Stomp on the Thwomp
Stomp on the Thwomp | |
Star Info | |
Course | Tick Tock Clock |
Height Above Ground | 249 |
Course Records | |
TAS World Record | 17.90 |
RTA World Record | 21.58[1] |
ABC Minimum | 5[2] |
ABZ Minimum | 15[3] |
Stomp on the Thwomp, or SotT for short, is the fourth mission of Tick Tock Clock. The star requires navigation through the entirety of the mainly vertical clock to reach the thwomp at the top. Due to the length of the star and the distance it covers, it is usually combined with the 100 coin star in speedrunner's routes.
This star is particularly difficult in certain challenges, such as the A Button Challenge and ABZ Button Challenge. The massive vertical climb takes many seemingly unavoidable presses to scale, and often involves maximizing the value out of every press used.
TAS WR History
In terms of TAS records for SotT, most optimization has gone into SotT + 100 coin star (all four 120 TASes combine the two stars). Some TASers still took the time to claim the IL record, however, and it has resulted in a fairly decent point for a non-full game star. Sadly, both the current WR and previous WR have been lost due to copyright claims on nicovideos by Nintendo and the user deleting their account on YouTube. Template:History
TAS Strategy
This is mainly describing Nahoc's 18.87 TAS since the two improvements since have been lost.
The current route begins by heading the normal direction most players would, but triple jumps into the corner below and to the right of Roll into the Cage. This is followed by two normal wall kicks, and then a glitchy wall kick to keep the same direction to dive towards the Get a Hand star cubby. After landing in the cubby, a long jump into a wall kick is done immediately to reach the cog for another wall kick. Worth noting, this cog position is where it is due to the random setting cog of the clock, and therefore RNG, and requires precise work to have it in the needed range.
Wall kicking off the cog, there is a precise wall kick off the cage around the Roll into the Cage star to get on top. Upon landing, another long jump into a wall kick is executed, which leads into another glitchy wall kick. The glitchy wall kick provides a better angle to be able to jump off the pendulum (which is also where it is due to RNG). This jump off the pendulum is led into by a speed kick-double jump combo that allows the jump off the pendulum to be a triple jump. This triple leads into yet another wall kick that lands on the cage beneath Timed Jumps on Moving Bars.
Upon landing, a sideflip into a wall kick allows Mario to land above the Timed Jumps on Moving Bars star. A creative long jump into the exclamation block here allows two wall kicks that give enough height to land on the walkway that leads to the higher hand. After following the path to the area below the Stomp on the Thwomp star, an unorthodox triple jump into a well placed wall kick allows Mario to land on the treadmill. This is enough height to sideflip onto the thwomp, and single jump into the star.
The improvements to this route supposedly came in the form of small improvements (which happens in the case of most time saves) and better RNG. RNG is logical as this route has mario interacting with two treadmills, a pendulum, the thwomp, and a very specific wall kick of a cog.
ABC WR History
Stomp on the Thwomp has been known as a difficult star for the A button challenge for a long time, and for this reason it is often excluded from early lists. bobmario511 was the first known person to actually route and perform a TAS for the star, producing 4 over a period of one month. Having gotten the count to 15 presses, bobmario511 was fairly certain the route was maxed, and felt comfortable with the TAS.
Since this point, pannenkoek2012 and the rest of the ABC team have worked to improve this star, and have saved 10 A Presses, just from this point. Stomp on the Thwomp in particular takes a lot of creative routing and problem solving, and combining these in a creative way to actually save an presses. In general, the routing usually focuses on efficient usage the two available bob-ombs, their two coins, the one-time pre-set HOLP, and the 100 coin star for star dance clip.
