Game objectives

• Emulator: BizHawk 2.10
• Game version: USA
• Completing main story mode
• Easy Mode
• RNG manipulation
• Time Zone: (UTC+01:00) Sarajevo, Skopje, Warsaw, Zagreb (It should work on all settings with UTC+01:00)

Versions

• This game has two versions, 1.0, which we play, and 1.1. Both versions are the same in terms of speed. Version 1.1 fixes a softlock in which Luigi, without Mario, gets stuck in the Wiggler location. Version 1.1 also added a new glitch in which the music from the DS version does not play at all. That's all.

Easy Mode

• Easy Mode allows us to increase damage, making us stronger in fights.

Fast forward

• This game has a fast forward feature that can be used with the R button. It is a new feature added in Paper Jam. In this game, unlike Superstar Saga, A and B work when you hold down R. Finally

Amiibo

• This game also features the Amiibo function, but compared to Superstar Saga, Amiibo is not useful. With Amiibo, we only get additional items for Mario & Luigi and Bowser Jr.'s Journey modes, depending on which Amiibo we use, and that's it.

Tech

• Punch Dash: In this version, just like on the DS, using Punch Dash is faster than normal walking, but there are a few downsides to it, which is why I didn't use it too often. Punch dash is long, and if you hit a wall, you can't cancel the animation, losing time. The event that triggers the loading zone doesn't work when we're in the punch dash animation, which results in a few frames of lost time. Besides, there's a risk of getting into a fight, so the movements and use of this had to be optimised for that.
• Spin Jump: I have nothing more to say, the same mechanics as the rest of the games in the series, spin jump if we press A to set ourselves up, we have to wait a few frames before using it because the icons at the top right have to line up, so it's not optimal, that's how the game works.
• Spike Ball, the last move in this TAS, just like in the DS version, Spike Ball is faster than Punch/Punch Dash, I use it for the rest of the TAS.

RNG manipulation

• In this game we manipulate the RNG to get a better layout of the enemies and their attacks, drops and lucky hits, RNG value is checked under code 0x078D0390, this allowed me to track the RNG and almost optimize the fights as much as possible, we can manipulate by entering another location in another frame when there are events, using different attacks and by opening and closing the map, it should be mentioned that only closing the map will change the RNG value.

Gear used List

Mario & Luigi

Wear

• Muscle Wear: This Gear can be obtained in Toad Town in one of the Toad houses after visiting Toadley with all the Star Cure, it adds POW and makes Critical and Lucky Hits inflicted 30% more, this gear is the interesting one in this version discussed in glitches & tricks.
• D-Star Wear: This is the item we can obtain from Dark Star, this gear raises all stats if we fill the badge metter during the fight, adds POW, DEF and SPEED status by 1.5×.

Others

• Siphon Gloves: We can get these gloves in two ways, in the Trash Pit from the block at the exit or after defeating Scutlet, recovers some BP when using Hammer, used mainly to save syrups for later sections.
• Parry Glasses: This item can be obtained in Pump Works from the block after entering the red pipe, it causes it to automatically use guard while an enemy is attacking it, the reason I use it for most of TAS is because it adds +10 POW which is really useful.
• EXP Socks: This item can be obtained in the Flab Zone from the block after the Spin Jump tutorial, after the fight it doubles EXP as long as the enemy has not hit us, interesting fact, when using the Green Shell if we get hit with it, it counts as getting damage even though it deals 0 damage.
• Daredevil Boots: This item can be obtained by getting the Gold Medal in the Jump Helmet mini-game, in this version to get the Gold Medal we need to reach 24 points, these boots cause us to deal double damage but we are at one hit, Expert Badge+Shield Badge's do not protect us from these boots
• DX POW Gloves: This item can be obtained in 3 ways, from a block in Toadley Clinic or Peach's Castle or from the Star shop, adds 20% to POW

Bowser

Shell

• Lightweight Shell: This gear can be obtained after defeating Bowser's Castle in Giant Battle. It adds 100% speed, it is powerful gear and will be used in a large part of the game.
• Gilt Shell: This gear can be obtained after defeating Fawful Express in Giant Battle. It cures all status effects of the wearer in one turn, but it is not entirely true because it does not automatically cure FURY. It is mainly used to increase POW.

