Resetting

The single biggest time saver in the run, resets save over 11 minutes over not using them! Normally when you complete a stage you have to sit through a screen showing you what you collected and then a cutscene of the key opening up the next area. However, since the game auto-saves your progress the frame you complete a stage, resetting at the correct time allows you to skip all of this and simply re-enter the game from the file select screen. Learning when to reset is paramount, as resetting too early causes you to lose all progress in the stage you were just in!

How speed works

Wario has two main means of acceleration: pressing B to dash or holding R to charge up a shoulder charge. B-dashing quickly accelerates you to 3 pixels/frame (p/f), while holding R accelerates you (as long as you're on the ground) more slowly, but topping out at 4 p/f. Since a B-dash ends immediately as soon as you hit the ground, you can use it to accelerate more quickly than holding R if, for example, you are exiting a door and have only a very small amount of ground to cover before dropping to a lower platform.

Movement techniques

Shoulder charge

Once you hold R for long enough to hit 4 p/f, Wario launches into a shoulder charge that breaks yellow blocks without knockback, and breaks green blocks. This mode has one significant problem: while in a shoulder charge Wario is limited to a full height jump. But you can get around that...

Bunny hopping

When you release R your speed rapidly decreases back to walking speed. However, if you do a jump just after releasing R, you can keep the majority of your shoulder charge speed and maintain full jump control. This is the most common way to move around while platforming.

Sliding

While dashing with B, press down to slide. This has two main utilities: stopping you at the very edge of a platform so you can fall down a one-tile-wide gap, or moving through a one-tile-high gap quickly.

Slide-jump

In the latter case, the slide eventually slows down to a complete stop before you build back up to crawling speed. However, you can cancel the slowdown by jumping out of the slide and go to crawling speed immediately. Optimally you jump just as you slow down to crawling speed.

Enemy throw

When you throw an enemy upwards, it loses its hitbox for a short period of time. If you jump just after throwing the enemy you move into its sprite, and when the enemy's hitbox comes back, if you're in the top part of it the game will think you bounced on its head, and give you another three tiles of height off its head. This allows you to get up to many areas you shouldn't be able to.

Large enemy throw

The same is possible off a large enemy, but much more difficult. You have to jump before throwing the enemy, then release jump just before getting the bounce, but you can do it. The only use for it, however, is in Hotel Horror in Normal mode - in the other difficulties that room has small enemies in it. A slightly slower but much easier method of doing this is to charged throw up the large enemy and then perform the bounce like you would off a regular enemy.

Roll cancel

Whenever you roll, you want to jump just before hitting the wall that stops you, since if you hit the wall moving up, you bounce back down to the ground, whereas if you hit the wall at the base you'll bounce upwards and lose a bit of time.

Ground pound acceleration

Doing a ground pound while falling anywhere causes you to accelerate faster to the maximum falling speed. This saves frames at best, and if you hold it too long and slam into the ground you lose a full second.

Zipping

To activate a zip, find a four- or five-tile high ceiling and jump into the corner of that ceiling and a wall. The very frame you're about to hit the ceiling, press down, then pause on the next frame. If you did it right, you should see Wario's hat slightly embedded in the ceiling, much like this:

Once you see that, unpause the game and hold away from the wall and press A. Every time you press A, Wario will move up one tile and one tile away from the direction you're holding.

Changing direction while zipping

You'd think this would be as simple as changing from holding left to holding right, but changing directions incorrectly causes you to be stuck permanently in a crouching position from which it is impossible to escape. To turn around in a zip you must jump and change direction the next frame, with no frame in which neither left or right are pressed. Again, pausing allows you to create a buffer between these inputs. If you hear the jump sound just before pausing then you can turn around after the pause. Alternatively, you can use visual cues in most spots to determine if direction switching is safe or not. After you make the jump input and pause if the screen scrolls up slightly, but not as much as it would scroll up from doing a full jump without pausing, it's safe to switch directions. The screen will not always scroll up as a visual queue in certain spots though, but you can do a few things to make these zips much safer. While the first direction switch in Pinball Zone would not normally give you the visual cue, you can break the upper left wall in the room to reveal a hidden area with a diamond. Doing this will allow the screen to screen further left when you want to zip, so you'll get the screen scrolling up to use as a visual cue on the first direction switch. On 40 Below Fridge you can also make the final zip much safer by zipping in a single direction until Wario appears on screen, and then you can use the first frame of his jump animation to tell if it's safe to direction switch.

Video examples of these can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8sIPoEE0AMo_KUc6Urctgj-8oh9i63OI

It should also be mentioned that when playing on a Gameboy Player or Wii U VC, you can utilize the left analog stick in addition to the dpad to be able to switch directions without the need to pause buffer. When using both at the same time you can alternate between left/right on consecutive frames. This is very difficult however because you still need to be changing directions on the frame after the jump.

Vortex dash

As you enter a stage, you have one frame where you can B-dash straight out of the vortex (you can't jump though, oddly enough). Just mashing B as the level begins gives you the best chance of making it work.

Chest jumping

When opening a gem or CD chest for the first time, the bottom half of it actually acts as a platform until you collect the item it holds. In this time, you can dash for acceleration, or jump off the chest itself. The latter is very useful in the Golden Passage, allowing you to get back to a higher platform and skip going around the low side.