Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Randomizer Switch

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Randomizer
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Randomizer
General
Author	mint-choc-chip-skyblade
Type	Game Hacks
Version	2.0
License	MIT License
Last Updated	2025/05/17
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

Skyward Sword HD Randomizer (SSHDR) is a mod for Skyward Sword HD that randomly shuffles all the items from chests, quests and loose pickups around with each other. This enables for near infinite replayability, with players having to adapt to what they find on the fly.

The randomizer shuffles items following a set of logic which ensures that, without tricks or glitches, every seed is logically beatable in the intended way.

Installation

You will need these before you can play SSHDR:

A homebrewed Nintendo Switch console that you will use to extract your game files.
Your copy of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (digital or physical).
A way to play the game (console or emulator).
This randomizer.

Setup guide:

Tips & Tricks:

Screenshots

Media

Skyward Sword but ALL the Items are random (Linkus7)

Changelog

v2.0

Additions and Changes
- Overhauled the randomizer patching system
  - Shrinks the output size of randomizer patches by approximately 95%
  - Fixes a memory leak in the original game code previously preventing such an optimization
  - The first time a seed is generated, the randomizer program will need to extract a lot of data and will take longer to randomize than normal
- Added Beedle's Airshop Shuffle
  - The 10 shop items which Beedle sells are now randomized locations
  - Also added a Randomize Shop Prices setting
    - Shop prices will be randomized in such a way that the logic doesn't change
    - E.g. the Beedle's Airshop - 300 Rupee Item location will have a random price between 0 and 300 Rupees (as any more would require a bigger wallet)
  - Shop items will rotate like freestanding items
- Added Trial Treasure Shuffle
  - The 10 Dusk Relics within each Silent Realm have been turned into randomized locations
  - The Trial Treasure Shuffle setting controls how many relic locations are shuffled in each Silent Realm
  - Colleting a Light Fruit will highlight the trial's Tears in the trials main color and any non-relic items in a secondary color
- Added Tadtone Shuffle
  - Randomizes the 17 tadtone groups swimming around in Flooded Faron Woods
  - Adds 17 "Group of Tadtones" items to the item pool
    - The "Group of Tadtones" items will randomly use one of the two vanilla tadtones models
    - When all 17 have been collected, the Flooded Faron Woods - Water Dragon's Reward location can be obtained by talking to the Water Dragon
- Added experimental support for other mods to work with the randomizer
  - Create mod packs inside the other_mods folder
    - Any folders within the other_mods folder will show up as mod packs on the "Advanced" tab of the randomizer program
    - For a mod to be valid, it must contain a romfs folder directly inside the main mod pack's folder
    - The contents of the romfs folder must mirror the contents of the sshd_extract/romfs folder
- Added a Minigame Difficulty setting
  - Controls if minigames are Hard, Vanilla, Easy, or a Guaranteed Win
  - Scales the Pumpkin Archery, Harp Minigame, High Dive, Rickety Coaster, Bug Heaven, and Clean Cut minigames
    - Pumpkin Archery requires 800, 600, 400, or 0 points to obtain the randomized item
    - Harp Minigame requires better or worse playing depending on what the Minigame Difficulty setting is set to (both Easy and Guaranteed Win will allow the randomized item to be obtained without actually playing the harp)
    - High Dive will double the speed of the island, not change anything, half the speed of the island (virtually still after collecting all 5 rings), or guarantee the maximum reward is given
    - Rickety Coaster requires a time less than 1min 2secs, 1min 5secs, 1min 10secs, or just to make it around the track to obtain the randomized item
    - Bug Heaven requires a time less than 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes to obtain the randomized item
      - When set to Easy or Guaranteed Win, the Big Bug Net is logically required instead of just the Bug Net
    - Clean Cut requires 43 points, 28 points, 20 points, or 1 point to obtain a Rare Treasure
