Uploaded September 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
It's been a while since I made one of these guides, but here it is.
It was previously thought you had to land on all the broken pillars, as if it's some kind of ritual that summons a cosmic power, however, the devs didn't put flags on all the pillars, so you only have to be on some of them.
You do, however, still need to wallkick off the last pillar, as this stops the black hole expanding.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2
It's been a while since I made one of these guides, but here it is.
It was previously thought you had to land on all the broken pillars, as if it's some kind of ritual that summons a cosmic power, however, the devs didn't put flags on all the pillars, so you only have to be on some of them.
You do, however, still need to wallkick off the last pillar, as this stops the black hole expanding.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2
![[TAS] SMG2: Lava Lair Comet in 0xA presses [Mario]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WhZmjb_kUiY/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Lava Lair Comet in 0xA presses [Mario]
Mario speeds through Lava Lair to grab a star in 0 A presses.
This improves on the previous 1xA count by using the Whomp as a sliding tool to get to the meteor.
This star was an interesting one, as beforehand the two 1xA routes were either: Jump on spring at the start and use the Whomp with an 0.5xA strat for the meteor, or use the pull star with B to skip the spring and jump on the meteor.
It turned out that the Whomp strat was possible 0xA, but I was sceptical that thered be enough time on the limit to bring all the strats together.
As stated, pull stars can be grabbed with B. The IR appears a second time to manipulate Marios rotation inside the bubble so hes facing away from the spring; backwards speed is faster in the air.
I stayed on the moving platforms rather than the lavaboost that is done in other stars so that I could fireboost into a clock later on and still have the health to lavaboost into the star. This lost 3 seconds in real-time but gained 7s profit on the time limit.
I got lucky with the Whomps cycle, although P2 could have helped if necessary.
The slide requires standing on a certain point as the Whomp stands up; a bit too far up or down would still slide, but not get any speed in the air. A quick turn can be done just before sliding to face backwards.
I couldnt get that around the meteor far enough to hit the gate immediately, but was able to use some gravity trickery as the next one came up to be able to pound that instead.
Lava boost into snake block clip at the end for style points.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #AButtonChallenge")
![[ABC TAS] SMG1: Melty Molten 2 in 0.5x A presses (Luigi)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WuQdDXih1zk/mqdefault.jpg "[ABC TAS] SMG1: Melty Molten 2 in 0.5x A presses (Luigi)
Luigi gets through the meteor storm in 0.5 A presses.
The half A press only counts for the level itself, essentially noting that the A press for selecting the star should be held throughout the whole level.
Its required for a higher spin to get the star.
On the Thwomp planet, its possible to get clipped into the floor. By getting under the edge of a Thwomp as it comes down, Luigi will sidewarp (pushed with a lot of speed in 1 frame) instead of getting crushed.
This sidewarp clips thanks to the cornered floor; running from the top side of the corner means Luigis tilt doesnt update to the diagonal floor the Thwomp crushes, so instead of going up-right, the sidewarp goes straight right and through the corner.
This was found by Annoying (A Good Duck) who discovered a consistent clip if you die and then hold left on the respawn: https://youtube.com/watch?v nGMh75Dhrg
Its necessary to get the clip facing left in order to get the faster backwards acceleration to get past the big block.
Afterwards, a simple backwards spin knockback got up the small block.
The Life Mushroom isnt necessary - I got that to try a star grab strat using lava boosts.
During the chip section, I did edge grinding to save frames, running along the edge to start falling off but being able to stay on, using precise angles to stay in the fall off (+ ratio) state - this has a slightly faster speed than running.
The really slow grinding... thats definitely RNG manipulation. Trust me, bros.
At the end of the Bullet Bill planet, I entered the launch star while falling off a ledge to get displacement, leading to sliding along the floor and bonking on the next planet which saves some time.
While I avoided coins for most of the ball section, I couldnt find a way to get to the final platform while avoiding the coin ring - it was either too steep an angle or too little speed turning to roll onto the lava platform.
