Thanks go out to:
The SDA staff, as always - keeping things awesome!

Flip - the previous run, of course, as well as showcasing the run at AGDQ'11, its only marathon appearance
arkarian, kirbymastah - for any% and 100% level demonstrations respectively, which were immensely useful in putting together the coin route
TheOthin, hotdogturtle - started running the game about the same time as me, and put me on the right track for a handful of strats, including Large Fry

I love this game and everything about it. The art style, the music, the controls - I can even handle the Wiimote portions of the controls, since they don't really get in the way - but it doesn't make nearly as good a speedrun as I thought it would when I started. A lot of this is simply down to the fact that your speed is essentially equal to Wario's dashing speed for 95% of the stages, meaning you can't really gain time through better play, but if you miss a jump or whatever, you can lose a bunch all at once.

That's the execution at least, but the routing was actually really interesting, and much of the reason why I persisted with the game as long as I did. You need to collect 501,000 coins to buy all the world maps, but you won't get anywhere near that many without deviating from the straight path for them. Thus began probably the most interesting route planning I've ever undertaken: figuring out exactly which coins were worth the trouble. I knew how I wanted to do this - figure out the marginal time cost of every major source of coins in the game - but as I wasn't very good at the game at the time, I didn't see how I would be able to measure that reliably.

Enter arkarian. His IL videos were an immense help because they filled in half of the puzzle: how fast each screen should be optimally -without any deviations for coins- (or at least close enough for the purposes of my testing). Later on, kirbymastah started doing the same thing for 100%, which involves getting most of the coins in every stage, and while his efforts were less optimal, they definitely helped as well. Of course, I also had Flip's segmented run to use as well, but only if he picked up the coins I was testing for. So I still had to fill in some of the gaps myself, but between those three resources I managed to save a LOT of time. So, thank you!

I also had to do this testing for all five worlds instead of just four: since this game lets you do the worlds in any order, as long as you have the coins for the one you want, it was possible to take advantage of world 5's huge volume of free coins, if I saved up enough in the first few worlds to skip either world 3 or 4. In the end, I did the analysis and it showed buying the worlds in 1-2-3-5-4 order was faster than 1-2-3-4-5 by about 40 seconds.

The planning spreadsheets I made, and the methodology behind them, are in this post: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/wario_land_shake_it_wii_16.html
I updated the spreadsheets slightly as I went along - the most up-to-date version is on page 6 of that thread - but that's the best one to actually understand what I did, since in revising it I simply changed the end-result numbers without changing the assumptions behind them.

None of that relates to this particular run of the game, but I felt it was important to put it out there because it's probably a more important factor than my execution in getting the time as low as it is. After adjusting for the inherent advantage of segmenting a run of this game (being able to skip the cutscenes where each world is revealed), this run is faster than Flip's segmented by over three and a half minutes.

There's actually not a lot to say about the run itself. The mistakes are really obvious (and really jarring) but the highlight of this run is the bosses: almost every boss has changed since Flip's run and they are really fun to execute well!
Rollanratl - staying up on top of the boss for the last two hits saves about 13 seconds. The best way to get these hits is actually to -react- to the forcefield; if you go too early it does a final push just as it's about to disappear and will almost certainly throw you out to the side.
Chortlebot - not a major change here, but doing ground pounds instead of spin jumps onto Chortlebot in the second and third phases is both much safer and slightly faster.
Large Fry - This is the big one, and it's really unintuitive. When you do this fight normally, after the first phase you need two enemies to force Large Fry to drop a bomb, but as long as you haven't damaged him yet he'll drop a bomb after just one. Combined with shaking the bombs to stop their timer and stockpile them, this means you can use the initial volley of four enemies to get four bombs and pull off a quick kill, saving upwards of 20 seconds.
Scumflower - This has always looked a boss prime for improvement and yet I couldn't find too much. All I was able to improve on was the dual scorpion phase: you would expect to have to sacrifice one of the scorpions to the vine, but by standing in front of it and pushing back against it you can save it. Then you have to drop the one you're holding and slam again so that they don't drop to the underside of the platform.

Enjoy the run!

First of all, I want to give thanks to the following people:

mike89 - The person I most actively talked with, and had the most up-to-date strats for me to study off of
arkarian, spleen, flip - Other runners with both full-game runs, segmented runs, and individual level runs that I was able to study and take strategies from
theothin, hotdogturtle - while I haven't talked with them much about this run, they contributed a lot of strategies that helped mike89 put his SDA run together


This is a really underrated and awesome game, with amazing music, great level design and variety, and slick art style. The gameplay itself is pretty simple for speedrunning, as you’re almost always moving at either shoulder bash speed or dash mode speed, but it’s also easy to make mistakes that cost a lot of time.

Timing for each segment goes by SDA timing, which starts upon the first meaningful control and ends upon the last save of the segment. Each time a level is completed, the game saves, then loads, then shows the map and an animation for unlocking new levels (if appropriate), then gives me control again. By segmenting at each save, I skip a load screen, so it's fastest to segment by every completion of a level. It's especially more important to split segment after buying each area map, as it skips the long "You unlocked a new area!" animation. I originally intended to segment by level, rather than by each run of a level, but after some timing, it turns out to be faster to segment at basically every possible save. Heck, it's faster to have each shopping trip be it's own segment but I decided not to because honestly, that's just lame.


100% Definition

The 100% definition for this game goes by the file select screen. Each file has three percentage counters: stages, missions, and treasures.

Stages: Completion of each stage and boss. There are five areas (plus a tutorial level at the start), each with 4 standard stages and a boss. However, some stages have secret maps where you need to pound a certain spot in a stage to grab the map. Each secret map unlocks a secret level. There’s no indication of where these secret maps are until after you beat the game, which then the game tells you about the secret stages, and the corresponding areas sparkle; However, you can still get the maps before beating the game, if you already know where they are. Areas 1-3 have two secret levels each, and Areas 4-5 have three each, totaling to 33 stages (including the tutorial stage).

A returning mechanic from Wario Land 4 is the runback system, where every stage has an end to it, but once you reach it, you need to run back to the start of the stage within a given time limit to actually clear the stage. This is what I personally call the "runback" of a stage, and I will be using this term throughout this commentary.

Missions: Every stage has a set of missions that are marked completed if you complete the stage and satisfy the mission requirements (you can’t do the requirement then quit for it to count!). If you’re playing in widescreen mode (which this run is), the left side of the screen shows several markings, which are the mission indicators. Every stage has some coin requirement mission (beat the stage with at least a certain number of coins) and most stages also have a time requirement mission (finish the runback in a certain amount of time). Then there are a lot of other miscellaneous missions, common ones including “don’t take any damage”, “don’t hit a checkpoint”, and so on. I need to clear many levels twice (and one level three times!) because the missions can be mutually exclusive. Most commonly, the time mission tends to be the main reason for revisits because many levels have things to collect during the runback that are required for other missions. On another note, bosses also have missions, but those aren't unlocked until after the credits, so I need to clear every boss twice: once to beat the game, and a second time for the missions in post-game.

Treasures: Every stage also has three treasure chests that are hidden. I simply have to break these chests and finish the level with them in order for them to count. Sometimes these treasures conflict with missions, which means I have to revisit stages. Similarly to the mission indicators, there are also treasure indicators on the right side of the screen in widescreen mode.


Coins

Coins play a huge role in this run, so understanding coin mechanics & routing is very important. Every level in this speedrun has a runthrough that aims for the coin requirement, which essentially becomes routing of “How can I get just enough coins to meet the mission, but not waste time getting anything more?” After I route that, I then look at how many other missions and treasures can I possibly get/clear during this runthrough of this stage?

501,000g is required to beat the game, as accessing each area requires buying its corresponding map. This being 100%, this requirement becomes trivial just by meeting all the coin requirement missions. In any%, since all 5 area maps are available in the shop from the start, the fastest current route is to do 1-2-3-5-4. However, in 100%, all that matters is the number of pirate shop trips you make, which is a minimum of 3. You visit the shop once to buy area 1, again to buy areas 2+3, then a third time to buy 4+5.  It’s possible to buy them in different orders (such as area 1 then 4 or 5, then buy the rest), but it doesn’t really matter since you can’t buy areas 2-5 all at once with just the gold from area 1. To keep things simple and watchable, I do all the areas in order.

Large bags are an important source of income. In most levels, I have to shake every large bag to meet the coin requirement. Each large bag gives 3000g in area 1, 4000g in area 2, 5000g in area 3, and so on. Small bags work similarly, except they give significantly less gold (750g then 1000g and so on). Because shaking costs so much time, I generally want to avoid getting small bags unless I absolutely have to. Coins fly high and forward when I shake a bag, so I usually want to shake them in either an enclosed spot, or an open area with a slope that I'm going to dash through anyways (the coins will fall downhill the slope). There's usually some leeway with missing some coins from bags, so I don't have to get every single coin.

