Cannonless
Cannonless or “Cless” for short is a term used for a speedrunning strategy that bypasses the need for a cannon.
Whomp’s Fortress
In Whomp’s Fortress players can get the star Blast Away the Wall by shooting out of the cannon and breaking the wall open, revealing the star. Players then found it was possible to clip into the wall by grabbing the ledge that the star rests on. A couple years later, there was a setup found that allowed the player to get the star consistently rather then blindly running at the wall. The no setup cannonless is called “OG Canonless” Then, another optimization was found that let the player look for a texture on the plank and use that instead dubbed “Texture Setup”.
Jolly Roger Bay
In Jolly Roger Bay the star Blast to the Stone Pillar is obtained by shooting out of a cannon and grabbing a pole and jumping onto a platform. Then, players realized you could shoot directly to the platform and skip grabbing the pole. If you shoot very quickly, you can get what is known as “Insta-Shot”. Players had another realization in the fact you can long jump off the ship and then wall kick to get to the star platform. Finally, it was found you can use Frame Walking to scale the stone pillar and get the star that way. The TAS uses a Backwards Long Jump to get up here. This could also mean simply not using a cannon.[1]