Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order has no real effect - all three stars have the same start so start position difference doesn't matter.
Green Star 3 - 35.45 IGT - 1:51:51.80 real-time split (1:31.94 segment)
This is an improvement of 1.53s over my 2020 TAS, even without land cancel: youtu.be/L1khyJTw79E
No land cancel here.
This route to the Cloud Flower saved 6 frames over starting with the 2nd green platform, and getting a height boost off the blue platform.
The most interesting part was the route from getting clouds and skipping to the launch star, and how many clouds would be best to have at the end.
The route RTA uses - going back to spawn and then long jumping out of bounds from there - is possible with just 1 cloud, leaving 2 at the end.
This route - which is later used for GS2 - is barely possible with 2 clouds (even when entering gravity, I have to slow down for a few frames to avoid swinging out into the deathplane). This route is 92 frames (1.53s) faster than the other.
But on the last planet, having 2 clouds would allow for a double cloud long jump route that saves 0.65s over the standard 1-cloud strat.
So overall, the final route - 2 clouds at the start, 1 at the end - was 0.88s faster.
On the last planet, I saved 3 frames by turning the camera so Luigi was moving to the left in its perspective.
For some reason, you get ever so slightly more speed moving left/right to the camera compared to moving away from it, and much more compared to moving towards it. docs.google.com/document/d/14DAcbHw0OPSL2psmxpvAPtpAVdF_AYkYJyeE8GNZKjM/edit
This mechanic is difficult to make useful in other parts of the game, as often times the camera either can't move or it's constantly fighting to get back to being behind Luigi, with its back-and-forth swinging making optimising movement an exhausting task without some kind of script or visualiser that we don't yet have.
Green Star 2 - 19.48 IGT - 1:52:55.11 real-time split (1:03.31 segment)
This is an improvement of 0.5s over my 2020 TAS: youtu.be/QdUV1xkWiuo
Not much to note besides the trick itself catching the edge of gravity right above the star into a cool precise spin-cancel ground pound.
Green Star 1 - 17.91 IGT - 1:53:56.86 real-time split (1:01.75 segment)
This is an improvement of 0.58s over my 2020 TAS: youtu.be/thg0ekOZxfg
On the 2nd cloud long jump to the button, I start walking up and then turning and long jumping before completing the turn. This makes it so Luigi turns around quicker when getting up from the ground pound, saving a few frames.
Despite the wayward zig-zag, the movement on the frozen volcano saved 2 frames over going straight over the higher lip to the left.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order has no real effect - all three stars have the same start so start position difference doesn't matter.
Green Star 3 - 35.45 IGT - 1:51:51.80 real-time split (1:31.94 segment)
This is an improvement of 1.53s over my 2020 TAS, even without land cancel: youtu.be/L1khyJTw79E
No land cancel here.
This route to the Cloud Flower saved 6 frames over starting with the 2nd green platform, and getting a height boost off the blue platform.
The most interesting part was the route from getting clouds and skipping to the launch star, and how many clouds would be best to have at the end.
The route RTA uses - going back to spawn and then long jumping out of bounds from there - is possible with just 1 cloud, leaving 2 at the end.
This route - which is later used for GS2 - is barely possible with 2 clouds (even when entering gravity, I have to slow down for a few frames to avoid swinging out into the deathplane). This route is 92 frames (1.53s) faster than the other.
But on the last planet, having 2 clouds would allow for a double cloud long jump route that saves 0.65s over the standard 1-cloud strat.
So overall, the final route - 2 clouds at the start, 1 at the end - was 0.88s faster.
On the last planet, I saved 3 frames by turning the camera so Luigi was moving to the left in its perspective.
For some reason, you get ever so slightly more speed moving left/right to the camera compared to moving away from it, and much more compared to moving towards it. docs.google.com/document/d/14DAcbHw0OPSL2psmxpvAPtpAVdF_AYkYJyeE8GNZKjM/edit
This mechanic is difficult to make useful in other parts of the game, as often times the camera either can't move or it's constantly fighting to get back to being behind Luigi, with its back-and-forth swinging making optimising movement an exhausting task without some kind of script or visualiser that we don't yet have.
Green Star 2 - 19.48 IGT - 1:52:55.11 real-time split (1:03.31 segment)
This is an improvement of 0.5s over my 2020 TAS: youtu.be/QdUV1xkWiuo
Not much to note besides the trick itself catching the edge of gravity right above the star into a cool precise spin-cancel ground pound.
Green Star 1 - 17.91 IGT - 1:53:56.86 real-time split (1:01.75 segment)
This is an improvement of 0.58s over my 2020 TAS: youtu.be/thg0ekOZxfg
On the 2nd cloud long jump to the button, I start walking up and then turning and long jumping before completing the turn. This makes it so Luigi turns around quicker when getting up from the ground pound, saving a few frames.
Despite the wayward zig-zag, the movement on the frozen volcano saved 2 frames over going straight over the higher lip to the left.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun
![[TAS] SMG2: Flash Black Green Stars
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order would matter due to Paragoomba and Jack OGoomba cycles, however use of 2P negates the differences. GS1 was still picked first from the pre-2P route.