Others

• Lucky Ring: This Gear can be obtained after defeating Wiggler. This item increases critical and lucky damage by over 50% and is only used in one fight to save time.
• Counter Ring: This Gear can be purchased in the shop after defeating Bowser's Castle. It increases Counterattack by x1.5.
• Iron Fist Band: This Gear can be purchased in the shop after defeating Bowser's Castle. It increases Bowser's punch attacks by 30%.
• KO Band: This Gear can be obtained in Peach's Castle from a block, It causes Bowser's Punch attack to have a 30% chance of instantly defeating enemies (doesn't work on bosses). If the effect activates, an exclamation point will appear above the enemy. I use it to save time while farming EXP.
• Power Band +: This Gear can be obtained in Peach's Castle from a block, increases POW by 20%.
• Intruder Fangs: This Gear can be obtained after defeating Super Peach's Castle of Fury. It allows you to take 2 turns instead of 1, but using Inhales and switching to Bowser after Mario & Luigi's turn will not grant an additional turn.

Softener Gloves

• This item can be obtained from Piranha Plorp, their chance of drop is 20%, these gloves occasionally lower an enemy's DEF after hitting them with a hammer but... Hammer attacks have a base 75% chance of temporarily inflicting 0.3× DEF-Down status but is not, as calculated damage is divided by defence. Reducing defence by 70% increases the damage dealt by ≈3.33×, the strength of these gloves is an oversight effect. The internal parameters of these gauntlets are 75 and 30, giving a 75% chance of 0.3× DEF-Down. Other items have a 25% to 50% chance of activation. The abnormally high chance of activation, combined with the exceptional DEF reduction, suggests that the chance and force values have been accidentally swapped. If chance and force values are swapped, the likely intended effect is a 30% chance of 0.75× DEF-Down, these gloves are very powerful in this game and we use them in 3 fights.

Challenge Medal

• This item can be obtained by defeating Junker X in Gauntlet, they greatly increase the damage both dealt and received by the wearer but not, that's what the description of this item says but the description in this game for this item is incorrect, it actually multiplies all damage dealt to anyone, including Bowser and enemies, by 2.5× if Mario or Luigi are wearing it. Probably due to an oversight, this 2.5× bonus is applied twice (6.25×) to each Goomba in Goomba Storm, this is why I fight Junker X in TAS and uses it for this entire game.

Ranks list

Mario & Luigi

• Beefy Bro: It get unlocked when reaching Shell Rank, adding +1 POW and HP per level, which is crucial in TAS.
• Suave Bro: It get unlocked when reaching Shell Rank, adding +1 BP and STACHE per level, It is very necessary for later sections to have more BP.
• Lucky and Good: This ability unlocks when reaching Flower Rank, adds a Lucky Hits damage bonus by x1.3 to x1.5, I give this to Luigi to go through fights faster.
• Badge Boost: This ability unlocks when reaching Boomerang Rank, it causes the badge to fill up 20% more with all attacks, mainly to fill it up faster for the final battle.

Bowser

• King's Feast: It get unlocked when reaching Silver Boss Rank, adding +1 POW per level, and causes Hot Drumsticks, Fiery Drumsticks, and TNT Drumsticks to heal 25% more HP.
• King's Grace: This ability unlocks when reaching Gold Boss Rank, causing Brawl attacks to deal 20% more damage.

Bowser

• We jump to defeat Bowser faster. In this game, Great and Excellent do not matter in terms of time when jumping.
• Guard is 104 frames faster than jumping with a fireball, but I jump at the beginning to skip the tutorial from Toadsworth.

Goombule 1

• We just jump, nothing else.

Goombules 2

• We attack Goombules by jumping on them, trying not to defeat them too fast so that after defeating them during the tutorial, no more will fall, I manipulate the RNG before the fight to get the syrup, the drop in this fight for some reason here is unavoidable.