An obnoxious mechanic with shaking bags is that the type of coins that come out is random. Rarely, when shaking certain large bags, only higher value coins will pop out. While the total of the coins is still the same as usual, there are also significantly fewer coins, meaning it takes about one second less to fully shake the bag. This is rare, and I already reset segments over many obnoxious things, so I don't really bother resetting over not getting these patterns.


Garlic

Garlic is such a significant dumb mechanic that it deserves its entire own section in this commentary. Four levels have the following mission: "Eat 5 heads of garlic". The only way to get a garlic head is to shake an enemy, so the garlic head pops out. This doesn't seem too bad, right? Well, the following is essentially random:

-Whether the enemy drops a garlic at all or not. If not, that's usually a reset. Most bandineros seem to have a reasonably high chance of dropping garlic heads.
-When the garlic head actually pops out. The garlic head can pop out the moment Wario starts shaking the enemy, or it can come out 2-3 seconds after he shakes it.
-The initial trajectory of the garlic head when it pops out. It can go completely straight forward, or straight up, or any angle in between. I have to come up with locations such that it's always possible for me to catch the garlic head afterwards no matter what angle it goes at. Sometimes, getting these setups takes too long so I just have to work with what I can, then reset if a bad angle happens
-The speed of the garlic head each time it bounces. This changes every time it bounces...
-Whether the garlic head is big or small. Usually it's small, but occasionally I'll get a big one, and this affects its speed, trajectory, and hitbox when it bounces, so I always have to improvise.

Thanks to all of these dumb factors, any segment that goes for this mission ends up being a reset-fest of trying to get garlic luck to cooperate with me. These segments tend to be a bit sloppier, but I would rather maintain my sanity and actually finish this run.



Finally, for the segment-specific commentary! For each segment, I list out all the missions I finish for that level in each segment, so if a level is done in two segments, I list out which missions are done in which segment.


Segment 1 – Aboard the Sweet Stuff
Missions:
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Collect 10,000 coins
-Jump off a Bandinero’s head
Attempts: 4
Time: 3:38

This segment is basically the long boring opening cutscene along with Aboard the Sweet Stuff (tutorial level). The coin route is basically the same as the route in an any% RTA speed run except I get an extra large silver coin by hopping off a blue bandinero. This lets me both clear the coin mission, and also the jump-off-bandinero mission. Pretty straightforward and solid segment. I'm glad to get this one out of the way because screw resetting over that cutscene...


Segment 2 – Stonecarving City
Missions:
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
-Collect 25,000 coins
-Jump off 3 Bandineros’ heads in a row
Attempts: 41
Time: 3:00

The first two rooms made this segment kind of a pain to do. Setting up the three red Bandineros to hop off of them, while grabbing the small bags and the treasure efficiently, was something I had to research a bit, and pulling off this strat was pretty annoying. The game only registers the hops if you do full hops off of all 3. I kill the right two Bandineros after the bounces, because they’re in the way of getting the two small bags in position. Even worse, when shaking the first small bag, a lot of silver coins can randomly end up on the higher ledge, making it impossible to meet the coin requirement with this route, leading to a reset.

The next room is also difficult to do quickly, as the jumps are tight and I barely have enough time to make the yellow Bandinero’s hopping cycle after shaking the large bag.

To meet the coin requirement, I need to get every large coin, the gem, every large bag, and 5 small bags. Four of them are in the second room, so it’s best to just get all of them at once. The fifth one I get on the way to the first large bag; there’s another one above but I miss out on a shortcut via hopping off the yellow Bandinero. Thus I can afford to skip 2 small bags and still meet the coin requirement.


Segment 3 – Whoopsy Desert 1
-Collect 30,000 coins
-Destroy all bomb blocks
Attempts: 37
Time: 3:27

This is the first of many stages that require multiple trips. You can’t make the time requirement while blowing up all bomb blocks and getting the last treasure, so this segment is getting every treasure and mission except for the time mission.

For the coin mission, I don’t need to get a single small bag. Grabbing every big bag, gem, and the runback coins are enough to meet this requirement.

This is also the first stage with a secret map, and has led to many annoying resets. Grabbing the map in the same jump that crosses that gap is obnoxiously tight… Too late and I'll make the gap but miss the map. Too early and I'll get the map but not make it past that gap.

During the runback, I need to touch the last bomb block on the far left before entering the pipe, as otherwise I’ll have to wait for all of them to slowly tick away from the right side. I barely finish the bomb block mission as I enter the pipe, so the timing works out perfectly.


Segment 4 - Whoopsy Desert 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:50:00
Attempts: 4
Time: 2:18

This is the second trip of Whoopsy Desert, which completes the remaining time mission. I don't need to worry about coins or treasures anywhere here, so this is basically an isolated any% individual level speed run. Many levels have second trips like this, so expect this to be a recurring trend.

The only thing to note is a minor trick I use at the very end of the runback. Normally, in dash mode, when Wario gets stopped by a wall, he'll faceplant into it and lose a bit of time with the animation. However, if there isn't an entire wall to faceplant off of, he'll just "tink" off of it. This is exactly what I do for the pipe at the very end, where I jump into it at an angle such that the top tip of the pipe lines up with Wario's center, so he doesn't faceplant. I'll be doing this trick throughout other segments as well, and it's easy to notice so I won't be pointing this out much anymore.


Segment 5 - Disturbing Tomb 1
-Finish before the clock hits 3:00:00
-Collect 36,000 coins
Attempts: 211
Time: 4:12

This level was complete hell. There are a ton of tight jumps to make, and the room with the red switch is seemingly random with the bandinero's position. To add on to that, this segment is also a longer segment in terms of actual gameplay. This has a one-second mistake with bashing into a wall, but this is the best segment I've been able to get.

With the first large bag, I intentionally take damage on the mummy, so I can jump through it to get the coins. Without the invincibility from taking damage, Wario would bonk off of its belly instead.

A lot of people think the runback is the hard part, but it's honestly the easiest part of the level. Something not as obvious is that you can charge the cannon by holding 2, wait until you want to fire, then release to fire immediately. This lets you time the cannon shots without having to take the timing of the start-up into account. With a bit of practice, the runback becomes trivial.


Segment 6 - Disturbing Tomb 2
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Destroy all bomb blocks
-Eat 5 heads of garlic
Attempts: 102
Time: 3:29

This level is still complete hell, for opposite reasons - luck. I've never gotten all three red bandineros at the start to all give me garlic heads. It seems like the first bandinero very rarely gives a garlic head, but the second and third both give me one if I shake the first bandinero. Then the scorpion and the two cannon enemies all must give me a garlic head, otherwise I reset.

During the runback, I run back and forth once to wait for all the bomb blocks to blow up. If I keep going left without waiting, then they won't blow up and I won't finish the bomb block mission.


Segment 7 - Foulwater Falls 1
-Finish before the clock hits 1:45:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 30,000 coins
-Beat the stage without falling into the water
Attempts: 44
Time: 4:20

This level requires two trips because getting one of the treasures requires falling into the water. Furthermore, the last treasure requires me to break the runback, so I cannot clear both the time mission and this treasure in the same trip. So I split this level into two trips: one for the missions, and one for the treasures, to keep it segregated. The coin requirement allows me to skip just one small bag; I have to get all other small and big bags (and giant coins and the gem) to meet the coin requirement.

The first big room has a blue bandinero that's initially in the way when trying to get up to the two small bags. I kill the three red bandineros since they get in the way, and it sets the timing up perfectly such that I can jump off the rope and barely jump under the blue bandinero. Finding a spot to shake the two small bags quickly was really rough, I can't really think of anything better than what I came up with. There's an incline at the end of the room that most of the coins will fall down from, so I usually get ~1450ish out of 1500 coins from those two small bags.

The only real difficult part of this segment is in the room with three ropes, after I shake the large bag in the upper-right corner. I wait a tiny bit before going for a really tight jump because after I jump off a rope, it oscillates left and right; I need to jump such that it's on the right cycle. If it's on the left cycle, I won't make the jump.


Segment 8 - Foulwater Falls 2
Attempts: 27
Time: 4:04

As mentioned above, this visit aims to clear this level with just collecting the 3 treasures. The only difficult part is the first treasure, and making sure the blue bandinero I hop on lands on the platform to the right so I minimize time spent reclimbing them. Pretty straightforward otherwise.


Segment 9 - Gurgle Gulch 1
-Finish before the clock hits 1:45:00
-Collect 30,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Beat the stage without using the checkpoint
Attempts: 31
Time: 5:02

This level requires two trips, primarily because of the "don't get large silver coins" mission. I can't meet the coin requirement if I go for this mission, so the second trip will be aiming to do that and the "don't touch any scarracudas" mission. I also get all three treasures in this trip.

