Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I collect the star Eye to Eye in the Secret Room in BBH using 0 A presses in 3 hours. This is the unabridged version of the star, which I’m premiering so that we can all watch the scuttlebug raising together in real time. Usually the scuttlebug raising is skipped via fast-forwards or fadeouts, but this time we get to see it in all of its glory. And yes, you may meme in the chat.
Originally, this star was completed in 14 hours (youtu.be/rIYFGYXtNwA). Later, I showed a blueprint for a 9 hour strat (youtu.be/1M1V0lgdHhk). Shortly after, I optimized the blueprint to be a 4 hour strat (youtu.be/TKK9l5DZ6Sg). And now, I’ve finally TASed that blueprint just to confirm that it works. In fact, I TASed it more optimally than originally planned, and so it resulted in a final time of 3 hours.
Here’s an overview of the route. First, I transport the scuttlebugs to the front of the mansion. Then I raise them by first letting them lunge at me so that they get vertical speed, and then reactivating them for just the upwards portion of their lunge trajectory. And I repeat this many times. Note that I can have them lunge at Mario (which is fast) or back towards their home (which is slower, but necessary later). If a scuttlebug touches a wall while in a VPU, it snaps to the main map in that relative spot. To avoid this happening prematurely, I move the scuttlebugs to outside of the mansion for when they’re at the height of the VPU mansions. Also, when the scuttlebugs cross over to a higher VPU, they no longer have a floor triangle below them and so are considered out of bounds, which prevents them from moving laterally. And since they keep running into out of bounds, they rotate back and forth continuously. When I first experienced this phenomenon, I called it their rogue state, since they no longer exhibit their normal behavior. Luckily though, we can still raise them while they’re in this state. Anyway, once the scuttlebugs are high enough, I let them drop and manipulate them to walk towards the desired spot. They then touch a wall that snaps them into the main map’s mansion. From there, I separate their heights, bounce on them to get up, and then collect the star.
Note that I show several screens so that you can follow along more easily:
➤ Top left screen: This is the normal view of the game.
➤ Top right screen: This is the game viewed from a hacked camera that watches the scuttlebugs. It also prints the scuttlebugs’ heights on the top left.
➤ Bottom left screen: This is a map of Mario, zoomed way in so that you can see the unit grid. The yellow area on the bottom represents two specific floor triangles that activate the outside area of the level. So when Mario is in the yellow area, the scuttlebugs activate and can move around. When Mario is outside of the yellow area, the scuttlebugs deactivate and can’t move around. The blue area on the right represents the home range of the scuttlebugs, which is a cylinder around their homes. This cylinder has a radius of 1000 and extends infinitely up and down. If Mario is in the blue area, the scuttlebugs will turn towards him and lunge. If Mario is outside of the blue area, the scuttlebugs will turn towards their home. For fun, I also added Mario’s path as a blue line, which will allow you to see how he moves over time. His movement was brute forced, so it makes a fairly systematic pattern. Also, since Mario drifts over time, you’ll be able to see when corrections are done to keep him roughly in place.
➤ Bottom right screen: This is a map of the scuttlebugs, which will occasionally pan around in order to show the most optimal view. This screen shows the same yellow triangles and blue cylinder as the previous screen. As for the scuttlebugs, I’ve added additional graphics to show their internal state. The yellow arrow represents the scuttlebug’s facing angle. The green arrow represents the scuttlebug’s target angle. The blue meter shows the remaining time on the scuttlebug’s lunge. We have to wait for this meter to run out each iteration before the scuttlebug can turn towards Mario and lunge at him again. And finally, I’ve made the scuttlebugs’ eyes turn pink in proportion to how much positive vertical speed they have. So when a scuttlebug starts its lunge, its eyes will turn pink to indicate that it now has positive vertical speed. This pink eye effect fades away as the scuttlebug activates and lunges, since its vertical speed decreases to 0 as it reaches the peak of its lunge trajectory. So you can think of the pink eyes as the scuttlebug being “charged” with positive vertical speed, which is then released to move upwards.
➤ Far right screen: This is a sideways map of the scuttlebugs, zoomed way out so that you can see the VPU grid. Specifically, you can see the mansion in the main map, the mansion 1 VPU up, and the mansion 2 VPUs up.
