The community has generated a lot community terms for things, most of which have been compiled on this glossary
. Several of these are Ascended Memes, either being mentioned in the spoiler logs or as a Credits Gag in the seeds they appear in.
- Arrow of Destiny: The single arrow found in a chest. There is only one of these in the entire game, meaning that it is described in the hints as a "unique item", which is technically correct - the best kind of correct. Of course, it's also a massive troll for players who were expecting something better. The "Arrow of Destiny" meme comes from the idea of this single arrow becoming the one to deliver the killing blow to Ganon (even though it probably won't). See also "Validation Arrow".
- BK Mode: When a player in the multiworld has nothing else to do since all of their progressions are waiting to be found in someone else's seed. Short for the American fast food chain Burger King, which is where one of the early testers wound up going while stuck in this state. Humorously, the Discord server for the SMZ3 multiworld uses the Burger King logo for its server icon.
- Blue Balls: So named for Agahnim's unreflectable attack, a projectile composed of multiple blue balls. Thus wasting time and blue-balling the runner in more ways than one.
- Blue Goo: Nickname for the Blue Potions you receive from the Witch. It refills both your hearts and magic meter, which is preferable to guzzling red and green potions (sometimes referred to as "Green Goo" or "Mountain Dew").
- Blueberries: Nickname for the three bombs item. The sprite is supposed to represent a bushel of bombs, but it more closely resembles fruit.
- Blumerang and Redmerang: Nicknames for the Boomerang and Magic Boomerang. These are coveted items because they can be used to snatch loot from across rooms and hit switches without a delay. The Redmerang has a longer reach, but it also has a bad habit of causing this game to lag, limiting its usefulness in a race.
- Bob: An Anti-Fairy in the room before the Armos Knights in Ganon's Tower who sometimes appears in a glitched state (patched in SMZ3 due to having more severe consequences). The torch in the room below the western staircase in the Ganon's Tower lobby is likewise called "Bob's Torch", because whether Bob appears in his glitched state is apparently related to whether you have collected the item that appears on his torch.
- Bonk Rocks: Piles of white stones that require Link to Dash into them to break ("bonking" into them). Specifically, the one West of the Sanctuary, that hides a chest.
- Breadsmiths/Bakers: The dwarves who give you the Tempered Sword, so named because they look like they're hammering away at a French bread loaf. Likewise, their "Bread Sword" got its name from a people mishearing “red sword” as “bread sword” and continuing to call it that, to better complement the Butter Sword. Other names for the sword include the "Flamin’ Hot Cheeto Sword" and the "Bacon Sword."
- Butter Sword: The Golden Sword, which is really more canary yellow than gold and looks much more like a stick of butter than anything sword-shaped.
- Cabbages: The green rocks that fall from Death Mountain, so named for their color and shape.
- Casual Boots: This setting starts Link off with the Pegasus Boots to save time. Some items and dungeons can potentially be "bootslocked", meaning that they require the boots to reach. The boots are also crucial or outright required for several glitches, which means that a lot of players who run glitched or "no logic" settings may start themselves off with the boots for the sake of averting frustration.
- Cave 45: The cave south of the Haunted Grove which can only be reached with the Mirror. A popular map collection which labeled caves by number identified this one as the 45th, and the name stuck as the cave doesn't have any other suitably concise identifier.
- Coffee Break Room: The tile room in Tower of Hera, named for what players frequently partake in when they're forced to go through it. (Link is immune to damage when standing on top of a raised switch tile.)
- Criss Cross: The mixture of crossed entrance shuffle and crossed dungeon shuffle, by far the most popular combination for door randomizer races. (Once crossed overworld shuffle can be added to the mix, that will inevitably be called "criss cross applesauce".)
- The D: The Bow, which happens to be facing right when Link first holds it up.
- Dark World Shopping Mall: A site in the Dark World which contains the Ice Rod Cave in the Light World. Evidently named for the plethora of shops found there during a particular entrance randomizer tournament. Unless a player is really desperate to find progressions, this is usually only seen in entrance randomizers or the Super Metroid combo randomizer. (There's a cave to and from Maridia there.)
- Escape: The first Hyrule Castle dungeon, done at the very beginning of the game in a vanilla run or Standard seed, where the player rescues Zelda and the two of them flee through the sewers to the Sanctuary. Used to distinguish it from Hyrule Castle Tower, which is usually just referred to as "Aga" (short for Agahnim). Also home to a few sub-nicknames of its own.
- Dark Cross: a +-shaped dark room within Back of Escape (see below), inside of which is one chest and is kind of an awkward check to make, especially if the runner doesn't have any Small Keys remaining or any light source.
