What's The Strongest Attack in Ocarina of Time?

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Thanks to Exodus122 for his pastebin about empty jumpslash which helped me with that section of this video: pastebin.com/nmNF9698
Script and editing by me
Music source: • Zelda & Chill ▸ Fairy ...
Item art source: www.flickr.com/photos/history...

[@thomaswawrzyniak118]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="78">1:18</a> the rumor is, one of the devs tried to kill a spider in their office with a hammer, and kept failing miserably. They programed the immunity into the game simply as a joke

[@trunkit8749]

The dev was also jumping around, which is why the jump attack doesn’t hurt it.

[@Tezomondo]

Great video! With the hammer jump attacks, I'm sure I watched another video where it explains that one of the developers tried to kill a spider in the office by jumping around with a hammer (I think), missing and completely failing to kill it, so one of the other team coded this in as they thought it was funny. I don't think any type of spider in the game can be killed by a hammer jump attack for this reason!

[@dannyb21892]

I'd never heard this before but a couple people have mentioned it to me now since this video. I really hope it's true, it's much funnier than a random damage table typo.

[@LuigiXHero]

I hope this is true because that's incredible

[@EBjeebies1081]

That would explain my failed attempts at killing gold skulltulas with hammer-stored power crouch stabs in randomizers

[@RTU130]

Ye

[@BonnePp]

Ok but the fact that an glitch causes you to attack with nothing on your hand but still applies all the status effects of the game including 2 BETA ABILITIES IS INSANE

[@Mordecai02]

Link's double elbow drop of DOOM! Edit: also, it totals up to _4_ beta abilities! :O Ice Medallion, Shadow Arrows, and two we don't even know _what_ they were gonna be!

[@insentia8424]

Considering we are working with garbage data, and they had to conserve memory on consoles, it's probably a number and flags bit manipulated into one single number. So it reads the garbage in the damage bits as damage, and every other bit set as a true for a damage type. *probably*, I don't know how it's actually coded, mind you, but this is very easy and for processors very quick way to compress and decompress data and would cause exactly what's happening here if fed a randomish number.

[@AstralLovelace]

The strongest thing in Hyrule is backshots to a furry

[@henrydupuis5648]

Lmfao!😭😆

[@Boooo]

thats how you kill a furry in real life too

[@jeanpitre5789]

Why you gotta say it like that

[@DarkNia64]

Bruh

[@Spore_Money]

Yessirrr

[@whatsoup]

mmmm yes STATS

[@ZippydaSquirl]

WE LOVE NUMBERS

[@Roto3]

I LOVE DEFEATING THE ENEMY AND GETTING STRONGER!!!! 😈😈😈

[@ShankMods]

This was extremely interesting, well explained, and well spoken. Your writing, delivery, and pacing were excellent. Great video.

[@SeedyZ]

I never knew empty jumpslash was a thing! I thought it was just QPA that gave that glitched damage value.

[@dannyb21892]

It's a super common misconception since everyone just calls it QPA, but QPA is just an ingredient in one of the ways of getting empty jumpslash. You do QPA, then break your stick so that it immediately disappears before the grounded part of the jumpslash (whereas without QPA, it wouldn't immediately disappear). But there are other ways of getting empty jumpslash also, like jumpslash with a burning deku stick RIGHT before it burns out, so that it's gone by the time you land.

[@MetroAndroid]

@@dannyb21892 It's crazy that all it would've taken to discover it in the past 25 years was someone jump-attacking with a burning deku stick right as it disappears, then using crouch-stab on anything it interacts with in a unique way.

[@Gameboy_9917]

@@MetroAndroid just getting glitched damage was discovered a while ago tbf, this is the first video on it i know of (with Blank A): kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYu1i2x_oa2Kp5o

[@sams8749]

If you look at the structure of the damage values in code, the hammer jump slash is not only at the bottom, suggesting it was added last, possibly after the skulltula was finished, but it is in a sea of removed values, so it may have been missed.

[@CWCvilleCop]

How did you know that this is the video I've wanted to watch for my entire life?