Elite Goombules

• I manipulate RNG to get a better fight layout.
• Shell is the only attack that works on them, Great is faster than Excellent, you can see it on the third Shell attack, I use guard because it saves 24 frames over the jump.

Spike Blops

• Same as with Goombules, after the tutorial I use Shell because it is faster in this fight than Hammer.

Midbus

• This fight is a tutorial, gets Ok during punch because it saves time, using punch during Midbus turn saves 30 frames than getting damage

Toothy & Chuboomba

• I fight them to get a level before the boss, I manipulate the RNG before the boss

Stone Blooper

• I manipulate RNG to beat Stone Blooper faster, jumping on the last invale saves time than if I had used the Green Shell

Dried Blooper & Spike Blop 2

• I manipulate RNG to avoid drop, I use Shell to save time

Scutlet

• I get lucky to beat BOSS faster, during Fury I switch to jump on Luigi because it saves 32 frames than hammer, hammer Great saves 74 frames than Exellent

Broggy

• I manipulate the RNG to get a Lucky hit

Treevils

• I manipulate the RNG to avoid the drop and get a faster layout

Treevils & Trashure

• I manipulate the RNG to get a better fight layout, I get hit by a hammer on purpose to avoid a drops, in the second round I get damage on purpose to save time

Wiggler & Leaf Guy

• I perform faster attacks to end the battle faster, I manipulate the RNG to get Lucky, in this battle I also vaccum and fight Leaf Guys to gain EXP because in this version, compared to DS, Wiggler does not give EXP after defeating him, so I fight Leaf Guys to level up.

Bowser's Castle

• It's the first Giant Battle, in this fight compared to DS, the tutorial is required, during the tutorial with Fire getting OK and asking to try again saves 42 frames, as for the overall fight, Fire saves time than punch due to jumping around and Bowser's movement.

Flifits

• I fight them in to gain EXP before fighting Midbus.

• Before fighting Midbus, I should discuss the sections after entering Bowser's Castle. Before entering the next locations before fighting Midbus, you need to interact with 10 NPCs to open the door. The game has a conversation counter that you need to reach 10. We have to interact with 10 NPCs to enter, but there is one catch here. In the middle location, on the bottom left, there is a Koopa and Boo couple. Interacting with them also increases the counter. However, if we interact with a couple, the counter will increase by 2, reducing the required conversations with each NPC by 1, so we can only have 9 conversations. Thanks to this, I didn't have to go to other locations to have the remaining conversations and saved 530 frames.

Midbus

• In this fight, I manipulate the RNG by using map before the fight to get the seed where I want to get 3 meats in a row, Meat heals HP by 50 and increases POW. Minions on stage in the cutscene change the RNG value, and since I don't want to lose time, I used the map to get the seed. During the fight, minions behind the stage also changes the RNG value. Most of this fight is trying to get meat three times.

Tenderlings (Tutorial)

• This is a badges tutorial that teaches us how they work. Manipulation here was a nightmare, unfortunately I couldn't avoid dropping here, I manipulate to get a better layout, this fight is the same as with Goombules in the tutorial, don't kill too fast or they'll fall.

Tenderlings & Calorites

• I won't discuss every single fight, it's just to get level 9 on Mario and almost 8 on Luigi before the next boss, using Daredevil Boots to deal x2 more damage when jumping and EXP Socks to gain more EXP.

Kretin

• We need to equip Luigi with EXP Socks and Mario with Parry Glasses to deal damage. In later fights, Luigi will need EXP more and more often because, compared to DS, Luigi will be crucial for dealing damage, which we will move on to in the next sections. In this fight with Kretin, we cannot get Mario & Luigi to take damage because Mario dies immediately and Luigi needs EXP.
• In this fight, we need to do a strategy to beat Kretin in one cycle, because if he gets Fury, he'll link up again and we'll have to do jumps again, so in TAS we does an almost non-optimal jump route to do it because there aren't enough turns.

