Movement & Mechanics
Languages: English 日本語
Movement
Jumping
The fastest way to travel while powerless is to bunny hop. Your dashing speed on ground is 476, while in air whether you are dashing or not is 504.
Sliding off ledges
When you begin a slide, your speed is faster and gradually slows down. It is overall slower to slide this game. The sliding state however is canceled if you fall off an edge meaning using the speed boost from slides at edges will save you a few frames each time. Sliding is also canceled immediately if you slide into a wall which can be useful in some places.
Float Momentum Preservation
If you let go of all directional buttons the moment you press A to blow up, you will preserve horizontal speed.
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Float Canceling
Pressing A or holding up will start a float, however pressing B during the blowing up animation before actually floating will make Kirby inhale/use his ability, thus canceling the float. This can be used to gain a little bit more height before using your ability such as wheel.
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Ceiling Clip
You can clip slightly into the ceiling, usually by going into a corner or slope. The benefits or downsides vary by ability:
- Wheel can use this to avoid hitlag.
- UFO can use this to gain vertical displacement without having to move diagonally.
- With Missile, once you ceiling clip, you cannot exit the ceiling without exploding.
- With no ability, you may accidentally clip underwater, which is dangerous when there are ceiling spikes nearby.
Tumbling
If you slide for more than a tile of distance onto a 45 degree slope, you start tumbling. You can take advantage of this to cancel a slide by jumping out of a tumble, ultimately saving time over simply running. If you tumble off a ledge however, you cannot cancel your tumbling, so be careful not to slide into pits.
Up to Float
Floating with A requires you to briefly stop your jump in order to inflate. While holding up might not be comfortable due to considerable delay, it is better since it avoids having to interrupt your jump, allowing you to ascend faster. This property also applies to inhale-cancels, allowing you to cancel earlier than with the jump button.
Using up to float isn't necessary for horizontal floating however, where ascension isn't the focus. Instead, using the jump button makes momentum preservation tech easier for horizontal floating.
Swimming
The fastest way to swim upwards is to mash up and A without moving sideways, and use spike damage boosts. For horizontal swimming, damage boosts can save a couple frames, but otherwise tapping or holding A works fine.
Candy
Candy speeds up your jumping and running speed (though not your walking, sliding, or floating speed), and jumping is still faster than running. It does not affect abilities however, so the only speed benefits it offers other than for no ability is for Parasol, which utilizes passive movement.
For whatever reason the effects of candy are completely cancelled the moment you inhale an enemy, even if you change rooms.
You lose candy upon entering the main hub.
L-warp cancelling
L-warp cancel by briefly tapping L to call a warp star, then waiting for it to vanish. It's a bit slow, but even so it's useful when you need to immediately halt your momentum. Relevant situations can include:
- Needing to position yourself in a specific spot.
- Stop sliding on ice.
- Stop gliding with parasol.
Friction
When on the ground, friction will decrease your speed by 14, while in the air it only drops by 8. This matters for abilities like Wheel and Parasol as well, since Wheel's recoil and deactivation, and Parasol's attack, are both affected by friction.
Mechanics
Double Star
Inhale two or more enemies simultaneously to get a double star. You can also do this with your own dropped ability, however make sure to inhale your ability before an enemy, otherwise it will not work.
Mirra behavior
Mirra is sensitive to many actions done within 2 tiles of it. These include floating upwards, sliding, inhaling, bouncing off the ground, as well as using an ability or shooting a star. The most important action Mirra tracks is running, because using your ability out of a sprint will preserve your running state. This means that if you sprint right before using an ability, the moment you approach, Mirra will hide even though you aren't actually running on the ground. So, make sure you aren't running before you activate your ability.
Outside of Mirra's detection range, Mirra will only hide if you shake the room.
In order to defeat Mirra, you can simply shoot a star or use your ability outside of its range. Within range, you can also use Crash, puff, use candy, or bounce directly off of Mirra.
Keep in mind while Mirra reacts to you floating, it does not react to you inflating. So, if you tap A in the air or briefly hold up, you can safely inflate without scaring Mirra, then puff within range.
Enemy Invincibility
Enemies can't damage you if they're taking damage, allowing you to move or dodge through them after hitting them. This means for some bosses, you can attack them even as they move directly through you.
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Soft Resetting
To soft reset, press A, B, Start, and Select simultaneously. This is used to return to the hub world instead of using an L-warp or watching a Kirby dance after a boss, however this comes at the cost of your ability.
Amount of time to return to hub:
- Soft Reset (US, EU): 4.87
- Soft Reset (JP): 3.95
- L-warp: 6.14
- Get chest & L-warp: 7.42
- Watch Kirby dance: 9.50
(This video shows the earliest that you can soft reset after a boss, that being the moment the mirror shard flag is set.)
Ducking through Shotzos
The Shotzo's hitbox only occupies the upper half of the sprite, meaning you can slide under it with a well timed duck.
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Demo Screen
Waiting on the main menu screen and watching the demo causes a lot of mirror lag during any subsequent speedrun. Therefore, make sure to hard reset before a session.
Shadow Kirby
Shadow Kirby will appear regardless of the number of lives you have in:
- Rainbow Route
- Carrot Castle
- Peppermint Palace
Shadow Kirby will appear depending on the number of lives you have in:
- In Radish Ruins: if you have 3 lives or more.
- In Candy Constellation: if you have 3 lives or more.
- In Mustard Mountain: if you have 2 lives or more.
Thus, you can avoid spawning Shadow Kirby in Radish Ruins or Candy Constellation if you avoid collecting 1-ups.
