| Length of a cycle | 72 in-game hours (three days and three nights), about 54 minutes of real time |
|---|---|
| How a cycle starts | Dawn of the First Day, 6:00 AM, in front of the Clock Tower in South Clock Town |
| How a cycle ends | You play the Song of Time, or the Moon falls at 6:00 AM at the end of the Final Night (Game Over) |
| Permanent save | Playing the Song of Time (the only full save in the N64 version) |
| Temporary save | Owl Statues: a one-use save-and-quit point |
| Time songs |  Inverted Song of Time (slows time to one third of normal speed), Song of Double Time (skips ahead to 6:00 PM or 6:00 AM) |
| Only safe rupees | Rupees deposited at the Clock Town Bank in West Clock Town |
The three-day cycle is the clock that drives all of Majora’s Mask: you get 72 in-game hours before the Moon falls on Clock Town, and playing the Song of Time sends you back to 6:00 AM on the First Day to try again. When you go back, you keep your masks, songs, weapons and other gear, your Bombers’ Notebook and any rupees you put in the bank. You lose everything that is spent, carried or in progress: rupees in your wallet, ammunition, the contents of your bottles, your Title Deeds, small keys, Stray Fairies and your progress through the temples.
Table of Contents
How Time Works in Termina
The clock at the bottom of the screen shows which day it is (1st, 2nd or Final) and the hour, with a sun for the daytime half of the day and a moon for the night half. One in-game hour takes roughly 45 seconds, so a full cycle of 72 hours lasts a little under an hour of real time. The game also announces every dawn and nightfall with a title card that tells you how long is left: 72 hours at the dawn of the First Day, then 60, 48, 36, 24 and finally 12 hours at nightfall on the Final Day. Use these cards as your checkpoints, because they show at a glance how much of the cycle is spent.
Each day runs from dawn to dawn. You begin at 6:00 AM on the First Day, and the Moon crashes into Clock Town at 6:00 AM on the morning after the Final Night. People, shops and events follow fixed schedules inside that window, which is why so many side quests only work at certain hours. The Bombers’ Notebook records those schedules for you.
If the Moon lands, it is Game Over, and everything you did since your last Song of Time save is gone. You can play the Song of Time from anywhere in Termina and at any hour, so reset before the Moon arrives unless a quest needs every last minute.
The Three Days at a Glance
Everything in Termina follows the clock, so the hour you arrive decides what you can do. The table lists the fixed events that matter most for a full clear, in the order they happen. Events marked “Day 1 or 2” repeat on both days, so you get a second chance at them in the same cycle.
| When | What happens | Where to read more |
|---|---|---|
| First Day, 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM | Romani’s balloon game at the ranch (Epona’s Song); daylight is also the time for the Gorman Track race, the Bunny Hood and Garo’s Mask | Romani Ranch Events, Mask Collection Guide |
| Day 1 or 2, from 10:00 AM | Madame Aroma gives Kafei’s Mask; the Mayor’s meeting is open from 10 AM into the evening (arrive before 6 PM to be safe) | Anju and Kafei |
| Day 1 or 2, daytime | Anju’s Grandmother tells her two stories (wear the All-Night Mask) | Heart Piece Locations |
| First Day, from about 2:20 PM | Talk to Anju at the Stock Pot Inn while wearing Kafei’s Mask; she sets the meeting for 11:30 PM | Anju and Kafei |
| Day 1 or 2, 3:00 PM to midnight | The Postman’s counting game in the Post Office | Mini-Games |
| Night 1 or 2 | Guru-Guru at the Laundry Pool gives the Bremen Mask; the Rosa Sisters dance in West Clock Town |  Bombers’ Notebook |
| Night 1 or 2, after 10:00 PM | Toto’s sound check at the Milk Bar for the Circus Leader’s Mask | Mask Collection Guide |
| First Night, 11:30 PM | Anju gives you the Letter to Kafei in the inn kitchen | Anju and Kafei |
| First Night, around midnight | Sakon steals the Old Lady’s bag in North Clock Town (the Blast Mask) | Mask Collection Guide |
| Any night, midnight to 6:00 AM | Kamaro dances in Termina Field and the hand reaches out in the Stock Pot Inn restroom | Heart Piece Locations |
| First Night, 2:30 AM | The invaders attack Romani Ranch (the ranch defense, for a Milk Bottle; it also opens Cremia’s cart ride) | Romani Ranch Events |
| Second Day, before 6:00 AM | Deadline to mail the Letter to Kafei | Anju and Kafei |
| Second Day, 3:10 PM | The Postman delivers the letter to Kafei at the Laundry Pool | Anju and Kafei |