- Back of Escape, Everything past the secret passage entrance, usually only encompassing Dark Cross and the Secret Room (a side-room that is bombed open and never seen in a vanilla run, but has potentially three item checks inside), and in-logic formerly always required lantern and/or glove, for either dark room navigation, or entry via the left-side grave. (A change made in Summer 2021 can also require the fire rod in Advanced logic for navigation of any room that includes a torch, which happens to include every room in Escape. The inclusion of Escape in this logic has not been popular and may be rolled back, although the inclusion of fire rod logic for two other rooms in Eastern Palace and Palace of Darknessnote is far less contentious and likely to remain intact.)
- Fake Flipper: A family of glitches which confuse the game into thinking Link has the Flippers. Some ways involve screen-transitioning at exactly the right frame, some involve overloading the game's ancilla memory values to delete the splash effect, and so on. Most often, players will use it to break into Zora without needing the Glove and Boots.
- Fake Powder: Since the Cane and Magic Powder share an inventory slot, Link can fool the game into thinking he has the Powder when he doesn't. This is only useful for snaring an item at the bottom of the village well.
- Fetch Quest Item: While some items allow access to many others, there's a few that unlock only one location, essentially making them a Plot Coupon. They are the Mushroom (Witch), Bottle (sick kid in Kakariko), Powder (bat cave), and Shovel (Haunted Grove dig spot). In Keysanity mode, there are several Big Keys (and the Thieves' Town small key, owing to a quirk of the logicnote ) that aren't required to reach a dungeon boss and only serve to open Big Chests.
- Fouton's Bar: Behind the bar in Kakariko Inn. It is always available from "sphere zero" (i.e. the start of the game) in a standard entrance randomizer. (It requires some progression before it can be entered in an inverted entrance randomizer, but it's likely to be one of the earliest things players can do.) And it's always the back of the Inn, since it's the only interior with a rear entrance in the game, so there's nothing else it can be shuffled with. Since this bar contains a chest, it is one of a small handful of locations in the game that are guaranteed to hide a progression in an entrance randomizer. Fouton's infamy comes from the fact that he forgot to check the bar until nearly four hours into a multiworld entrance randomizer seed with well-known streamer Andy Laso. Andy's Hammer was left to rot in the bar the whole time. (As a corollary, if the Hammer is found in the bar, then it's naturally called Fouton's Hammer.) The comedy that ensued can be seen here.
- Gary: The old man at the top of Death Mountain, sometimes referred to as such during the credits. Named after Gary Oldman.
- Gauntlet: A series of rooms in Ganon's Tower in which the player must slay all enemies to progress.
- Hellway: The hallway in Thieves' Town with spike traps, conveyor belts, and erratic enemies that make it difficult to get through it unscathed. There's also the "Harmless Hellway" in the Palace of Darkness: three moving spike traps in a narrow passage that can be bypassed by pushing a statue out of the way. Harmless Hellway is frequently a misnomer in enemy randomizer seeds, since the spikes are usually replaced with other enemies that have less predictable patterns.
- Helmacopter: Helmasaur King if placed in the Skull Woods dungeon by the boss randomizer. The movement of the conveyor belts affects his attack pattern, causing his tail to go haywire. The 2021 April Fool's Day festive randomizer turned all appearances of Helmasaur into Helmacopter, regardless of which room he was in.
- High Five: A term which refers to both runners briefly being in the same room at the same time, usually as one is entering and the other leaves.
- Hope Room: First room on the east side of Ganon's Tower. Regardless of which path they take through the Tower, players usually enter this room first in the hope that one of its two chests will contain the Big Key, thus sparing them from hunting for it in the basement. This is also the only room which can be accessed without any items, so if players unlock Ganon's Tower access early in an entrance randomizer, they'll almost always check these chests first. If players unlock Ganon's Tower while in the bunny state with no Moon Pearl, they can still kill themselves, then check the chests.
- Hype Cave: A cave southeast of Link's House in the Dark World which holds five items. The early version of the randomizer used during the first tournament was heavily biased towards putting progressions in this cave. It rarely lives up to the "hype" nowadays. Sometimes this refers to other item-dense caves such as Mini-Moldorm Cave, Kakariko Well, Blind's Hut, Paradox Cave, and Hookshot Cave (particularly in the entrance randomizer). Streamers and viewers will rate the Hype Caves [x] out of 10.
- Hyrule National Anthem: Name for the song played on the Flute to awaken the bird statue in the village square. Some commentators request that their viewers “Please rise for the Hyrule National Anthem”, and some of them even provide lyrics! Viewers also are frequently known to post a “salute” emoticon or the characters “o7” (meant to be a text representation of a salute).