Fawflants

• This is the first fight after almost two hours in which I have to wait. in this fight, I have to get a good fight setup and defeat them faster + get the syrup. Due to the fact that there is no map that could change the RNG value, I had to wait before entering the location because Toad in the previous room is the only one who changes the RNG value. During dialogues, it will not change the RNG. The fastest attacks are jump and hammer.

Bowser

• I lose a few frames waiting to get a better seed, the fight with Bowser wasn't as difficult as it seems, in this fight using the Yoo Who Cannon deals more damage and guarantees that we will defeat Bowser faster, our goal is to avoid Bowser's Fury because if he gets it, he will heal himself to max HP, the fight layout is the same, Fire and then Goombas, but if we have Shy Guys, Bowser will use them instead of Goombas, which is why I did not take them during TAS. This fight also does not guarantee 2x EXP for Luigi because Luigi could not get a turn and deal damage.

Tower of Yikk

• In this battle, I use Punch because it's one of the attacks that can push back Tower of Yikk. I don't let him heal because, compared to DS, letting him heal loses time.

Fawflopper

• I manipulate the map before leaving Bowser to get 2 Fawfloppers. The reasons for leaving Bowser for this purpose are discussed in glitches & time saves.

Chakron

• We jump, lose, and enter the fight with him earlier to unlock the skip and another glitch.

Piranha Plorp

• I manipulate the RNG to get Softener Gloves for later fights, starting the fight with Hammer is faster than with a jump.

Wisdurm

• I said that Luigi is key in this TAS, and that's how we start the whole thing. We have to put Softener Gloves on Mario so he can lower enemy's defence, and then Luigi uses Super Bouncer to deal massive damage. Because Softener Gloves are incredibly powerful due to an oversight, we can use this to deal massive damage.

Fawful Express

• In the mini-game before the fight, I do all the progress normally instead of skipping it. It might seem that it would be faster, but it isn't because the developers forgot to add fast forward here, so I do it normally.
• Fire is the only attack that works in this battle on Fawful Express. When entering the mountain, Fire will set it on fire, then Punch to destroy the mountain.

• Before the next fight: After the cutscene, the touch screen has a 60 frames delay for some reason, which is why movements are slow because the Circle Pad is the only thing that works for 60 frames.

M & L Memory

• We must use the badge healing in a fight to open space for a new badge effect, because the badge does not charge when two spaces are full.
• I manipulate the RNG so that L Memory does not use 1-up.

Scutlets

• I manipulate the RNG to get a better attack pattern and syrups.

Sockops

• I manipulate the RNG by waiting to avoid drops and get a better layout to fill the badge. Unfortunately, this layout cost me a lot of time. The normal drop rate for Refreshing Herb is 40% and Tip-Top Boots is 20%, and most of them drop more on counterattack.

Chakron

• Finally, after 50 minutes, we did it.

Junker

• I manipulate the RNG by going back and returning once from the location because it also changes the RNG, I try to manipulate it to get lucky with Super Bouncer and skip Junker's turn after Mario.

• For some reason, after returning to Bowser, the touch screen does not work while moving, but it will return to normal when Dark Star enters Bowser's Inside.

Junker X

• It's the same boss, only more difficult. I'm taking on this fight to get the challenge medal, the most powerful item in later sections. In this fight, I use defence reduction, Snack Basket, and finish off Junker X with Super Bouncer.

Dark Trashures & Dark Mechawful

• I manipulate the RNG to avoid drops and activate KO Band in the first turns.

Blizzard Midbus

• I manipulate the RNG to prevent Midbus from summoning Snawfuls for the final attack.

Dark Star

• I use Snack Basket to get through Dark Star faster, finish it off with Super Bouncer and a jump, I also use double jumps on purpose to charge up badge meter a bit.

