I won’t bore you by praising The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. At this point, it has been named “the best ever” by a bunch of blogs and publications, while others have named it “most overrated”. No matter which side you take, just know that for better or worse, Ocarina of Time has been played by a lot of people, influenced a bunch more, and is going to be talked about until the heat death of the universe. Now that we all agree, what else is there to say on the first 3D Zelda game ever?

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a game full of secrets, glitches, and bugs which can be used in unexpected and unusual ways. These tricks can help make the game easier, push speed runners to finish it faster, or sometimes, they serve absolutely no purpose other than being a nice little surprise for dedicated players. We have assembled twenty of those hidden parts of the game in hope that they would provide you, the gamer, with new ways of experiencing a game which has been under the spotlight for so long.

So take a look at this list, and maybe you’ll find something that will convince you to plug in that Nintendo 64 (or Gamecube, or Wii, or Wii U, or 3DS…) just to can see a different side of Ocarina of Time.

20 Sign-sual Healing

Sometimes, in Ocarina of Time, Link might “accidentally” break a sign with his sword (or compulsively destroy them like I do). Unfortunately, while most signs share information that we already know (like helpfully pointing at Hyrule Castle when it’s the most obvious landmark in Hyrule Field), some of them actually have helpful advice for first-time players. If you haven’t had the time to read a freshly vandalized sign and you would like a second chance, there is a way to mend what’s broken without having to exit the area entirely. Just take out your Ocarina, and play “Zelda’s Lullaby”. The sign’s parts will magically reassemble in front of you, as if nothing happened. So you can now go back to cutting down helpless wooden signs without fear of regrets.

19 Let The Sword Do The Work

The very dedicated Ocarina of Time community calls it the “Infinite Sword Glitch”: Align yourself to be near an object which can be interacted with (a sign, for example) in a way which you see the action icon (i.e. The A button will say “read”). Then, press R to activate your shield and B to stab. Mid-movement (you have to be precise, so it takes some practice), press A to activate the action (such as reading the sign). The sword will start glowing white if you did it right. From that point forward, the sword will attack anything it touches without the need to swing it, even while running. Counterpoint: You can’t jump ledges while it’s activated, and swimming or exiting an area will cancel it. But on the other hand, you can kill monsters just by running at them.

18 The Surprise Is At The Bottom

Lake Hylia is home to the Lakeside Laboratory, a quaint little building which houses a scientist, a pool of water, and not much else. Usually, it is visited during a fetch quest for Biggoron’s Sword, and once more to acquire a Heart Piece, but then it is quickly forgotten about. That's a shame, because many more adventurous tourists might visit the spot if they knew of what’s lurking at the bottom of the pool. Once Link has acquired the Iron Boots, he can put them on to sink to the bottom of the Laboratory and find a shark caught in a cage. Sure, it’s a 2D sprite in a 3D world, but as one of Hyrule’s oddities, it’s certainly worth at least one visit.

17 You Can Never Have Enough Bottles

Some of the items you get in Ocarina of Time are not as useful as others. For example, Farore’s Wind has to be one of the least used item in Zelda history. On the other hand, having some more extra bottles would certainly help when it comes to storing life-saving fairies and potions. While unintended, it is possible to replace those undesirable items with extra bottles. To do so, just use one of your bottles to catch anything, like water or bugs, and then press Start at the split second before Link’s “I found something!” animation begins. At the inventory menu, swap the bottle for the item you need to replace, exit the menu, and voila! While any item can be replaced, it’s safer to swap something you know you won’t need as much, such as the Biggoron’s Sword Receipt, or the Magic Beans once they have all been used.

16 One More Use For Those Bottles

Now that you have all those bottles, there’s got to be something else to do with them in order to justify all of this inventory space. Sure, you could fill them up with Poe Souls or bugs and make a pretty penny, but you could also use them to defeat the embodiment of evil! Link’s bottles must be pretty sturdy, because they are one of only two items in the game (other than the swords) which can be used to reflect Ganondorf’s energy back at him. Indeed, as Phantom Ganondorf and in the penultimate battle near the top of his tower, Ganondorf likes to throw balls of energy at Link. These must be sent back at him in a magical version of tennis, and the empty bottles are surprisingly well adapted for such a task. In fact, they are even better than the sword, because Link swings faster when holding a bottle.

15 Hyrule’s Ecto Cooler

The previous entry mentioned Poe Souls as a way to make quick money. Whenever Link defeats a Poe (big or small), the game will ask the player if they want to put its soul in one of their empty bottles. These can then be sold to the Poe Collector for rupees (and an empty bottle eventually). If that kind of business bores you, and you fancy yourself a risk taker, you can also… drink the ghosts? If Link decides to consume a Poe Soul like a potion, he is literally gambling with his life. Randomly, it will either restore part of his hearts, or take all but one of them away. If you are already about to die, then you don’t have much to lose by drinking someone’s spirit, no matter the implication.

