Discovered by FierceLinkMaster

Trick Description

Hovering is one of the most useful tricks in the game. The trick lets you backflip while already in the air to keep gaining height or distance and reach normally unreachable places through use of the shield, a damage source, and ISG.

Hovering uses the feature of ISG which prevents you from falling off edges when on the ground. When you shield a damage source in the air, the game temporarily places Link in the grounded state before he starts falling. Since ISG doesn't allow Link to start falling when on the ground, Link remains stuck in the air. From this position, link may do another backflip to hover higher.

If hovering close to the ground, the game will place link down on the ground after a few seconds. For this reason, hovering must either be performed off a ledge, or two hovers must be done off ground level in quick succession before the game has time to place link down so that link will stay in the air.

How To

The first step for hovering is to activate ISG. After ISG has been activated, there are various methods to perform the trick:

Bombchu hovers

1. Backflip
2. Pull bombchu while in midair
3. Immediately press and hold R to shield

For a maximum height hover, pull the bombchu 1 frame after backflipping, then begin holding R on either of the next two frames.

Bomb hovers

1. Pull out a bomb
2. Wait for the fuse to almost run out
3. Hold up your shield and backflip such that the explosion hits your shield in midair

The distance Link travels and the height he gets from a bomb hover depend on the backflip timing:

• Height hovers mostly move upwards, and are done by backflipping when the bomb fuse only has a few frames left; see table below
• Distance hovers let Link travel backwards without gaining much height, and are done by backflipping when the bomb fuse has about a second left

Blast Mask hovers

1. Put on Blast Mask
2. Backflip
3. Press B and hold R to shield at the same time (Can be easily buffered)

Hovering from the ground

As mentioned above, hovering from the ground can be done, however is difficult as it requires two hovers in quick succession.

Hovering from the ground is easier if the second hover is done with a Bombchu or Blast Mask. However, it is doable with 2 bombs using the "staircase" method.

Gauging height

When Link shields damage to hover, he stays in position for a few frames. For backflip hovers meant to gain specific amounts of height, it can be useful to look at Link's feet or his shield during these frames to gauge how much height the hover gained. The table below shows the highest 6 frames of the backflip. Because it takes time for Link to pull and shield drop a bombchu, bombchu hovers can only occur on the max height frame or beyond. Hovering off of other damage sources, such as bombs, gives Link freedom to backflip at any point before shielding damage, so the frames prior to the max height frame can be achieved.

3f past max height	2f past max height	1f past max height	max height	1f before max height	2f before max height
Feet apart at bottom Gains 15.6 height	Feet apart in middle Gains 18.9 height	Feet apart at top Gains 20.7 height	Feet together at top Gains 21 height First possible bombchu hover frame	Feet not visible, tunic visible at top Gains 19.8 height	Neither feet nor tunic visible at top Gains 17.1 height

Changing direction while hovering

Discovered by MrGrunz

The camera is normally locked in a Z/L-target position during a hover, but it is possible to unlock the camera which allows the direction of hovering to be changed in the middle of the hover.

To unlock the camera, you need to find something to Z/L-target. This could be an enemy or NPC, but it's most common to use bombchus since they can be targeted while hovering off of them. To unlock the camera with a bombchu, do a normal bombchu hover and tap Z/L on the frame before the explosion or the first frame of the explosion. This frame window varies in relation to the R press timing depending on whether the R press is immediate or not, since Link can only begin shielding a minimum of 2 frames after the bombchu input. For clarity:

Shield ASAP

Frame	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Input	A to backflip	C for bombchu & R to shield	-	-	Z/L to untarget	Z/L to untarget	can no longer untarget with bombchu

Shield 1f after chu

Frame	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Input	A to backflip	C for bombchu	R to shield	-	Z/L to untarget	Z/L to untarget	can no longer untarget with bombchu

Shield at any other time

Frame	1	2	3	n	n+1	n+2	n+3
Input	A to backflip	C for bombchu	-	R to shield	Z/L to untarget	Z/L to untarget	can no longer untarget with bombchu

Once you unlock your camera, you should notice the black 'bars' at the top and bottom of the screen disappear.

Once you unlock the camera, you still won't be able to turn link around straight away. First you must hold up and slightly left or right on the analog stick. You should see link slowly walking towards the direction that you hold. If he is strafing sideways or not moving then you're holding too far left/right. Once you get into this position, let go of the analog stick for a very short amount of time and then tap the direction that you want to face, and link should turn to face that direction.

Other Notes

• Hovering can be used in conjunction with the megaflip to save explosives. One megaflip hover goes the distance of 3 regular hovers and only uses 2 explosives.
• Holding a direction and mashing the Ocarina button while in a hover is one of the methods of performing an Ocarina Dive.
• Using a bottle or an event item will activate the cutscene and cause Link to fall. He will continue to fall, even if he encounters things like water or ice crystals, until he hits a floor.
• Swinging your sword while hovering will cancel the ISG and cause you to immediately fall at top speed. Switching masks will also cause him to unstick, but Link will start from rest.
• Switching to the Zora Mask from a hover is often used to reach up to ledges that are normally too high to reach. This often requires unlocking the camera before transforming, but because using transformation masks turns Link differently on JP and English, hovers on English will often require both unlocking the camera and getting an angle change before transforming.
• You can hover off of any source of damage, just like in Ocarina of Time. However, considering how prevalent bombs and bombchus are in Majora's Mask, it isn't likely that you'll be using anything else as your source of damage.
• Hovering against a wall is possible with all three methods. However, you must pull and shield the bombchu very quickly if you want to use the first method. If you are playing on the Japanese version of the game, you must also slash your sword at least once before activating ISG. This is due to the PCS Effect.