  - Minigames with multiple modes (Rickety Coaster and Bug Heaven) have their other modes scaled as well (potentially to become logical rupee farming methods in the future)
  - When set to Guaranteed Win, minigames with different rewards based on performance can be chosen to suit the player's needs
- Changed the in-game help menu to show information about items which don't appear on the inventory screen
  - Shows information about whether each dungeon has been complete or not
  - Shows information about the number of Small Keys, Boss Keys, and Maps found for each dungeon
  - Shows information about the Lanayru Caves Small Keys, Life Tree Fruit, Life Tree Seedling, Spiral Charge, Scrapper, and Group of Tadtones
- Added settings for choosing where different hint types should be placed
  - Each hint type can be placed on Gossip Stones, Fi, both, or neither
  - Currently, all hint types are placed on Gossip Stones except barren hints which are placed on Fi
- Added the Hint Importance setting
  - When enabled, location and item hints will say whether the hinted location/item is "required", "possibly required", or "not required" to beat the game
- Added the Sealed Temple - Collect Fruit from the Tree of Life location
  - Adds the Life Tree Seedling item to the item pool
  - Planting it in Hylia's Temple in the past will make a tree grow in the Sealed Temple in the present which can be bonked to obtain a randomized item
- Added the Knight Academy - Deliver Barrel to Henya the Lunch Lady location
  - Carry the barrel in the Knight Academy and place it in front of Henya the lunch lady to receive a randomized item
- Added the Knight Academy - Horwell's Closet location and unlocked Professor Horwell's bedroom door
- Changed Rupin's night market and Strich's bug collection to cycle between the treasures and bugs they sell without having to sleep
- Changed the Bokoblin Base - Raised Chest in Volcano Summit from a chest to raising the True Master Sword (like in vanilla)
  - To account for this, this location has been renamed Bokoblin Base - Raise Sword
  - Due to event limitations (potentially solvable in the future), the sword will appear as a chest once Bokoblin Base has been beaten
    - When the Chest Type Matches Contents setting isn't turned off, this workaround chest will always be a big blue chest (or a fancy chest if it contains a key) to encourage players to pull the sword rather than waiting to see the chest type
- Added support for Boss Rush
  - Adds the Lanayru Gorge - Boss Rush 4 Bosses and Lanayru Gorge - Boss Rush 8 Bosses locations
  - The Thunderdragon will say what the rewards for each location and ask to confirm if you would like to start Boss Rush
- Updated how the item pool is created so that the quantity of various rupees and treasures changed depending on which shuffles are enabled
  - If the Goddess Chest Shuffle setting is turned off, there will be fewer Gold Rupees in the item pool
  - If the Hidden Item Shuffle or Rupee Shuffle settings are enabled, more Green Rupees and Blue Rupees will be in the item pool
- Unlocked the ability to purchase Stamina Potions and Air Potions from the beginning of the game
  - Raising (or beating) the Lanayru Mining Facility is no longer required to purchase Stamina Potions
  - Obtaining the Water Dragon's Scale is no longer required to purchase Air Potions
  - The Knight Academy - Help Fledge Workout location no longer requires raising (or beating) the Lanayru Mining Facility to be logically obtained
- Changed the in-game inventory screen to show the correct Ancient Tablets
  - Previously, players would need to look at which light pillars were opened in The Sky to determine which Ancient Tablets they had in their inventory
  - Now the in-game inventory screen accurately displays this information
  - The warning after the first seed has been generated has been updated (it now only warns about the heart container models for the Defeat Boss locations)
- Added the Allow Flying at Night setting
  - Allows the loftwing to be called when diving at night
  - This setting doesn't change anything logically and just allows players to experiment (yes, this can be used to obtain locations out of logic)
  - If the Require Natural Night Connections setting is turned off, loftwing will be able to be flown at night as this may be logically required
- Added the Require Natural Night Connections setting to the randomizer program
  - Adds a GUI toggle for this setting (it previously needed to be enabled by editing the config.yaml file manually)