The star grab should not have worked. The weakspin (little twirls after spinning) was frame-perfect. Hitboxes really are crazy. (Sorry for no real technical explanation besides weakspins having a little extended hitbox and star hitboxes being so random).
ty Xander for encode
#supermariogalaxy #abuttonchallenge")
![[TAS] SMG2: Cloudy Court Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X295KachVO8/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Cloudy Court Green Stars
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order matters a bit here, as the land cancel affects the different starting routes, but is no different between GS3 and GS2 (once getting to their proper split at the drums), but 8 frames slower in GS1.
Green Star 3 - 48.73 IGT - 54:20.85 real-time split (1:44.65 segment)
2.43s saved over a rough 2020 TAS
While the starting route is a little later bouncing on the first drum than the route used in GS2, it makes up for it with the backwards facing bounces going further to the right to make the big skip a little faster.
This version of the skip is 1.1s faster than the IL route starting cloud long jumps from the cymbal.
An alternative version that starts with a cloud sideflip was only 2 frames slower.
From the sloped tower in the 2D section, I landed on the very edge where Luigi would long jump off a slightly lower floor and get a low long jump.
The effect of this compared to a normal long jump then carries on through the rest of the star making for different jumps up the crusher. Overall, the route saved 4 frames.
Green Star 2 - 18.65 IGT - 55:22.83 split (1:01.98 segment)
0.45s saved over my 2020 TAS: https://youtu.be/_K_sa1GU4DY
As explained above, this starting route bounces on the first drum a little earlier, but is faster here.
Frame-perfect cloud spin cancels and long jumps get a much higher boost than most mid-air cloud ljs (about 23-24 initial yspd compared to anywhere between 13 and 18 - and those 18spd jumps have to be very delayed).
Theyre enough to start jumping from almost under the last drum, and save 1 second over a single cloud lj from the cymbal.
Green Star 1 - 5.35 IGT - 56:11.51 split (48.68 segment)
2f saved over my 2020 TAS: https://youtu.be/55cF7iXMaFA
Landing in neutral after the first cloud spin cancel conserved a little bit of speed, enough to be able to instantly long jump. However, much more height and a better angle was gained in the long jump by delaying it a few frames.
Originally I had two routes tied at 5.36 - one was the 2020 route (lj + 2 cloud sideflips), another was instant backflip + backwards single jump + cloud sideflip.
However, @EpicRandomGamingChannel (Xander) then challenged me to untie one of those routes, helping me out in VC.
We ultimately found a slightly better 2020 route by doing an instant backflip from the long jump - this has less y speed but more horizontal speed than the first sideflip (which goes away from the star), and this meant an earlier cloud sideflip (that goes toward the star) could get under the star to hit it at a low weirdly extended point and save the frame.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Flash Black Green Star 2 in 36.33s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XJqTklGuRrg/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Flash Black Green Star 2 in 36.33s
Luigi, Yoshi and the P2 Luma zoom across a planet to collect a Green Star in 36.33 seconds [2180 frames, IGT]
This isnt highly optimised, but was part of testing three different routes for this star: Full Yoshi, Late Yoshi, and Yoshiless.
Yoshiless is the fastest method for GS1, so it would make sense if it was also fastest for GS2, but because of the infinite flutter on the second planet, Late Yoshi is the fastest, being faster than Yoshiless by nearly 2 seconds, and faster than Full Yoshi by nearly 7 seconds.
[The less optimised parts were more around the start, so they didnt affect the differences between routes an awful lot.]
P2 is useful for two reasons: 1) it can freeze the Paragoombas, so one doesnt get in the way up to the wallkicks (and saves losing 3f of hitlag), and another can be bounced off with Blimp Yoshi, and 2) it can break Yoshi eggs earlier.
Jumping out of the bonk landing is ~0.5s faster than waiting to be able to move.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Cosmic Cove GS1 in 20.58s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XMDBlu3_u48/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Cosmic Cove GS1 in 20.58s
Green Stars TAS WIP
Yet another improvement, by 4.07s over this one here: https://youtu.be/YvSP9w-LQcY
20.58s IGT - 38:03.86 real-time split (1:16.51 segment)
Improvement - hard landing launch:
The strangest change from the previous one is that there is no land cancel or any jumping at all at the start. It looks like an ABC run. Theres a short history to this.