Two large bags are in really inconvenient spots, and it takes a long time to shake them in spots to guarantee I can get all coins. So there's a chunk of luck involved to get the coins I need from shaking these bags without moving them into those spots.

Also, I hit the submerged bombs during the runback for fun, because why not. Getting hit by the last set saves a bit of time though, so I'm in better position to go left more quickly after the water drains.


Segment 10 - Gurgle Gulch 2
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Don't take any large silver coins
-Don't touch any Scarracudas
Attempts: 59
Time: 3:17

Trip 2, main purpose being don't take any large silver coins. The main level is mostly pretty straightforward, without dealing with a lot of the annoying stuff from trip 1. The hard part this time is the runback, performing all the jumps to not touch any Scarracudas AND to not grab the following rope, as well as timing the skid to not touch a large silver coin before a ladder. The runback was the main reset point.

I once lost an attempt to the very last bandinero by bumping into it :(


Segment 11 - Run-Down Pyramid
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 36,000 coins
-Don't break any Unibuckets
Attempts: 4
Time: 5:03

This took me a surprisingly few attempts, despite a few difficult/annoying parts. This level can be cleared in 1 trip. The coin requirement is a little tight, but I didn't lose any attempts to shaking-bags-luck in this level, so it worked out. Notable coins I skip are the first small bag, and a large gold coin in the second treasure room.

The Unibuckets are a bit obnoxious to deal with, not because of the motion controls (they work really well, surprisingly), but because of the physics. When you jump in a Unibucket, you move at exactly the horizontal speed you were moving at when you initiated the jump, and you lose all control of the Unibucket. This means that I have to slow down before making certain jumps or else I'm guaranteed to overshoot them. Furthermore, if I exit a Unibucket in the air, Wario will always do a full jump out of it, which I don't want most of the time, so I usually exit the Unibucket when it's grounded.

In the room with the gem, I have to wait on a blue bandinero cycle before jumping across a gap. Normally, in an any% run, I wouldn't really have to worry about it and I can use a strat to take damage on the spikes, but there's a no-damage mission in this level so I can't do that.


Segment 12 - Rollanratl
Attempts: 7
Time: 2:39

The first boss in the game, and the easiest. The first attack is always the same, and I can squeeze in a second hit as he ascends from his first attack. His second attack is a long sequence of falling pillars that I just wait around for until a blue pillar falls, then hit him from it. After this, I want to stay directly below him, as he'll want to smash the ground where I am; if I'm not directly below him, he'll waste time moving towards my current position.

After the 4th hit, I can get on top of his head before the start of phase 2, and avoid climbing the platforms to reach his head. After the 5th hit, a well-timed jump keeps me on his head instead of being pushed off, and allows me to finish off the boss quickly.

Fun Fact: I lost 3 attempts to menuing to buy world maps 2+3...


Segment 13 - Just Plains 1
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 42,000 coins
Attempts: 71
Time: 2:34

This level requires two trips, because the runback has two routes, each with a treasure. The top route also has a lot of coins that are required for the coin missions (and thus make it impossible to meet the time mission if I get all of these). Thus, in the first trip, I go for the coin mission and take the top route, also getting two treasures. The second trip will be clearing the stage as quickly as possible and taking the bottom runback route to get the last treasure and to clear the time mission.

The coin requirement is insanely tight for this strat I came up with. Every bronze coin matters, and I barely meet the requirement by 40g. The most annoying room is the treasure room and I do my best to get as many coins as possible. I missed a small silver, but I got a lot more of the lower bronze ones, so that made up for it. Also, before you ask, no, you cannot make it to the treasure room's pipe by bouncing off a red bandinero.

The pole mechanics are pretty straightforward. The moment the game senses you shake your wiimote and Wario starts spinning, you can flip immediately, and Wario will always flip at the same height. This means I can just shake my wiimote and press 2 almost immediately after to jump almost instantly off a pole. On the other hand, to move on a pole or do a normal jump (not flip) off a pole, I have to wait for Wario to stop spinning. These pole mechanics are what led to the larger attempt counter, despite this level being a simpler level, because often times I don't shake the wiimote hard enough and the game doesn't register that as a flip.


Segment 14 - Just Plains 2
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
Attempts: 7
Time: 1:35

This is likely the shortest segment in the run. This trip simply goes to the end of the level as quickly as possible, then takes the bottom runback path for the time mission and the last treasure. Nothing much to say here, it's very simple.


Segment 15 - Wavy Waters 1
-Collect 35,000 coins
-Collect 10 silver coins in a row
-Don't break your Subwarine
Attempts: 1
Time: 4:32

Autoscroller. This level requires two trips, because the level splits into two paths twice, and I can only take one path. Both splits have a path with a lot of coins (one with a gem), and the other path with a treasure, so I can't get all 3 treasures and meet the coin requirement in the same trip. I go for the three missions in this first trip (take top then bottom), and the three treasures in the second trip.

When killing enemies for coins, I want to prioritize the submarines, since they each give 300g. The octopus thingies and red bombs give 50g each, so I prioritize killing those next. Everything else gives 10g so I go for them if there isn't anything better (which is usually the case).

For the other two missions, collect 10 silver coins in a row means collect 10 large silvers in a row, or collect 10 small silvers. If you mix the two up, it won't count. That being said, there aren't any large silvers in this mission, so all that really matter is getting 10 small silvers. As for the "Don't break your Subwarine" mission, I can take as much damage as I want as long as I don't lose half my health; that's when it breaks and I fail the mission.

Time-wise, the only thing that matters is the menuing and the boss fight, which is pretty straightforward as long as I kill the boss before its red button reaches the bottom. The key is to stay up close to the boss; the game lets you fire torpedoes as quickly as you can mash, but you can only have 3 on the screen at a time, so by staying close to a wall, you can basically rapid-fire them.


Segment 16 - Wavy Waters 2
Attempts: 1
Time: 4:32

Second trip of this autoscroller, this time getting all three treasures. The first treasure is free, the second and third I get by taking the bottom then top path splits. I get some coins here and there because why not, it's an autoscroller.


Segment 17 - Mt. Lava Lava
-Finish before the clock hits 1:35:00
-Collect 36,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Destroy all bomb blocks
Attempts: 41
Time: 3:37

This level is 100% cleared in one trip. The coin requirement is very lenient, but I still need to get the big bag in the first room or else I can't meet it (I can skip all the large silver coins around it). The majority of my coins come from the lower route in the runback, which fortunately is quick enough to meet the time mission as well, even with getting the third treasure and the secret map.

Originally, with the golden enemy, I shook it in its alcove and killed it there, then I went to the ground floor and ground smashed to lower both platforms. Howevever, mike89 pointed out that it'd be faster to just jump from platform to platform. I looked into this and they never really line up properly to actually jump across, but I came up with a strat to snipe the bomb block with a red bandinero, while keeping the second platform off screen so it doesn't lower. This means I don't have to wait on the ground smash cooldown, and I can lower the first platform as quickly as possible. This also lines up the cycle for the two platforms to be close together just after I grab the golden enemy.

Note the trick I use to avoid a faceplant at the end of the runback, before entering the cannon, by jumping into the top side of the cannon to stop Wario's dash mode.


Segment 18 - Sneak Peak
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 40,000 coins
-Don't get crushed by any boulders
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Beat the stage without using the checkpoint
-Hop off boulders 5 times in a row
Attempts: 177
Time: 4:39

This is the first secret level in the run that can be cleared in one trip, which is really neat but also made this segment complete hell. With the coin route I laid out, I can get a maximum of 40,030g. That means if a single silver coin goes out of place from a bag shake, I can't make the coin requirement, and this was a common occurrence with the last large bag during the runback, which was very obnoxious to reset over.

The room with the golden enemy was really annoying to figure out a strategy for, but I think what I came up with works out pretty well. There's a lot of variations that can happen just due to the entropy of all the platforms, and the three enemies before the exiting pipe. This was a very common reset point as well.

I wait a bit at the checkpoint before grabbing the cage, so the boulder cycles line up. Too early, and the falling large boulder near the exit will grab me. Too late, I waste time. My visual cue is generally to grab the cage before the small boulder rolls off the above ledge.

Killing the volcano enemy during the runback was also a common reset point; if I jump/pound too early, I miss. Too late, I get hit. The timing to kill it before it attacks is really tight.


Segment 19 - Lowdown Depths 1
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 42,000 coins
-Break all stone blocks
Attempts: 40
Time: 3:06

This level is the only level in the game that requires 3 trips to clear! Meeting the time and coin requirement is impossible on the same trip. Both missions also require using dasherators, so obviously I can't do the "don't use a dasherator "mission on the same trip as either of these missions either. This trip focuses on the coin mission, while destroying all the stone blocks as well, since most of them are conveniently on the path to a lot of coins. I also get all three treasures in this trip.

