Ahh thats probably it, sprites on screen appearing later definitely makes sense. It's insane because that left tap is so quick as is.

I should have said hit the koopa, not kill it. It's pretty odd that sometimes it spawns two koopas versus three. It's interesting to me.

So I've been grinding on 8-1 and learning the various pipe lip jumps throughout the level. I noticed some odd behavior with how the goomba despawn strategy works and I'm kinda baffled if it's due to sprites on screen and/or framerule.

Essentially after doing the second pipe lip jump I noticed that the set of three koopa's doesn't always spawn three (sometimes two). Regardless of two or three being spawned, if you don't kill the first one in that set it will not despawn a goomba in the next section. Killing the first koopa always seems to despawn it. Any ideas as to why it's only spawning two koopas, and the issue with killing the first one to despawn a goomba? As a caveat I also noticde that if two koopas were spawned the plant in the pipe is also spawned whereas when three are spawned it isn't.

Below is a clip of where only two koopa's were spawned for reference. Any ideas?

Thanks again everybody; I completed my first 5:10.xxx run this morning. I severely screwed up in 8-4 and lost 6 seconds there but everybody's pointers has quickly paid off. BBBB alone saves 4 seconds. My next personal goal is going to be a sub 5:05 time as I can see barring any mistakes now I should be able to possibly get around a 5:02 time.

Anyways, thanks again peeps!

Nice - I'm working on BBBB now which seems easy enough, and I see in 8-1 two spots where I can save time.

Thanks to all for your tips and guidance! Onwards to sub 5:10 I grind.

So currently I'm running any% at 5:11 and some change. I've started to incorporate pipe jumps starting with 1-2. I know I need to learn the pipe jumps in 8-1 to pick up 5 seconds on that level. Where else can I pick some time up (excluding the wall clip in 1-2 for now)? The video of my most recent run where I've incorporated the 1-2 pipe jump is below for reference:

I know I totally biffed the second room in 8-4 by accidentally missing the hidden block. Can I pick up some time yet in the turn around room right after (the one before the swimming section) or in the swimming section itself?

It's an impressive run considering how casual kosmic made it look. He carried a conversation over the entire run and didn't mess up a single one of the tricks he executed in the process.

I've been looking for ways to improve my time on 8-2 as I'm getting a 335 consistently. Thanks Miniland for putting Tecate's tutorial on here; I'll have to work on that. I've been real close to getting a sub 5:15 run and I think this will help me achieve that.

Oh, no shit?! It's a misunderstanding on my part then. I think the screen wrap glitch is cool because of the whole WTF what just happened moment lol. I haven't really tried it in a run yet because I personally can't do it quickly. Heck, I'm still learning the lower route on 4-2 for the bumps versus hitting the wall in the beginning.

Pipe jumps are freaking cool; I feel like that's what separates all the faster runners from us newbies.

As a new speedrunner myself, I can only give you a couple of pointers.

1: In 4-1 towards the end if you do a big jump right at the third black marking on the green hill it will set you up nicely for two jumps to the flagpole which saves a bit of time.

2: 4-2 is an infamous level because of wrong warp. Prior to wrong warp routes most players had a goal if going up on the vine by the 375 mark. I've made a playlist showing different methods to pull off the wrong warp if you're looking for a few ways to do the glitch. As small mario the 3 bump method is most common and easy to learn. The screen wrap glitch is frowned upon because it's an actual glitch in the game. Below is a link to a playlist I made if you want to see for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcVpqbDVQTCYTtBscjBn-Ldo0BGjlqeLX

3: 8-1 will come faster the more you play it. As fire mario you can play it somewhat risky and go for piranha plant kills on all the pipes without slowing down for the most part.

4: 8-2 has some tricky stuff in it after the jump over the big gap. You can avoid the three koopas by going down the pipe but that will cost ya about 6 seconds on the run. Kosmic and Darbian both have great tutorial videos for any% runs that explain the different patterns those koopas can throw at ya.

5: 8-3 with Fire Mario it's way easier because you can kill the hammer bros with fireballs. As small mario, you've got to pay close attention to the second set of hammer bros so you know whether to take the middle route (most common route to take in my experience), or the top route. Their patterns are dictated by which frame you arrive at them on and there's quite literally hundreds of different patterns all 8 hammer bros can be on when you get to 8-3 so you're better off learning how to react to them. Also, in the final set of hammer bros that first one after the pipe is a well known speedrun killer for small mario. It's just plain evil.

I thought 8-4 was pretty solid, the water room is something I'm still learning myself. I know the general idea is to not walk whatsoever in that room.

Also make sure to just have fun with it. Yes, maybe set personal goals such as completing a run in under 5:30 (that's a goal of mine right now) but otherwise have fun. Don't worry about remembering what frame rule you're on, that kind of stuff. I can't remember if it was kosmic or darbian that said it in one of their tutorial videos but unless you're going for sub 5 minutes it's not really something to worry about.

Congrats on the PB!