Running Man in OoT 3D: Where He Is, the Bunny Hood and His Race

Who the Running Man is

The Running Man is the jogger who calls himself “the wandering, running man.” In Ocarina of Time 3D you meet him twice. As young Link he runs laps around Lon Lon Ranch in Hyrule Field and buys the Bunny Hood. As adult Link he waits in the carpenters’ tent in Gerudo Valley and challenges you to a race you cannot win.

Why he isn’t in Hyrule Field yet

Young Link only meets him after collecting all three Spiritual Stones: the Kokiri Emerald, the Goron Ruby and the Zora Sapphire. Until then he is not in Hyrule Field by day or by night. Two common tips are wrong: you do not need the Ocarina of Time, and you do not need to be carrying the Bunny Hood for him to show up.

The second reason players miss him is where he runs. His loop goes around the outside of Lon Lon Ranch, through open field, so looking inside the ranch walls never finds him.

How to make him stop and talk

• 5 AM to 8 PM: he runs his loop and will not talk to you, even if you stand in his way.
• After 8 PM: he sits down on the next patch of flat ground and rests there until 5 AM. This is the only time you can talk to him.
• Getting there fast: play the Sun’s Song in the daytime. Night falls at 6 PM, but he keeps running until 8 PM, so follow his loop until he sits.

Walk up to him while he sits and talk to him face to face. Before the sale, without a mask, he only talks about the wild rabbits Hyrule used to have.

Selling him the Bunny Hood

The Bunny Hood is the fourth mask in the Happy Mask Shop mask quest. Borrow it after paying for the Spooky Mask, then wear it and talk to him while he sits. He begs to buy it; say yes and he pays enough to fill your wallet. Take 50 Rupees back to the shop.

The game adds 500 Rupees and your wallet cuts it off at its limit, so a bigger wallet keeps more. If you can, upgrade your wallet before you sell.

After the sale: he gets faster, you don’t

Once he has the Bunny Hood, he wears it on his loop and runs more than three times faster than before, so stay out of his path or he knocks Link aside. He also stops trading for good. Without a mask he now only wonders whether being the fastest should make him happy or sad; other masks still get their own reactions.

The Bunny Hood does not speed up Link in Ocarina of Time 3D. That is a Majora’s Mask feature. Borrow it back from the shop if you want its real effect here: while you wear it, Stalchildren do not appear in Hyrule Field at night.

The adult race: Gerudo Valley to the Lost Woods

As adult Link you find him again in the carpenters’ tent on the Gerudo’s Fortress side of the Gerudo Valley bridge. He wants to get back to Hyrule Field, but the bridge is broken, so at first he turns down any challenge.

1. Free all four carpenters in Gerudo’s Fortress. They rebuild the bridge.
2. Go back to the tent and talk to him. He offers a race from the tent to the bridge in the Lost Woods, the one between Kokiri Forest and Hyrule Field.
3. Say yes. A timer starts counting up and he gives you a head start.
4. Cross Hyrule Field and enter the Lost Woods from the field. He is already waiting on the bridge; talk to him to stop the clock.

Can you beat him?

No. When his race first opens, his record is 2:38. At the finish he compares your time with the record:

• Faster than the record: he says your time was good, but he beat you by one second. Your time becomes the new record.
• Equal to or slower than the record: the record stays the same, and he says you don’t have enough killer instinct and tells you to train harder.

Once you have beaten 2:38, he greets you back at the tent with your best time and claims he beat it by one second, so the record he quotes is always one second under yours. That is only how he says it: your saved best time stays exactly what you ran. There is no item, Rupee or Piece of Heart for any time. Nothing in the race checks how you travel, so Epona is fine for the Hyrule Field part.

He will not start a race while another timed task is running, such as a timed trade delivery; finish that first. Your best time is kept with your other records: check the spot by the bed in Link’s house in Kokiri Forest to see the marathon time next to the horse race and horseback archery.

Master Quest and other versions

In 3DS Master Quest the whole world is mirrored, so his loop looks clockwise on the map; the stones, the 8 PM rule, the wallet fill and the race work the same. The Running Man works the same way in the Nintendo 64 original. The idea that the Bunny Hood makes you faster comes from Majora’s Mask, where it does.

For the rest of the trading chain, see the mask quest; for the Bunny Hood itself, see the item list; to find Lon Lon Ranch, Gerudo Valley and the Lost Woods, use the Hyrule map.

Running Man FAQ