I decided to take a little break from the walkthrough to make a video of the Death Mountain Descent glitch. Like I say in the video description, it's one of the most useful glitches in the game and there's a ton of stuff you can do with it. One time I used it to skip getting the Master Sword and played through the Dark Palace and Thieves' Town with the Fighter's Sword. Helmasaur King gets a lot harder when you have to use spin attacks to damage it with your sword. Though, funnily enough, Blind wasn't much harder since it doesn't matter how strong the hit is, it always takes three for each head.
I also found that if you get the Tempered or Golden Sword and then go back and get the Master Sword it actually replaces the stronger sword with it. Unfortunately, I didn't think to try going back to the smithy's or the fairy pond in the pyramid to see if I could upgrade my sword a second time.
Some time I suppose I should do a glitched minimalist run so that I could skip even more stuff. I think I'd be able to get down below ten hearts total that way and play through the entire game with the Fighter's Sword. Though I'm still not sure if I'd even be able to damage Ganon with it since you have to use spin attacks with the Master Sword.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Death Mountain Descent
This video shows how to do the Death Mountain Descent glitch, which allows you access to the Dark World before beating Agahnim. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+.
Death Mountain Descent is one of the most useful glitches in the game and opens up all kinds of options for sequence breaking. I show how to get the Magic Cape early with it but that's just one small use. Others include:
- Obtain items like the Flute and extra Pieces of Heart early
- Beat the game without fighting Agahnim the first time
- Skip the Master Sword entirely
- Use in combination with other glitches to skip the Moon Pearl
To perform the glitch, go through the warp portal outside the Mountain Tower, drop down the cliff, and go east to where the broken bridge is in the Light World. Move all the way into the upper-right corner of the wall and the bridge post and use the Magic Mirror to return to the Light World. Now, while you're still flashing, move one pixel and only one pixel to the right—Link's shadow should be touching the black line of the bridge but not overlapping it—and then let the portal warp you back into the Dark World. Next, without moving at all, use the Magic Mirror a second time and then step all the way out of the portal to the right.
If you moved too far to the right and got automatically warped back into the Light World after moving the first time, try again from the starting position in the Dark World. It can take a few tries to move such a small distance without going too far.
Once you're back in the Light World and standing to the right of the portal on the broken bridge, hold out your sword and slowly back into it. The goal is to go only as far left as it takes to warp and no farther. Once you enter the portal, hold in right on the control cross. If you've succeeded, Link will go through the wall and jump off into the ravine below. Go south and you'll drop down from Death Mountain on the west side of the river by the graveyard. The graphics will be a bit messed up but you can fix that by using the Magic Mirror and then warping back to the Dark World again.