[@Eckster]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="335">5:35</a> Gotta love bitfields

[@iNinBreak]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="510">8:30</a> so youre telling me i have been doing 32 dmg to those doggos all this time (i have been hitting their tail with well placed biggoron jumpslashes)

[@Mystical367]

💀

[@Cronoistight]

You have a knack for properly mixing knowledge and presentation. I consider myself pretty OOT/MM versed, but the way you format your videos felt like watching a great refresher course. I also love how you properly touch on math.

[@Steamuch]

I have another glitch to share: Whenever Daniel Baamonde gets excited, his voice takes up properties of Ceave Gaming's one.

[@ArloMathis]

Holy Fuzzy!

[@TheBreadPirate]

Wow! I had no idea butt attacks were so powerful.

[@Soulintent95]

That thumbnail made me just wanna take a second to appreciate how the kokiri sword is just the old master sword. Especially in smash melee where it was longer. That is the exact earlier design of the master sword.

[@kat_lynx]

I wonder if the value Iron Knuckles are weak to is supposed to be the value of unused Spirit Arrow/Soul Arrow

[@homerman76]

They're one of the few enemies unique to the Spirit temple, so I wouldn't be surprised 🤔

[@RenegadeGamer89]

All this time I thought you could only kill Wolfos by hitting them in the back.

[@raydespoir]

Its a fair assumption, given how many hits they take compared to every other enemy. Plus navi hints at you to attack from behind so one would rarely hit all 8 times.

[@RenegadeGamer89]

@@raydespoir right. I just assumed he they were invulnerable to everything else

[@Jotari]

@@raydespoir They do visibly take damage though.

[@raydespoir]

@@Jotari Yes but they don't die unless you hit them so many times. Its similar to the large deku baba. If you hit their head to make them straighten up, then a second follow up hit will instantly kill them. But if you wait for their head to come back down they can take more damage. I'm not even sure if you can kill them with their head down lol, I cant remember doing it.

[@Jotari]

@@raydespoir Yes, you can. If you kill them without them going erect then you'll likely get Deku Nuts, otherwise they drop Deky Sticks.

[@Sonnance]

Clearly the most powerful attack was that one Iron Knuckle slash that killed my friend twice in a single hit. Dunno how, but it killed him, he revived with a fairy, and his hearts kept draining after. Never saw that happen before or since, so I assume that slash was personal.

[@eessppeenn001]

Emotional Damage!

[@Sauraen]

I did a 3 heart run many years ago, got hit by Volvagia, and that hit drained two fairies.

[@homerman76]

​@@Sauraenwhich is weird since damage isn't usually supposed to have a carry over like that, but I know what you're saying is true because I've personally seen this glitch before as well 🤔

[@Chris-gx1ei]

considering that the Master Sword deals 2 damage in OoT (which means 1 damage is equal to 15 in BotW), this means that the highest Damage possible you can do here would be equal to 960 Damage in BotW

[@raymondjack]

I’m 35 been playing/watching KZbin videos on this game and I love the way you are breaking it down. But I have seen everything you talked about. Besides watching that dude beat the iron giant before even leaving the cutscene with a shield and big Goron sword. It’s works so well while being so broken, learn something new everyday. That’s why it’s the best game ever.

[@CWCvilleCop]

I remember accidentally defeating one like that and just being like "Huh??" I chalked it up to damage multipliers I didn't quite understand, and yeah. I guess that's what it was.

[@SubOxyde]

What a sick video! Reminds me of Decinos Doom videos but for Zelda. Two of my absolute favorite games growing up. Bravo 👏

[@devonm042690]

Since this topic of damage included weaknesses and resistances, it's applicable to state here that the Flare Dancer's weakness/resistance table is weird. Even just looking at swords, it's weak to Master Sword jump slashes and resistant to Biggoron's Sword jump slashes. A single Master Sword jump slash is enough to advance a Flare Dancer to its next phase (or defeat it if it's on green), but a Biggoron's Sword jump slash does the same amount of damage to it as a standard slash.

[@dannyb21892]

Yea it's a weird example, it actually shares it's damage table with Ganon, which is why it appears to be resistant to everything but master sword

[@Rexis102]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="399">6:39</a> possible theory, perhaps Link was intended to use the Iron Knuckles’ weapons against them. Would make sense why only Iron Knuckles are affected by it since those rooms would be the only place Link could use those weapons.

