Paper Mario, first released in Japan in August of 2000, is a role-playing game. Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser, who has stolen the Star Rod, which allows him to grant himself any wish. In order to counteract the effects of the Star Rod, Mario must locate the seven star spirits who, together, can stop Bowser's evil plans.

With Audio Commentary

Without Overlay

Out of Bounds - When leaving the ground in Paper Mario, the game begins to count the time spent airborne. After a couple seconds off of the ground, Mario’s fall will slow to a halt and his Y position will begin to rapidly increase. If Mario passes through any solid floor during this time, he will respawn there. However, if Mario remains in the air for too long, he will instead respawn at the position he was original at before he left the ground. By using a controlled fall out of bounds, we can abuse this property to respawn on the other side of many obstacles in the game.

NPC Clip - In certain areas of the game, we can use the speed of a spin or applying other situational methods in order to move into the space between an NPC’s hitbox and a solid wall. By then hammering to freeze ourselves in place or occasionally simply jumping we can cause the NPC’s hitbox to push us through whatever solid object they are standing next to.

Lakilester Clip - If Mario is positioned precisely at a corner and faces away from the corner, he can then use Lakilester and clip through the corner. This is because when Lakilester returns to Mario, his speed causes him to land a bit behind Mario. This only works on some corners. A variation of this can occur when Mario tries to get on Lakilester while the two of them are separated by a large distance or while Lakilester is stuck behind an obstacle. Lakilester returns to Mario at a high speed and gets confused as to the route that he should take. Lakilester Clip has several uses throughout the run, including skipping the majority of two chapters.

Loading Zone Storage (LZS) - Touching a loading zone while the control pad is neutral and then jumping immediately after prevents you from taking the loading zone until you stop jumping or do not reset the control pad to neutral right before jumping. This can be used to immediately leave an area after completing a task. In addition, by reaching a sufficient distance from the loading zone, we can use LZS to exploit a subtle mechanic which causes Mario to move toward the center of it. This allows us to enter the next area at such a highly skewed angle that we immediately fall out of bounds, bypassing obstacles by going underneath them.

Spin Canceling - Spinning and then jumping after 16 frames (w/o Speedy Spin) or 21 frames (w/ Speedy Spin) is the fastest form of movement. In addition, it was realized that moving at a precise angle against walls will actually give you a speed boost. In addition, it will instantly cancel the end of your spin in one frame. You can immediately start spinning again afterwards. There are two different types of cancels which we refer to as short and long spin cancels. Short spin cancels are slightly slower than long cancels as you stop more frequently. Whether or not you get a short and long spin appears to depend on the direction that Mario is facing and the properties of the wall.

RNG - Within battles, RNG is based off of a frame counter. If we waste frames in different parts of a battle, and then attack the enemy on the same frame as before, the RNG remains the same (with the exception of the beginning of the Final Bowser fight). Outside of battle, frames can be wasted in different spots to produce different results. RNG is commonly manipulated in battle to change the Power Bounce cap. After doing a certain number of jumps, the game will randomly determine whether or not Mario can continue bouncing, but because you cannot delay or speed up Mario while he is jumping on the enemy, it is essentially determined on the last input before Mario jumps on the enemy. The exception is with the Goombario text glitch (explained below). Scrolling a text box back and forth while bouncing on Bowser in phase 1 changes the RNG of the Power Bounce cap, allowing us to deal 5 Power Bounces without wasting any time. Another use of RNG manipulation is with the Close Call badge, which allows Mario to sometimes dodge attacks from an enemy.

Quick Jump - Before hitting an enemy, Mario has a crouching animation. Pressing A slightly before the animation starts will cause him to crouch earlier and for a shorter period of time, saving up to 1/3 of a second.

Jr. Troopa Skip - After falling from Goompa's balcony and then entering Jr. Troopa’s Playground, we can use LZS to immediately take the loading zone after interacting with the bush with the hammer in it. This skips the Jr. Troopa battle, saving over one minute and twenty seconds initially, though some of that time is lost later on as a result of being at a lower level.

Black Toad Skip - We can use an NPC Clip to get out of bounds and fall and respawn in the wall of the Post Office. Then we can fall again to pass behind the Black Toads and enter Chapter 1.

Kooper Skip - The only method we could find to get out of bounds on this screen was by using LZS to pass through the back of the loading zone through which we entered. Luckily, this is one of the few loading zones in the game that does not have an invisible wall completely surrounding it. As a result of the crude method we utilize to get out of bounds, we are forced to continue using frame-perfect jumps throughout the entire screen until we can override the stored loading zone with the one that leads to the next area. This allows us to bypass one of the two remaining uses of Kooper.