| Second Day, 6:00 PM | Cremia sets out with her milk cart (Romani’s Mask) | Mask Collection Guide |
| Second Night | The grave the Stalchildren circle holds a Piece of Heart in Ikana Graveyard | Heart Piece Locations |
| Final Day, before noon | Last chance to give Anju the Pendant of Memories | Anju and Kafei |
| Final Day, 1:00 PM | The Curiosity Shop back room opens: Keaton Mask and the Special Delivery to Mama | Anju and Kafei |
| Final Day, from 6:00 PM | The Postman’s Hat and the Chateau Romani delivery; be hidden near Sakon’s Hideout in Ikana Canyon, which opens at 7:00 PM | Anju and Kafei |
| Final Day, from 10:00 PM | The All-Night Mask at the Curiosity Shop (500 rupees), only if you stopped Sakon’s theft on the First Night | Mask Collection Guide |
| Final Night, midnight | The Clock Tower door opens with about six hours left | Final Confrontation |
| Final Night, about 4:30 AM | Anju and Kafei meet in the Stock Pot Inn (Couple’s Mask) | Anju and Kafei |
| Final Night, 6:00 AM | The Moon falls | This page |
The First Day
The First Day is the day for everything that needs daylight and a clean calendar. The balloon game that teaches Epona’s Song only runs from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and the Gorman Track race, the Bunny Hood and Garo’s Mask all need daylight too. The Postman’s counting game opens at 3:00 PM and the Mayor’s meeting and Anju’s Grandmother are available during the day. The First Night is the busiest night of the cycle: Guru-Guru at the Laundry Pool, the Milk Bar sound check, Anju in the inn kitchen at 11:30 PM, Sakon around midnight, Kamaro and the hand in the inn restroom, and then the ranch defense, where the invaders arrive at 2:30 AM. You cannot do all of it in one cycle, so choose the events that fit together.
The Second Day
The Second Day repeats the Day 1 or 2 events, so use it to catch up on whatever you missed on the First Day. It adds the Postman’s visit to the Laundry Pool at 3:10 PM, where you can follow him to Kafei, and Cremia’s milk cart, which sets out at 6:00 PM. The Second Night repeats the dance and sound check events, and it is the only night when the Ikana Graveyard grave that holds a Piece of Heart is open. Temples have no clock deadline of their own, so you can also spend a whole day inside one. The only limit is the end of the cycle.
The Final Day and Final Night
The Final Day is the crowded one. Give Anju the Pendant of Memories before noon, collect the Keaton Mask and the Special Delivery to Mama from the Curiosity Shop at 1:00 PM, be hidden beside Kafei near Sakon’s Hideout before 7:00 PM, deliver the Special Delivery to Mama from 6:00 PM, and buy the All-Night Mask at 10:00 PM. You cannot do both in one cycle: the Keaton Mask and the Special Delivery to Mama are left at the shop only if Sakon’s theft went ahead on the First Night, and the All-Night Mask appears only if you stopped it. The door of the Clock Tower opens at midnight, when about six hours remain, and the reunion of Anju and Kafei takes place at about 4:30 AM. At 6:00 AM the Moon falls and the cycle is over. If you are waiting for midnight, the Song of Double Time still works on the Final Day, but it cannot be played once the Final Night has begun. The Final Confrontation chapter covers the Clock Tower and the Moon.
Songs That Change Time
Three ocarina songs control the clock. All three are listed with their notes on the Ocarina Songs page.
Song of Time
Notes: C-Right, A, C-Down, C-Right, A, C-Down. You learn it in a flashback of Princess Zelda when you win the Ocarina of Time back from the Skull Kid at the end of your first three days. Playing it takes you back to Dawn of the First Day and, in the N64 version, saves the game. You can use it in any area and at any time, and you always wake up at the Clock Tower in South Clock Town, even if you were in a temple or on the other side of Termina when you played it.
Inverted Song of Time
Notes: C-Down, A, C-Right, C-Down, A, C-Right (the Song of Time backwards). Time runs at one third of its normal speed, so the 72 hours last three times as long in real time. Enemy attacks and your own movement are not slowed, only things that depend on the clock. Play it again to return to normal speed. A scarecrow in the Trading Post or the Astral Observatory hints at how it works. It is never taught as a lesson and never appears on the Quest Status screen, so you simply play it from memory, and many players use it at the start of every cycle. On the 3DS it only halves the speed, which is one of the changes listed on Version Differences.
