Tower of Hera

Required Item: Hammer

Recommended Items: Tornado Rod, Bombs, Bow

1F First Room Timesaver

Link can perform a spin attack to hit the crystal switch while standing on the red pegs and reach the higher ground more quickly.

Skip from 3F to 9F (Miniboss Skip)

Discovered By Weegeenchan, Refined By RheaultWnage And Anwonu

By performing a Bombrod on 3F, it is possible to get inside the walls of the dungeon and make your way up all the way to 9F (though it is more efficient to clip back inbounds on 6F), skipping both platform rides and the miniboss room. A good position to perform the Bombrod is right of the north wall switch.

1. Perform the Bombrod to clip into the wall on 4F.
2. Use the Tornado Rod in that spot to reach 5F.
3. Move into the wall and make sure you won't fall OoB in the upcoming T-Rod.
4. Make sure you have enough energy and use the Tornado Rod to reach 6F. You should be in 6F now.
5. Use the Tornado Rod quickly one more time in that spot to reach the Mole platform in 6F. If not done quick enough you will fall OoB.

Skip from 4F to 5F

Discovered By Weegeechan

It is possible to skip almost the entirety of 4F and 5F, including the platform ride, by performing an easier version of the Bombrod. To do so, you will need to get hit by a Crow while at the top height of a Tornado Rod use. First, you will need to lure a Crow to the correct spot:

1. Get on a platform.
2. Kill the first Crow.
3. Stand in the bottom left corner of the platform and don't move.
4. After the second Crow has attacked you (he will pass right by you if you don't move), stand in the bottom right corner.
5. As soon as he starts diving to attack you again, move left and merge the wall blocking the platform.
6. Walk left in the wall until you're on the red elevator block.
7. Position Link halfway between the red elevator block and the stationnary wall on the left.
8. Once the red block has gone up, walk left and unmerge.
9. Link and the Crow should now be in good places to pull off the trick. Use the Tornado Rod at the right moment for the Crow to hit you at the maximum height and you will be pushed on the platform on 6F.

Skip from 5F to 6F

Miniboss Strategy: Red Stalfos

The Hammer is the fastest way to defeat a Stalfos, as it will kill it with a single blow. By running past them when first entering the room, there is a chance they will group up enough for you to be able to kill more than one per attack. 2 or 3 uses of the Hammer are usually enough to clear the room.

Skip from 7F to 8F

Discovered By Weegeechan, Refined By Viskiv

By performing a Bombrod on 7F, it is possible to clip into 8F and skip one Small Key and a few platform rides.

1. Go to the northern switch and stand on the blue pillars below it.
2. Place a bomb on the edge of the pillar and slash the switch.
3. Drop down from the pillar and land the the switch.
4. Move slightly south towards the bomb without falling off the switch
5. Perform the Bombrod and clip into 8F room and grab fairies if needed.

Once in 8F, step into the warp and you'll be taken to 9F to fight the Flying Tiles like normal. This is one of the hardest Bombrods in the game to perform and is not done in normal speedruns due to it's difficulty.

7F Fast Silver Rupee Chest

Discovered By minimini352

By abusing respawn mechanics it's possible to grab the chest on 7F, void out, and quickly respawn such that there's almost no backtracking.

10F Faster Switches

The 10F room can be completed faster by efficiently using the bow to activate some of the switches, instead of walking over to all of them. Some diagonal shots are also possible.

The optimal way to complete it is to stand on the bottom left corner of the elevator as it is going up, shoot an arrow straight north when you reach 10F, move south and perform the diagonal shot seen in the picture above and hit the switch on the right with you sword. You can then make your way near the next elevator and shoot the remaining switch with your bow once you're there.

This way is only optimal if you haven't done the Miniboss Skip. If you've done the skip, then you won't have enough energy / won't be coming from the correct place to do it that way.

Skip from 10F to 11F

Discovered By Weegeechan

By performing a Bombrod on 10F, it is possible to skip hitting all the switches in the room to lower the platform with the Mole.

1. Move up to the left side of the platform with the Mole.
2. Throw a bomb up on to it and perform a Bombrod.

You'll clip into the platform above you on 11F, skipping lowering the platform.

11F One Cycle

If you're fast and you position Link in the right places, you can reach the Big Key Chest and the Boss Door in a single cycle of the moving platform.

The moving platform will always start at the same spot as soon as you reach 11F. Immediately pound the right mole, and then follow this diagram:

Note: If you're short on Rupees for whatever reason, you can instead merge along the wall hidden by the camera between the Big Chest and Boss Door for 20 Rupees.

Boss Strategy: Moldorm

Moldorm only takes damage when hit on the sphere at the tail end of his body, and has a total of 7 HP. The fastest way to defeat him is to use 3 arrow shots and 1 sword slash.

Shoot an arrow first from the position shown below. Moldorm moves randomly, so try to predict where he moves and fire two more arrows. You want to finish with the sword slash because Moldorm will turn red and speed up after taking a certain amount of damage.

Another, slightly easier but slightly slower strategy is to use 1 arrow, 2 spin attacks, and finish with a normal slash. Shoot an arrow first like with 3 arrow strategy, then hit two spin attacks instead of the second and third arrows. Spin attacks are slower overall, but it makes it easier to hit because they have a larger attack range.

Spawning Pendant of Power Timesaver

Normally after defeating Moldorm, the Pendant of Power will not spawn until you have either collected the Heart Container or have waited a certain amount of time. These things can be avoided and the animation for spawning the Pendant can be skipped entirely.

This is done by simply falling down to 12F, the floor right below the boss platform. Once there, hammer a Mole and return back to 13F to find that the Pendant of Power will now be spawned.

Beating Tower Of Hera Without Merging

Discovered By Linkshot

Due to multiple tricks and glitches, it is possible to reach and beat Tower Of Hera without merging a single time, meaning it is possible to beat it as the first dungeon, before ever entering Eastern Palace.

To get past the 1F room, you will have to combine a Recoil Jump with a Bomb Boost. Stand on top of the right raised blue wall, as far as possible in the bottom right corner. Place a Bomb north of where you're standing just before the spiky spinning enemy starts moving north, charge a spin attack facing east and release the spin attack as the bomb is about to explode.

If done correctly, the spin attack will recoil off the spiky enemy, Link will start a jump animation (because he is standing so close to the edge of the wall) and get hit by the bomb explosion, which will boost him south over the small ledge.

Once you reach 3F, use a bomb to activate one of the wall switches to lower the walls surrounding you. From there, perform the Miniboss skip to go from 3F to 9F and avoid all other areas that would require you to merge.