Emulator/Sync Settings

• Emulator Used: Dolphin 5.0 Lua + TAStudio (Syncs on Dolphin 5.0)
• Dual Core and Idle Skipping Off
• DSP HLE Emulation
• Use PAL60 Mode
• Use one GameCube Controller, zero Wii Remotes
• ISO MD5 Checksum: PAL 1.1: c2255d53e08d6e1e6d25114be9f1bec1

Game Objectives

• Completes the main story as fast as possible
• Uses hardest difficulty
• Takes damage to save time
  • Takes damage to save time
    • ...Like, WOW, that’s a lot of damage
• Uses death to save time
• Heavy glitch abuse
• Heavily manipulates luck
  • Heavily manipulates luck
    • For the love of all that is holy, that’s a lot of manipulation
• Fires the cameraman for not listening
• One player in a multiplayer game
• Genre: Fighting
• Genre: Platform

Game Overview

Region Choice

Difficulty/Category Choice

Game Mechanics

Basics

Other Techniques

• Dash Dancing: By turning in the opposite direction in the first six frames of a character’s dash, the character dashes again. While its usage in combat is severely limited in comparison to Melee (Which has a larger time window), it can be quickly used to generate dust and advance the RNG (Explained below).

• Fox Trotting: The act of repeatedly entering a character’s initial dash animation (Instead of transitioning into a run) by rhythmically tapping on the control stick. Several characters have Fox Trots that are faster than their run speeds.

• Turn-around Jump: The act of jumping in the middle of a character’s turn-around animation; this is used to better position needed aerial attacks.

• Shield Drop: By holding one’s shield and slightly lowering the control stick, one can drop through a platform. It’s one frame faster than the traditional method (Holding down for two frames while in an idle or turnaround position), and also retains momentum from a dash.

• Directional Influence (DI): The ability to influence the trajectory one follows when launched by an attack. It is affected with precision down to individual control stick values (With the exception of the control stick’s deadzones), which allows for exact control.

• Smash DI (SDI): The ability to influence one’s position before being launched by an attack, possible during the attack’s “hitstun” period (When the attacker and attackee appear frozen). Unlike DI, SDI is only precise to the cardinal and diagonal directions. One can input a diagonal after a cardinal (I.E Left, then Left+Up), but not the reverse (I.E Left+Up, then Left).
  • Shield SDI: Similar to SDI, but when shielding an attack. Can only move left or right.

• DACUS: Short for “Dash Attack Canceled Up Smash”, performed when a character cancels a dash attack with an Up Smash. Can provide significant boosts in speed, depending on the character.

RNG

The Item Drop System

Item Odds

Stickers

Damage Boosting & Bounce Boosting

Loading

Miscellaneous Tricks

• Pause Glitch: Pausing on the frame one enters an Ambush causes the camera to continue following one around instead of centering on the main fight area - it remains stuck in “Side-Scrolling Mode”. The camera’s own blastzones also still exist, which means moving far away enough from an enemy causes it to despawn. This is used in many areas to completely skip past a fight. As the fight area’s blastzones also still exist, however, I can’t move too far on my own without dying - this is why you often see me perched motionless in an arbitrary location with the glitch active - I’m right at the edge of a blastzone.

• Reverse Pause Glitch: Found at the absolute tail-end of the 100% TAS, it turns out that the reverse behavior is also true: Pausing on the frame before an Ambush finishes forces the camera to remain in “Ambush Mode”. The camera tries to remain centered on any notable objects of interest, which include the player, enemies, specific items like Blast Boxes and Super Mushrooms, trophy characters in the Subspace 1 and Subspace 2 levels, and some 100% collectibles. Otherwise, the camera disregards everything else, including previously set scrolling limits from areas in the room and autoscrollers. This is used to completely Smash™ through a number of areas, skipping fights, autoscrollers, and entire rooms in general.

• Ambush End Damage Boost: When an ambush ends, the camera goes back to following you instead of centering around an area. If one takes damage before the transition occurs, the camera doesn’t freeze in place.

• Clipping Through Collision: Under very rare circumstances, it’s possible to clip through certain walls or ceilings as if they didn’t exist, through abusing moving pieces of collision, one’s own collision points, or simply hitting a wall-ceiling corner at the right speed. This is used a few times to go to unintended areas, or skip sections completely.

• Map Menu Skips: When the map shows up after a stage clear and new characters join your party, there’s a one frame window that lets you choose the next level before the map menu pops up, saving 2-3 frames.

• Character Storage: By hovering over a completed stage on the map, and pressing a direction and A on the same frame to hover over an unfinished stage that doesn’t start with a cutscene, the game appears to let you choose your difficulty (Which is unaffected in reality) and more importantly allows you to play as characters from the previous stage; this saves time from loading optimization and especially if the previous character is faster than the intended options.

• Input Buffering: Alongside its generally slower game speed and loading times, Brawl is also infamous for its large buffer window, which causes specific actions to be queued before the current animation is complete. While this can be a detriment in real-time play, it does allow one to combine actions and do them in a single frame instead of two, like jumping and using an aerial attack, running and jumping, and turning around to perform a Smash Attack or Tilt.

• Item Smuggling: Whenever you take damage while holding an item, there’s a chance for you to drop the item before getting launched, with that chance increasing as your damage increases. However, it’s still possible to hold onto it with the right RNG, which means in several cases it’s possible to damage boost with one explosive while holding another one to continue the boost much further beyond what a single boost could do.

• Smash Attack Boost: If you get hit while charging a Smash Attack, your knockback is increased by a factor of 1.2x. This can be used in a few situations to boost much further than would normally be possible at a given damage percentage.

Stage-By-Stage Comments

The Beginning

The Midair Stadium

• Room 1: As it turns out, in utter violation of the 10+ year status quo involving speedruns of this game, Mario is faster in a TAS setting by manipulating the CPU Kirby to use his Down Special (Turning into a very fast-falling stone) and pushing him off the edge with Mario’s own Down Special.

• Room 2: Peach was chosen over the other three characters because of her absurd damage potential in the form of Stitch Face turnips and Bob-Ombs. While the general strategy for this room is the same as before (Defeating enemies ASAP, launching them into other enemies to despawn them more quickly, and continuous RNG manipulation for items), the fight was completed much faster than before. The Cracker Launcher is primarily responsible, being ridiculously powerful in a TAS setting with extreme control over where shots go alongside its high fire rate. I end up manipulating a needed sticker by accident, so I collect it earlier than intended. While it doesn’t save any time, it does make manipulation in the future rooms more lenient.

• Room 3: The fastest strategy to beat Petey with Kirby is using aerial Hammers, alongside the occasional aerial attack when spacing for the Hammer isn’t good enough. It’s possible to deal damage “twice” by hitting a cage and Petey at the same time, which I use across the fight to make it end more quickly. I also have to manipulate RNG so Petey only swings the cages around, as his jumping attack is much slower.