The coin route I laid out is insanely tight, which is evident in that I get exactly 42,000 coins by the end :P This is because I came up with the dumb idea to skip a large silver coin, saving ~0.5 seconds. I had to get creative with how to get as many small silver coins as possible in the two big platform room, and this is what I came up with. Once I had a more reliable strat, this wasn't too bad to grind out.


Segment 20 - Lowdown Depths 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:55:00
Attempts: 2
Time: 2:10

The only mission in this trip is the time mission, so this is essentially a pure individual level speed run. This was pretty straightforward, aside from the initial dash after opening the prison.


Segment 21 - Lowdown Depths 3
-Don't use any Max Fastosity Dasherators
-Defeat the golden enemy
Attempts: 24
Time: 2:32

This is the last trip for this level, which focuses on clearing it without using any Dasherators at all. This level was also pretty straightforward, the only tricky parts are navigating a few rooms that have yellow hopping bandineros. I suspect the entire reason the developers made this mission is for a very tight jump in the room with rows of bronze coins, but with a bit of practice it's not hard at all (I never lost an attempt to that jump).

I also kill the golden enemy in this trip, since it requires me to not be in dash mode in order to toss an enemy at it.


Segment 22 - Savannah Valley
-Finish before the clock hits 2:40:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 46,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Break all stone blocks
Attempts: 60
Time: 5:47

This stage can be cleared in one trip 100%! Probably one of my favorite songs in the game here.

In terms of coin routing, I originally got all 15 small gold coins in the crawling section, which is 1500g. However, it was a lot slower than I realized, and I also overshot the 46000g requirement by ~300-400 regularly. I decided on getting two more large silver coins: an extra one in the first large pole maze, and one more at the very end of the runback, which costs ~2 seconds. However, this meant that I had to be really stingy with my bag luck, so I move Wario in positions to make sure that he gets as much gold as possible from the large bags.

The first big pole maze has a golden enemy that's timed; I grab a few extra silver coins before knocking him down, since they're basically free.

For the room with the large moving platform, I wait intentionally before going for the treasure. If I grab the treasure too early, the platform will be too high for me to reach and I'll fall down and not make it across.

The runback has some screen manipulation strats that aren't very obvious. The room with the blue bandineros, in particular, took a while for me to work out a strat for. I delay moving the screen to the first blue bandinero as late as possible; otherwise he'll notice me earlier, be high, and zap me. The second blue bandinero, I move the screen as early as possible so his float cycle starts earlier; this means he'll be on a more appropriate height of the float cycle and notice me later, so I won't get zapped.


Segment 23 - Hot Roderick
Attempts: 81
Time: 2:14

This boss needs to go to hell. This is the only boss that actually has a luck factor. The trajectory of every object he throws at you is random. When you knock back the third object back at him for each round, he'll already have tossed a fourth object; if that fourth object happens to be close to him, you're going to get hit and lose significant time, and there isn't much you can do about it.

This was insanely obnoxious because I had ~70 attempts that failed to get a single run past the first round without an extra wrench hitting me. Fortunately, the last wheel snipe was really fast in the last round, so this segment went pretty well.

After you destroy his car, the trajectory of all the debris is random too; you can tilt the wiimote forward, mash 1, and you can still get hit by like 10 things and get combo'd to zero hearts without being able to do anything about it (it's happened to me before).

TL;DR This boss needs to go to hell.


Segment 24 - Wreck Train 1
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 50,000 coins
Attempts: 55
Time: 3:36

Not too bad of a segment. This level requires two trips, because finishing both the time and coin requirements in the same trip is impossible thanks to a ton of coins being during the runback. I get all three treasures, along with all missions besides the time mission, in this first trip.

There's a room with a lot of flame pillars that are faster to damage boost through, but it's faster to do that in the second trip. By waiting on the flame cycles, I basically get "free" gold coins. There isn't much else to say about this segment otherwise, except that the music is really epic.


Segment 25 - Wreck Train 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:55:00
Attempts: 23
Time: 2:27

Easy. Basically just a pure any% individual level speed run, just to finish the time mission.


Segment 26 - Stonetooth Cave 1
-Collect 50,000 coins
-Don't touch any fossils
Attempts: 82
Time: 4:23

This level requires two trips. Clearing the time mission requires a runback route that plows through fossils, and also misses out on a gem. This trip finishes the coin mission and don't touch fossils mission, along with all 3 treasures. This was a pretty tough segment, with a lot of tilt control aiming, and a very tight coin requirement.

In the first room with the fossils, I intentionally wait to toss the bandinero at the switch. The reason is, if I change the blue conveyor belt direction too soon, a fossil will drop in between two others and I won't be able to properly jump over them. By waiting for the proper timing of the cycle, that dropped fossil will fall on the closest fossil and break, so I can just jump immediately.

There're a few minor strats that save a bit of time by taking damage while going for the first treasure, though it's more for buffering Wario to stand up on the earliest possible frame. When crawling in the spiky crawlspace, I turn them stop crawling so Wario gets knocked forward and retains invincibility. I also take damage by hitting a bomb for the last gem during the runback, which is roughly a third of a second faster than pounding the ground and waiting for the bomb to blow up.

The coin route is really interesting, and also stupidly tight, as I can't miss a single coin. The majority of coins I collect are during the runback, partly because I go from right to left in the runback, which is when it's faster to get those coins (as opposed to on the way to the checkpoint, when I'm going from left to right).


Segment 27 - Stonetooth Cave 2
-Finish the clock before it hits 1:55:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
Attempts: 12
Time: 2:01

Basically another run of a level that's a pure any% individual level speedrun. Note that I time my runback jumps such that I spend as much time as possible on leftward conveyor belts (and as little time as possible on the rightward ones). The only tough part was aiming at the first blue conveyor belt switch quickly; otherwise this was easy.


Segment 28 - Its-All Mine
-Finish before the clock hits 1:35:00
-Collect 50,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Defeat 3 enemies at once with a ball
Attempts: 262
Time: 4:51

That attempt count is very high for a very dumb reason. The ball that I pound to get out of the pit is completely random; most of the time, it will bounce one level up, but not all the way to where Wario is. Other times, it will reach Wario. So about 1 out of ~20-30 attempts got past this ball bounce (meaning, I had around 10ish attempts get past that in the first place).

The other annoying part of this level is the last mission. With the second ball, I have a pretty consistent and easy setup, where I drop the cannon enemy when the fork bandinero is on screen, then move left quickly so the fork bandinero is off screen. If he notices me, he'll charge left and kill the red bandinero. Then when I pick up the ball, I can push the other two enemies towards the fork bandinero, who is then against the right wall, and not moving, so he won't attack. This is way easier, faster, and more reliable than the original strat I had, which was to place 3 enemies in a little pit to the left of the ball then drop the ball, which is basically random.


Segment 29 - Glittertown 1
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 48,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Detonate 2 bombs simultaneously
Attempts: 154
Time: 4:49

I can't clear both the time and coin mission in the same trip, as I need to hit the slot machine to get extra coins; I do all other missions, get treasures 2 & 3, and the secret map. I made a decision to move the first treasure of this stage to the second trip, which doesn't waste time, and boy am I glad I did. This segment turned out to be terrible to do, with lots of cycles to make and tons of obnoxious slots. The first slot machine was one of the major reset points, as all the cycles for the bombs & ball I need are stupidly tight.

The slot machine during the runback is also a lot harder to nail than it looks. This was the point where I found out that the cooldown meter for Wario's ground slam attack slows down whenever Wario is doing anything besides standing still; I initially thought it was random because the slot always hit a different spot when I slammed it, but that was because I was instinctively varying how much Wario was shoulder bashing to get coins. So I always have to be conscious to shoulder bash as little as possible to get all the coins I need, and make sure I can hit the next coin cycle.


Segment 30 - Glittertown 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:50:00
Attempts: 27
Time: 2:43

This is basically an individual level speed run; the only thing I get is the first treasure. The maneuver I do around the blue bandinero is more difficult than it looks. If I turn too early, I won't fall; if I turn too late, I'll bounce off of the bandinero and not fall anyways. Thankfully the slot cycles are a lot more lenient, hence the significantly lower attempt count.


Segment 31 - Neon City 1
-Collect 70,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Detonate 3 bombs simultaneously
Attempts: 60
Time: 3:56

Not too bad of a segment, despite having slots. This level has a slot machine in the runback that I'm required to go to, which gives a whooping 10,000g per hit; you can't meet the coin requirement without it (meaning I can't meet both the time and coin requirements in the same trip). Thus, it's best to skip every source of coins and get all of my coins from that slot machine. There are two exceptions:

1. I get 5000g from the gold enemy. I'm required to kill it, so the gold from this enemy is worth getting anyways.
2. I get 5000g from one large bag by the secret map. I need to stop by here anyways for the secret map, and the gold from the gold enemy only helps if it cuts out a slot cycle. This adds up to 10,000g from these two sources, cutting out one round of slots.

