You can use edges that end in a corner in order to boost Mario or Luigi forward. Walk off the ledge diagonally and then move towards the corner.

Jump into people to gain distance.

There are many dialogue boxes throughout the game which can't be removed right away. You can halve the time you need to wait for those boxes to go away if you autofire the "A"-button on the correct frames.

This is especially useful when you need to guide Peach through Teehee Valley. Toadsworth's dialogue will go away faster and you can save Peach from being captured the first time around.

Walking up staircases will slow you down. Face perpendicularly to the stairs and then jump across it to keep your normal speed.

Sometimes it's significantly faster to optimize the camera. Why? See the animated demonstration on the right.

On the right, camera scrolling wasn't taken into consideration. On the left, the bros move closer to the platform and Mario jumps to minimize the distance the camera has to cover.

In order to enter a wall, use Thunder on Mario and guide him into a wall with an acute angle. There aren't many spots in the game to use this glitch on.

See here for a demonstration of this glitch.

When walking into a corner, the game will adjust your position so you can move on. When walking into the right corner of a vertical passage from the bottom, you might end up in the wall it transits into on the left side.

TODO: Add image

In the Japanese version of the game (Mario & Luigi RPG), have Mario use Fire on Luigi when close to a ledge. If done properly, the brothers will be in a glitchy state that can cause them to enter walls and reach places that where previously thought to be unreachable.

See here for a demonstration of this glitch.

This glitch can be used to

• skip some parts of the 1st star bean chasing
• skip some parts of Joke's End
• skip Bowser's Castle completely

To do this glitch, you must have hammers but not have learned the respective hammer techniques yet. Have Mario ingest water and pound him - while standing at the fountain - until Mario is out of water. If you pound him again, Mario and Luigi will start walking through walls in random directions, then Mario will return to the fountain (after he is done being angry at Luigi). This can make the brothers end up in the glitchy state (see "Fire Dash glitch" above) but it's useless as you cannot switch places. This glitch stops working after the brothers learn the hammer techniques, so Mario will be flattened instead of being angry at Luigi when he pounds him.

NOTE: This section is in need of an update to cover the most recent findings. (November 2012)

To do this glitch, pound Mario as Luigi and get separated. Then jump to either the left or the right side of Mario and face away from him. If done correctly, Mario will have no walking distance to cover and thus the sequence where Luigi pounds small Mario to get him back to normal is skipped (thus saving time). The following isn't useful in a speedrun and was only added for the sake of documenting it.

When mini Mario is behind Luigi:

• As mini Mario, if you use Hand on Luigi, the game will lock up.
• Pounding Luigi once will turn Mario back to normal but pounding again or using Hand on nothing will turn Mario small again.
• If you did the aforementioned, the brothers can now freely switch places:
  • You can not get separated by small Mario walking through a tunnel. You can only get separated by Luigi walking underground through a gate. However, if a tunnel is on the same level as the ground, you can walk through it with both brothers (while switching places when walking through).

When Mario is behind Luigi:

• • Jumping on Luigi to prepare a Spin jump will crash the game when facing Down, Up-Left or Up-Right. It will crash the game either way if you actually start spinning. (VBA 24m resets itself usually. On a real console the brothers might disappear and a loud screeching sound is audible.)

When Luigi is behind Mario:

• • Bounce jumping will crash the game when facing to the left or right side.
  • Pounding Mario will turn him small regardless of whether he was small already. You will not be able to switch places anymore.

In any case, this glitch effect will vanish when leaving the room. For some reason, when the glitch is in effect, you will not be able to pound Mario when he is right in front of a tunnel.

Lucky hits, item drops, enemies' attacks and stat bonus roulettes can be manipulated by entering a battle at a different frame (TODO: Is this true? Might just be the RNG changing in the overworld map that's responsible for this).

Some of Mario's or Luigi's attacks cause the RNG to change, so the outcome in battle can change when different sets of attacks are used.

Overworld enemy/NPC movement is determined by the RNG (see addresses below). Other things in the game can be manipulated as well, such as the location of the orbs in the Hohooros minigame.

Mario

Luigi

Items

Position (Mario)

Position (Luigi)

Misc.