Nut jumping

Nut jumping, also known as infinite nut jumping or the wet nut glitch, is an exploit that allows Mario to gain unlimited height using a large seed that has touched the bottom of any body of water. The trick has gained notoriety for being extremely difficult to repeat for many iterations, meaning very few players have become consistent enough to gain a significant amount of height with the trick.

This glitch only works on game versions 1.1.0 and earlier.

Setup

The glitch must be performed using a large seed, often colloquially referred to as a "nut", and does not work with standard seeds.

Normally, large seeds only allow Mario to bounce on them while they're resting on solid ground. When a large seed enters a body of water, it is postulated that a flag is set that allows the seed to be bounced on regardless of whether it is grounded, which has the intention of allowing Mario to bounce on it as it is actively sinking in the water. If the seed is removed from the water while sinking (whether by Mario grabbing it or it despawning), the flag will be reset.

However, on game versions 1.1.0 and earlier, the game fails to clear this flag if the seed is removed from the water while it is also in its grounded state. This means that allowing the seed to sink to the bottom of a body of water allows this flag to be "smuggled" out of the water. Once smuggled, this flag will persist until reloading the stage even if the seed despawns, unless the seed is placed back in water and removed before reaching the bottom of the water. This setup be used to allow bouncing on the large seed in midair.

Execution

After performing the initial setup, nut jumping involves repeatedly performing the following steps while in midair:

• Without holding any direction on the left joystick, throw the large seed by pressing X or Y.
• After a specific amount of time, dive into the seed, again with no joystick input. The timing for this is quite precise, since Mario must dive into a specific spot on the seed to be able to bounce on it.
• Continue holding X/Y after the dive or press it again just as Mario contacts the seed in order to grab it. Mario cannot grab the seed while in the dive animation, but he will do so instantaneously after bouncing on it and reverting to the jump animation.
• The bounce will propel Mario upward a bit, which is what allows the trick to be used to gain unlimited height. Around the peak of the bounce, the seed can be thrown again and the steps repeated.

Explanation

To perform the glitch, the player must first locate one of the large seeds that are used to plant beanstalks (the exploit does not work with regular seeds). The seed must then be made "wet" by placing it in a body of water and allowing it to sink to the bottom. Once Mario retrieves the seed, it will have different properties. (If the seed is placed back into water and retrieved before it sinks to the bottom, it will no longer be "wet").

If the seed respawns, it will retain its state, meaning that Mario can dunk the seed in water and wait for it to respawn rather than picking it up from the bottom of the body of water.

Once the seed has been made "wet", it gains a property that allows Mario to catch it in midair. This can be exploited to gain infinite height by repeatedly throwing the seed, diving forward and catching it again. The optimal rhythm for this trick is a triplet rhythm with roughly even spacing: throw, dive, catch, repeat. The catch can be performed either by pressing X or Y in time with the rhythm, or simply holding X or Y from the previous dive input (this is simply a matter of preference). For optimal consistency, the player should not touch the left joystick at all while performing this trick.

Uses

The most famous use of the nut jumping exploit is in Minimum Captures runs, most notably Minimum Captures Any%. This trick allows the final wire capture up to the RoboBrood arena in Bowser's Kingdom to be skipped entirely using a large seed that can be found in the Main Courtyard. The most efficient way to do the trick is to throw the seed into the pool at the bottom of the courtyard and wait for it to respawn, eliminating the need to climb back up to the seed's spawn point.

Nut jumping can also be used to climb on top of the ice walls surrounding the Snow Kingdom overworld. Some of these walls have an angle such that Mario can stand in place on top of them. Although nut jumping is not the only way to reach the top of these walls, it is one of the easiest ways to reach one of the surfaces where Mario can stand.

• Reaching the top of the ice wall
  • Exploring the top
  • Further exploration
• Reaching the top of another ice wall
  • Exploring the top