Skyworld

• Room 1: Pit can fall faster than his fast-falling speed by using his Up Special and moving downwards, which is useful at several points. By canceling the Up Special with an aerial attack and having the attack’s cooldown end just before I fall through a “soft” platform, it’s possible to use the Up Special again even though I haven’t actually landed on the ground yet. I manipulate a Bunny Hood to appear from the turquoise cube, which doubles my running speed. Fox Trotting to the door is one frame faster than running to it.

• Room 2: After taking out the starting Ambush as quickly as possible, I manipulate two Bob-Ombs and smuggle one of them further down the level. I then intentionally damage boost without being near a wall or ceiling to freeze the camera just outside of the next fight’s range, and then perform the Pause Glitch so that the camera’s boundaries remain fixed. This despawns the single Greap as soon as possible, which means I can simply proceed to enter the door.

• Room 3: Similar to Room 1, I repeatedly use Pit’s Up-B to fall down as quickly as possible to the autoscrolling cloud, during which I build up damage to skip the fight at the end of the room. More optimal gliding means I can reach the Glunders sooner, which means an earlier damage boost to fly over the fight trigger and reach the end of the level.

Sea of Clouds

• Room 1: By getting a good enough room seed, I’m able to get several Bob-Ombs all in a row from Peach’s Down-B, and proceed to Bounce Boost almost all the way to the end in one go. Before the launch, I pluck yet another Bob-Omb, and carry it with me until I need one final boost. It turns out that despite choosing Peach for the next room, dying in this room still forces the game to reload all of her assets, which means it’s faster to complete this room slightly later without dying, as it saves about 1.5 seconds in loading.

• Room 2: I proceed to RNG manipulate and damage boost just like before, plucking Bob-Ombs as quickly as possible and flying to the end.

• Room 3: After Bounce Boosting and canceling my vertical knockback by landing on the ground quickly enough, I fly over to the Generator “fight”, plucking a Stitch Face and destroying it in a handful of frames. Here, I perform the first instance of the Reverse Pause Glitch, which has the camera stuck in Ambush mode and disregards the camera scrolling limits previously set. After killing the remaining enemies so that the camera focuses exclusively on Peach, I damage boost over to the right, pluck a Bob-Omb, and then damage boost all the way down to the ending door, completely skipping the rest of the level and a fight that was previously considered impossible to skip. In combination with the Bounce Boost at the start of the level, I saved over 11 seconds in comparison to the old TAS.

The Jungle

• Room 1: The turquoise block at the start of the level has a 50/50 chance of containing a Super Mushroom or a Poison Mushroom. I manipulate a Super Mushroom alongside a Bob-Omb from the nearby Goomba, and proceed to build up damage while moving through the level. With a Super Mushroom, Donkey Kong’s roll is much faster than his run speed, so I do that when the camera unfreezes from the damage boosting until I reach the cannon. I cancel Donkey Kong’s landing lag by partially charging his Neutral Special and canceling it, which saves a few frames. I then manipulate RNG to get a Bob-Omb from a Goomba, and damage boost past the initial set of cannons to partially skip an “autoscroller” section.

• Room 2: I quickly manipulate RNG to get a Super Mushroom and a Bob-Omb from two nearby Goombas, which I use to fly across the level until I reach a fight area. I then lure a Red Paratroopa over, make it retreat into its shell, and then damage boost with it in combination with an Up Special to fly over the fight trigger. The level isn’t properly initialized beyond this point, so it has the visual side effect of Donkey Kong seemingly walking on air. The Super Mushroom also runs out at this point, so I roll right as it ends to get a momentum boost, which is faster than having it run out in the air despite the fact that the grounded shrinking animation lasts longer.

• Room 3: Here, I manipulate many required stickers from the enemies present, making sure to do so without needing to pause buffer for RNG manipulation, as that wastes a small amount of time for each pause. After reaching a high enough point, I use the Hammer Bro’s attack to fly to the top, and enter the door on the first frame it loads in.

• Room 4: Unlike Pit, Donkey Kong doesn’t have any methods of increasing his fall speed beyond his natural amount, so I fastfall down to the final fight of the level, manipulating RNG by doing aerial attacks. I improve the fight over the old any% TAS by doing a Goomba hop to grab the Trophy Stand instead of a double jump.

The Plains

• Room 1: I use a combination of Pit’s forward dodge roll and glides to reach the first set of enemies in the level, and then proceed to damage boost with them until reaching a large section of blocks. Pit’s side special move is a good way of taking them out, so I use that and build up damage with the several Feyesh nearby, until I manipulate a Bob-Omb and damage boost out of bounds. I glide over to the ending door, as it ends up being just a bit slower than doing a final damage boost.

• Room 2: This room is effectively one giant autoscroller, occasionally interrupted by several fights. The old TAS relied on several instances of the Pause Glitch and hitting a float-perfect X Coordinate to hit the ending trigger in the middle of the last fight. Here, I do the first fight “normally”, starting off by firing three of Pit’s arrows and controlling them so they don’t despawn offscreen. The fight begins, and the arrows instantly hit both of the Spaaks (One dropping a Bob-Omb) and a Boomerang Primid. I throw that Bob-Omb into two Primids, run over to the right side of the platform, and manipulate a Bob-Omb from the last enemy as the enemy on the left falls to its death. I then damage boost, and use the Reverse Pause Glitch to completely ignore the autoscroller to fly right to the end of the level. This saves over 20 seconds.

The Lake

• Room 1: Rayquaza is defeated by using a series of Up Airs and Back Airs as quickly as possible, while dodging his own attacks and occasionally manipulating RNG so he doesn’t use any slow ones. A Bunny Hood happens to spawn right after the fight is finished, so I fool around and Dash Dance with it, tripping after a bit.

• Rooms 2-7: By pressing B right before Fox’s Side-B activates, he cancels the full charge; the last possible cancel frame allows him to carry a large amount of momentum instead of effectively nothing, which saves time for a number of rooms. In Room 3, I damage boost by using the Koopa’s attack, and tech right at the edge to fall off and reach the door more quickly. In Room 5, I use a series of jumps and double jumps to ascend through the level, before getting hit by the Borboras to reach the door; I use a Smash Attack Boost to reach the door a bit sooner. Room 6 has a shortened Side-B to get over the first Towtow, and a damage boost from the Auroros to reach the end more quickly.

• Room 8: I use a series of Side-Bs to reach the fight, and then Pause Glitch to despawn the Giant Goomba and several regular Goombas. I chain a series of Goomba stomps on the remaining few, manipulating a Bob-Omb from one of them, and then damage boost back to the door while breaking the necessary block.

