Tricks
Contents
Pipe Jump
If down and jump are pressed on the same frame while standing on a pipe, Yoshi both jumps and goes down the pipe. This speeds up the time it takes Yoshi to exit the screen by skipping the animation where he climbs into the pipe.
On a few pipes in the game, this trick will cause a 1-1 Warp, like in 1-1 or 2-1. It may also cause a warp to adjacent rooms like with the second pipe in 2-1 and 2-8. Since this is not a 1-1 Warp though, it is allowed in all speedruns.
The video demonstrates the three various pipe jumps:
- Down + B
- Down + B + Y
- Down + B + A
Time Save
- Each pipe jump saves 29 frames over going down the pipe normally.
- In 4-E doing an up+jump pipe entry saves 42 frames.
Any%
- Pipes (13): 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
- 2-1 adjacent warp: 89 frames or 1.48s
- 2-8 adjacent warp: 208 frames or 3.46s
- Time save w/o adjacent warps: 377 frames or 6.28s
- Total time save: 674 frames or 11.23s
100%
- Pipes (37): 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-6, 1-7, 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)
- 2-1 adjacent warp: 33 frames or 0.55s
- 2-8 adjacent warp: 61 frames or 1.01s
- 4-E: 336 frames or 5.6s
- Time save w/o 4-E or adjacent warps: 841 frames or 14.01s
- Total time save: 1271 frames or 21.18s
Gatehack
There are many one-way gates in Yoshi's Island that can be opened backwards. The easiest method is to do an upshot at the top of the gate. The egg clips into the gate and knocks it open, thus allowing Yoshi to go through. This is used in various places to save time in all speedrun categories.
Gatehack tips:
- Tap A once quickly to throw the egg -- don't hold A for a bit and then release.
- Hold up the entire time, even after tapping A, to get the angled-upshot.
- Hold B the entire time and if you miss the first shot, let Yoshi auto-flutter and try again. It is actually easier to get the fluttering gatehack than the regular one due to a bigger window.
- Run into the gate to knock it inwards a little bit to make it easier to get the gatehack to work. This greatly increases the window of success (~9 frames vs 3 frames).
Another variation of the gatehack can be seen in 6-7 where you use a Spiked Fun Guy (or it's pot). You spit it out while pushing against the gate, re-tongue it and do it once more. The negative x-velocity of the enemy opens the gate.
However, this trick requires the gate to be loaded in the correct sprite slot. If the gate is in a higher numbered slot than the enemy, the gatehack will not work. You can see the sprite IDs and a consistent method demonstrated here. Also check the DLC page if you would like to experiment with it yourself.
This trick works with anything that bounces off of the gate.
Piranha Skip
It is possible to travel through green Piranha Plants without getting hit by throwing an egg or spitting an enemy into them. It is a 32 frame window.
It is also possible to damage boost through these Piranha Plants by facing backwards and running/fluttering into them. Some might find this more consistent than the egg throwing method, however, this method is slower.
Piranha skips are used in 3-8 [1], 4-3 [2], 4-6 [3], 5-1 [4] [5] and 5-7.
Ghost Skip
Normally, Caged Ghosts take at least 4 egg shots to jump over, however, when they load in, they grow in size. Shooting them during the growing phase causes them to stop growing and reduce by 1 size. This can be used 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:
