Tricks
Contents
Pipe Glitch
If down and jump are pressed on the exact same frame over a pipe, Yoshi both jumps and goes down the pipe. On most pipes, this saves up to 30 frames (Sometimes a few frames less) by speeding up the time it takes yoshi to exit the screen since it skips the animation where he climbs into the pipe. However, on a few pipes in the game, this trick might cause a 1-1 warp. See Warps Info. It may also cause a warp to adjacent rooms, as in the second pipe in 2-1 or 2-8, which is allowed in all categories.
In the video on the right, the three animations of pipe jumps are displayed:
- The first is simply pressing down + B at the same time
- The second is down + B + Y
- And the last is down + B + A
Time Save
- Each pipe jump saves a maximum of 30 frames over going down the pipe normally.
- In 4-E doing a up+jump pipe entry saves 42 frames.
Here are is a list of all the pipes you go through in an any% or 100% run and how much time it would save in total to do all pipe jumps compared to doing none [Note: The 'warping' pipes in 2-1 and 2-8 were not counted for this list because you specifically try to get a pipe jump on them and skip some part of the regular level route]:
- Any% (14 pipes): 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-6, 2-3, 2-7, 2-8, 3-8, 4-2, 4-4, 5-7(2), 6-4, 6-7
- Any% (time save): 14*30 = 420 frames ---> 7 seconds
- 100% (28 pipes + 4-E): 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-6, 2-1, 2-3, 2-4, 2-7(2), 2-8(2), 3-2, 3-8, 4-1, 4-2(2), 4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 4-8, 5-4, 5-5, 5-7(2), 6-4, 6-7, 6-E, 2-E, 4-E(8)
- 100% (time save w/o 4-E): 28*30 = 840 frames ---> 14 seconds
- 100% (time save of 4-E): +8*42 = +336 frames ---> 5.6 seconds
- 100% (time save total): 1176 frames ---> 19.6 seconds
Gatehack
There are many one-way gates in Yoshi's Island that can actually be opened backwards by several methods. By far the easiest real-time method for opening a gate from behind is to throw a straight upward-aimed egg at just the right spot towards the top of the gate. The egg glitches into the gate, and knocks it open, thus allowing Yoshi to go through an otherwise closed gate. This is used to save time in 2-4 any%, skipping the staircase that is typically used in that area.
Gatehack tips:
- Tap A once quickly to fire the egg -- don't hold A down for a bit and then release.
- Hold up the entire time, even after tapping A, as this changes the egg's trajectory to make it more favorable.
- Hold B (jump) the entire time, and if you miss the first shot let Yoshi autoflutter and try again during the flutter. It is actually easier (bigger frame window) to get the fluttering gatehack than the regular one.
- Run into the gate from the side. This greatly increases the window of success (~9 frames vs 3 frames) because running into the gate knocks it inwards a little bit, and while it is knocked in it is much easier to get the gatehack.
Another gatehack is used in 6-7 where you carry over the momentum of a Spiked Fun Guy (or its pot) by tonguing it while it travels left, spit it out while pushing towards the gate, the negative x-velocity of the enemy opens the gate for you.
However this trick requires the gate to be spawned with the correct camera position.
This trick works with anything that bounces off the gate (Melon Bugs unconfirmed).
Piranha Skip
After shooting an egg or spitting an enemy onto a Green Piranha Plant, it is possible to travel through them for 32 frames (about half a second) without taking a hit.
It is also possible to damage boost through these Piranha Plants by facing backwards and running/fluttering into them. Some might find this more consistant than the egg shooting method, however this method is slower.
Piranha skips are commonly used and recommended to practice for the stages 3-8, 4-3, 4-6, 5-1 and 5-7.
Ghost Skip
Normally Caged Ghosts take atleast 4 egg shots to jump over, however when Ghosts spawn they grow from min-max size, shooting them during the growing phase causes them to stop growing and reduce by 1 size. This can be abused to save both eggs and time. There are 2 of these in 3-8
Another skip is used in 6-E where you spit the first Mace Guy into the vertical Caged Ghost. Using visual cues can significantly increase consistency.
Screen Scrolling
Generally, the screen scrolls depending on where Yoshi is heading.
- Holding down/up may scroll the screen vertically if the level allows for it. Not possible while egg-aiming.
- Jumping may correct a wierd screen scroll vertically.
- Jumping as the screen is scrolling, will scroll it even higher compared to just holding up.
- A Perfect Jump may avoid screen scroll vertically.
Enemies, collectables and event triggers only spawn when the screen is scrolled properly. This is abused many times in speedruns as for examples the 6-5 autoscroller-skip, spawning red coins for 1-7 beanstalk skip and a flower for 1-2 helicopter skip.
Sprite Overload
You cannot load more than 24(?) sprites on the screen at once. Keep in mind that some sprite slots are reserved for important stuff such as Baby Mario, Toadies etc.
For speedrunning, this mechanic has both pros and cons.
This can be abused to despawn for example: Enemies, Save Rings and Gates to save time. Most noteable is the Bullet Bill Launcher despawn in '2-7. This can be frustrating for 100% speedruns as it can despawn Fly Guys carrying Red Coins/Star Clouds, which will never respawn even though you go back to reload them.
Chicken Baxter
The 4-7 chicken baxter is a way to bring a chicken (Huffin' Puffin) to 4-8 which can be used against hookbill to flip him over instantly. A good chicken fight saves 10 seconds over an optimal normal hookbill fight. It's mainly an Any% Trick and not that useful for 100% in an RTA setting Too hard). Important Note: When you cancel egg-throws with a chicken in hand, there is chance of the chicken being dropped (Roughly 1 in 3). Be aware of that.
A chicken baxter is performed by aiming the chicken and cancelling the aim at the same frame as you enter a goal ring. However a certain setup is needed to make it work as of how the sprites work: The sprite ID of the chicken has to be higher than the goalring.
Running the following LUA script in snes9x can be helpful to find a setup and understanding sprite IDs: http://pastebin.com/GGJd81Wy
Blast-Off
This glitch only occurs in 4-8.
If Yoshi ground-pounds Hookbill before he lands on his back on the final hit, Yoshi will "blast off" rapidly into the sky. This glitch can temporarily freeze the game for up to a minute during the keyhole cutscene. This can be avoided by always doing the final blow from the left side of Hookbill and away from the right end of the stage (where the screen stops scrolling).
Red Coin Duplication
// This Trick is only relevant to running 100% //
It is possible to duplicate Red Coins carried by PATROLLING Fly Guys. You do this by tounguing the Fly Guy, not picking up the Red Coin, going off-screen and spitting it out without killing it and going back to respawn the Fly Guy.
As you can see in the gif on the right 2 coins are collected from 1 flying shy guy. It's possible, but incredible hard to dupe 3 Red Coins (4 in total) from the same Fly Guy, but for RTA duping more than 2 coins is unviable, since the timing for a triple dupe is very tight (close to frame-perfect), but it has been done.
This is commonly used in the following levels to get 20 red coins faster:
