Latest revision as of 19:41, 30 August 2022

This page is meant to describe general principles of clipping, for potential alternative applications. For specific instances of clipping, specific pages should be used instead.

There are many ways to clip. In general, it is easier to clip vertically than horizontally. In common categories, the following are clips that are seen quite frequently: Mochtroid Clip (14% Ice), Puyo Clip (100%), Wrecked Ship Main Shaft Clip (PRKD most notably), Ice and Speed Zebetite Skip (most categories).

Note clipping is considered different from simply moving through solid tiles, as X-Ray Climbing can accomplish.

Upward Clips

Clipping vertically is fairly simple to do, so there are many methods for accomplishing it. Most commonly, the goal is to clip a single tile. A little bit more than a single tile is possible, but most of the methods outlined below cannot clip upward two tiles.

Crouch jump

The principles behind the crouch jump method is to get below the ceiling you want to clip to in a "crouched pose" low enough that you are still able to jump, but high enough that the 8 pixel boost from crouch jumping plus the vertical speed from jumping is enough to push Samus through the ceiling.

Note thus it is important to "crouch jump": You must jump from a crouch, while Samus' arm cannon is not angled. This is easiest to accomplish by just not pushing angle. It is also important to not aim down immediately, as this can compress Samus' hitbox enough that she still hits the ceiling.

This method does not work if suitless underwater. (TODO: Check acid physics for some reason?) The pixel windows for this clip, in various conditions, are:

As for where this pixel window falls, if you are crouched in a two tile region below the ceiling it starts 3 pixels below this point and extends down the length of the window specified above. If you are higher than this point, you will be unable to jump; if you are lower than the window, then you will not clip.

An example of this method is the usual Puyo clip in late croc 100%.

Clipping with two tiles of air below a one tile ceiling

This is a particular application of the above.

As stated, usually two tiles of air would be insufficient: You need to be 3 pixels lower than this point, at least. Fortunately, there is a simple way to clip three pixels into the ground. There are two methods:

• If you can spin jump into the gap, then spin jump in and break spin while within one pixel of the ceiling with anything except down. Thus, you can break spin with up, angle up, angle down, or shot. This is frequently "buffered", i.e., angle is held and either jump or forwards is released within one pixel of the ceiling. Note you can break spin either before or after hitting the ceiling: all that matters is you are within one pixel.

• If you can be standing in the two-tile gap (e.g., by using X-Ray to force a stand), then jump, aim down, and break aim-down pose. This is perhaps easiest to do by aiming down, and then rolling to forwards: The important part is you break aim down pose within two pixels of the ceiling. Note you can also use this method while jumping into a two-tile high region.

If done properly, Samus will be clipped a little bit (exactly three pixels) into the ground. From here, you simply need to jump (while Samus is not angling her arm cannon, without pressing down immediately after the jump).

An example of this method is the Wrecked Ship Main Shaft clip.

Standing through the ceiling

If you can get Samus close enough to the ceiling while crouched, then you can press forwards and she will stand up through the ceiling. From there, you can simply jump.

The range for this is always a single pixel under any conditions (suitless, PAL/NTSC, Hi-Jump Boots). The pixel location is 12 pixels above crouched below the ceiling in a two-tile high region.

The usual method for accomplishing this is to freeze an enemy while standing inside of it, and then jump and immediately hold down. If the enemy is frozen at the correct pixel, Samus will land on it crouched. Pressing forwards will cause her to stand.

This is not required: You can freeze an enemy at the correct height, press against the enemy, jump, aim down, and press forwards as you touch the ceiling. Samus will land on the enemy, and probably immediately stand, if it is at the correct height.

An example of this method is Mochtroid clip, or suitless Puyo clip.

Forced Stand Clip

If you are close to the ceiling you wish to clip through (in particular, closer than a two-tile high region below the ceiling), you can potentially force a stand and then jump through the ceiling.

The most common way to force a stand is by using X-Ray. However, if you jump into a tight region like this (so Samus is put into a forced crouch), you will most likely have non-zero vertical speed and X-Ray cannot be used with non-zero vertical speed.

The most common way to set the vertical speed to be zero is to unmorph. An alternative is to kill an enemy with Grapple. There may be more esoteric ways.

As long as you can force a stand, the pixel window for this starts at the above pixel for standing through the ceiling. However, there is a 2 pixel region where you cannot unmorph (due to being too close to the ceiling) and also cannot stand through the ceiling.

Since it is by far the most common method, the pixel window for the usual X-Ray and Morph method is as follows, under various conditions:

The most common application of this method is to make suitless clips more bearable, e.g., a suitless Puyo clip to get to Shaktool.

Crystal Flash Clip

If a crystal flash is activated immediately below the ceiling, it is possible to clip through.

First, it can trivially be done in a 1-tile high region: Samus will end up crouched, and can simply stand through the ceiling.

Other than this, it is most commonly done below non-respawning crumble blocks. Down is held during the crystal flash, and then Samus will break the crumbles so then she can jump back through them.

This is not strictly required, but if done somewhere without non-respawning crumble blocks Grapple is required. Once again, down is held during the crystal flash. Immediately after the crystal flash, Grapple is used to set Samus' position to be on top of the desired blocks. This allows clipping through solid blocks.

It can also be done through a door shell without Grapple, by moving to trigger the transition blocks beyond the door.

The most obnoxious part of this method is properly setting up a crystal flash immediately below the ceiling (TODO: Get pixel range?). This is "simple" if the ceiling is sufficiently close to the ground so a jump can be done. In other situations, it can be functionally impossible to do RTA: It is theoretically possible to perform a crystal flash clip from an infinite bomb jump.

The most common example of this clip is to get through pre-Botwoon hallway without Ice or Speed, in certain 14% categories or in randomizers.