- Ice Armos: The rematch with the Armos Knights in Ganon's Tower is conducted on a floor of ice. The boss randomizer can replace Armos with any other boss from the game, which will be referred to by similar sobriquets. Ice Trinexx is especially loathed by players.
- Ice Rod hunt: May not refer to a literal search for the Ice Rod, but used as a metonymy for a search for any item where the logic means that the item could be almost anywhere. The Ice Rod affects literally one thing in the entire seed logic: the Trinexx fight. Thus, it could be anywhere in the seed except behind Trinexx, which means that players dread having the Ice Rod as their "go mode" item. There are several other items that similarly could be almost anywhere; searches for these types of items are commonly grouped together as "Ice Rod hunts". Of course, no doubt just to compound the confusion, the April Fool's Day 2021 festive randomizer introduced a game mode actually called "Ice Rod Hunt", which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. (This is only a feature of the festive randomizer and unlikely to be added to the main one, however.)
- Jeremiah: The frog found in the Dark World who turns out to be a dwarven blacksmith from the Light World. A reference to the first lyric in "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night.
- Lag Shield: The Mirror Shield, because getting it greatly increases lag on many screens; as a result, experienced runners may avoid picking up shield upgrades outright when they're not in chests (the first two shields are not too bad for lag, but you can't know if you'll pick up a third upgrade from a chest at some point, and upgrades are not reversible except by resetting). See also "Riot Shield".
- Laser Bridge: Shorthand for a room deep in Turtle Rock containing four treasure chests placed in front of laser-shooting eyes on the walls.
- Life Lessons: What King Zora is selling when you pay him 500 rupees for...a smaller amount of rupees, or any item not worth the cost.
- Literacy: The Book of Mudora, so named because Link doesn’t have the ability to read any of the Hylian tablets without a book, meaning he now has literacy.
- Luck Fairy: The fairy in Lake Hylia who upgrades your bomb and arrow capacity for a price. In the vanilla game, she would tell players what kind of luck they would have that day. (Her dialog has been removed in the randomizer.) She's also sometimes referred to by other names such as Upgrade Fairy, Capitalism Fairy, or any number of others.
- The Lunchbox: The locked purple chest which you must bring to the thief near the desert to unlock. Or maybe you're just bringing him his lunch. "Lunchbox World Tour" is a strategy in which the player takes the Lunchbox on a tour of the Dark World, specifically the southwest region, before turning it in to the thief. This allows them to complete numerous item "checks" in a single trip.
- Metal Hotdog: A nickname for the Hookshot, whose handle looks slightly edible.
- Mimic Cave: A cave in Light World's Death Mountain which is only accessible via Turtle Rock in Standard layout. It contains four "mimics" (officially known as Goriyas) who mirror Link's moves, and defeating them leads to a chest. Due to the number of items needed to reach it, players dread having to unlock a Go Mode item in Mimic Cave. ("Go Mode" refers to the point in a seed when players have all the tools needed to collect 7 Crystals and fight Ganon.) It requires the Mirror to enter, and runners hate having to enter Turtle Rock if they haven't picked up the Mirror yet. There's always the possibility that the Mirror is inside Turtle Rock; that chest requires the Hammer to access, but Turtle Rock usually demands that you have the Hammer (along with a medallion and the Cane of Somaria) to enter it in the first place. The lack of a Hammer usually only becomes a problem in Inverted and/or entrance randomizer seeds: You can't use the Mirror to warp there from the Dark World in Inverted mode.
- Mini-Moldorm Cave: A cave southwest of Lake Hylia where the player must Kill four mini-Moldorms to open a room with four chests, plus an NPC who'll give you a fifth item. This place is typically visited early in a non-entrance randomizer seed, since it's one of the three earliest available "checks" that dump that many items on players that quickly, the others being the well and Blind's hut (both in Kakariko).
- Murderdactyls: Persistent flying enemies that appear in the Dark World. They resemble pterodactyls and can carve away three hearts of damage at a point when the player hasn't found any mail upgrades, hence their nickname.
- Nope Out: Slang for entering a cave or dungeon and then promptly leaving, simply because the time and effort needed to delve deeper is not worth it. Similarly, "Mirror Out" refers to Link using the Mirror to warp back to the entrance with ease.
- Oops! All Dungeons: Named after the (often-parodied) Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal (which advertises itself as "Oops! All Berries!"). Seeds may force players to clear all the dungeons, even if "All Dungeons" wasn't toggled as the set game type. If a progression is stashed under the Lost Woods pedestal, it will drastically extend playtime. In an extreme case, the Moon Pearl can spawn on the Pyramid ledge, which would require players to fight Agahnim twice (the true All Dungeons experience). Sometimes it's possible to sequence break your way past the Hyrule Castle battle, but that probably isn't feasible under tournament restrictions.note
- Paradox Cave: The easternmost cave of Light World Death Mountain holds a total of seven chests. Named for the paradox of the middle floor entrance being lower on the mountain than the bottom floor entrance.
