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Routes

Early Special World

This route arrives to Special World as soon as possible, since the levels there are fairly difficult. It is the fastest route currently in use.

CMBK Route

This route is almost exactly the same as Early Special Route except that you're doing Star World 3 (Normal) after Soda Lake instead of doing it after Star World 2 (Secret).

This doesn't lose or gain time in overworld movements compared to Early Special Route.

This route is slightly better than Early Special Route if you're going for Boss Kill in Cookie Mountain (CMBK).

With this, after getting CMBK, you can get a faster back up power-up to feed blue yoshi in Star World 2 by getting the goal in Star World 3 while holding the p-switch (instead of getting it in Soda Lake).

To set up CMBK, you need to reach Cookie Mountain with 2 flowers. The biggest obstacles are the boo rings in Vanilla Ghost House. As far as we know, It is better for this route to not do stair clips in Donut Secret House to have friendly boo rings in Vanilla Ghost House.

This route can also be used without CMBK. The advantage is to reach Special World earlier. The disadvantage is to add the risk of a goal tape despawn in Star World 3.

Early Vanilla Dome

This route arrives to Vanilla Dome as soon as possible, to get Vanilla Dome 1 wings done sooner. This route loses about 5 seconds in overworld time to early special world.

Boo-rings

Boo-rings management is one of the hardest thing you have to worry about in this category since It's heavily dependent on your gameplay in Donut Secret House.

This game has three sets of two boo-rings each. One goes clockwise, the other goes counter-clockwise. They appear in Donut Secret House, Vanilla Ghost House and Sunken Ghost Ship.

The problem with the boo-rings in this game is that they reappear at the same position where we left them. For example, if a boo-ring despawn with its "hole" at 9 o'clock, then the next boo-ring will have its "hole" at 9 o'clock when it appears (the exact same position). Then It will move either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on which boo-ring it is.

In this category, we have to complete all exits available without the use of cape and Donut Secret House has two exits. So overall, the player has to deal with four sets of boo-rings. However, the boo-rings in Sunken Ghost Ship can be dealt with pretty much independently of their positions. So, from now on, we will ignore the Sunken Ghost Ship boo-rings as if they were not part of the game. ("All boo-rings" will refer to the boo-rings in Donut Secret House and Vanilla Ghost House).

So, the important part here is to understand how the gameplay in Donut Secret House will influence the boo-rings in Vanilla Ghost House and how to deal with the boo-rings patterns.

This section assume that you're doing the Special Early Route or the CMBK Route. It can be adapted to the Vanilla Dome Early route.

Easiest way

You can approach any boo-ring in this game with a power-up and deboost through it.

Donut Secret House Normal Exit

You can enter this level with the fireflower you get from Iggy's Castle and just deboost through the first boo-ring with it.

You can deal with the second boo-ring by taking the mushroom at the beginning of room 2 and then deboost through it.

Video: Donut Secret House Normal Exit - Deboost everything Source: Schwartz_RTA

Donut Secret House Secret Exit

After getting the normal Exit in Donut Secret House, you move on to Donut Secret 2. This level has a spring at the beginning. You can escort it to the end of the level and grab the goaltape holding the spring. That will give you a mushroom. You can then deal with Donut Secret House the same way as the first trip.

Video: Donut Secret 2 Normal Exit - Spring escort Source: Schwartz_RTA

Vanilla Ghost House

You can grab a mushroom in Vanilla Dome 2 trying to complete the normal exit. You have multiple options for that but here are the two fastest : grabbing the midway or escorting the last buzzy beetle through the goal (this will give you a mushroom).

Video: Vanilla Dome 2 Normal Exit - Grab buzzy for mushroom Source: Schwartz_RTA

With this, you can deboost the first boo-ring in Vanilla Ghost House. The second boo-ring can be dealt with the power-up just before it.

Of course, if you're lucky enough to go through the first boo ring without taking damage, then you don't have to stop and can just deboost the second one. If you somehow don't take damage at all in room 1 (rare), then you can either deboost on the green bubble in room 2 or just keep your mushroom for Vanilla Dome 3

Video: Vanilla Ghost House Normal Exit - Deboost everything Source: Schwartz_RTA

Advanced strategies

In Donut Secret House, the fastest way to complete room 1 is to perform a clip called "Stair Clip". Because we have to go through this level twice, we have three possibilities. You either get 0, 1 or 2 Stair Clips. Keep in mind that to have an idea of where the boo-rings are in Vanilla Ghost House, you have to know what you are doing in Donut Secret House. Worst case scenario, you can always deal with Vanilla Ghost House like in the Easiest way section.

No Stair Clip

If you don't get any Stair Clips, you will get a friendly pattern in Vanilla Ghost House where you can jump over the boo-rings hence the name "Top Pattern". If you can perform the same jumps through the first boo-ring in VGH as in the video, It means the manipulation is succesfull. You can also pay attention to boo-ring position in DSH when you enter the p-switch door that leads to the boo boss fight. This will tell you if you will get the friendly pattern or not.

