom Text Uses System Language
  • There is a fair amount of custom text in the game that was added by the randomizer developers. With the help of our translators, we have translated all of the custom text to support the different languages that the vanilla game uses. This means if you encounter custom text and are playing in German, the text will be in German.

Logic and Randomization

The randomizer uses an assumed fill algorithm (more info can be found here: https://github.com/cjohnson57/RandomizerAlgorithms/blob/master/Paper/Paper.pdf) to place items. In short, it assumes that the player has all items and removes the items one at a time until there are no more items left to place. The randomizer also uses sphere based logic to place items, meaning that items are placed in dynamic layers called spheres where an item in a lower sphere cannot require an item from a higher sphere.

• How is this different from the layered logic that the old beta used?
  • Layers are static, meaning that the same checks were in the same layer all the time and the same items were required to progress to the next layer. Spheres are dynamic and can have a different checks in them based on the items in the current and previous spheres.

Known issues/softlocks

As the randomizer is still just a wee baby right now, you have to expect some issues in its current state. This is a list of known issues.

• With a certain combination of skips on its possible to enter the Prince Ralis escort sequence in wolf form and it will not be possible to complete the sequence without resetting/powering off the game.

For the most part, it's safest to get every check in every location before doing a major event (such as beating a dungeon). That will keep you safe from most current and future issues.

FAQ

Q: Are there any trackers for this randomizer?

A: Yes. There are 2 trackers in fact! Lunar Soap's tracker has a map and is more frequently updated, while Taka's tracker is good if you just care about marking off the items. Note that the trackers are not updated as frequently as the randomizer is, so they may lack some features.

Shows the location of each of the 3 mist chests

Q: Are glitches required?

A: No.

Q: I can't find the 3rd mist chest. I swear I looked everywhere!

A: It gets us all... until we see the image to the right ->

Q: Is Master Sword in the item pool/randomized?

A: Yes, and so is the Shadow Crystal (the item getting Master Sword gives you in vanilla that allows transforming/warping). Both Master Sword and Crystal are separate items, and are therefore randomized separately as well.

Q: Why is this randomizer so annoying to set up?!? I'm mad!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!

A: Calm your tits. It's very early stages of the randomizer, so a lot is still influx at the moment. If you want to play randomizer, you gotta do the setup. Otherwise, you're free to wait awhile for a better way to be made.

Q: Why is this not more like x randomizer??

A: Twilight Princess is a different beast. Every game has their quirks and TP is no exception. It's also much less developed than many other randomizers in its current state (got its start in mid 2019)

Q: Can I use a premade savefile that's after goats/fishing because I really hate the beginning stuff?

A: Yes, but be sure you didn't use any randomized checks yet. And you have to enable randomization with R+Start inside the console to start it! The ideal spot to be is save after the cat steals your fish. When you load up that file, you can go straight into the shop and get 2 checks in the first 10 seconds.

Q: Does disabling the `rando enabled?` option and getting a few vanilla checks, then turning it back on, have a chance to break anything?

A: It could, depending on what those randomized checks were. Let's say you turned off rando, talked to Coro and he gave you Lantern (vanilla). Turn it back on and you won't get that check. But what if that check was Ball & Chain for example? You'd lose out on Ball & Chain forever.

Q: Can I read?

A: If you've made it this far, the odds are in your favor!

I can't find an item! Help!!!!!

If you can't find an item, the first step is to use Item Search (see section `Using the Item Search` for info!). If you verified that you checked all locations in that area (or if for some reason, search doesn't work as it should), it could very well be a bug. Here's what you can do to help diagnose it:

In page 3 of the console, look at the `Function`, `Source`, and `Dest` values.

• If Function, Source, and Dest did not change for this item, that means it wasn't randomized due to devs not knowing the trigger that gets called for that item
• If Source does not contain some -> and the Dest line says no replacement found for this source, it means the item check wasn't found, which could mean:
  • The item check is absent from the code, or
  • It could be in the code, but with incorrect data
• If Source looks something like F_SP08->5->7 and the Dest says No replacement here, it means the item check was found and already collected, which could mean:
  • The trigger for getting the item might have been fired more than once
  • There could be a problem with the logic
• If source and dest look like F_SP08->5->7, then the item check was randomized properly, so the item should be in the world

If you can't find the item and any of the above happen, make sure you're on the latest version of the randomizer. Check at the top-right of the console window to see something like v0.14a © AECX. That number after the v is the version number. Check out the Official GitHub to download the latest release!

You can also join the Discord server for TP Randomizer here!

Miscellaneous

If you're playing the randomizer on the Dolphin emulator, you may find this guide useful. It has tips on lag reduction, how to use the recommended GCI folder and more.