From what we had understood before (described in this megashorelaunch video by username: https://youtu.be/bcCLTZ1MykQ?t=103 ), shore launches couldnt maintain a horizontal speed past 32 (the general speed cap) even though they exit at much higher speeds.
However, when making the ABC run (https://youtu.be/nHFTmux0Ae4), I was able to keep the initial horizontal speed of the launch to go flying across the planet.
As it turns out, this is because of something known in the ABC crew as hard or soft landing state.
Hard landing state is active after any stunned landing (intro fly-in, launch star, big fall) or exiting a pipe. Soft landing state comes from jumping, bouncing, or a small fall.
This state was only known to affect spin knockbacks, where you can only control the movement of knockback if youre in soft landing.
But it looks like it also affects this, as hard landing would get uncapped launches while soft landing capped them to 32, even with the same line-up to the launch.
And this is why there are no jumps, in order to keep hard landing and get the super fast launches (the second launch gets around 100 hspd).
Penguin launch:
There are two known tricks, one getting rebounded off stationary penguins when swimming or shell-riding into them, and another that is based on shore launching where you spin as the diving tutorial penguin rockets up to the surface of water, which causes a huge dolphin spin jump due to the added speed exiting the water: https://youtu.be/wkZYyZsjYG4
Putting these two together, you can get a launch off a stationary penguin, as spin swimming into it causes clipping which means a lot of speed in 1 frame (swimming in general can do this but spinning is necessary for the launch to work).
An alternative route was getting a huge launch off the 2nd penguin after a slow swim over (1st penguin launch would take just as long), which then lands back in water near the Cheep Cheeps to launch off one straight into the star. This was 2s slower than the double penguin route used.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Boom Bunker Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YABedH0_foE/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Boom Bunker Green Stars
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order has no real effect - the mine cycles on the 2nd cannon are a little different but not enough to get in the way.
Green Star 2 - 38.08 IGT - 1:55:31.28 real-time split (1:34.42 segment)
This is an improvement of 0.72s over my 2020 TAS: https://youtu.be/WtCdwYBsCnA
2P freezing the Bullet Bill minimises its big turning circle, as it still turns while frozen, saving 32 frames. The weaving around the coins didnt lose any frames.
I tried to be smart by 2P freezing and spinning the Fizzlet - when hitlag is stacked on the same frame, one of the lags is cancelled. I had hoped the 3-frame spin hitlag would cancel out the 5-frame explosion lag, but it ended up the other way around.
The 2P Boomerang Bro strat saves ~2 seconds. It requires turning the camera to keep 2P on screen - 2P lets go of its target if it goes off-screen.
But having the camera stay side-on for the launch star loses 4 frames as the camera has to move around more in the cutscene, so I move it back in time.
Backflip spin saves 32 frames over running to the cannon.
Green Star 1 - 18.88 IGT - 1:56:33.25 real-time split (1:01.97 segment)
This is an improvement of 1 frame over my 2020 TAS (unreleased).
Buffered crouch acceleration at the start gave enough extra distance to save a frame on spawning the Bullet Bill.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG: Honeyhive Cosmic Mario Race: High Score - 8 Coins](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YXx3Lw-YzEM/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG: Honeyhive Cosmic Mario Race: High Score - 8 Coins
HEYimHeroic (https://twitter.com/HEYimHeroic) asked if I could get as many coins as possible in Honeyhives cosmic clone race with both bros.
7 is the record, attained by 5 people on Cyberscore and a few more not on that site including Heroic herself.
But there is an eighth coin: a starbit plant atop the waterfall.
With the power of TAS strats, it is possible to get this coin and still win with some time to spare.
This spare time was spent slowly sliding down a wall, and moving about in honey.
Interestingly, if you touch the star on the frame the cosmic clone sits on it (5 frames after it has touched it), it counts as a successful star grab and prevents the clones victory cutscene. The game is literally rigged in your favour... by 5 frames.
