Inverted Pyramid Skip

From SMO.wiki

Inverted Pyramid Skip, often shortened to IP Skip, is a trick discovered by Mnyush that allows the entire interior of the Inverted Pyramid in the Sand Kingdom to be skipped. It involves scaling the outside of the pyramid up to the exterior of the 2D section, then performing a difficult midair corner clip to clip out of bounds in order to climb all the way to the top.

Because the Hariet boss fight at the top of the pyramid will trigger before collecting either of the previous two story moons, this trick can be performed before even completing any other story objectives in the kingdom. It is a faster alternative to Inverted Pyramid Clip.

Execution

To perform Inverted Pyramid Skip:

  • Climb to the top of the large icicle nearest the corner of the 2D section on the pyramid.
  • Backflip (or perform another high jump type) toward the corner of the ledge outside the 2D section, then cap bounce, cap throw and dive to reach the ledge.
  • Navigate to the leftmost end of the ledge.
  • After aligning the camera to give a good view of the corner to the left of the ledge, long jump toward the camera and slightly left.
  • At around the peak of the long jump, cap throw and dive directly forward into the corner to clip, and cap bounce out of bounds.
  • After cap bouncing, carefully land half-bounds on the left side of the ledge.
  • Backflip (or perform another high jump type) forward and to the left, then cap bounce, cap throw and dive to reach the top of the outcropping on the side of the pyramid from half-bounds.
  • Backflip once again to the right, cap bounce, cap throw and dive to reach the staircase leading out of the exit to the interior section.

Uses

Speedrunning

Because Inverted Pyramid Skip allows the interior of the pyramid to be skipped entirely (which has multiple slow 2D sections), it saves upwards of half a minute in multiple speedrun categories. The time saved depends on how many Power Moons would otherwise be collected inside the pyramid, since those moons will need to be replaced elsewhere within the route.

Minimum Jumps

Inverted Pyramid Skip is useful in Minimum Jumps, as it is the only way to reach the top of the pyramid without jumping (the 2D sections that comprise the interior of the pyramid require multiple jumps to traverse). The skip is more difficult without the ability to jump and involves using two-player mode to perform instantaneous vaults.