Beta Quest is an Exit Randomizer. Most, but not all, exits in the game are taken and shuffled around. This means just about every loading zone the player will enter will take them somewhere different than normal. It is however possible for exits to randomize to their normal intended location.
How does the shuffling work? Do I have to patch a ROM for every seed?
If you are like me you do not like external ROM patchers, especially if you like to play on Wii Virtual Console where you have to install the game every…single…time! The shuffling is seeded with the name of the file being played on. As long as the file name is the same the randomization will the same. This means the ROM does not need to be patched every time. Install the game once and then simply create files with different names to get a whole new Beta Quest for each one!
Where does the name "Beta Quest" come from?
The name Beta Quest comes from a series of codes discovered ages ago that were said to enable a sort of unfinished second quest, due to the fact that exit points were "scrambled", and that you could encounter then unused set pieces and actor layouts. Link to quote
When a new file is used the player will fall down the hole to Termina. And so their journey will begin...
Falling down the hole will take the player to the randomized starting location which is whatever replaces South Clock Town (from the Clock Tower). This is the same location used when the player plays the Song of Time and returns to Dawn of the First Day.
Most, but not all, of the cutscenes thoughout the game have either been shortened or removed altogether. This cuts down on waiting time and keeps the player playing the game instead of sitting around.
There are quite a few exits in the game that exist simply for the purposes of cutscenes. Some of these are effectly removed due to cutscenes being shorted. Some are included in the exit list while others are not. If they are a type of exit that leads to an item reward they are not random. If they don't lead to an item reward then they are random.
For Beta Quest all Grottos in the game are considered unique. As veteran players may know there is a specific Grotto, known as the Generic Grotto, that is reused in several places in the game. There are 13 of them to be precise. As well as there are 2 Cow Grottos. All of these, yes all of them, are separate and in the exit list. So although the player may find a "Generic Grotto" and leave it, finding another one and leaving it will not necessarily lead to the same location if it's not the same one they were in before.
Each and every one of the Generic Grottos are set to have their intended chest contents as well.
For Mountain Village in the Winter the spawn point from the Grotto is placed up near the Goron Graveyard since it's location is only actually accessible during the Spring. The second room of the path leading up to the top in the Spring time does not actually exist during the winter so spawning the player at the proper position would result in them falling out of bounds.
Dying is considered an exit and thus will warp the player somewhere new. This is done by using the last exit to get the new one. Take a look at the two following scenarios.
Both of the above will lead to the same new location.
Some exits in the game are normally only possible to get once. Usually because it's an exit from a cutscene and once that cutscene has been cleared it won't play again. These exits can still be used again later. For example, if the player loads into Termina Field from the end of the Skull Kid cutscene near the Swamp. Then by using death the player could get back to the location they were sent to when they watched that cutscene earlier.
Because of death working like this it in general means there are two ways to achieve most, if not all, exits in the game. This should make it always possible to reach any exit even when they player may think they are locked out of it.
Lets take a look at an example of a possible case where death may be required to reach a specific location. Let us say the following.
Leave Bomb Shop → Enter Bomb Shop
To the untrained eye the player might think that this means it is impossible to ever get into the Bomb Shop. Because how can the player leave the Bomb Shop without being in it? This is where the mechanics of death come into play! If the player finds the following.
??? → West Clock Town (from Bomb Shop)
Then they can use death to reach the Bomb Shop. After having spawned at this location the player could then die (by using Blast Mask most likely in this case). After dying they will then be loaded into the Bomb Shop! This is because the death acted as if the player had left the shop and used this to calculate their new location which is then the Bomb Shop.
If the player does not yet have Magic Power then all Fairy's Fountains are redirected to the Clock Town Fountain. Once the player obtains Magic Power the other four Fountains become accessible.
So effectly this means any time the player is taken to the Clock Town Fountain before they have Magic Power it could possibly be one of the other fountains. If they wish to obtain other Great Fairy rewards they may want to re-check the exit again later on.
There are several cases where minigames, upon completion, lead to a new exit where the player recieves a reward. These types of exits are not randomized. The player is intended to recieve the reward for completion like normal.
The Giant's Chamber is not randomized. When a player defeats a dungeon boss and then enters the blue warp collecting the Boss Remains they are intended to go here as normal. The exit the player is taken to afterward is then randomized to go some where else.
Some of the blue warps from dungeons lead to a second different exit if they are used again later on. These are included in the exit list.
As of version 1.1.2 when the player uses the Song of Soaring the textboxes will now say the correct name of the new location. This, however, does not apply when soaring within a dungeon as all of them normally use the same single name of "Entrance".
Something different is used in the case of the textbox for soaring within a dungeon. 😏
Normally after defeating a boss the area around it changes as well as returning to the boss' lair the player will find they are still defeated. In the case of Woodfall Temple having the temple raised outside, by playing Sonata of Awakening, is a requirement. Believe it or not this is how it works in the normal game. It is simply unchanged in Beta Quest. If the temple is not raised then defeating Odolwa effectively changes nothing about the area. Upon returning to his lair he will be alive again as well as the Southern Swamp areas will not be cleared from the poison.
