How to play A Link to the Past No Logic

What is No Logic?

Generally, randomizers make sure to not place items in places which would make the game unbeatable.
For example, the glove (which is required to reach many places in the game) would not be placed in a location that can only be reached with the glove.
No logic mode turns off the item placement logic, allowing items to be placed anywhere.
Using glitches, the game can still be completed with very nearly any arrangement of items (turns out there are ways to reach those locations without the glove after all).

Why might it be fun to play no logic?

Many of these qualities are present in non-glitch randomizer too; these are the strengths I think No Logic doubles down on.

• You can tackle dungeons with many different sets of items, but items still drastically change what tackling that dungeon is like.
  • Good mix of being pushed around by the game + freedom to be creative and push the game back (plan a heist!).
• A Link to the Past major glitches have a cool sorcery-like quality to them.
  • There are invisible forces that bind the world together, and Link can manipulate those forces using strange rituals.
  • Compelling mix of fantastical and mundane (the powerful forces are channeled through unassuming bottles and diagonal walls. You can portal through a door across light and dark planes just to get some free keys)
• A lot of normal gameplay still in there; nice variety and good pacing.
• There's a lot of tech that you can learn.
• Game is harder, but Link is also more powerful.

Interested players who want to get their feet wet a bit first can start by playing Overworld Glitches.
Everything an Overworld Glitches seed teaches will also be useful in No Logic.
It's a fun mode in its own right: it opens up the overworld map and allows accessing dungeons early without twisting the dungeons together into a pile of spaghetti.
If you just want to go for No Logic though, there's a lot to learn but it could be a lot of fun.

What glitches should I learn first?

These are some glitches that are useful (used basically every seed) and use techniques which other glitches will build on.

• Fake Flippers is a good minor glitch to get your feet wet (literally). http://alttp.mymm1.com/wiki/Fake_Flippers#Screen_Transition
• The most simple and useful major overworld glitch is probably boots clips/teleports using diagonal walls.
  • One of the most useful applications is Death Mountain Ascent, to get up Death Mountain without the glove (there are multiple methods: this is arguably the easiest).
• Kiki Skip lets you get all 13 chests in Palace of Darkness with just bombs. https://glitchmaps.mfns.dev/?map=EG1&glitch=ndg-Kikiskip
• There are similar bomb clips in many dungeons (for example Ice Palace lobby skip, Thieves Attic to Desert)
• When you eventually get a bottle, you should learn Yuzuhara's Bottle Adventure. There are 4 bottles (so you will almost always get one), and it's useful all over. http://alttp.mymm1.com/wiki/Yuzuhara%27s_Bottle_Adventure#Subtile_YBA
  • I recommend first learning Desert Palace to Thieves Town, in the leftmost north-facing door in the main hub, because the door is a very "normal" door.
• When you get Cane of Somaria, learn Somaria Transition Corruption https://alttp-wiki.net/index.php/Somaria_Transition_Corruption#North_Doors . Desert to Thieves is a good one (preferred over the bottle version if you have cane). http://alttp.mymm1.com/wiki/Desert_Palace/No_Logic#Somaria_transition_corruption_to_Thieves'_Town
• Bunny Death Mountain Descent allows early dark world access without moon pearl. https://glitchmaps.mfns.dev/?map=DW&glitch=ndg-Safe/Bunny-Death-Mountain-Descent This is a precise trick, but it is a low-stakes place to learn Select buffering, which makes many glitches way easier.
• Select buffer by pushing select to bring up the save and quit menu,
• Then piano any face button (plays a short menu close animation) into pushing select just as the animation completes.
• If you did it right, the game will advance just one frame. It may advance more if you push select late. Pushing select early doesn't advance time at all, and you can try again.
• If you need to move downwards, you need to push down without moving the cursor to Save & Quit. Do this by holding select, tap a face button, and start holding down before the menu comes up again. You will now be holding down with the cursor on the top menu option.

This is plenty to get started. Glitches are tricky at first, but get a lot easier with practice.

Most other glitches (one additional example: Spinspeed clips through rails http://alttp.mymm1.com/wiki/Super_Speed ) are about the same difficulty as the ones listed above if you have a good setup. There are a small handful that are a bit harder, but most of those get a lot easier with select buffering.

