Pauline hat jumping

Pauline hat jumping, also known as hat hovering, is a technique that can be used to gain infinite height in the Metro Kingdom. The technique utilizes Pauline's sun hat item that is part of the A Request from the Mayor mission, that becomes available after completing the main story (and completing the festival)

Because the hat has a very slow fall speed, it is possible to repeatedly throw, dive onto and catch the hat in midair to gain unlimited height and distance. Since this technique exploits the physics of the hat itself, rather than using a glitch, it is possible on all versions of the game. The trick was first discovered by syrkl.

Video of Pauline hat jumping

Execution

This trick is extremely difficult to repeat for many iterations, and relies on multiple very precise inputs.

• Face the direction you wish to travel while holding the hat. (The player should not touch the joystick in subsequent steps unless they are already extremely skilled at the trick and wish to change directions in midair.)
• While standing on the ground, jump to initiate the sequence.
• Press X or Y to throw the hat.
• Dive forward onto the hat by pressing the inputs for a dive (ZL/ZR followed by X/Y).
• At the exact moment Mario bounces off the hat, press X or Y to grab the hat. This will cause Mario to pick up the hat while also gaining height from bouncing on it. (The discover of the trick, syrkl, notes that this grab action is extremely precise and seems to have a window of only about two frames.)
• Repeat this sequence of throwing, diving and catching until Mario reaches the desired location.

To make the trick easier, it recommended to grab and throw the hat again in rapid succession during each iteration of the trick (although it is not required for the trick to work). The easiest way to do this is to press X+Y or Y+X rapidly, although in theory the same effect could be achieved by pressing either X or Y twice extremely quickly.

Uses

Pauline hat jumping can be used to obtain moons at the very top of the City Hall skyscraper, such as the Dizzying Heights moon, in a minimum captures run. These moons can also be obtained without captures using dog hovering, but since that glitch is unavailable on versions 1.2.0 and later, Pauline hat jumping may be the only viable way to reach the top on newer versions.

Pauline hat jumping can also be used to reach the painting platform from the mainland of the kingdom, without the use of the painting. Another (much easier) way to reach the painting platform without the painting is the Letter Escape glitch.