Detonating 3 bombs simultaneously doesn't really matter when I do that mission, so I just do it here since it's easy. And boy, am I glad I got this out of the way.


Segment 32 - Neon City 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:40:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Eat 5 heads of garlic
Attempts: 804
Time: 3:36

Say hello to the worst segment in the game! Garlic luck makes a return and made this segment complete hell to do. The reason I delay some of the treasures to this trip is because I essentially get "free setups" to shake enemies.

The first slot room was a major reset point. The garlic head from both the bandinero and the cannon enemy is so random that the timing of the slot ends up being different every single attempt.

Of course, I end up resetting if certain enemies don't give garlic. In the end, this was the best attempt I was able to finish; I shook an extra enemy which was a product of bad luck, but for my sanity's sake I decided to keep this horrible segment.


Segment 33 - Derailed Express 1
-Finish before the clock hits 1:20:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 50,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
Attempts: 30
Time: 4:12

This level requires two trips, because two missions are completely mutually exclusive: Defeat the golden enemy, and Don't defeat any enemies. Two of the three treasures in this level also require me to throw a bandinero at a tunnel (thus killing it), so I decided to get all three treasures in this segment.

I was expecting the coin requirement of this level to be horrible, but it turned out to not be too bad. The wind physics weren't as obnoxious as I expected; they're only a big factor in the room with the golden enemy. I found a reliable setup to shake both the gold enemy and the big bag, and I'm pretty pleased with the strat I came up with there.

The other thing to note are the flamethrower cycles. I can skip a cycle in the room with the spike pits without taking damage with a well-timed early jump. It's pretty self-explanatory.


Segment 34 - Derailed Express 2
-Don't defeat any enemies
-Jump off 5 Bandineros' heads in a row
-Eat 5 heads of garlic
Attempts: 260
Time: 3:17

Let me first say that this segment is one of the worst segments in the game, up there with Neon City and Disturbing Tomb. Yet another garlic head mission. Fortunately most of the enemies I shake aren't really out of the way, and they're all bandineros so they usually give garlic.

The really obnoxious part of this level is the bouncing mission. There's only one spot where you can bounce on 5 bandineros in a row, and that's during the runback. There isn't really a consistent way to do this. I wait a bit after shoving the stunned yellow bandineros, so they get unstunned; jumping on a stunned bandinero doesn't count. There's basically a random chance you'll bounce off of two bandineros simultaneously; that counts as one bounce. Even worse, when you bounce off of a bandinero, the direction it moves in is seemingly random. TL;DR there is no consistent way to do this.

Another difficult part of the level is making a flamethrower cycle. Since I can take damage on this trip, I dive into the spike pit and abuse invincibility frames to basically skip all cycles after that.


Segment 35 - Chortlebot
Attempts: 32
Time: 2:26

There was a lot of development with strategies for this boss. It turns out that you can just ground pound him instead of having to slam into him while spinning; this makes getting double hits faster and way easier, since you don't go flying off of him with each hit. I believe hotdogturtle came up with this idea, though I could be remembering wrong.

I intentionally don't go for the double hit on the first round. This boss takes 7 hits to kill, and he activates a flamethrower attack at 3 hp left. If I go for the double hit immediately, he'll hit 3hp then 1hp meaning I would need to deal with his annoying flamethrower attack twice. By hitting him only once, I bring him down to 6hp then 4hp then 2hp, so he'll only initiate his flamethrower attack once.

The hits from below to stun him are surprisingly lenient. I realized, after some experimentation, that Wario can land the "stun hits" while the orbs are still spinning. The orbs I go in between sort of "shove" Wario in between them, so it's not difficult at all to land these hits, and gives me a lot of leniency in time before he moves after his spikes attack. The original strategy was to wait until he initiates the stun attack, then hit him 3-4 times to stun him, but now I can land 2 hits before the stun attack, speeding this fight up and making it easier.

The difficult hit to go for is the stunning hit for the last round; I hit him at the correct spot on the side so Wario bounces to the side (rather than up) and grabs a pole immediately. Wario HAS to be on the left side of the upper-right pole. This puts Wario in a good position to get two spinning hits on Chortlebot and finish him just as he lands from being stunned. If Wario is too far right, he'll be too far to land a double hit. Too far left, he'll land on the bottom pole and I can't hit the boss as quickly.

Fun fact: the majority of my resets were from poor menuing before and after the fight...


Segment 36 - Ropey Jungle
-Finish before the clock hits 1:45:00
-Collect 50,000 coins
-Don't defeat any enemies
Attempts: 55
Time: 3:33

Nice relaxing level that's clearable in one trip. If there are some weird movements I do that seem slow, remember that defeating no enemies is a mission. That being said, I'm pretty pleased with the strategies I came up here, as I lose very minimal time to get around enemies in the way. It also goes to show how well-designed this level is; it's very clear that the developers put enemies in spots that are possible to avoid during runback while maintaining dashmode, without having to turn or slow down.

In the last room with the cage, there are two enemies on the initial stretch of land. They're always going to be on the right side and below the flowers when I begin the runback, so I don't need to move them. There's a single Bandinero just before the checkpoint that WILL be in the way; I want to bump him off. I need him to get on camera as soon as possible so he starts moving left as soon as possible. If I don't, I won't bump him off by just touching him once, which wastes time.

For the first bag, it would be a tiny bit faster to shake it right. I didn't really realize this until a few segments later, but it isn't really worth going back to retry this, especially since some coins would start flying over Wario and I wouldn't want to go left in this scenario.

Originally, I grabbed another small bag and a large silver coin that takes forever to get if you're avoiding killing any enemies. Then I looked into getting the two large gold coins during the runback and tried to see if it was viable to get them while still maintaining dash mode. It turns out, after getting the two above large silver coins, if I turn right as early as possible, I can barely fall to the lower level without falling all the way down. This was the primary reset point, as this is really tight to make. But thanks to this, I'm able to save a lot of time over getting other significantly slower coin sources.


Segment 37 - Windbreak Bay 1
-Collect 30,000 coins
-Don't break your Subwarine
Attempts: 13
Time: 4:37

This is the second of the three autoscrolling subwarine levels, and as expected, this requires 2 trips to 100%. The second treasure is on a bottom branching path, whereas the corresponding upper path leads to several large gold coins. The third treasure is on a center path near the end, while a gem lies on the corresponding bottom path. Thus, I can't meet the gold requirement while getting these two treasures.

The first treasure is on the top path of the first path split, but there isn't anything significant on the bottom path so I get it this trip. I also don't bother with the "Collect 10 gold coins in a row" mission because I'm lazy and a gem actually gets in the way of doing this conveniently.

This being an autoscroller, I recommend watching just the boss. I had to do a lot of experimentation with this fight to find out the fastest way to defeat it, and after doing this autoscroller several times and getting sick of it (but not the amazing music), what you see is what I've figured out. This boss is easily the worst of the subwarine bosses, because there are three moving targets AND several currents. It makes me wonder why this isn't the boss of Creep Blue Sea in Area 5, seeing as the targets are completely stationary there...


Segment 38 - Windbreak Bay 2
-Collect 10 gold coins in a row
Attempts: 2
Time: 4:37

Second trip to get the second and third treasures, along with the "Get 10 gold coins in a row" mission. Note that, again, I need to get 10 small gold coins in a row; getting a big in the middle will break that chain. The mission should technically be cleared if I get 10 large gold coins in a row too but good luck with that.

Again, I recommend just watching the boss, which is the same strat implemented in the previous segment.


Segment 39 - Airytale Castle
-Finish before the clock hits 2:50:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 55,000 coins
-Don't break any Rocket Buckets
-Defeat the golden enemy
Attempts: 191
Time: 4:52

This level gave me a lot more pain that I expected, because of two main things: 1. Optimizing getting coins in a Rocket Bucket is really annoying, and 2. I found strategies in one of the larger rooms to make early platform cycles that are stupidly tight.

The coin route works out where I can skip every small bag in the level, which is really nice. Unfortunately, this makes the coin requirement very tight too, and there were many resets with coins flying out of reach when shaking larger bags. It's why I intentionally destroy a small bag by the secret map, to help give me a tiny buffer with that small silver coin. This doesn't waste time, as I have just enough time to make a platform cycle again.