Date | Count | Saved | Improvement Author(s) | Setting | Save Description/Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec 23, 2007 | 28[4] | bobmario511 | Original. No Video. | ||
Dec 24, 2007 | 22[5] | 6 | bobmario511 | Non-Still | |
Jan 18, 2008 | 18[6] | 4 | bobmario511 | Non-Still | Sideflips over yellow blocks (-1), jumps and wall kicks off hand to Roll into the Cage (-1), slide kicks from lower yellow block near Timed Jumps on Moving Bars to the other (-1), clips onto lower rotating triangle (-1) |
Jan 24, 2008 | 16[7] | 2 | bobmario511 | Non-Still | Slidekicks to higher rotating triangle (-1), dive recovers to reach star (-1) |
Jan 26, 2008 | 15[8] | 1 | bobmario511 | Non-Still | Uses ledge grabs/grinding to reach first treadmill |
Sep 17, 2013 | 9[9] | 6 | pannenkoek2012 | Non-Still | Navigates up spinners (-3), double jump/wall kicks onto yellow block before the pole (-1), heave-ho's to the higher level (-1), double jump/wall kicks to the upper walkway from the yellow block (-1) |
Jul 10, 2014 | 8[10] | 1 | pannenkoek2012 | Non-Still | Uses a bloated bob-omb to clip from the Roll into the Cage area to the walkway.[11] |
Mar 9, 2015 | 7[12] | 1 | pannenkoek2012 | Fast | Uses a Star Dance Clip and VSC to get past the yellow elevator block before the pole.[13] |
Dec 31, 2015 | 6[14] | 1 | pannenkoek2012, Tyler Kehne | Still | Pedro spot in still cogs used to double jump straight to the thwomp.[15] |
Nov 6, 2016 | 6[16] | pannenkoek2012 | Random | Uses pendulum manipulation to get onto yellow box near Timed Jumps on Moving Bars.[17] Also applies fire clone SDC to the cog area.[18] | |
Oct 15, 2017 | 6[19] | pannenkoek2012 | Random | Uses a PBH thrown bomb-omb to get off the pole, saves time from cloning.[20] | |
Oct 28, 2017 | 5[21] | 1 | Iwer Sonsch, pannenkoek2012 | Still | Better angle in cog pedro spot that allows straight jump onto the thwomp.[22] |
Jun 24, 2018 | 5[23] | bad_boot, Sidney, Tyler Kehne, pannenkoek2012 | Random | Usage of HSG in the Sidney Spot to jump straight from Roll into the Cage to the area above.[24] | |
Oct 11, 2018 | 3[25] | 2 | ds273, pannenkoek2012, [jongyon, sidney (cog misa)] | Random | Managed to access the pendulum box pedro spot by using a bob-omb push through the ceiling above.[26] Also utilized the highest Cog Misalignment which allowed free HOLP usage.[27] |
Oct 18, 2018 | 2[28] | 1 | pannenkoek2012 | Random | Utilized VSC from the pedro box spot onto the clock hand to reach the thwomp.[29] |
Current ABC Routes
Because of the nature of TTC and how it's nearly a completely different course depending on the clock setting, it's impressive that the current route is x5 for both the random setting and the still setting. There routes will be split up here for investigation.
Random Setting
Getting to the second level of the clock (by the first clock hand) cannot be done going through the main pathway without pressing A. This is avoided by using the spinners, instead. So with this in mind, the current route goes up these spinners every time it needs to go up to the second level.
At the second level, getting onto the area with the cogs is a more difficult task, and requires using a star dance clip using a 100 coin star to get past. This is an issue here, though, as you can only collect 36 coins from the second level down. Luckily, this can be overcome using cloning and the line of coins along the higher pole. Not so luckily, this means having to navigate the spinners on the random setting while carrying a bob-omb 64 times. This is an incredibly time consuming and monotonous task, and takes roughly 20 minutes per coin.[30] For this reason, work is usually done to avoid redoing the cloning, typically by just setting a different HOLP and reusing the old first section of the TAS.
Once all 64 coins have been cloned, another clone must be used to place a fire clone before the ledge leading to the cogs. A single star dance clip is not enough height to reach the ledge, but a fire burn into a star dance clip is. To avoid immediately burning on the fire clone, it is placed carefully using the hand to push Mario out of the way.[31]
References
- ↑ "Super Mario 64 - Stomp On The Thwomp 21"58" by Xiah
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 5x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "SM64 ABZ Button Challenge PAL" Document
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ "TTC star#4 A button challenge (22)" by bobmario511
- ↑ "sm64- TTC- all stars A button challenge (TAS)" by bobmario511
- ↑ "sm64- TTC star#4 A button challenge (17) TAS" by bobmario511
- ↑ "sm64- TTC- all stars A button challenge (TAS) updated" by bobmario511
- ↑ "SM64 - Stomp on the Thwomp - 9x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "SM64 - Stomp on the Thwomp - 8x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Bob-omb Strat Followup" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "SM64 - Stomp on the Thwomp - 7x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Elevator Strat with Live Bob omb" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "SM64 - Stomp on the Thwomp - 6x A Presses (Commentated)" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Pedro Spot on Cogs during Still Setting" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 6x Alternative Strat" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Pendulum Manipulation A Press Saves" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Alternate 100 Coin Setup for Midair Firebounce SDC" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 6x Faster Strat using PBH" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Bob-omb to Pole using Pause Buffered Hitstun" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 5x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "DID SOMEBODY SAY...?????" by Iwer Sonsch
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 5x A Presses Alternative Strat" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "Confirmed 2xA Save in TTC (Treadmill HSG)" by Tyler Kehne
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 3x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "SM64 - TTC Pendulum Box Pedro Spot" by ds273
- ↑ "Cog Misalignment (A press save SOON!)" by DeRockProject & the Attack of the Really Long Channel Name
- ↑ "TTC Stomp on the Thwomp 2x A Presses" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC VSC onto Thwomp Success" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC TASing a Coin Clone on Random Setting" by pannenkoek2012
- ↑ "TTC To Cogs 0x Using 1 Fire Clone" by pannenkoek2012