Movement

Avoiding Slopes

• Just about every slope is slower to run across than flat terrain, therefore, you want to jump over every slope if you can.
• If a slope is unavoidable, the slowdown can be minimized by jumping off of the slope as soon as possible and in the case of a perfect jump, the slope won't slow you down at all.
  
• Depending on how steep a slope is, you'll run up or down it that much slower.

Tonguing

Tonguing Demonstration

• Using Yoshi's tongue normally slows you down but this can be avoided by only tonguing while in the air and releasing the dpad after initiating the tongue. You can resume holding left or right once Yoshi's tongue is almost fully retracted into his mouth.
• Holding left or right while tonguing will reduce your speed by half.
• Holding Y longer makes Yoshi's tongue longer.
• Items like eggs and keys [1] can be tongued through walls and ceilings.
• Tonguing a wall causes your speed to drop to 0 but this can actually be useful because this allows you to turn around instantly.
  

In the video on the right, the first 4 tongues are performed while holding forward the entire time, then the rest are performed while the dpad is released. As you can see, there is no speed lost when the dpad is released.

Making Eggs

Egg Making Demonstration

• If Yoshi swallows an enemy on the ground, he almost comes to a complete stop, therefore, all eggs should be made in the air if possible.
• Holding left or right during the egg-making animation will cause Yoshi to slow down to half speed.
• The optimal way to make eggs is to:

1. Jump and tongue an enemy.

2. While traveling at max speed and in the air, let go of the direction you're running and tap down on the dpad for 1 frame

3. Keep holding jump and do not land until the egg-making animation is finished (still not holding any directional input).

4. Resume holding the direction you were running when the egg-making animation ends.

In the video on the right, the first egg is made on the ground, resulting in a complete stop. Then, 4 eggs are made while holding forward, resulting in significant speed loss. Finally, the last 3 eggs are made with the dpad released which retains full speed.

Perfect Jumps

Perfect Jump 1-2 Skip

Perfect jumps are performed by jumping on the first frame Yoshi lands on the ground or platform. When you do a perfect jump, the game does not register Yoshi as having landed on the ground. This can be both good and bad:

• You don't get an automatic flutter as a result so you run the risk falling into lava, pits or spikes if you don't react in time.
• The screen will not follow Yoshi vertically which means enemies and other sprites will not be loaded until the screen scrolls up. However, this actually allows you to skip an auto-scroller section in 6-5. [2]
• A perfect jump also allows you to store an extended flutter so it can be used after the jump to allow for even more height. This can be used for a variation of the 1-2 skip.
• This same setup can also be used in 1-1 100% to reach the top area. [3]

In the video on the right, it is shown that simply bouncing on a Shy Guy does not give you enough height to reach the cliff. Then, a Shy Guy bounce followed by a failed perfect jump does not give you the extended flutter. Finally, the perfect jump is executed, allowing for the extended flutter thereafter.

Ground Pounds

4-5 Ground Pound

• A ground pound causes Yoshi to fall 2x faster than normal, however, the ground pound takes 37 frames to do (8 frames to start it, 22 to do the animation and 7 to land) and it also reduces your speed to 0 so it's preferable to only do them when necessary. [4] [5]

• Ground pounding into pipes can skip the landing animation, though you would want to do a pipe jump to save the most time.

• Ground pounding while travelling up towards a door will save 2 frames if you get a 1st frame door entry because you enter the door during the ground pound animation, rather than after landing and then entering. You might even save a few more frames because you won't always enter the door as fast as possible in a speedrun.

• Objects such as crates and posts can be ground pounded slightly faster by being as close to the object as possible when initiating the ground pound. This is because the ground pound hits while Yoshi is doing the spinning animation rather than when he lands.

• There are a couple other uses of the ground pound like the blast off trick at the end of the Hookbill boss fight and the stompception trick.[6]

Speed Oscillation

• It is possible to gain a slightly higher than normal running speed by jumping off of a slope. This can be used to skip bonus games in 100% speedruns, such as the one in 1-3 or 2-2.
• In Any%, speed oscillation isn't something to worry about because you'll want to jump over every slope anyway. It's not worth jumping off of a slope to get a higher speed when the slope could be avoided completely, since the time lost by touching the slope would be greater than the time saved by the higher speed. The exception to this is when the slope is unavoidable, like at the end of 2-2, in which case, it's best to stay on the ground and not jump to potentially save some time.
• You can also get speed oscillation from jumping off of moving platforms as well, such as the ones at the end of 4-7
• Important Note: There is a 1 in 3 chance of losing the higher speed when jumping off of a slope (or platform)!
• This video [7] explains and demonstrates speed oscillation.

Backwards Acceleration

By pressing left then right as quickly as possible while standing still, you can accelerate much quicker than if you were to just hold right. Typically, this is only used in ILs but it can be used in full game runs as well.

Optimally it can save 7 frames. However, you can also lose frames if you don't do it fast enough. This is similar to how you would accelerate in a TAS Here is a breakdown of the inputs and the time saved.

"F" = Frames. "-" = Frames saved. "+" = Frames lost.

• 1F left then right = -7.
• 2F left then right = -5.
• 3F left then right = -3.
• 4F left then right = -3.
• 5F left then right = -1.
• 6F left then right = +1.
• 1F left, 1F nothing then right = +2.
• 2F left, 1F nothing then right = +3.
• 3F left, 1F nothing then right = -4.
• 4F left, 1F nothing then right = -2.
• 5F left, 1F nothing then right = 0.

*2 frames or more of nothing always loses time.

