CCC Challenge

The Coinless/Capless/Cannonless Challenge, CCC for short, is a challenge in which the player must not use the cannon and caps and never collect a single coin, whether on a per-mission or a per-file basis. As many missions often seemingly force Mario to collect some of the coins along the way, there are many techniques required to work around them.

The last possible star, Mario Wings to the Sky, was collected on March 28, 2017, by Pannenkoek2012, uploaded on his second channel, and an improvement was found on April 2.

Ruleset

• No coins can be collected. Specifically, no yellow, red, or blue coins can be collected.
  • The exploit of leaving a saveable record of 0 coins by collecting multiples of 256 is not allowed.
  • Pause buffering to prevent the coin counter from going up is not allowed.
• No special caps can be used. However, Mario is able to wear his own normal cap.
  • Special cap effects obtained at the start of the course is allowed, such as Tower of the Wing Cap, Vanish Cap Under the Moat, and Cavern of the Metal Cap.
• No cannons can be used. There are no workarounds for this.

Number of stars that can be collected

There are 74 Stars that are considered possible in RTA (Real Time Attack), where TAS-only tricks are not included. In a single-star basis, one more star can be collected, namely, Snowman's Lost His Head. This is because the mission is not selectable unless the 8 red-coin mission is completed beforehand.

Stars that requires some difficult workarounds include:

• BoB - Shoot to the Island in the Sky: Going to the island can be done by long jumping from the top of the mountain.
• BoB - Behind Chain Chomp's Gate: Performing a Bob-omb clip allows Mario to go behind the gate without releasing the Chain Chomp, where a red coin would be inadvertently collected.
• WF - Blast Away the Wall: A precise ledge grab at the brick wall makes Mario clip into the wall slightly, allowing Mario to collect the star.
• JRB - Blast to the Stone Pillar: The platform where the star is can be reached by precisely long jumping off the ship.
• JRB - Through the Jet Stream: Mario can overcome the jet stream by swimming at full speed, negating the need for the metal cap.
• HMC - Metal-Head Mario Can Move!: Mario can press the switch by falling onto it with enough vertical speed downwards.
• SSL - Pyramid Puzzle: Mario can collect the secret without touching the coin by only touching the very top of the secret's hitbox.
• DDD - Through the Jet Stream: Mario can overcome the jet stream by swimming at full speed, negating the need for the metal cap.
• WDW - Quick Race Through Downtown!: The RTA viable method is to clone the star while holding a Chuckya. In a TAS run, Mario can perform a BLJ to build enough speed to clip into the cage.

In a TAS run, 7 more stars are possible to collect in a full run, leading to 81 stars possible (82 stars in a single-star basis). The stars that require insane workarounds include:

• BoB - Mario Wings to the Sky: Parallel Universes and the usage of VSC storing 330 speed allowing premature cloning are used to collect all secrets coinless, since cannons and caps cannot be used.
• CCM - Entering the slide for Slip Slidin' Away and Big Penguin Race: Mario can clip through the mountain to reach the cabin from the side with the help of the baby penguin, avoiding the coins near the entrance altogether.
• BBH - Eye to Eye in the Secret Room: Mario can clip into the secret room with Hyper Speed Walk Kicking until Mario reaches 400 speed, the minimum speed required to clip through a wall straight on.
• DDD - Collect the Caps...: Mario is able to simply clone the star through the loading point by bringing an underwater shell out of the water first (difficult but possible in RTA). The cloning process, however, may take upwards of 2 hours depending on luck, as there are no ways of knowing which object slot Mario is holding. Alternatively, a series of Hyper Speed Wall Kicking across the hall of the Submarine Room can be done.
• SL - Into the Igloo: Mario can perform a side BLJ to build speed at the entrance and navigate into the wall of the room leading to the star compartment.
• RR - Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Mario can perform a BLJ using the carpet once it takes him to the top of the house, launching him towards the floating island.