Path Hints

This hint system aims to leverage knowledge of where items are found in the original game to provide information about where proofs may reside. This system is loosely inspired by Path to Reward hints from Ocarina of Time Randomizer.

As a baseline, the Shananas style tracking is in place, meaning that once you have collected all the trackable items in a world, the tracker will indicate the world’s completion (with default settings, the world’s number turns blue). As long as the world is not indicated as complete, there is something else “important” there.

Path hints make use of the Ansem Reports in a way to point you toward proof locations. When you collect an Ansem Report, a hint text will appear, telling you about zero to three proofs, and references a world. As an example, consider this example hint:

Example Path Hint 1

In this example, the Ansem Report you found is telling you about Beast’s Castle, and that the items you collect there will create “paths” toward the Proof of Peace. In this example, you find Fire and Thunder, and since Fire is originally found in Hollow Bastion, Agrabah, and Pride Lands, and Thunder is originally found in Pride Lands, Olympus Coliseum, and Land of Dragons, one of those five worlds could have the Proof of Peace.

In this example, if there are no more important checks in Beast’s Castle, and that world in the tracker is indicated as completed, then you know 100% that the Proof of Peace must be in one of those five worlds. If there are items left to collect, you may not know all the information yet.

Something more interesting can occur with path hints, where you may get information about multiple proofs at once:

Example Path Hint 2

In this example, Beast’s Castle “is on the path to all lights” meaning all proofs are hinted by the items found in Beast’s Castle. For this example, since Cure and Magnet are the only items found in Beast’s Castle, all three proofs must be in the six worlds above.

Another interesting hint you may receive involves when a world does not hint a proof:

Example Path Hint 2

If a hint says that a world “has no path to the light”, you know that any item you find in that world cannot point to a proof.

Original Locations Cheatsheet

Since the paths are determined by where the items are found in the vanilla game, here’s a cheatsheet with what the randomizer considers “original” locations. The numbers on the world icons refer to the total number of items that hint each world, including multiples for magic, torn pages, and world locks. This means that if you’ve received more hints for a given proof than a world’s number, the proof could not be in that world. For example, imagine a scenario where you’ve received 4 different hints towards Proof of Peace. This would mean the Proof of Peace could not be in any world with a number less than 4, so Sora’s Heart, Simulated Twilight Town, and Atlantica would all be eliminated.

Vanilla Checks

Or alternatively, here’s a table based on the items and what worlds they can point toward:

Vanilla Checks 2

Feel free to save these onto your computer for reference.

Notable Callouts