Those who wanted to secure one of the highly coveted empty bottles in the world of Hyrule usually paid an early visit to Lon-Lon Farm in the original version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time . At farm owner Talon's place, within a tight time limit, players had to catch three of his special “super chickens” from a flock of identical-looking counterparts. For nearly 30 years, players bypassed this time-consuming needle-in-a-haystack search with a simple trick, but in the fresh remake for the Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo now puts an end to this cheating.

The 90s trick: Preparation is everything

In the 1998 Nintendo 64 classic, the minigame was very easy to outsmart: Before talking to Talon and paying the starting fee, players simply picked up all the ordinary chickens in the room one by one and threw them behind Talon into the corner next to the stairs. There, the animals obediently remained confined.

Only after that did players start the game. Talon then let his three special chickens flutter directly into the empty center of the room. Instead of wasting scarce pocket money on several failed attempts, the player caught the three isolated birds within five seconds and secured the valuable bottle with Lon-Lon milk on the first try.

Talon's chicken reset: Honest work for the bottle

In the Switch 2 remake, this workaround no longer works. Players have already tried to herd the animals back into the corners or onto the stairs, but the chickens inevitably slide back onto the main floor.

More importantly, a programmed safety routine kicks in: As soon as Link starts the dialogue with Talon, the game automatically reshuffles all the chickens in the room and redistributes them evenly. This time, the bottle can only be obtained through honest effort. At least, thanks to much more precise and smoother controls on the Switch 2, picking up and throwing happens noticeably faster than with the N64 controller, making the time limit fairly manageable even without cheating.

Patched glitches and surviving Easter eggs

The closed chicken loophole is not an isolated case. Nintendo used the remake to smooth out several other well-known small glitches and exploits from the original:

  • Drawbridge removed: Climbing the thick chains on the drawbridge of Hyrule Castle, to safely and early access rubies, is no longer possible – Link now simply falls through the chain collision.

  • Fairy magic remains: Other quirky gameplay mechanics, however, were allowed to survive. Touching butterflies with a Deku Stick still transforms the insects into healing fairies.

  • Free dungeon order: Early speedrunners and explorers also report that certain temples in the adult section can still be completed outside the order suggested by the game.

With the remake of Ocarina of Time Nintendo demonstrates a fine sensibility for which quirks define the cult status of the title – but now demands a minimum level of honest effort from its hero when grabbing milk bottles.