- Priest Kisses: Talking to Zelda or the Priest in the Sanctuary restores Link's health. This is viable in a race because the Priest’s lengthy dialog has been removed, along with the context behind refilling your hearts. The old man on Death Mountain will also reward Link with "kisses".
- Randomizer Room: A room with four chests on the left path in the basement of Ganon's Tower. Link opens it by pressing a switch which blows up the southern wall. It usually contains only bombs and arrows, so it never appears in speedruns, but is often checked in randomizer during the Big Key hunt.
- Riot Shield: The Mirror Shield, due to its shape and size. See also "Lag Shield".
- Scam Fish: King Zora, due to the frequency with which he sells life lessons (see above).
- Smoldorms: Mini-Moldorms. A pun on "smol", which is Internet slang for animals considered tiny and cute.
- Spiral Cave: A cave in Light World Death Mountain whose upper passageway is shaped like a spiral, and which houses a drop-down leading to a chest. In the standard layout, the most common routing is to plumb Paradox Cave and then Spiral Cave so as not to make two treks up Death Mountain.
- Stumpy: Flute Boy in vanilla, who sits on a tree stump, gives you the shovel, and asks you to play the flute for him, upon which he'll turn into a small tree. In Randomized, he'll give you a free item, and then turn to wood once his item in the light world has been dug up.
- Super Bunny Cave: A cave in Dark World Death Mountain containing holes leading from one floor to another. These enable the "super bunny" glitch if a player somehow finds the Titan's Mitt before the Moon Pearl; a pair of chests can be opened even as a bunny thanks to the glitch.
- Swag Net: The bug-catching net, particularly when used to deflect Agahnim's fireballs. (This strategy is also called "Swagahnim".) In most cases, the only reason to do this is swag.note It's highly unlikely that a seed will require players to fight Agahnim before obtaining either the Hammer or the sword, both of which can deflect his fireballs; it's only possible via some strange combination of settings.
- Tile Room: Rooms where the player may have to wait for spinning tiles for a door to open or a chest to appear. The two most commonly encountered lock the vanilla Big Key Chest in Tower of Hera and a particular chest in Ganon’s Tower. If the latter chest contains the Big Key, it’s almost guaranteed to be the last chest players check in a race, unless a player feels they’re behind and wants to make a gamble, since it’s a large time loss if the chest contains nothing of value, and there’s only a 1 in 22 chance it will contain the Big Key.
- Trolldorm: Moldorm, an obnoxious boss with a habit of knocking players off its platform, forcing them to start the fight over. This can be a particularly calamitous time loss in the door randomizer, since the floor below probably won’t lead directly back up to Moldorm.
- Usain Bolt Guard: The Castle guards armed with tridents, named in honor of eight-time Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt. These guys are very, very fast.
- Validation Arrow: The single arrow item, which appears only once in the game. In early versions of the randomizer, this was reportedly one of the ways players confirmed that they were running the same seed. By comparing this (as well as the validation chest and the locations of two similar "validation rupee" items), players could be reasonably sure they were running the same seed. Soon enough, better methods of validating the seed were introduced, but the in-joke persists from Twitch chat even now. See also "Arrow of Destiny".
- Validation Chest: The final chest in the game, after the Moldorm rematch in Ganon's Tower, which the player must Hookshot to reach (unless you know how to hover). In early versions of the randomizer, it was common for runners to check this chest to confirm by its contents that they were playing the same seed as another runner, despite it being almost impossible for the chest to contain a progression item by that point. By the time better methods were introduced, it became an in-joke that a randomizer run isn't "valid" unless that chest is checked. This joke is actually banned from commentary in many tournaments to avoid confusing newcomers, but nothing stops Twitch chat.
- Vanilla: An item, location, or other element which occurs in the same place as the original game, so called because vanilla is perceived as plain. Frequently greeted with the reaction "Is this even randomized?" "French Vanilla" refers to items that are a) found in the same dungeon as their vanilla location, but in a different chest, or b) items or entrances that exist in the same location, but in the opposite world, e.g. the Desert Palace entrance linking with Misery Mire.
- Walk of Shame: Checking the Spiral Cave without the Pegasus Boots, which requires that you trace the entire path.
- Among SMZ3 players: the Mountain Cave entrance which connects to the Norfair Map Room entrance, and the Swamp Shed entrance which connects to Lower Norfair's energy recharge room. They are, respectively, called the Nor Door and Mor Door. If a player does not dash into them with the Pegasus boots, expect "One does not simply walk" memes from Twitch chat.