• Room 9: I Side-B and jump in such a manner as to barely have enough height to hit the required switch with Fox’s Neutral-B; I then do a shortened Side-B to barely reach the door.

• Room 10: I do a sequence of Fox-Trots and a Side-B to get to the necessary door.

• Room 11: The fastest way to defeat the Towtow is two back airs followed by a slightly charged Forward Smash, as three back airs leaves it with a sliver of health remaining. I make sure to hit it to the right, so it bounces off the right wall instantly to despawn on the left wall.

• Room 12: I farm more stickers in the downtime waiting for the autoscroller to finish, alongside building up more damage for the next room.

• Room 13: I manipulate a Bob-Omb from a Goomba and Bounce Boost to the cannon. At this damage percentage, I end up flying too high under normal circumstances, but I manage to find a position and DI angle that lets me partially clip through the terrain, which lets me reach the cannon anyway.

• Room 14: The fastest way to beat this fight is by letting Bowser intentionally grab you with his Side-B, and fall off the stage for a mutual kill. As I have the stock advantage, I win anyway. I’m able to let him grab me earlier and still fall off the edge by doing a back air on him the instant he grabs me, which lets me have more control over the direction than Bowser does because of his higher damage.

The Ruined Zoo

• Room 1: Another autoscroller. I simply fool around until it ends.

• Room 2: In spite of the loading duration penalty from choosing a different character, it’s still faster to choose Ness over Lucas because of his superior damage output. I switch between edge-canceling Smash Attacks on Porky’s top alongside repeatedly using Down-Tilt (Which is actually Ness’ fastest form of damage output without edge canceling, thanks to Subspace not having Stale-Move Negation).

• Room 3: Lucas is faster than Squirtle due to his superior vertical movement in the form of the Zap Jump technique (Where double jumping and then immediately using PK Fire allows him to ascend very quickly). I do a Smash Attack Boost on the first enemy, build up damage with the spikes and another enemy’s attack, and manipulate a Bob-Omb to Bounce Boost to the room’s fight. I then use the Pause Glitch to despawn enemies outside the camera’s boundaries, and manipulate the final enemy into dropping another Bob-Omb to damage boost to the ending door.

• Room 4: Similarly, the Pause Glitch is used here to despawn many of the Bytan enemies in a very quick manner. I then do a Bounce Boost with the Glunder alongside a Zap Jump to barely make it over the ledge and enter the door.

• Room 5: I manipulate a Bob-Omb from the Primid and Bounce Boost on the nearby trampoline’s wall collision to fly all the way to the end of the level.

The Battlefield Fortress

• Room 1: Marth’s roll is very slightly faster than his run; I use this until I reach one of the Primids, and then proceed to use a combination of damage boosts and Shield SDI (On the Sword Primids’ stab attack, which has a much larger shield SDI factor than other attacks) to reach the ending door.

• Room 2: Here, I run until one of the Roaders barely gets within spawning range, and then proceed to run back to the sole available wall present, manipulate a Bob-Omb from it, and do a Smash Attack Boost to fly right to the end.

• Room 3: Meta Knight is chosen over Marth because, well… he’s Meta Knight. The strategy for this fight is generally the same as the first Ambush in Midair Stadium, though the harsh wind present alongside the Sword Primids’ resistance to sword attacks makes things a bit tougher than usual. The item drop rate is also much harsher, as there’s a whopping 77% chance for absolutely nothing to spawn from a standard enemy. Despite this, I’m able to manipulate Cracker Launchers, Bob-Ombs, and other things to take all the enemies out extremely quickly.

• Room 4: Meta Knight’s insane recovery allows him to fly right over the first fight trigger. Instead of starting the second fight and backtracking to trigger the first one and doing some shenanigans to skip the autoscroller, I intentionally do the second fight (Consisting of a single Autolance) and use the Reverse Pause Glitch to ignore the autoscroller’s camera limitations. In order for the camera to exclusively focus on Meta Knight, I need to defeat the remaining enemies present; while this does take some time to complete, the room still ends up being over three seconds faster than the old method of skipping it.

• Room 5: The minecarts can be partially skipped by manipulating a Bob-Omb and Bounce Boosting at the right position. I reach the fight, and take out enemies very quickly with assistance from Motion Sensor Bombs and regular Bob-Ombs. The fight ends, and I skip more sections of minecarts before doing a final boost right to the end of the room.

• Room 6: I reach the end slightly sooner than before by ending the Infinite Dimensional Cape right at the trigger.

• Room 7: Even with my damage reset to 0, I’m still able to build up enough to fly right over the ending trigger; this is faster than the old method of gliding by a decent amount of time.

The Forest

• Room 1: In contrast to the old TAS skipping the first and second fights with the Pause Glitch, this version goes through the first fight normally, before using the Reverse Pause Glitch in combination with a Smash Attack Boost to fly across the room and skip the second fight completely. Due to the way enemies spawn in the section after the fight ends, my launch angle needs to be high enough to prevent them from spawning, in order to keep the camera centered on Yoshi. I still end up not having enough height to fully clear the second fight’s trigger with just a double jump, but a single extra Up-B allows me to get over it.

• Room 2: Here, I immediately manipulate a Bob-Omb to drop from a Trowlon through a well-timed Egg Throw, which I use to damage boost across the level. I manipulate another one from the Auroros to launch myself right to the fight trigger, just barely being able to slow down enough to not die from the right blastzone. I once again use the Pause Glitch to despawn enemies off-screen, getting to the right side of the screen quickly enough to not need the Primid to hit me this time. I manipulate a Bob-Omb from the final Puppit present, and launch my way to the ending door.

• Room 3: I immediately get the Feyesh to attack me so I can Bounce Boost across the entire level; I do a Smash Attack Boost to get to the next section even more quickly. I then get the Shellpod to attack me so I don’t have to spend time hitting the switch to make platforms spawn (Which is faster even with needing to wait for the camera to unlock); after hitting a switch with another well-timed Egg Throw, I use the Feyesh’s attack to Bounce Boost right over the final fight trigger, ending the level.

Research Facility 1

• Room 1: Dash Attacking through the blocks is faster than jumping over them.

• Room 2: Rolling into the elevator is faster than just running into it or dash attacking into it, which allows me to save a bit of time in comparison to the old TAS.

• Room 3: Pikachu is used over Zero Suit Samus due to his very fast movement in the form of Quick Attack Cancels, which are performed by using his Up-B and angling into the ground. Due to their very high precision (Being control-stick-unit precise, with the exception of deadzones) similar to DI, Pikachu is generally a more complicated character to TAS in comparison to the rest of the cast. I’m able to save a bit of time in this room by not hitting one of the ROBs.

• Room 4: It’s faster to edge-cancel the Quick Attack Cancels in comparison to just letting the animation play out, which I do as often as possible.

