Dino Skip Skip

Dino Skip Skip, often abbreviated as DSS, is a speedrun strategy used in the Cascade Kingdom that can save up to eight seconds in most major categories. The trick involves taking a shortcut to the upper level of the kingdom by climbing directly up the side of a rock wall near the start of the kingdom. This is achieved by landing on a very small piece of collision on the side of the wall that allows Mario to stand.

Execution

Performing Dino Skip Skip in a speedrun requires the nearby fossil rock to be unbroken. Since breaking these rocks has kingdom persistence, it is important to not allow the nearby Chain Chomp to break it. The Chain Chomp can be uncaptured to temporarily stun it, or killed using the T-Rex.

Dino Skip Skip consists of the following steps:

• Triple jump off the small fossil rock. If coming from the direction of Our First Power Moon, curve the triple jump to the left in midair.
• At around the peak of the triple jump, cap throw toward the wall and dive into a cap bounce. Leave the left joystick neutral during the cap bounce.
• Wall jump off of the correct spot on the wall. Straying too far to the side can cause Mario to not stick to the wall without falling for a bit, which will fail the trick.
• At around the peak of the wall jump, cap throw back toward the wall, then immediately dive.
• Repeatedly mash the jump button or time a jump just as Mario lands on the tiny piece of collision. Ideally, Cappy will return to Mario at this moment, causing a cap return jump.
• If the cap return jump was successful, simply wall jump, cap throw, and dive onto the top of the cliff. If the cap return jump failed and a regular jump occurred instead, a cap throw against the wall before the wall jump will help gain enough height to clear the top.

Becoming consistent at Dino Skip Skip may involve tweaking these variables, as a successful Dino Skip Skip attempt actually relies on having slightly less than the maximum possible amount of height when diving onto the small piece of collision.

Usage

Speedruns

In almost every speedrun category, Dino Skip Skip is used as an alternate method of climbing the kingdom to reach the Madame Broode arena. After the wall climb is performed, the player must perform Rib Jump to reach the highest level of the kingdom, allowing them to travel directly to the boss arena. As the name of the trick implies, this route variation completely eliminates Dino Skip from the route.

On version 1.0.0, the skip is performed immediately upon entering the kingdom, and removes both the standard First Moon Skip and Dino Skip from the route. In this case, the trick saves at least five seconds.

On versions 1.0.1 and higher (including version 1.3.0, the fastest version and the one used for most Any% speedruns), the trick is performed just after collecting Our First Power Moon and saves a total of nine seconds since it also bypasses the cutscene where Cappy explains how to use the Odyssey.

It is to be noted that performing the skip on version 1.0.0 means that the rock containing Our First Power Moon will be unbroken during the skip. This causes the camera to continually attempt to center itself on the rock, making it much more difficult to get a good camera angle for the trick.

Koopa Freerunning

Dino Skip Skip is useful in Cascade Kingdom Koopa Freerunning, as it is the fastest method to get to the goal from the start. It saves around three seconds over the second fastest method of reaching the goal. By extension, Dino Skip Skip is also optimal when completing Cascade Kingdom Koopa Freerunning in All Moons, 100%, and Koopa Freerunning RTA.