[@homerman76]

There is a rumor that that was intended to be the case and that is why we have the ability to do so in Windwaker

[@minirop]

so Zelda 64DD means Zelda 64 Double Damages?

[@magnusdiridian]

it means Don't Deliver...to the usa

[@Vandita3344]

This was such a amazing indepth video, i love seeing these Zelda Ocarina of Time tech videos. Thanks for the upload.

[@star0chris]

Awesome video Danny, I always love to know random stuff like this in Zelda games and the strongest attack in the game is pretty cool lol Keep up the great work!

[@GavinAstraWolf]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="487">8:07</a> Ah ok, now you have my attention. lol

[@Jungle_Twist]

Since i was a kid, ive realized the jumped attack does double damage. But i NEVER KNEW about crouch stabs taking the damage of the last melee attack you did. Thats fucking wild. Im gonna use that everytime i play now

[@Adventureruler]

Greatly edited and informative 👍

[@Boxoy101]

This was so cool, and interesting, learning about code and the game, nice!

[@johangelrodriguez6835]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="122">2:02</a> The lit Deku Stick deals 4 as well

[@dannyb21892]

That isn't a different weapon though, being lit has no effect on damage at all. It still does 2 on slash and 4 on jumpslash while lit.

[@markabyss1200]

I'm pretty sure ice arrows are the strongest, but don't actually do their damage properly as it instead freezes enemies. The exception is on volvagia where it does CRAZY damage.

[@dannyb21892]

@@markabyss1200 they're not that strong. Even on volvagia it's just 4 damage. Same as a master sword jumpslash

[@markabyss1200]

You know, I was told it was the damage of the biggoron sword so I immediately assumed it was the jump attack. But 4 damages matches up to biggoron swing. My bad!

[@homerman76]

​@@markabyss1200 Still, that's an interesting tidbit, too bad you can't normally get the ice arrows before the fire temple 😅, but it will be useful to know the next time I do a randomizer 🤔

[@psychedelicartistry]

At 8 min I had no idea that that was why I would randomly kill those Wolfos enemies in a single strike! Very interesting.

[@homerman76]

Regarding the Iron Knuckle being especially susceptible to the glitch damage; there is a rumor that the ability to pick up enemy weapons Toon Link receives in Windwaker was something that Link was supposed to be able to do against the Iron Knuckle with their axe. Since the Iron Knuckle would have been the target for this programming, the Iron Knuckle is likely susceptible due to actually being programmed to take damage from the unused items that are mixed in with everything. That would be me theory on why anyways 🤔

[@alanfinck5595]

The wolfos thing I just thought was Link severing his spinal cord.

[@iLLadelph267]

cool video! I knew about crouch stabs' damage output but had no idea they retain weapon properties too

[@tokeivo]

You can use this to use your sword as a bomb. I'm not sure if I'm remembering it correctly, but I think it's the Hammer jump slash that has the bomb/explosion property, which you can then use with a regular stab - making you able to hit a few things that you can't hit with a jump-slash.

[@Kaztalek]

good video, as always

[@uncannyeeveestar]

I love how this ends with vaporizing wolfos

[@LHS281]

Enjoyed the video good stuff

[@newbiezinc4338]

What a great video! Thank you for sharing!

[@grapejuice9681]

Would love to see a video on the empty jump slash!

[@robwaters8848]

So cool!! Love the video!

[@WeaponsRemorse]

shadow arrows and ice magic huh i want to know what those are!

[@Adventureruler]

The spine IS one of the most important parts of the body. ☝

[@jedstanaland2897]

There are rumors that the great fairy sword of majora's mask is significantly more powerful than the biggoron sword of OOT. This said the damage outputs from majora's mask and OOT does not completely line up.

[@IndigoTeddy]

Great video, never thought I'd need to know the last part, but I'm glad I learned it. Question though: in the case you're doing SRM (or hacking or whatever), what's the size limit for the damage? Is it just one byte (like the health value for the Wolfos), or could you theoretically deal an entire 64-bit word of damage?

[@dannyb21892]

I'm honestly not sure about the damage itself, but enemy hp I'm pretty sure is just one byte so they can have a max of 255hp anyway.