Miscellaneous Information

Ground Pound Door Entry

Terrain

• Running off of a ledge causes Yoshi to fall at max speed, thus, the quickest way to fall down from an area is not to jump, but to simply run off of the ledge. [8] [9]
• Jumping while on mud, snow and ice is the fastest means of moving. [10] If you run on ice while at full speed, you'll run slightly faster than normal, whereas snow and mud will always slows you down. [11] [12]
• The quickest way to move up stairs is to walk along them for a split second and then jump. Jumping too quickly results in a significant speed loss. [13]

Tongue Turn Around

• Tonguing walls is the fastest way to turn around because it causes your speed to drop to 0, allowing you to turn around instantly. When there is no wall available, holding down on the dpad briefly is the next fastest way to turn around. [14]. Physically touching walls also causes your speed to drop to 0 so it can be used to turn around as well but should otherwise be avoided.

Melon Bug Boost

• When Yoshi collides with a Melon bug it's speed gets set to Yoshi's speed, so if you spit out a melon bug in a way that it can then bump into you, you can get a speed boost. This can be seen in 1-7 [15] and 4-5. [16]

Moving Platform Boost

• The speed of moving platforms are added to Yoshi’s speed (up to a certain amount) in the direction that they are moving. This means that you can jump much higher off of platforms moving vertically and get a speed boost when jumping off of platforms moving horizontally. The maximum speed obtainable from a red platform is almost 3 times normal max speed (2,000 subpixels/frame). [17] [18]

Fluttering

• Swallowing enemies or tonguing while fluttering should be done as soon as the leg kicking animation starts to avoid any slowdown. The end of the flutter provides acceleration, which tonguing and making eggs would cancel out. [19] Fluttering under waterfalls while you're ascending, like the ones in 1-8 will allow you to gain more height. [20]

Mid-Air Enemy Bounce

• Koopa shells, Toadies and Skull Mousers can be spit out and bounced on mid-air to gain more height and an extended flutter. This can be used to speed up and sequence break some levels. [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28][29] [30] [31].

Bullet Bill Bounce

• Like the shell and Toady bounces, Bullet Bills can also be spit out (up or forward) and then bounced on. This is used in 4-3 100% [32] to skip the helicopter section and can also be seen in 4-1, [33] 4-7 [34] and 5-8 [35] to save a little bit of time. (4-1 and 4-7 have not been tested to see if they actually save time). The 100% TAS even does a Bullet Bill bounce in 4-4. [36]

Shell Invulnerability

• Bouncing on a Koopa shell makes you invulnerable for a short amount of time and can be used to speed up the spike ball section in 4-8. [37]

Damage Boost

• You can damage boost through enemies and on top of spiked platforms [38], though you will generally lose time as a result. One situation where this can be used is in 3-4 if you are short on eggs. [39]

Baby Mario Tech

• Holding Y as Super Baby Mario will make you run faster. Jumping off of slopes as Super Baby Mario gives you a speed boost. Also, facing the opposite direction you want to move when jumping into a Mario star gives you a speed boost (if you want to go left, face right as you jump into the star). [40]

Ducking Fall

• By pressing down on the dpad when you run off of a ledge, you can duck while you fall. Yoshi's hitbox becomes smaller when he ducks so this would allow you to pass underneath ceilings more quickly. There are a few places where this would be useful but you only have a 2 frame window so it's not really practical for real time speedruns. If you accidentally do the ducking fall and don't realize it quick enough, you may fall to your death, however, it can be canceled by tonguing. [41]

Re-grab

• Similar to a jump mechanic in Super Mario World [42], a re-grab is a low jump that covers almost the same distance as a normal jump. It is done by jumping, letting go of the B button, then pressing it again (re-grabbing) quickly. This can be seen in a handful of places like 2-2 [43], 5-4, 6-1 and 6-2. Also, make sure to not hold B so long that you begin a flutter.

Slow Fall

• Holding B while falling slows down Yoshi’s descent up until reaching the maximum fall speed. This allows you to cover more distance if held after a flutter (or canceling a flutter). This also works when controlling the mole tank or the train. The slow fall can be seen in 5-5 100% after the bonus room with the penguins and allows you to reach the platform below without doing a flutter, [44] as well as when doing the train track clips.

Vehicle Tech

• Holding A, B or Y as the train will make it move faster, though, none of the other vehicles can be sped up in this way. You can also clip off of the tracks if you land directly on the starting tracks while holding left or right+B. Since the tracks confine the train, it can be faster to do this in 2-8 [45] and 5-8. [46]
• Spamming Y to tongue when transforming back to Yoshi from a vehicle saves some time (12 frames; tested in 2-5. It may save more or less depending on the height you drop from) because you skip having to wait to land before you can start accelerating. [47]

Key Door Animation Skip

• Shooting a winged cloud and then entering a key door right after saves 32 frames because the door-unlocking animation gets skipped due to the winged cloud being hit. [48] [49].

Middle-Ring Freeze Skip

• The freeze a middle-ring causes can be skipped if you hit an off-screen winged cloud with an egg (or scroll it off screen right after hitting it) or by recovering Baby Mario at the same time as entering the middle-ring. [50] This can be seen in 4-8 [51], 6-3 [52] and 6-E [53]. A side effect of this is that you cannot pause the game until you leave the current room and if you get hit, you do not lose any stars. If you get hit once you enter another room, you will lose stars like normal.

Goal Ring Entry

• Entering the bottom of the goal ring saves time over hitting the middle or top of the ring. This is due to Baby Mario being caught by the next Yoshi sooner. The difference between the very bottom and the peak height of a jump is 10 frames. Bottom entry. High entry.

Goal Ring Diagram