Epic Timesaver - Don’t ask about the name. Though the railing at the bottom of this staircase looks fairly short, it actually has invisible one-sided collision that extends all the way up to the top of the 2nd-to-highest stair. Luckily, the developers left the topmost stair completely unprotected. We can clip into the basement with a not particularly precise jump by falling into the top stair. From there, we can navigate out of bounds to the floor behind the door on the top floor, skipping the fight to lower the staircase as well as a time consuming Fortress Key.

Log Skip - Now that we have everything we need from Chapter 1, we can now bypass the logs in Toad Town which prevent us from accessing later areas of the game before the first Star Spirit is rescued. This is done with LZS to perform a skewed entry and fall to the other side of the aforementioned logs.

Letter Skip #1 - By clipping out of bounds, spawning on the room's seam, and falling to the left, we can store the loading zone while out of bounds. After respawning at our original location, we can do a few frame perfect jumps to skew the loading zone enough to fall out of bounds and spawn right by the letter.

Letter Skip #2 (Kooperless Letter) - Using the same out of bounds clip, we can traverse the back seam in order to respawn on the elevated platform on which rests the 2nd letter. The last-remaining use of Kooper is thusly expunged.

Chapter 4 Early - After manipulating rng to precisely position the Toad on the walkway on the walkway outside of Harry’s Shop we can use it to NPC clip out of bounds and enter the fourth chapter.

Calculator Fight Skip - Defeating any Shy Guy on the calculator screen flags the Shy Guy that is carrying the calculator as having been defeated. After fighting one of the other Shy Guys and reloading the area, the calculator will be placed on the ground where it can be quickly collected.

Blue House Skip - There is a blue house in toad town containing a pipe which is intended as a shortcut to the later areas of the sewers. It is normally inaccessible until Chapter 5 as the door is locked from the inside. Using a precisely positioned frame-perfect jump, this house can be accessed early, allowing us to skip straight to Chapter 5.

Yoshi Skip & Raphael Skip - Using precise jumps, we are able to climb a tree and then jump over it to get out of bounds. From there we can navigate the seams and gain immediate access to the volcano. This skips rescuing the Yoshis and obtaining the Ultra Stone, which takes a very long time and would also require us to obtain Watt.

Ultra Hammer Skip - While taking a loading zone, Mario is able to ignore collision. By using LZS on the loading zone at the top of the main room of the volcano and then standing next to the block which prevents us from progressing without the Ultra Hammer, we are able to use a loading zone to clip through the block. The transition into the new area is interrupted when Mario reaches the loading zone behind the block, which is taken instead. This only saves 5-10 seconds over acquiring Ultra Hammer as time will be lost later on, when we encounter blocks that we will find ourselves unable to hammer.

Flarakarry - A precisely-positioned use of Parakarry can allow us to slightly clip into the wall and touch the loading zone behind it. This skips pushing a blue block all the way across the room, hammering a number of blocks, the Spiny Tromp breaking through the wall, and a small cutscene involving Kolorado.

Footrace with Kolorado the Quick - In the room after Flarakarry is a short cutscene where Kolorado runs up and talks to you, however this cutscene will not start until he reaches a certain point in the room. Utilizing the new spin-cancel movement strategies, we are able to outrun Kolorado, skipping the cutscene.

Lava Piranha Skip - By spinning between Kolorado and the wall, we can jump at the right time to NPC clip through it. For some strange reason, this screen and the screen on which you fight the boss of the chapter are actually one and the same, and if the room is not entered from the lower-left loading zone, the fight does not start. Once out of bounds we can easily reach the loading zone below, skipping the fight.

Lakilester Early - By storing the north-west loading zone of the main area of the Flower Fields and then taking the loading zone from a precise position, we are able to do a skewed entry onto the next screen and land exactly on the seam of the area. From there we can proceed directly to Lakilester, skipping the acquisition of the Bubble Berry, and the item trading sequence leading up to it. This skip renders the chapter unable to be completed, as you skip items necessary to reach the boss of the chapter.

Tower of the Sun Early - By using LZS through the loading zone at the Tower of the Sun, we can fall out of bounds and respawn right next to the sun, immediately taking the loading zone after talking to him.