Song of Double Time
Notes: C-Right, C-Right, A, A, C-Down, C-Down. Played during the day, it takes you to 6:00 PM of the same day. Played at night, it takes you to 6:00 AM of the next morning. It is the fastest way to wait for an event. The same scarecrow hints at this one too, and it is not listed on the Quest Status screen either. Dancing with a scarecrow also skips ahead to the next dusk or dawn. The Song of Double Time does not work on the Final Night.
Saving: Song of Time and Owl Statues
In the N64 game, the Song of Time is the one permanent save. It stores your file at the moment you go back to the First Day, so the things that carry over (listed below) are written then, and that is the state you start the next cycle with. Anything you do afterwards is lost if you switch the console off, or the Moon falls, before you play the song again.
Owl Statues give you a temporary save instead. Hit a statue with your sword to activate it, and from then on you can save and quit at that spot. Loading that file puts you back at the statue with your status and the time on the clock exactly as you left them, but the saved game is then deleted from memory, so it works only once. When you first save at a statue, the game warns you that the file will resume at that spot only once. If you reopen it and then reset the console without saving at a statue again, you lose the progress you saved there, and the next time you open the file you start again at Day One with the state of your last Song of Time save. Treat the statue as a way to stop playing for the night, not as a replacement for the Song of Time. The statues stay activated across resets and also serve as Song of Soaring warp points. In the 3DS version this is reversed: owl statues are the normal way to save and the Song of Time no longer saves.
What a Song of Time Reset Keeps and Loses
This table covers the N64 version. Details and the exceptions follow below it.
| What | After the reset | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 Rupees in your wallet | Lost | Deposit them first |
| Rupees in the bank | Kept | The banker remembers you |
 Arrows, bombs, Bombchus, Deku Nuts, Deku Sticks | Lost | Counts go back to zero |
 Quiver, Bomb Bag, wallet size and other gear | Kept | Only the contents are lost |
 Bottles | Kept | The bottle comes back empty |
 What is inside the bottles | Lost | Potions, milk, water, fish, bugs, fairies, Gold Dust |
 Title Deeds (Land, Swamp, Mountain, Ocean) | Lost | The trade chain starts again |
 Room Key, Letter to Kafei, Pendant of Memories, Special Delivery to Mama | Lost | These belong to the Anju and Kafei events, which restart |
 Masks | Kept | All of them, including the transformation masks |
| Ocarina songs | Kept | Except the Scarecrow’s Song |
| Bombers’ Notebook entries | Kept | People do not remember you, though |
 Small keys and Boss Keys | Lost | Dungeon locks are closed again |
| Dungeon Maps and Compasses | Kept | You do not have to find them again |
 Stray Fairies | Lost | Including the one in Clock Town |
 Great Fairy rewards | Kept | Magic Meter, spin attack, Double Defense, Great Fairy’s Sword |
| Temple progress, puzzles and the boss | Reset | You keep the Boss Remains and the items you won |
 Heart Containers and Pieces of Heart | Kept | Your hearts and any partly filled heart stay as they were |
| Powder Kegs and the Moon’s Tear | Lost | Earn the keg again from the Gorons in the cycle you need it |
| Owl Statue activations | Kept | Warp points stay unlocked |
 Maps bought from Tingle | Kept | |
 Razor Sword | Lost | Reverts to the Kokiri Sword; the Gilded Sword is kept |
 Chateau Romani’s unlimited magic | Ends | It lasts only for the current cycle |
Rupees and ammunition
Every rupee in your wallet is gone when you go back, and so is your ammunition: arrows, bombs, Bombchus, Deku Nuts and Deku Sticks all return to zero. The containers are gear, so you keep the quiver, the bomb bag and your wallet; only what is inside resets. Chests you opened are filled again in the next cycle, which makes the big rupee chests a repeatable income: take the money, deposit it at the bank, play the song and do it again.
Bottles and bottle contents
You keep every bottle you have found, but everything inside is lost: potions, milk, Chateau Romani, spring water, fish, bugs, fairies and the Gold Dust from the Goron Race. Gold Dust is the one to plan around, because you need to turn it in at the Mountain Smithy in the same cycle you win it.
