The Gold Split - Week #47: A New Breeze
Week #47 (July 3): Wind Waker on Switch 2; Uncharted; San Andreas; Metroid Dread; Quake; OSRS; Frame Fatales; GTA VI; RPG Maker; Event News
Happy Week #47!
It’s been a hectic few weeks and a while since I was last able to write a story or an article myself. While the last seven days haven’t exactly been calm either and most of them too warm, I wanted to bring those back and at least write something short. This week, we’ll be talking about how The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker runs on the Switch 2 and how it’s changing speedruns of the game.
Contents
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 cover, go ahead and submit them here or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Story of the Week ✨
The Nintendo Switch 2 launched with three GameCube titles exclusively for Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers, and one of the most beloved and popular 3D Zelda games is among them: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
These games effectively run on an emulator, and that comes with a few upsides and downsides. But not only does the much more performant hardware of the Switch 2 make a sizeable difference, the games themselves seem to have changed slightly. And in the case of The Wind Waker, these updates enable new glitches and result in other oddities the community is currently investigating.
The Good
One of the main advantages of the Switch 2 version of The Wind Waker is that the game runs completely smoothly, and loading times have been vastly improved. And if we’d stop there, I’m sure everybody would appreciate that. But there’s more!
While in dungeons, only the room that contains Link is loaded, and when transitioning through doors the game loads a new room and removes the old one from memory. But in many 3D Zelda games, all rooms in a dungeon still have collision, even when they’re not loaded. This allows players to safely enter them without having to resort to doors by skipping out of bounds.
In The Wind Waker however, these unloaded rooms don’t have collision. Link can’t enter them, because they would simply fall into the void and be teleported back to the room they started in.
One object that retains its collision are chests. Link can skip out of bounds, land on an invisible chest in another room and then… be stuck there. This has been known for a long time, just like the fact that playing the Song of Passing in that situation would crash the game. Here is a demonstration by TrogWW:
On the Switch 2 emulated version of the game however, playing this song will instead trigger a reload of the current room, and Link finds themselves on the same chest within the same room, except that it is now loaded. The community called this one Dungeon Chest Reload, for obvious reasons. This allows runners to skip the majority of a dungeon in some cases and go almost straight to the boss. Not only that, but it also means that dungeons no longer have to be completed in the intended order. The possibilities for routing are vast, but as of right now, no new optimised route for this version of the game has emerged. Here is a demonstration of the glitch by EJ125:
The other big change is a huge win for accessibility. One of the main glitches in The Wind Waker that you will have definitely seen if you’ve watched any speedruns of the game is the Superswim. It results in Link swimming extremely fast backwards and is used for pretty much all sea travel in the run. In order to build a Superswim, usually a complicated glitch called Storage is performed before and limits the places in which a Superswim can be started.
However, another option exists: the manual Superswim. It requires either frame-perfect pause-buffering for several minutes or manually flicking the analogue stick up and down at a speed of at least 20 times per second. It’s very difficult. But thanks to the Switch 2 natively allowing players to rebind the controller inputss, even going as far as being able to map analogue stick inputs to buttons.
By binding up on the stick to one of buttons, players can achieve Superswims by carefully holding the stick down and quickly pressing the button they had rebound earlier. Every time the button is pressed, Link changes directions and will build up speed as long as the button is being pressed fast enough. And the best thing is that this can be done anywhere and at any time. Linkus7 performs a great demonstration in his latest video:
The Bad & The Ugly
In the second paragraph, I did mention a few downsides… for one, the Tingle Tuner doesn’t exist. It’s an item that - in combination with a Game Boy Advance connected to the GameCube - can enable quite a few glitches, which suddenly ceased to exist.
If this was the only downside, faster loading times, the addition of Dungeon Chest Reload and the accessibility of the manual Superswim might still be enough to convince many players to switch to this version. But what might be the nail in the coffin for most of them is the very noticeable input delay. Many people have reported more than five frames of delay between the input and any action on the screen. And for speedruns, in which precise inputs make all the difference, and for speedrunners, who rely on these inputs to perform glitches and execute fights, this can be a dealbreaker.
The Unknown
As of right now, no speedruns in any of the major categories for The Wind Waker have been performed on the Switch 2 and submitted to the leaderboards. Whether that is because the community is still working on the new route through the game or because of the hesitancy to switch to a platform with noticeable input delay… I can’t say. But ultimately, it’s only a matter of time before the first runs are completed on the system. And who knows? Maybe Nintendo will actually provide a patch and improve the situation. Speedruns are still extremely niche and the company isn’t exactly known for enabling this subculture, but it’s still in their best interest that players have a good time when playing one of the most iconic 3D Zelda games.
Up to Speed ⚡️
🕵️♂️ 14-Year-Old Uncharted Glitch Mystery Cracked (28-minute video)
Uncharted speedrunners Mattmatt and ThrillUK have collaboratively solved a glitch mystery in Uncharted 2 that first appeared 14 years ago during Awesome Games Done Quick 2011. Together, they were able to discover the precise inputs needed to consistently trigger the glitch and further refined its execution. Thanks to their work, entirely new routing options have opened up.
☠️ San Andreas’ Hitless Challenge Completed In 7 Hours (426-minute video)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas speedrunner GoingTotallyHam has completed a deathless run of the game using the One-Hit Knockout mod. In this environment, taking a single point of damage from any source results in death. This achievement is comparable to the popular “hitless” challenges in Soulslike games, where players aim to complete the game without being hit. It took GoingTotallyHam just over seven hours, but many failed attempts, to complete this achievement.
