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After 16 months, Zelda Ocarina of Time expert completes a hitless, totally randomized run of the game: “I genuinely didn’t think it was gonna happen”
A Zelda: Ocarina of Time specialist has completed a fully randomised playthrough of the game without ever taking a hit, a feat that took roughly 16 months of attempts to achieve. Randomiser runs scramble the locations of items, equipment and other key elements throughout the game, forcing players to adapt their route and strategy on the fly rather than relying on memorised sequences, which makes combining this with a "hitless" challenge—avoiding all damage—especially demanding. The achievement highlights the enduring dedication of the Ocarina of Time speedrunning and challenge-run community more than 25 years after the game's original release.
The player, who spent well over a year working towards the goal, admitted they had doubts the run would ever come together, saying "I genuinely didn't think it was gonna happen." Completing a randomised seed hitless requires surviving every enemy encounter and boss fight without foreknowledge of item placement, adding a significant layer of unpredictability and risk compared with standard hitless runs of the base game. The feat has been celebrated within the wider retro gaming and speedrunning community as an example of the extreme skill and patience such challenge runs demand.
In short
- Player finished a hitless, fully randomised Ocarina of Time run.
- The challenge took around 16 months of attempts to complete.
- Randomised item placement made avoiding damage far harder.
Explained simply
Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a landmark video game released in 1998 that remains beloved by players more than 25 years later. A dedicated speedrunner has now achieved a remarkable feat: completing the entire game without taking a single point of damage whilst playing through a completely randomised version, where the locations of all items and equipment have been shuffled.
A "hitless" run—finishing without taking damage—is already extremely difficult and requires perfect play. When combined with randomisation, which means the player cannot rely on knowing where items are located or memorised strategies, the challenge becomes exponentially harder because they must adapt to unexpected situations whilst maintaining flawless defensive play throughout every enemy encounter and boss battle.
The achievement took roughly 16 months of repeated attempts, during which the player questioned whether it would ever be possible. The feat has been celebrated by the retro gaming and speedrunning community as evidence of the extraordinary skill and patience required to push classic games to their limits decades after their original release.