Collectibles

At the end of each level, the game gives you a score based on how many stars, red coins and flowers you collected. Each star and red coin is worth 1 point and flowers are worth 10. In Any% speedruns, these are purposely skipped because they take extra time to be counted on the score screen and they are simply not needed. In 100% however, it is required that you finish each level with 30 stars, 20 red coins and 5 flowers. Completing each level in a world with a score of 100 will unlock an extra level for that world and it is also required that you get 100 points on those as well.

Stars File:Star.png

Stars serve as Yoshi's health and give you more time to reclaim Baby Mario if you get hit. Each star increases the timer by 1 unit and caps at 30. They are collected on contact or when tongued by Yoshi. Stars can be obtained from winged clouds (3 or 5 depending on the cloud), crates (6), tulips (8) or middle-rings (10). You can also get 2 stars by hitting an enemy (or other interactive sprite) with a red egg, as long as the egg breaks/cracks open. If you have more than 20 stars when collecting a middle-ring, the freeze that it causes will be shortened by 8 frames per star. If the ring cannot be skipped it's preferable to have as many stars as possible. This freeze can also be skipped entirely if you throw an egg at a winged cloud at the right time. In Any% speedruns, stars are available as a safety net, but are usually ignored, except for in 3-4. [1]. There is theoretically no limit to the amount of stars you can get in a level, so long as you can make red eggs and hit something with them.

Red Coins File:Redcoin.gif

Red coins, often disguised as normal ones (with a reddish tint) [2] are the game's 2nd main collectible. There are 20 scattered throughout each level, at fixed locations. Sometimes you will have to destroy all the enemies in specific rooms [3], ground pound posts [4] or even use vehicle transformations to reach them. [5] They have no real purpose other than being a collectible and are slightly larger than normal coins, allowing for easier collection. Even though you have to finish each level with 20 red coins in 100% speedruns, you can duplicate them to skip slower ones.
*3-E has 21 red coins. It's most likely the one hidden in a post underneath a Tap-Tap.[6]

Flowers

There are five flowers in each level. Some are out in the open, some are hidden in winged clouds and others can be earned through destroying all the enemies in specific rooms. They can be collected by touch or by contact with a thrown egg or a spit out enemy. In 100% speedruns, you must finish each level with 5. This gives you 50 points towards the 100 total, plus an extra life. In Any% speedruns, flowers are avoided because they can trigger bonus challenges as well as add extra time to the score screen.
*5-7 has six flowers. The sixth one is hidden off-screen but can still be collected with an egg. This is actually used in 100% speedruns to skip a much slower flower. [7]