🆕 Metroid Dread Leaderboards Include Switch 2 (Leaderboard Update)
The Metroid Dread moderation team has announced that runs performed on the Nintendo Switch 2 will be included on the same leaderboard as the original Switch, tracked as a variable. Furthermore, the team is exploring the implementation of load-removed timing to mitigate differences in loading speeds between hardware and digital and physical versions.
🎞️ Quake Done Quickest 2 (Cinematic Version) (20-minute video)
Quake done Quickest 2 is a segmented speedrun created over the course of more than two years by the Quake community and performed on the hardest difficulty. It was released on December 29th, 2024, and improves upon its predecessor from 2011 by 69 seconds (nice). This cinematic version of the speedrun was created by Quake legend Joe and lets you watch Quakeguy from various different angles and with more slow motion than ever before. Tasteful electronic music complements the gameplay and makes it a seriously awesome production. Check it out!
🕰️ Analysis Reveals Downtime in 3D Zelda Speedruns (49-minute video)
Zelda speedrunner bewildebeest has crunched the numbers and analysed the downtime in many categories of all 3D Zelda games. Downtime is broadly defined as time when the player can’t lose any time, most often during unskippable cutscenes. The amount of time this downtime takes up ranged from 22% of the entire speedrun all the way up to 60% and is generally higher in glitchless runs. A link to a spreadsheet with all the data presented can be found in the description of the video.
🔥 The 10-Hour Ultimate Ironman Fire Cape Speedrun (37-minute video)
Back at the start of 2022, Old School RuneScape content creator Settled set out on a quest to acquire the Fire Cape1 on the Ultimate Ironman mode as fast as possible. Back then, it took them over 34 hours and the resulting speedrun was quickly improved upon by other players in the coming months. Three years later, Settled has reclaimed the record with a time of 10 hours and 33 minutes. The video outlines the challenge as well as the strategies and execution needed to complete this goal in such a short time. A few setbacks along the way mean that the 10-hour mark is now within reach.
Briefly
📣 Flame Fatales 2025 Schedule Now Live (Schedule)
The all-women-and-femmes speedrunning event has revealed its showcase line-up for their event in September!📜 GTA IV Speedrun Rules Overhauled for 2025 (7-minute read)
New rules cap FPS at 120 for Top 10 runs, require visible FPS/loadless timers, and enforce clean starts to level the playing field.⚔️ Two New Ocarina of Time Speedrun Categories Join Main Leaderboard (1-minute read)
"Classic Kakariko Route" and "Nocturne RTA" are now official categories.🛠️ Speedrunners Turned RPG Maker Into A PS1 Memory Card Editor (10-minute video)
⚙️ Portal 2 SAR Update Improves Timer HUD, Clarifies Precision Rules (2-minute read)
Version 1.14.2 adds HUD and ghost sync upgrades, among other things.🦁 Madagascar 2 Speedruns Get Automatic Loads Remover (1-minute read)
PC speedruns of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa will be simplified by automatically removed load times.🎡 Happy Wheels Racing League Returns for 2025 Season (1-minute read)
Community-driven racing event kicks off June 28 with a new level and a prize pool.
Event News 📅
🏁 Finished
Nostalgiathon: Anniversary Edition raised $2,355 for St. Jude
Licenseathon 2025 raised $1,000+ for the Transgender Law Center
⏱️ Running
Until July 5th: ESA Summer 2025 (Schedule), benefiting Alzheimerfonden
🔜 Upcoming
Starts July 6th: Summer Games Done Quick 2025 (Schedule), benefiting Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
This Week’s Top Times 🏆
🥇 First Place
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Defeat Ganon: Classic Kakariko Route) in 00:15:16.000 by Torje (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubePortal (Out of Bounds: PC) in 00:05:26.009 by wyrnicus (He/Him, They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Any%: Normal Mode) in 00:22:57.000 by MoldyMeatballs
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Super Mario 3D World: Any%) in 01:22:42.000 by Xylex (She/Her)
VideoQuiplash 2 InterLASHional (Bad Ending) in 00:02:02.382 by tuah (They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeBioShock (Any%: PC) in 00:22:33.000 by KPCzombie
Video • Twitch • YouTubeDark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (Any%: Restricted) in 00:51:28.000 by FujoHoraire
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSly 3: Honor Among Thieves (Any%) in 05:47:34.000 by Baconman12 (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeNintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Legendary Trial) in 00:19:58.380 by ramunesakusan
Video • Twitch
🥈 Second Place
Celeste (Any%) in 00:25:03.819 by P3RL (Any/All)
Video • TwitchGetting Over It With Bennett Foddy (Glitchless) in 00:00:59.777 by Tendou_Kisara
VideoFallout (Any%) in 00:05:04.000 by Mort
VideoThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Any%: PC) in 00:04:49.201 by EmpressValla (She/Her)
Video
🥉 Third Place
Portal 2 (Single Player: No SLA) in 00:55:23.949 by madin
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Mario 64 (120 Star: N64) in 01:35:42.000 by Karin
Video • TwitchSuper Mario Maker 2 (Endless Mode: Easy) in 00:09:52.000 by Keiichi (He/Him, They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeOuter Wilds (Any%: PC, Normal) in 00:07:18.689 by Because_im_lulu (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
Social Choice 🔝
The r/speedrun choice of the week is… Thorebane’s massive wall of information about Summer Games Done Quick 2025. You’ll find the basics there, all the necessary links and some fun facts as well!
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, July 10th 2025. 👋🏻
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One of the best capes in the game and an item many players struggle to acquire. Clearing a skill-intensive dungeon is needed to get the drop.