[@c0baltl1ghtn1ng]

iirc Kokiri Jump also OHKOs Wolfos's back, too. White Wolfos have the same shtick, too. I don't know their health, but a Master Sword Jump OHKO's the White Wolfos in the Ice Cavern

[@glamrockmystics7679]

So, crouch stabs retain all the damage of what the previous attack delt. So, in theory, using an ISG after hitting a wolfos with 64 damage, we can attack anything with all that damage at will

[@dannyb21892]

@@glamrockmystics7679 unfortunately it doesn't work like that. The attack was a Biggoron Sword jumpslash, so that's what crouch stabs will copy. How much damage that does is determined independently by the enemy being attacked. So if we attacked a wolfos again, sure we could do 64 damage. But anyone else would just take 8 damage.

[@aedandaugherty130]

great video! subbed

[@Platformer64]

If there was a competitive scene for Zelda PvP the META would be crazy bro

[@Sypaka]

Could you check, if attack properties are a simple bitmask in the damage type array? Because you show 13 items + 2 unused would turn into 15 bits of 16. So the value of -2 underflow in the damage type array could be 0x7FFF or rather decimal 32767. Well, it might be using 0xFFFF as well, indicating another unused damage type. Unless the first two bits of that mask is the raw damage itself. 2 bits damage + 14 damage type = 16 bits

[@MrKevin486]

The most powerful attack was the friends we made along the way! :D

[@Emogeta]

Whats the damage value of a broken deku stick? You can get one by attacking the electric squares monsters in Jabu Jabu or interrupting link when he throws it away.

[@dannyb21892]

@@Emogeta a broken deku stick is the same as regular deku stick.

[@ShadowsWrath4]

"Crazy Butt Multiplier" That's a new one, lol.

[@ShadowsWrath4]

Seriously, I always assumed it was because I was slicing the Wolfos' spine in half vertically that it was a one hit kill. I never did a horizontal slice to it when it turned around. Didn't stop me from exploiting it!~

[@HikaruCh.]

Basically with that glitch, you can one shot Ganondorf lmao, so much for a final boss huh

[@Historicutuber]

Omg I had a feeling about that with the Wolfos

[@Jelster64]

Great video

[@Gameboy_9917]

good video danny

[@xboxgamer8381]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="120">2:00</a> 124? Like, plainrock124?

[@theglem4]

How have shadow arrows never appeared in a game before? They had the coolest idea and then never did anything with it!

[@johaomikaelmaringagne6179]

What is your oot editor? What's the best way to edit n64 game code? I'm so curious about moding and left 9ver content developer left out

[@freestalkerdotfr6391]

I played a little bit the Stronghold hack and noticed some unpredictable damages. I know why now because the game engine isn't logical enough for me in term of coding. Where I can play Wind Waker, TP and Skyward Sword in a more predictable way. The logic is more present. For example if I cut an artery IRL, I'll now that the person in front of me will die. If nothing is done to heal him of cours. In fact if I lose an heart I can say that's not my fault ?

[@CWCvilleCop]

Have to say, WW has my favorite combat style in a Zelda game, MAYBE with the exception of BotW. It's just so TIGHT. It feels like a comprehensive martial art within the context of the game's combat, and makes you feel like you really earned those Knight's crests.

[@Doctorzzim]

I made a spreadsheet of all damage tables from the decomp that I would link if youtube allowed it

[@biggbals4375]

I'd like to see a battle between Adult OoT Link with biggoron Sword that deals 64 damage against MM Fierce Diety

[@lpfan4491]

Wait, Ice magic? To learn that this ancient damage type survived development is kinda funny.

[@ericb3157]

this makes me think of the Final Fantasy games... IF you cast the "FIre 3" spell on an enemy that's weak against fire, OR an "Ice 3" spell on an enemy that's weak against ice, OR a "Lightning 3" spell on an enemy that's weak against lightning, you can do 9999 damage. that's assuming that the character casting the spell has a "Magic" attribute of 50 or more.

[@therealmorganofficial]

Awesome.

[@damiencouturee6240]

The fact that the wolfos takes 4x damage from the back is just begging for a doggy style joke

[@Retroist2024]

Butt of the joke

[@teamdoghouse7920]

Gettin the old spokes broke. Havin that back blowed out!

