This thread is to help inexperienced ZC players - and maybe a few of the more experienced players as well - to learn some of the tricks and skills used by the highly experienced players. Anyone may post their own posts obviously, as some people tend to have tricks of their own that most others don't.
-1) Bombs vs. Enemies:
It's odd that when you bomb a red darknut, it dies, but then when you bomb another red darknut, it doesn't die. Well, there's a system involved in it, but I'll just tell you the important part. When a red darknut (or any enemy, for that matter) heads at you, turn in the same direction that it is coming at you. Then, right before it would hit you, lay a bomb and run off. It does not matter what direction you run off to - just as long as you dropped the bomb in the same direction the darknut was facing.
Note: If the enemy is stronger than a red darknut and is bombed, it won't die, but it will take a considerable amount of damage - 4 wooden sword strikes.
-2) Sword Hitblocks:
When you slash, or even stab, where it hits is right in front of you and yourself. This trick is primarily for fighting darknuts, as no other enemy has a shield that prevents you from attacking it from the front. Go find a red darknut to first practice this trick on. So... given that the darknut charges you from the right or left, face up or down. Then, right when it is about to hit you, slash or stab and then run away. When an enemy takes damage, it cannot harm anything that it physically touches. That said, you can even run over the darknut - this is if you're in a corner and need to get out. And if the darknut comes from above or below, then you face left or right. After enough practice, you should be able to take out darknuts considerably faster than before. Blue darknuts aren't too hard; splitting darknuts take a lot of practice. Obviously, it'd take a god to pull this trick off on a deathknight and then take no damage by the end - that is, without the use of Nayru's Love.
Part 2:
This part deals with bats and keese. Now... this is where you'll need to create yourself a battle arena if you want to master it, because this is harder than the darknut one... especially versus bats. Right before - and this timing must be VERY precise - a keese or bat is about to hit you from behind or from the side, strike. Running in most cases is not neccessary, but if you're fighting bats, then you may have to.
-3) Attacking through objects:
If you're in a room where there are objects or small walls/barricades of 1 tile in height, get BELOW it - above won't help unless it is only half a tile in height. Right when an enemy comes in to attack from above, strike it through the barricade. Now... if it is a darknut that is coming right at you, from the other side, then the timing will need to be a little more precise. Instead of striking it whenever it is just plain in range, wait for the darknut to touch the barricade. Right when it does touch the barricade, strike it. If you strike too soon, it will bounce off. If you strike too late and it heads back up, then you won't reach it... unless you're striking through a height of half a tile.
-4) Bombing yourself:
Believe it or not, this is very useful for several things... unless your health is low. Pretty much, if you're about to get hit by something that just can't seem to dodge (In this case, I'm pretty much referring to Hero of Dreams, because I KNOW this happens a lot), then bomb yourself past it. Obviously, you'll want to be facing the same way that the attack is coming at you. Then bomb yourself. Up to date, the only quest (that I know of)where you may have to use this is in Hero of Dreams (HoD).
Part 2:
Now this involves more than one quest. If you need to get past something that damages you (it cannot be solid though) or past step-triggers as a shortcut, - possibly to reduce damage through a spike maze - bomb yourself over.
-5) One-bomb Aquamentus:
Quickest way to kill an aquamentus in early game: bomb it. Alright... slightly after mid-way between its left and right movements, place the bomb on it. The bomb should explode and hit it twice: the first time is the initial explosion when it is just changing to move towards the other direction; the second time is the lasting part of the explosion, which should hit it while it is at the midway point. It may take a few tries to get the aquamentus in one bomb.
EDIT: As erm2003 pointed out, this is actually a bug. So... instead, just bomb it once and then stab it twice.
-6) Dodongos and Replenishing Bombs:
When a dodongo heads towards you - make sure it's alone - and is in range of being bombed, bomb it. Wait a very small amount of time and lay a second bomb. If timed correctly, (the period in which you can lay the second bomb is actually pretty long, regardless of how short it is) it should explode on top of the dodongo instead of being eaten. You will then see the dodongo stop moving. Strike it with your sword, and when it dies, it will automatically give you 4 bombs. You actually can take out a dodongo in one bomb, where the bomb is laid right next to the dodongo to explode while it is moving and then stab it, but this is a lot harder. Also, when you super bomb a dodongo for it to eat, it will die and give you a super bomb anyways.
-7) Ladders, Holes, and Enemies:
Out of all the tricks, this is probably one of the cheapest... even so, use it anyways, because in this game, you WANT to be cheap and abuse every trick there is. Let's say you're in a room with a lot of strong enemies and holes that you can use your ladder over. Of course, it's going to be harder to do this if there are ranged enemies like wizzrobes, - block the shots, wait for it to get near, and slash it - but it would still be extremely useful. First, get the heck over that hole... while at the same time, hitting everything that's in the way. Second, slash anything that comes near you from the hole. It's that simple... and that darn cheap. It's especially good versus darknuts - we all want to find the best ways to destroy them at all costs.
-8) Slashing with Stabbing:
This one is really tricky... and this applies more to stabbing than slashing, as multi-slashing is harder to pull off. Pretty much, right when you stab in one direction, turn to another direction. The timing on this is EXTREMELY precise and takes a long time to get down, but when done correctly, you will hit in the direction that you first faced and the direction that you faced second... and of course, yourself. The advantage to doing this over standard slashing is that you can hit something in front of and behind you. Real nifty. I don't think I've pulled multi-slashing off much at all, so I'm really not sure on the details of that one.
-9) The Wand without Magic:
If you're using a wand and it runs out of magic, it is still a weapon. In other words, it's a substitute for the white sword until you get it.
[L says: there is a Quest Rule that, if set, renders the Wand useless as a weapon. If you find the Wand fairly early in a quest, then it's likely that this rule is set.]
-10) Stunning Darknuts, Wizzrobes, and Peahats:
Don't you hate how you just can't seem to stun any of these guys (deathknights and mirror wizzrobes are excluded)? Well, you can. Using either the hookshot or the fire boomerang, you can stun darknuts and wizzrobes from the side. However, these darknuts and wizzrobes CANNOT be stunned while on a full tile. So they will have to be stunned while transitioning to another tile. This may be hard at first, but after you try it out quite a few times, you'll get the hang of it. Note that darknuts will be much harder to stun than wizzrobes. Peahats, on the other hand, can only be stunned by the fire boomerang, and this can be at any time. Sayonara to ye peahats!
-11) Link + Hookshot = Invincibility:
It's this simple: Whenever you fire the hookshot, you are invulnerable during that period of time. Even if you're not targeting anything specifically, this can still be used to dodge a projectile or something that's running over you. Also note that when the hookshot comes back at you, anything that is in the vicinity of where you stand is stunned.
[L says: this is a carry-over from A Link to the Past, where it also applied.]
-12) Diagonal Throw of the Boomerang:
This is one of the most essential skills to playing ZC, next to learning that the A button is to stab with your sword and that the B button is to use your items. To do this, just press two adjacent directions at the same time and throw your boomerang. By adjacent, I mean these sets of directions: up-right / down-right / down-left / up-left. There are a ton of tricks with the boomerang, which can arguably make it the best and cheapest weapon in the game, but those are tricks that cannot really be explained clearly.
Those are most of the ones that I know... as I seem to have temporarily forgotten what the others that I know of are. Hope that this helped out a lot, as I'm sure that it did to just about everyone who reads this.