Misslotting glitches (Hookpushing and Overworld Conveyor) are complicated and require a lot of items, but they are very useful. Do learn them eventually, but you don't need to learn them right away. Also, there are enough glitches available that you don't need to use them all (for example, most players don't use hovering).

What are the rules?

First of all, most glitch modes by default start Link with boots.

• Boots start is itself a popular setting on its own merits
• Boots enable easier and faster setups for many glitches (although they are still possible without boots)

The game settings used in the SpeedGaming 2024 summer tournament were open, 7/7 crystals, defeat ganon, keysanity, no logic, double rods.
All of these are common settings (explained here https://alttpr.com/en/options ) except for double rods.

• A second fire rod and a second ice rod are added to the items scattered around the game.
• The primary purpose of the double rods is to create more seeds where racers can (optionally) complete the game with a small number of items, leading to more difficult dungeons.
• With default rods, runners more often end up picking up many extra items while looking for the last rod (less exciting for a race).
• A secondary benefit of double rods is it addresses the most likely (but still rare) unbeatable seed scenario: fire rod or ice rod as a reward for defeating Trinexx.
• There is no known way to defeat Trinexx without both rods, so if Trinexx holds a crystal and a rod, this scenario creates an unbeatable seed.
• With default settings, the chance of this unbeatable scenario is about 1/154 games (~0.65%) (2 rods/216 locations * 70% chance that Trinexx holds a crystal). Double rods prevents this from happening altogether.

(This is Trinexx)

There are also some rules that are not coded into the randomizer itself, but are generally used in racing to create more fun races.

• In addition to collecting all 7 crystals to make Ganon vulnerable, the runner must defeat each boss which holds a crystal.
  • Background: using glitches, it's possible to sneak from one dungeon into another dungeon and defeat the second dungeon's boss.
    • This drops the crystal/pendant from the first dungeon, even if that boss has not been defeated.
    • This does not drop the crystal/pendant from the second boss, even though they have been defeated. Link can return to the boss room later to collect it.
  • The rule: "crystal duping" is allowed BUT you have to defeat each of the crystal bosses at some point.
  • This rule allows clever heists while putting some challenging boss fights back into the game; for example: defeating Swamp Palace boss Arrghus without the hookshot.
• Some extremely powerful glitches are not allowed: the "weaker" (still very powerful) glitches are enough to complete the game, but in more limited, varied, and interesting ways.
  • Exploration glitch: Lets you walk through walls and go anywhere. Allows you to finish the game in about 2 minutes with no items.
  • Underworld swim clipping: Lets you swim through walls and go anywhere.
    • Allowed in the overworld but not in dungeons and caves: again, we can still go between dungeons with other glitches that have some more limitations and are more interesting.
  • Arbitrary Code Execution: In vanilla you can use it to warp to the triforce room and finish the game in about 9 minutes.
  • Out-of-bounds SRAM editing: allows editing save file to (for example) have 7 crystals.
  • Underworld Fake Flute/Plaid World: It's kind of like a very unstable exploration glitch.

You can feel free to ignore these rules or make up your own. These are just subjectively some rules that people have agreed lead to fun games (and they're not the only commonly-used rules, either).

How do I generate a no logic seed and get set up?

The easiest way is to go to https://avianart.games/generate , uncheck "seed is for a race", go to the "Ladder" tab, and click on No Logic Double Rods.
You can also generate a nologic_rods seed using the Discord bot Sahasrabot, or go directly to your randomizer of choice and pick your settings manually.

It's legal to play with a ROM and emulator as long as you've dumped the ROM from your own Japan 1.0 copy of A Link to the Past.

A Tracker program in No Logic can be helpful for a few reasons:

• Remember what items you have and what locations you've checked. An autotracker can also get the info from your save file if you're playing in multiple sittings.
• Show when a boss can be reached and defeated with the items you have
• An autotracker can look at your game and show you what items you're picking up after you've done a glitch that messes up the graphics. They are race-legal.

Still, trackers are optional.
https://alttprtracker.mfns.dev/ is recommended for No Logic since it tracks boss kills and prizes separately.
Other trackers will work fine, but may lack No Logic specific features.

My other No Logic posts:

• Routing earlygame: where do I go?
  
• Routing midgame
• Routing lategame
• Big pile of links and resources