Abridged Version: youtu.be/L82raqzqHFg
Console Verification: twitch.tv/videos/1676468966?t=0h20m56s
I collect the star Eye to Eye in the Secret Room in BBH using 0 A presses in 3 hours. This is the unabridged version of the star, which I’m premiering so that we can all watch the scuttlebug raising together in real time. Usually the scuttlebug raising is skipped via fast-forwards or fadeouts, but this time we get to see it in all of its glory. And yes, you may meme in the chat.
Originally, this star was completed in 14 hours (youtu.be/rIYFGYXtNwA). Later, I showed a blueprint for a 9 hour strat (youtu.be/1M1V0lgdHhk). Shortly after, I optimized the blueprint to be a 4 hour strat (youtu.be/TKK9l5DZ6Sg). And now, I’ve finally TASed that blueprint just to confirm that it works. In fact, I TASed it more optimally than originally planned, and so it resulted in a final time of 3 hours.
Here’s an overview of the route. First, I transport the scuttlebugs to the front of the mansion. Then I raise them by first letting them lunge at me so that they get vertical speed, and then reactivating them for just the upwards portion of their lunge trajectory. And I repeat this many times. Note that I can have them lunge at Mario (which is fast) or back towards their home (which is slower, but necessary later). If a scuttlebug touches a wall while in a VPU, it snaps to the main map in that relative spot. To avoid this happening prematurely, I move the scuttlebugs to outside of the mansion for when they’re at the height of the VPU mansions. Also, when the scuttlebugs cross over to a higher VPU, they no longer have a floor triangle below them and so are considered out of bounds, which prevents them from moving laterally. And since they keep running into out of bounds, they rotate back and forth continuously. When I first experienced this phenomenon, I called it their rogue state, since they no longer exhibit their normal behavior. Luckily though, we can still raise them while they’re in this state. Anyway, once the scuttlebugs are high enough, I let them drop and manipulate them to walk towards the desired spot. They then touch a wall that snaps them into the main map’s mansion. From there, I separate their heights, bounce on them to get up, and then collect the star.
Note that I show several screens so that you can follow along more easily:
➤ Top left screen: This is the normal view of the game.
➤ Top right screen: This is the game viewed from a hacked camera that watches the scuttlebugs. It also prints the scuttlebugs’ heights on the top left.
➤ Bottom left screen: This is a map of Mario, zoomed way in so that you can see the unit grid. The yellow area on the bottom represents two specific floor triangles that activate the outside area of the level. So when Mario is in the yellow area, the scuttlebugs activate and can move around. When Mario is outside of the yellow area, the scuttlebugs deactivate and can’t move around. The blue area on the right represents the home range of the scuttlebugs, which is a cylinder around their homes. This cylinder has a radius of 1000 and extends infinitely up and down. If Mario is in the blue area, the scuttlebugs will turn towards him and lunge. If Mario is outside of the blue area, the scuttlebugs will turn towards their home. For fun, I also added Mario’s path as a blue line, which will allow you to see how he moves over time. His movement was brute forced, so it makes a fairly systematic pattern. Also, since Mario drifts over time, you’ll be able to see when corrections are done to keep him roughly in place.
➤ Bottom right screen: This is a map of the scuttlebugs, which will occasionally pan around in order to show the most optimal view. This screen shows the same yellow triangles and blue cylinder as the previous screen. As for the scuttlebugs, I’ve added additional graphics to show their internal state. The yellow arrow represents the scuttlebug’s facing angle. The green arrow represents the scuttlebug’s target angle. The blue meter shows the remaining time on the scuttlebug’s lunge. We have to wait for this meter to run out each iteration before the scuttlebug can turn towards Mario and lunge at him again. And finally, I’ve made the scuttlebugs’ eyes turn pink in proportion to how much positive vertical speed they have. So when a scuttlebug starts its lunge, its eyes will turn pink to indicate that it now has positive vertical speed. This pink eye effect fades away as the scuttlebug activates and lunges, since its vertical speed decreases to 0 as it reaches the peak of its lunge trajectory. So you can think of the pink eyes as the scuttlebug being “charged” with positive vertical speed, which is then released to move upwards.
➤ Far right screen: This is a sideways map of the scuttlebugs, zoomed way out so that you can see the VPU grid. Specifically, you can see the mansion in the main map, the mansion 1 VPU up, and the mansion 2 VPUs up.
Abridged Version: youtu.be/L82raqzqHFg
Console Verification: twitch.tv/videos/1676468966?t=0h20m56s
