Play the real game in your browser and see everyone else who's playing: walking past you in Kakariko, standing in the same dungeon room, chatting while they fight. Then team up and go down into the Dive, a dungeon that's different every time.
Everyone in the same place shows up in your game. Chat, form a party, or have your friends follow you around Hyrule.
The Dive
Fall floor after floor through dungeons built from the real ones. Find gear, fight recoloured bosses, pick relics.
Your game, your save
You load your own copy of the game. It never leaves your computer, and your save follows your account.
Getting started
You need your own copy of A Link to the Past for the SNES (the US version). Everything else happens in the browser.
Make an account
Pick a name and a password. Your save, your look and your Dive gear are kept on it.
Load your ROM
Choose the file (.sfc, .smc, or a zip). It's checked and stored in your browser, on that device only.
Play, or just watch
Click to start. No ROM to hand? Just watch shows everyone's games live; click one to see it big.
Controls
Keyboard, controller, or the touch pad on a phone, whichever you like. You can switch between them at any time.
Keyboard
←↑→↓
Move
Z
Sword
X
Talk, lift, open, read
A
Use your item
S
Map
QW
L and R
Enter
Item menu (Start)
Right Shift
Save and quit (Select)
T
Chat
Controller
XYAB
Xbox, PlayStation and Switch Pro controllers all work, and so does most anything else your browser recognises. Plug it in, press a button, and play. The buttons sit where they did on the SNES pad.
SNES
Does
Xbox
PlayStation
Switch
B
Sword
A
✕
B
A
Talk, lift
B
○
A
Y
Item
X
□
Y
X
Map
Y
△
X
L / R
L / R
LB / RB
L1 / R1
L / R
Start
Item menu
Menu
Options
+
Select
Save and quit
View
Create
−
The stick moves too. Chat still needs a keyboard. If the controller does nothing, press one of its buttons while this tab is in front: browsers wait for that before they let a page use it.
Playing together
When someone is in the same place as you, you see their Link in your game, looking the way they chose: under Your Link in the side panel you can recolour your tunic or become one of over 500 fan-made characters. Your enemies, chests and story stay your own, so nobody can finish a dungeon for you.
Pick any of 500+ character sprites
T say something to everyone
/w name hello whisper to one person
/invite name ask someone into your party
/accept join a party you were asked to
/p hello talk to your party only
/lead your party follows you around
/who see who's on
/leave leave your party
When somebody finds an Epic or Legendary piece of gear or beats a boss in the Dive, everyone hears about it in chat. Hover an item's name to see what it does.
Your story, in a group
Everyone plays their own adventure. Playing alongside other people changes who you meet and how hard the fights are, never what you've earned.
Your save is yours
Your items, hearts, crystals and finished dungeons live in your own save, on your account. Nobody can beat a dungeon for you, and following a friend doesn't skip you ahead. Save as usual and pick up on any computer.
Who you see
You see the people in the same place as you: the same patch of overworld or the same dungeon room. The Light World and the Dark World are separate, so a friend in the Dark World won't show up until you get there too.
Shared fights
In a party, the enemies in a room are the same for all of you: you see each other's hits land, and a Moblin one of you kills is gone for everyone. Each friend in the room gives the enemies three-quarters more health. Bosses and drops stay your own.
Different chapters
The game puts different enemies out depending on how far along you are. If your party is at different points in the story, each of you keeps your own enemies in that spot, and chat tells you so. Everything else still works together.
A shared world
Cut grass, lifted bushes and smashed pots disappear for everyone standing there, and grow back a minute after you all leave. Rocks don't, since some of them block the way until you find the gloves.
Showing the way
Type /lead and your party follows you from place to place, through doors and across the map. Each of them still needs their own items to get past anything that needs one. Other players are solid, so you can't walk through each other.
The Dive
A dungeon that's different every time you go in. Stand anywhere outdoors with a sword and press the Dive button in the side panel, or type /dive.
Each floor is put together from pieces of the real dungeons, so you'll know the walls, the statues, the pots and the enemies, but never the layout. Nine dungeons lend their look and music. Somewhere on every floor there's a pit: jump in, and you're on the next floor down. It glows, so you can't miss it. The deeper you go, the tougher the enemies and the better the loot.