Side note: because Cosmic Luigi is fast, the current best Luigi count is 7. When testing, I barely had enough time to even grab the 8th coin before Cosmic Luigi won.
#SuperMarioGalaxy")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Beat Block Green Star 1 in 12.90s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YmJuFbggTjY/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Beat Block Green Star 1 in 12.90s
Luigi leaps off a crystal to collect a Green Star in 12.90 seconds [IGT, 774 frames].
This one had been done before GS2, but I had wanted to go back to see if I could get to a better point in the block cycle, as I had to slow the long jump onto the green block at 0:16.
Being able to go to the yellow block instead and then having the blocks change from there would be a tiny bit faster, however, this is not possible to get in a fast run.
The cycle always starts on fly-in cutscene (when the levels music starts), so delaying the intro wouldnt help, and in terms of skipping the fly-in cutscene, the earliest skip is 1.8s too late for the cycle, and the latest skip is 1.3s too early.
But this is the best possible outcome of what is available, and the strat of long jumping off the crystal (which is only possible by having enough horizontal speed to not end up with a slope jump) is 6 frames faster than an instant backflip off the ground (again, because of speed, trying to get a backflip off the crystal would get a slope jump instead).
Also, cutscene tests are done - it is 3 frames faster to do Green Star 1 first, as the cycle with the fly-in cutscene benefits it more than it does Green Star 2. Also, while it is slower than the IL in terms of in-game time, skipping the cutscenes straight away for Green Star 2 is much faster in real time.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Clockwork Ruins Green Star 3 in 1:24.51](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Yp_QK_nZUa8/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Clockwork Ruins Green Star 3 in 1:24.51
Luigi and P2 go on a temple run through the ruins to collect a Green Star in 1 minute 24.51 seconds [IGT, 5071 frames].
Apologies for the choppy framerate at parts - the framerate kept fluctuating when dumping frames. Need to learn to limit FPS to 15 or something.
Input display: https://youtu.be/lQepNs1deL0
This TAS isnt the greatest in optimisation as it is - the main issue of optimisation is in the first section. Both intro cutscenes affect the wheel cycles in different ways, the first one mostly changing the second half of wheels.
There is much to keep testing with judging the best balance of cutscene skips along with understanding movement across these wheels when on different cycles.
I started my testing by copying Nemis ideas (https://youtu.be/OzivXwVp3Rc?t=262) and then adjusting from there.
I also tried to adjust the skips and movement to reach the rising arm of the final wheel when it was level with the ? block, rather than having to jump to the middle, but barely missed out on it.
Interestingly, in terms of real time, GS1 is faster if you delay cutscenes compared to instant cutscene skips, whereas GS2 (and presumably GS3) is faster the other way around.
On the second planet, the backflip wallkick from the cage was 0.3s faster than backflip ledgegrab. Interestingly, the backflip ledgegrab up to the gravity arrow was 4 frames faster than backflip wallkick, because the latter strat would have to either land late with a weakspin to hit the arrow or wait for Master Luma to replenish the normal spin.
P2 cannot hit the arrow.
Long jumping and pressing the button midway through the ground pound animation ended up being 0.3s faster than a single jump with a normal ground pound hit, and still faster than a long jump-spin-ground pound, even if the spin is cancelled immediately to avoid a homing ground pound.
A textbox skip may be possible using a proxy off a Goomba/Jack OGoomba (a set up known to work elsewhere), but I have had no luck with it yet, and it would take a lot of starbit hitlag or waiting for a Goomba to run along to the Luma, potentially diminishing the timesave to 0.
On the third planet, delays between long jumps were necessary to align the long jumps past the final wheel.
Neutral wallkick strain was used to help get up to the top from a lower backflipping position.
I held forward (left) on the second-to-last pole to go straight into the last, saving a few frames over continuing to the right and wallkicking.
Long jump-backflip-wallkick was 0.4s faster than triple jump-wallkick.
P2 saved a small bit of time (0.25s) clearing the crates so Luigi could land right next to the elevator and activate it earlier.