Peach Warp - The cutscene for escaping the volcano never goes away. It is normally inaccessible after completing the chapter, as the path that leads there becomes blocked by lava. This cutscene sends you outside Peach’s Castle, which then decides which cutscene to play based on your current game progress. So if you’re currently in the middle of Chapter 6, you are sent to the Chapter 6 Peach scene. And doing it again, during Chapter 7, sends you to the Chapter 7 cutscene. In this way we are able to skip the majority of both Chapters 6 and 7. It cannot be used to skip Chapter 8, as there is no Peach scene for completing that chapter. Now that we know this, it’s just a matter of reaching the volcano escape cutscene, which can fortunately done with a pair of Lakilester Clips. The first clip gets us below the lava, while the 2nd clip is required to get us around some invisible walls which now prevent us from crossing the next room normally.

Clippy - For some reason, while riding Lakilester, we are able to open a menu on one frame immediately before entering a battle. If this is used to change partners after the battle, Mario will take on Lakilester’s collision, allowing him, on occasion, to clip through walls. This is used to pass the stone block in the sewers which prevents us from reaching the Ultra Boots, as we have never obtained a Hammer upgrade. Clippy allows us to jump onto the block, which is not normally possible, and from there clippy can be used to jump through the arch of the doorway. The metal block in the next room proved more of a challenge to clip through, however there is a side-effect of clippy that occurs when Mario attempts to jump back on Lakilester. Mario will immediately teleport onto Lakilester, with no animation, at Mario’s x and z position, but at Lakilester’s height. In this way we can teleport downward, into the block, and reach the loading zone behind.

Shooting Star Summit Clip - Using a Lakilester Clip, Mario can fall out of bounds and respawn at the top of the Shooting Star Summit, instead of climbing to the top.

Block Clip - Instead of progressing normally through the Chapter 8 basement, we instead head leftward, across the lava, toward the screen with the castle’s entrance. Using a precisely positioned tornado jump, we can get on top of the badge block. From there we can reach the entrance by using Parakarry.

Hub Room Clip - The wall at the bottom-left of the stairs in the first hub room is not properly connected, and with the right positioning, Mario can walk right though. This saves a few frames as we do not have to climb the stairs. This does not work in the similarly designed room later in the castle.

Flood Room Skip - The method for doing this trick used in this run was accidentally discovered while fooling around in the room. If you ride Lakilester on the water, and then ride him over into the hole that the spring came out of, Mario will fall through the floor. With precise out of bounds movement, we are able to reach the key on the top floor. At this water level, the loading zone to the next area is blocked by an invisible wall. By using the Hammer to obtain the key, we are able to avoid having to do additional clips in order to reach it.

Cannonless - Using a Lakilester clip in a precise position along the second stair will cause Mario to fall out of bounds and respawn underneath the stairs. From there, Mario can spin up right and land on the seam of the room. This skips getting into encounters with all of the cannons in this room.

Goombario Text Glitch - Pressing C-Down a frame before falling into the Final Bowser cutscene causes two text boxes to appear: Goombario’s text box and Bowser’s text box. We can press C-Down again to end Goombario’s text box, leaving Bowser’s text box on screen. Because the game registers that a text box closed, the cutscene advances while Bowser’s text box remains on screen. When the next event in the cutscene starts, we can advance the text box to end it prematurely. The text box that should normally appear at that point in the cutscene will then pop up while the cutscene advances further. This saves time because as the cutscene plays, we can advance to the end of each text box and immediately start the next sequence of the cutscene.

Luigi Skip - After Mario returns to his house, he and Luigi leave to visit Peach at her castle. By holding down as Mario jumps up to the pipe outside of his house, the transition to the next screen will begin instead of waiting for Luigi to enter the pipe as well. As this ends the cutscene early, the portion of it where Luigi talks to Mario in Toad Town never occurs.

In the second Peach Castle room, it is a few frames faster to take the right staircase because the Toad NPC blocks Mario from activating it as early as possible. In the Bowser battle, we use quick jumps to jump on Bowser faster than normal. When Mario enter Goombario’s house, we can get a spin cancel off the left side of the table, followed by a spin and a fall into another spin, which is faster than jumping on and off of the table. Once Mario falls from the balcony and enter Jr. Troopa’s playground, I do the Jr. Troopa skip to avoid battling him. Afterwards, we use the trampoline to reach the Fire Flower, which will be used for a fight later in the Prologue. At the end of the following room is the first applicable use of spin cancelling off of the wall. In the next room, We jump before approaching the gate so that Goompa jumps as well. While Mario triggers the gate, Goompa jumps closer to the gate, so it takes less time for him to approach and open it. A bit later, we hammer the tree to the right to get a Goomnut, which will restore Mario’s FP after fighting the Goomba Bros. We also pause to equip Power Jump, which will allow Mario to deal more damage when jumping. The long pause before the menu appears is a result of an emulator issue.