Murky Cisterns
Turtle Deeps
Shadow Palace
Dark Spire
Keys and locks
Locked doors open with a small key from a chest on the same floor. Cracked walls can be bombed, and there's always something good behind them.
Sealed rooms
Some rooms shut behind you and won't open again until every enemy in them is down.
Boss floors
Every third floor, the way down is behind a boss: Armos Knights, Lanmolas, Moldorm, Mothula or Vitreous, in new colours and throwing fire they never had. Sometimes it's a swarm or waves of enemies instead. Win and you get Epic gear or better.
Leaving
Walk out the door on the first floor whenever you like. If you die, the dive ends too, and you still keep everything you found, unless you're on Hardcore.
Vitreous, Frozen Depths
Armos Knights, Dark Spire
Diving with friends
If you're in a party, whoever starts the dive picks the dungeon and the difficulty, and everyone else gets a Join button. You all walk the same floors and fight the same enemies. /dive new rolls a fresh dungeon.
Relics and Deep Rupees
Each floor hides a relic chest, and Deep Rupees turn up as you go. More on both below.
Difficulty
The Dive button asks how hard you want it. Click a card or press 123. You can also type it straight away: /dive hard or /dive hardcore.
About Hardcore. Anything you find gets a little skull in your bag. You can wear it, but it only becomes yours when you walk back out the first floor's door. Die and it's gone, along with the Deep Rupees you picked up. Fairies won't save you, bottled or not. Everyone in chat hears how it went.
Gear
Dive chests hold swords, shields, tunics and jewellery: a necklace, earrings, bracers, and a ring for each hand. Open Dive gear in the side panel to put it on. The top row is what you're wearing.
The deeper you found something, the better its numbers. Swords and shields come in their own colours, and other players see them too. Swords and bracers lean towards damage, shields and tunics towards defence, necklaces heal you over time, earrings land double hits, and rings heal you when you hit things.
The best swords do more than hit hard. An Epic or Legendary blade can throw fire, ice or lightning every time you swing. Fire burns and lights torches, ice freezes enemies solid, and lightning flies out as three sparks. A Legendary might throw flaming skulls, and the rarest of all, The Whirlwind, turns every swing into a spin attack.
Gear is made for the Dive. In the rest of Hyrule it still helps, but only a little: a quarter of its damage, defence and double-hit chance, and never more than +25% damage, 15% less damage taken or 10% double hits. Healing, magic, sword beams, thrown elements and the Whirlwind only work in the Dive. Shop perks work the same way. The real game stays the real game.
Deep Rupees and the shop
Deep Rupees are the Dive's own money. You get some for every new floor you reach, some from chests, and a lot for beating a boss floor. Spend them in the Dive shop in the side panel. Each rank of a perk costs twice the one before.
Perk
Each rank
Ranks
First rank
Relics
Once a floor you'll open a relic chest. The game pauses and offers you three; pick one with a click or 123. Relics last until the dive is over, and picking the same one again makes it stronger. They sit in the corner of your screen; hover one to see what it does.
Questions
Is my ROM uploaded anywhere?
No. It stays in your browser's storage on your device, and the server doesn't hold any of the game's data. People watching you see pictures of your screen, the way a stream works.
Does the Dive change my save?
No. The enemies you beat and the chests you open in the Dive belong to the Dive. Your real dungeons are left alone. Gear, Deep Rupees and perks are kept on your account, separate from your save.
Why can't I dive yet?
You need a sword first (your uncle's will do), and you have to be outdoors. Press Dive and it tells you which one is missing.
What happens if I die in the Dive?
You get the usual game over, and the dive ends. Everything you found is in your bag. A Second Chance relic or a fairy in a bottle will get you back up, except on Hardcore.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. On a phone or tablet a gamepad appears on the screen: under the game when you hold the phone upright, over its edges when you turn it sideways. If you pair a real controller, tap Pad: on to turn it off. You'll need your ROM on the phone too.
Thanks
Hyrule Online stands on a lot of other people's generous work.
Every character in the picker was drawn by a fan artist and shared through the Randomizer's gallery. The picker shows who made each one. Thank you, artists.