There's a pretty significant mistake I made in this segment. The second time I ride a rocket bucket, where I grab several silver coins, I get stuck on a corner for about a second because I didn't aim the rocket bucket at a downward angle to get around it. I lose about a second due to this mistake. It would be much faster and easier to just outright slam the bucket into the spikes instead of actually jumping out, but unfortunately one of the missions is to never break any...

There's also a neat strategy I came up with in the room with the third treasure and some conveyer belts. When riding a horizontal platform, I carry a bandinero and toss it upward. There's a cannon enemy on a platform above that shoots a spike ball, making it very inconvenient for me to get up there. My initial strat was to stun it with a ground pound, but sniping it from below with a bandinero is both faster and cooler.

The runback is pretty self-explanatory. One thing to note is that I leave the first treasure for the runback; the alternative is to drop the rucket bucket down there on my first trip after hitting the red switch, get the treasure, then ride the bucket up. I'm very thankful that it's faster to get this treasure during runback, as it's also way way easier. It seems obvious, but it never really occurred to me until halfway through doing attempts... I guess these things sometimes just slip by.


Segment 40 - Launchpad Labyrinth
-Finish before the clock hits 6:00:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 50,000 coins
-Collect 10 gold coins in a row
-Don't break any Rocket Buckets
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Break all stone blocks
Attempts: 96
Time: 4:21

This was probably my favorite segment to do in this entire run. The music is awesome (I tap to it periodically...), the 100% route is very satisfying, there's a few cool tricks I do here, and it's very challenging (in a fun way). I'll go through this room by room, after the checkpoint, since there's a lot to talk about.

Room 1: This is the only convenient room to get 10 gold coins in a row, if not the only room. After this ring of gold coins, I wait part of a cycle to get the upper large gold coin. While I need to go around 1/4 of the cycle again, this puts me in a position to be near the ceiling so I can go for the first treasure quickly, while getting 1000g. I make sure to jump out of the bucket such that Wario jumps to the top of the ladder, rather than into the ceiling.

Room 2: I can barely skip a cycle at the very start by slamming the bucket into the left wall as quickly as I can, then ascending. I can't skip the second spike bar cycle, but I have just enough time to get a few silvers and the two large gold coins for the next cycle. The following two large golds do cost time to get, but not that much, especially the right one.

Room 3: Here's a cool skip I do here. Just before the first large gold coin, I wait near the upper-left part of the loop. This is because I need to give myself a lot of rightward momentum while getting the gold coin, then exit the bucket just before hitting the spike bar. Exiting the bucket retracts all spike bars, and lets me fall to the bottom-right area. I can easily do this with less rightward momentum, but without enough momentum, I'll have to wait another cycle for the bottom-right spike bars. I also can't do the initial right-boost too late, or else the bottom-right spike bars will be out of cycle and I need to wait a few seconds. From here, it's just a matter of going straight up, then a bit right so the bucket lands on the ledge and not onto some of the wall spikes.

Room 4: Boring room. I can't really skip any cycles, so I just go up as fast as I can while getting the coins in the way. There's a minor mistake I make at the end here by exiting the bucket too late.

Room 5: Easily the coolest and funnest room to do quickly, but also the most dangerous, since basically every wall and floor and ceiling has spikes. I need to time when I aim the boosters diagonally down vs up, and adjust in time to control my momentum through the spike paths. I get the gem first, then go I around to the final treasure. I get the three gold coins below since I need them; this was probably the hardest part of the room, because I need to make sure the bucket isn't moving horizontally so I don't hit a spike. After getting the gold coins, I need to go up quickly but not hit the ceiling; otherwise exiting the bucket for the final treasure will be very slow.

Room 6: I immediately get two gold coins then squish the gold enemy. This is a really difficult spot to optimize, as the gold enemy tends to slide off the bucket and not get squished. I also have to make sure I don't move up too quickly; otherwise I'll be too high to make the upper spike bar cycle (which I barely make here). From here, it's just a matter of going left through the spikes and getting coins on the way.

Room 7: Minor mistake here where I bump off the large bag, in my excitement. Also, this is the only room with stone blocks; note that the 6 small stone blocks (that I destroyed before the checkpoint) are blocked off during runback, so you have to destroy them before it.


Segment 41 - Soggybog River 1
-Finish before the clock hits 1:45:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 55,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
Attempts: 103
Time: 4:50

This stage would be clearable in 1 trip if it weren't for that darn "Don't fall in water" mission. Two treasures require falling into the water to get, so it's impossible to 1 trip this. So the first trip of this level is essentially doing everything besides that mission, and the second trip of this level is an any% individual level speedrun (optimal strats don't fall in water). I also get the secret map in this trip.

There are two difficult spots to note. One, when I have to hop across logs in the room with the checkpoint, I can barely make it to the rope using only two logs. This is very tight and led to many resets. The other is during the runback, in the room with the row of flowers, I jump to the top flower to get the gem. This is the fastest way to get the gem. Jumping to the flower is really tight though; too early, and I bump my head on the ceiling and won't make it. Too late, and I'll land on the flower, but I can't make it to the gem when doing a turn-jump. Alternatives to getting this gem involve running far left then jumping on the row of flowers to get to the top, which is slower (but way easier).


Segment 42 - Soggybog River 2
-Beat the stage without falling into the water
Attempts: 2
Time: 2:23

Not much to note here. Most things in this level are also in the first trip. The only hard part is, again, reaching the rope near the end using only 2 logs instead of 3.


Segment 43 - Riverbloat Rapids 1
-Collect 63,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Feed 5 enemies to Venus Guytraps
-Shake a Turkeyjerk
Attempts: 328
Time: 6:38

This is easily the longest segment in the game, in terms of actual gameplay. There's also a lot of difficult stuff in this level, leading to this high attempt count. This level also requires two trips, only because of that darn "Don't fall in water" mission again! One treasure and a gem require falling in water to get. There are no minor sources of coins either, so the coin route I came up with matches perfectly with the 63000g requirement. I can't miss any coins.

You generally want to be careful when shaking Turkeyjerks. You CAN kill them with a shoulder bash after they're defeathered, so you just want to follow them by walking/crawling instead. The mission to shake a turkeyjerk is trivial, as I'm required to shake them to get about a third of coins anyways.

The room with the first big bag is the best spot for feeding 4 enemies to the flowers. This is because the bag requires me to go all the way to the left side of the screen, and I want to shake the bag left (shaking it right puts some coins on flowers, which makes me fail the coin mission). So I can leave the screen and come back from the left side to refresh the enemies in this room.

The room with the first dasherator was interesting to route out. After I get the gem below, before I take the dasherator again, I pound the ground to stun the armored bandinero above. If I don't do this, he'll shoot a spike ball that will get in the way of me reaching the upper level. There's no way around this besides waiting a very long time. In this same room, I also have barely enough space to land before hitting the gold enemy then jumping over it so I don't outright kill it without shaking it.

In the room with the double flames, after breaking the first flame block, I have to stun another armored bandinero; otherwise he'll be close to the right side of the screen and snipe me while going for the upper flame block. I do an interesting maneuver to stun it. I first jump off the flower to get him on camera so the game begins to have him move. Then I pound, then jump again. This puts him on screen in the pound duration, so he's stunned; if I don't jump after pounding, he won't be stunned. I need to wait a big for the flower to reset as a result. When I reach the upper level, he'll be unstunned, but he'll also be closer to the left side of the platform, so I'll kill it before it shoots. This looks very slow; unfortunately I couldn't find any faster way to do this.

The runback is more complicated than it looks. There are two turnaround maneuvers I do. The first one has very specific timing. If I do it too early, I'll be turning on the violet flower for too long and it'll eat me. If I do it too late, the armored bandinero will shoot me. For the second one, I just have to turn as late as possible; if I turn too early, then I'll land on the water below instead of actual land. I also get the first treasure during the runback because it's faster and doesn't require me to cycle around to the right. I actually bumped into an interesting camera glitch while getting this treasure.


Segment 44 - Riverbloat Rapids 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:30:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Beat the stage without falling into the water
Attempts: 29
Time: 3:03

This is essentially an any% individual level speedrun (except that I can't get hit). Pretty straightforward. The notes about the turnarounds during runback from Segment 43 still apply.


Segment 45 - Prism Prison 1
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 72,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Beat the stage without using the checkpoint
Attempts: 240
Time: 5:33

There's two large bags and a gold enemy and a slower path with many large coins during the runback. Thus, meeting both the coin and time requirements in the same trip is not possible. That being said, the coin requirement is surprisingly lenient, to the point where I can skip one large bag and every small bag. I had to do a bit of routing with which large bag to skip, but in the end, it turns out to be fastest to skip the first large bag, and get both large bags and the gold enemy during the runback.

