7 Fun Ocarina Of Time Challenge Runs All Players Should Try

It's been over 20 years since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time first hit stores back in 1998, and the game is still considered to be one of the greatest of all time. Consequently, there are numerous players who have completed the campaign a ton of times and know the game like the back of their hand, so they need to find ways to spice things up.

Thankfully, the Zelda community is there to help. A number of challenge runs have been created to test players' skills, encourage them to revisit the game, and offer a different experience than a standard playthrough. Among such runs, these are some of the most entertaining.

7 Zero Deaths Challenge

Zero death challenges are one of the most popular types of runs in gaming. Despite being fairly generic, the challenge is worth including on this list as it's a great way for players to test their abilities at the game. It's fairly self-explanatory: get through the game without dying.

Those that want to ramp the challenge up even further can take on the Epic Zero Deaths Challenge. This requires the players to complete the game without dying in Master Quest mode.

6 Three Heart Challenge

As the name suggests, the Three Heart Challenge requires players to beat Ocarina of Time with the three default hearts from the start of the game.

In some ways, the Three Heart Challenge is even tougher than the Zero Deaths Challenge. Whereas Zero Deaths lets players stock up on heart pieces, Three Hearts almost turns into a no-hit challenge towards the end of the game, when enemies start to hit hard.

5 True Completionist Challenge

Completionist challenges are a great way for players to revisit their favorite games. They ensure that the player experiences everything that the adventure has to offer, while also letting players confidently brag that they've mastered the game.

The True Completionist Challenge in Ocarina of Time requires players to complete the following list of tasks:

Catch the Hyrule Loach at the fishing pond
Collect every heart piece
Collect every bottle
Obtain the Fire, Water, and Ice arrow abilities
Collect every Big Poe
Collect every Golden Skullita
Obtain the Biggoron Sword

4 Time Challenge

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 weren't only pioneers in 3D gaming, but also in the prominent rise of the speedrunning community. Ocarina of Time currently has 7,922 submitted runs on speedrun.com, the 13th highest amount on the entire site.

The Time Challenge requires players to try out some of the popular speedrunning glitches and beat the game in under 30 minutes. For context, the current any% world record is 7m 07s 666ms by Savestate.

3 Shield Challenge

The Shield Challenge is ideal for those who believe that attack is the best form of defense. This challenge forces players to store their shields away and perfect their dodging and counter-attacking skills if they want to survive.

To complete the Shield Challenge, players can't use a shield throughout the game, with the exception of the following four occasions:

Reaching the Deku Tree
Climbing Death Mountain
Solving mirror puzzles
Figting Twinrova

2 Reverse Dungeon Challenge

As the name suggests, the Reverse Dungeon Challenge requires players to complete the game's dungeons in reverse order. This may sound utterly impossible at first; however, the challenge is possible with the use of glitches, something that Ocarina of Time has become known for in the speedrunning community.

The Reverse Dungeon challenge is a popular category in speedrunning, with the current world record being 1h 38m 36s by bakeneko.

1 Uber Challenge

The Uber Challenge is one of the most well-known challenges runs in the Zelda community, predominantly for how gruelingly difficult it is. The challenge was created by Manocheese, who also provided a guide to help those trying to complete the run. The long list of rules are as follows:

The player must remain at only 3 hearts, no Heart Pieces whatsoever
Buy Giant's Knife and break it ASAP, and use that at all times (except in the Graveyard and while fighting Ganon)
Collect all Medallions
1 Bottle
No deaths; the death counter at file select must say 000
No Iron Boots
No capacity upgrades
No Great Fairy gifts except Magic Meter and Din's Fire
No Gold Skulltula family gifts from 20 or more Gold Skulltulas
No Goron Bracelet
No Fire Arrows
No Lens of Truth
No Longshot
No Silver Scale
No Zora Tunic
No Gerudo's Card
No Maps or Compasses
No Biggoron's Sword
Cannot use Action Replay, Gameshark, etc.
Cannot use Crooked Cartridge (touching the game cartridge while playing)
Cannot use Din's Fire outside the central room of the Water Temple
Cannot use Megaton Hanning Volvagia)
Cannot use Megaton Hammer outside the Fire Temple
Cannot use Deku Sticks to attack enemies
Cannot use power crouch stab
Cannot use bottle, except to show Ruto's Letter to King Zora
Cannot learn any songs except Song of Time, Zelda's Lullaby, and Minuet of Forest
The player must have Shadow Medallion before entering Forest Temple
Must fight Dark Link