  - When enabled, logic will require that the player can reach night time only locations only by traversing through areas of the game which are normally reachable at night time
  - When disabled, the night time state will persist everywhere in the game
    - The only way to change the time of day is by sleeping
    - Most surface regions will appear a lot darker at night (most of the Lanayru Sand Sea isn't changed due to a quirk of how the night time filter works)
    - You may be logically expected to fly the loftwing at night
- Added the Randomize Music setting
  - Background and cutscene music can be shuffled
  - When set to Shuffle, music will be shuffled but some music may be shuffled to its vanilla location
  - When set to Shuffle (Limit Vanilla), music will be shuffled in a way to prevent unchanged/vanilla music
  - The Cutoff Game Over Music controls if the game over music will continue playing after the player respawns until the track is finished or if it gets cut off when the player respawns instead
- Added unique sound effects to play when collecting Heart Containers and Ancient Tablets
- Removed the forced text trigger in the second trapped mogma room in Fire Sanctuary (where the Fire Sanctuary - Chest from Second Trapped Mogma location is)
- Changed the gates to the Goddess's Realm in Sky Keep to require a sword (mirrors the change to make trial gates require a sword)
- Updated the default presets with the new settings
- Changed default option for the Open Lake Floria setting from Vanilla to Open
- Changed the default option for the Chest Type Matches Contents setting from Off to All Contents
- Changed the default option for the Deep Woods Log before Temple setting from Off to On
- Added logic for the Faron Woods - Stamina Fruit on Vines below First Log location to be collectable from the vanilla entrance to Faron Woods with the Beetle
- Changed logic for the Faron Woods - Stamina Fruit on Vines on Great Tree location to require Clawshots or Quick Beetle instead of just Beetle
- Changed the "Randomize" button in the bottom right of the randomizer program will now read "Verify Extract" until the first time verification has been completed
  - Clicking the "Verify Extract" button will allow the first time verification to be performed without having to close and re-open the randomizer program
- Added clearer error messages in some places
- Added the Sky Keep Lower Bars in Fire Sanctuary Room and Sky Keep Upper Bars in Fire Sanctuary Room shortcut settings
- Unlocked Heart Dowsing from the start of the game
- Renamed various locations
- Reordered various locations so that they appear on the tracker in a more intuitive order
- Renamed Wryna's House to Kukiel's House to match the vanilla game
- Renamed Mallara's House to Pipit's House to match the vanilla game
- Changed all uses of the "SV" abbreviation for "Skyview Temple" to "SVT"
Fixes
- Fixed issue where collecting the Sacred Water item in the Sealed Grounds Spiral would start a Groosenator event
- Reduced the failure rate of various entrance shuffles
- Fixed crash when entering Inside the Thunderhead after activating but not finishing the Levias fight
- Fixed Linux build name so it can be executed instead of opened as a man page
- Fixed issue with the location calculations for the Chest Type Matches Contents setting
- Fixed issue where the Include Sky Keep as a Dungeon and Required Dungeons settings could conflict when either is set to the "Random" option
- Fixed incorrect time of day logic for the Bazaar entrances
- Fixed logic for exiting Inside the Thunderhead
- Fixed logic for the Lanayru Mining Facility - Chest after Armos Fight location
- Fixed logic for Sky Keep - Chest after Dreadfuse Fight location
- Fixed logic error where starting at the Pirate Stronghold Top Door from Pirate Stronghold Inside the Shark Head entrance would incorrectly not require raising the Pirate Stronghold shark head (and therefore the Gust Bellows) to obtain the Pirate Stronghold Goddess Cube
- Fixed issue where regions could be hinted as barren multiple times
- Fixed issue where the hints would be inconsistent when generating the same seed multiple times
- Fixed issue where the main deck of the Sandship would play the incorrect music causing the music to stop when the timeshift stone was active
- Fixed minor text formatting issues and spelling mistakes

v1.0

First Release.

External links