Trade items and quest keepsakes
The four Title Deeds you earn along the Business Scrub trade chain (Land, Swamp, Mountain and Ocean) disappear when you go back, so the trade chain has to be run again from the start in the next cycle. Items that exist only to move a quest along (the Room Key, the Letter to Kafei, the Pendant of Memories and the Special Delivery to Mama) are also temporary, because the events that hand them out start over at the dawn of the First Day. The rewards at the end of the chain are not temporary: masks, Pieces of Heart and bottles you were given stay with you. See Anju and Kafei for the order of that quest.
Keys, maps and Stray Fairies in the temples
Inside a temple, your small keys, the Boss Key and every Stray Fairy you collected are lost when you reset, and the rooms are closed, locked and refilled with enemies again. What survives is the Dungeon Map and Compass, the Boss Remains if you beat the boss, and every item you picked up there, such as the Hero’s Bow or the Fire Arrows. So deliver the Stray Fairies you have found to the Great Fairy before you reset: the reward you earn from her is kept, but fairies you are still carrying or have not yet found are not. Check Stray Fairy Locations before you leave a temple.
The Bombers’ Notebook
The notes in your Bombers’ Notebook are saved by the Song of Time. The book itself and everything it has already recorded stay with you. What does reset is the world itself: the characters do not remember you, their problems come back and a quest you finished has to be done again if you want its reward from that cycle.
Swords and the Scarecrow’s Song
The Razor Sword cannot survive a reset: it turns back into the Kokiri Sword when you play the Song of Time (it also dulls after 100 strikes). To get the Gilded Sword, give the Mountain Smithy the Razor Sword and the Gold Dust no later than the Second Day and collect the finished sword at dawn of the Final Day, all inside one cycle. Once you hold the Gilded Sword it never wears out and survives the reset. The Scarecrow’s Song is the only song you have to compose again every cycle. Every other song you learned stays with you.
Events, chests and scores
Everything tied to the calendar returns to its starting state: the people of Termina and the events of the three days, the mini-game high scores, and the chests you opened, whose prizes are mostly restocked. That is why you can redo an event such as the Romani Ranch defense, and also why a mini-game record you set does not stay on the board.
The world itself
Once you play the song, the places you freed return to how they were on the first dawn. The swamp is poisoned again, the Mountain Village is back in winter and the temples are closed up and full of enemies, even though you still hold the Boss Remains and everything you took from them. So anything that depends on a region being healed, such as the Mask of Scents race or the Goron Racetrack, has to be done in the same cycle in which you clear the temple that heals it. The same is true of every event that depends on the calendar, which starts again from 6:00 AM on the First Day.
What you never lose
Everything that makes Link stronger stays: the Heart Containers and Pieces of Heart you have, the sword you have (except the Razor Sword), the shield, bows and arrow types, the Hookshot, the Lens of Truth, the Pictograph Box, every mask and every song apart from the Scarecrow’s Song, the Great Fairy rewards and the wallet and bag sizes. Think of the reset as emptying your pockets, not your character. That is why the usual plan is to finish one goal per cycle, put your rupees in the bank, and play the Song of Time as soon as you have the reward in hand.
The Clock Town Bank
The bank is the only way to move rupees from one cycle to the next. It is in West Clock Town (the 3DS version moves it to South Clock Town). The banker recognizes you in every form and keeps your balance after the Song of Time. Talk to him to deposit or withdraw any amount you like, and do your final deposit just before you play the song.
The banker also hands out rewards for your total deposits. A total of 200 rupees in your account earns the Adult Wallet (it holds 200 rupees), and a total of 5,000 earns a Piece of Heart. Because the balance carries over, you can build both totals across many cycles; a bigger wallet simply lets you carry more rupees to the bank on each trip. The Heart Piece Locations page lists it as one of the 16 pieces in Clock Town.
Planning Your Cycles
Before you play the Song of Time, run through four checks. Deposit every rupee you can spare. Use any bottled item you still want, because it will not survive. If you are inside a temple, make sure you have turned in the Stray Fairies you found. And remember that you only keep what you have in hand when you play the song, so finish a quest chain with its reward in your inventory before you go back.
A good habit is to start every cycle by playing the Inverted Song of Time, because the extra real time lets you fit more into the 72 hours, and to use the Song of Double Time only when you are waiting for an hour you cannot speed up any other way. The first few cycles of the game are covered step by step in the Prologue, and the Mask Collection Guide shows which masks need the longest chains, so you can plan which cycles to spend on them.
