Toad's Factory

Toad's Factory is the fourth and final course of the Mushroom Cup in Mario Kart Wii.

Overview

Current BKTs

Type	Unrestricted	No Ultra	No Glitch
3lap	1:35.950		1:45.696
Flap	30.377		33.727

Toad's Factory has a wallclip shortcut, and currently benefits from the use of supergrinding and superhopping in both 3lap and flap categories. Hence, it has two 3lap and two flap categories. The Unrestricted 3lap and Unrestricted Flap records are technically the No Ultra 3lap and No Ultra flap records respectively since no ultra shortcuts are used in either TAS.

Unrestricted 3lap

Video: 1:35.950 by RS, Ejay, Jellopuff, Luke, Malleo, Marth, Rocky, SwareJonge, ego, Kierio, and sorry (2022)

The current strategy for UR 3lap is to perform the "box clip" shortcut. On lap 1, to maximise your moving road velocity (MRV) while avoiding being squished by the stompers, you wallclip them and reo drift to correct your alignment. When reaching the end of any conveyor, momentum hops are used to preserve MRV longer - this is done twice each lap. By performing a wallclip off a moving box as it falls off the track on the right side, you can reach the conveyor turn with a single mushroom, saving several seconds. The caveat to this is that the boxes are on a cycle, so there is a fixed time at which you can perform the shortcut on each lap, resulting in a pacelock. Upon landing from the "box clip" shortcut, RFH is performed to retain low pitch, thereby reducing your forward speed and letting you turn faster. When exiting the factory, a wall trick is used to land much sooner, but late enough that the trick boost extends into the "lake cut". By launching off the first bump in the right way, and using TF physics, you can clear the entire lake, landing on the bulldozer on the other side. Here, you can use the reject road at the top of the bulldozer to gain large amounts of XZ speed, once again using RFH to turn tighter. Laps 2 and 3 are the same as lap 1, except for two things. First, the initial conveyor strategies are unnecessary, as the stomper cycle is different. Second, the first boost panel after the lake cut is covered by the bulldozer. By losing time in a creative way, you can approach the bulldozer slightly sooner than when it is properly uncovered. You do an RFH low trick off the first bump, then get two tricks in quick succession to angle yourself towards the bulldozer. Then, you wheelie off the edge of the bulldozer, landing above where the boost panel would be. Provided you have enough negative Y velocity, you can partially clip into the bulldozer's road triangle, touching the boost panel. This is marginally faster than performing a proper lake cut and going to the first left boost panel.

Unrestricted Flap

Video: 30.377 by Arthur and César (2022)

The current strategy for the UR flap is to perform the "box clip" shortcut. To enter the lap, a very short supergrind is used to gain EV and to get an ejection, letting you carry a significant amount of trick boost into the lap. The driving strategies are mostly the same as lap 2 of the UR 3lap, aside from the use of mushrooms on the first and second turns. The third mushroom is of course used for the box clip.

No Glitch 3lap

Video: 1:45.696 by ego and sorry (2022)

The current strategy for NG 3lap is to drive 3 laps normally. The TAS starts off exactly the same as the UR 3lap, but branches off from the second turn, where it uses a mushroom each lap. In the section where the box clip would happen, a rewheelie is performed when landing from the trick, allowing for a delayed wheelie chain.

No Glitch Flap

Video: 33.727 by Rocky (2019)

The current strategy for NG flap is to drive 1 lap normally. The lap is entered similarly to the UR flap, but with regular RFH rather than a supergrind. So, less EV is gained, and the trick is further from the lap, leaving less trick boost carried in. This TAS is basically a combination of the UR flap and NG 3lap, taking the shroomspots from the UR flap, and driving strategies from the NG 3lap.

History

TODO: History of all strat developements. Section devoted to the platform/box shortcuts and their variations over time, as well as supergrinding, superhopping, and supersliding in recent years.

TAS Competitions

Toad's Factory has featured in one of FlaminFunky's Challenges (#4) and three tasks of the MKWii TAS Competition (Task 14 2020, Task 1 2021, Task 16 2023). Task 14 2020 is infamous for CampbellMop's disqualification by touching one of the green conveyor belts for a single frame.

Future

Known timesaves

UR 3lap

• Using an ODB to perform superhopping throughout the entire race, allowing for a cycle to be saved on the box clips on laps 2 and 3.

UR flap

• Using Dolphin Dasher, supersliding (requires a long setup) into the lap and around the first two turns is about 0.5 faster than supergrinding into the lap with Flame Runner, which itself is faster than the trick boost entry.

NG 3lap

• The beginning and first two turns have been shown to be improvable by a frame.

NG flap

• The entire TAS is several years old, and thus does not use wheel inputs for a full input range in airtime, which would save a lot on the lake cut.

Potential timesaves

UR 3lap

• Reaching the lap 1 box clip one cycle earlier. This has almost been proven possible, but the box clip has not been successfully performed.
• Performing an ODB supergrind on the final straight of lap 3 has been suggested for quite a while, but as no work has gone to an ODB TAS, it has not been investigated, and thus hasn't been proven useful.