“My Seed Is Broken!” (Glitchless Logic)

Solutions to completing randomized runs of Ocarina of Time can sometimes be unintuitive. While your seed may appear to be unbeatable, this isn’t often the case. Thanks to developers much smarter than myself, OoTR’s logic is surprisingly robust. Listed below are some common sources of confusion, grouped by location. If you don’t mind spoiling the rest of your playthrough, instructions to finding your next step will be listed here.

If you follow these steps and still need help, you’re welcome to ask for support in the #questions-gameplay channel of our Discord Server. Make sure to provide your seed and setting string along with any important details about the issue. If it turns out you have indeed encountered a logical flaw, kind members of our team will report issues from there.

Problem Areas by Location

Link’s House:

Stuck beside bed

Tilt the Control Stick to move around. Go through the door and you will reach Kokiri Forest. The game gets much easier from there.

Hyrule Field

Open grottos without Bombs

Any grotto you can open with Bombs may also be opened with Hammer.
Some grottos will only reveal themselves when you play Song of Storms.

Can't find Running Man

You must possess all 3 Spiritual Stones in order for him to be found running around Hyrule Field.

Can't find Ocarina of Time near the Castle Town draw bridge

You must possess all 3 Spiritual Stones when approaching the Draw Bridge as a child to enable the Ocarina of Time location.

Lon Lon Ranch

Malon won't teach her song

As a child, show her your Ocarina during the day.

Talon is missing

Use the Cuckoo you got from the Weird Egg to wake Talon up near Hyrule Castle moat to move him to Lon Lon Ranch.

Kakariko Village:

Rear Entrance to Impa's House

Grab a chicken and take it to the incomplete house. Toss it up to the top of the pile of bricks and climb up after it. Once on top of the pile of bricks with the Chicken you can lift up the chicken and fly across to the Scaffolding, from here you follow behind the carpenter until you reach a good position to jump towards the entrance above the chicken coop.

Shooting Gallery gives 50 rupees

The Fairy Bow/Quiver is required to win the special prize. Otherwise you will receive 50 rupees.

Can’t get onto rooftops without Longshot

Yes you can. Get a little closer and use the Hookshot.

Well won't drain

Project 64 is known to have issues with this, among other things. For the purposes of this project, we can only recommend using a different emulator such as Bizhawk or RetroArch. (This bug most frequently arrises when trying to drain the Well at night; attempting it during the day is less likely to cause this crash.)

Burning Village Cutscene (Shiek)

Forest, Fire, and Water Medallions are needed and you have to enter the village from Hyrule Field. The village is returned to normal when you complete forest, fire, and water temples.

Gerudo Fortress/Valley:

Struggling to figure out how to cross the Broken Bridge

You can cross the Broken Bridge as an Adult by using either Epona to jump it or Long Shotting the sign above the gate on the other side.

Can't enter Gerudo Training Grounds without being captured

You must possess the Gerudo Membership Card and also rescue all of the Carpenters they have captured.

Getting caught without a Hookshot

Should you be caught by a Gerudo Guard, either inside during combat or outside by being seen, and do not posses a Hookshot, you will be thrown into the valley outside the tent rather into the jail cell from which you could not escape.

Horse archery NPC is missing or won't let you play the mini-game

You need the Fairy Bow, Epona and rescuing the carpenters (Gerudo Membership Card not required).

Goron City:

Reach Goron City from Lost Woods without Bombs

You can ignite the Bomb Flowers behind the boulders using Din’s Fire.

Get big rolling Goron to relinquish goods

Even if you have serious Zelda skills (or Bombchus), a Bomb Bag is required. Bomb the Goron in the tunnel near the sign. (In Dev version 4.0.7+, Large Rolling Goron no longer checks for possession of a Bomb Bag; however, explosives must still be used within the tunnel area.)

Boulder Maze without Bombs or Hammer

Silver Guantlets are effective at clearing a path to each of the chests in the room. This will take some time, however.

Spinning Pottery

The spinning Goron Pot is activated by lighting the torches surrounding it. This can be accomplished by lighting sticks from Darunia's chamber OR by casting Din's Fire.
The Spinning Pot has 3 faces - Happy, Neutral, and Mad. Only the Happy face gives a randomized reward; Neutral give 3 bomb refills and Mad gives 3 green rupees.

Lost Woods:

Skull Kid won’t buy this sweet Skull Mask

Skull Kid won’t buy Skull Mask until you befriend him with Saria’s Song.

Sacred Meadow:

Saria won't teach you her song in Sacred Meadow

Speak to Zelda at Hyrule Castle first.

Zora’s Domain:

Need Blue Fire to unfreeze King Zora/Zora shop

If you have access to Ganon’s Castle, Blue Fire can be found in Water Trial.
Blue Fire may be a purchasable item for 300 rupees in non-shuffled shops.
As usual, Blue Fire can be obtained in Ice Cavern.

Lake Hylia:

Go fishing

You require an 8 pound fish as a Child or a 10 pound fish as an Adult.

Get Scarecrow’s Song

In order to use the Scarecrow’s Song, you must teach it to Bonooru as a child, and remind him again as an adult.

Lake Hylia - Shooting the Sun with an arrow

You can reach the tall rectangle island without filling the lake by using Scarecrow's Song and Longshot.
You do not need to complete the Water Temple and raise the water level at Lake Hylia to aquire the item.
The arrow must be fired at the sun during the early morning as per the written instructions on the stone platform you must fire from.

