Swordless Link

[mzxrules]

Document Swordless Link related stuff here please.

[nathanisbored]

Are we talking swordless as in "blank B", or swordless as in no MS in the inventory? I'll assume the first one.

You start the game swordless (duh). Easiest way to test swordless stuff as child is to skip the kokiri sword. Dying (or various other events) will always blank out the B button at this point.

Dimming the B button with blank B (swordless) causes it to stay dimmed. Climbing a ladder, entering a crawlspace, mounting a horse or other actions that would normally dim the C buttons will not do so if the B button is already dimmed. This means unrestricted items if you swap the items, though the climbing and crawling animations are not viable for using items regardless of the dim state of the buttons. With climbing, you can do Down A however, to unrestrict items. Using items while on Epona can have weird side effects since the only item you are normally allowed to use on Epona is the bow. Items that cause mini-CSs can cause Remote Control Epona (RCE), and using FW on epona during a loading zone will cause you to fall oob as you use it(?). Hookshot/longshot on Epona will stick to things without pulling you, and you can then dismount to levitate.

Can't cast fishing rod while swordless (likely because of dim-B). The rod still shows up in Link's hand (though not in both hands), since it's attached to his character model during the minigame (also why it's invisible outside the pond).

Playing the slingshot minigame while swordless shows blank B during the minigame, although the slingshot still functions normally when you press B (possibly because you are already in first person mode). Also the rest of the HUD is visible during the minigame. idk if the archery minigame is like this too? EDIT: Bombchu bowling does this too.

Once you equip a sword from the pause menu manually, a flag is set to indicate that you have equipped a sword before. It's worth noting that the item you have on B is stored separately from which sword slot is highlighted, which is also stored separately from this flag. This means you can have a sword slot highlighted even if this flag is not set, or you don't have a sword on B(?). After this flag is set, dying, running out an item timer, getting caught by guards, or savewarping without a sword item (kokiri, MS, BGS/giants knife, broken sword) on B will restore temporary B (although dying (and savewarping?)* sets temp B back to 0 after restoring (and before restoring if B is blank), so it will always restore stick on 2nd death unless you respawn in water after the death (water dims B which makes temp B 255, so you end up with blank)).

Swordless as Adult is a bit more tricky, since you always start adult with MS on B. Through normal gameplay, you only lose your sword again during the ganon fight. If you become adult without setting the swordEquipped flag, MS will be highlighted in the inventory and on B, but the flag will stay untouched.

Leaving ingo's minigame while B is blank (from mounting a horse) will not restore MS if the swordEquipped flag is not set. This is the fastest way to become swordless as adult. Dying without the swordEquipped flag set with a non-sword item on B but a sword item in Temp B will restore temp B. If there is not a sword item in temp B, temp B will not be restored and you will instead have blank. This means if you want to stay swordless after death at this point, you should enter water to set temp B to 255, otherwise it will still be set to MS from mounting the horse. Dying also sets temp B to 0, even if it doesn't restore it, and strangely, entering Ingo's game with blank B will always restore temp B. This is the fastest way to get stick on B as adult. (mount horse to blank B, leave ingo's game while on horse to keep blank B, enter water to change temp B, die to clear temp B, enter ingo's minigame to restore temp B).

Pausing with fishing rod on B outside the fishing pond will also restore temp B. Since entering water will set temp B to 255, you can pause while in water to become swordless. This is the second fastest way to become swordless as adult, and you can have the swordEquipped flag set for it.

Going back and forth through time with blank B will activate Adult Reset, whether or not you have MS in the inventory.

Entering the ganon fight will do the following**:
-Blank B
-un-highlight sword slot
-reverse bit for MS (if you have it in inventory before the CS, you won't after. If you don't have it before, you will)
-un-set the swordEquipped flag if it is set

Dying during the ganon fight whether swordless or not will always put MS in inv and put it on B (and highlight it in inv). This is true for all rooms in Ganon's Tower post-ganondorf death.

Saving without MS in the inventory on 1.0 will not restore MS either to B or in the inventory. Also because the swordEquipped flag has been un-set, savewarping during the ganon fight without a sword item on B on 1.0 will give blank B. This was the original method to become swordless as adult outside the ganon fight. To get the MS back into the inventory on 1.0, simply go back and forth through time(?).

On 1.1 and 1.2, saving as adult without MS in inventory will always put MS in inventory AND on B. This means in order to become swordless from the ganon fight, you must OI to warp away(?) unless you came into the fight without MS initially.

SwordlessLink is also a TASer and notable member of the community.

*I've heard that on 1.0, selecting no to continue on the Game Over screen, will not clear temp B, which means you can transfer temp B to another save file. This may not be true, and I'm pretty sure it's not true for 1.2 at least.

**Supersliding into the Ganon fight will prevent this(?)

[nathanisbored]

One more thing I forgot, pausing with fishing rod on B outside the fishing pond while in water after the swordEquipped flag has been set will permanently dim the entire HUD until the next time you pause or climb a ladder. Pausing or climbing will fix the HUD, but it will be messed up again if you go through a loading zone.

The reason for this is that apparently, the dimming on the C buttons while swimming/underwater is separate from the standard dim appearance (item that is restricted in certain areas, C buttons while climbing/crawling). In fact, it even has a slightly different tint. If you perma-dim the HUD and a equip FW or something that's normally restricted, you can see FW's C has a slightly darker tint than the other C buttons.

This HUD water dimming effect seems to completely aesthetic and does not effect whether or not you can use items.

EDIT: Okay, apparently I was misremembering exactly how this worked, so I tested it some more.

Anytime you have blank B while the swordEquipped flag is set, the following will happen:
-Entering a loading zone will make the entire HUD transparent. This transparency is completely unrelated to regular dimming and even has a different tint. It is purely aesthetic and doesn't affect gameplay.
-Pausing will fix your hearts, magic and C-buttons, but will always make the action icon transparent.
-Entering and leaving water will fix your hearts, magic, and action icon, but will always make your C-buttons transparent.
-Climbing a ladder (and I imagine crawlspaces and maybe mounting a horse) will completely fix your HUD.
These effects do not go away unless you un-set the swordEquipped flag (possible by entering the Ganon fight). Of course, it will also go away if you change the item on B (either die to restore stick or just re-equip your sword or something).

[nathanisbored]

Mounting Epona with blank B without the swordEquipped flag set outside of Ingo's game screws with the HUD. When you dismount, your HUD doesn't reset, so you still only see the B button and action icon on screen, as if you were still riding Epona. Items still work and everything, it's purely graphical. Using a bottle item or entering water (and probably other actions) will fix the HUD. Climbing a ladder will not fix it surpringly, but you will be able to see Navi's C-up prompt appear while you're climbing strangely.

I also completely forgot to mention how to get swordless using RCE (Acryte method). If you activate RCE by dying (with a fairy) on the same frame you mount Epona, then enter water with iron boots to dim the B button, and then press A to mount Epona again, Link will mount her while B is still dimmed, which stores 255 to temp B. When you dismount, temp B is restored, which puts 255 on B, making you swordless.