Moon Cave Skip

File:SMO - Moon Cave Skip Tutorial

Moon Cavern Skip (also referred to as Moon Cave Skip, Cave Skip or simply Moon Skip) is a jump that can be used to skip the entirety of the Underground Moon Caverns in the Moon Kingdom. It involves jumping off of the head of the Sphynx and exploiting wall jumping physics to reach the top of the clifff.

Moon Cavern Skip is one of the single largest time-saving skips in the entire game. Since it bypasses the entirety of the large Underground Moon Caverns interior section, the skip saves well over two minutes.

Execution

To perform Moon Cavern Skip:

• The player must either groundpound, spinpound, backflip or sideflip off the Sphynx's head;
• The player must wall jump off of a certain spot on the wall behind the Sphynx;
• The player must hold straight left until Mario grabs the wall on the left;
• The player must wall jump again, throw Cappy and dive on top of the back wall.

Other methods are possible but this is the most consistent and one of the most efficient

Speedrun usage

This is used in virtually all categories that progress through Moon Kingdom in any way. In categories such as Any% and World Peace, the skip saves a massive amount of time by eliminating the need to enter the caverns entirely.

In the case of 100%, All Moons and Darker Side, this skip allows the player to finish the Moon Kingdom quickly and then come back later to collect moons inside the caverns (including moons that spawn from the Moon Rock). Even in categories that require moons from inside the caverns to be collected, the skip saves time by skipping the long Madame Broode boss fight at the top of the cavern interior.