The first treasure has a minor skip. You're intended to use the wooden box to get the large bag in the upper-left corner first, then use the conveyer belt to move the wooden box to the right side so I have enough height to break the metal box. After breaking it, you're intended to do a crawl-hop to get into the tunnel. However, I skip all this by grabbing the fork bandinero immediately, sticking it into the wall by the treasure, then bopping it while crawling to get into the tunnel. This is much faster than the intended method, and the flow of the room is much nicer too, requiring only one back-and-forth through this room as opposed to 3.

I decide to leave the "Don't break any rocket buckets" mission for trip 2, because there's a really large room in this trip with a treasure that uses a rocket bucket. It's significantly faster to break it here, so it's faster to leave this mission for trip 2 and break all the buckets I want in this trip.

The room with the last treasure has a really cool and difficult skip. Unfortunately it's not that much faster because I end up waiting an extra platform cycle. I still do it since in the end, it's still faster than doing this room normally.


Prism Prison 2
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
-Don't break any Rocket Buckets
Attempts: 36
Time: 2:52

This trip is another any% individual level speed run, with the caveat that I can't destroy any rocket buckets. I do the same skip just before the checkpoint again since it's a bit faster. Otherwise there isn't much else to talk about here.


Segment 47 - Bloomsday Blowout
Attempts: 4
Time: 3:01

I believe mike89 came up with the overall strategy for this boss. The general idea is to keep extra enemies alive so I can skip attack phases. I do this twice: once at the start with the two bandineros (which is self-explanatory), and once with the two scorpions. The latter is pretty tricky; I need to grab one scorpion and stand right of the other scorpion so it doesn't fly into the boss, while also making sure Wario himself doesn't touch the boss. After the boss attempts to pull Wario in, I pound the ground to re-stun the scorpions. If I don't do this, the left scorpion will swap to the underside of the arena, then get stunned by the boss, falling into the water and dying.

There really isn't any way to skip the last phases. Both mike89 and I tried messing around with keeping extra scorpions/bandineros around, but the boss doesn't leave himself vulnerable at all between attack patterns, after you hit him once. It's unfortunate but I guess that's one less potential difficult thing to worry about.


Segment 48 - Mount Bighill
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 60,000 coins
Attempts: 59
Time: 2:57

In terms of routing, this level is pretty straightforward. I skip the last small bag since it's in a very inconvenient spot to get coins from. The first two small bags I sorta get simultaneously. Unfortunately, by skipping a small bag, the coin requirement ends up being very tight. This becomes apparent since I can only miss 5 small gold coins in the treasure room (missing only 4 is the best I've ever managed).

When getting the last treasure, I do a ground pound from higher to spin the log into a position such that I can climb back up quickly by just hitting the underside of the log.

There are also two noticeable spots in the footage that skips. I can't really do much about this, since that's how the recording came out. I'm not sure why it happened, but fortunately I don't think it happens anywhere else, and it's not too big of a deal.


Segment 49 - Creep Blue Sea
-Collect 40,000 coins
-Collect 8 gold coins in a row
-Don't break your Subwarine
Attempts: 117
Time: 5:20

As weird as it is to say this about an autoscroller, this is easily a highlight of this entire run. This level was clearly not intended to be 100%'d in one trip; many large gold coins and enemy submarines (300g each) are on different diverging paths from treasures. However, it's BARELY possible to meet the gold requirement while also getting all three treasures, and finishing the other missions too. Doing this in one trip saves over 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the "Don't break your Subwarine" mission becomes a concern, since I need to be really aggressive to get a lot of extra coins. If I took one more hit by the end of this level, I would have failed this mission. There isn't much else to talk about except to enjoy all the maneuvers I do to get as many coins as possible.

The boss admittedly could've gone a little better, but I don't think I want to reset over that considering this is the one and only time I was able to actually do this level in one trip!


Segment 50 - Slipshod Slopes 1
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 65,000 coins
-Defeat 5 enemies with icicles
Attempts: 93
Time: 4:33

This level (which has beautiful music, by the way) requires two trips because two missions outright contradict each other: Don't defeat any enemies, and Defeat 5 enemies with icicles. I decide to leave the time mission for trip 2, since it's faster to get a large and small bag during runback instead of before runback.

At the first snowball spot, I kill the first bandinero. I do this because after getting the large bag and dumping snow on Wario, that bandinero will be to the left of Wario and slow him down. I could jump on him in snowball mode, but Wario's jump animation as a snowball is so slow that it's not worth it.

The room with the second treasure and the yellow switch has moving platform cycles. Minor mistakes at the start of this room don't matter because of that. I want to make sure that all the pengoons are squished; otherwise they will get in the way when pushing the block back left.

I'm pretty pleased with the route I came up with to destroy 5 enemies with icicles. The first two enemies are obvious, since I also get 1000g from the silver coins. Next, the first time I kill the following pengoon is the slowest enemy I kill, but it's faster than all other alternatives. The room with the third treasure is the tricky part. I knock down two icicles simultaneously, then wait for my ground pound cooldown to mostly fill. I don't move right during this cooldown, because I don't want to move the camera too early and trigger the second bumbleprod to start moving. I have to knock down the third icicle the moment the bumbleprod appears on screen, so it barely gets killed by it. My fifth enemy is the same pengoon, after getting the gem and secret map.


Segment 51 - Slipshod Slopes 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:40:00
-Don't defeat any enemies
Attempts: 1
Time: 2:35

Shoutouts to finishing this difficult segment on first attempt.

This trip is sorta unique in that it isn't just a "Do another any% IL speedrun!" I have to do a few setups to make sure that enemies don't get killed during the runback.

Below the first large bag, I knock an ice block left. If I don't, then during the runback, I won't have enough space to jump over the two bandineros, land, then jump over the ice block and pengoon again.

In the room with the red and yellow switches, when I knock the ice block right, I want to be as far right as possible without triggering the pengoons to spawn to the right of the ice block. A visual cue I use while following it is to keep the right edge of the ice block near the right edge of the screen.

In the icicle room, while carrying a bandinero, I destroy the icicle above the bumbleprod by hitting it from below. This lets me ground pound near the pengoon as early as I can; if I don't, then that icicle will be on screen and kill the bumbleprod.

Similarly to Ropey Jungle's runback, the runback of this level is another example that shows that the developers clearly put enemies in spots that are avoidable during runback without wasting any time in dash mode, which is pretty cool.


Segment 52 - Bamboozle Village
-Finish before the clock hits 1:30:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 70,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Defeat 3 enemies with bombs
-Shake a Peek-a-boom
-Detonate 5 bombs simultaneously
Attempts: 75
Time: 5:27

This was a really cool level to route, but not a fun one to execute. This is a level that can be 100% cleared in one trip, which is really cool. The coin requirement is stupidly lenient, where I can skip every small bag, every minor coin source (which is just 2 large silver coins), and I can still afford to miss out on 2-3 thousand coins. Every large gold coin is basically free, aside from the treasure room which I can't skip anyways.

Immediately at the start, I destroy 2 enemies while blowing up 5 bombs simultaneously. I bump into the first yellow bandinero first. This causes it to start hopping right and into a position where it'll get stuck between a spike bag and a bomb. If a moving yellow bandinero is stuck between two things, it won't jump. The second yellow bandinero arrives just in time for me to catch the 5th bomb and blow everything up.

The area with the first two treasures and the dasherator was interesting to route. The first route, which I use, is about 4-5 seconds faster, where I go to the tresure room, break the first treasure, then the second during the same dash mode. The second route, which is slower, goes to the treasure room first, gets the second treasure, then the first treasure. The first treasure would be significantly faster to get during runback since it's almost on the way of the fastest runback route, but unfortunately the developers blocked it off during runback...

For the second treasure, my cue to drop the bomb is the moment it goes from 2 to 1. I also shake a peek-a-boom here, since I'm required to pick him up anyways. This is the best time to do so.

The room with the secret map has an armored bandinero that shoots a spike ball immediately. I can technically stun him the moment I land. The problem is, if I do this area optimally, the moment I need to stun him is when Wario is still in cooldown (because of unlocking the secret map just before), so I can't.

With all the log and spike bar puzzles, I have to give a shoutout to arkarian's old IL run, which provided nice strats to do these rooms cleanly. The runback itself has one very tricky part: the room with all the spike bars. If I turn too late, I'll land on a left bar and waste time. If I turn too early, I'll land on the center right spike bar instead of the bottom right. Both are resets.


Segment 53 - Freezing Fields
-Finish before the clock hits 2:00:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Collect 70,000 coins
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Jump off 3 Pengoons' heads in a row
-Eat 5 heads of garlic
Attempts: 540
Time: 2:36

This level is also completable in one trip, and is the 4th and last level that has a darn "Eat 5 heads of garlic" mission. Hence the high attempt count.