Green Star 1 - 16.78s IGT - 2:01:53.73 real-time split (1:13.05 segment)
This is an improvement of 2.97s over my 2020 IL TAS, despite cutscenes: https://youtu.be/WBvi2DMZO9M
Even against the Blimp boost tech explained later, climbing Yoshiless is faster by a couple of seconds.
A megasideflip is a glitch that still isnt quite understood on a technical level, but requires a certain camera type (XZ_PARA) and angle, and then sideflipping and holding a direction perpendicular to facing angle. See more here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a2wWBhFL7hTVEY9zJmtTk5CEbxiib3lim9hSOCkAWQw/edit#heading=h.54goeomx2quh
This megasideflip route is 1s faster than this zip jump triple jump route: https://twitter.com/PurpleSunSR/status/1801718542540411149
The megasideflip was made even faster by aiming to grab the ledge. Since this is inside the 2D section, and entering a 2D section from the front slowly forces Luigi into the 2D restriction, grabbing the ledge results in a 1-frame climb.
Grabbing Yoshi at the end would only be 0.5s slower than what was done here.
Usernameispassword suggested starbitting the Paragoomba to bounce off it in mid-air. This strat saves 0.37s over the mega-wallkick route done in the 2020 TAS.
Green Star 2 - 31.15s IGT - 2:03:07.98 real-time split (1:14.25 segment)
This is an improvement of 5.18s over my 2020 IL TAS: https://youtu.be/XJqTklGuRrg
Thanks to the Paragoomba cycles, it is 3 frames faster to bounce-spin off one to the wallkick up to the Jack OGoomba, rather than the double wallkick GS1 has to settle with (2P cant help GS1s cycle because it needs the Paragoomba to move to the left).
Taking Yoshi at the end of the climb ends up 0.8s faster than going the rest of the way Yoshiless (which would use a zip jump).
The Blimp boost tech involves freezing a Paragoomba so Blimp Yoshi can go through it, and then spinning it to make it solid inside Blimp, causing it to push Blimp out at high speeds (like a proxy in Spyro games). This one was 121 initial y-speed - Blimps normal is 7 y-speed.
UPDATE: Improved ending by 0.39s here: https://youtu.be/emYeiQOWsKY
At the end, backwards infinite flutter from the start is 0.5s faster than going over to the crystal for a zip jump.
I slightly angle the flutter to drift off of a straight line to the star in order to be over a void around the middle part.
After accelerating to top speed with fluttering, you eventually lose speed if youre fluttering close to the ground, but maintain it over void or high above ground. This saved a few frames.
I also turned the camera here - moving to the side of the screen is slightly faster than moving towards or away from it. This saved 0.2s. See more here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14DAcbHw0OPSL2psmxpvAPtpAVdF_AYkYJyeE8GNZKjM/edit
at 150k rerecords now
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun [TAS] SMG2: Flash Black Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WFnBtg0WeTc/mqdefault.jpg)
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Spin-Dig Green Star 2 in 38.45s
Luigi and P2 drill and backflip to a Green Star in 38.45 seconds [IGT, 2307 frames].
At the start, I tried long jumping and bouncing off the digger, but its slower than just jumping down and triple jumping up, especially when you can triple jump up without having to spin, which saved a few frames.
I turned the camera just before talking to the Luma so it didnt have to pan as far to its resting point, making the textbox appear 1f earlier.
On the second planet, I used the IL strat of getting the drill clip on the underside: https://youtu.be/BcsOtQoJuXU?t=25
This saves 0.75s over clipping from the first drill.
After making this, I had found I could have HGPd the drill 3 frames earlier. I found this out while comparing camera cancel with a new jump cancel idea, with camera cancel still coming out 1 frame ahead. I also may have found 1 frame of timesave for both drills when doing cutscene cycle tests.
At the Luma, I again turned the camera to save 1 frame of camera cutscene movement.
On the third planet, I turned the camera at a certain point to get the yellow appearing platforms off screen to freeze their cycles. This meant that I reached the second row of platforms as they reappeared, and when they reappear, they move slightly upwards - side note: the collision is the same size despite the model expanding - so a backflip could gain a bit more vertical speed. This saved 7 frames.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun [TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Spin-Dig Green Star 2 in 38.45s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WJgs-aUh5bc/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 [TAS] SMG2: Lava Lair Comet in 0xA presses [Mario]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WhZmjb_kUiY/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 [ABC TAS] SMG1: Melty Molten 2 in 0.5x A presses (Luigi)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WuQdDXih1zk/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] SMG2: Cloudy Court Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X295KachVO8/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] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Flash Black Green Star 2 in 36.33s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XJqTklGuRrg/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: Cosmic Cove GS1 in 20.58s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XMDBlu3_u48/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] SMG2: Boom Bunker Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YABedH0_foE/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] SMG: Honeyhive Cosmic Mario Race: High Score - 8 Coins](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YXx3Lw-YzEM/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] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Beat Block Green Star 1 in 12.90s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YmJuFbggTjY/mqdefault.jpg)