Inside Jabu Jabu's Belly

First Switch

The switch on the ceiling in the first room of Jabu Jabu's Belly can be hit using explosives.

Temple of Time:

Open Door of Time

Playing the Song of Time is the only requirement to opening the Door of Time. In 3.0 and prior, if you warp to the Temple of Time with Prelude of Light, you must exit and reenter the Temple for the Song of Time to work correctly.

Shiek

Forest medallion required, appears near Master Sword pedestal when you're an adult.

Zelda Light Arrow Cutscene

Shadow and Spirit medallions required.

Forest Temple:

Get outside without Song of Time or Bow

With Hover Boots you can float to the door connecting the large block-pushing room with the courtyard.

Can’t push large colored blocks as adult, wtf man??

The Goron’s Bracelet is required to push these blocks, even as adult. Link only put on gauntlets to keep his hands from drying out.

Death Mountain Crater:

Reach the bottom area for Bolero of Fire and access to Fire Temple

Using only the Hover Boots, you can float down to the shortcut to Goron City, and across the dilapidated bridge.
You can also reach this bottom area with Scarecrow’s Song and the Longshot by jumping onto the platforms below and pulling yourself across the pool of lava.

Fire Temple:

Reach Volvagia without Hammer

With Hover Boots equipped, it’s a simple matter of floating over to the boss door. That said, you’ll need the Hammer to actually do anything in there.

Water Temple:

Boss Key chest without Bombs or Goron’s Bracelet

Use the Hover Boots to reach the chest.

Getting past the gate without Longshot

After shooting the eye switch, crossing the gap with Hover Boots will get you past the gate before it closes.

Center room’s Gold Skulltula without Longshot

Cast Farore’s Wind inside the center room. Raise the water to its highest level and return to the warp point. Swim to the surface to reach the Gold Skulltula.

I can’t raise the water level

With the water level lowered, jump down to the second level of the central structure (may require savewarping to the begining of the dungeon to reach). Use the Hookshot to climb onto the top level. With a well-spaced rolling jump you should be able to reach the ledge where you can raise the water to its highest level. This isn't required but it's a handy time saver.

Shadow Temple:

First silver rupee room without Hookshot

You can get to the raised platform in the corner of the room by using the Hover Boots from the nearby low wall.

Spike floor room without Longshot

Backflip onto the chest spawned in the middle of the room. From there you can use the Hookshot to reach the upper ledge.

Reach the boat without Goron’s Bracelet

You can bypass pushing the large block by shooting the top of the ladder with a Hookshot.

Reach Bongo Bongo without the Fairy Bow

Play the Scarecrow’s Song to summon Pierre. Shoot his face with the Longshot to get to the other side.

Desert Colossus:

Requiem of Spirit

Contrary to what's expected, the song you would acquire as an adult after leaving Spirit Temple can also be collected as a child. It is the same requirements as vanilla but normal runs through the game always have you visit as an adult, so this may catch some players unaware if they have never used sequence breaks before. If playing Entrance Randomizer, exit whichever dungeon is placed at Desert Colossus.

Spirit Temple:

Lower metal bridge on child side without Boomerang

You can just barely hit the switch with a well-placed slingshot shot.
Alternatively, you can hit the crystal switch with a well-timed Bombchu placement in the opposite direction. Hopefully you’ll hit it, or you’ll have to go out and buy more Bombchus.

Map chest without Din’s Fire or Magic

Child Link is perfectly capable of lighting the torches using only a Deku Stick.

Collect all the silver rupees in the boulder room without Hover Boots

You can reach the floating rupee by jumping into the boulder with a jump slash, or even without hititng the boulder if you time the jumpslash properly.

Silver Gauntlets chest from adult side using Longshot

With a Longshot, shoot the chest opposite from the Mirror Shield chest to gain access to its contents and the end of child-side.

Gerudo Training Grounds:

Lava room without Longshot

You can reach the torch at the end of this room using only the Hookshot.

Timed boulder room without Longshot

The target on the ceiling is just within range of the Hookshot if you stand directly under it.
A wallmaster can also lift you up into the rupee if it’s the last one you need to collect.

Ganon’s Castle

Spirit Trial without Fire Arrows

A precise shot of an arrow through the torch will burn the web to reveal the sunlight. Or moonlight. Maybe it’s a big lamp, idk.

Water Trial Blue Fire

With your bridge requirement set to Open you may be required to use a bottle to bring Blue Fire to thaw King Zora or, if you have shopsanity active, to open the Zora Shop as adult if you can't access it as child.

Knowing the Way with the Spoiler Log

The spoiler log can be very helpful when looking for important items you missed. It takes only a few steps:

Version 4.0
1. Look for the web ID in your ROM's file name. It should be formatted as OoT_WEBID_SEED.z64.
2. Copy this link into your address bar, but do not click Go or hit Enter yet: https://ootrandomizer.com/seed/get?id=#####
3. Replace ##### with the web ID for your seed. Now click Go or hit Enter.
4. Near the top of the page you should see a red button that says "Spoiler Log." Click it to access your spoiler log.
Versions 3.0 and Older
1. Open the spoiler log generated alongside your ROM. It should be formatted as OoT_SETTINGSTR_SEED_Spoiler.txt.
2. Scroll down to the section labeled Way of the Hero.
3. Ensure that you have collected all the items listed in the section, as they are essential to beating the game.