14 A Child In The Deep End Of The Pool

Usually, Link will need to wait until he’s an adult to collect the Golden Scale which allows him to dive deep in the water. As a child, he is limited to the Silver Scale, which he can acquire by diving off the waterfall in Zora’s Domain. If you want to skip the kiddie pool and go straight into the deep end, then use this glitch. Going into the fishing pond as a child, you will need to catch a fish of 8 pounds or more. Then, go to the center of the pond, and make sure Navi is not hovering above a fish. Press and hold the Z button (and never let it go!) and start swimming to the land. Talk to the owner, who will evaluate your fish and somehow give you the Golden Scale instead of Heart Piece! Now, you can finally release that Z Button.

13 The Fisherman’s Secret

The owner of the Fishing Pond, once so happy and relaxed, has grown stressed and self-conscious after Hyrule fell to Ganondorf’s rule. As a result, he has lost most of his hair, a fact which he is trying to hide by wearing a hat, kinda like Hulk Hogan wearing a bandana. If you feel like humiliating a poor, kind man who never asked for any of it, you can try to steal his hat. Just cast your fishing rod towards him, and if your aim is true, then you will have his hat hooked to your line. At that point, you can either give it back, or leave the premise after which you will be fined 50 rupees. Finally, there will also be an extra rule specifically directed at you added to the list near the entrance.

12 That Many Spiders Is Usually A Bad Thing

Collecting Golden Skulltula Tokens is extremely rewarding: that’s how you acquire a bigger wallet as well as the coveted Stone of Agony. However, most Gold Skulltulas are out of reach, and it’s a bit of a hassle to find them all. Thankfully, if you know which hidden cave to go to (Pssst! It’s the one near the tree where, as a child, you wake Talon in Hyrule Castle), you can acquire the same Skulltula over and over again to inflate your tokens count. In the grotto, kill the Gold Skulltula without touching its token. Then, target it with the Z button and send your boomerang to retrieve it. Before the boomerang comes back to you, backflip into the portal that takes you back to the surface. You will be credited with the token, and yet, when you go back into the cave, the Gold Skulltula will still be there.

11 Get Rid Of Those Pesky Skull Kids

When Link is a child, the Skull Kids are nice enough despite their inherent creepiness. They just play the flute and encourage Link to put on a concert with them. When Link becomes an adult, they are hostile to him and try to kill him by shooting pellets at the poor guy. If you try to defend yourself and kill them with the Master Sword, you will find that they are usually quick enough to stay out of reach, and it might take a long time to get rid of one. The trick is to use Biggoron’s Sword. That humongous blade has enough reach and power to kill the pests in a few hits. Even better, killing one provides a gigantic orange rupee worth 200!

10 Light Arrow, Heavy Wallet

The Light Arrows are revered weapons mainly used to kill Ganon, so they are often treated with a lot of respect and are taken out only for the big occasions. It would just feel wrong to use these demon-killing devices to dispatch a simple Keese, for example. And yet, the game encourages you to do just that! If you kill a Keese, or a Bubbles, or most of the low-level enemies using nothing but Light Arrows, you will be rewarded with a big fat purple rupee, which is worth 50. Considering the amount of Keeses found all over the game in caves and dungeons, this has got to be one of the easiest ways to replenish your wallet late in the game.

9 The All-Powerful Crouch Stab

Link’s most powerful attack in his Ocarina of Time arsenal is not even advertised in the instruction manual. A regular crouch stab is performed by pressing R to use the shield, and simultaneously using B to stab. However, a crouch stab has somehow been coded to have the same attack power as the last attack you used. Therefore, if you do a jump attack (one of the most powerful in the game), and then a crouch stab, your stab will have the same power as the jump attack. A side effect of that trick is that if you use the Megaton Hammer, then do nothing but crouch stabs, your attacks, even with a regular sword, will shake the ground and activate switches. On the plus side, you can kill enemies super quickly with this trick.

8 The Most Metal Thing Link Ever Did

Have you ever wanted to do something completely useless, but which would look at home during a Rammstein concert? As Adult Link, go to the Death Mountain Crater with a bottled fairy, with an Ocarina equipped, but without a Goron Tunic. As you enter, you will notice a timer which tells you how long you have to live before you catch fire. When the timer reaches one or two seconds, jump from the cliff towards the lava. You’ll die in mid-air, and your lifeless corpse will plummet until you touch the lava. At that point, the fairy will revive you. That’s when you have to mash the button to activate your Ocarina before you die again. Link will catch fire, but he will still play his Ocarina while engulfed in flames. And that’s what heavy metal is all about.