Spin cancelling off walls saves a lot of time in rooms that are completely straight, like in the following room. On the next screen, we get Close Call. We do not equip it yet because it is fastest to only pause once, which will be after we get Power Jump in Chapter 1. For the Goomba Bros. battle, the optimal strategy is to defeat both Goomba Bros. at the same time to skip an extra dialogue that would pop up if only one was killed. It’s also important to note that you cannot quick jump for Goombario’s attacks. We use a Fire Flower to finish off both Goomba Bros. once they are at 3 health each. We then eat the Goomnut to replenish Mario’s FP so he can Power Jump in the following battle. By headbonking the tree with Goombario, we can take out both of the Goomba Bros, leaving behind only Goomba King.

On the screen before Shooting Star Summit, Mario falls off for one frame right before taking the loading zone. While falling, we can hold up right and land back on the platform, cancelling Mario’s spin so he can start one right after instead of jumping. Right when Twink comes to meet Mario, we perform what’s called a spin buffer, allowing Mario to spin once during the cutscene. This doesn’t waste any time but looks really cool. It’s faster to block the Magikoopa’s attacks when getting hit. We went slightly left of an optimal angle in the room where Peach’s Castle used to be in order to manipulate RNG for the upcoming Black Toad Skip. As a result of this RNG manipulation, the Toad NPC farther down immediately spawns to the right, allowing Mario to spin between the Toad and the wall to fall out of bounds for the Black Toad Skip trick.

We acquire the Fright Jar for a battle in a short segment of Chapter 4. The POW Block in the following room is acquired for a Koopatrol battle in Chapter 8. Before picking up the POW Block though, Mario hammers the tree. Right when the blue switch begins to drop down from the tree, we pick up the POW Block, causing the small cutscene of the switch dropping to play while the item fanfare plays, saving a bit of time. The back wall is too far from the center of the room, so spin cancelling off the back wall is a bit slower. Instead, we just spin to the right. Two rooms after, we immediately jump to the left through the loading zone. This loading zone does not have invisible walls around it, so we can fall out of bounds. This skips having to activate a bridge through a blue switch using Kooper, meaning that we can skip getting Kooper. We move right and land on the seam of the room while also jumping when we land since we have the loading zone stored. Once we land past the bridge, we do frame perfect jumps until we reach the loading zone. Once we land on the loading zone, the loading zone that is stored now switches to the right one instead of the one to the left. From here, we do frame perfect jumps to the left to get the Fire Flower, which we use later in Chapter 1. We have to restore Mario’s FP so we have enough for the first fortress fight and for Blooper later.

For the first fortress fight, we first strike the Koopa Troopa so we can deal full damage when we Power Jump him with Mario. We hit the bomb once so he gets angry and explodes. Once we reach the second highest stair, we walk straight left and then hold up. This causes us to clip underneath the stairs into the room below. From there, we can spin right and move up right. When Mario respawns, he lands up high by the door normally accessed farther in the chapter. Once Mario hits the question mark block, Goombario for some reason jumps and stays frozen in the air, perhaps because he lands on Mario’s hitbox, which causes him to think that he should stop jumping there. Because of good RNG, we do not have to waste any time to get the 2 FP drop required to replenish FP further for the Blooper battle. In addition, we need to grab all 9 coins so that we can buy a Dizzy Dial later. The rest of the coins are picked up later. Before picking up Power Bounce, we first activate Bombette to blow up the wall. This way, the item fanfare can play while Bombette’s animation plays. Since we now have Bombette, we have access to Chapter 2, so I can skip the rest of Chapter 1.

On the way back to Toad Town, we grab two coins by the Koopa Troopa for the Dizzy Dial later. We still need 4 coins, which we get from the short Chapter 4 segment. After arriving in Toad Town, we use Loading Zone Storage and frame perfect jumps to begin skewing the below loading zone. After doing so, Mario falls out of bounds, allowing him to respawn farther down, bypassing the logs originally blocking his access to Chapter 2. We grab the seed after doing Log Skip because grabbing it and the three other seeds will allow me to enter Chapter 6 later. Before entering the train, using Bombette next to an NPC will cause her to begin her blowing up animation earlier. Mario can’t talk to the train conductor until Bombette falls down from her animation, so we fool around a bit. On the same frame as talking to the train conductor, Bombette’s animation starts for a frame, but ends right after. Triggering her causes her to walk towards Mario, which will save a few frames since she is closer to the train door.