[@BaconHoodie]

Wolfos Backshot

[@user-ow7dm6es2u]

😂

[@unknown000001000]

I've noticed something similar to the last thing with the Wolfos when attacking Redeads with a Master Sword jump slash and having them die in one hit. I've also seen something similar with Dodongos if you hit them in a sweet spot. Are these the same concept? :3

[@dannyb21892]

Some enemies like redeads and dead hand (idk about dodongos) can be hit twice in quick succession with the same attack, so yeah it's similar. But afaik wolfos are the only ones that actually get hit twice in the same frame!

[@Obviousinnuendo]

*interesting video about damage values* Me: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="377">6:17</a> HOLD UP WTF YOU CAN FREEZE THOSE? does that work in MM? omfg I thought ice arrows were completely pointless in oot

[@e-mananimates2274]

64 damage is quite poetic! By the way, I know the Torch Slugs could resist the Kokiri Sword, but what about a Broken Giant's Knife attack? Would that have any affect?

[@dannyb21892]

Just checked and confirmed that it seems to behave the same as kokiri sword for both torch slugs and freezzards!

[@e-mananimates2274]

​@@dannyb21892 You don't say. I wonder if some of the programming used for the Kokiri sword was carried over to the Broken Giant's Knife.

[@SnoopSqueak]

@@e-mananimates2274 If I understand right from the video: The broken giant's knife uses the same damage value as the kokiri sword, and some enemies reduce a certain amount of incoming damage before applying it.

[@e-mananimates2274]

@@SnoopSqueak Well, okay. I was just wondering if any other attacks that cause one damage could harm the Torch Slug, while the Kokiri Sword only had that quirk programmed into it.

[@SnoopSqueak]

@@e-mananimates2274 My guess is ALL attacks that cause one damage will not hurt the torch slug, since the torch slug reduces them all from 1 to 0, but I'm not positive. I got the impression it's not really a special quirk of the sword, more that the enemy is the one lowering the damage regardless of where it comes from, but that might not be the case. I should know better than to expect consistency from N64 game code lol, so maybe there are some special exceptions or other weird things... I may try it out sometime just to see, but I'm not sure when that would be.

[@ViviBuchlaw]

My dumb butt hoping itd be some glitch with the bottle: 😂

[@Dpmt]

Great video, you should do Majora’s Mask

[@yoshmaik]

The real zelda rpg experience

[@entropy-cat]

But where's the silhouette sword from the thumbnail?

[@KingYoshiGoD]

Infinite sword glitch duh😂

[@RavenT7T]

the hammer kills them because of the AOE , like if you hit the ground and there are spiders on the wall out of meele range, they die

[@dannyb21892]

the regular swing also kills them, AOE or not.

[@bradyonetv]

Maybe the real strongest attack was the friends we made along the way…

[@zacharyelliott1705]

@terminalmontage IDEAS FOR THE OOT SOMETHING ABOUT????

[@Jotari]

Aside from the Wolfos, are there any other enemies that have weakness multipliers?

[@dannyb21892]

@@Jotari not as far as I know, they're a pretty unique case! Some enemies take more damage from a particular weapon than others take from the same weapon, but wolfos are the only ones I know of that take different damage from the same attack depending on how you hit them (ignoring attacks that get entirely blocked by enemy shielding)

[@Jotari]

@@dannyb21892 Thinking on it, in addition to the Megaton Hammer weirdness for them, Skulltulas do kind of have the same thing going on with their frontal protection, which actually can be bypassed with adult Link's projectiles.

[@renegaderaven3777]

As a kid I had a rough understanding of some of the damage values like that the Kokiri sword dealt 1 damage and the Deku sticks dealt 2 damage and that jump attacks doubled that damage. A strange occurrence is King Dodongo. He’ll normally fall in 4 hits from the Kokiri sword. So logically they have 4 hp, right? So when I tried using Deku stick jump attacks to beat them in one shot I was rather disappointed to find it still took 3 jump attacks. Does King Dodongo have armor value against Deku sticks maybe?

[@dannyb21892]

@@renegaderaven3777 king dodongo takes two cycles of bomb+jumpslash if you use master sword, hammer, or deku stick. He has 12 health though. Each bomb in his mouth does 2 damage (though he can't die to this attack). And then the first melee attack to reduce him to 0 will kill. So a standard fight is bomb, jumpslash, bomb, jumpslash, which does 2,4,2,4 damage.

