Pauline hat jumping

Hat Hovering is a technique that can be used to gain infinite height in the Metro Kingdom. The technique utilizes the 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. Hat Hovering was discovered by syrkl.

Video of Hat Hovering

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. (One 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 and immediately throw the hat. (A/B and X/Y should be pressed in rapid succession.)
• Dive forward onto the hat by pressing the inputs for a dive (ZL/ZR followed by X/Y).
• Just as Mario bounces off the hat, press X/Y followed by X/Y again in rapid succession (using X+Y or Y+X may make this easier). This will cause Mario to pick up the hat while bouncing, and then immediately throw it again. (The discover of the trick, syrkl, notes that the grab action is extremely precise and seems to have a window of only about two frames.)
• Repeat the last two steps until Mario reaches the desired location.

Uses

Hat Hovering 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, Hat Hovering may be the only viable way to reach the top on newer versions.

Hat Hovering 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.