Upon arrival at Mount Rugged, we jump over to the left side of the train station. This allows Mario to spin cancel from a fall while taking a direct angle, compared to spinning and jumping around the platform. In the next room, we spin up the slide a bit so that we can do a falling spin cancel off the side instead of jumping. Following that, we use a trick at the top edge of the staircase to clip through the wall and fall out of bounds. From there, we can spawn on the room's seam and spin left. At that point, we can jump upwards, store the upper loading zone, and skew the loading zone by falling back down onto the floor and using frame perfect jumps. Skewing the loading zone causes Mario to fall out of bounds in the room with the letter, allowing him to spawn right by the letter. This trick skips having to take a longer path into the room to reach the letter. Afterwards, we can use the same place as before to clip out of bounds. This time we face in the opposite direction so we can fall right and onto the back seam. From there we fall after a certain point and spawn underneath the slide. From there, we fall again, allowing us to spawn right by the second letter, which is normally only reachable with Kooper. A few rooms later, we jump to the left into the loading zone and use frame perfect jumps to reach the letter. After grabbing the letter, the loading zone takes us back right away. On the way back to Parakarry, we grab the first of two Whacka’s Bumps which will be used as a source of coins later in the run for two badges. It is fastest to get the Whacka’s Bumps coming from the right side because Mario can spin straight down for a more direct angle to the Whacka’s Bump section of the room. Jumping onto the slide shortens the jump since the slide is higher up, and spinning near the edge of the slide causes the spin to cancel because the game registers Mario falling of for a frame. Another spin can start right after. We go back right in order to acquire another seed, which will allow us to enter Chapter 6. Because we now have both Parakarry and the seed, there is nothing else we need to do in Chapter 2, so we leave. On the way back, we grab the second Whacka’s Bump, again from the left side. It’s fastest to talk to the train conductor from the back because Mario will be closer to the train, causing a shorter cutscene afterwards.

After returning to Toad Town, we head to the item shop to sell our Wacka Bumps and buy a Dizzy Dial with the money. Because we collected 11 coins, and because we are about to collect 4 more, we will have 100 coins after buying the Dizzy Dial, allowing us to buy two badges at 50 coins each later. A few frames were wasted before exiting the item shop in order to manipulate RNG for the next trick. By positioning the Toad NPC against the upper wall, Mario can spin in between Toad and the wall and hammer, causing him to go out of bounds, just like Black Toad Skip. Spinning up left from there and falling will allow me to respawn in the back room of the building to the left. This is the room from which you can enter Chapter 4.

The major portion of this chapter is skipped. Along the way to the left, we pick up a Maple Syrup to replenish FP in Chapter 8. In the next room, we fight the Shy Guy with the Fire Flower. This is because we need the Fire Flower for Chapter 8 and it is closest to the loading zone. From this fight, we can manipulate a Dizzy Dial drop, which will be used to knock out Blooper for several turns. After the battle, we grab 3 coins that were dropped to pay off the Dizzy Dial from the shop. Using the calculator fight skip explained above, we re-enter the room and grab the calculator with Loading Zone Storage and frame perfect jumps. This saves time over spinning all the way back. The calculator allows us to get Jump Charge from the badge shop. After leaving with the calculator, we hit the item block in the next room to completely pay off the price for the Dizzy Dial. We are now at 100 coins and can buy two badges, Speedy Spin and Jump Charge.

Speedy Spin increases Mario’s spin speed (from 8 to 10.8), saving a chunk of time overall, and Jump Charge uses 1 FP to increase Mario’s attack power by 2. Jump Charge, in addition to Power Bounce cap manipulation, can be used to take out bosses quickly. Before entering the badge shop room, we switch to Bombette. This is using RNG manipulation to get Speedy Spin and Jump Charge to appear in the slots farthest to the right. After talking to Rowf, the badge shop owner, we acquire the I Spy badge. This helps Mario find where Star Pieces are, so it is therefore completely irrelevant. We have to reload the room in order for the badge shop to open up. After buying both badges, we equip Jump Charge and Power Bounce. We do not equip Speedy Spin because we do not have enough BP. If we were to not equip either Jump Charge or Power Bounce in order to open up one BP for Speedy Spin, we would have to pause an extra time before Blooper. Because the distance between Mario’s current location and Blooper in the sewers is so short, it is a few seconds slower to pause and equip Speedy Spin.

In the next room we use the Blue House Skip to enter the sewers to Chapter 5 early. We use a slightly faster version of the Blue House Skip, in which Mario lands on the side of the roof, allowing him to spin up and jump directly on top of the pipe, saving time over falling down right away. One of the Dizzy Dials is used on Blooper, skipping all of his attacks in the battle. I used RNG manipulation to get an 18 bounce cap on Blooper, dealing 28 damage in addition to 2 damage with Parakarry, killing Blooper. We level up FP because we have to use a lot of FP in order to use Jump Charge several times in each fight. At this point, we unequip enough BP to equip Speedy Spin.

