First Moon Skip
First Moon Skip, often abbreviated as FMS, is a speedrun technique that involves skipping Our First Power Moon in the Cascade Kingdom and proceeding directly to the boss fight. First Moon Skip saves around 26 seconds if performed optimally, since the cutscenes associated with the first Power Moon are quite long.
This trick can only be used on version 1.0.0, since the game was later patched to prevent the boss fight from triggering until Our First Power Moon is collected. However, since version 1.3.0 is now the fastest version, this trick has been made obsolete as runners on the newest version are now forced to collect the first moon.
After performing this trick, collecting Our First Power Moon will crash the game.
Explanation
Before collecting Our First Power Moon, the bridge across the waterfall is in the upright position, meaning Mario cannot traverse past the moon normally. Although it appears that it would be relatively simple to skip the first Power Moon by simply climbing onto the wall where the bridge would land, there is actually an invisible barrier surrounding this wall that attempts to prevent progression by blocking access to the area past the bridge.
It is possible to bypass this invisible wall in multiple ways, in order to make one's way up to the boss fight. However, the boss fight will only trigger if one is playing on version 1.0.0 of the game, making the trick useless for modern speedruns that utilize version 1.3.0. If one uses this trick in a speedrun, they must collect an additional moon after the boss fight to replace Our First Power Moon.
It is a common misconception that the invisible wall can only be bypassed on version 1.0.0, but it can in fact be bypassed on any version; however, it is only useful for progression on version 1.0.0 since that is the only version in which the boss fight will trigger. It is to be noted that the invisible wall has different collision properties on versions 1.0.1 onward, and it requires a different type of jump to be bypassed than on version 1.0.0.
Rock FMS
Rock FMS is the first type of FMS to be discovered. It is the most difficult of the two and saves the least amount of time. To perform rock FMS
- Jump on top of the rock that is surrounding the 'Our First Power Moon' moon
- Throw cappy
- Perform a vault
Wet FMS
Wet FMS is an easier and more optimal method to skip the first moon. To perform wet FMS
- Enter the water to the left of the first moon
- Go near the opposite side of the water where the platform of the chest moon and the back wall meet
- Throw cappy and do a return jump
- Bounce on cappy to get behind an invisible wall near the corner
- Walljump off the backwall
- Dive onto the platform above
Other uses
FMS can be used to softlock the game by activating the 'On Top of the Big Stump' checkpoint, obtaining the first moon using the intentional method and then warping to the 'On Top of the Big Stump' checkpoint. This softlock was previously used in softlock% before it was replaced by a softlock in cap kingdom. This softlock can be done on versions post 1.0.0