Revision as of 07:21, 24 February 2014

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.

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. First, you have to switch from one direction to the other with no more than one frame of leeway, then you have to do a jump almost immediately after switching (there are no more than three frames of leeway on this!). After that, though, you can hold the other direction and continue zipping.

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.