[@renegaderaven3777]

@@dannyb21892 oh okay, didn’t know the bombs were dealing damage as well. That makes sense

[@Solrex_the_Sun_King]

Is there a glitch in the vanilla unmodded game that lets you shoot shadow arrows? Is the visual effects implemented at all?

[@dannyb21892]

@@Solrex_the_Sun_King nah it's not implemented at all as far as I know beyond its entry in the damage tables

[@Solrex_the_Sun_King]

@@dannyb21892 rip

[@Rkay421]

Wow i didn’t know alot of that

[@DrKappaDelta]

There is the broken deku stick as well

[@alrandmandragonran]

I don’t think it was worth mentioning cose broken stick is just normal stick but you can use it more

[@akaidenki5526]

The hammer jump attack doing nothing is apparently intended, because during development, they had a spider and couldn't get rid of it or something like that, i'll edit my comment later to get the exact story

[@KeinNiemand]

If you count glitches you can't you just use ACE to kill everything instantly/do max/infinite damage (whatever the limit of whatever data type damage is stored as is)?

[@dannyb21892]

@@KeinNiemand we always leave ACE out of challenges besides something like an Any% speedrun since it obviously trivializes everything. Restrictions breed creativity!

[@ninizeldav7174]

The crouch stab attack with the stick's stat from your previous attack?

[@dannyb21892]

Yes crouch stab preserves all the damage and attributes from your last attack, even if you use a different weapon! One of my favorite examples is if you swing your hammer, then you can stab rusted switches with a sword or stick to activate them!

[@ninizeldav7174]

@@dannyb21892I knew about the weapon damage but not the weapon effect! That's neat, thank you for the reply!

[@CWCvilleCop]

@@dannyb21892 Oh, that's why that happened to me once. I laughed so hard and thought it was just some sort of fluke.

[@chiropteran2966]

before I watch Im gonna hazard a guess at a QPA Jumpslash crouch stab against an Iron Knuckle specifically edit. I stand corrected, that is number 2

[@NaNhi-j4b]

i wonder if the 64 dmg max was intended for the n64 game

[@Nirakolov]

Are you sure that, like, with Arbitary Code Execution you can't do the hex value of your user name as damage?

[@dannyb21892]

We generally ignore ace for any challenges because of course you can rewrite all of the game code from the inside if you want. So it trivializes any question you ask.

[@denischen8196]

If you do 32 damage by hitting the back of a Wolfos, will crouch stabs start doing 32 damage?

[@dannyb21892]

Good question but unfortunately not. The crouch stab still uses the attack power of 8, and the wolfos handles the multiplier itself.

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

What about the giants knife?

[@dannyb21892]

@@WilliamScavengerFish it's exactly the same item as Biggoron Sword, except with a flag switched to allow it to break.

[@albertoquezada923]

I didn’t know there were 5 swords

[@ls190v2]

Power!

[@mariotaz]

Crouch stab with Deku stick

[@Geneolgia]

Amazing video! As a kid the damage stats of OoT and MM fascinated me and I would find myself experimenting with tanky enemies like Dodongos and Iron Knuckles, but I never imaged things go this deep.

[@taqresu5865]

We all know it's the infinite sword glitch.

[@coleminer8847]

Its the super double ultra octaflip It does 2 damage 8 times It requires hacking the game to add a free flip mechanic

[@RoninCatholic]

64 damage? Fitting.

[@Bradorks]

A fucking *stick* does more damage than your beginning sword?

[@dannyb21892]

yeah, it makes sense since it's meant to break in one hit, so its a tradeoff. only with glitches does it become OP

[@RoninCatholic]

Two-handed and breaks upon use, yes. A serious wooden club that didn't break in one hit would also do more damage than the dagger. Deku sticks are BIG sticks. A wooden stick the size of the child's sword would do about as much damage as a fist, with the advantages of reach (hitbox) and not technically having to touch the opponent (contact damage). One-handed knife > One-handed stick Two-handed stick > One-handed knife Two-handed knife > Two-handed stick Any weapon at all > no weapon at all