Video: Donut Secret House Normal Exit - No Stair Clip Source: Schwartz_RTA

Video: Donut Secret House Secret Exit - No Stair Clip Source: Schwartz_RTA

Video: Vanilla Ghost House Normal Exit - Top Pattern Source: Schwartz_RTA

Double Stair Clip

Getting two Stair Clips saves a good amont of time. However, the pattern in Vanilla Ghost House is harder to deal with. You will have to go below the boo-rings hence the name "Bottom Pattern" for this case.

Video: Donut Secret House Normal Exit - Stair Clip Source: Schwartz_RTA

Video: Donut Secret House Secret Exit - Stair Clip Source: Schwartz_RTA

Video: Vanilla Ghost House Normal Exit - Bottom Pattern Source: Schwartz_RTA

One Stair Clip

If you get the first Stair Clip but miss the second one, you can perform the following manipulation. This will lead to a friendly "Top Pattern" in Vanilla Ghost House.

Video: Donut Secret House Secret Exit - No 2nd Stair Clip (manip) Source: Schwartz_RTA

Conclusion

Here's what you need to remember :

0 Stair Clip in Donut Secret House ==> Top path in Vanilla Ghost House

1 Stair Clip in Donut Secret House ==> Perform boo-ring manipulation that gives more or less the same boo-ring as No Stair Clip ==> Top Path in Vanilla Ghost House

2 Stair Clips in Donut Secret House ==> Bottom path in Vanilla Ghost House (Hard)

Forest of Illusion Fire Flowers

Fire Flower management is important in Forest of Illusion since you save time killing Roy with two fireballs and one stomp. To be able to firekill Roy in Roy's Castle without losing too much time, you need two fire flowers : One on mario, one in the itembox (See D-boost strategy).

As usual, we assume in this section that we're doing the Early Special Route or CMBK Route.

In this case, you usually enter forest with Fire Mario and no item in your itembox.

Forest is an RNG heavy section mainly because of yoshi clips but you're also at the mercy of buibui's fireball in Forest Fortress or the boos in Forest Ghost House room 2.

Knowing that, you need to be ready to take damage anytime in those places and react accordingly. Luckily, Forest of Illusion is full of fire flowers !

The tricky part here is to decide whenever or not you should go for the backups (and which one to go for). You need to make sure that getting the backup fire flowers doesn't cost more time than the firekill saves. It is still recommended to enter Chocolate Island with Fire Mario or at least Big Mario though.

Forest of Illusion 1

Entering with Fire Mario

There's a roulette block after the midway where you can grab a fire flower.

Video: FoI 1 - Roulette block fire Source: Schwartz_RTA

Entering with Big Mario

This is for the scenario where you take damage in Forest Ghost House (which is unlucky) but you somehow get out of there with big mario. You can grab the first fire flower in Forest of Illusion 1 and the second flower in the roulette block after the midway.

Video: FoI 1 - Double fire (Big) Source: Schwartz_RTA

Forest of Illusion 4

There's a roulette block in Forest of Illusion 4 where you can grab a fire flower. Be careful, Lakitu can be annoying.

Video: FoI 4 - Roulette block fire (Safe) Source: Schwartz_RTA

Video: FoI 4 - Roulette block fire (Risky) Source: Schwartz_RTA

Forest of Illusion 3

This level doesn't have a fire flower, only mushrooms inside bubbles. If you enter this level trying to clear the normal exit with only one flower, you can try to grab the mushroom past the midway to get a mushroom in your itembox. Since there's a chance of taking damage in Forest Ghost House room 2, doing so will give you a chance to get out of there with Big Mario. After that, you can try to grab two flowers in Forest of Illusion 1.

Video: FoI 3 - Getting safety mushroom Source: Schwartz_RTA

Forest Ghost House

There's a fire flower in the first block of room 2. This is, by far, the hardest backup fire flower in the split. It is not recommended to go for that one since you have a high probability to get hit by the boos and it's not in your control.

Video: FGH - Room 2 fire (Risky!!!) Source: Schwartz_RTA

Tricks that can end all Gaming

In 95 Exit, No Cape we have the opportunity to perform a lot of tricks during the run. Some of them are insanely difficult and most of them are not really used. However, knowing that those tricks exist can help players to try to revive dead runs. Those tricks can also be incorporated by advanced players to end all gaming !

Cookie Mountain Boss Kill

Universal Setup

This setup is compatible with double Stair Clip in the Early Special Route or CMBK Route. You loses 6s in Vanilla Dome 4 to save 11s in Cookie Mountain.

If you're doing Early Special Route, get a the flower in Soda Lake after CMBK. If you're doing CMBK Route, just cross Star World 3 goal with the silver p-switch in your hand.

Video: VD4 - Getting double fire Source: Schwartz_RTA

Video: CM - BK (Early scroll) Source: Schwartz_RTA

Forest of Illusion 1 Wings

Video: FoI 1 - Wings Source: Schwartz_RTA

Kaizo Roy

Video: Roy's Castle - Kaizo Roy Source: Schwartz_RTA

Chocolate Island 4 Wings

Video: CI4 - Wings Source: Schwartz_RTA

Valley of Bowser 1 Wings

Video: VoB 1 - Wings Source: Schwartz_RTA

Valley of Bowser Fortress Cycle Skip

TAS buibui kill can be added to this strategy of course.

Video: VoB Fort - Cycle Skip Source: Schwartz_RTA

95 Exit, No Cape

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