Neutral Tricks
Oftentimes in NSMBW, if you get a lot of speed, you can preserve it while in midair by letting go of the D-pad, or “going neutral.” Let’s study the different instances where we can take advantage of this!
Vines, (Chains), and Ladders
Vines and chains initially give you a lot of speed when you jump off at a desirable velocity. To keep that speed, let go of the dpad right AFTER you jump off. Make sure you are holding left or right while holding the vine and press 2 to dismount.
Chains only appear in 8-6, a vertical level, so we call this technique “neutral vines” even though vines and chains behave the same.
Make the last neutral vine jump as far as possible without bonking on the bricks to keep 3.9 speed as long as possible (5-1).
Enemy Boosts
If you get speed in certain ways, you can preserve your speed by chaining jumps off of enemies while staying neutral.
Slope boosts
We have learned that running and sliding on slopes is fast.
As seen in 1-1, you can get a boost from a goomba right after the checkpoint. This is done by getting a frame-perfect 2 press to bounce off of the goomba while Mario’s speed is still above 3.0 from running/sliding off the slope. If you get a boost, stay neutral until landing. Chaining bounces off of enemies will maintain that speed. Pressing left or right will deccelerate you back to a max of 3 speed.
This is “goomba boost” in 1-1, and is only faster to attempt if you get DSS
This is frame-perfect because when you jump off of a slope, you immediately revert to 3 speed. Also, as long as you’re not small/mini Mario, sliding will ensure you will not take damage to attemping goomba boost.
The mega goomba boosts in 8-2 are more lenient because of the forgiving hitboxes of mega goombas. Here includes an example of a crouch triple jump!
Propeller Boosts
We know that jumping off of a slope while Mario has over 3 speed will revert his speed to 3.0 as soon as he jumps. However, propeller spinning off of slopes and rolling hills deccelerates Mario at a slower rate, thus carrying the speed slightly longer through the spin. So, if you can manage to bounce off of an enemy while spinning, which is in most cases frame-perfect, and Mario has greater than 3.0 speed, he will stay at that speed until touching the ground.
This goomba boost is frame-perfect and is never recommended for runs.
Penguin Neutral Tech
Learn more here, then come back!
Now for the tech that every speedrunner hates…