Moon clip
A moon clip is a type of out-of-bounds clip that involves attaining skew at the moment Mario collects a Power Moon, so that the animation of collecting the moon forces Mario upright at the position of his feet, thus forcing him partially through an adjacent wall or ceiling. The Power Moon used for the clip must be uncollected, meaning that a player will only have one attempt to perform a moon clip unless they create a backup of their save file.
Execution
The most common method used to perform moon clips is using a backflip against the wall the player wishes to clip through, and using a moon that is spawned in rather than preexisting.
As a general method to moon clip in this manner:
- Begin spawning the moon.
- At the correct moment, perform a backflip while facing away from the wall.
- Just before the peak of the backflip, input a cap throw toward the wall.
- If done correctly, the moon should become solid at the same moment the cap throw occurs, causing Mario to collect it during the skew induced by the cap throw. This will force Mario upright at the position of his feet, placing him partially into the wall.
- After collecting the moon, continue moving in the direction of the wall to ensure Mario does not clip back into bounds.
Examples
There are a few notable moon clips that have been made applicable for speedrunning:
Each of these clips requires a slightly different timing for the inputs, since the moon positioning and timing is different for each.