7 Dark Link Made Easy

In the middle of the Water Temple, you will encounter Dark Link. An evil copy of Link, he is quite tough for a miniboss, possessing the exact same number of hearts as your own characters and mimicking your attacks expertly. He’s a formidable adversary, but he has a few weaknesses you can exploit. The easiest of them is the Megaton Hammer: equip the hammer, then swing at Dark Link using your sword until he blocks. Once he does, hit him with the hammer and more often than not, he will not dodge. If he is indeed hit, you can just keep swinging repeatedly. The fight will be done pretty quickly, after which you can move on to better things, such as the rest of the Water Temple, which is still a pain in the backside.

6 Don’t Worry About The Magic Meter

The Lens of Truth is acquired relatively late in Ocarina of Time, but it is required in The Bottom Of The Well, in the Shadow Temple, and on the road to the Desert Colossus. It is used so intensively during those stretches that you will need to stockpile magic potions. If you have a lot of patience, there is a way around this exaggerated consumption of magic powers. Just play the Song of Storms before switching to the Lens of Truth the moment the song ends. You will be able to use it without depleting the magic meter. Sure, you will need to play the Song of Storms again every time you deactivate the Lens, of when you enter a new room, but you might save some rupees in the end.

5 In The Land Of Giants

Most players who have spent a few hours with Ocarina of Time have probably wandered around Hyrule Field long enough to realize that if you defeat enough Stalchildren at night, a giant, tougher one will appear. However, most people don’t spend enough time in other areas to realize that the same principle applies to other enemies. Near the Desert Colossus, you can defeat a bunch of the smaller, green Leevers to make a bigger, purple one materialize. In the same area, you can also encounter crows that suddenly grow up when you’ve wrecked enough of them. And if you have never seen an enormous, polygonal crow dive at you, you will find that it is a terrifying sight.

4 Tackling Your Problems Heads On

If you are like me, you have always treated Princess Ruto with respect when carrying her in Jabu-Jabu’s Belly. After all, if you misplace her, you have to get her back from the central room, and it can be a really bad time if you were close to solving the dungeon. More careless players have discovered a long time ago that you can use Princess Ruto as a projectile and throw her at enemies to defeat them. Since you only acquire the boomerang midway through Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, she can act as an effective weapon against those flying jellyfish thingies, or against the bubbles flying around the fishy deity’s stomach. Just be careful not to throw her towards a hole or off a ledge.

3 You want a Fairy? Here’s a Fairy

Fairies are an essential part of any seasoned player’s inventory, as keeping one in a bottle will automatically revive you in case of accidental death. The easiest place to find a fairy is in one of the many Fairy Fountains scattered in caves around Hyrule, but the game wants you to live bad enough that it offers many other ways to collect them. For example, you can try to use a Deku Stick to touch a butterfly, which will transform it into a fairy. Or you can find one of those patches of dirt meant for planting Magic Beans, and play the Song of Storms to make it release more fairies. Similarly, you can play any non-warp songs on your Ocarina to a Gossip Stone which, you guessed it, will produce fairies. They are everywhere, so make sure to stockpile them whenever possible.

2 Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

The Spirit Temple is probably the most ambitious dungeon in Ocarina of Time. It spans both timelines, introduces the tragic story of a sage trapped in the body of Darknut for seven years, and the temple itself is full of devious puzzles which are second only to the Water Temple. In the middle of the Spirit Temple lies a gigantic statue of what we assume to be a Gerudo deity. It spans multiple floors, and the statue itself is essential to solving the dungeon. You cannot use the hookshot to drag yourself up the sculpture and skip a section of the temple… unless you aim for its nipples. They won’t get you where you need to go, and they don’t give access to any new area, but the possibility is there.

1 The Alternate Order

The story of Ocarina of Time leads you through its dungeons in a very specific order: Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow and Spirit. However, if you are feeling adventurous, there is a different, more challenging order to finish the temples: Forest, Water, Spirit, Fire and Shadow. It is possible because the Megaton Hammer is not entirely necessary to finish the Water or Spirit Temple, while the Hover Boots are nearly useless outside of the Shadow Temple. Some of the puzzles will require more creative solutions, and some of the storytelling might be all out of whack, but the challenge is completely doable. Ocarina of Time is nearly 20 years old, and the Master Quest was made more widely available with the 3DS version, so this might be one of the few ways to make what’s old seem new again.