R-mode Clip

R-Mode can force a stand, without changing vertical speed. If Samus compresses her hitbox before the R-mode forced stand occurs immediately below a ceiling, then the forced stand can push her through the ceiling. With the maintained positive vertical speed, Samus can then pass through.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to jump and morph, and have reserves trigger immediately before hitting the ceiling. Morph is not required: The aim down pose is compressed enough to allow this clip.

This method would be fairly versatile, except for all of the conditions needed to make it possible: You need to be able to enter the room in R-mode, then farm health into reserves, and then take damage immediately below the ceiling from a source that will not interrupt Samus moving upward (or to properly set it up with pause abuse). Thus, there are very few locations in vanilla Super Metroid that allow for this clip to be used.

It should, perhaps, be noted that if you are trying to clip in a heated room, lava, or acid, then the damage is not a problem.

The most common use of this clip is in pre-Botwoon hallway, where certain 14% categories and 13% xCharge use this method.

Extended Knockback Clip

To sort of explain how this method works, when one is setting up a spikesuit, a shinespark is used at the end of knockback frames caused by a spike. This is due to a tiny jump being done, in midair.

Theoretically, if spikes were somehow properly positioned below a ceiling, this may be able to be used to clip through a ceiling.

A more likely setup is to have an enemy below a ceiling. However, enemies provide fewer knockback frames. Thus, a reserve tank automatic refill must be used to extend knockback frames.

Unfortunately, even if the stars align and all of this works out and even with Hi-Jump Boots, Samus does not have enough vertical speed to clip through the ceiling. On NTSC. It does work on PAL, with Hi-Jump Boots.

On NTSC, it would work with a single frame of dash speed (with Hi-Jump Boots). TAS could do this, but that would be way too much to do RTA. And it would also be quite pointless.

The only potential application of this method is the currently theoretical, PAL-only category of 14% Gravboots.

Grapple Jump Clip

When in a grapple jump state, it is fairly easy to get close to a ceiling in what looks like a crouched jump pose. Thus, it feels like it should be possible to clip through a ceiling in this manner.

However, a mid-air crouch jump gets 3 less pixels of boost than a ground crouch jump, so this doesn't work. On NTSC.

On PAL, this is possible with Hi-Jump Boots. Note just like the extended knockback method, this would work on NTSC with a single frame of run speed. This is actually possible to do RTA since grapple is weird.

Both NTSC and PAL may find it easier to do this with a shinespark instead, where a shinespark is activated near the ceiling. This pushes Samus up further, allowing the clip.

This has no real applications in the vanilla map. You can use it in West Ocean to clip up, if you feel like it.

X-Mode

Note this is without superjumping. By entering X-mode and sparking into a ceiling, it is then possible to clip through this ceiling.

The only potentially notable example is to make GT Superjump easier to perform.

Superjumps

When performing a superjump, Samus moves at such incredible speeds that she can clip up ridiculous amounts. This is the only one of these methods that can clip more than two tiles. There isn't much more to say about this method, in general, since superjumps are fairly difficult to perform RTA.

Downward Clips

The most notable way to clip downwards is with moonfalling. There are other ways to clip downwards, but they tend to be more esoteric.

Moonfalling

There is quite a bit to say about this, so here I just list techniques related to this that could be expanded upon.

• Moonfalling: With enough height, you can fall through the ground.
• Moondancing: With proper block positions, you can store speed to clip downward a single tile.
• Grapple Moondancing: You can extend the above method, to clip downward up to three tiles. By clipping down two tiles first and then clipping three tiles immediately after, this maxes out at clipping downward five tiles.
• Ice-slope Moondancing: By using a frozen enemy with a slope below it, it is possible RTA to build up speed similar to moondancing without the usual block setup.
• Ice Moondancing: By using a frozen enemy, TAS can build up speed similar to moondancing without the usual block setup. Each re-freeze of the enemy is frame perfect, so it is unlikely to be able to gain much speed RTA.
• Ice Moonfalling: By moonfalling between two properly spaced frozen enemies, a lot of speed can be gained in a very short distance. This can get enough speed to clip downward two tiles at least (although it would be less speed in Norfair, where enemies don't stay frozen as long).
• Slopekiller: As slopekiller preserves vertical speed, this can be used to chain moonfalls, and potentially carry moonfall speed to a different location.

Grapple Supersink

I know almost nothing about Grapple Supersink, but it can clip downwards a few tiles.

Ice methods

You can sink into the ground with ice. I don't know how far, and I don't know how it works.

Horizontal Clips

Clipping horizontally is a lot more limited.

Aligning to a solid enemy

If an enemy that acts a solid (e.g., a frozen enemy or a Kamer) is inside of a wall a pixel (or perhaps more dependent on Samus' speed), then Samus' collision prioritizes pressing against this enemy over the wall. This can embed Samus into the wall.

This, in principle, has many applications. For example, it is what makes the Ice Zebetite skip work: Samus clips into the wall a pixel, and is then "inside" of the Zebetite so can move through it (just as if she were to Kago into an enemy).

Using a frozen enemy, this can also be done repeatedly to get very deep into a wall, as long as you can either repeatedly freeze the enemy perfectly (not likely RTA) or the enemy infinitely respawns. This is what makes Butterfly Skip work.

Other methods

There are other methods, that I don't know specifics about. For example, shinesparking into a sloped wall will cause Samus to embed enough that an X-Ray climb can be done. Another example is Speed Zebetite skip, which must clip Samus horizontally a little bit to work: I think this has to do with the slope that surrounds the Zebetite.

Grapple Clipping

You can clip through floors, walls, and ceilings by using Grapple correctly. I don't know much about it, but see this page: Grapple Clipping.