Cannonless
Cannonless or “Cless” for short is a term used for a speedrunning strategy that bypasses the need for a cannon.
Whomp’s Fortress
- For a tutorial on speedrunning this star, see the Cannonless RTA Guide
In Whomp’s Fortress, players normally obtain the star Blast Away the Wall by shooting out of the cannon and breaking the corner of the wall, revealing the star. Eventually, players found it was possible to clip into the wall by ledge-grabbing the ledge that the star rests on. Several years later, however, Sockfolder discovered an easy setup that allowed the player to get the star consistently rather than blindly running at the wall. This setup was dubbed the "Sockfolder setup." Subsequently, another optimization was found that required the player to look along a wooden plank and find a certain line in the texture. This setup is nearly as consistent as the Sockfolder setup if executed correctly. This new, faster setup was called "Texture setup."
Jolly Roger Bay
- For a tutorial on speedrunning this star, see the JRB Cannonless RTA Guide
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.[1]