Advanced Flying Techniques

This is a page for compiling information about various advanced techniques for cape flight. For the most part they are not needed for vanilla speedruns, but can be useful for some hacks or TASing.

Speed Management

While Mario is accelerating forward normally (walking, running, swimming, etc.) his speed typically increases by 1.5 subpixels/frame (hereafter "units") each frame (with the remainder saved as "subspeed" for calculating future speeds). On the other hand, while Mario is cape flying, his speed increases by 4 units/frame. Mario's cape speed is capped at 48, leading to a speed oscillation pattern which repeats as 48, 47, 51, 50, 49 while speed is capped and forward is held. Once forward is released, speed is conserved as long as Mario remains airborne (effectively indefinitely).

Maximizing Speed

If your goal is merely to reach the highest possible speed, then this video explains the basics of recognizing flight speeds between 51 and 47:

Video: How to Optimize Mario's Flight Speed Source: dotsarecool

Being able to recognize speeds (or at least 51 speed) is a critical skill for top level speedruns. Once you are skilled at it, there are some more advanced techniques which can help you to reach 51 speed more quickly.

Optimal Tapping

If you have identified your current speed, the number of frames you need to hold right can be determined easily as SPEED - 46. Holding forward for an extra 5 frames can be helpful as well.

Speed	Tap Forward
47	1 (or 6)
48	2 (or 7)
49	3 (or 8)
50	4 (or 9)

One special case is 1-frame tapping. Tapping forward for a single frame can be done by flicking the d-pad very quickly, and with practice can be done fairly consistently. This allows correcting 47 speed immediately, but is not helpful for speeds between 48 and 50.

4-Frame Tapping

A simpler alternative to optimal tapping. If you have identified that Mario's current speed is not 51, you can guarantee increasing speed by tapping forward for exactly 4 frames. This will have the overall effect of increasing speed by 1 unit, so e.g. 47 will become 48. Mastering this is significantly easier than mastering optimal tapping since the number of frames to press right is the same every time.

By the same principle, if you have identified that Mario's speed is between 47 and 49, a 3 frame forward tap will always increase your speed by 2 units. Beware though, doing this at 50 speed will instead set you to 47. A 5 frame tap will not change Mario's final speed. Thus, a 4 frame tap is actually more lenient than one might expect; overshooting by a frame is always fine, and undershooting by a frame is fine as long as you are below 50 speed.

Initial Speed Optimization

Until Mario enters cape flight state, his speed oscillation pattern is *generally* that of p-speed running, namely 48, 47, 49, 48, 47. This will not be the case if Mario enters flight before reaching capped p-speed or (by using the takeoff meter) without full p-meter, but in a majority of cases it does apply.

This oscillation pattern can be exploited to increase your chance of getting an initial 51 speed. Because your speed the frame you enter cape flight is always between 47 and 49, the number of frames of cape flight before you reach 51 speed the first time is always between 1 and 3. There is a 40% chance for 1 or 2 frames and a 20% chance for 3 frames assuming your p-speed oscillation is random. Releasing right after 4 or 5 frames of cape flight will never give 51 speed. (Of course, you can also hold forward for an extra 5 frames, and the eventual result is the same, which may or may not be easier to time.)

To make use of this technique, you need to have a sense of exactly when Mario will enter cape flight. This is not as difficult as it might sound. Assuming you just press and hold B for the initial takeoff, he cape descent framerule gives a large amount of leeway for when to release B to stop ascending and begin cape flight on the same frame. For an experienced runner, getting the correct cape descent framerule for an initial takeoff is already a useful skill and one that most people learn without even trying to.

With this knowledge, one can take several approaches. If you always release forward after 3 frames, your initial flight speed will be between 49 and 51, better than random (though there is only a 20% chance of 51). If your goal is just to maximize the chance of getting initial 51 speed (e.g. for an IL speedrun), then releasing right after 1 or 2 frames gives a 40% chance each of getting initial 51 speed. Releasing after 2 frames is often especially good, because if you don't get initial 51 speed, you get 50 speed (40% chance), with only a 20% chance of getting 47. Either of these 2 techniques gives an average initial speed of 49.8, significantly higher than what you would expect from a uniformly random initial speed (49) that you would get if you did not do anything to try to optimize initial speed.

Also, note that the cape descent framerule and p-speed oscillation tend to help, rather than hurt, your ability to control Mario's initial speed in a controlled environment like the beginning of a level. In many cases, getting the initial 51 speed does not require a consistent initial B press frame; there is usually a 2-3 frame window for the initial B press where the correct frame to release forward after entering cape flight does not change. As a result, while one might think that getting consistent initial 51 speed is double frame perfect, in most cases it actually only requires one frame-perfect input, the one to release forward, which is relative to the time since the start of the level and so can be timed using visual or music cues. This is obviously the fastest option, but can only be used reliably in levels where you can completely control Mario's movement from the beginning of the level, such as simple flyover levels like Vanilla Secret 2.

Managing Low Speeds

In speedruns it is rarely helpful to go at low speeds, but in difficult cape hacks it is a necessary skill.

Preserving Flight

This section describes the specifics of several techniques that let you preserve or regain flight in ways that one might not immediately expect.

Cape Spin Techniques

This section describes various techniques which require Mario doing a cape spin (by pressing X or Y) while flying.