Super Peach's Castle of Fury

• I skip the minigame because it's faster than going through it normally.
• This Giant Battle is the last one in this TAS, and there are a few things to discuss.
• The game changes the FPS to 60 when Super Peach's Castle of FURY releases a black hole and stays until the second black hole is released. There are also FPS drops in 60 FPS mode here, probably due to graphics or the black hole.
• I take damage on the push and the last rocket on purpose because it saves time. On the last rocket, getting damage saves 30 frames.
• In the last section before the Finish Move, right at the beginning, I use a small window to hit the BOSS and defeat him without waiting for the next shot.

Dark Fawful & Vacuum Helmet

• In this fight, we must first destroy the Vacuum Helmet. Targeting Fawful will give us the same number of turns to defeat him, but it loses time. The Vacuum Helmet has many transitions, such as healing, flying away and returning, which causes it to lose frames. At the beginning, I get Great on Fawful to skip fury and skip his turn, then I finish him off.

Dark Bowser

• We use Goomba Storm to defeat Dark Bowser fast? Then we inhale Fawful.

Dark Star Core

• We use Jump Helmet to destroy Glasses and fill the badge, Snack Basket on Appendage, and we use KO and Super Bouncer to defeat Fawful, now mash X on Dark Bowser and GG.

Glitches & Time Saves

• Food Glitch: During the party, you can eat the same food twice. We have to eat one food close to the other and take the second food in a small window to get the eating animations. This means that the food is not really consumed, but the game counts it as eaten. This means that we can eat 4 instead of 6 thanks to this bug.
• Cave Skip: Due to the collision of the walls, we can use fire and cause flame to pass through the wall, activating the bomb. We must use fire, then turn around and use fire again.
• Muscle Wear Early: There are two houses near us after the Toad cutscene where the blorb infection has spread. The entrance to the left house is blocked, but the right one is not. The game has a trigger on the left side of the right house that allows you to go up without entering the left house. We have to jump there as Mini Mario and go all the way to Muscle Wear. However, the exit from the left house is blocked, but it is not a softlock if we go out.
• Staircase Glitch: In Toad Town, we can use stairs and spin jumps to preserve the animations of going backwards down stairs while travelling. This does not work if we do not go all the way back down the stairs this way. Switching to hammer or jumping cancels the glitch. Entering fights and jumping using Y not
• Sign Glitch & Fast Forward Storage Glitch: This is a combination with Staircase Glitch. We need to interact with the sign while using spin jump to send Mario and Luigi back to the next location. This allows us to keep fast forward and use it during gameplay. Entering a fight does not cancel the glitch, but interacting with something that also has fast forward cancels it.
• Chakron Early Glitch: To perform this glitch, we need to force the Drillbit Crab to move close to the wall and use a spin jump to hit his spike, causing Mario to jump up and escape the fight. We will then be able to get to the block and activate it, unlocking the path to Chakron. This glitch combines with the next two glitches.
• Yikk skip & boo ray machine early: We can skip the conversations with Yikk and use the boo ray machine without talking to him. We need to leave Bowser in the location with the boo ray machine and return to Bowser to activate the boo ray machine. We combine this glitch with the Chakron Early Glitch to already check off these moments.
• Pep bypass: When changing Pep's status, we can pass through him during the change because Pep does not have a collision for a second, which saves a lot of time, especially if he does not try to attack us.
• Body Slam Skip: This skip is combined with the previous one. We simply leave because there is no conversation with Yikk, the door is still open, and we can skip the tutorial without using this button. The downside, however, is that we will not be able to switch between Mario and Luigi, but it will return to normal when Bowser is crushed by the Fawful Express.
• OoB Glitch: Because of poor wall collisions, it’s possible to go out of bounds. Unlike earlier games though, this one checks every frame to make sure the playable character is in bounds. If not, the game instantly teleports you to a “safe area,” so you can’t just use OOB tricks to skip story events.

Something from me

• I would like to thank Danius in the first place for explaining some stuff to me, advising me on optimisation, helping me understand how RNG works, and sending and writing a Lua script for this game. Without that, this TAS wouldn't be possible with the time as is now.
• I would also like to thanks to Pascal Bob from the Discord server for finding all the OoBs and Yikk skips for this game, which helped save time in some places.