• Room 5: The goal of this room is to hit a red switch in order to make the platform available in the upper right room; both Pikachu and Zero Suit Samus can cheese the intended route by respectively using Down-B and Up-B to hit the switch from below. While it’s possible to skip this room’s fight, it ends up being faster to do the fight normally (Specifically with the Pause Glitch) due to the fact that you need to skip the room again if you do it at the start. I’m still required to grab the key to unlock the blockade, so I launch to the key and damage boost back. After using Thunder to hit the switch and damage boosting from the Roturret, I manipulate a Bob-Omb from a ROB and Bounce Boost back to the starting door.

• Room 4-2: I now make my way to the second required room, again using a series of Quick Attacks. I take care to not hit the ROB, as hitting someone with the attack loses several frames over avoiding them.

• Room 6: The goal of this room is to hit a red switch all the way at the end of the room to cause a series of blockades to fall down (That prevents one from just going to the upper-left door and going to the end of the level). I ride the moving platform (An autoscroller), making sure to build up as much damage with the Jyks as I can before the platform reaches the end. I manipulate a Bob-Omb from one of the Glunders, which I use to very quickly Bounce Boost back to the start right as I hit the switch.

• Room 4-3: I manipulate another Bob-Omb from another ROB to Bounce Boost all the way to the upper left door.

• Room 7: Here, I use a series of Quick Attacks alongside one of the ROBs’ missiles to ascend to the exit door as fast as possible. I save a bit of time by getting the exit door to load in more quickly, which allows me to just fall to the ground and enter it instead of waiting for the camera to spawn in the door.

• Room 8: You’re intended to do one final fight against a series of Metal Primids, but I instead do a very grand Bounce Boost using a series of Quark Mines to practically teleport right to the end.

The Lake Shore

• Room 1: I once again use Yoshi because Link is very slow. Evidently, getting Peach to pull a Stitch Face, and then stealing it from her to defeat her ends up being faster than luring her to the left blastzone and throwing her off.

• Room 2: Unfortunately, Mario and Pit can’t pull Stitch Face turnips, which means I need to defeat them the normal way of luring them to the left blastzone. I manipulated RNG at the end of the last fight (By running for a specific number of frames) to get them to immediately dart towards me here.

• Room 3: Yoshi is chosen over the remaining group both due to being faster and to not incur an extra loading penalty. Here, I use Yoshi’s Side-B alongside a Bombed’s attack to reach the required platform as soon as possible. In contrast to the old TAS, I do the fight normally here (Using multiple items and a Cracker Launcher to take enemies out very quickly), and then use the Reverse Pause Glitch to completely skip the second autoscrolling section, falling right next to the door.

• Room 4: Another autoscroller (You’ll begin to notice a pattern), in which I attempt to bring a Bucculus as far across as possible - it ends up not being able to make a jump after some time, and doesn’t have enough HP left for me to hit it across.

• Room 5: Despite once again being given the choice of starting with a different character, Yoshi is still predictably faster than everyone else, in areas including but not limited to the long fall after the first fight - Yoshi’s Down-B allows him to get into the minecart very quickly. It’s possible to clip out of bounds at the first section of blocks past the key barricade by damage boosting, so I speed the process up by manipulating two Bob-Ombs from the Mites earlier in the section, and smuggle one of them. The fight still needs to be completed, as the ending door doesn’t spawn otherwise, but I’m able to cheese it with the Pause Glitch and a series of well-timed damage boosts to manipulate the camera.

• Room 6: All I need to do is run into the final door.

Path To The Ruins

• Room 1: By building up enough damage with the Jyks present and Smash Attack Boosting with a Bob-Omb, it’s possible to fly all the way over to a Borboras, which I manipulate another Bob-Omb from to boost all the way to the end of the room.

• Room 2: This is a large room separated into several platforming sections and fights, and it ends up being possible to skip almost all of it in one way or another. I use the fireballs at the start of the level to SDI over to a Fire Primid, manipulate a Bob-Omb, and damage boost past the first section and fall down to the fight area. After taking out the first fight and manipulating a Super Mushroom and another Bob-Omb, I use the Reverse Pause Glitch and Bounce Boost beyond the walls of the second fight (Which, fortunately, doesn’t actually have ceiling collision), flying over to the exit door.

• Room 3: Another straight section of land with no other features; I save a few frames over the old TAS by timing my Zap Jumps in a way so that I have no landing lag with the final run to the loading zone.

• Room 4: Lucas’ PK Thunder was found to be surprisingly useful for character fights, as I’m able to drag Wario over to the left blastzone with it about a second faster than Wario wandering over to it.

The Cave

• Room 1: The room starts with a platforming section, which leads into a fight, and then leads to a journey amidst a series of giant moving stone pillars to get to the exit door. I use Yoshi’s Side-B, canceling it at the right time to get a momentum boost, and then do a series of Double Jump Cancels and another Side-B to manipulate a Bob-Omb from a Goomba, which I use to damage boost to the fight. After manipulating a whole series of Bob-Ombs from the enemies there, I defeat them and fall down through the first pillar section, damage boost through the second pillar section, and fall through the third one. I then manipulate one final Bob-Omb from another Goomba, and Bounce Boost to the ending door.

• Room 2: This short room involves picking up a key and unlocking a barricade to a door, surrounded by flaming pillars and falling spikes. The fastest method of getting to the door is grabbing the key with Yoshi’s neutral aerial, using SDI to tech on the spike platform’s wall, throwing the key at the barricade, and using another neutral aerial to fastfall down to the ground and enter the door.

• Room 3: This room starts off with a platforming section, which I avoid by damage boosting with one of the Koopas present. The nearby fight is actually a disguised autoscroller, as the Glires only spawn in after set amounts of time have passed. I use this downtime as an opportunity to do a large amount of setup: I manipulate an Unira and throw it in the spot the last Glire spawns in, which hits it and immediately sends it to the bottom blastzone, and also manipulate a Motion Sensor Bomb alongside a regular Bob-Omb to perform two separate damage boosts. Right as the last enemy dies, I damage boost with the Motion Sensor Bomb, which allows me to clip out of bounds as the rest of the stage’s collision isn’t loaded during the fight. The Reverse Pause Glitch is again used, as the camera only properly scrolls to the left otherwise.

The Ruins

• Room 1: The first section involves several periods of waiting in the form of the elevator, the minecart, and the long fall downward (Which is helped by Yoshi’s Down-B, even when taking into account the extra time needed to get out of the water). I use the downtime of the elevator section to manipulate RNG in order to get a Bob-Omb from the Mite. I then do a series of damage boosts from other enemies to just barely be able to clip through a retracting wall and skip a stage cycle. I manipulate another Bob-Omb, and Bounce Boost away to another enemy, where I manipulate yet another Bob-Omb to finally launch all the way to the end of the room.

