The Legend of Zelda Glitch Allows Speedrunners to Beat Game in Under an Hour
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has recently been discovered to have a game-breaking glitch that allows players to teleport directly to the final boss, cutting the completion time down to under an hour for speedrunners.
This glitch, which enables the protagonist Zelda to skip to the final dungeon of Echoes of Wisdom, bypasses the majority of the game’s content on the Nintendo Switch.
The speedrunning community for Zelda has quickly embraced this glitch, leading to significantly faster completion times. However, the longevity of this exploit remains uncertain.
Exploiting the Glitch
Reddit user xIceblue detailed the glitch in a post, explaining how players can warp from after the first dungeon to the final dungeon, effectively bypassing a large portion of the game. By leveraging this method, players can overcome the softlock and proceed to the final area with only four hearts.
The exploit involves manipulating the game’s Echo ability by dropping signposts on top of trees, causing multiple menus to overlap. This unintended behavior allows users to access the world map and drop Zelda near the game’s finale.
It is important to note that if you wish to avoid spoilers, refrain from watching footage of the glitch in action.
Speedrun Achievements
Zelda speedrunner Onaku has already completed an “any%” run of the game in just 52 minutes on Twitch (available on YouTube), with plans to further reduce the completion time to under 50 minutes.
It will be intriguing to observe whether Nintendo addresses this glitch in a future update to maintain the integrity of the game.
“Thanks to playful puzzles and an imaginative reinvention of Hyrule’s historic iconography, Echoes of Wisdom emerges as a bold and creative new chapter in Zelda’s legend,” praised Katharine in Eurogamer’s review of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.