The elevator trick is another point of low optimisation. From what I tested, the fastest method was getting a double wallkick off the extended wall (done by instant spin knockback back into the same wall, seen commonly in Honeybloom runs) as it meant the wallkicks were closer together compared to the spaced out angled wallkicks in speedruns.
But there could be better movement between wallkicks that changes that conclusion.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Supermassive Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z5AFvSz7VAs/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Supermassive Green Stars
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order matters due to the Thwomp cycles as will be explained later. Camera movement can manipulate the coins cycle to work with both cutscenes and no-cutscenes. As all three stars use the coin, land cancel has no difference.
Green Star 2 - 8.56 IGT - 1:12:12.75 real-time split (1:06.69 segment)
At the start, the awkward-looking long jumps are necessary to get to top running speed (15hspd). The second long jump has to happen immediately when landing, and must be on safe ground away from the edge of the ledge.
Camera is turned to keep the coin off screen enough for it to be in the perfect position for the zip jump.
The zip jump works here because of both the shape of the slope and the running direction when approaching the slope, coming more across than down. The subsequent slide zips sideways from this, at 64hspd. Overall this saves 2.34s.
The weakspin at the end grabbed the star 1 frame earlier.
Green Star 3 - 18.46 IGT - 1:13:14.55 real-time split (1:01.80 segment)
This managed to be an IGT improvement of my previous TAS that used an IGT-pausing checkpoint abuse strat: https://youtu.be/0k-eeiC9gss
Zip jumping is used again to get a tight wallkick strat that was previously done with a long jump (https://youtu.be/KwHCkBmDdJU).
The reason for star order mattering here is that the Thwomp cycle without cutscenes, when manipulated with the same camera movement for the coin cycle, is perfect for the fastest way to the launch star.
With cutscenes, the cycle has the Thwomp high up in the air as you pass under it. However, it is actually 7 frames faster to have the Thwomp push Luigi down to backflip earlier, and the cycle without cutscenes achieves this making it faster to do GS3 after one of the other two.
At the end, the backwards bouncing off the Koopa saved 2 frames over the previous strat bouncing from a long jump.
Green Star 1 - 7.65 IGT - 1:14:05.53 real-time split (50.98 segment)
The coin cycle is manipulated to gain a momentum boost for the backflip to the star.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden Comet in 1:05.88](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_Ivqaw5BtdI/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden Comet in 1:05.88
Mario ruins Major Burrows career in a Daredevil run in 1 minutes 5.88 seconds [3953 frames].
This emulates a full-game run, watching the intro cutscenes that means it has a deficit to IL runs of ~11s.
The land cancel at the start had an interesting effect: the cutscene started 2 frames later but I gained control on the same frame as if I didnt land cancel. Doesnt save or lose time but its a thing. Allows for earlier movement but that doesnt make a difference overall.
As the RNG aspect of this fight is easily dealt with by finding where Burrows pops out and reloading a state to go straight to that spot, the key part of this run is getting the fastest hits.
(Also, if youre familiar with the RNG of when Burrows first pops out, which was a big thing in Boss Blitz TASing, in this star it is not really random since you always land on the planet at the same time)
The first two hits are done instantly by doing a spin cancel ground pound (Wiimote shake for 2 frames, press Z on the second frame) right next to Burrows as he pops out. This ground pound carries the hit properties of the spin, so as Mario touches Burrows when he pops out, it registers as a hit.
The third hit could do this, but you always have to do a second ground pound, so its slower to set up that instant hit.
Instead, I get the earliest second ground pound and starbit stun Burrows so he doesnt run away, while also jumping backwards and bouncing off the dirt mound to fling back into Burrows for the spin. This saved 8 or 9 frames over long jumping.
Potential improvement: For the first ground pound of the third phase, Burrows jumps directly away from you, no matter what path he was on, so we could try ground pounding to the side of him so he jumps into the tree and is closer for the hit.
Interestingly, ground pounding after the third hit and jumping just before the final cutscene was faster than doing nothing, as it let me move as soon as possible.
Spinning into the star saved 2 frames.
#ToolAssistedSpeedrun #SuperMarioGalaxy")
