I am looking into learning warpless to take a break from the Any% grind. There appears to be 3 main strategies for warpless: small mario, fire mario, or small fire mario. As a beginner who is just getting into the category, which strategy would be the most beginner friendly? I am not going to be pushing for a top time at the beginning, so essentially I am asking which strategy is the safest for a beginner runner.

small mario imo as you'll be more used to controlling it and you won't have to waste time regrabbing when you get hit.

I think you should start with fire mario, because its annoying to die and restart the level all the time, at least for me.

I think starting with small fire Mario is a good idea : the setup is not hard, your hitbox is the same as in Any% and you don't need to duck on tight parts. Really enjoyable.