• Room 2: This is the first room in the game where Bullfrog (Star Fox Command) stickers can be easily farmed; I get as many stickers as necessary while limiting the amount of pause buffers I perform to save more time. The autoscroller can be prematurely ended by entering and immediately exiting one of the optional doors, after which I Down-B to the ground, and Bounce Boost with a Glire’s attack to reach the loading zone for the next room.

• Room 3: The start of this room is similar to that of The Plains, involving a large platform slowly moving across a chasm, interrupted frequently by fights. Fortunately, the Pause Glitch can be used to make quick work of most of them, and the Reverse Pause Glitch can be used on the last one to almost completely skip the following platforming section. A glitch in the buffering system allows Yoshi to perform two midair jumps in the same stretch of airtime, which I use for the first two fights to help despawn enemies. In the first fight, the Pause Glitch initially locks the camera to the far left, and can be further moved to despawn enemies if Yoshi also moves in that direction. In the second fight, Yoshi has just barely enough height to despawn the enemies from the top of the screen.

• Room 4: While Yoshi does have two meteor smash moves, their knockback is so small at low damage that it’s faster to simply footstool Charizard instead.

• Meta Knight (Bullfrog, Ho-Oh, Ray Mk III, Electrode, Musketeer Daltania)
• Pokemon Trainer (Ray Mk III, Tractor Trailer, Link)
• Pit (Bullfrog, Solid Snake, King Dodongo)
• Yoshi (Bullfrog, Skull Kid, Bowser Jr, Solid Snake, Boundish)
• Fox (Bullfrog, Barrel Train, Electrode, King Dodongo)
• Pikachu (Bullfrog, Boulder, Entei, Solid Snake)

The Wilds

• Room 1: After immediately damage boosting with the Bullfrog sticker’s Bob-Omb, I intentionally get hit by the Buckot’s attack to damage boost into the autoscroller. I then build up more damage, and manipulate two more Bob-Ombs; one to carry with me, and one to Bounce Boost with when the autoscroller ends. After traveling for a bit, I perform a very precise Bounce Boost with the Quark Mine, taking care to not drop the Bob-Omb or have it explode prematurely. I eventually reach a solid platform with ceiling collision, and perform a final Bounce Boost with the Bob-Omb I’m holding. With the correct SDI, I’m able to clip through the mountain and fly right to the ending door, which ends up being over four seconds faster than doing the regular Mountain Clip and gliding to the ending door.

• Room 2: Normally, you’re supposed to do a bunch of platforming sections with raising and retracting platforms until entering yet another autoscroller, but I ditch all of that and opt to damage boost into the trigger instead. With the amount of damage Meta Knight has alongside his launch angle, he can’t possibly reach the ground and halt his momentum in time to prevent his death. However, because I have to wait for an autoscroller to finish anyway, I can just cycle through Marth and Ike to get back to Meta Knight, and still have enough time to re-build up damage and manipulate a Bob-Omb and a Cracker Launcher for the upcoming fight. I proceed to finish off the Giant Primids the instant they spawn in by firing several Cracker Launcher shots where they’re going to spawn in at (Unfortunately, the second one always spawns in a set amount of time after the fight starts). I have barely enough time to grab the Bob-Omb I manipulated earlier (Before its fuse ignites and becomes impossible to grab), which I use to do a final Bounce Boost and glide all the way to the ending door.

• Room 3: Another filler room with a small stretch of land, a cube, and a door. Despite this small distance, damage boosting to the door is still faster.

• Room 4: Here, we fight Galleom. Meta Knight’s amped up sword attacks shine here, as he can take out Galleom with ease while avoiding all of his attacks. In the air, Meta Knight’s Neutral Aerial is his fastest form of damage, while on the ground, both hits of his Down Smash do the job just slightly better.

The Ruined Hall

• Room 1: The first of two levels that consist of a boss fight and nothing else. This time, it’s a rematch with Galleom, who does actually have less health than the preceding fight. The Pokemon Trainer (Who spawns in with Charizard by default) is far and away the best fighter to use in this level because of his Side-B, Rock Smash, which deals crazy amounts of damage. By manipulating Galleom’s attack pattern, I can cancel the ending lag of Rock Smash at several points, which allows me to finish Galleom off even faster.

The Wilds 2

• Room 1: I start off by choosing Pit, and then choose Yoshi as my second character; the rest do not matter. The room immediately starts with Pit Smash Attack Boosting and gliding over the fight trigger, to come across a section where the camera refuses to move any further. This is where the release regions of the game differ; dying in any non-PAL region, even after moving as far to the right as possible, sends you back to the beginning. For some reason, the PAL version is different, as dying after moving far enough instead sends you to a place in the map beyond the frozen camera, and allows you to complete the level as normal. With that in mind, I move Pit to just barely after that crucial respawn point change, and then backtrack slightly by getting hit by the Mite, to die by falling into a… pit… which then sees the end of Pit’s usage for the rest of the entire TAS (o7). I then spawn in with Yoshi, who is faster for the rest of the level and the room that follows.

• Room 2: At the start of the room, I perform a Smash Attack Bounce Boost similar to the one I do in Sea of Clouds Room 3, getting close enough to the ground to change my angle but not close enough to actually make contact; this has the result of changing my launch angle to have a downward trajectory, just enough to allow me to tech on a wall further in the level and start manipulating a Bob-Omb from another enemy. Instead of Bounce Boosting right over the fight trigger and entering the autoscroller, I do the fight normally, and take out enemies very quickly by manipulating an entire string of Bob-Ombs in a row. I’m able to take out the last enemy with one last Bob-Omb, and promptly move into the explosion’s hitbox before it has a chance to dissipate; in combination with the Reverse Pause Glitch, this allows me to fly straight to the ending loading zone trigger (Taking care to not spawn in any extra enemies that would mess with the camera’s focus point) when combined with Yoshi’s Down-B.

The Swamp

• Room 1: Using a buffed-up Fox, I chain together multiple Bob-Omb explosions to fly to the exit door. As seen in Room 1 of The Jungle, it’s faster to jump on Goombas in comparison to attacking them.

• Room 2: I perform a single Bounce Boost that takes me all the way to the Ambush at the middle of the level, which I take out with no issue, and use the Reverse Pause Glitch to ignore the post-fight autoscroller’s camera limitations. I make my way to the top of the level with extra damage boosts from the Bullet Bills, fire a laser off-screen to hit a chain-reaction block, and damage boost one final time to launch to the ending door.

• Room 3: Here, we fight Giant Shadow Diddy. And by “fight”, I mean we bait him to the left blastzone, again. The Bob-Omb actually does nothing useful here, so I discard it.

• Room 4: I use the Bob-Omb from the Bullfrog to outright skip the fight present, but the time saved from the fight is slightly lost from non-manipulable cannon cycles.

