This is a documentation of all currently known skips, their name, and founder
Most skips need to be applicable to RTA in some form. Anything that saves over a second is deemed worthy of noting here.
Entrance to the Cave
3rd Button Skip (3BS)
Entrance to the Cave has 3 buttons, the first 2 have pretty obvious skips, as well as the powerupless variant of kaizo jumping off of them. However, the 3rd button has a bit less of an obvious skip. You need to have an air flower and jump on the middle of the spring, and as the enemies unload (as of version 0.6.0) you need to glide-stall to the ceiling. In more newer versions, the enemies dont unload and you need to judge when to glide-stall. This saves 5 seconds. Discovered by Servalot.
Here, the player does a setup version of the skip, whereas you can do a setupless version which involves a precise hover onto the middle of the spring from the upper ledge
Under the Ice
Bottom Skip/Long Glide Skip (LGS)/TAS ICG Kaizo
In Under the Ice, you can skip a large portion of the level by abusing a lot of stacked air flower's and the glide time you get given with that. This allows you to simply glide to the other upper ledge of the level. There is however a new known variant the TAS does which does not require stacked air flowers. This saves around 9 seconds with the best movement considered, as you can reach a comfy cycle at the end. The Air flower variant was discovered by zwatotem and first theorised by Servalot.
Here, the player simply jumps up onto the coin explosion box and does a glide with tens of stacked air flowers
TAS, with timestamp, showcasing the ice cube kaizo variant
A Fork in the Road
ICG Kaizo
In A Fork in the Road, you can ICG at the beginning of the stage to use later as a global cycle skip. By throwing an Ice cube at the wall, it bounces back against it and tux, while jumping, can jump on it again to gain additional height. This is similar to the shell-jumps that are done in Kaizo Mario hacks, so it is called Kaizo here as this technique is also done at other points in the game. This trick saves about 4 seconds. I think this trick was first done by zwatotem using a "sticky" ice cube, a glitch in 0.6.1 where throwing an ice cube while holding down causes it to get stuck in walls, making this trick significantly easier, but slightly slower, losing about 1 second.
Here, the player grabs an ice cube at the beginning of the level with an ICG, and then later performs the kaizo to skip waiting for the platform to rise
Ice in the Hole
Ice in the Hole Skip
The player can glide-stall with an air flower over the pit, by doing repeated taps of the jump button. By timing the jumps rhythmically, the player can hover over long distances without the need to stack multiple air flowers. This trick saves 24 seconds. This skip was discovered by Servalot.
This trick is oddly precise. Old routes of the Antarctica speedrun used to collect 3 air flowers in "Above the Arctic Skies" in order to have more leeway when doing this skip. Modern versions of this skip do it with 1 air flower stacked, which makes it less forgiving
Global Cycle Skip
Global Cycle skip is a collection of optimal, difficult movement which culminates in reaching the end elevator cycle early enough to not have to wait for its descent. Discovered by Servalot, this saves 8 seconds. Originally thought to be impossible, but small timesaves such as:
- Duck-Jump fast acceleration to reach the bouncy snowballs earlier (saves about 0.5).
- Ducking underneath the bouncy snowballs at the beginning.
- Ladder-cancel Backflip (Or any kind of jump cancel using the ladder).
- Krosh Skip - Jumping ever so precisely under the Krosh so that you don't have to wait for it to fall down.
The video may not opt to use all of the strategies listed exactly, but as of our current knowledge those are the best ways in order to achieve this cycle. It is theoretically possible to achieve a double global cycle skip using TAS with a combination of inhuman ICG Kaizos
Backflip Skip And Backflip Skip Skip
At the end of the level, the player can perform a backflip to skip pressing the final button of the level, which involves backtracking. This saves another good 30 seconds approximately. In individual level (IL) speedruns, the player can stack enough air flowers to completely skip having to backflip, saving an additional second. The TAS performs an ICG earlier in the stage and then a Kaizo to skip the backflip, since it only has one air flower stacked, but this is just as fast as the IL. Discovered by Servalot.
This video is Timestamped. Here, the TAS up-throws the cube and jumps pre-emptively to land up against the goal. The up-throw is not necessary, a normal Kaizo would do. This is harder than conventional Kaizos as the air flower has very precise physics compared to normal tux
End of the Tunnel
Ceiling Clip Skip
This level has a lot of short movement-based small skips which can add up. Additionally, the player can clip into the ceiling and jump up while out of bounds in order to get on the roof of the stage. The player cannot hold any direction on the arrow keys while doing this, and must be at least big-tux in order to clip, as it involves damage boosting. Luckily this was relevant for RTA for a while as the player can damage boost to lose their air flower and immediately get it back in the next stage, as it coincidentally is available then. Discovered by Servalot.
This video is timestamped. This route is now slower to do in runs, as the most optimal route does a precise cycle skip in the stage with the icicle, spiky, and precise movement after the button. The old route saved 4 seconds with the skip, but lost 2 seconds to having low speed in the level before re-grabbing the air flower. This still saves time in ILs
A Path in the Clouds
First Button Skip
This pretty simple skip requires a small glide with the air flower over the two non-moving platforms, which are normally activated by the first button. This saves a decent amount of time, roughly 4 seconds if you catch the first cycle powerupless. Discovered by Servalot.
This video is timestamped
Second Button Skip
The second button skip was found much later in 2020, as it is quite precise. It requires a long glide at first, then letting go of glide and then glide stalling immediately after, to barely make it on the platform without having to go press the 2nd button, saving 3s. Discovered by Servalot.
This video is timestamped
Between Two Glaciers
Chasm Skip
This skip is pretty huge. It saves around 20 seconds alone, and avoids having to go press a button at the bottom of the chasm, essentially bridging the gap between the two 'glaciers'. It involves a long air flower glide, which needs a lot of stacked air flowers, and kaizo off the wall to get the remaining height. Discovered by Servalot in mid 2020, a while after 0.6.0 came out.
The video is timestamped. Here, the player throws an ice cube against the wall to jump off of it, negating the use of the button at the bottom of the level and backflips to avoid the lengthy cycles
Crumble Skip
This skip is similar to 3BS. It simply involves the player jumping off the spring with an air flower to scale the wall to avoid waiting for the crumbling tiles. This saves over a second. This can also be done with a backflip, but doesn't save as much time. Also works with an ice cube.
Simple skip at the end paired with the difficult Chasm skip results in a 29.66 on this level
Living in a Fridge
Ladderskip
A simple backflip here avoids having to manoeuvre around to the right, and climb up the ladder. This must be performed with the air flower. The TAS does an excruciatingly difficult and RNG dependent variant of this trick saving over a second over the backflip. Discovered by Servalot
Original Skip video with backflip
This video is timestamped. This is the TAS variant of ladderskip
The Crystal Mine
The entire level is skipped. Seriously. This quite literally skips the entirety of Crystal Mine. It's possible both powerupless and with the air flower, and saves over a minute. Discovered by Servalot on day 1 of release of 0.6.0.
Here, the player simply jumps above the level during the platform descent