The first big room is the best room to jump off of 3 pengoons' heads in a row, since they're closer together than all other rooms. This means it's also an opportunity to get 3 heads of garlic. The first two seemed to almost always drop garlic immediately if I didn't make any mistakes; this makes me think that the timing and angle that garlic comes out is, at least, partly dependent on Wario's actions. The third pengoon's garlic is never consistent though, I'm assuming because of the large big I shake before it.

Similar to Bamboozle Village, this level has very few minor coin sources, and has a very flexible coin requirement. As a result, I can afford to miss a few thousand coins, as shown by the fact that I don't bother doing much setup with the first large bag.

In the second big room, there's a bumbleprod and a red penguin higher up. I need to wait a bit after stunning the bumbleprod; otherwise it won't be fully grounded while flipped and Wario will just bounce off of it when attempting to squish it. It's possible to land on the side of that brown block without needing to stun the bumbleprod, but stunning is easier and also stuns the red pengoon so I can pick it up to shake garlic quickly, assuming it gives me one.

The room with the blue flames is tricky, as it's cycle-based and I can barely pull off Arkarian's IL strat in time. I think you're intended to shove the three ice blocks to the left in order to make that jump in the runback, but you can "trip" Wario over the far right block to shove the left block during runback, barely land on it, and thus skip the pre-runback setup.

There's a minor mistake I make from the cannon - I wanted to aim two ticks right to have Wario land slightly right, but I aimed one tick instead. It doesn't really cost time, but it's worth pointing out what I meant to do. In the following room, the positioning to knock down all 3 icicles is very specific. Too far right and the left icicle won't fall. Too far left and Wario will get hit.

At the very end of the runback, I do a specific turn-around into the ice slide. If I do this too early, then Wario will bonk as if it's a wall, and I need to use the dasherator at the far left side of the room.


Segment 54 - Bad Manor 1
-Finish before the clock hits 1:50:00
-Collect 55,000 coins
-Pound down all push buttons
Attempts: 40
Time: 3:31

All missions and treasures are clearable in one trip for this level. However, the runback has two diverging paths - one faster path with tons of coins, and the other path that is slower. Unfortunately, the other path has the secret map, so this level requires two trips just because of that. As a result, I leave the "Don't kill any enemies" mission for trip 2, because it's faster to toss bandineros for two of the switches in this level as opposed to bouncing off of them.

When going for the first large bag, I wait a bit and touch a bumbleprod intentionally when pounding a pillar. This puts the bumbleprod in a position to keep a bandinero near the left edge. This allows me to pick up the right bandinero and hop off the left bandinero, while keeping the pillar down. This, along with the second large bag, is also why I leave the "Don't take any damage" mission for trip 2.

The third treasure I leave for the second trip, not because it saves time, but because it lessens the load of trip 1. It doesn't matter when I get it, since it's a pretty isolated task to do.

Just before the first cannon, there's a cannon enemy I want to jump over in a shoulder bash. The timing for this is stupidly tight, but I'm glad I made it. Getting the third treasure requires doing this jump again as Mini Wario, which is why I moved this treasure to the second trip.

The coin requirement is surprisingly tight with the route I came up with, skipping every small bag. In fact, I barely make the coin requirement in this segment because I intended to get three small gold coins when going for the large gold coin, but I only got two here. I panicked here a bit but thankfully it was enough.


Segment 55 - Bad Manor 2
-Beat the stage without taking damage
-Don't defeat any enemies
Attempts: 69
Time: 2:48

This trip, I focus on getting the secret map, not defeating any enemies, and getting the last treasure. I'm glad I left this treasure for this segment, because it requires a really tight jump to jump over a cannon enemy twice: once as big Wario, and once as small Wario.

During the runback, after I get the secret map, I found a strategy to burn Wario and jump over the pillar and through the Scarracuda (the fish). Wario has no hitbox during his "Land in water while burning" animation, so neither he nor the scarracuda get hurt, and it's fast and easy too.


Segment 56 - Boogie Mansion 1
-Collect 83,000 coins
-Pound down all push buttons
-Beat the stage as Mini Wario
-Defeat the golden enemy
-Beat the stage without using the checkpoint
Attempts: 81
Time: 5:32

The gimmick behind this level is primarily moving poles. This means that it's a cycle-based level, so many minor mistakes don't matter. This level has a time requirement that makes both meeting the gold requirement and "beat the stage as mini wario" during runback impossible on the same trip, so this level requires two trips (if the time requirement was ~10 seconds lower, then it would be possible...) I can skip three small bags, which are the first three, because they take the longest to setup and get.

In the room with the first treasure and large bag, I can barely make the first pole cycle. Most mistakes between making this cycle and getting the first treasure don't matter, since I have to wait for the last pole's cycle anyways.

The room with the second treasure has a pretty interesting puzzle with carrying a ball then bringing Mini Wario to the bomb. I take a lot of intentional damage from the bumbleprods since they're always going to be in horrible spots, but there isn't really any way around this.

The strategy I came back for the runback is the fastest way to split this level into two trips: get all the necessary coins and be mini wario on trip 1, and don't bother with either in trip 2. The other route I came up with is to get coins on trip 1, and be mini wario in trip 2, but it ended up being around 0.5-1 second slower.


Segment 57 - Boogie Mansion 2
-Finish before the clock hits 1:30:00
-Beat the stage without taking damage
Attempts: 28
Time: 2:57

This is the last of those "any% IL" trips, of course without taking any damage. The only thing to note is during the runback, I make a very tight jump to land right by a mummy. This was the main reset point, as if I'm too far right, I'll bump off the mummy and land in the spikes. Too far left and I'll just land in the spikes.


Segment 58 - Large Fry
Attempts: 1
Time: 2:07

I'm not entirely sure who came up with the strategy to feed this boss 4 bombs in a row, but it's really swag and awesome and fast. This is pretty self-explanatory, so enjoy this fight!


Segment 59 - Shake King
Attempts: 70
Time: 7:52

Final boss time! Again, I'm not sure who came up with some of the strategies here, but there's a lot going on in this fight. You can cancel almost every attack he does by doing a ground pound; the exceptions are anything where he goes airborne. You want to cancel every attack aside from the dash attacks (since it's an opportunity to deal damage to him).

The first major phase of the fight is pretty self explanatory. I damage him during his initial dash, cancel his next two attacks, then slam him into the wall. When he breaks the ground, I time a super ground pound on top of him in the below level to stun him, letting me damage him again immediately.

In the second major phase, after his dashes, I toss him slightly angled up. When he lands from that, Wario is to his left. This manipulates the Shake King into doing jump attacks to the left when he's against the left wall. Since he doesn't have space to repeatedly jump, he'll jump only once instead of 3-4 times.

The final major phase is pretty obnoxious since the blue orbs he fires are seemingly random and they always get in the way of trying to grab him. I take damage intentionally near the end to get around it, but unfortunately the invincibility frames aren't long enough to be THAT helpful.

After I defeat the boss, I watch the final cutscenes and unlock the post-game boss missions. At this point, both the Stages and Treasures counters are at 100% now.


Segments 60-65 - Boss Refights

These are the boss refight segments to clear their respective missions. These segments don't really deserve their own section since all missions are automatically cleared by doing the same speed strats as the first time I fight them. There are two exceptions:

1. Bloomsday Blowout. I need to destroy 5 bumbleprods, and Segment 47 destroys only 4 for free. There's a fifth bumbleprod near the start that I kill; I don't bother killing it the first time since the ground pound animation wastes a little bit of time, but this is the fastest extra bumbleprod to kill for this mission. The overall strategy of the fight is still exactly the same though.
2. Shake King. I need to shake the Shake King a minimum of 3 times to meet the coin requirement of 60000g. He caps at 20000g in the first major phase. He can give me up to 60000g cumulative in the second major phase, but if I shake him long enough for that much money, he'll break out and I won't damage him. So I shake him a third time in the third major phase, where he caps at 80000g cumulative, which is much more than I need. The other thing to remember is that I can't take damage during this fight (so I can't damage boost off those darn blue orbs), but the overall strategy for this fight is still generally the same.

It's technically faster to fight Shake King first due to menuing, then go by reverse boss order, but ending the run on Rollanratl seems too anticlimatic, so I fight them in order again and take the near-meaningless time tradeoff.


Overall, I'm very pleased with how this run came out. I was completing segments very quickly through the second half of the run (especially area 5) because my motivation was at its peak at the time. Now, does this mean this run is perfect? No, there are a few segments with a few sloppy spots, the worst being Neon City 2. However, the other goal I had with this run was to actually finish a run while maintaining my sanity; I didn't want to hit a spot where I get too burned out on a segment and just flat out stop playing the game. Personally, I've seen that pretty frequently with other segmented runs and also TAS's. I almost hit this point in Neon City 2, and I was close to it for a few other particular segments as well, but I'm glad I pushed through and finished this product!

All that being said, I hope you enjoy the run!