• Room 7: Here, I use a series of damage boosts from the Paratroopas alongside multiple Side-B’s to make my way across the room, only Bounce Boosting with the Bob-Omb near the end of the room. I lose a small amount of time overall in comparison to the old TAS because my damage needs to be at a specific amount in order for the Reverse Pause Glitch in the following room to work properly - I can’t recklessly take damage on the ending spikes and SDI downwards to the door like before.

• Room 8: This room contains not one, but TWO autoscrollers (The second of which is possible to skip with the Reverse Pause Glitch); I start the first one more quickly than the old TAS by Side-B’ing into the trigger instead of running onto the platform. While I do end up dropping the Bob-Omb I was holding, I need to get another one anyway, as its timer runs out before the Ambush can begin. With this Ambush, even if I kill all the enemies that spawn during the fight, another Bullet Bill spawns immediately after it ends - I preemptively throw a Bob-Omb upwards so it spawn-kills the Bullet Bill, in order for the Reverse Pause Glitch to be used effectively. I use a final back aerial on the Red Paratroopa at the same time its own attack connects for the final launch; while Goombas still end up spawning to mess up the focus point of the camera, it doesn’t end up being enough to prematurely kill me.

Research Facility 2

• Room 1: This room consists of several red switches that need to be hit so barriers can be removed from your path; as it turns out, it’s possible to skip a waiting period for a barrier falling back down by hitting the switch while in the process of flying away with a damage boost. I use the Glices present to build up a large amount of damage quickly, and make it through the barrier just barely with enough room.

• Room 2: A simple straight corridor littered with ROB enemies, like the third room of Research Facility 1. I Bounce Boost to the exit this time, instead of fumbling around with (relatively) slower Quick Attack Cancels.

• Room 3: We are tasked with fighting two Dark Samuses (Unrelated to the Dark Samus playable character in Ultimate); I quickly take them out by using Thunder to damage them a bit, and finish them off with the Bob-Omb in my hand.

• Room 4: I start off the level by doing an instant Quick Attack Cancel into down-throwing the Bob-Omb at a ROB to damage boost further along. I eventually reach a series of blocks, which I break with a series of Down Aerials and Back Aerials, and then Quick Attack into the spikes to build up a great deal of damage. I then do a final Bounce Boost with the ROB’s missile to launch to the end of the room.

• Room 5: I start off by doing a Smash Attack Boost to fly across the stage, manipulate a Bob-Omb from the Cymul, and do one final Bounce Boost to fly straight to the ending door, completely skipping the intended route of using the orange conveyer platforms to move and fight across the stage. My initial launch trajectory actually ends up hitting the ceiling, but by doing an aerial attack out of hitstun, I’m then able to fast-fall, which lets me just barely not hit the ceiling.

• Room 6: Due to the ceiling-floor’s thin structure, damage boosting with the right velocity and hitting the key-wall-ceiling corner allows me to snap up to the floor above, which skips half the level. In utter defiance of the intended route, consisting of a fight, and multiple rooms of platforming, I simply go through… backwards.

• Room 7: One final lone stretch of ground before the upcoming boss fight. Nothing of particular note.

• Room 8: RIDLEY! HE’S JUST SOME BOSS ENEMY! NOT EVEN SPECIAL! I’m able to take him out very quickly by manipulating his attack pattern so he only uses his tail slide attack; its properties allow me to repeatedly use Pikachu’s Neutral Aerial attack (Which was buffed by a sticker I put on during the sticker application) without waiting for any cooldown.

Path to The Ancient Ruins

• Room 1: Fox Trotting as Captain Falcon is faster than his run by a much larger amount than the other characters. I damage boost with a ROB’s missile, and then with a Roader running me over in order to get past the Gagyma. I then manipulate a Bob-Omb from one of the Auroroses, and then damage boost with the second one while using the Pause Glitch in order to completely skip the fight you’re supposed to do. With the Bob-Omb I manipulated, I do one final Bounce Boost over to the ending door.

• Room 2: The third large-scale Ambush of the entire game. The fight proceeds similarly to the other two, especially with the amount of usage I get out of the Cracker Launcher. I finish the fight with a Reverse Falcon Punch, which actually ends up being the most optimal way I could come up with - Down Smash requires charging and both hits in order to one-shot, while Forward Smash launches them at a bad angle. I manipulate RNG at the end of this room so the next room’s start goes as fast as it can.

The Glacial Peak

• Room 1: I use the Bullfrog’s Bob-Omb to start a chain reaction of other Bob-Ombs which, alongside a series of other damage boosts and special move cancels, allow me to fly right up to the ending door. I end up having too much momentum, actually, which forces me to grab the ledge and do a slow ledge getup, as vertical momentum is still conserved when falling off the ledge.

• Room 2: A very long autoscroller, which I start earlier than the old TAS by damage boosting into the trigger. As there’s nothing important to do, I mess around by intentionally not killing any enemies, which ultimately ends with an entire jamboree of Sword Primids trying and failing to attack me.

• Room 3: After launching with the cannon at the start of the level, I intentionally make my way back down to the secret door and perform a Bounce Boost with the Bob-Omb I’m holding to make my way up the level. I then intentionally get hit by the Jyk to freeze the camera and pull the stunt I do in Path To The Ancient Ruins and other levels. Uniquely, the upper blastzone in this fight is partially disabled, allowing one to move as high as they want as long as no platforms are touched. I strategically use my remaining jumps and Up Special to touch the ground just after the fight is completed, which prevents me from dying, and allows me to continue making my way up the summit. Due to an entire sequence of bad RNG for the next fight, I’m forced to pause buffer in this room to get Lucario to do what I want.

• Room 4: Given that I’ve been playing as Meta Knight this entire time, it would be foolish to pick otherwise. I destroy Lucario quickly by using an Up-B, canceling it with Lucario’s own attack, and finish him off with a Bob-Omb.

The Canyon

• Room 1: The fourth large-scale Ambush of the game; I use Yoshi due to his better fighting capabilities (And boosted sticker set). Thanks to RNG manipulation done in the cooldown of the previous room, I’m able to get a Cracker Launcher from the first enemy, which I use to wreak havoc. I eventually manipulate a Super Mushroom and multiple Soccer Balls, which allows me to do such things as spawnkilling two Giant Primids in a single shot.

Battleship Halberd Interior

• Room 1: It turns out that DACUSing into the door is a few frames slower than just doing a regular dash attack.

• Room 2: I do a series of DACUSes and damage boosts to the main series of falling platforms, and then do a Bounce Boost with the Primid’s own Smash Attack, despite the fact that Snake really doesn’t look like he’s moving into the ceiling while using his Up-B (Since, well, the Cypher is in the way).

