Skipping Bowser at the end of 16-4 saves about 7s versus a good fire kill but there's just one problem, skipping bowser is random. or is it? The old strategy runs full speed into Bowser but is random. this makes it the biggest time save tied to randomness in the run.

The strategy is to read and react to Bowser's pattern. This is useful because there is always a way to bypass bowser no matter what pattern you get by going under or over bowser.

here is the strategy in game:

There are three bowser patterns to learn: Walk, Jump, single Fireball. Walk - UNDER - 60% note there is a very specific point in the middle of the walking animation you can't duck under. JUMP - UNDER - 30% If Bowser is on the ground you can also go over at the start and end of the jump animation but this is not used for the wait strategy. Bowser can additionally jump Forwards or Backwards. Fireball - OVER - 10% It can be difficult / takes practice to react to but it's definitely doable. also you want to keep holding right after jumping over Bowser because he occasionally can throw you back out.