Entering and leaving the three different telescopes in the game are not randomized. The Astral Obersvatory's isn't randomized as the player is intended to activate the Moon's Tear. The others are not included for consistency. The player will still need to find Termina Field separately to obtain the Moon's Tears after having activated it.
Completing the Powder Keg Trial in Beta Quest would be extremely difficult if not even impossible in most all seeds. For this reason the Keg Trial is not required. Once Goron Mask has been obtained the Powder Keg is simply available for purchase.
The Moon crash that happens once the 3rd day has ended is not random and will still cause all current cycle progess to be lost. Randomly getting this at some point seemed very punishing so it is excluded. The exit afterward, however, is still randomized. This is done to prevent having a guaranteed Clock Tower exit just by simply letting time expire.
Voiding out is not randomized and functions as normal. However there are special case "voids" which are not actually void outs at all but instead are actually normal exits. They were designed to look or appear as if they are void outs. Since these do work as a normal exit they are included in the list and will take the player some where new. The following is a list of these exits for the player to be aware of.
In the Options menu on the File Select screen the Sound options have been replaced and the game will always use the Stereo Option (this cannot be changed). Instead there is an Exclusion Option. This allows the player to choose from a few options to exclude specific exits to make some things a little easier.
Nothing additional will be excluded from the randomization. This is the default setting.
This option will exclude entering the Bomb Shop from the randomization.
This option will exclude entering Clock Tower (from South Clock Town) from the randomization.
This option will exclude both entering the Bomb Shop and Clock Tower from the randomization.
The Bomb Shop is a single exit which could end up being difficult to find. As well as none of the Bomb Bags are changed so bombs must first be obtained at the Bomb Shop. With it excluded the player will just need to find West Clock Town, which has many entrances, then they can easily buy bombs.
The Clock Tower has four exits the player can get for it but it still may be difficult. With it excluded getting the Deku Mask and Song of Healing will be much easier as they just need to find South Clock Town.
In general there is very little logic built in. There is only logic to attempt to avoid softlocks and/or crashes. There is no logic in place to guarantee glitchless completion to be possible. It is recommended that you at least know how to Bomb Hover or it is probably unlikely you will be able to complete any given seed.
If certain exits lead to a specific exit it could result in a softlock. For example:
Stone Tower (from Uninvert) → Inverted Stone Tower (from Invert)
In this case if the player at any point found the other Inverted Stone Tower (from Inverted Stone Tower Temple) exit then they would effectively become stuck in an infinite loop of uninverting Stone Tower. Likewise the same could happen in the other direction becoming stuck in an infinite loop of inverting Stone Tower. These types of cases are prevented from happening when the exits are getting shuffled around.
When the player is being taken to a Water Spawn their form will be changed if necessary. Spawning into water as Deku Link form or Goron Link form will cause the player to void out immediately and try to respawn them again. Depending on the circumstances this may result in an infinite loop of voiding in the water. To prevent this the player will be changed to Child Link form.
In some cases Epona cannot be loaded into a scene and if the game tries to load her it may crash. Additionally there can be cases where the player would spawn with her and then just be completely stuck and unable to do anything. For these reasons on every exit the player is set to not be riding Epona. However, there are two specific cases where the player can still spawn on her. The Romani Ranch Archery minigame and the Gorman Brothers Race.
The Chamber of Fate is a custom map that has been added that is similar to the "Sky Temple" in Ocarina of Time Beta Quest. It does not entirely work the same however. In Ocarina of Time it is only placed on a grotto. Here in Majora's Mask before the exits are shuffled around one of them is randomly selected to trigger this map on. It can be on any exit in the game not just a grotto.
When the player spawns into the Chamber of Fate they will not be able to move and three Iron Knuckles will immediately be activated. Once the player is hit by one of the Iron Knuckles they will gain control of Link and be able to play again. This means the player must either have a bottled fairy, double defense, or more than four hearts of health in order to even survive the initial hit of the Iron Knuckles.
Once the player has defeated all of the Iron Knuckles the barred doors will open and a chest will appear behind each one. These chests contain an item that may or may not end up being useful to the player. Only one chest can be opened. Once a Chest has been opened the Chamber will no longer be accessible for the rest of the seed.
Just to clarify and avoid confusion about this map. It DOES NOT replace an exit disallowing access until it is completed. The Chamber of Fate acts as a middle man between two exits. Once it is completed it is simply removed from the equation.
Not completed
exit → Chamber of Fate → new location
Completed
exit → new location
Ready to get started? Below is the ROM Patcher. Choose which console you would like to use.
Click on the open ROM Patcher button to open the Patcher. Open an original Majora's Mask ROM. Click apply patch and save the new ROM.
Even if you want to play on Wii Virtual Console you will need to open the Nintendo 64 ROM in the patcher then apply the patch.
Notice: As soon as the ROM Patcher is opened it will automatically begin fetching the patch file and download it.
View a list of what has been changed about Beta Quest.
Stuck and can't find where an exit is that you need? Watching someone play Beta Quest and want to see where certain exits are for them? Then look no further! Generate a spoiler log to see where everything is. All you need are the filename and the exclusion setting.
Please do not spoil where exit's lead unless the player specifically asks for that information.
Interested in how Beta Quest works? Here you can see some documentation about how some of it works.
Easily track where exits lead. Features a search to quickly find exits that have been tracked.