• Room 3: And so, Snake’s fun little journey comes to an end, as Meta Knight takes over from here. Due to the developers just up and forgetting to put a ceiling at the start of the room, it’s possible to boost over the wall and get out of bounds. You’re intended to go across the room, destroy three Generators, and hit some red switches to unlock the path down to the next room, but I instead take a shortcut to the door instead. Thanks to camera scrolling limitations, I need to move in a particular way in order to actually progress down to the door.

• Room 4: As this fight consists of a multitude of Sword Primids, I immediately manipulate a Super Mushroom in order to take them out more quickly, as Meta Knight still has a hard time despite the stickers boosting his attack. I eventually also manipulate a Soccer Ball and a Green Shell, which are used to take out the last Sword Primid and the Autolance respectively, so that I can immediately enter the door after they’re all killed.

• Room 5: A simple Bounce Boost and a glide does the trick to make it all the way to the ending door with a great deal of speed to spare.

• Room 6: I again immediately start with a Bounce Boost, but angled in a way that allows me to regain control right as I hit the ground. I then kill the Bombed with a Down Air, while manipulating another Bob-Omb, and damage boost with perfect timing to clip through the barriers to end the room early: By SDI-ing into the ceiling slightly (Which is possible to do, for some reason), I can get my final launch vector to be above the retracting barrier’s floor hitbox before it gets below the ceiling, which allows me to fly right through the seam to the ending door.

• Room 7: Similar to Peach’s float ability, Meta Knight’s glide attack also allows him to keep the item he’s holding. I use the attack on my two opponents before launching them with the Bob-Omb to finish them off. By landing on the ground, I’m able to manipulate RNG for the following room.

Battleship Halberd Exterior

• Room 1: Peach, welcome back. We missed you. RNG is gaslit gently coaxed into letting me pluck four Bob-Ombs in a row, in a matter of seconds, to fly across the stage. I need to burn a few frames in order to get the correct RNG for the next room, which leads to the humorous visual of Peach walking in midair and flying offscreen as the screen fades to black.

• Room 2: And so, I immediately manipulate another Bob-Omb and chain a Bounce Boost with a Quark Mine to fly across the stage. I eventually run into another one, do another Bounce Boost, and cancel the knockback with an Up Air to hit the switch to unlock the barricade, so I can immediately go to enter the door.

• Room 3: I manage to pluck the required Bob-Omb on the literal first frame possible, which means no time is wasted in manipulating RNG otherwise.

• Room 4: I get through the fight more quickly by using a Stitch Face, a Soccer Ball, and a Cracker Launcher (Naturally, what else would you expect), finishing off the fight by plucking a Bob-Omb and Bounce Boosting with it. I again chain a boost with a Quark Mine, and then pluck another Bob-Omb to do one final boost and enter the door. In my testing, I was quite literally one single RNG value away from getting a Bob-Omb about a quarter of a second earlier than the one seen, but it turns out that I would’ve been forced to wait for the stage cycle to work with me anyway, so nothing major was lost.

• Room 5: As found in the 100% TAS, it’s faster to simply damage boost to the Gold Cube’s platform and pluck another Bob-Omb while waiting for the camera to unfreeze, as opposed to just regularly platforming up to the platform. I still need to manipulate RNG in order to get another Bob-Omb as I land and fall off the small platform. As found in Sea of Clouds, it’s faster for Peach to not die here, so I have to delay exploding for a bit in order to do that. It still saves over one second overall, accounting for loading times.

• Peach (Bullfrog, Peach, Valoo, Rusl, Boundish)
• Captain Falcon (Bullfrog, Barrel Train, Daroach, Solid Snake, Boundish)
• Kirby (Bullfrog, Barrel Train)

Battleship Halberd Bridge

• Room 1: A single fight with Metal Gear Duon. I now use a full-power Peach to utterly destroy it.

Subspace Bomb Factory 1

• Room 1: Still using Pikachu, I start Quick Attack Canceling to the elevator. It’s just barely possible to damage boost with the Bob-Omb and clip out of bounds right as the elevator moves into place, which saves a bit more than a second in comparison to waiting for the elevator to recharge. It’s faster to intentionally trigger the room’s “puzzle” (Hitting a switch behind some blocks to unlock a door) and regain camera movement instead of trying to remain out of bounds and avoiding both triggers.

• Room 2: I boost to the room’s Ambush and manipulate the camera while using the Pause Glitch to despawn some enemies. I eventually manipulate a Green Shell and jump on it so it takes out the final ROB by itself as I move to the loading zone to end the level.

Subspace Bomb Factory 2

• Room 1: Captain Falcon’s Falcon Kick is a surprisingly useful move for crossing horizontal stretches of air quickly. I combine Fox Trots, Falcon Kicks, and Damage Boosting to reach the fight more quickly, and finish the fight by knocking the Primid into the nearly-dead Autolance. I also manipulate a Bob-Omb so I can Smash Attack Boost right to the end of the stage using the Reverse Pause Glitch.

• Room 2: This room is separated into three areas, each with their own colored switches that need to be hit so the ending door can be unlocked. I start by damage boosting over to the top section, and get a Bob-Omb which I pick up after I hit the switch. As I found during testing, it’s actually faster to go to the left first instead of the right, as going back from the left switch to the right switch allows me to carry a great deal of momentum (In contrast to absolutely none the old way). I eventually make my way to the final switch, manipulate another Bob-Omb to launch with, and then do a Smash Attack Boost with the ROB’s attack to launch to the door from the bottom (Which is faster than climbing the ladder or walljumping to the door).

• Room 3: I immediately Bounce Boost and fly across the level, using a Falcon Kick to break some blocks that stubbornly refused to be broken by aerial attacks. While it’s possible to skip the autoscrolling platform section by damage boosting, you’re unable to fully make your way to the end, as invisible ceilings and walls block your path. Even more frustratingly, it’s possible to clip out of bounds during the autoscroller by damage boosting with the Bytans present with incredibly strict timing, but it also can’t be used to get to the end early. Out of options, I’m forced to simply perform the Pause Glitch, despawn enemies outside of the blastzone range, and… clip out of bounds anyway due to the game unloading collision. With the fight being completed, I’m able to reach the ending door without needing to grab the key to the left of the fight.

• Room 4: The final large-scale Ambush of the entire run. I save several seconds over the old TAS’s best attempt by a series of smaller improvements, including better usage of the Cracker Launcher, killing the Nagagogs much faster, and ending the fight instantly by throwing a Trophy Stand at the remaining Armank - killing Captain Falcon early to load ROB in more quickly ends up losing more time than just ending the fight earlier.