In the first room, we can spin cancel by hitting the corner between the normal floor level and the lower part of the floor. In the next room, we perform the Yoshi Skip, allowing us to immediately enter the volcano. When Kolorado comes to talk to us once we respawn to the right, there is one frame where Mario can either jump, hammer, or spin slightly. This does actually save a frame because you can move farther to the right. Falling underneath the lava and then holding down allows us to respawn by the volcano’s entrance.

Similar to the spin during the Twink cutscene in the prologue, we spin for entertainment purposes when the Piranha comes up from the ground. In the next room, if we’re fast enough, we can skip having to wait another platform cycle. We’re so fast, however, that it’s not even close. In the main room of the volcano we use Loading Zone Storage and frame perfect jumps to perform Ultra Hammer Skip. A few rooms later, we barely miss landing on the moving platform to the right. We nicknamed this the God Cycle. The goal of this trick was to land on the platform all the way to the right on its first cycle so that we could save several seconds from not waiting. With the use of spin cancels, this trick is only a frame off. After several days of trying though, we were unsuccessful at succeeding at this trick. In the next room, we use the Flarakarry trick to enter the next loading zone to skip performing a long task to break the wall. By starting Flarakarry from far away, we are able to skip a Kolorado text. Afterwards, we skip a Kolorado cutscene using the Footrace with Kolorado the Quick trick. In the next room, we use the Lava Piranha Skip by spinning in between Kolorado and the wall. Falling in bounds saves time over falling.

For the Peach cutscene, it is fastest to wait for the guard to move far enough to the right to move behind him instead of moving around the front of him in the front room of Peach’s Castle. For the quiz, the goal is to answer as quickly as possible and always pick the first choice if possible. We need to lose the quiz, otherwise there will be an extra cutscene of Peach obtaining an optional item. She obtains the Parasol, which will allow her to transform into other NPCs for the next Peach segment. We have to maneuver to the upper loading zone to get the Volcano Vase, which is what Kolorado was searching for. In exchange, he gives us a seed that will allow us to enter Chapter 6 later. From there, I enter the Forever Forest to obtain the last of the four seeds in order to enter Chapter 6. The fastest way to leave the forest is enter the wrong path, then spin back left. This takes Mario back to Toad Town since he did not take the correct path in the maze of the forest.

In the main Flower Fields room, we use Loading Zone Storage and frame perfect jumps to do the Lakilester Early trick, skipping a long sequence of tasks in the chapter. We grab the Shooting Star for a Koopatrol battle in Chapter 8. Next, we perform the Tower of the Sun Early trick through the use of Loading Zone Storage and frame perfect jumps. Right before the “Spike?” (Lakilester) fight, we have to unequip Speedy Spin and equip Power Bounce and Jump Charge. The Dizzy Dial knocks out Lakilester for several turns, skipping his long attacks. RNG manipulation is used to grant Mario a nine Power Bounce cap. At this point, we re-equip Speedy Spin since by the time we equip Jump Charge and Power Bounce next, we will have upgraded BP to 6. Now that we have Lakilester, we now can use the Peach Warp trick. For this, we have to go back to Mt. Lavalava from Chapter 5.

When entering the Blue House, it is always faster to use the skip to the roof instead of entering the door because of the long animation of Mario opening the door. Likewise, doing the Yoshi Skip again is faster than using the pulley to reach the entrance. In the platform room after the Spiny Tromp, it is fastest to wait for the first platform to move right instead of switching to Parakarry and hovering over or riding Lakilester across the entire room. Also, it is fastest to spin to the edge of the large platform before using Laki. In the same room as the Footrace with Kolorado the Quick trick, we use a Laki clip on the bottom right corner to fall out of bounds. After the cutscene finishes, we do the same clip again. Mario spawns out of bounds, allowing him to jump down onto the edge of the room below and into the loading zone, which is faster than falling. For the clip in the next room, the goal is to trap Lakilester behind the invisible walls to the right. We have to move down slowly in order to keep Laki inside the invisible walls. Once Mario is far enough away, he can spin to the left. Moving into the corner and activating Laki allows Mario to clip out of bounds on top of the lava. From here, we can fall out of bounds to the right and then hold up right to reach the right loading zone. This causes the Volcano Vase chest to spawn again, causing a funny-looking cutscene as the chest falls.

The goal of the Peach cutscene is to disguise as a Koopatrol and then a Clubba in order to reach the top of the castle. It’s fastest to transform back to Peach from the Koopatrol during the lock animation since there is already a two frame pause before you can enter the door.