• Room 5: I choose ROB to perform the second PAL exclusive autoscroller skip of the run, though this time it ends up being not any faster (Or possibly even slower) than the skip in other regions. This skip hinges on the fact that, like Battleship Halberd Interior’s skip, they didn’t put a ceiling in this region of the room. Captain Falcon has the capability of getting over the left wall (With the help of the Bullfrog’s Bob-Omb), but the PAL region locks the camera where the autoscroller would normally start, and ends up killing the player before spawning them in an area after the autoscroller would finish. As I need Captain Falcon for the future rooms, ROB is used instead as a sacrifice play. The other regions, by contrast, don’t lock the camera, which means Captain Falcon can be used for the entire stretch. Regardless, I skip the autoscroller, spawn in as Falcon, and fall the rest of the way to the end of the room.

• Room 7: Purely downwards SDI is faster than Falcon’s falling speed, so I damage boost from a Quark Mine to reach the second autoscroller more quickly. With enough damage, it’s possible to clip out of bounds by snapping to the floor that’s beneath the first floor near the start of the autoscroller, but the autoscroller’s trigger extends to the right beyond the blastzone, which means it can’t be skipped in that direction. It doesn’t extend beyond the blastzone to the left, but there’s no way to clip out of bounds in that direction without that second floor moving over there… which is only possible to do by starting the autoscroller anyway. Classic Catch-22 situation. Regardless, I start the autoscroller, build up some damage while messing around, and get to the door as soon as I can.

• Room 8: A final filler room before the boss fight; I damage boost down towards the loading zone. I manipulate RNG in order for Meta Ridley to properly move in the right spots.

• Room 9: Here, we fight Meta Ridley, who has a 1.2x weakness to Electric attacks. This includes Captain Falcon’s Forward Aerial (Otherwise known as the Knee Smash or Knee of Justice), which means I’m doing 31.9% per hit. Thanks to the slight wind present in the room, I can edge-cancel several Knees to finish Meta Ridley off even more quickly. Again, I manipulate RNG here so the following room starts off as perfectly as it can go.

Entrance to Subspace

• Room 1: The entire level consists of a single large room with multiple fights and a very long autoscroller. Guess what! That autoscroller can be completely skipped! With all the characters at my disposal, I choose Peach, for reasons I probably don’t need to explain at this point. I first Z-Drop the Bullfrog (Star Fox Command) Bob-Omb I’m holding, and pull a second Bob-Omb right as the first one explodes, which allows me to damage boost immediately afterwards (This happens so quickly that it almost seems like magic). I get to the first (And now only) fight of the level, during which I pull a Stitch Face and destroy all the enemies in a single shot. I manipulate a Bob-Omb from the final Floow, and damage boost to the next section of the level while still holding onto the Stitch Face and using the Reverse Pause Glitch to retain control over the camera.

Subspace 1

• Room 1: I hyperspeed waddle to the middle of the room, damage boost with an enemy’s attack, manipulate a Bob-Omb from another one, and damage boost to the ending door.

• Room 2: I use Dedede’s Up-B alongside a damage boost from the Poppant to reach the ending door more quickly.

• Room 3: I hyperspeed waddle to the right, cancel the hammer’s charge by hitting the Feyesh as soon as it hits me, get hit by it again, and then Up-B to reach the ending section. I then get hit by a Mite to damage boost to the end. Because of the extra damage I took in the first room, the camera remains frozen for longer than it did before, which means I enter the door here seven frames after the point I did in the old TAS. This is fine, however, as I saved 50 frames in the first room and 20 frames in the second room, which more than makes up for this.

• Room 4: I hyperspeed waddle across a large section of flat ground before unleashing it on a Puppit, knocking it upwards. I break a path through the breakable blocks, and Bounce Boost with the Puppit’s attack, launching me to the end of the room.

• Room 5: The fastest way of getting through this room is to Smash Attack Boost with the Mite, which I do so, and then fastfall off the platform to barely enter the door.

• Room 6: As Dedede doesn’t have a Bullfrog (Star Fox Command) sticker, nor are there any enemies present, nor is there a section of ground long enough for me to properly Hyperspeed Waddle on, I’m forced to use a series of jumps across the floating platforms to reach the ending door.

• Room 7: Now, we fight Bowser. Dedede gets an easy kill by inhaling Bowser while fast-falling off the edge into the abyss, and wins because he has the stock advantage. Unfortunately, however, the thematic parallels to the first fight in the entire game are now lost because Kirby (And his Kirbycide technique) is no longer used anymore.

Subspace 2

• Room 1: The first thing I do here is damage boost with the Bob-Omb I’m holding, and grab Peach’s trophy. Just because I felt like it. Absolutely no other reason. Anyway, uhh, I do more damage boosting with Quark Mines and a Feyesh to boost all the way to the ending door.

• Room 2: This is where the Reverse Pause Glitch is used for the final time. And as it turns out, character trophies also aggravate the camera, which means I’m forced to pick up the trophy characters in this room in order for the glitch to work (As opposed to Peach, who as I mentioned before, was not forced to be picked up. Totally.) Making my way down the level, I grab Link, Yoshi, and Lucario. I eventually reach the fight, which I do normally so the Reverse Pause Glitch can be used. I still need to wait for the Armight to spawn, during which I manipulate a Cracker Launcher in order to take it out instantly and a Bob-Omb to boost with. Oddly, the Heart Container that spawns after the fight is complete also aggravates the camera, which means I’m actually forced to heal 100%. Despite this, the damage I’m left with is still more than enough to damage boost and fly to the end of the room with the help of the Reverse Pause Glitch.

• Room 3: I shield-drop through the starting platform and Bounce Boost in a particular way to hit the wall on the opposite side and fly through the level. Due to the way the platforms are structured, I’m forced to use Kirby’s Up-B in order to retain my momentum from the boost. This actually ends up putting Kirby into his helpless falling state (Which otherwise isn’t seen in most normal gameplay) because the Up-B didn’t finish. I eventually start the fight with a single Ticken, which I actually kill instead of breaking the blocks and letting it fall to its death, as a Bob-Omb can be manipulated from it. I pick up the Bob-Omb, drop it on the corner, do a Bounce Boost, and fly just above the fight trigger of the final fight - I’m able to fall back to the ground with the help of Kirby’s Down-B.

The Great Maze

• The Glacial Peak room before Lucario is fought - where I manipulate a Super Mushroom, collect it as soon as I get hit by the Jyk to do the rare “non-Bounce Boost Bounce Boost”, and then do another Bounce Boost with a Feyesh - over 5.5 seconds were saved.

• The room after Ike is fought - where I Bounce Boost with the Bob-Omb and wallbounce a number of times to reduce my knockback enough to fly through the level without dying - just over 5 seconds of timesave.

• The backtracking after Olimar is fought - where I manipulated RNG in that fight’s downtime to pull another Bob-Omb while on top of the Gagyma and do a gigantic number of wallbounces with the perfect launch angle to land on the ground instead of flying to my death - a bit over two seconds of timesave.

Time Table

Improvements & Final Thoughts

Random Fun Facts

Screenshot Recommendations