When we return to Toad Town, it is again faster to use Blue House skip instead of opening the door. Once we enter the sewers, we have to get Ultra Boots for a trick later in Chapter 8. Because we skipped Ultra Hammer, we can not pass through the blocks leading to the Ultra Boots room. In order to bypass these blocks, we have to use Clippy. We open the partner menu and switch partners before entering the battle. We run immediately after entering the battle. With Lakilester’s glitchy hitbox, Mario can now jump on top of the block and clip through the wall into the loading zone. The same glitch is done in the next room, except the doorway is a different size than before, so Mario cannot normally clip into the doorway. By hopping onto Lakilester while Mario is on the doorframe and Lakilester is on the ground, a side-effect of getting Clippy allows mario Mario to teleport into the block and enter the Ultra Boots room. Using Loading Zone Storage and frame perfect jumps allows us to skip the second spring to leave the room.

After returning to Yoshi’s Village from Chapter 5, we do the Yoshi Skip again instead of using the pulley since it is faster. The entire volcano is identical until the first Lakilester clip. Because the cutscene already played from the previous Peach Warp, we only need to do one Lakilester Clip the first time. In the next room, the Lakilester Clip is the same.

After we finish the Peach scene, in the room to the left, it is faster to drop down immediately instead of landing on the platform a bit higher up from the ground and spinning left. Once we break the ice block covering the platform switch, we make sure Mario lands on top of the switch instead of the ground because his fall is shorter and he can begin to spin jump again earlier. We return to the Shooting Star Summit in order to enter Chapter 8.

At the Shooting Star Summit, we use a Lakilester Clip that causes Mario to fall out of bounds, allowing him to respawn at the top of the summit. In order to do this, we have to use Laki once before to trap him behind the bush. Trapping him makes his speed greater when coming towards Mario, causing Mario to teleport into the wall.

In order to unlock the Castle’s front door, we have to go right and battle the Koopatrol to retrieve the key. Using the POW Block to stun them on their backs and the Shooting Star to finish them off, we end the battle quickly. We also switch to Bombette since it’s faster to switch partners in battle, and we will need to use her in a bit. We switch to Lakilester to ride on the lava. On the way, we push slightly against the wall and get a weird forward push. Once we reach the front section of the castle, we switch to Parakarry in order to perform a trick. When we switch to Parakarry though, Mario is positioned in such a way that his jump animation off of Lakilester is cancelled, which saves a few frames. We approach the red item box and do a spin jump. This causes a bug that allows us to stand on top of the red item box. From here, we use Parakarry to fly over, and we land on an invisible wall and walk to the front door.

After going through the Bowser door, we use the Hub Room Clip by spinning at a precise angle to get inside the stairs. From there, we fall off to the right and respawn by the top door. A few rooms later, we activate the chain that raises the water level. Using a Laki Clip on the right side, we can clip out of bounds and walk on top of the water. In the room to the left, we clip in using a Laki Clip and activate the spring switch. From here, we use the Flood Room Skip by clipping out and in again. From there, we fall out of bounds by going to where the spring came from and go left. We fall off and respawn at the top of the key by holding down after a certain amount of time. Because we are already underwater at this point, we can enter the next room. In order to do so, we must bypass an invisible wall that is there. We can do so by entering the loading zone from the top of it instead of the left side. In the following room, we do a trick called Cannonless. By using a Laki Clip on the edge of the second stair, we can fall out of bounds and respawn under the stairs. Now, Mario can spin up right and fall off. When he respawns, he is on the edge of the room’s seam, allowing him to spin past the cannons.

After taking the quiz, we grab a Maple Syrup, which will be used to replenish HP later in the chapter. Afterwards, we cannot perform the Hub Room Skip because the room design is slightly different. For the Duplighost fight, it is fastest to manipulate RNG so that they all transform into Bombette. This way, with one Fire Flower, we can take out all of them. We upgrade BP so we can make room for more badges. RNG is manipulated so that Jr. Troopa misses when trying to attack Mario. RNG is also manipulated to give Mario an eight Power Bounce cap.

We enter the library in Peach’s Castle to obtain Power Rush, a badge that will increase our attack power at low health. This will help with the hallway Bowser fight and the Final Bowser fight. Before entering the hallway Bowser fight, we eat a Maple Syrup in order to gain back FP that we used during the Jr. Troopa fight. RNG is manipulated so Bowser misses when attacking Mario. On the second turn, Time Out is used so that Bowser cannot attack. RNG is also manipulated so that Mario gets a seven Power Bounce cap. Right before the Final Bowser fight, we eat another Maple Syrup to replenish FP used during the hallway Bowser fight. Right after, we begin the Goombario Text Glitch, which causes the cutscene to advance faster than it normally would because we scroll the text during idle parts of the cutscene instead of when the game is waiting for the text to normally scroll.

In the phase 1 battle, the text is scrolled in a specific algorithm that allows us to manipulate the RNG for the Power Bounce cap without wasting any time at all. The cutscene after the phase 1 battle is advanced faster with the help of the Goombario Text Glitch. Unfortunately, the text is forced to close after the Twink fight, so it does not work at all after entering the Twink fight, so we close it at a specific time to manipulate RNG for the Final Bowser fight.

In the phase 2 battle, RNG is manipulated so that Bowser attacks with his claw, the fastest attack that he has when Mario does not have the Close Call effect. On the next few turns, RNG is manipulated so that Bowser misses Mario while he uses Jump Charging to raise his attack power significantly. Bowser’s Wave attack is the fastest, but it can only occur after turn 3. After he uses that attack, he cannot use it for the next 2 turns. After that point, we manipulate RNG so that he uses that attack again with the Close Call effect on Mario. With RNG manipulation, Mario gets a 7 Power Bounce cap. With Mario’s final strike, Bowser is defeated and the Star Rod is free from his evil grasp.

When Mario and Luigi walk outside to enter the pipe, we perform the Luigi Skip by holding down on top of the pipe. This causes the game to skip Luigi’s pipe animation. When Mario appears in Toad Town, Luigi is not there, so Luigi’s cutscene is skipped. Timing ends on the last input, which is the text box right before Peach raises her hands. The final time is 1:30:40.15, and the in-game time is 1:27:42.033.

Neither Glide64 nor Glitde64MK2 emulate properly. Either one has its perks over the over. For example, Glide64 emulates Mario properly throughout the game, but it does not display particle effects, such as when the Star Spirits appear or heal Mario and when heart blocks are on screen. When opening the partner or item menu, the screen goes black for a bit. In addition, throughout most of Bowser’s Castle, the fire texture that is supposed to be displayed on the torches throughout the castle is for some reason displayed on the bottom left side surrounded by a large, black box. Glide64MK2 displays particle effects correctly and also does not cause the screen to go black when opening up the partner or item menu. It incorrectly displays Mario as a silhouette throughout Peach’s Castle and Mount Lavalava. The fire texture in Bowser’s Castle is displayed properly, though it is a bit fainter than normal. Because of these differences, we ended up splicing the encode to combine the pros of both plugins. If for an official encode in which you cannot splice, then we would prefer the Glide64 plugin as opposed to the Glide4MK2 plugin.

The transition from Paper Mario TTYD to Paper Mario 64 took a while because of the different mechanics between the two games. I had to restart the Prologue about five times probably in order to make sure that I was optimizing movement in the correct way. At first, we weren’t sure what game version to use because the Kooper Skip was thought to be English only due to some mechanics in the 2nd letter room. Because of this, we weren’t 100% sure which game version would be faster, since English text is slower in the game. Ben (Exylophone) found a way to do it on the Japanese version, which helped a lot. I am very happy with the TAS and the route that was made for it. Thanks to everyone who’s supported me along the way. From this point, I’m not entirely sure where I’m headed to, regarding other TASes. I may continue to glitch hunt in Paper Mario 64, since we are on the verge of a complete re-route of the game. I will at some point begin working on Super Paper Mario.

I hope that in the future, further development within BizHawk will allow for more accurate emulation of the game because I don’t really like the 7 second long wait after pausing. In addition, there was way more lag than normal in certain spots, like when hitting the block right before getting the Ultra Boots, and during the final Peach cutscene. Also, if you actually took the time to read all of this, thank you very much :P

For Routing: Bonecrusher, Exylophone, Stryder7x, r0bd0g

For Overlay Design: Exylophone

For Glitches: Exylophone, Bonecrusher, r0bd0g, DsyDude, Flare, Stealthyween, Kagemitsu, YoshINDEX

BizHawk Developers - allowing for this TAS to finally be made

Exylophone - Inputing a few tricks, helping me whenever I needed help with something within the TAS.

Kagemitsu - He worked very hard the past couple of years working on a TAS of his own, which can be seen here: Part 1Part 2 Part 3 Part 4. His TAS became the framework for ours. Throughout the making of this TAS, we constantly asked, “How does this compare to Kagemitsu,” since he could be used as a good reference to assure that we were optimizing well. The difference between our two TASes is that he does not use the Kooper Skip or Spin Cancels early in his run. He also uses a different route.

Nahoc: claimed for judging...

Nahoc: great audience response and great TAS! Accepting for publication.

Spikestuff Publishing.